Join the Questing Knights on Patreon: bit.ly/QBPatreon Download my RPGs and adventures: bit.ly/ItchStore My favorite OSR books: bit.ly/TopOSRBooks My favorite RPG-related products: amzn.to/30kfamM
I just want to thank you here in the comment section, just GM'ed my first maze rats session, and even though our group prefer exploring to fighting, your generation tables are incredibly varied and creative!
This seems great for teaching rpgs to new players (classrooms, younger kids, older family members) and having a fun game night with a group of experienced players. Thanks!
This would be so welcome in prisons if you could give them a starter adventure with a bit of a walk through. In Florida, they don't allow D&D/Pathfinder games, or lots of other RPGs, so this might actually be acceptable to them (depending on the facility) and be *super* lightweight in both literal and system functionality terms. Space is at a premium for cons, and they often won't have access to RPG-style dice (d20 sets), so the use of the common d6 is great (and they're far easier to make, than say d12s or d10s).
What a handy video! My 5E and PF groups have recently all but dissolved because of adult scheduling fun (see also: problems) and meet sporadically, sometimes with little to no appreciable (24 hour minimum notice.) Thanks for this! I'll be picking it up here shortly so I can flip through things and pitch it (and a one-shot) to my groups! Smol stylistic nitpick, I do love justified alignments in column body text for a nice feel.
As a DM who loves some inspiration and structure for his imagination I love the tables! Also it occurred to me, if they are meant to be used on the fly, in the far future, the tables could be an app or website in which one clicks their way quickly through a generation :)
The tables, along with quite a few others from different genres are used in the free Android app Adventuresmith to generate characters, NPCs, items etc on the fly as needed. It's a neat little app.
This video, in combination with some very interesting stuff that I've read about Maze Rats, was so compelling that I just had spring for it and buy the game. This is the first TTRPG that I've actually spent money on (everything else I have is free/PWYW). I'm really excited to try it!
My DM used this system for a run through of the Tomb of Horrors. It was amazing! Character creation was insanely fast, but the characters that we had were also totally unique and fun to roleplay. The Danger Role mechanic makes player creativity a necessity for long term survival, since it is really unlikely that you'll survive a DC 10 without advantage, but I love that. It is both lethal and fair, and a ton of fun. I can't recommend it enough!
Just bought this game, Great work! Simple enough I could get just about anyone playing in no time. I wake up every day for the past few months after having found your youtube and either a.watch one of your new osr reviews or b.just rewatch ones ive already watched(ive watched them all(multiple times)). Im slowly buying p much everything you review. You have a way of making these games sound absolutely amazing. Thanks for all you do.
While I might not use this system for my regular group, I'd definitely use it to introduce people to the game, and will absolutely use it for creating one-shots and campaigns! From what I understand of the system so far, two thumbs up from me!
Fantastic work, Sir! I am definitely going to take this with me everywhere. In fact I am involved in a burgeoning CZcams channel running actual play rpg's and I am thinking of asking the group to try a one shot of this as a break from the regular campaign. I'll let you know when we are up and running with it. Looking forward to your future videos.
Great game! We've played a few sessions and are definitely going to play much more. So far I think it could use some form of "die of fate" or "fortune roll". Maybe a simple d6 roll, where low is bad for players and high is good. It helps me to stay impartial and surprised. It can be used for weather, item availability in shops, NPC reactions (reaction table feels too stiff) and many more things.
One of the most useful toolkits I've ever used, this is exceptional work. I first saw your map making videos a few months ago and then organically came across Maze Rats on Drive Thru, only a few weeks later putting together that it was your production! It's a small internet. Any plan for a supplement or follow up?
It's an amazing game! Just played a new session with it and we had lots of fun... also, I've watched your map making videos and I think I will start drawing some for future sessions, Thank you!
Really enjoyed your videos. I was gifted Maze Rats by a friend who is using it for a PBEM game. I'm really taken with it as a system and I've only been playing with the character creation section! I hope you'll also be proud to know that it's the system I used to make my 4 year old's very first time RPG character! First of many I hope as they really enjoyed it 👍😄🎲. Well done and thank you!
