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 been updated digitally, but I'm still waiting for the print proof before I enable the print-on-demand version (there were a few issues with the first proof, but I've already placed another order, so it should go live in a couple of weeks).

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.