Updates to Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics

There's been a lot of feedback and questions about Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics since I first published them, and I've collected all the comments with the intent of eventually updating the books. With the DriveThruRPG print prices going up again in February (and this time, I needed to raise my prices as well), I thought it would be a good time to update both books.

Note that Tricube Tactics has not yet been updated, as there were a few issues with the first print proof, but I've already placed another order, so it should go live in a couple of weeks. However, I'll list the changes for both products below.

Tricube Tales

The Tricube Tales rules have not changed, so you can still use the old books. However, I wanted to clarify a few things, particularly sections that have caused confusion over the years. I also improved the color saturation on the cover and made a few other cosmetic improvements.

• Changed the color of the headings to blue/purple to match the cover (in the same way that Tricube Tactics has red headings).
• Changed the dice symbols from outline to filled versions (easier to read, and consistent with other products)
• General proofreading and minor grammar and punctuation corrections.
• Cover: Added the text "Core Rulebook" underneath the illustration.
• Page 2: Set the version to 5, updated the copyright date, and updated the credits to use Rick Hershey's new art company name.
• Page 3: Removed the blank line under "Contents" and added "Examples" under "Characters".
• Page 4: Changed "Drive Thru RPG" to "DriveThruRPG", and for layout reasons changed "promoted" to "introduced".
• Page 7: Changed "narrate the outcome" to "narrate the story and NPC actions"
• Page 8: Rephrased the example to use the term "challenge", to use "easy" and "standard" for difficulties, to clarify that you lose a die when the challenge falls outside the scope of your concept, and make it clear that using a magic-themed perk doesn't change the trait.
• Page 20: Rephrased the "Challenges" section to clarify a few points of confusion.
• Page 21-24: Rephrased to include a specific section on Exceptional Success. Also rephrased "Afflictions" to make it more concise, and "Recovery" to clarify what causes permanent afflictions.
• Page 26: Rephrased "Resolution" to clarify that during combat, players only lose resolve on a failed defense roll.
• Page 28: The "Archetypes" section now explicitly references page numbers and the "Combat Styles" section.
• Page 29: The "Combat Styles" section clarifies that combat styles apply to both attacking and defending.
• Page 31: Very slight rephrasing of the "Perks" section on page 31.
• Page 32-33: Rephrased "A Deeper Look" and clarified that spending karma to automatically bypass a challenge also applies if the challenge uses effort tokens, also changed the example perk on page 33 to better fit the described usage.
• Page 34: Rephrased "Another Perspective" to clarify that it doesn't cost karma if you're only using a perk to flavor the narrative.
• Page 35: Rephrased "Stacking Perks" to clarify that it doesn't let you lower the difficulty more than once.
• Page 36: The "Quirks" now clarifies that you can't use both a quirk and an affliction for the same roll.
• Page 54: Corrected typo "Manueverable vehicle" to "Maneuverable vehicle"

Tricube Tactics

The combat supplement has mostly undergone clarifications as well, although one new addition is ballistic armor, which is treated as light cover against firearms (technically, it's always been up to the GM to decide if something is "light cover", so this isn't exactly a new rule, but more of an official interpretation of an existing mechanic).

There is a change in terminology, though: "threat range" is now called "melee reach". You use the ranged combat style to make ranged attacks with ranged weapons against opponents at short, medium, or long range -- and you use the melee combat style to make melee attacks with melee weapons against opponents within your threat range melee reach. It feels more consistent now.

Other than that, the changes were mostly just minor tweaks and/or clarifications of how things already worked (or were supposed to work).