This is great, a great game and a really helpful look into the system. Would love to see a video (if you haven't already) of this game in action though.
Just today we had a gaming session. Two regular Players couldn't make it, and we had one 'guest' Player. Couldn't go with the usual games, but I happen to have Maze Rats in my bag, so we tried it out. We had a great time. We generated most of the PCs randomly, and I generated the dungeon and all the trap and monster encounters randomly, and randomly generated their mission and rewards too. None of them had played any OSR games before but they liked how it flowed, how easy and versatile it can be, and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly it moved. Now they want a Maze Rats campaign, too, to play when we can't play or aren't in the mood for our D&D, Cyberpunk, or Horror campaigns. Thanks for putting this out, it not only saved our session today, it's a fun and easy yet versatile game to play. Next time I'm randomly generating a City adventure for them.
Just picked it up at drivethru and gave it a read. Looks cool! going to set up a quick game soon and see how it goes. If you all want to check it out it's pay what you want so give a donation and check it out!
Can someone explain how do we solve spells characteristics? I mean, if a spell cause some kind of damage, but there are no numbers indicated (like you would find in Cairn) do we have to invent on the fly the actual effect? Thanks.
So I just bought Knave. In the Video you say that one could use Maze Rats random Spells as an option. For many or most of the combinations I have no idea what the spell should then do. For example what would "Acid Gate" or "Harmony Prison" do? Not having played that many TTRPGs, I feel I have not build the intuition yet. Or what do I do wrong? And thanks for breaking down D&D style into such a simple system. This helped me to understand the fundamental principles P2E is based on, which I am playing mostly.
I'd actually love if someone were crazy enough to map down all combinations so people could insert their suggestions on spells. For acid gate, I initially thought of a trap enchantment that would trigger acid damage on anyone passing through, but then I started considering an actual gate to an acid plane, from which you would summon a slime, elemental or something like that. Harmony prison could act like the Sanctuary spell, protecting anyone who passed through it, but also preventing them from acting against others.
@@SuddenShock Oh! Ah. I see. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I think I may be able now to associate Spells. I did not think it would be that free form haha : )
@@maxzzzzz3004 no problem, I recommend the old school essentials SRD spells list for inspiration. Dungeon crawl classics is probably a great contender as well.
I have a question. How would you handle a high power magical artifacts in campaigns, after you have them that is? One use and that's it? Or multi-use. I watched your Lair of the Lantern Worm dungeoncrawl with Dawnforged and I wondered how the mechanics of such an artifact would work in Maze Rats. Kudos to you for making such a wonderful rpg. It's exactly the type of thing I've been looking for.
It depends on the impact you want it to have on your campaign. The more powerful it is, the more that other factions and characters in the campaign should want to take it from you. I tend to make magic artifacts with fairly low-level effects that could be useful if used creatively (for example, a ring that makes your fingers really long).
I'm surprised there's no page of d6 rolls, since you approved of that feature in the White Hack review. It's an easy fix though :-) A couple of rules questions: * Can you break up your move before and after your action, like 5th ed., or is it more restricted, like 3rd ed.? * Should dual-wielding receive a benefit of some kind, even if it's just choosing at character creation whether to treat it as a 2-handed weapon or as a weapon+shield? Or is the omission of any benefit intentional?
* I just do move and then attack * I don't have any rules for duel wielding. I suppose you could count the off-hand weapon as a shield if you wanted to. The combat system is intentionally very abstracted to make things faster, but of course you're free to modify it however you want.
Really like your game! Is it only the GM:s choice to make magic fail or go wrong? Can´t find any info about this. I was thinking the wizard have to make a slightly easier WILL-check, like roll 2d6 + bonus equal or above 7 or something.
I know that this is probably a really dumb question, but how do we interpret the health of a rolled up monster? For instance, If it has “3d” health do we roll 3d6 to come up with their hit points, or do we multiply the 3 by 4 or something like that?
Hi! I have a production question. I'd like to take the KNAVE rules and make a booklet similar to the MAZE RATS booklet. Did you use special software to convert a regular PDF for booklet imposition (I hope), or did you just manually rearrange the layout in Word? If you did find and use a good piece of software to create the booklet imposition, would you tell me what software that is?
