The Guide frames the moment
Say what is obvious, what feels strange, and what is pressing right now.
Official Core Rules · First Edition
Adventure beyond the familiar.
Rain darkens the road to Briar Glen. A fox claws at a hidden door, a borrowed face slips in lanternlight, and your friends have seconds to decide whom to trust. Briarbound is a fantasy adventure game in which the table describes what the heroes attempt, the rules answer when risk matters, and every choice changes what happens next.
Read this first
Briarbound in ten minutes
Gather two to six people, one twenty-sided die, and a hero for everyone except the Guide. Then begin with a situation that demands a choice.
The heroes act
Ask questions, speak in character, use an ability, or simply say what you do.
The world answers
The Guide says what follows. Roll only when risk and uncertainty make the answer exciting.
Before the opening scene
Five-minute setup
- Agree on tone, boundaries, and how to pause.
- Choose one person to Guide the world.
- Each other player makes a hero in the Character Vault.
- Start heroes at 10 HP, 10 AP, and six abilities.
- The Guide presents a problem already in motion.
The foundation
Five rules carry the whole game
- Say what you want to do in the fiction.
- Skip the die when the answer is obvious.
- In action scenes, move and do one thing.
- An ability that cleanly solves a problem simply works.
- Every outcome must move the story.
1Catastrophe
2-5Failure
6-10Haggle with Fate
11-19Success
20Triumph
A world with thorns
The world you are walking into
Briarbound begins in cold rain, with an old warden relic sealed in a brass case and a village waiting at the end of the road. These truths are firm ground; their unanswered questions are invitations.
Briar Glen
A village with a warm tavern, restricted archives, and ancient chambers beneath its streets. Its people can name new Friends of Briar Glen, but they still do not say what waits in the Catarynths.
Westbridge Post
Rain drums on its tin roof while Elira Vale gives the heroes their first courier job. A silver-trimmed brass case leaves with them; Elira and Mayor Bellweather carry the two matching keys.
The Fox & Flagon
Elaine Thistle keeps the hearth warm, Pip the red fox wears the tavern's name on his brass tag, and a trapdoor hides beneath flour sacks. Dawn Lantern light can peel glamour from a borrowed face.
Briarwatch Tower
A trail of couriers connected to the tower never completed their deliveries. Where they went remains a door for a later adventure.
The Catarynths
Ancient underground chambers beneath Briar Glen—not animals and never cat-like creatures. Their purpose, contents, and the reason for the village's silence remain unrevealed.
The Hollow Crown
The name and banner behind Nib Knucklebone's goblin smugglers. Someone tied to it is making enchanted glamour pins, but nobody has yet named who.
People before plot
The table compact
Briarbound belongs to everyone playing. A dramatic story is never more important than the people making it.
Share the spotlight
Invite quieter players in, leave room after a question, and do not steer another hero without consent.
Keep heroes allied
Heroes may disagree, but harming, restraining, stealing from, or controlling another hero requires that player's clear permission.
Separate player and hero
Mark when you are speaking out of character. Use only information your hero could reasonably know.
Take breaks freely
Anyone may step away, change the subject, or end a scene. No explanation is owed.
Player rules
Make a hero worth following
A Briarbound hero needs a clear silhouette, a reason to care, and enough unfinished business to pull the story forward.
Name the person
Choose a name, pronouns, age, height, and home. Keep only the details that help the table picture them.
Give a first impression
Write one thing people notice immediately, then add style, colors, posture, or an unusual detail.
Anchor them
Name their community, their Ideal, a Flaw that causes real Trouble, and the Dream that keeps them moving.
Choose a Role
Your Role names your central heroic practice. It also establishes your home Pillar: Might, Guile, or Magic.
Write three Knacks
Choose specific backgrounds, practices, or experiences that can genuinely help: village midwife, rooftop courier, patient listener.
Take up to three weapons
Common weapons deal 2 damage; unarmed attacks deal 1. Add verbs such as hook, pin, cut, distract, or brace.
Choose six abilities
Pick from your Role, follow learning-path order, and leave Legendary abilities for later.
