If you’re new to Adventure Master or tabletop adventure roleplaying games in general, this section goes through the basics.
About Adventure Master
Adventure Master is a classic tabletop fantasy roleplaying game where players create brave adventurers to explore monster-infested dungeons and untamed wilderness using pencils, paper, and dice. It is an
Rules Lineage
Adventure Master is based on
Adventure Game Terminology
This game uses common RPG terminology, as follows.
Common RPG Terms
The following are some common terms used throughout this text.
- Referee: Often known as the Game Master in other games, the referee is a participant whose job is to act as an impartial referee and fair arbiter of the rules, as well as a presenter for the world that will be explored during play.
- Players: All of the other participants of the game who aren’t the referee . They control one or more Player Characters.
- Player Character (PC): The unique, fictional characters that are created and controlled by the Players.
- The Party: The collective unit of Players Characters who are embarking on an adventure together during a session.
- Non-Player Character (NPC): All of the characters in the campaign world that aren’t controlled by the players.
- Monster: Foul beasts and evil hordes encountered in dungeons and the wilderness, controlled by the referee.
- Session: One sitting of play. Typically runs about 2-4 hours.
- Adventure: The exciting and dangerous fictional scenario experienced by the party during a session of play. Typically consists of wilderness exploration, followed by dungeon exploration, followed by returning to safety.
- Campaign: An ongoing series of connected adventures all played within a given setting.
- Campaign Setting: The fictional fantasy world where the campaign takes place.
- Sandbox: A campaign setting that is designed to be persistent, interactive, and freely explorable by the players and characters.
Dice Notation
Like most classic RPG systems, Adventure Master uses a variety of polyhedral dice. The type of die is notated by the letter “d” followed by the number of sides the die should have. Here are the most common examples:
- d4: A four-sided die.
- d6: A six-sided die.
- d8: An eight-sided die.
- d10: A ten-sided die.
- d12: A twelve-sided die.
- d20: A twenty-sided die.
- d100: A percentile roll (see below).
Rolling Multiple Dice
The rules will often call for multiple dice of a certain type to be rolled, and their results added together. In this case, the multiple dice will be notated as a number preceding the die type. In example:
- 3d6: Three six-sided dice, added up.
- 2d8: Two eight-sided dice, added up.
- 5d4: Five four-sided dice, added up.
Dice Modifiers
Modifiers to dice rolls are used frequently. A modifier is a numerical bonus or penalty that is added or subtracted from a dice result. In example:
- 1d20+2: Roll one twenty-sided die and add +2 to the result.
- 2d6-2: Roll two six-sided dice, with -2 subtracted from the total
Percentile Dice (%) AKA d100
The rules may require a d100 or “percentile” roll. This can be accomplished by rolling two ten-sided dice, using one for the “tens place” and one for the “ones place”.
X-in-6 Rolls
Some rules indicate an “x-in-6” chance of something happening. This means roll 1d6; if the result is equal to or less than the chance, the thing happens.
Compatibility
Five decades of fantasy adventure gaming has produced a vast offering of content, much of which is quickly and easily compatible with this game. Adventure Master brings compatibility to the forefront of its design, offering a comprehensive set of procedures and advice for not just converting classic and third party adventure modules into the ruleset, but also transforming any premade adventure (no matter how linear) into a dynamic addition to your sandbox campaign.