Picked this up the other day. Love it. My only question is how do I print off the booklet form? I have tried printing it double sided but the pages don't print out correctly. What am I doing wrong?
Hey, I have the two PDFs but can't figure out how to set up my printer to get a booklet out of either versions. It's quite strange because some time ago I managed to print out the normal version in booklet format without issue, but not anymore. What am I doing wrong?
Maze Rats requires some conversion to use with standard OSR products. My other game Knave would probably suit you better, since it's designed to be highly compatible.
Hello Questing Beast, I've been using your system to run a couple of one shots already. I wanted to know what to do in the matter of converting magic weapons. Would a +1 or +2 one weapon break the game? So far my rule of thumb has been to give them one or two abilities, with maybe a situational +1 to damage.
@@franciscoalejandro7567 No, but if it did become "overpowered" that would just provide incentive for villains to come and steal it. The world balances itself out.
ok soo lets say i created a character with 0 attack how does he use his weapons i made a ranger sort of so i want to use a dagger in melle combat or bow in ranged how do i use them dexterity ?
hey i have one question again XD soo lets say i want to create a humanoid enemy , orc or goblin should i use the monster system of creating again or i simply could use the character creation system ?
To be honest I haven't gotten a printer to work since like 2009 so... yeah... can't get printers to work right now it's a conspiracy, that's why I used to handwrite everything
Join the Questing Knights on Patreon: bit.ly/QBPatreon
Download my RPGs and adventures: bit.ly/ItchStore
My favorite OSR books: bit.ly/TopOSRBooks
My favorite RPG-related products: amzn.to/30kfamM
I just want to thank you here in the comment section, just GM'ed my first maze rats session, and even though our group prefer exploring to fighting, your generation tables are incredibly varied and creative!
tor eger players who prefer to explore rather than than fight are players you should keep around forever.
This seems great for teaching rpgs to new players (classrooms, younger kids, older family members) and having a fun game night with a group of experienced players. Thanks!
This would be so welcome in prisons if you could give them a starter adventure with a bit of a walk through. In Florida, they don't allow D&D/Pathfinder games, or lots of other RPGs, so this might actually be acceptable to them (depending on the facility) and be *super* lightweight in both literal and system functionality terms. Space is at a premium for cons, and they often won't have access to RPG-style dice (d20 sets), so the use of the common d6 is great (and they're far easier to make, than say d12s or d10s).
What a handy video! My 5E and PF groups have recently all but dissolved because of adult scheduling fun (see also: problems) and meet sporadically, sometimes with little to no appreciable (24 hour minimum notice.) Thanks for this! I'll be picking it up here shortly so I can flip through things and pitch it (and a one-shot) to my groups!
Smol stylistic nitpick, I do love justified alignments in column body text for a nice feel.
As a DM who loves some inspiration and structure for his imagination I love the tables!
Also it occurred to me, if they are meant to be used on the fly, in the far future, the tables could be an app or website in which one clicks their way quickly through a generation :)
The tables, along with quite a few others from different genres are used in the free Android app Adventuresmith to generate characters, NPCs, items etc on the fly as needed. It's a neat little app.
@@talon12020 Very cool, thanks for sharing!
This is great. I have a long stapler just for making my own mini books
I just bought your system. Thank you for the tip and for the small price you ask for your work!
Thanks for making this RPG and putting it up on Drive Through RPG for free. It's a really well done game.
This video, in combination with some very interesting stuff that I've read about Maze Rats, was so compelling that I just had spring for it and buy the game. This is the first TTRPG that I've actually spent money on (everything else I have is free/PWYW). I'm really excited to try it!
My DM used this system for a run through of the Tomb of Horrors. It was amazing! Character creation was insanely fast, but the characters that we had were also totally unique and fun to roleplay. The Danger Role mechanic makes player creativity a necessity for long term survival, since it is really unlikely that you'll survive a DC 10 without advantage, but I love that. It is both lethal and fair, and a ton of fun. I can't recommend it enough!
