A Fantasy Role-playing Game
Version 5.1
Copyright © 2001 by Ethan Greer, all rights reserved.
Make no mistake: I wrote this game for myself, for my own personal use at my regular gaming group. Toast stemmed from my frustration with other role-playing games, and is entirely a selfish endeavor. If you don't like it, I don't care. If you do like it, I encourage you to make it your own if you are so inclined. Toast is a non-cumbersome system designed to facilitate fantasy role-play and storytelling through use of a simple, flexible rules set.
This document assumes the reader has some prior knowledge of role-playing games, particularly those in the fantasy genre. This is because Toast is not designed as an introduction to role playing games. If you don't recognize the terms and concepts used in this document, you probably shouldn't be reading it on your own. Instead, show it to your game master or other friends who are interested in fantasy role-playing. Or not. As I said, it makes little difference to me...
This text uses the feminine pronoun in all cases. The feminine pronoun should be interpreted to refer to both female and male individuals.
Round all fractions down to the next whole number.
The author concedes the superiority of the Metric system of weights and measures over the English system. However, Toast uses the English system for several reasons, as listed below:
This system uses two different methods for generating random numbers. A player will need one twelve-sided die and several four-sided dice.
The twelve-sided die as it is used in Toast is called a d10+. When a d10+ is rolled, the numbers 1-10 are treated as standard numeric results. A result of 11 is an automatic failure (called a Flub), and a result of 12 is an automatic success (called an Auto). If a Flub or an Auto is rolled, the die is rolled again to determine the degree to which the roll fails or succeeds. In this case, rolls of 11 and 12 are treated as numbers. The higher the number, the greater the degree of success or failure. The four-sided dice in Toast are referred to as damage dice. Whenever a player is instructed to generate damage points, use damage dice. Toast uses a simple system to quantify a character's abilities and potential. A character's traits are divided into two major groups: Attributes and Skills. Attributes are traits that every character possesses. Skills are specialized abilities that not all characters will have. Each attribute and skill that a character possesses is assigned a number, reffered to as the attribute or skill level. The higher the level, the better. There are ten attributes in Toast. These ten attributes fall under one of two groups called aspects.
d10+
Damage Dice
Character
Attributes and Aspects
| Aspect | Attribute | Abbreviation | Description |
| Physical | Strength | STR | Determines a character's raw physical strength. |
| Agility | AGI | Measures a character's athletic potential and dexterity. | |
| HEC | HEC | Hand-Eye Coordination and manual dexterity. Measures a character's ability to perform elaborate tasks with her hands. | |
| Health | HTH | Reflects character's overall health as well as her ability to withstand disease and infection. | |
| Tolerance | TOL | Reflects a character's endurance, toughness, constitution, or whatever you wish to call it. | |
| Mental | Perception | PER | Represents the character's powers of observation, and her ability to pick out important details from her surroundings. |
| Focus | FOC | Represents the character's ability to keep her mind focused. Also reflects memory and learning potential. | |
| Empathy | EMP | Measures the character's ability to interpret the words and actions of others accurately, and determines the degree to which other sentient beings will identify with the character. | |
| Will | WIL | Reflects the character's will power and resolve. | |
| Psyche | PSY | Represents the intangible mental factors that make a person who she is. It reflects magical potential and creative potential, among other things. |
Experienced role-players will note the lack of an intelligence attribute. The reason for this lack is that it is my belief that the player determines a character's intelligence rather than a statistic. I was careful to define the mental aspect so that the different attributes would lend themselves to logical game uses. In too many cases that I have seen, so-called intelligence statistics are used for anything but determining a character's intelligence. In Toast, the average of Perception and Focus most closely reflects the Intelligence attribute of most other RPGs.
Undoubtedly, situations will arise in which it is unclear to the players and GM which attribute should be used. In these cases, in the interest of quickness and to avoid arguments, use the character's aspect scores. An aspect score is the average of all of the attribute scores in that aspect. Aspect scores should be calculated and recorded at the time of character creation, and at any time the character's attributes change.
