Ride Off

The Hero’s horse has run off just when she’s about ready to ride off into the sunset. Since she saved your hide, you need to go chase down the elusive steed so The Hero can have her proper exit.

Goal

You and your friends want to repay The Hero for saving you from losing your life, so you vow to go fetch her horse. You’ll feel great when you get to wave her off into the sunset; otherwise, you’ll feel terrible.

Materials

• 6d6 per player
• Optionally, a timer or clock to measure how long The Hero will wait

Character Creation

Your character sucks at everything (you did have to be rescued, after all), so there are no rules for character creation. Instead, gather six (6) 6-sided (d6) dice to represent your action pool, your health, and the game’s timer.

Rules

If you have a timer, set it after explaining the rules and gathering dice. When the timer runs out, The Hero will leave regardless of whether the players have brought back her horse yet.

Doing Stuff

By Yourself

Whenever something a player does something where the outcome isn’t certain, the player needs to roll at least one die. Results of a single die roll are listed below

Roll Value	Result
1	the player failed to do the thing and has been injured in the process, losing a die from his or her die pool
2	the player failed to do the thing but has suffered no other penalty
3, 4, 5	the player somehow succeeds
6	the player miraculously succeeds and should receive some extra reward such as a a better outcome and/or pausing the timer for 6 seconds or more.

If a player wants to push his luck, he can roll multiple dice from his pool with the following caveats:

• If at least one die is a 6, the action ultimately succeeds
• Otherwise, if there are more 3’s, 4’s and 5’s than 1’s and 2’s, the action succeeds
• However, if there are more 1’s and 2’s, the action fails
• Regardless of the outcome, all 1’s are lost

With Others

Other players can also assist and add their dice to the roll. Their dice follow the same rules as the caveats above and can therefore lose dice on 1’s.

Results

Whatever the result of a dice roll is, remember that the character is terrible at everything, so both success and failure are random, and the described outcomes should similarly be due to random things at least some of the time (e.g., a guard walks around the corner as the player tries to pick a lock)

Losing Health and Dying

If a player’s dice pool ever reaches 0, that player can’t make any rolls or take any actions. This can be for various reason, such as the character is dead or overcome with fright or so uptight about The Hero not waiting that he can’t do anything. However, any other player, at any time, can give the player with 0 dice a single die to represent helping him along.

Ending the Game

The game ends whenever you want it to, but two natural stopping points are

• The characters successfully return The Hero’s horse and watch her ride off into the sunset, and
• All of the characters run out of dice (and probably die)

If the timer goes off during play, the game doesn’t end; however, when the characters come back with the horse, The Hero is gone. Whether the players keep the horse, try and track down the hero, or do something else entirely is up to the players.

Scenario Ideas

Your setting can be anything, and the horse doesn’t have to be an actual horse. You also don’t necessarily have to go on a fetch quest to get The Hero’s horse; The Hero could be mortally wounded and need medical help, for instance. The game is written as though you’re going to fetch a horse, but substitute in the appropriate thing as needed.