Roles and Pillars
Fighter
Front-line defender, weapon expert, tactician, and rallying leader.
Invoker
Ideal-driven battle mage who protects, judges, wards, and avenges.
Spy
Specialist in stealth, false identities, surveillance, gadgets, and precision.
Ranger
Hunter, trailfinder, storyteller, survivor, and trusted friend to creatures.
Wizard
Versatile spellcaster who reshapes force, space, matter, and magic.
Magician
Illusionist and mind-bender who wins through misdirection and spectacle.
Naturalist
Shapeshifter who commands seasons, storms, spirits, and living systems.
Doctor
Healer and examiner who studies bodies, life, death, and transformation.
Knacks
Experience that matters
When a Knack directly helps, roll two d20s and keep the higher. A broad label such as “good at everything” is not a Knack; name where the competence came from.
Trouble
A flaw with teeth
When your Trouble genuinely interferes, roll two d20s and keep the lower. The task never creates Trouble by itself. Trouble comes from who the hero is in that moment.
Core engine
Roll only when fate has something to say
A roll is not a perception tax or a gate in front of obvious information. Use it when the action is possible, uncertain, risky, and interesting in both success and setback.
Roll
- for a basic attack against active resistance;
- when an ability explicitly says to roll;
- when danger and uncertainty sharpen the scene;
- when either outcome gives the story somewhere to go.
Do not roll
- for routine actions, obvious clues, or helpless objects;
- when a fitting ability already resolves the problem;
- when success is impossible;
- to repeat an attempt whose situation has not changed.
| Roll | Result | At the table |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Catastrophe | The attempt fails and creates a severe, memorable turn. |
| 2-5 | Failure | The intent does not land, and the situation changes against you. |
| 6-10 | Haggle with Fate | You succeed. Fate offers a meaningful price; you choose what to pay. |
| 11-19 | Success | You accomplish the intent with no required price. |
| 20 | Triumph | You do it cleanly and gain an extra edge. If this roll deals damage, double it unless the ability gives its own explicit 20 result. |
Knack and Trouble cancel
If both apply, roll one d20. Multiple Knacks never add more dice, and multiple Troubles do not make the roll worse than keeping the lower of two.
One intent, one roll
A roll settles the whole immediate attempt. Do not roll once to hit and again for the target to dodge. New rolls require a new intent or a meaningfully changed situation.
What the dice feel like
Success-or-better means 6 or higher, including Haggle with Fate. A Knack makes competence dependable; Trouble makes the same risk uncertain without making success rare.
Bare d20
75% succeeds
Failure-or-worse: 25%. Triumph: 5%.
Knack · keep higher
93.75% succeeds
Failure-or-worse: 6.25%. Triumph: 9.75%.
Trouble · keep lower
56.25% succeeds
Failure-or-worse: 43.75%. Triumph: 0.25%.
Example of play
The rain-slick wall
Rowan wants to cross a crumbling wall before the goblins escape. It is possible, risky, and time matters, so the Guide calls for a roll. Rowan gets an 8. They cross. Fate offers a price: leave the lantern case behind for a moment, or arrive hanging from the far ledge. Rowan chooses the ledge. The success stands, and the next decision is already alive.
Conflict without a menu
Action scenes move in rounds
Use rounds when timing, danger, and who acts next matter. The party takes a round, then the Guide's characters answer with a round of their own.
Party order is flexible
The heroes choose who acts next. After every hero has acted, the Guide takes turns for active NPCs.
Telegraph danger
Before NPCs act, reveal what they are reaching for, protecting, preparing, or trying to escape.
End rounds decisively
When the conflict's question is answered, stop. Surrender, escape, bargains, and changed minds all end scenes.
Four ways to change a conflict
Parley
Change a mind. Appeal, bluff, bargain, threaten, confess, or ask the question nobody wants to answer.
Improvise
Change the situation. Use doors, ropes, flour, weather, crowds, furniture, fire, and whatever the scene offers.
Retreat
Change position. Rescue someone, break line of sight, claim cover, disengage, or leave on your own terms.
Clash
Change by force. Strike, grapple, pin, disarm, shove, tackle, break, or hold the line.
