Dart Rats

A rules-light tabletop RPG from Calgary, AB.

Drag Darts · Do Drugs · Don't Die

You are a shitty garbage creature (rat, raccoon, or pigeon) whose entire cosmology is stealing cigarettes from humans. Smoke six and you ascend. That's the whole game.

Roll a shitty buddy How it works

Ink drawing of an adorable, earnest rat. Art by RKV.

Roll a shitty buddy

Every shitty buddy starts the same way: badly.

Step one · the species: roll a d6, or just fucking pick

Rat

d6 · 1–2

Ink drawing of a rat standing upright, holding an unlit cigarette like a ritual object. Art by RKV.

+2 Reflex · −1 Rage · HP d6+Guts
Too shitty to die · Just a lil guy

A damp miracle of spite and fleas.

Pigeon

d6 · 3–4

+2 Reflex · −1 Instinct · HP d6+Guts
Gravity's ongoing failure · Dumb as fuck

Flying trash, with thoughts (question mark).

Raccoon

d6 · 5–6

+1 Rage · +1 Guts · +1 Instinct · HP d8+Guts
Trash hands · Kinda fat though

Shitty little hands, no morals.

The dice pick one of the three above (d6), a name off the d20 tables, and a nest that sets your starting kit. You'll probably die, but you'll have fun doing it.

Build the full sheet ↗

Real rulebook data: abilities, problems, and the fine print live on The Game. If one of these idiots speaks to you, the builder saves the full sheet (QR code and all).

Nobody yet.
Roll one up.

Scavenge

The city provides, reluctantly.

Everything you own came out of a bin, and some of it is load-bearing. Dig around long enough and the city coughs up a weapon, a tool, or something you probably shouldn't touch. Every pull is a real roll off the loot tables.

Nothing yet. The bin awaits.

A hand-drawn object pulled from the trash. Art by RKV. — The bin

Survive something stupid

The city is full of things that want you dead, and the rulebook is not on your side.

When it gets truly bad, there's always the gamble: read a Profane Passage. Survive the reading and a random spell tears out of you. Fail, and the rulebook is blunt about it: you die. Immediately. No save.

d20 vs DR 12 · fail → you die

Six darts to ascension

Burn all six and your shitty buddy wins, permanently, and leaves the table a legend.

The dart counter: a hand-drawn cigarette that burns down as darts are smoked. Art by RKV.

0 / 6 darts

“Vilified in ascension. Hallowed in repugnant release.”

Pick your poison

Get the Field Guide

The zine. Rules, spells, loot tables, art you can smell. First print run drops at Dungeon Fest.