• Tablet PDF had a low-resolution cover image, fixed. Also changed the layers to be consistent with Tricube Tales.
• General proofreading and minor grammar, punctuation, and alignment corrections
• Replaced all instances of "threat range" with "melee reach" (pages 25, 52, 55, 56, 58, 63, 65, 75, 78, 95, 98, 99, 100, 103, 113)
• Replace two references to NPCs losing resolve with NPCs losing effort (pages 38 and 73)
• Page 2: Update the copyright notice and version number, added a mention of the Discord server, and changed "Legalese" to a minor heading to be consistent with Tricube Tales
• Page 12-14 and 18: Sorted subtraits and substyles into alphabetical order.
• Page 14: Where it says "This trait is split into the following" for Melee, Ranged, and Mental, replaced "trait" with "style"
• Page 16: Added a "(see page 92)" to the end of the "Buffs & Summonings" section.
• Page 30: Rephrased "Aim" to clarify that it also applies to mental attacks and resist, not just ranged attacks and evade.
• Page 32: Rephrased "stand" to clarify that it's a swift action if you're unarmored and NOT encumbered. Rephrased "Recover" so that you can perform it outside your turn if a knack lets you recover as a swift action. Rephrased "Retreat" to make space for the rephrased recover.
• Page 37: Rephrased the page to add a section about ballistic armor.
• Page 41: Clarified that you can attack foes in the same zone without engaging them in close combat, if your melee reach exceeds theirs.
• Page 44: Clarified that you can attack foes in the immediate range band without engaging them in close combat, if your melee reach exceeds theirs.
• Page 51: Rephrased the "Attack Range" section to clarify that small ranged weapons lose their short range bonus when used within the target's melee reach. The "Attack Range" subsection is now called "Reach Versus Range".
• Page 56: Updated "Short range" to clarify that it doesn't apply when within your target's melee reach; rephrased "Vulnerable" to make space for the extra wording.
• Page 57: Removed the vague comment about thin obstacles and added "Ballistic armor offers the wearer light cover against firearms (see page 67)." and "Anyone engaged in close combat who isn’t “vulnerable” has at least light cover."
• Page 61: Mentioned that you can stand as a swift action if unarmored and NOT encumbered
• Page 62: removed extraneous space at the beginning of the last line of the first paragraph
• Page 67: Updated the "firearms" section to mention that ballistic armor is treated as light cover against firearms.
• Page 68: Made "collateral damage" bold for emphasis, making it easier to spot at a glance.
• Page 69: Rephrased incendiary weapons, they now cause collateral damage on a roll of 5 or less (instead of always).
• Page 72: In the last sentence, replaced "reduce the challenge difficulty" with "adjust the challenge difficulty", as you will either reduce or increase the difficulty depending on whether the NPC is attacking or defending.
• Page 77-79: Rearranged the minions section, and added a "Fallen Leaders" section, describing how players can continue using their minions if their PC is killed or incapacitated. Rephrased the first paragraph of "Melee Reach" within the "Minions" section, as the wording was a bit awkward with the new "melee reach" terminology.
• Page 78: Clarify that if you use the retreat action, then your minions also use retreat
• Page 82: Rephrased the first paragraph of "Instant Death" to make it clearer that the roll is for the affliction you just received
• Page 86: Replaced reference to "melee combat" with "close combat" (I used to mix these two terms up during early drafts, and it looks like I missed one when I finally settled on close combat).
• Page 104: Added an example showing that a monster's perception is treated as the difficulty for stealth challenges

Putrid Politicians (Tricube Tales)

I've been a little slow on the Tricube Tales micro-settings recently, as I'm spending most of my free time updating the core Tricube Tales rulebook and the Tricube Tactics supplement to incorporate feedback and errata I've collected over the last few years. However, I did manage to release a new one-pager last month.

I've published several Tricube Tales scenarios in the past where you play as the villains, ranging from goblin mafia and evil henchmen to insane cultists and otherworldly horrors. But this time, I wanted to take things a step further and explore the worst of the worst, the most vile and self-serving villains of all. So in this Tricube Tales one-page RPG, you play as...Putrid Politicians!

I decided to go with a suitably nasty color scheme of bubblegum pink and vomit green, which also required some tweaking to the stock art illustration. The man in the illustration has an egg in one hand, which I originally planned to reference in an adventure example with a nod to "The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs" (but I kind of forgot).