Distance is spoken, not measured
Basic attacks
Say how you attack and roll. Unarmed attacks deal 1 damage; common weapons deal 2. A Triumph doubles the damage dealt by that roll. A Haggle succeeds, but the player chooses a meaningful price such as a counterattack, damaged gear, or lost position.
Ability attacks
Pay the listed AP, then follow the ability exactly. Roll only if its text says to. If that roll deals damage, a Triumph doubles it unless the ability provides its own explicit result for 20. Automatic damage cannot Triumph. Specific ability text overrides a general procedure.
Example of Parley
An exit for Nib
Nib Knucklebone has the Dawn Lantern under one arm and one hand on the Fox & Flagon's rear window. Sable bars the way and argues that leaving the Lantern is his only escape from a fight. Nib wants both relic and freedom, so Sable rolls a 9: Haggle with Fate. The Guide offers two prices—Nib leaves the Lantern but escapes with his glamour pin, or he drops it and surrenders after crushing the pin. Sable chooses surrender. Her intent succeeds, and the broken pin creates the next problem.
Consequences with a future
Harm, defeat, and recovery
Hit points measure how much danger a hero can weather before they are taken out of the scene. They are not a countdown to mandatory death.
Every new hero begins at 10 current and maximum HP.
Every new hero begins with 10 Adventure Points.
The hero is Incapacitated. The opposition pursues its agenda.
Damage
Subtract damage from current HP, never below 0. Harm may look like fatigue, fear, burns, bruises, magical strain, or whatever fits the fiction.
- 1: glancing or unarmed
- 2: a common weapon or solid hazard
- 4: a boss strike or dangerous impact
- 6+: a telegraphed, devastating threat
Incapacitated at 0 HP
You cannot take normal turns. Describe whether you are unconscious, pinned, exhausted, frightened, or otherwise out of the action. Enemies do not keep attacking; they return to what they wanted: the relic, the escape route, the captive, or control of the room.
Regroup
When no enemies are nearby, any hero may take a short breather and Regroup, including a hero who is Incapacitated at 0 HP. If current HP is below half maximum, raise it to half maximum, rounded up. Regroup can happen whenever the fiction allows a breather, but by itself it never raises HP above half maximum. AP does not recover.
Rest and healing
A safe full night restores all HP. Healing abilities do exactly what they say, up to maximum HP. A specific ability may improve a Regroup: Hearthside Verse adds its healing after the halfway mark, while Petition restores all HP. Any hero above 0 HP can act again.
Example of recovery
Back on their feet
Tamsin reaches 0 HP while Nib is still fighting and becomes Incapacitated. Once Nib is captured and the other goblins flee, no enemies remain nearby. Tamsin Regroups from 0 to 5 HP, half their 10 HP maximum. A Fighter then uses Hearthside Verse, adding 3 HP and bringing Tamsin to 8. The Regroup sets the halfway mark; the specific ability may carry them beyond it.
Power with a history
Abilities, AP, and advancement
Abilities are reliable permissions to change a scene. Adventure Points pace the largest moves; learning paths turn growth into part of the hero's story.
At creation
Six abilities
Choose legal abilities from your Role. Earlier abilities in a path must be learned first.
During play
Pay AP exactly once
Declare the ability, then spend its listed cost. You cannot spend below 0 AP. Free and Passive abilities cost nothing unless their text says otherwise.
After play
Grow every session
Gain 5 AP, learn one legal new ability, and record 1 point in the Pillar that defined the session's solution. The table nominates that Pillar; the Guide settles a tie.
Learning paths
Each non-Legendary path is ordered. To learn its second ability, own its first; to learn its third, own the first two, and so on. You may move between paths whenever you meet their prerequisites. Legendary abilities are story awards. They are never starting picks and require at least Rank 6 in your Role plus the Guide's approval.
Pillar points and reaching across
Your Role establishes your home Role and home Pillar. At session end, record 1 earned point in the Pillar that defined the party's solution. For each Pillar, Earned is every point awarded there and never decreases; Committed is the total cost of the reach-across abilities currently on the hero; and Available equals Earned minus Committed. A home-Role ability commits no points. A path opener from another Role in the home Pillar commits 1 point. An opener from another Pillar commits the amount shown for its Vault Tier. Available points and home Rank must meet the pick's requirements.