Attribute scores determine the modifier for skills based on that attribute. The table below displays the attribute modifiers for each attribute level.
| Level | Modifier |
| 1 | -5 |
| 2-3 | -4 |
| 4-5 | -3 |
| 6-7 | -2 |
| 8-9 | -1 |
| 10-11 | +0 |
| 12-13 | +1 |
| 14-15 | +2 |
| 16-17 | +3 |
| 18-19 | +4 |
| 20 | +5 |
Skills are discreet areas of knowledge or ability that a character possesses. Each skill is based on one or more attributes. See Appendix A: Skill List for a list of the skills available in Toast.
In Toast, any character may attempt any skill at any time. If a character attempts a skill in which she does not yet have a level, the character's skill level becomes 1 after the task has been resolved. The exception to this rule is the Knowledge Skills.
The skills available in Toast fall into categories. Skill categories exist in order to aid the character creation process, and for rule considerations. The defined skill categories, along with any special rules for the categories, are described in the table below.
| Category | Description |
| Animal | Animal skills are skills which relate in some way to animals. Will and Perception are the most important attributes in the Animal category. |
| Artistic | Skills which require, for the most part, creativity or artistic ability. Psyche is an important attribute in the Artistic category. |
| Athletic | Skills in the Athletic category are heavily based in the Physical Aspect, especially Agility. |
| Combat | Combat skills are most often used exclusively during combat. |
| Covert | Covert skills are generally (though not always) practiced by theives and criminals. |
| Craft | Craft skills center around the creation of goods of various sorts. Perception is very important for most Craft skills. |
| Esoteric | The Esoteric category covers those skills which define and/or enhance the fantasy genre (such as magical, divine, or mystical abilities) and acts as a blanket category for skills which have special rules. |
| Knowledge | Knowledge skills are based on Perception and Focus, with few exceptions. Unlike other skills, Knowledge skills may not be attempted at any time by any character. In order to obtain levels in any of the Knowledge skills, the character must have undergone some amount of study or tutelage. |
| Medical | Medical skills are centered on the treatment of illness and injury. Perception and HEC are both important attributes. |
| Outdoor | Outdoor skills are skills which are practiced most often in the wilderness. Perception is an important attribute for Outdoor skills. |
| Professional | Professional skills are skills which can be the basis of a career. Professional skills are often held by NPCs. |
| Social | Social skills have to do with human(oid) interaction. Empathy is an important attribute for Social skills. |
| Weapon | Weapon skills measure a character's skill with types of weapons. Agility is important for melee weapons, and HEC is important for ranged weapons. |
During the session, the players should keep track of which skills were used (i.e. rolled against) during the session. Once the session is over, the player performs a check to see if the skill will increase in level.
To perform a skill check, roll d10+. If an auto is rolled, the skill advances by one level; if a flub is rolled, the skill does not advance. Otherwise, add the Focus attribute to the roll and divide the sum by 2. If the result is greater than the current skill level, the skill level increases by one.
Skill advancement rolls are not made for skills that were learned during the session.
Character creation is a point of contention among many gamers. Some feel that an understanding of a character's background is of paramount importance prior to determining stats and skills. Others argue that the stats should be determined first and the character's personality created to fit the numbers. In any case, it is not within the scope of this document to discuss the process by which a character should or should not be created. The steps for constructing a character's attributes and skills are defined below. Any of the more abstract aspects of character creation are left to the players and GM.
To create a character, distribute 105 attribute points among the ten attributes. No attribute may be greater than 20 or less than 1. No more than 70 points may be devoted to a single aspect.Next, distribute 100 skill points among any number of skills. No starting skill level may be greater than (10 + FOC) / 2.
Attribute points and skill points may be freely exchanged back and forth at a rate of 3 skill points for 1 attribute point.
There is one method for task resolution in Toast, summarized below.
In order to determine the character's modifier, the GM must decide what type of task the character is attempting. If the task involves the character's attribute(s) only and not a specific skill, average the attributes. This number is the modifier for the task.