Just bought this game, Great work! Simple enough I could get just about anyone playing in no time. I wake up every day for the past few months after having found your youtube and either a.watch one of your new osr reviews or b.just rewatch ones ive already watched(ive watched them all(multiple times)). Im slowly buying p much everything you review. You have a way of making these games sound absolutely amazing. Thanks for all you do.
While I might not use this system for my regular group, I'd definitely use it to introduce people to the game, and will absolutely use it for creating one-shots and campaigns! From what I understand of the system so far, two thumbs up from me!
Awesome! It's designed to be a toolkit, so feel free to use whatever parts of it that you want!
This is perfect, just what I've been wanted to find for sooo long (and try to make myself back in highschool but kind of poorly)
Fantastic work, Sir! I am definitely going to take this with me everywhere. In fact I am involved in a burgeoning CZcams channel running actual play rpg's and I am thinking of asking the group to try a one shot of this as a break from the regular campaign. I'll let you know when we are up and running with it. Looking forward to your future videos.
Great game! We've played a few sessions and are definitely going to play much more.
So far I think it could use some form of "die of fate" or "fortune roll". Maybe a simple d6 roll, where low is bad for players and high is good. It helps me to stay impartial and surprised. It can be used for weather, item availability in shops, NPC reactions (reaction table feels too stiff) and many more things.
Quentin Go for it, man. Hack to your heart's content.
One of the most useful toolkits I've ever used, this is exceptional work. I first saw your map making videos a few months ago and then organically came across Maze Rats on Drive Thru, only a few weeks later putting together that it was your production! It's a small internet. Any plan for a supplement or follow up?
Very nice man! Looks much better than Dungeon Master Guide from Wizzards.
Maybe it's just me, but landing on "golden silverware" is just brilliant xD
It's an amazing game! Just played a new session with it and we had lots of fun... also, I've watched your map making videos and I think I will start drawing some for future sessions, Thank you!
Really enjoyed your videos.
I was gifted Maze Rats by a friend who is using it for a PBEM game. I'm really taken with it as a system and I've only been playing with the character creation section!
I hope you'll also be proud to know that it's the system I used to make my 4 year old's very first time RPG character! First of many I hope as they really enjoyed it 👍😄🎲.
Well done and thank you!
This made my day! Glad you enjoyed it!
Questing Beast we then got the one page dungeon and she's coloured that in for me ready to play 'adventure game' exciting times!
Will be picking it up today after work. Looks awesome
I purposely avoided this game cause I thought I would be biased due to really liking this channel but I really dig it
This is great, a great game and a really helpful look into the system. Would love to see a video (if you haven't already) of this game in action though.
Check out the Sunday Dungeoncrawl videos on this channel.
Any chance you’re planning on adding to the Maze Rats line? Love the game, dude. 👍
Maze Rats for a twelve player West Marches campaign. Good fit or a bad idea?
Quentin good idea
Did you do it Quentin?
@@jacobhouck1182 Not west marches, but we did play it for a few months. I'ts cool :)
Yeah for digest size (my term for your booklet)! Fits perfect with a Leuchtturm1917 for those pick up games. Great job, this looks fantastic.
Just today we had a gaming session. Two regular Players couldn't make it, and we had one 'guest' Player. Couldn't go with the usual games, but I happen to have Maze Rats in my bag, so we tried it out.
We had a great time. We generated most of the PCs randomly, and I generated the dungeon and all the trap and monster encounters randomly, and randomly generated their mission and rewards too.
None of them had played any OSR games before but they liked how it flowed, how easy and versatile it can be, and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly it moved. Now they want a Maze Rats campaign, too, to play when we can't play or aren't in the mood for our D&D, Cyberpunk, or Horror campaigns.
Thanks for putting this out, it not only saved our session today, it's a fun and easy yet versatile game to play. Next time I'm randomly generating a City adventure for them.
So my real surname is a " Lower class surname" that has died out in England!!!! Dude, where did you find your list, I think you got conned! lol :-)
Looks like a neat little game book. I shall try it some time.
Just picked it up at drivethru and gave it a read. Looks cool! going to set up a quick game soon and see how it goes. If you all want to check it out it's pay what you want so give a donation and check it out!