However, the example adventures do include a reference to the One-Eyed Warrior, who is a human deity from Saga of the Goblin Horde, and the humorous fantasy theme would definitely lend itself toward a crossover with that setting.

Two Savage Worlds luck-themed house rules: Lucky Break and Karmic Balance

I've had Savage Worlds on the mind lately, after watching a few YouTube videos about it, and I'm struggling to finish my latest micro-setting for Fast! Furious! Fun! February! So I thought I'd take the time to describe a couple of house rule ideas in a blog post as my #FFFFebruary2026 backup plan.

The theme of this year's Fast! Furious! Fun! February! creator jam is "Can you hear me now?" (give a voice to the disenfranchised), so these two new rules are designed to help players who feel they are suffering at the hands of fate (and bad dice rolls), giving them more control over their luck, both good and bad!

Those familiar with my other projects may recognize my source of inspiration, but I feel the same ideas would also work really well in Savage Worlds.

Lucky Break

Players can spend a Benny to add 1 to the final total of any Trait roll. They make this decision after rolling the dice and calculating the total (meaning the player doesn't need to spend the Benny unless they know it will make a difference). No more than 1 Benny can be spent this way for each Trait roll, and the bonus must be applied after any rerolls.

If the player doesn't have any Bennies, or isn't willing to spend them, they may instead ask the GM to introduce a complication to the scene. This is always at the GM's discretion, but player input and creative suggestions should be encouraged, and the complication should drive the story forward in an interesting way.

Goal

This rule lets players nudge the roll a little, so if they nearly succeeded, they can turn their failure into a "success at cost" or "success with a complication". It can also turn a normal success into a raise.

This also helps counter the probability glitch introduced by exploding dice without needing to change any of the core mechanics (which was a downside of the fudge dice solution I've proposed in the past). For example:

• Rolling d4-2: A 18.75% chance of success now increases to 25% when spending a Benny (or accepting a complication) for a +1 bonus.
• Rolling d6-2: A 16.67% chance of success now increases to 33.33% when spending a Benny (or accepting a complication) for a +1 bonus.

While the base roll still suffers from the glitch (i.e., d4-2 is more likely to succeed than d6-2), applying +1 to the total pushes d6-2 way ahead of d4-2 -- and even if the player has run out of Bennies, they can always ask for a complication.

Karmic Balance

If a player has 1 or fewer Bennies remaining, and one of their Minor Hindrances gives them a penalty to the Trait roll, they receive a Benny. Major Hindrance work the same, except they apply when the player has 2 or fewer Bennies. If multiple Hindrances apply to the same roll, the player still only receives 1 Benny.

If none of the player's Hindrances give a penalty to the Trait roll, but the player can narratively justify why one might hinder them in this situation, they may opt to apply either a -2 penalty (for a Minor Hindrance) or a -4 penalty (for a Major Hindrance) to their Trait roll. This allows them to gain a Benny as described in the previous paragraph.

Goal

This rule gives players a way to recover Bennies during play without relying on the GM, but only when they're running low (so it won't let them build a huge pile of Bennies). It also differentiates between Minor and Major Hindrances.

#FFFFebruary2026 logo by Chuhan
https://www.fiverr.com/chuhan14

Random musings: The Unicube RPG System

On my Discord server, the user Devourerofworlds expressed an interest in having a system even simpler than Tricube Tales, with the caveat that it should still be compatible with the micro-settings.

After a good five minutes of thought, here's my proposal: The Unicube system!

Each player selects a concept, a perk, and a quirk from those listed in the micro-setting. There are no traits, karma, or resolve, so ignore that part.

The GM assigns challenges a difficulty of 3 (easy), 4 (standard), or 5 (hard), taking into account the player's concept as well as any other factors. The player must equal or exceed the difficulty with a single d6 roll.

Players may use their perk once per session to retroactively lower the difficulty of the roll by 1. They may use their quirk once per session to increase the difficulty by 1 before rolling; this recharges their perk, allowing them to use their perk a second time in the current session.

