This game is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real people living or dead is 100% intentional.
Note: This document may not represent the most up-to-date version of Tiny Frog Wizards. You can always find the latest revision at the following address:
The very primordial energies of creation and destruction are yours to wield as you will.
You are two inches tall.
Tone and Themes
Tiny Frog Wizards is a game of contrasts.
It's about people who are accustomed to being the biggest frogs in a very small pond, venturing into a much larger world.
It's about wielding a phenomenal cosmic power whose applications are so weirdly specialised, you'll struggle to cram your skill-set's square pegs into the world's round holes.
More than anything, however, Tiny Frog Wizards is a game about being a terrible inconvenience to everyone in the general vicinity, in the unshakable belief that you're helping.
One trusts that many of those reading this can relate.
Tiny Frog Wizards is a game for three to seven players, including an optional Gamemaster, or GM. You'll need a large pile of six-sided dice, ideally in many colours as befits your tiny frog wizard's arcane mastery, as well as some scrap paper to keep track of your mastered Arcana and various Misfortunes.
If you're playing without a GM – or have decided to allocate some of the GM's responsibilities to other players, as discussed under Playing the Game – you'll also need to decide on a seating order, as some rules care about who's sitting to the left (or right) of whom. In a face-to-face game, this may take care of itself; otherwise, decide on an ordering in whatever fashion (e.g., by age, alphabetically by first name, etc.) is agreeable to the group.
There are two types of dice rolls you'll be asked to make in Tiny Frog Wizards: rolling to cast a spell, and rolling on a table.
When you roll to cast a spell, you'll gather a number of six-sided dice and roll them all at once. The dice aren't added together; rather, the rolled values are individually assigned to the spell's various parameters to determine how effective the spell is. You can't assign more than one die to each parameter, and must assign a die to each parmeter if one is available. If you rolled more dice than there are parameters to assign, the extra dice are discarded; if you rolled fewer dice than parameters, any parameters you're unable to assign a die to receive a value of 1. Refer to Working Your Will for more information on how to determine how many dice to roll and how to assign the results.
When you roll on a table, you'll roll either one or two dice. If the table has the text “d6” at the top of the first column, roll a single six-sided die. If the table has the text “d66” at the top of the first column, roll two dice, reading the first die as the “tens” place and the second die as the “ones” place, yielding a two-digit number in the range from 11 to 66. You should decide which die counts as the “tens” and which die counts as the “ones” before rolling; if your dice aren't visually distinguishable, make the rolls one at a time to keep them straight.
On rare occasions, you may be asked to flip the result of a d66 roll. This means taking the existing roll and exchanging the places of the digits; for example, a roll of 3 and 6, normally read as “36”, would instead become “63”. This will typically occur if the roll's initial result is invalid for some reason.
In spite of its light-hearted tone, Tiny Frog Wizards is a game whose player characters wield semi-godlike powers. Mind control, bodily transformations, and the like are basic tools in their game-mechanical toolkits, and consequently, there's a strong possiblity that content some players aren't comfortable with will come up. Comfort zones regarding the game's sorcerous shenanigans should be a topic of explicit pre-game discussion; tools like John Stavropoulos' X Card may be helpful, and should be brought up with the group before play begins.
Tiny Frog Creation
Though your achievements are undoubtedly many, all of them pale in comparison to your mastery of the True Arcana: the very roots of magic. Having completed your tiny frog apprenticeship, you have mastered two of the nine True Arcana. Choose two, or roll on the following table.
Next, choose your Path of Power. This represents the practice or condition from which your tiny frog wizard draws strength, and is the primary means by which you will recover Power Dice. Roll or choose one of the paths summarised in the table below, or invent your own with the group's approval.
Give your tiny frog a name and a suitably grand title, and describe the colour and design of your tiny frog's pointy wizard hat. You can use the following table for inspiration, or roll to decide these features randomly; roll once for a title, and as many times as you wish for your hat's colour and appearance.
Most things you do won't involve rules or dice. When you undertake a task that doesn't involve casting a spell, this is called a mundane action, and the GM will decide whether it's plausible that a tiny frog could perform it. If the GM determines that the answer is “yes”, you succeed; otherwise, you fail.
Magic is another matter. Such is your tiny frog's mastery that failure is unthinkable: when you command the forces of magic, they will obey. However, as you are very small, you may sometimes have difficulty mustering sufficient will to affect very large or distant targets.
As noted above, whether your tiny frog wizard can achieve something without using magic is governed by narrative plausibility, not by rolling dice. When you try to accomplish something throuh mundane effort, you're throwing yourself on the mercy of the GM, who may decide what you succeed, fail, or achieve a partial or unexpected result, as their whim dictates.
At times, the plausibility of a particular mundane action may depend on whether or not your tiny frog wizard is versed in some relevant skill. You're free to jot down a few mundane skills you'd like your tiny frog wizard wizard to be good at during character creation, but this is explicitly not an expected part of the character creation process. Players are both allowed and encouraged to make up new areas of expertise on the spot, as events demand and their tiny frog wizard's character concept permits.
In order to cast a spell, select an appropriate Arcanum from among those you've mastered, and describe, in general terms, the feat of sorcery you intend to achieve.
Next, pick up a handful of dice. You start with one die for each of the following conditions that you satisfy:
You declare your intentions in a loud, firm croak
You make grand, sweeping gestures with both tiny webbed hands
You are wearing your pointy wizard hat
You may expend Power Dice from your own supply to increase the number of dice rolled on a one-for-one basis. Power Dice used in this fashion are expended until recovered.
Thirdly, roll the dice, and select three to assign to the parameters of Magnitude, Range and Control. If you're rolling fewer than three dice for any reason, any parameters you don't assign a die to have a value of 1. You must roll at least one die in order to cast a spell.
