Inquisitive Game Design
Compact Fantasy
A Heroic Adventure Roleplaying Game
Compact Fantasy is a lightweight, fast-paced tabletop roleplaying game focused on collaborative storytelling in a fantasy adventure setting. It is designed for groups who want story-driven play where the fiction remains in focus and mechanical preparation or rules lookups are minimized. The game supports both grounded and heroic styles of play.
Play focuses on fantasy adventure stories involving quests, courtly intrigue, and exploration of unfamiliar lands, and can be adapted to different fantasy worlds, supporting a range of tones.
Characters are competent individuals within their areas of expertise and can develop further during play by learning new skills and improving existing ones.
The game uses simple resolution mechanics. When outcomes are uncertain, the game master calls for a roll and continues the story based on the result, keeping play moving without interruption. A skill-based core mechanic applies consistently to both physical and social situations, which makes the outcome of each roll straightforward to interpret within the unfolding story. This makes statistics easy to improvise and keeps the focus on characters and situations rather than tracking details.
Characters are defined by clear and distinct fantasy archetypes such as humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs, supported by classic fantasy classes and a thematic collection of monsters.
Starting to play is straightforward. The game master is expected to have basic familiarity with roleplaying games. Players can learn during play, making it suitable for groups with mixed experience, no prior experience, or experienced players.