The Aimless Crawl
By Eva Brown @EvaOddveig
The Aimless Crawl is a game about explor-
ing a Dungeon, overcoming challenges, and
beating the BBEG. Whenever a Dungeon is
mentioned it does not necessarily mean a real
Dungeon, maybe it’s a small mountain village,
a bustling coastal town, a Vampire’s castle, or
an actual dungeon. Similarly, whenever a Room
is mentioned or opening the door to the next
Room, it means engaging a new scene inside the
Dungeon. So while a Room might actually be a
physical room it could also be a dark alleyway or
a moonlit grove.
To create a Character for The Aimless Crawl
find out your new Character’s Stats by rolling a
d6 and comparing the result to the Stat Table.
You’ll assign your Stat dice in descending order
from d12 down to your d2, if you roll a Stat that
has already had a die assigned you choose where
that die goes.
After all of your Stats are assigned come up
with a description of your Character with their
name, their species, their pronouns, and what
they look/act like. All Characters also start with
d6 experience points.
To start, the Dungeon is described by the
players. The character with the highest Intelli-
gence describes the BBEG and the character
with the highest Charisma describes how the
party came together to beat the BBEG. From
there the character with the highest Constitu-
tion will describe the horrors that the BBEG has
committed and the character with the highest
Strength describes how the party overcame the
challenges to get to the doors of the Final Dun-
geon. Finally, the character with the highest Wis-
dom describes the Dungeon, what it is, where
it is, and the theme of the adventure. After the
Dungeon, BBEG, and setting are described, the
character with the highest Dex opens the first
Door.
When a Room is opened roll a d6 and a d20,
the d6 determines the type of challenge in rela-
tion to the Stat Table, and the d20 determines
the difficulty of the Room. After the type of challenge
and the difficulty are revealed the person who opened the
Room describes the Room. To overcome a Room all the
players roll the die reflecting the type of challenge. Each
player describes what their character is doing in the Room
and how they are helping to overcome the challenge. So
if the encounter type is roll and is a 1, all players roll their
Strength die and add up the results. If the party’s total is
greater than the difficulty, they overcome the Room. If they
are under the difficulty they fail to overcome the Room. On
a tie, choose 1 player to reroll their die. The difficulty is the
d20 roll + the number of players.
When the players overcome a Room they gain 1 experi-
ence point and the player on their left is the next person to
open the Room. If they fail to overcome a Room each play-
er chooses a stat to reduce by 1 die step, for example, a
d12 would become a d10 and so forth. Then they pass the
d20 to their left. If a Ssat would be reduced from a d2, that
Character dies and their player should describe the death.
If the d20 rolls a 1 then the next Room contains the
BBEG. If the Room with the BBEG is overcome the player
who opened that Room describes how the world improves
now that the BBEG is gone. If they fail to overcome that
Room, describe how the BBEG escaped and continue play.
Experience can be spent in 2 ways. It can be spent to
increase a die roll for a particular Room at the cost of 1
point per +1, the amount of experience spent in this way
should be declared before the player rolls their Stat Die.
A player can also spend experience to improve a Stat Die.
The cost for improving is whatever the next step up but in
points, so to improve a d6 to a d8 would cost 8 experience
points.
Stat Table
1. Strength
2. Dexterity
3. Constitution
4. Intelligence
5. Wisdom
6. Charisma