If a skill is involved in the resolution of the task, average the skill's base attributes and reference the result in the Attribute Modifier table to determine the attribute modifier. Add the skill level. The result is the modifier for the task. It's not a bad idea for the player to calculate the modifier for each skill and write it down in order to minimize calculation during the game.
In addition to the standard modifiers, additional penalties or bonuses may be applied to the roll. Some of these penalties or bonuses are covered in the rules, and others may be applied at the discretion of the GM.
Autos and flubs are open to GM interpretation. Remember that when either an auto or flub is rolled, a second roll is made that determines the degree to which the character succeeds or fails.
If two entities are directly opposing each other in a task, each entity rolls. The higher roll succeeds, and the lower roll fails. This is called a contested task. Contested tasks that result in a tie are open to GM interpretation. Some examples of contested tasks are arm wrestling, playing chess, or a foot race.
| When the task is... | The target number should be... |
| Inestimably easy | Doesn't matter. Roll to see if a Flub is rolled. |
| Really really easy | 3 |
| Really easy | 7 |
| Easy | 11 |
| Medium | 15 |
| Hard | 19 |
| Really hard | 23 |
| Really really hard | 28 |
| Inestimably hard | Doesn't matter. Roll to see if an Auto is rolled. |
At the start of combat, each player makes a roll on her initiative skill. The game master does the same, either for all NPC combatants, or for each individual NPC combatant at her option. This roll determines the combat sequence for the entire combat. As with all contested tasks, the higher the roll, the better.
Combat is divided into segments of time called rounds. One round lasts about 5 seconds. Just what and how much can be done in a single round is up to the GM.
Once the sequence has been established through the Initiative roll, the player with the best Initiative TR announces her character's actions for the round and any necessary rolls are made and resolved. The player with the next-best initiative does the same, and so on until each character has taken an action. This process repeats until the combat ends.
Note that in the game universe, all combat actions in the round take place relatively simultaneously. The task resolution is done sequentially for obvious reasons, but the players and GM should bear in mind that in game-time, all of the actions in a combat round take place in the same few seconds.
If a character with a high initiative is not sure yet what she wishes to accomplish during the combat round, she may opt to hold her action. At any point later in the same round, the character may announce that she is taking her action. She announces her action and her task is resolved as normal. Holding one's action is useful for pre-emptive strikes and the like. If a character does not announce an action, she does not get an action that round; held actions do not roll over to the next round.
Combat tasks are resolved as normal tasks unless a combatant specifically acts to defend herself from another's attack, in which case the combat is treated as a contested task. If the defender is using a weapon or implement to defend herself, she rolls on her skill with the weapon or implement in question. Otherwise, the GM should determine the attributes and skills that apply to the defender's roll. If the defender wins the roll, the attack fails. If the attacker wins the roll, the attack succeeds.
It is possible that a character's action may negate the action of a character with a lower initiative roll. For example, if a character that planned on making an attack gets her arm cut off by a character with a higher initiative, the character cannot make the attack. The GM should resolve such situations on a case by case basis.
Damage in Toast is represented by Wound Levels. Wound levels are abstract numbers intended to reflect how difficult it is for an injured character to function and, in severe cases, to remain conscious and/or alive.
As a character is wounded, the player keeps a running tally on the total number of wound levels the character has sustained.
Characters with a high Tolerance are able to suffer a certain amount of injury without experiencing any ill effects. If a character's TOL modifier is a positive number, the character has a Wound Threshold equal to that number. Characters may sustain a number of wound levels equal to their wound threshold without garnering any penalties.
Once a character has taken a number of wound levels greater than her wound threshold, the wounds begin to affect the character. The number of wound levels the character has sustained in excess of wound threshold is called Effective Wound Level.
