Once More 2: Unto The Breach

On to new adventures! Christina Kraus

Once More 2: Unto The Breach is a combat-heavy OSR-adjacent system designed for relatively murderous gameplay and Wuxia nonsense. If you're in the mood for sending faceless murderhobos directly into the jaws of death, then you've come to the right place.

Each character starts with two random classes, roll 2d66 (d6 for domain, d6 for class) and gain the benefits listed. Reroll duplicate classes. Choose two abilities from each class to start with, you might be able to gain more later. The starting stats are:

Hitpoints (HP) = 4
Mana (MP) = 2
Attack (ATK) = 2
Defence (DEF) = 2
Speed (SPD) = 1
Luck (LUK) = 1

Endurance tasks like swimming a river, climbing a cliff, digging a trench without a shovel etc. have a HP cost. Characters automatically know pretty much anything to do with their domains, and almost nothing outside of them.

Roll +d6 and roll a 6 or more to succeed at an average check. Roll +SPD to go first in combat, do fine-motor things quickly, and flee combat. Roll +LUK when determining loot, springing traps, and suffering curses/mutations/diseases. 6 always succeeds, 1 always fails.

All classes use the same type of MP. Supplies and Sleep each restore 1d6 HP or 1d6/2 MP, resting in a safe place for a full day restores all.

If an ability has a stat included, you must succeed on the check to use it. If an ability has a mixed cost (so, HP or MP) you can pay it in a mix of both.

You can grant MP to an ally as an action if it makes sense:
"I will protect you, focus on your magic!"
"Here, I made this for you, drink it"
"Praise the Sun!"

There are other ways to restore MP, depending on risk and investment:

• Have a bath
• Enjoy delicious food
• Take drugs
• Pray at an altar / honour the old ways
• Study ancient ruins
• Fancy gear and jewellery
• Blood sacrifices

Enemies have HP, normal DMG dealt, and a level which is added to the difficulty of checks against them (LVL 0 = roll 6 or more). LVL doesn't apply to all checks, only relevant ones. Enemies also have moves they can take when you miss checks against them. Moves only apply if they could conceivably happen. No matter what, something always happens after a roll.

Goblin
1 HP, 1 DMG, LVL -1
Miss ATK - Swarm, steal something from you and hit you with it
Miss DEF - Grapple, knock prone
Unless expressly killed and burned, goblins frequently crawl away and stuff their guts back in.

Bandit
2 HP, 1 DMG, LVL 0
Miss ATK - Setup another bandit to deal 2 DMG
Miss DEF - Kick while down

Dragon
10 HP, 3 DMG, LVL 3
Miss ATK - Breath fire, wing storm, tail whip
Miss DEF - Bite, swallow

Start with three important items of your choice.
Big Weapons = +1 DMG
Shield = +1 DEF
No armour = +1 SPD, -1 DEF
Heavy armour = -1 SPD, +1 DEF
Robes = +1 MP, -1 DEF

Death:
For each damage you take while at 0 HP, roll Xd6s, take the lowest

1. Dead
2. Major injury
3. Minor injury
4. Setback
5. You're fine
6. Gain 1 HP

Options for gaining new abilities:

• Don't. Pick a power-level for the whole team and stay there until you get bored and want to try something new
• Unlock one per session
• Every time you retire after an adventure, your next character is one stronger
• If in a dangerous locale with no home-base, spend 10 MP to unlock

Chargen:
Randomly select two classes, rerolling duplicates, take the bonus listed and two powers from each class. The automatic character generator selects two abilities at random from each list of powers, swap them out as preferred.


Include extra classes: