Dark Coast - A Fantasy Role-Playing Game From the preface: "Dark Coast" is a set of rules for a Fantasy role-playing game (RPG) in a heroic setting. User summary: The game book has very high production quality. Characters are defined by a process that attempts to emphasize character development over statistics generation. First, players define a cultural background which includes race. Next, the player selects one or more quirks, which generally are handicaps. Players determine past experience by spending a pool of points. Then characters generate statistics, add possessions, and begin the game. Attributes include Brawn, Dexterity, Agility, Perception, Spirit, and Reason. Each Attribute is divided into six areas, or skills. For example, Perception includes Reaction, Alertness, Missile Combat, Tracking, Searching, and Arcane Magic. Action resolution is dependent upon the type of action being attempted--they are categorized as either Trivial, Minor, or Major. Trivial or Minor actions are typically resolved with narrative action and with playing cards, respectively. In general, to resolve major actions a Talent Level is derived from Talent and Flairs (as applicable). A Challenge Level is determined from the action description. The Talent Level and the Challenge Level are added together and increased by one; a pool of D6 equal to this score is rolled and several of the lowest and highest are removed until one remains; the remaining die is the result. Challenge Level removals come from the highest scores; Talent Level removals come from the lowest scores. Rolls of 1-3 fail, while 4-6 succeed. The mechanism for removing dice from the high and low ends means that middle results (basic failure or basic success) are far more likely than miserable failure or superior success. For example, for an action with a Talent Level of 3 and a Challenge Level of 4, a player would roll 3+4+1 d6, then discard the 3 lowest results, then discard the 4 highest results, then take the remaining result and use it as the outcome. Characters gain Experience Points and then spend them to increase Talents. The book also contains a chapter on Actions, Equipment, Adventuring, Magic, Monsters, and Economy. The final chapter of the book, The Grey Age, gives an overview of a heroic fantasy setting - the setting is not developed enough for "out of the box" use.