Wounds have an adverse effect on any action the character attempts. Subtract the Wound Penalty from the rolls for all tasks the character undertakes. Wound descriptions and penalties for the effective wound levels are defined in the table below.
| Description | Effective Wound Levels | Penalty |
| Trivial | 1-4 | -1 |
| Light | 5-8 | -2 |
| Moderate | 9-12 | -3 |
| Serious | 13-16 | -4 |
| Severe | 17-20 | -5 |
| Critical | 21-24 | -6 |
| Deadly | 25+ | -7 |
Once the character is seriously wounded (effective wound level of 13 or more), and for each wound received thereafter, the player must roll on Strength, Health, Tolerance, and Will. Target number is the effective wound level. Do not apply the wound penalty to this roll. If the roll fails, the character collapses, overcome by fatigue, trauma, or blood loss. The character may or may not be conscious at the GM's discretion.
Any single strike that causes a critical wound (21 wound levels or more) is potentially fatal, regardless of a character's wound threshold. If a single strike causes 21 or more wound levels, the character must roll vs. Strength, Health, and Tolerance. Target number is the effective wound level (not the wound level total for the strike). Do not apply the wound penalty to this roll. If the character fails the roll, she dies instantly. If she survives, she then rolls to see if she collapses as described above.
All characters heal at a base rate of 1 wound level per day, provided that they engage in no strenuous activity. If the character does engage in any strenuous activity, the wound level is not recovered. What constitutes strenuous activity is up to the individual GM.
At the end of each day, regardless of her activity during the day, the character makes a Health check; target number is the character's current effective wound level. Do not apply the wound penalty to this roll. If the roll is successful, the character heals an additional wound level.
Also once per day, if the character (or another character) has an appropriate medical skill, she may attempt to use the skill to treat the wounds. Target number is the effective wound level. If the character is administering medical care to herself, the wound penalty does apply to the roll.
The numbers supplied above assume humanoid characters. For monsters or character races that are tougher than humans, the same penalty categories should be used for effective wound levels, i.e. Trivial, Light, etc. However, the range of wound levels in each penalty category should be increased. For a slightly hardier race, a scale of 5 could be used in place of the scale of 4 supplied in the table above. For a big nasty monster, an even larger scale would be appropriate.
Weapon damage in toast has two parts. First, the weapon itself is assigned a Base Damage. On a successful attack, the number of damage dice rolled is equal to the weapon's base damage. (See the table below.)
The second part of weapon damage is based on the character herself. A character with a high degree of physical potential will have a better chance of inflicting greater damage with each successful strike. If the attribute modifier for the weapon skill is a positive number, the player rolls an additional number of damage dice equal to the attribute modifier. Negative attribute modifiers are ignored; it is assumed that the weapon will at least inflict its base damage.
For example, a character with an Agility of 17 wielding a broadsword will roll 2 damage dice for the sword itself, and an additional 3 dice for their high Agility score, for a total of 5 damage dice.
Arrows and crossbow bolts are an exception to the rule above. Missiles fired from a bow or crossbow deal no extra damage based on the character's attributes. However, certain bows can add an additional damage die or two to the damage roll. For example, an especially strong bow (and most crossbows) might warrent an additional damage die for each hit; especially powerful crossbows might have a 2 dice bonus. This matter is left to the GM's discretion.
There is a vast array of weapons in the fantasy milieu, making a definitive list of weapons and their base damages outside the scope of this document. Therefore, the following simple guidelines are supplied to assist the GM in assigning weapon base damages. These guidelines assume normal, unenchanted weapons of average to high quality. Most weapons will fall rather obviously into one of the three categories below.
| Weapon Category | Base Damage | Examples |
| Large | 3 | two-handed sword, pole arm, great axe, spear |
| Medium | 2 | long sword, broadsword, short sword, arrow, crossbow bolt, mace, axe, club, staff, dagger, javelin |
| Small | 1 | dart, knife, bolas, fist, foot, elbow, throwing star |
Armor does two things for the character that dons it. First and foremost, it prevents the character from sustaining wounds, and decreases the severity of wounds that are inflicted. Second, it weighs down the character, making physical tasks more difficult. Each character's goal is to find the balance between the benefits and the drawbacks of wearing armor.
