LF2 Rules

Character Creation

Before

You have a pool of six Playaround Points. During character creation, each stat (Hands, Feet, Muscle, Smarts, Spirit) begins with a rating of 2. Stats may be increased up to a rating of 5 by spending Playaround Points on a one-to-one basis. You may reduce a stat to a 1 for one PaP. You may also take Positive and Negative Qualities which each cost or give you one PaP, respectively.

Now

You have a pool of Playaround Points equal to your age. Your stats begin with ratings of 1 and have maximum ratings of half your age, rounded down (though you may only ever have one stat rated at 6). You may spend PaPs to increase your stats (one-to-one, as before) and to buy Positive Qualities, while taking Negative Qualities gives you more PaPs. You may not sack your free stat points for PaPs.

Tests & Quizzes

Before

If unopposed, you make a Quiz roll, which means rolling a die under the stat which the GM says is most relevant to the task. If opposed, you make a Test roll, which means rolling a die over the opponent's relevant stat while your opponent tries to roll over yours, while ties mean you both win. Applicable Positive and Negative Qualities add dice and force you to take the better or worse result, respectively.

Now

Whether a Test or a Quiz, roll a die and add your relevant stat. You succeed if your total equals a 7 (for Quizzes) or beats your opponent's roll (Tests), with tied Tests still meaning you both win. Applicable Qualities still add dice and force you to take the better or worse result. With Quizzes, the GM may add or subtract a few points from the target number to represent a greater or lesser difficulty involved in the action; because of this, GMs will call for Quiz rolls in pretty much any circumstance (including against NPCs and especially versus monsters) other than direct player-versus-player conflict.

When the stakes are high and there's a possibility of calamitous failure, you succeed with a total of 5 or 6, but success comes at a cost. Since the GM narrates task resolution in Little Fears, she'll describe some way in which you get what you want but something goes wrong as well, or maybe your opposition gets a little of what it wants, too. I think this should work for all Quizes (including Belief Magic) except Fear checks; it may not be as workable for Tests, since they're typically PvP, but GMs should feel free to play with (or disregard) the idea.

Soul, Innocence, & Fear

Before

Soul begins at 10 and Fear begins at 0, though you may take up to two points of Fear for Playaround Points. Innocence is equal to 14 minus your age (meaning 7 at seven).

Now

Soul was either irrelevant to a story or the central theme of it, but Fear represented the forces of Closetland getting its hooks in your soul, too, so the Soul trait is gone. Fear gains boxes under its rating for Fear ticks. Innocence still begins at [14 - age] and Fear still starts at 0, though you can take up to two points of Fear or (or give up one Innocence) for PaPs.

Fear Checks

Before

Make a Spirit Quiz (roll, trying to get under your Spirit). If you fail, roll on the Failed Fear Check table. The Negative Quality Screamer (and sometimes Bed Wetter) negates the need to check.

Now

Make a Spirit Quiz (roll, add your Spirit, try to get a seven). If you pass, gain a Fear tick. If you fail, roll on the Failed Fear Check table and add to the roll as many Fear ticks as you have; this discharges all of your Fear ticks. If you accumulate ten Fear ticks, you automatically gain a point of Fear and discharge all your ticks. You also discharge all ticks when you sleep and wake up (though the GM may decide that your ticks remain if you wake up in an unsafe environment like Closetland). Screamer (and Bed Wetter) does not negate your need to check – if you fail, you scream (or pee) in addition to whatever you roll on the table.

If you're in an especially perilous situation (like the kind where sleeping won't get rid of your Fear ticks), your GM might decide that failing a Fear check doesn't discharge all your ticks, but instead discharges only as many as it takes to make your table roll a 6. For example, if you have 5 ticks and fail a Fear check, then you roll a 3 on the Fear table, you only discharge three ticks because that's all it takes to bump your table roll up to 6. This is an optional rule that I don't typically use, but it feels appropriate for GMs who call for Fear checks left and right.

The new Failed Fear Check table is:

Roll Result

1 You tremble and stammer for a few moments

2 You scream your head off inconsolably for a few moments

3 You run away as fast as your feet will take you

4 Uh-oh... looks like someone had an accident...

5 You pass out and cannot be revived for a few long moments

6 You are paralyzed for a long moment and gain a point of Fear

Belief Magic

Before

Halve your Innocence, truncate, and use that number to roll a Quiz (a Belief check). If successful, your belief magic works. If unsuccessful, fill in a box under your Innocence rating; filling in the tenth of these boxes causes you to lose one Innocence. If the Belief roll is made right after you fail a Fear check, add an extra die and keep the better result.

Now

Make a Spirit Quiz and use your age as a target number. If successful, it works. If not, fill in an Innocence box, ten of which means that you lose one Innocence. If you just failed a Fear check, add an extra die and keep the better result.

Health

Before

You have five rows of health boxes, each of which has as many boxes in it as your Muscle rating. Feeling Fine and Sore have no mechanical effects, while feeling Bad and Dizzy forces you to treat your stats as though they were one and two points lower, respectively. If you're feeling Nothing, you're beyond pain.

Now

You have seven rows of health boxes, each of which has as many boxes in it as your Muscle rating (maximum five boxes per row). Feeling Fine, Sore, and Nothing all have one row each, while feeling Bad and Dizzy both have two rows, so the rows are now Fine, Sore, Bad x2, Dizzy x2, and Nothing. Feeling Bad and Dizzy count as cumulative Negative Qualities instead of changing your stats' values. The game is slightly more lethal, now, so adding two extra health rows not only keep up the theme of sevens but also helps the kids out a little.

Growing Up

I've only seen this come up in a game once, but it exists for those rare occasions when a kid has a birthday. She loses a point of Innocence, of course, but she gains a Playaround Point. She spends her new PaP as usual, and she's allowed to move her current PaP choices around on her sheet a little (with her GM's approval, obviously). Maybe she's gotten a lot faster, letting her pick up Fleet of Foot, but her schoolwork's suffered for all that running, so she also moves a point of Smarts to her Feet. She can also choose to spend her new PaP to keep the Innocence she should've lost, so long as she can convince her GM that she's kept her sense of wonder in spite of growing up and the depredations of Closetland.