Some basics

Before you dive straight into Simply Roleplaying, there are a few common mechanics in the system to understand.

Dice size

Simply Roleplaying uses dice of different sizes-- the more sides the die has, the "bigger" it's considered to be. From smallest to largest, they are; the four sided die (d4), the six sided die (d6), the eight sided die (d8), the ten sided die (d10), and the twelve sided die (d12).

Simply Roleplaying also uses the twenty sided die (d20), but only for special abilities.

Scenes and distances

There are a couple of key words that Simply Roleplaying uses to define locations and distances.

An area refers to the background of your immediate surroundings. If your senses could pick it up (birds chirping, insects buzzing, the smell of manure) it's in the same area as you.

The scene describes the current drama or action. If you're a part of or can get to the action when it happens, you're in the same scene. When that drama or action ends, the scene does too.

Ranges and spaces

Things are either close, a short distance away, a medium distance away, a long distance away, or too far. Close things you can reach out and touch without moving. Things a short distance away can be reached with one action's worth of effort to get to them. Things a medium distance away with two action's worth of effort. Things a long distance away you have to spend three actions worth of effort to reach. Something too far can't be reached by you right now-- the best you can hope for is to get closer.

When you want to use a grid or add precision to the size of something, you can use spaces instead to describe distances. Something close is 1 space away, something a short distance away is between 2 and 5 spaces away, something a medium distance away is between 6 and 10 spaces away, and something a long distance away is between 10 and 15 spaces away. Spaces are a relative measurement of the scene, so the actual distance that a space represents may vary depending on the scene.

Narrative truth

Sometimes the rules of Simply Roleplaying will say that something happens "when it makes sense." This is a simple way of saying "when the story we're telling together says it should happen." Certainly a character would heal from their wounds after some downtime recovering, but they might also recover health from a revitalizing spring.

Generally what "makes sense" is obvious. When it's not obvious, what makes sense should be a conversation between players and the gamemaster.