Development on Long XVIth is currently on hold. 
There is no ETA for when development and playtesting will resume.
Any rules or designs shown here are in flux. 
Layouts and art are deliberately simple.

The Game

Long XVIth is my love letter to a period of history I've found particularly captivating: a changing, tumultuous era that resembles our own in many ways while being fantastically distant at the same time. These rules are my attempt to capture what I find interesting about the era - and offer the opportunity for classic "adventuring" tabletop RPG play in a historic setting. 

• Player characters take on the role of those brave - or unlucky - sorts who would have gotten pulled into the adventures and intrigues of sixteenth-century Europe: Soldiers, Scoundrels, Minstrels, Factors, Chaplains, and Doctors.
• These Professions - along with Social Class, classical Humour, and an avocational Knack - are at the heart of each PC. Together with the Beliefs of Piety, Honor, and Station, players should have a clear view of their character's place in the broader context of Renaissance-era Europe.
• Long XVIth will be designed to encourage and reward players for leaning into the historical setting - rather than punishing them for not knowing the nuances of the historical record. A goal of the rules is to have an enjoyable, accessible game that doesn't require homework just to play.*
• The central mechanic uses a risk vs. reward d10 dice pool where both successes and failures count. The math is minimal  and focused around the action - be it sword-and-musket combat, social maneuvering, or mental anguish - using a narrative damage and status system inspired by games such as Fate Core and City of Mist.
• No wizards in robes casting fireballs, but ideas of magic, astrology, alchemy, and folklore superstitions were very much a part of the early modern world this game is built around. Just because player characters don't cast actual spells of their own doesn't mean that such topics will be foreign to them!
• Because of that, Long XVIth is suitable not only for games set in real world contexts, but also no/low magic fantasy settings such as a folklore-infused, supernatural Europe - or adaptations of Warhammer Fantasy's Old World Empire or the human-centric intrigue of The Witcher.

* That isn't to say that you or your players won't want to dive into this interesting era of history. It's already sucking in some of my playtesters, who are diving into the German mercenary landsknechts and the politics of Venetian noble families.

Current Downloads
(October 2021)

The public playtest should be released later this fall, as the game is currently in closed playtesting.

As a sneak peak, playtester reference handouts, the character sheet, and six pregen characters are available.

For More, See the Blog

Project related posts are (semi) regularly being added to my tabletop gaming blog at Tabletop.WillPhillips.org.

• Rules development and playtesting feedback
• Tabletop gaming odds and ends
• Long XVIth campaign and setting concepts