1400 Lo-Fi Hi-Fantasy
1400 Lo-Fi Hi-Fantasy is a collection of five rules-lite fantasy micro-games with a shared ruleset. Each game has its own character options and variant rules, which can plug-and-play to tailor the game to the perfect experience for your table. The zine also includes concise player and GM guidance, which is applicable not only to 1400 but most tabletop roleplaying games, and a short starter adventure.
The Games
Quest - Heroic fantasy adventures that tap into the ‘classic’ D&D-esque RPG space. Pick a class and ancestry, grabs some gear, and get exploring,
Below - Dungeon crawl with a darker vibe. Introduces magic (and cursed) items, new rules for harm, and generators for dungeon locations, hazards, and enemies.
Sneak - Shadowy heists and assassinations. Play a vagabond pulling off under-the-table jobs. Introduces gadgets and new spells for players, and rules for running heists.
Mage - High magic spellslinging adventures with expanded rules for spellcasting and sixty spells.
Planes - Explore the multiverse as one of twenty ancestries, including Cambion, Myconid, and Reptite. Tables for the GM to populate an entire universe with adventure.
1400 Lo-Fi Hi-Fantasy uses an easy-to-learn, skill-based system, where players roll a larger numbered polyhedral die the better their skill. Character creation is quick and easy, and the game focuses on narrative-driven gameplay and prioritises player agency and inventiveness. The core system is based on the 24XX SRD by Jason Tocci.
Cover Art by Bogdan Antoci
Purchase
In order to download this zine you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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I just wanted to check a discrepancy between the settings and whether it's intentional: the Supplies in Below are listed as costing 1SP, but several of them match Quest items that cost 1GP.
Wasn't clear whether that's intentional (since Quest just doesn't have SP and ignores things like ammo counts), or if the supplies are meant to be 1GP each.
Hey yeah Below is more focused on resource management, and so buying smaller gear and keeping track of coins is part of that. If you're mixing Below with another game, it's best to decide if you want to use the Below gear lists and silver pieces, or use the more abstract inventory/coins of the other games.
Makes sense - thanks!
hi there
Just wondering if any more community copies will be available?
Kind regards
Hi! There are community copies for 1400 Quest on it's own product page, and you can get Golden Age for free by signing up to my newsletter (also linked on it's own page). I hope that helps.
thank you
Finally got around to running this for a group of grade 6 kids at the TTRPG club I run at the school. The perfect system for a larger group with a short amount of time in which to play. The kids are hooked and it’s such a lovely system to introduce RPGs to new players. It’s awesome to have creative ideas rewarded with an open and flexible system rather than punished by rules written in dense, prescriptive legalise.
Quick question, some of the kids really want to have a copy of the games but don’t really have the money, is there any way I can make a donation or repurchase on their some copies on their behalf? Let me know if there is an email or better avenue to talk about this
Thanks for your awesome work!
Hey glad you're all enjoying the game! Drop me an email and we can work something out. jlgordon.games@gmail.com
Is there a change log for updates?
Hi, do you mean from the original one-pagers?
Hey there! Any plans for a reprint of the physical zine? I am LOVING the games and would very much like to get my hands on the printed version. Cheers!
Hey glad you like them. If you want to buy a physical copy, drop me an email and I can sort it out. jlgordon.games@gmail.com
Just clarifying: in ‘Quest’ if you take damage you likely gain an Injury, if you take more damage while injured you likely die. However, in Below there are three levels of Harm, and if you take damage when all three levels are filled by Injury, then you die.
Am I getting that roughly right? Obviously it is what the fiction dictates, but the implication seems to be in Quest it’s Injury > death, but in Below it’s Mild > Moderate > Major > Death
Hey good question. The core rules for harm are 'fiction first'; assign the injury that makes sense within the fiction according to the level of risk, and if it makes sense that one of your injuries would affect a die roll, it is hindered. There's no limit to how many injuries you can have of any severity, and you'll only die from sustaining multiple injuries if it make sense in the fiction. That said, if you're risking outright death and roll 1-2, then you die immediately regardless of how healthy or uninjured you are. The risk of death again depends on the fictional positioning.
1400 Below, on the other hand, has a fixed number of injuries you can have. They hinder in the same way as the core rules and you can still die outright when risking death, but if you sustain a second injury after already taking a minor wound, then it's 'upgraded' to moderate, and the fiction adjusts accordingly. This means that the most number of injuries a character can receive without healing is three (or four if you take the Brute spec.). Overall, this makes characters more likely to die, but gives the players a more concrete idea of their risks/closeness to death.
The intent is that 1400 Below is grittier and darker than the rest of the games (characters are numerically weaker) and characters are more likely to die through just normal play (as opposed to big, life-risking acts).
Got it, thank you! After reading a bunch of the 2400 games I am starting to get a feel for the writing style and format. I was subconsciously filling a lot of gaps with my own RPG baggage.
By the way, I love the spell dice system in MAGE, I will like,y include something like it in any fantasy/weird fiction 1400 or 2400 game I play. Can’t wait to run it
I bought these before they were a bundle. Worth every penny!
I just finished running a game for two other people with this using the sample dungeon. It was a lot of fun, very easy to tweak on the fly and make interesting situations for. The only issue I ran into was the one with rooms 6 & 7's descriptions being swapped which I see has already been mentioned. I'd give it a solid recommend.
I can't praise this enough; absolutely awesome work in the 24XX space.
Minor correction on page 28, the names and descriptions of rooms 6 and 7 should be swapped.
Oh no! Thanks for the heads up! I'll fix that in the future release.
Oh snap this is a tour de force ...
Will there be any comp copies for previous collectors?
Everyone who has previously bought all 5 games will be able to download this for free. There will also be a bundle to get this and all 5 individual games together for the same price as the digital zine. This should go live in the next day or two.