ICOTALEOfficial
Sword & sandal · d20 rulebook
Red Sand
- Solo
- Difficulty 3 of 3
- Not recommended under 14
- Available in: Français, English, Español, Deutsch, Italiano
You were sold on a market morning. The arena will set you free — or nothing will. In between: the crowd, the lanista, and a piece of wood they call freedom.
The rulebook at a glance
- d20 + attribute
- 4 attributes
- The Favour of the Crowd
Choose an adventure
- Campaign
The Rudis
4 sessions · freedom, crowds, sweat and style
Cost: 4 Dice for the whole table
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The Ludus
4 sessions · management, intrigue, style
Cost: 4 Dice for the whole table
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By the Icotale team
The world
- PlaceCassenaA provincial town that dreams of being a capital: its ten-thousand-seat amphitheatre is far too big for it, and it is very proud of that.
- PlaceVarron’s LudusThe gladiator school: a sand yard, a dormitory, a wooden fence. Here you learn to survive, not to fight — an important difference, according to Varron.
- PlaceThe StandsTen thousand voices that make and unmake heroes. In the front row, the notables; at the very top, the ones who shout the loudest.
- PlaceThe Gate of LifeThe gate the winners walk out through. Facing it, the other one. Nobody says its name.
- CharacterVarronThe lanista: a former gladiator who limps on bad days, and who counts every sesterce and every scar of his men.
- CharacterAedile PriscusHe organises the games and dreams of a seat in the Senate. The games of Cassena are his election campaign.
- CharacterThalaThe ludus doctor, bought back from a circus by Varron. She stitches bodies back together and remembers the name of everyone who has passed through the infirmary.
The rulebook
Resolving actions
- Roll 1d20 and add the attribute modifier: 11 or more succeeds, 14 against a seasoned opponent, 17 against a champion.
- A natural 20 makes the stands roar and earns a Favour; a natural 1 achieves what the crowd wanted, not what you wanted.
Initiative : 1d20 + Technique modifier
Attributes
- Strength STR
- Strike, block, lift the portcullis when you have to.
- Technique TEC
- Feint, disarm, read a guard: the school of the sand.
- Presence PRE
- Salute, taunt, get ten thousand voices chanting your name.
- Endurance END
- Take the hits, stay on your feet, finish the fight.
Special rules
- The Favour of the Crowd
- Fine moves earn Favours (a natural 20, a successful taunt, an opponent spared with style). Spending a Favour rerolls any roll. The crowd gives, the crowd takes back: a dull fight costs you one.
- Marks
- Every fight leaves a mark: a scar, a nickname, a debt or a friend. The player writes it down in one sentence; sooner or later the Storyteller brings it back — it is the story being written on your skin.
- The Missio
- A fallen gladiator can ask for mercy: the crowd decides, and it remembers everything — Favours, marks, promises. No one dies in the arena unless the thumbs go down.
Character creation
Roll 4 dice with 6 faces per attribute, keep the 3 best · 2 rerolls allowed4d6kh3
Origins
- Captured warrior
- Taken weapon in hand, on the borders of the Empire; +1 to Strength.
- Sold for debts
- Free a year ago, ruined since; +1 to Presence.
- Born in the house
- The gladiator school is the only world you have ever known; +1 to Technique.
Vocations
- Murmillo
- The big shield and patience: a wall that hits back.
- Retiarius
- The net, the trident, and the art of being wherever the blade is not.
- Thraex
- The curved blade, speed, short bursts of rage.
- Dimachaerus
- Two blades, no shield: the crowd loves it, the lanistas despair.
Derived values
- Hit points
- 10 + Endurance modifier
- Defense
- 10 + Technique modifier
- Initiative
- 1d20 + Technique modifier
Starting equipment
- The weapons of your school
- An amulet from before the sale
- A nickname already shouted once
Veils
Topics kept off screen: the Narrator never shows or describes them.
- sexual violence
- cruelty to animals
- torture
- detailed injuries