All types of armor are assigned a Wound Reduction Number. This number is the number of wounds the armor can prevent per strike. When a wounding strike occurs, subtract the armor's wound reduction number from the wounds caused by the strike.
Note that this reduction in wound levels is calculated prior to any wound checks. For example, a strike of 23 wound levels which is reduced to 18 wound levels by armor would not require the character to roll to determine if the wound is fatal, since the armor effectively reduced the severity of the wound.
Armor makes physical tasks more difficult. The heavier the armor, the more inhibiting it is to movement and endurance. To reflect this, each type of armor is assigned an Encumbrance. Divide the encumbrance of the armor by the sum of the character's Strength and Agility. (Remember to round down.) The resulting number is the Armor Penalty. While the character is wearing the armor, apply the armor penalty to any tasks that involve Strength, Agility, or Tolerance.
There are several basic types of armor that may be found in most fantasy RPGs. The table below provides wound reduction and encumbrance numbers for these common types of armor. GMs may wish to limit or add to this list depending upon the campaign setting.
| Armor Type | Description | Wound Reduction | Encumbrance |
| Cloth | Heavy, tightly woven cloth. | 1 | 10 |
| Quilt | Quilted cloth, consisting of two layers of medium weight cloth stitched together with padding between. | 2 | 15 |
| Leather | Tanned, treated animal hide, worked into a supple, flexible, and tough material. | 3 | 20 |
| Boiled Leather | Leather which has been boiled in oil and formed into hard plates which maintain a rigid shape. | 4 | 25 |
| Ring Mail | Metal rings sewn or riveted onto a leather backing. | 5 | 30 |
| Chain Mail | Metal rings riveted closed and linked together to form a flexible, cloth-like material. Usually worn over quilt. | 5 | 40 |
| Scale Mail | Various sizes of metal scales sewn or riveted onto a leather backing. | 6 | 45 |
| Brigandine | Metal plates riveted to a leather backing and covered by another layer of leather. | 7 | 50 |
| Plate | Large metal plates which fit over specific areas of the body. Usually worn over other types of armor to increase coverage and protection. | 8 | 60 |
| Full Plate | Large metal plates that fasten to each other by a series of straps, lacing, buckles, or screws. Forms an articulated shell around its wearer. Usually worn over leather, cloth, quilt, or padding. | 9 | 75 |
For the sake of simplicity, Toast assumes that armor is worn in suits, which provide coverage for more or less the entire body. This was of course not the case during medieval times, but the Toast rules set would not benefit by having a detailed hit location and piece-armor system.
A Toast GM will need to be able to think on her feet. The decided lack of detailed rules and mechanics to cover every situation can be viewed as either a hindrance or help to a GM. It is all a matter of personal preference. I wrote this game as a reaction to fantasy games I have played that try to bury every possible permutation of reality beneath layer upon layer of discreet rules systems. This is a game for people who like to think, talk, and tell stories. This is not a game for rules lawyers, number crunchers, or players who like their games to as closely as possible mimic reality. In my opinion, reality is precisely what role-playing is not about. If you want reality, you've picked the wrong hobby.
The Toast rules are just vague enough that they may be tailored to fit just about any style of game mastery. Don't like the combat system? Tweak it. Want to have an intelligence attribute? Throw one in. The key is, be consistent. No player enjoys operating on one series of assumptions only later to find that those assumptions have been rendered inoperative due to a change in the fundamentals of the game mechanics. Trust me, I know this quite well from my own playtesting experience with Toast! Settle any issues you have with Toast before you try to run a game in it. The rules are simple enough that it shouldn't take too long to do this.
Remember that in role-playing games, there is one rule that takes precedence over all other rules, and that is as follows: THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS TO EVERY RULE. Players must rely on their GM to determine when and how exceptions occur and how they are to be dealt with. The simpler the rules set, the greater the number of exceptions. In game mastering Toast, remember to be flexible.