Describe the action
Say what your character does in the fiction first.
One die. Ten attributes. Anywhere.
Anywhere20
A pocket RPG that can be played anywhere, even walking down a mountain.
Adventure does not need a table. Describe what you do, use the fiction to decide what is possible, and roll only when the result genuinely matters.
Pocket CharacterLevel 1
Mara Vale
Former mountain scout. Practical, observant and suspicious of authority.
STR 2
AGI 4
END 3
INT 1
AWA 5
WIL 2
PRE 1
FIN 2
CRA 0
ARC 0
HP 13
Fortune 3
d20
Judge the situation
Obvious things happen. Impossible things do not. Uncertain things roll.
Move the story
Every roll changes the scene, even when it goes badly.
Core mechanic
d20 + Attribute ≥ DC
If success is obvious, you succeed. If it is impossible, you fail. If the outcome is uncertain and failure matters, roll.
Difficulty in six beats
5
Easy
10
Routine
15
Difficult
20
Extreme
25
Heroic
30+
Legendary
Equipment, training, weather, injury and pressure change the DC because they change the fiction. You do not need stacks of tiny bonuses.
Characters
No classes. No skill list. Just who you are and what you can do.
Distribute 20 points across ten attributes. Your background says what you plausibly know; attributes say how well you do it.
STR
Strength
force, lifting, grappling
AGI
Agility
speed, balance, accuracy
END
Endurance
stamina, pain, survival
INT
Intellect
knowledge, plans, systems
AWA
Awareness
senses, instinct, tracking
WIL
Will
courage, focus, discipline
PRE
Presence
leadership, charm, impact
FIN
Finesse
stealth, precision, dexterity
CRA
Craft
repair, build, improvise
ARC
Arcana
magic, psychic, supernatural
Combat is a scene
No initiative tracker, grid, movement rate or action economy. Attack with d20 + the relevant attribute against 10 + the defender's relevant attribute.
Margin 0-4: 1 HP · 5-9: 2 HP · 10+: 3 HP
Fortune bends luck
Start with 3 Fortune. Spend one to reroll, soften a consequence, or introduce a small plausible fact that helps without solving the whole problem.
Progression stays tiny
Complete a major chapter, level up, and add +2 attribute points. No XP tables, no caps, no bigger rulebook hiding around the next bend.
Real-world responsive play
See somewhere interesting? Make it part of the world.
A forest path becomes an ambush. A distant tower becomes the observatory. A broken bridge becomes the next problem. Anywhere20 turns the world around you into scenery.
You're walking through woodland.
Someone says: “Bandits.”
You're playing.
Official one-page rules
The whole system, printable and pocketable.
Keep the rules image on your phone, print it on A5, or hand it to someone who wants to know whether this is really the entire game. Yes. That is basically the point.
Download the one-page rules
Open, reusable, hackable
Anywhere20 game rules, documentation and original artwork are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Website source code is licensed under the MIT License.
Fiction beats mechanics
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