That's it. Wounds and death are handled through the narrative, as and when situationally appropriate.

Tricube Tales sales figures for 2025

As has become my yearly tradition, I'd like to share the Tricube Tales sales figures for 2025. You can also view the figures for previous years here if you're interested: 2019/2020/2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Total Sales per Month

Here are the total number of unit sales for the entire product line this year:

• Jan 2025: 1744 sales
• Feb 2025: 1247 sales
• Mar 2025: 1441 sales
• Apr 2025: 979 sales
• May 2025: 1292 sales
• Jun 2025: 1285 sales
• Jul 2025: 1562 sales
• Aug 2025: 1246 sales
• Sep 2025: 1417 sales
• Oct 2025: 912 sales
• Nov 2025: 960 sales
• Dec 2025: 1336 sales

Breakdown by Product

Here is a breakdown of the total sales figures for the main products:

• Tricube Tales: 3364 sales (inc. 774 print copies) since 2019-11-08
• Solo Rules & Deck: 2116 sales (311 printed decks) since 2021-05-14
• Tricube Tactics: 776 sales (183 print copies) since 2024-11-08

And here are their associated print-only products:

• Tricube Tales Micro Edition: 70 print sales since 2023-05-20
• Tricube Tales Solo Rules: 113 print sales since 2023-03-07
• Tricube Tactics Rules Primer: 23 print sales since 2024-12-12

These are the "payment optional" one-pagers on DTRPG (in order of publication) -- people can download them for free, but I'm only tracking actual sales where people paid for them:

• Goblin Gangsters: 1289 sales since 2020-08-27
• Samhain Slaughter: 1326 sales since 2020-10-08
• Chrome Shells & Neon Streets: 1467 sales since 2020-11-21
• Metahuman Uprising: 1385 sales since 2020-12-28
• Rotten Odds: 1314 sales since 2021-01-31
• Tales of the Goblin Horde: 1308 sales since 2021-04-01
• Wardens of the Weird West: 1368 sales since 2021-06-12
• Firefighters: 1282 sales since 2021-07-06
• Horrible Henchmen: 1268 sales since 2021-08-13
• Pirates of the Bone Blade: 1339 sales since 2021-09-15
• Eldritch Detectives: 1428 sales since 2021-10-30
• Wiseguys: Gangster Tales: 1224 sales since 2021-11-20
• Interstellar Mech War: 1352 sales since 2021-11-30
• Voyage to the Isle of Skulls: 1226 sales since 2021-12-31
• Down in the Depths: 1130 sales since 2022-01-24
• Accursed: Dark Tales of Morden: 697 sales since 2022-02-17
• Twisted Wishes: 1128 sales since 2022-02-23
• A Welsh Werewolf in Llanfair PG: 1186 sales since 2022-04-01
• Interstellar Smugglers: 1286 sales since 2022-05-04
• Winter Eternal: Darkness and Ice: 1037 sales since 2022-05-17
• Sharp Knives & Dark Streets: 1183 sales since 2022-05-31
• Summer Camp Slayers: 1109 sales since 2022-06-28
• Titan Effect RPG: Covert Tales: 1081 sales since 2022-07-20
• Sundered Chains: 1021 sales since 2022-08-07
• Stranger Tales: 1060 sales since 2022-10-06
• Minerunners: 1003 sales since 2022-11-01
• Spellrunners: 1060 sales since 2022-11-22
• Christmas Capers: 986 sales since 2022-12-18
• Heroes of Sherwood Forest: 967 sales since 2023-01-28
• Tales of the Little Adventurers: 905 sales since 2023-02-19
• Tales of the City Guard: 918 sales since 2023-03-26
• Maidenstead Mysteries: 880 sales since 2023-04-19
• Interstellar Rebels: 924 sales since 2023-05-04
• Hunters of Victorian London: 858 sales since 2023-05-29
• Stone Age Hunters: 811 sales since 2023-06-23
• Paths Between the Stars: 832 sales since 2023-07-01
• Mythical Heroes: 776 sales since 2023-09-15
• Academy of Monstrous Secrets: 722 sales since 2023-10-29
• Eldritch Apocalypse: 735 sales since 2023-12-07
• Champions of Osiris: 644 sales since 2024-01-27
• Conniving Cat Burglars: 709 sales since 2024-04-01
• Tales of the Sewer Samurai: 601 sales since 2024
• Champions of Fenrir: 548 sales since 2024-07-01
• Ghost Banishers: 515 sales since 2024-10-10
• Vermilium: Tales of the Wildwood: 370 sales since 2025-01-30
• Eldritch Cultists: 338 sales since 2025-02-13
• Metal Gods of the Apocalypse: 289 sales since 2025-02-26
• Tomb Guardians: 290 sales since 2025-03-20
• Rabbit Tales: 261 sales since 2025-04-11
• Sylvan Sentinels: 210 sales since 2025-06-17
• Wicked Dreams: 254 sales since 2025-06-22
• Specters of Locksworth: 180 sales since 2025-06-26
• Road Hogs: 159 sales since 2025-07-27
• Arcane Resurrection: 98 sales since 2025-10-11
• Starbreaker: Tales From the Rim: 65 sales since 2025-12-02

These are the DTRPG freebies (in order of publication). A few free products help build up my mailing list. However, since I've added a print-on-demand option, they now have a few sales as well:

• Interstellar Bounty Hunters: 5339 downloads (41 print sales) since 2020-09-29
• Welcome to Drakonheim: 3671 downloads (29 print sales) since 2021-03-10
• Interstellar Troopers: 4734 downloads (39 print sales) since 2021-04-26
• Interstellar Laser Knights: 4395 downloads (37 print sales) since 2021-05-04

I also have a few freebies on Itch, which I entered into Jams. Here they are, once again listed in order of publication -- and these now have some print-on-demand sales as well:

• The Fools Who Follow: 1284 downloads since 2020-07-29
• Deep Trouble in Oldport Bay: 854 downloads since 2021-02-20
• Halfling Hustlers: 428 downloads since 2021-07-03
• Guardians of the Shadow Frontier: 1200 downloads since 2021-07-31
• Interstellar Explorers: 838 downloads since 2022-08-02
• Arcane Agents: 404 downloads since 2023-08-15
• Troll Couriers of the Sky Isles: 552 downloads since 2024-08-01
• The Wyrms That Turned: 160 downloads since 2025-08-17

Sales for the printed versions of the character cards have continued to be very slow:

• Minerunners (cards): 22 print sales since 2023-03-07
• Sharp Knives & Dark Streets (cards): 26 print sales since 2023-03-07
• Spellrunners (cards): 24 print sales since 2023-03-07
• Christmas Capers (cards): 13 print sales since 2024-12-12
• Eldritch Apocalypse (cards): 17 print sales since 2024-12-12
• Interstellar Rebels (cards): 14 print sales since 2024-12-12

I'd like to offer print versions of some of the Tricube Tactics character cards as well, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. While the cards don't sell very well, I love being able to hand them out when running games.

Some Thoughts

The overall sales figures continue to climb, with new releases driving sales to the older ones. Last year, 13 of the one-pagers had reached Platinum Best Seller (1001+ sales). This year, that number has doubled, with 26 one-pagers reaching Platinum Best Seller (although they're still years away from the 2501 needed for Mithral).

Accursed: Dark Tales of Morden would very likely have reached Platinum Best Seller as well by now, but it's one of the collaborative one-pagers I published through someone else, and they've had the entire setting line set to "private" for over a year now, which is a big shame. This loss of control over the fate of my work is definitely a risk when collaborating with other publishers (it's a similar situation to selling through most Community Content Programs, I guess, although at least in this situation, I still retain the rights to my work, and I could, in theory, file the serial numbers off and republish it myself).