Purchased. Thank you very much.
Anyone else getting a big Dwarf Fortress vibe from the monster creation?
Love it! It would look awesome with some art, have you ever thought of hiring or commissioning an artist?
Can someone explain how do we solve spells characteristics? I mean, if a spell cause some kind of damage, but there are no numbers indicated (like you would find in Cairn) do we have to invent on the fly the actual effect? Thanks.
So I just bought Knave. In the Video you say that one could use Maze Rats random Spells as an option.
For many or most of the combinations I have no idea what the spell should then do. For example what would "Acid Gate" or "Harmony Prison" do?
Not having played that many TTRPGs, I feel I have not build the intuition yet. Or what do I do wrong?
And thanks for breaking down D&D style into such a simple system. This helped me to understand the fundamental principles P2E is based on, which I am playing mostly.
I'd actually love if someone were crazy enough to map down all combinations so people could insert their suggestions on spells. For acid gate, I initially thought of a trap enchantment that would trigger acid damage on anyone passing through, but then I started considering an actual gate to an acid plane, from which you would summon a slime, elemental or something like that. Harmony prison could act like the Sanctuary spell, protecting anyone who passed through it, but also preventing them from acting against others.
@@SuddenShock Oh! Ah. I see. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I think I may be able now to associate Spells. I did not think it would be that free form haha : )
@@maxzzzzz3004 no problem, I recommend the old school essentials SRD spells list for inspiration. Dungeon crawl classics is probably a great contender as well.
@@SuddenShock perfect : )
Did you ever consider making the letters in the title look like dungeon tunnels?
I have a question. How would you handle a high power magical artifacts in campaigns, after you have them that is? One use and that's it? Or multi-use. I watched your Lair of the Lantern Worm dungeoncrawl with Dawnforged and I wondered how the mechanics of such an artifact would work in Maze Rats. Kudos to you for making such a wonderful rpg. It's exactly the type of thing I've been looking for.
It depends on the impact you want it to have on your campaign. The more powerful it is, the more that other factions and characters in the campaign should want to take it from you. I tend to make magic artifacts with fairly low-level effects that could be useful if used creatively (for example, a ring that makes your fingers really long).
I wish you could make this a book! Just add some old school cover illustration and put it on LULU. Have you considered that?
i love your game its seems saw awinspireing i too been working on my game for years its called age of fantasy thought its far from done lol
Interesting... is there also a sci-fi version?
Was this edition made before or after the one released in Worlds without Master? Love that one btw. cheers.
How would you do something like this for kids?
Look up Adventure Hour
dreamingdragonslayer.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/adventure-hour-pitch-and-draft/
dreamingdragonslayer.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/playing-with-youngers-rules-and-dice/
I'm surprised there's no page of d6 rolls, since you approved of that feature in the White Hack review. It's an easy fix though :-)
A couple of rules questions:
* Can you break up your move before and after your action, like 5th ed., or is it more restricted, like 3rd ed.?
* Should dual-wielding receive a benefit of some kind, even if it's just choosing at character creation whether to treat it as a 2-handed weapon or as a weapon+shield? Or is the omission of any benefit intentional?
* I just do move and then attack
* I don't have any rules for duel wielding. I suppose you could count the off-hand weapon as a shield if you wanted to. The combat system is intentionally very abstracted to make things faster, but of course you're free to modify it however you want.
Really like your game! Is it only the GM:s choice to make magic fail or go wrong? Can´t find any info about this. I was thinking the wizard have to make a slightly easier WILL-check, like roll 2d6 + bonus equal or above 7 or something.
That's damn cool.
I know that this is probably a really dumb question, but how do we interpret the health of a rolled up monster? For instance, If it has “3d” health do we roll 3d6 to come up with their hit points, or do we multiply the 3 by 4 or something like that?
When I tried to print it it printed backwards and wasn’t aligned properly is that a printer issue or a PDF issue
Hi! I have a production question. I'd like to take the KNAVE rules and make a booklet similar to the MAZE RATS booklet. Did you use special software to convert a regular PDF for booklet imposition (I hope), or did you just manually rearrange the layout in Word? If you did find and use a good piece of software to create the booklet imposition, would you tell me what software that is?
