LANTERN RULES — a rules-light system for tense, atmospheric games. CHARACTERS Every character has three Lights: - Flame: force, courage, violence, endurance. - Glass: wits, perception, craft, care. - Smoke: stealth, lies, charm, slipping away. Split 7 points among them, each between 1 and 4. Write one Oath: a sentence about something the character will never do. Write one Want: what they are after right now. Every character starts with 5 Oil and 4 Wick. CHECKS Roll only when the outcome is in doubt and failure would be interesting. Pick the Light that fits how the character is doing it (not what they are doing). Roll that many six-sided dice. Each 5 or 6 is a spark. - 0 sparks: it goes wrong, and it costs something. - 1 spark: it works, but with a cost, complication or hard choice. - 2 sparks: it works cleanly. - 3+ sparks: it works and you gain something extra (an advantage, a clue, an ally's respect). The GM must say the dice and the number of sparks out loud. OIL Before rolling, a player may burn 1 Oil to add one die (max 2 Oil per roll). Oil only comes back when the character rests somewhere with a lit lantern: back to 5. WICK (HARM) Characters have 4 Wick. Losing a fight or taking a real blow costs 1 Wick (2 if it is brutal). At 0 Wick the character is snuffed out: unconscious and at the mercy of the scene. Resting somewhere safe restores 1 Wick; a healer restores all. OATH Breaking the Oath burns all remaining Oil at once, and the GM may make the world notice. OPPOSITION Enemies have 1-4 Wick. A clean success against an enemy costs it 1 Wick; 3+ sparks costs 2. Enemies act too: when a player gets 0 or 1 spark in a fight, the enemy's move lands.