Tier is a power band, not path order
The Vault computes Tier 1–4 mainly from an ability's highest AP mode: 0 AP is Tier 1; 1–2 AP is Tier 2; 3–5 AP is Tier 3; and 6 or more AP is Tier 4. A variable X cost counts as at least 4 AP, and a multi-mode ability uses its highest mode. Passives instead use path position: 1–2 is Tier 1, 3–4 is Tier 2, and 5 or later is Tier 3. Legendary abilities are always Tier 4. Tier determines cross-Pillar commitment; path position separately determines prerequisites. Tier 4 cannot reach across.
| Reach-across ability | Points committed | Home Rank required |
|---|---|---|
| Same Pillar · Opener | 1 point | Rank 0 |
| Other Pillar · Tier 1 opener | 2 points | Rank 0 |
| Other Pillar · Tier 2 opener | 3 points | Rank 1 |
| Other Pillar · Tier 3 opener | 4 points | Rank 2 |
| Tier 4 · Signature | No reach-across | Home Role only |
Advancement example
A Fighter reaches toward Magic
A Fighter has earned 3 Magic points and committed none, so all 3 are Available. They have learned one Fighter ability since creation, giving home Rank 1. At session end they use that session's one ability choice to learn a legal Tier 2 opener from a Magic Role, committing 3 Magic points. The ledger now reads Earned 3, Committed 3, Available 0. The Magic ability does not raise Rank; it stays 1.
Useful things, not accounting
Gear and the world
Briarbound tracks objects because they create possibilities, not because shopping should become arithmetic.
Basic goods are available
In a settled, friendly place, heroes can obtain ordinary food, lodging, clothing, travel fare, string, candles, simple tools, and similar routine needs. Scarcity can matter when the fiction establishes it.
Trade for what matters
Valuable things are exchanged for valuables, favors, labor, access, promises, or leverage. The other person accepts, refuses, or negotiates according to what they want. Roll only when the uncertain bargain is genuinely interesting.
Track only notable things
Record objects that are limited, bulky, magical, valuable, useful, or important to the story. Ordinary clothing and pocket clutter need no entry. If a load becomes implausible, solve it in the fiction by stashing, sharing, carrying, or leaving something behind.
Weapons are verbs
A sword can cut and parry; a staff can brace and sweep; a bow can pin and signal. Weapon verbs invite creative action but do not guarantee success when risk still matters.
Ink, vellum, and a spellcaster's mark hold one inscribed ability in waiting. Reading the scroll releases that ability and consumes the scroll; pay any cost named by its creator.
A bounded pocket reality set apart from the ordinary world: perhaps one dark room, perhaps a flawless imitation of a castle. Its source defines how it opens, what persists there, and what can leave.
The loud, wrong-lit crossroads where worlds wear thin against one another. Each universe touches it through a guarded anchor or gateway whose form and destination belong to that world.
A lantern that strips borrowed faces away is more than treasure: a magic item grants exact permissions and carries exact limits. Its workings may stay mysterious until a hero studies it.
Montages with pressure
Trials, chases, and teamwork
A Trial compresses a complicated shared challenge into a sequence of distinct heroic actions. Use one when the whole party can contribute in different ways.
Name the danger
State what success achieves and what failure will change.
Set the race
Short Trial: 3 successes before 2 failures. Extended Trial: 5 before 3.
Take distinct actions
Each hero says how they help. Repeating the same approach requires a changed situation.
Resolve every beat
Apply each roll now, then update the scene before the next hero acts.
Counting results
Triumph and Success add one success. Haggle with Fate adds one success and its chosen price. Failure adds one failure and changes the immediate situation against the party. Catastrophe adds one failure and changes the terms of the Trial: close a route, split the group, shorten a clock, expose something precious, introduce a threat, or make a safe approach impossible. A Triumph may also clear a minor obstacle or grant a Knack to the next fitting action.