In terms of genre popularity, the five top sellers are the same as last year: Chrome Shells & Neon Streets (cyberpunk) maintains the top spot with 1467 sales, followed by Eldritch Detectives (supernatural horror) with 1428 sales, Metahuman Uprising (superheroes) with 1385 sales, Wardens of the Weird West (weird western) with 1368 sales, and Interstellar Mech War (science fiction) with 1352 sales.

I often see people comparing DriveThruRPG with Itch, and I think it's quite interesting to use the one-pagers for such comparisons, as they're the same style of product. I've observed before that I get far more free downloads on DriveThruRPG than I do on Itch, but comparing the two again now, it even looks like I get more purchases on DriveThruRPG than I get free downloads on Itch!

That said, DriveThruRPG is far more selective when running site-wide sales these days, and they rarely include any of my products (due to my low prices). They've also raised the threshold for Deal of the Day to around $5, which means that despite having enough PPP to run a couple of Deals of the Day, I don't have any products expensive enough to submit. This is something I will need to address in the future, because I'm losing out on a lot of the promotional tools I used in the past.

In December last year, The Dungeon Dive posted a video about Tricube Tales, and the sales that month skyrocketed to the point where I was able to reach the requirements for a new "Tricube Tales" Game System filter on DriveThruRPG. This was a milestone I'd been working toward for a while, so I was very excited to finally reach it.

Tricube Tactics hasn't proven overly popular, but it was really designed to fill a need (offering a solution to those who wanted deeper combat and/or more mechanical support for character advancement in their Tricube Tales games), and I think it's succeeded. It was never intended to replace the base system, just broaden the target audience, and provide me the tools I needed for some of my own future projects (like converting the Saga of the Goblin Horde setting, which is still on my TODO list).

However, three of the one-pagers have also offered tie-in adventures using Tricube Tactics. The first (and main one) is Tomb Guardians, which comes with a 2-page adventure specifically designed for Tricube Tactics and a 12-page example playthrough showing how to run such a game. The other two are Sylvan Sentinels and Arcane Resurrection, both of which include adventures that can be run either with or without Tricube Tactics. All three micro-settings include Tricube Tactics character cards (although these can still be run with just Tricube Tales, by ignoring the knacks, minions, etc). The Tomb Guardians character cards even include gameplay advice on the back for each character.

What's Next?

I've not made much progress on my major projects this year. I've expanded my notes for Saga of the Goblin Horde, Tricube Terrors, and Tricube Toolbox (formerly known as Tricube Tricks), but I need to push myself to take at least one of them to the next step.

I'm also thinking of updating Tricube Tales and Tricube Tactics with some minor errata (no rule changes, just some slight adjustments to clarify certain things). I don't generally like updating products once people have bought them in print, but I think as long as I don't change any rules, it's probably not too bad.

I'm also toying with the idea of expanding two of the one-pagers (Goblin Gangsters and Tales of the Goblin Horde). I generally try to avoid doing this, but with my plans to convert Saga of the Goblin Horde (and perhaps The Gobfather) to Tricube Tales, I think it would be beneficial to have promotional one-pagers that include adventures to help promote those settings.

Of course, I'll also continue releasing new one-pagers! There's the expanded traditional fantasy micro-setting I discussed recently, but I've also been putting together some ideas for an ETU/Buffy-inspired one-pager for a while, and that's something I'd like to publish in 2026.

I ran three Tricube Tales games for my local TTRPG community earlier this year, which was a fun experience. I've also run a few online games for various people. I don't do this for marketing purposes, but because I enjoy it! However, I'd like to run some more this year, particularly using Tricube Tactics.

Musings on an expanded Tricube Tales fantasy scenario

Something I've wanted to create for a long time is a fairly traditional fantasy scenario with adventurers roaming the land, taking on various jobs. Of course, there are already several fantasy one-pagers for Tricube Tales, but their settings are all rather quirky, and I'd like something more vanilla.

Having recently been playing a lot of The Witcher 3, I've got a good feel for the sort of jobs the heroes might take on (and honestly, it's not that different from various novels I've read or TV shows I've watched, where people post jobs on notice boards and members of the "adventurers guild" complete them for rewards).

