Tiny Frontiers House Rules
A downloadable game
House Rules for the Tiny Frontiers game from Gallant Knight Games and the Tiny D6 system. This is not meant to be endorsed or affiliated by the above. I'm just a fan using house rules at my table.
My gaming group liked the Tiny D6 rules-lite system, but we wanted some extra options around combat, health & armor (using Soak tracks), using resources, and gear, all while trying to fit the streamlined nature of the original game.
Items here:
The House Rules Compilation: Everything below in one PDF download. Otherwise you can pick and choose what you want
The House Rules 2.1.: Updates include:
- Edits for clarity and grammar/spelling
- Removal of “Crits” in favor of “flavor crits” which fits better
- Clarified approach to damage and HP/Soak rules.
- Rules for Grenades
- Rules for Stun Weapon effects
- The use of Fortune points
- Something similar to West End Games’ Light Side/Dark Side points
- Guidance for “Building Battles” when making combat encounters
The House List of Traits: The original Frontiers' Traits are divided up into Physical/Combat/Mental/Special lists. New Traits have been added to reflect a sci-fi setting, as well as a bunch of suggested Trades (professions) and Drives/Beliefs. Updates include:
- Redundant Traits removed, and a few new ones added, such as Animal Expert and Vehicle Master
- Adjustment to some Traits to better fit the HP/Soak house rules.
- Force Traits added
- A Traits list of contents, since they are organized by Physical, Mental, Combat, and Special Traits
The House Starships Rules: The original Frontiers' Crew positions are expanded upon, with added benefits (i.e. Ship actions), and a bunch more Ship Systems. Ship combat is clarified. There's a brief list of non-Starship vehicles, too. Updated include:
- Edits for clarity and grammar/spelling
- An additonal Courier-class starship
- Made Soak damage consistent with the new approach to Soak in the house rules
- Adjustment to some actions and systems to allow them to remove disadvantage as their feat
- Additional rules for flying in Formation
- A new position of Dogfighter for single-pilot “Star Wars-y” approaches
- A “Droid Socket” basic System, for similar reasons
Star Wars Heritages in Tiny Frontiers style. Original write-ups as well as formatting the write-ups from user Babbage Cliologic on the rpg.net boards
The Tiny Frontiers House Character Sheet: Accomodates the "house rules" with extra options for health/soak, resources, and gear. You can still use it for the regular Tiny system if you want!
This was originally meant for my table and when I brought Tiny Frontiers to my game shop for its community game days. But if it works for you, that's awesome, too! Pick and choose any of these optional rules to tailor to your own Table, and when in doubt, keep to the official rules.
Hope you find something that resonates. Remember to refer back and support the ultra-simple Tiny System and all its Zines and expansive lines.
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Hello, I was checking out your Star Wars Houserules, and it appears that a section on the Jedi Force Traits is missing; page 14 ends with "You are attuned to the Force in a deep way that allows you to abide in its truth, wisdom and harmony. You are now able to train an apprentice.", but page 15 starts with "during this evasion, a successful Evade Test redirects the attack randomly aroung you[...]"
Thanks to everyone who has checked out my house rules!
After six months or so of playing with the game, I've posted an updated version of these rules, calling them House Rules 2.1.
Happy gaming, in whatever galaxy you choose!
Question. My game group is looking to use some of these alternate rules, and I was just wanting to ask you some clarification on something. For the variable damage rules, do you check off the same amount of Soak boxes as you would HP boxes for damage, or is it one Soak box absorbs all the damage for one hit? I assume the first, but someone brought up the wording and so I wanted to be sure. Also, do you use the new Heavy Weapon rules of only allowing one attack per round, and find it to be at a disadvantage to light weapons due to this now? Thanks so much for your time and these rules, they look like they’ll be a lot of fun!
Hi there! Thanks for checking it out.
The way my table plays is that it's a 1-to-1, so filling 2 soak instead of taking 2 damage, for example. Usually the players tick the first couple of soaks before having to make decisions to start tagging the HP bar or take a Condition.
A separate playtester told me that their table did it the other way -- that they can check a Soak box to negate all damage for a given hit-- much like triggering an Evade, so there is some precedent in the game. They said it worked really well and led to some tactical choices during the fight scene. However, I would suggest that this means that Soak boxes should not "heal" as rapidly, as they likely represent more significant damage being taken, so maybe switch the way HP and Soak heals if you want this option.
These house rules were written before the Tiny system made those new Heavy Weapon rules. I have not been able to playtest anything, but my gut says that it can be a player's choice-- using Heavy Weapons for a +2 to total damage but also -1 action on your turn, or using Heavy Weapons for +1 to total damage as a normal action. As always, you can never have more than 4 damage in any given outcome.
Thank you so much for the reply and the insight! Really helps us decide how to try this going forward knowing how it’s worked for other tables.
We really wanted to add the excitement of variable damage back without ruining what makes TinyD6 combat so fast and fun, and these rules are looking to help.
Thanks again!
Hey there! Just a quick "thanks again" as I've updated the house rules to include something along the lines as we've discussed right here. Anyway, happy gaming!