Helping
If a helper can meaningfully participate and accepts exposure to the same consequences, their help can grant a Knack. One lead hero rolls. In a Trial, each hero normally contributes their own distinct action instead.
Example of a Trial
The road closes
Crik has stolen the Lantern case, beginning a short Chase Trial: 3 successes before 2 failures. Mira tries to vault the crumbling wall and rolls a 1. The Catastrophe adds one failure, and the wall collapses across the road. The direct route is gone; the next hero must go through the wet woods, over the rubble, or somewhere unexpected. The Trial continues at 0 successes and 1 failure, but its terms have changed.
The Guide's chapter
Guide the game honestly and generously
The Guide says what the heroes can plainly perceive, portrays everyone they meet, and shows how the world responds. Give players enough truth to make informed choices, telegraph danger before it lands, and follow their decisions even when those decisions break the plan.
Say the obvious
Lead with what the heroes would certainly notice. Description creates decisions; it should not hide the doorway to them.
Protect the adventure, not the script
If a clever bargain skips a planned fight, celebrate it. Move the unanswered pressure somewhere new.
Never gate a necessary clue
If the heroes look in the right place or ask the right person, reveal it. Rolls decide cost, danger, or speed - not whether the story can continue.
Play wants, not hit-point totals
Every important NPC wants something now. Let that want decide whether they attack, bargain, flee, lie, or surrender.
Telegraph before consequence
Show the unstable bridge, the boss eyeing the window, or the spell gathering light. Consequences feel fair when players could respond.
Use the heroes' details
Put their communities, Ideals, Flaws, Dreams, Knacks, and abilities into scenes. Character creation is a request for future play.
The Guide's decision ladder
- Is the action possible?If not, explain what must change before it could work.
- Is the outcome obvious?If yes, say what happens without a roll.
- Would both success and setback be interesting?If no, choose the useful result and continue.
- Does a Knack or Trouble truly apply?Set the dice before the player rolls.
- What changes after this roll?Resolve the full intent once; never ask for an empty roll.
Fast NPCs
| Type | HP | Attack | How to play it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commoner | 2 HP | 1 damage | Yields, flees, or changes course when threatened. |
| Minion | 4 HP | 2 damage | Capable opposition; usually breaks when the scene turns. |
| Boss | 10 HP | 4 damage | A named threat with an agenda, a trick, and an escape plan. |
| Great threat | 16-24 HP | 4-6 damage | Use phases, exposed weaknesses, and changing terrain. |
Build an NPC in four lines
- Want: what they need right now.
- Tell: a behavior that reveals them.
- Trick: one permission that changes the scene.
- Break: what makes them flee, fold, or bargain.
NPC attacks
Roll NPC attacks in the open. Use the same result bands from the attacker's point of view. On Haggle with Fate, the targeted player chooses between half damage, rounded up, or a lesser positional effect offered by the Guide. NPCs do not roll against each other unless fate would add something worthwhile.
A fair menu of prices
Prep what can move
Build adventures from pressure
Prepare truths, people, and moving parts instead of a sequence the heroes must obey. Good prep makes improvisation easier because you know what changes when the party surprises you.
What kind of fun is on offer?
A tavern mystery, a desperate rescue, a magical expedition, a courtroom duel.
What worsens without action?
A rival escapes, a ward fails, a village turns on itself, a storm reaches shore.
What is really happening?
Write the answer in one sentence so clues remain consistent.
Who wants incompatible things?
Give every named NPC a want, a tell, and a line they will not cross.
What can the heroes use?
Prepare three sensory details and three interactive features for major scenes.
What changes the meaning?
A disguise falls, an ally confesses, the relic chooses someone, the obvious villain flees.
What can be won or saved?
Answer the immediate promise and show how the heroes changed the world.
What remains alive?
Leave one person, mystery, cost, or invitation pointing beyond the session.
Worked Briar Glen scene
The false faces at the Fox & Flagon
Truth Four goblins wear human glamours and Mayor Bellweather is hidden in the cellar.
Pressure Nib Knucklebone wants the Dawn Lantern, then the rear window.
