Dominion Rules is a simple yet comprehensive rules system for historical and fantasy roleplaying. Based entirely on the 12-sided die, DR features elegant game-play and fresh approaches to familiar concepts such as combat, magic and religion.
DR is free to download from this web site. Just click here. You can also buy a print version from Lulu by clicking here.
Features of Dominion Rules 3.1
Exciting combat
Combat in Dominion Rules is designed to be more exciting than in traditional RPGs. Rather than endlessly bludgeoning each other to death, combatants in DR strike, parry, feint and dodge in battles that are as challenging to players’ minds as they are to their characters’ bodies.
While death is always a possible result of combat in DR, killing or being killed is not the only way a DR battle can end. Combat usually ends with one side defeated rather than killed. Whether the victor then makes a killing blow is up to you.
A better approach to priestcraft
In some RPGs, priestly characters are really just magicians under another name. Not so in Dominion Rules. Priests in DR channel the divine powers of their deities to smite their enemies, bless their allies, heal the sick and even work miracles. But priests must take care to remain in favour with their gods. An unhappy deity may forsake his priest, leaving him powerless.
Spell-based and free-form witchcraft
Magic in Dominion Rules is more than just casting spells you read out of a rules book. While DR includes over a hundred pre-made spells for players to use, Witches are encouraged to make up new spells, even on the spur of the moment. Players do this by invoking one or more of the eight provinces of magic: Alchemy, Arcana, Conjuring, Enchantment, Hex, Illusion, Sorcery, and Summoning.
Magic in DR is unstable. Those who risk meddling with it may pay the price when their spells backfire with disastrous—and sometimes hilarious—results.
Flexible beast rules
Dominion Rules offers players all the tools they need to create beasts of all kinds: mythical monsters, ghostly apparitions, fairy tale creatures, ordinary animals, humanoid character races and more. Players create such beasts using over 50 beast skills such as Bite, Claw, Clutch, Constrict, Gore, Hurl, Spit Venom and more.
Works in a variety of game settings
Dominion Rules is designed to work in a variety of historical and fantasy game settings, known as dominions. If you want to play in a traditional fantasy setting, DR gives you the tools to do so. But if you want a historical setting, or a low-fantasy setting, or some other style of play, DR can easily be adapted. Just include the rules that fit your dominion and ignore the ones that don’t.
Free and open
DR is free to download (just click here) and is released under the open gaming Dominion Rules Licence.