TWELVE REALMS Brings a New Twist to Adventuring

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Today’s issue focuses on another addition to the spectrum of fantasy TTRPGs on the market. Adam Hancock, best known for Demiverse and An Elf and an Orc had a Little Baby, has partnered with a wide spectrum of award-winning TTRPG writers to produce TWELVE REALMS, a new original fantasy game and setting on Kickstarter. It tells the story of Heru, a ringed gas giant that has twelve planets (aka REALMS) swirling around it, each with their own unique culture and realm. But a thirteenth realm has appeared, drawing adventurers to explore what it contains and learn the secrets of this mysteriously empty planet.

The game (published by Gnome Made Games) is about wandering caravans, “item-based progression” and what Hancock calls a “Simultaneous Dice” challenge resolution system. It’s how Hancock (and his fellow writers) is trying to find an alternative to D&D, a game that he fell out of love with. It’s a big goal to pursue, but the project has a fairly strong team of supporters so far.

The team of writers includes VJ Harris, Rue Dickey, Friday Strout, Sebastian Yue and a variety of other writers across the TTRPG community.

We spoke with Hancock about the project and why people should give this attempt at a fantasy system a try.

1. In short, what's the story behind this game? Where did it begin?

In 2023, I suddenly fell out of love with my favorite tabletop role-playing game. And I didn’t really know where to go from there. So, I started a video series called “Finding My Next Favorite TTRPG.” The premise was that for each video, I’d read a game’s rules, summarize them, and make a verdict about whether or not it met my personal criteria.

Starting out, I was sure that I’d fall in love with another game already out there, that it’d become my home game, and that I would then start professionally designing for it. But after four dozen videos—most of them viewer’s recommendations based on my criteria—I realized I probably wouldn’t find it.

I also realized that, without being totally aware of it, I’d been designing a game in my head as I’d been going along. So I commissioned Eduardo Comettant to make the cover art, wrote down the rules that had been coalescing in my mind, assembled a team of award-winning writers—each of whom I’ve worked with in the past—and we were off to the races!

2. What do you mean when you say the game has "fast, simple-to-learn and dynamic dice" mechanics?

Rolling for turn order puts the brakes on the dramatic buildup to a fight. It’s an interruption spent doing light math and time-consuming bookkeeping. It also makes no sense that no matter how high you roll on an attack roll, your damage can still be disappointingly low. Plus, separately rolling attack and damage wastes time. In Twelve Realms, we jettisoned all of these issues, making for an agile game that keeps everything players love while getting to the action faster.

Here’s how it works. When combat or some other challenge starts, everyone around the table picks up all of their relevant dice and rolls them all at once with a deafening clatter! Once the dust clears, scan the rolled dice to see each person’s highest roll. Of those highest rolls, the player with the lowest one goes first. That person continues their turn until they run out of dice to resolve or choose to end their turn early.

Each die represents something real in the game world. A die might be your sword, your shield, your ice magic, or your gift of gab. When it’s on the table, you get to decide which opposing die it goes up against—sword versus dragon scales, shield versus oncoming arrow, charm versus mental will. A higher die takes a lower one, removing it from play. The higher the roll relative to its opposed roll, the more damage is dealt. Once all dice are resolved, check to see if anyone is still in the fight and then start a new round!

3. How does this compare to other traditional fantasy games?  Why should I try this over other games?

I love fantasy TTRPGs! So we’re working hard to preserve the parts that folks like me love. But we’re leaving behind the “legacy” stuff that I wish had never been part of the hobby in the first place.

In addition to the three-in-one dice rule I already detailed, Twelve Realms is a classless system. I always felt like character classes are more prescriptive than descriptive anyway. As a result, as a player I was always trying to find ways to subvert class norms.

In our game, character progression is based on player choices, specifically what they do with the items and innate abilities they choose to use. When they try and fail to connect with a sword, for example, or tell a convincing lie or jump over a chasm, they gain experience. (Because victory is its own reward and failure is the best teacher.) And the experience goes toward improving that specific item or ability. The more they try, the more failures they experience, but the faster they’ll progress.

Descriptive instead of prescriptive is the philosophy for all our character options, from character creation to gameplay to progression, and our accompanying campaign setting has that philosophy baked in.

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4. Is this designed for particular types of fantasy storytelling, or is it just to guide a general sense of fantasy storytelling?

We’re not leaning hard into any one fantasy subgenre. We wanted to leave room for players to tell most kinds of fantasy stories. That’s why we have a campaign setting that runs the length and breadth of most fantasy.

In the Realmsguide, one of two hardcovers for Twelve Realms, you’ll find a fantasy setting with a ringed planet at its center. Orbiting this gas giant are twelve moons, each sitting close enough to the planet’s star to be able to support life. These are the twelve realms. Each one is the ancestral home of a different fantasy people: human, elf, dwarf, gnome, and so on. They’re close enough to each other that there have been plenty of cross-realm exchanges but far enough apart that each people has adapted to life on its own planet.

The need for adventurers has arrived in the last generation in the form of a rogue moon caught by the ringed planet’s pull. This is the Thirteenth Realm. It’s a world filled—on land, on the sea floor, and underground—with the ruins of an ancient civilization that seems to have died out with no explanation. And as the world has heated up, monsters have emerged from the glaciers and depths of the realm. A lot of the adventuring will happen in this realm, as the people from other realms band together to confront the opportunity and dangers suddenly on their doorstep.

5. Is this Gnome Made Games’ first project? What are the plans going forward?

No, not our first! This is our seventh crowdfunding project. We’ve already crowdfunded and published games like Those Who Wander, Luncheons and Dragonflies, and most recently Playing God, and we’ve also made the campaign settings Demiverse (along with its sequel) and Ashwell Gate.

If this crowdfunding campaign goes as well as we hope, demonstrating community interest in the game and setting, we’re looking forward to sticking with Twelve Realms, publishing adventure material, setting expansions, and more character options. There are over a dozen worlds to explore so we’re not at all short on ideas!

6. What's something you're excited for folks to see in the game?

Another thing I’m excited to have is the original caravan rules. I remember running a years-long campaign that featured a wagon train as we trekked from one continent to another. Wagons, mounts, supplies, guides, guards, healers, and more. It’s a village on the road. Caravans are better than bastions or strongholds because you can take them with you on your adventures.

In Twelve Realms, investing in a caravan means improved rests and travel abilities. We know from experience that players often want to adopt every memorable character and keep every wild animal as a pet. We’re going to reward that with mechanical weight and create memorable roleplaying moments.

7. What is your short sales pitch? Why should people try Twelve Realms?

The rules are both agile and dynamic. The writing team with over 20 awards to their names are dreaming up a setting both expansive and inspiring. If you’re anything like us, it’s everything you’ve always wanted in a fantasy TTRPG while still being light on its feet and player-friendly.

Thanks to Gnome Made Games for chatting with TTRPG Insider! The crowdfunding campaign for Twelve Realms is scheduled to launch in the first week of April.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].