Clues Someone names the Lantern too early; a claw print marks spilled flour; Pip refuses food from a “regular.”
Room Flour sacks, an iron chandelier, a stew pot, heavy tables, two exits.
Break Once Nib is trapped or Defeated, the remaining goblins fold or flee.
North Star Where are the Lantern, the Mayor, and the goblins - and what does each person want now?
Tune custom rules to Briarbound
Damage
Use 1 for incidental harm, 2 for a standard threat, 4 for a dangerous named threat, and 6+ only after a clear warning.
AP cost
0 is a repeatable permission; 1-2 is a strong turn; 3-4 changes a scene; 5-7 can bend an adventure or campaign.
New abilities
State trigger, target, range, duration, cost, and exact effect. If it rolls, write a useful outcome for every result band.
At-the-table reference
Rulings that stay consistent
When the table needs an answer quickly, use these priorities and return to the fiction.
Current Briarbound core rules
Outcome names, nonlethal defeat, Pillars, advancement, and the procedures in this book establish the play standard.
Current explicit ability text
A specific permission overrides a general procedure for that use.
Established fiction
Use what the table already knows about the scene, people, and world.
A fair Guide ruling
State the ruling, apply it consistently for the scene, and revisit after play if needed.
Conditions are fictional
Hidden, exposed, pinned, burning, dazed, charmed, silenced, and similar conditions mean what they plainly say. They last until their cause ends, a hero takes a sensible action to clear them, or specific text gives another duration. A condition can change what is possible, grant a Knack, create Trouble, or demand an action; it does not add an unlisted numeric modifier.
TurnMove + one thing
Resisted attackAlways roll
Unarmed1 damage
Common weapon2 damage
TriumphDouble damage dealt by the roll
RegroupIf lower, raise HP to half max
Full restRestore all HP
0 HPIncapacitated
Session end+5 AP, +1 ability, +1 Pillar point
Glossary
- Ability
- A specific heroic permission. Activated abilities may cost AP; Passive abilities are always on.
- Adventure Points (AP)
- A spendable resource used to activate powerful abilities. They do not refresh on a rest.
- Defeated
- An NPC at 0 HP, removed from the conflict by surrender, flight, capture, or unconsciousness.
- Guide
- The player who frames the world, portrays NPCs, and creates fair consequences.
- Haggle with Fate
- A 6-10 result: success with a meaningful player-chosen price.
- Home Pillar
- The Pillar attached to a hero's Role. Another Role in it is a 1-point reach-across.
- Incapacitated
- A hero at 0 HP who cannot take normal turns until healing or Regroup raises them above 0 HP.
- Knack
- Relevant experience that lets a player roll 2d20 and keep the higher result.
- Earned Pillar points
- Every point awarded to the hero in that Pillar. Earned never decreases.
- Committed Pillar points
- The points currently reserved by the hero's reach-across abilities.
- Available Pillar points
- Earned minus Committed: the amount still open for another reach-across pick.
- Rank
- The number of abilities learned in the hero's own Role after creation.
- Tier
- The Vault-computed power band used for cross-Pillar commitments. It is based on peak AP cost, with special rules for Passives and Legendary abilities; it is not path position.
- Path position
- An ability's order within its named learning path. Earlier positions are prerequisites for later ones.
- Reach-across
- Using a session's ability choice to learn the first ability of another Role's path by committing Pillar points. It does not raise Rank.
- Scene
- A continuous situation in one place or around one immediate question.
- Trouble
- A personal flaw that, when it interferes, makes a player roll 2d20 and keep the lower.
Legacy conversion
Converting older Briarbound material
Existing heroes and adventures remain usable. Apply this short conversion once, then use only the current Vault and this rulebook.
Success remains true; the player chooses a meaningful price.
Difficulty alone never creates Trouble.
Heroes at 0 HP are Incapacitated; NPCs are Defeated. Lethal narration requires the group's explicit agreement.
Use current path order, Rank, Pillar points, and Vault tiers.
Page numbers are obsolete. Search the Vault for the named ability, or use this glossary.
When an ability asks for cards, write its four named options on ordinary slips or notes.