However, I really want this to be an expanded product, with three Six-Scene Scenarios (one set in a town, one in the wilderness, and one in a dungeon).

I had originally planned to split it into a trilogy of three separate one-page RPGs, one for urban adventures, one for wilderness, and one for dungeons, meaning each would come with its own Six-Scene Scenario. They could even be combined into a single product (like I did for Champions of Fenrir and Champions of Osiris), or released as separate products in the same series (like I did for Eldritch Detectives, Eldritch Apocalypse, and Eldritch Cultists -- or Twisted Wishes, Sundered Chains, and Wicked Dreams). But unlike those other settings, these fantasy adventures all follow the same characters in the same time and place, so I worry that it would feel very repetitive to offer them as three one-pagers.

The second option would be to adjust the layout and add another adventure generator table on the right-hand side, like this:

The problem is there's not enough space for three tables, so I'd need to combine the wilderness and dungeon adventures, which isn't really ideal when they have separate Six-Scene Scenarios. It also means there would be two pages of adventure examples, so I'd be left with a blank page I'd have to use for something else.

The third option would be to have a standard adventure generator for urban adventures, then offer two alternative location tables for dungeon and wilderness adventures, like this:

The GM would then roll 3d6 for the adventure as normal, but they could pick one of the three location tables depending on where they want the adventure to take place. There would then be three pages of example adventures, meaning the one-page RPG and its adventure examples would fit onto two double-sided sheets of paper.

Of course, each page would share the same objective and complication tables, and although I could offer different examples for each, the table entries would still need to be phrased fairly generically in order to fit all three location types. Making them too generic risks stripping the table of flavor.

But the more I think about it, the less comfortable I am with the idea of having an entire double-sided sheet of paper with just adventure examples on both sides. I like having the entire game and all the adventure examples on a single sheet of paper; it keeps the product concise, and if you're running a one-shot, you don't really need too many examples anyway. Even if you want to run more adventures, the examples are supposed to be for inspiration; they're not intended to cover every possible situation.

That brings me on to the fourth option, which is to design a simple one-page RPG in the same style as all the others, with a regular adventure generator that includes a mixture of urban, wilderness, and dungeon locations. There would still be three Six-Scene Scenarios covering urban, wilderness, and dungeon adventures, and I could also offer another sheet with an example town (much like I did for Sharp Knives & Dark Streets), which would include a map and expanded locations in and around the town.

After all this, I think I'm favoring the fourth option. As much as I'd like to expand the one-pager format and experiment with different setups, I still want the core product to fit onto a single sheet of paper (otherwise I'd be better off turning it into a book). The first page is really the "one-page RPG", as it contains everything needed to play, and the second page (i.e., the back of the sheet) includes examples for each entry in the adventure generator table.

Starbreaker: Tales From the Rim (Tricube Tales)

The latest Tricube Tales one-page RPG is another collaborative effort, this time with Brandon Verhalen of Star Anvil Studios. Starbreaker: Tales From the Rim is a Tricube Tales adaptation of Starbreaker-SAINTs and Synners Core, a setting that Brandon originally wrote for Savage Worlds.

This was quite a tough one to adapt, due to the large amount of content in the setting book. Starbreaker offers a large number of playable species, and I couldn't fit them all into the smaller format, let alone give them full descriptions, so I went for a very concise approach and included just seven species (including human) with two or three descriptive words for each.

Much like Vermilium: Tales of the Wildwood, which focused on a specific region of the world, I decided to focus on a specific planet, so the entire scenario takes place on the mining world of Echo. Even then, there are a lot of regions described in the book that I couldn't cover, so I decided to use the example locations on the second page to flesh out six major places.

There are also many enemy factions in Starbreaker, and I tried to tie several of them into the adventure examples on the second page, using both the mission objectives and the complications to reference different organizations the players might deal with.

Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out. Even though the reader would benefit greatly from owning the full setting, the one-pager provides enough information for someone to run a few quick games.