I made everything in Microsoft word, using the jankiest methods imaginable
Picked this up the other day. Love it. My only question is how do I print off the booklet form? I have tried printing it double sided but the pages don't print out correctly. What am I doing wrong?
Jeff Hartman makes sure that you are printing double sided, landscape format, flipped on the short edge.
Ok thanks. I will take a look at that.
@Questing Beast - Have you wrote any adventures for your systems or are there only rulebooks available?
I have a one-page dungeon called The Alchemist's Repose questingbeast.itch.io/
Question: Did you edited your own book? Or someone else did it? Working on a project of my own but I'm intrigued about the process.
Jmachuca Yeah I edited it myself
well... not free anymore -_-
Do you have any future plans for this system?
Could you tell us how you published Maze Rats?
I want to publish my own RPG Rulebook and now I am curious how you did it.
Obstgarteninnot I just uploaded it to DrivethruRPG and Itch.io
Hey, I have the two PDFs but can't figure out how to set up my printer to get a booklet out of either versions. It's quite strange because some time ago I managed to print out the normal version in booklet format without issue, but not anymore. What am I doing wrong?
It should work if you print double sided, flipping on the short edge, assuming you are printing from the booklet version.
How do you handle poison, like a spider bite or scorpion sting?
Kelly Davis take damage until you make a strength save, I suppose.
Do magic users create new spells every morning when they wake up and renew spell slots, or renew the spells they had before? Thanks!
new spells every day!
@@QuestingBeast thanks again!
@questingbeast this will work with gathox vertical slum, woodfall, what ho frog demons etc., right?
Maze Rats requires some conversion to use with standard OSR products. My other game Knave would probably suit you better, since it's designed to be highly compatible.
Questing Beast awesome thanks!
hey can you tell wht the deminsions of the book is height and width
Stefan Dickens 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches.
Hello Questing Beast, I've been using your system to run a couple of one shots already. I wanted to know what to do in the matter of converting magic weapons. Would a +1 or +2 one weapon break the game? So far my rule of thumb has been to give them one or two abilities, with maybe a situational +1 to damage.
That sounds very reasonable to me.
@@QuestingBeast So, do you think a weapon with +1 to attack would be too much for the system?
@@franciscoalejandro7567 No, but if it did become "overpowered" that would just provide incentive for villains to come and steal it. The world balances itself out.
@@QuestingBeast Thanks for the insight!
So THIS or Knave?
and after starting the Knave video...now i understand the difference!
where can i find the maildress?
ok soo lets say i created a character with 0 attack how does he use his weapons i made a ranger sort of so i want to use a dagger in melle combat or bow in ranged how do i use them dexterity ?
You just add +0 to your attack rolls. Your STR, DEX, and WIL have no effect on your attack rolls.
ohh only on danger rolls ?
hey i have one question again XD soo lets say i want to create a humanoid enemy , orc or goblin should i use the monster system of creating again or i simply could use the character creation system ?
I just pick the stats I think are appropriate.
what software did you use to create this?
Microsoft Word
god damn that ring looks painful ....................
Nope
that's good cause i was gonna suggest maybe a resize? as long as it doesnt cause physical discomfort s'all good@@QuestingBeast
This must be older since this is no longer pay-what-you-want.
It’s still very affordable! A man’s gotta eat
@@david.godlewski That he does. Just mentioned it more as an update so peeps are aware. Very cool system for a game.
yeah I just subscribed so you got all these ideas on your own huh?
Nah, I stole them from lots of other great games, like Into the Odd, Vornheim, Whitehack, and so on.
I know the feeling
That's a good idea folding it side ways and making a pamphlet
To be honest I haven't gotten a printer to work since like 2009 so... yeah... can't get printers to work right now it's a conspiracy, that's why I used to handwrite everything
What about monsters? I didn't see too much about monsters in this overview.
Go to 5:36
Oops! My bad! But now I have another question: how would you do, say, humanoids like elves and orcs. I didn't see any info looking over the book.