Once you've begun casting, you must assign a die to each parameter if one is available, and the spell must take effect. If you don't have sufficient Control to fully describe the intended effect, you'll have to make do with what you have. Likewise, if you don't have sufficient Range to reach the intended target, or your Magnitude parameter's value is too small to affect it, you'll just have to pick a different target!
Finally, add up the sum of the values of the dice assigned to the spell's parameters. This is the spell's Potency, and will be referred to by various other rules. Note that this is the sum of the values of the dice assigned to the spell's parameters, not the values of the parameters themselves; a parameter that's received the default value of 1 because no die was assigned to it contributes nothing at all to the spell's Potency.
Magnitude determines the size or scope of the thing the spell affects. The Arcanum's description will indicate whether its Magnitude is measured by size, or by area; these two types of Magnitude will be denoted as Magnitude (Size) and Magnitude (Area), respectively.
With a value of 1, the spell affects either a single object or creature roughly the size of a tiny frog, or an area about one frog-length across. (For the human player's reference, one frog-length is approximately five centimetres, or two inches.) For each point of this parameter's value in excess of 1, either approximately double the diameter of the affected area, or increase the size of the target object or creature tenfold. The following table provides reference points for various sizes and areas:
Magnitude
Value
Size
Area
1
Tiny frog
1 frog-length (5 cm)
2
Rat
2 frog-lengths (10 cm)
3
Cat
5 frog-lengths (25 cm)
4
Dog
10 frog-lengths (50 cm)
5
Human
20 frog-lengths (1 m)
6
Horse
50 frog-lengths (2.5 m)
A spell that uses the Magnitude (Size) parameter cannot affect only part of a larger creature or object; the parameter's value must be sufficient to affect the whole target. Area-affecting spells have no such restrictions, and may partially affect a creature or object that's only partially inside the affected region.
A creature's clothing and possessions may or may not be included when targeting that creature, at your discretion.
Range determines the distance at which the spell is effective. Unless the chosen Arcanum's description specifies otherwise, this is the distance to the target creature or object, or to the centre of the affected area if the spell affects an area. Unless otherwise noted, you also need uninterrupted line of sight to a target in order to affect it, though in the case of a spell that affects an area you only need line of sight to the centre of the affected area, not to every part of it.
A spell has a Range in hops equal to the value of the die assigned to this parameter. For the benefit of any humans who may be playing this game, a hop can be considered roughly equal to one meter (or one yard).
Control determines how much control you have over the spell, reflected by the number of words you can use to describe some part of the spell's effect, as outlined in the Arcanum's description. You can use slang or contractions when describing the desired effect, but may not employ shorthand or ungrammatical contrivances – your dignity would not permit it! Articles such as “a” and “the” need not be counted when determining the description's length.
You can exploit only part of a parameter's value if you wish: a creature up to the rolled Size, a number of words up to the rolled Control value, and so forth.
Groups who desire more unruly magic in their games may be tempted to require spells to adhere exactly to their assigned parameters; this is not recommended for Magnitude or Range, as in practice it often results in spells that have no valid targets at all. However, if your group's members are handy with phrasing, this can be a viable house rule for Control.
Spell Duration
Your spells will have one of two durations: indefinite, or concentration.
An indefinite effect sticks around with no particular limit, and is considered non-magical once it fully manifests. You don't need to do anything in particular to keep these effects around. Spells of this type are generally limited to “one and done” effects, like summoning a creature or object with Conjuration, or using Transmutation to perform natural transformations, e.g., changing water into ice.
Other effects persist only while you concentrate. Once you stop maintaining such a spell, its immediate effects revert: an illusion vanishes, a transformed creature resumes its natural shape, etc. Any second-order effects usually remain; for example, a summoned flame can set mundane fires that will continue burning naturally once the spell ends.
While concentrating on a spell, you may perform mundane actions as you wish. However, your ability to cast additional spells is impaired: the number of dice you roll when casting is reduced by one for each spell you're concentrating on. If this reduces the number of dice in your pool to zero, you must buy it up to at least one using Power Dice in order to cast a spell.
You can voluntarily terminate a spell that you're concentrating on. This requires no roll. Once you cease concentrating on a spell, any effects that depend on concentration persist for a number of seconds equal to the spell's Potency before fading. This can provide a grace period while preparing other enchantments, but it can also pose a problem if you wish to terminate a spell gone awry.
Each Arcanum's description will indicate which of its effects require concentration; see The True Arcana for more information.
Spells that you're concentrating on can also be disrupted. This can occur if you're injured, severely distracted, or suffer Misfortune, or if you do something foolish like fall asleep while maintaining a spell. When your concentration is disrupted, roll three dice, and compare their sum to the Potency of each spell you're currently concentrating on. If the rolled value exceeds a spell's Potency, the spell lapses, just as though you'd voluntarily terminated it. Otherwise, the spell goes out of control, with effects determined by the GM.
There are no universal rules for exactly how a disrupted spell goes haywire. If you're stuck for ideas, the following table can provide a starting point.
Random Spell Disruption Consequences
d6
Consequence
1
The spell jumps to a new, random target or area
2
The spell spreads to additional targets or a much larger area
3
The caster's described intent is intensified or exaggerated
4
The caster's described intent becomes warped or inverted
5
The caster takes backlash in the form of an ironic Misfortune
6
There is no obvious consequence… yet
In any case, the out-of-control spell lasts for the remainder of the scene.
Counterspelling
If you see another wizard casting a spell and wish to stop them, you can attempt to counterspell. You must have mastered the Arcanum of the spell being cast. Roll as though you were casting a spell of your own, but don't assign any parameters – simply take the sum of the best three dice. If the total exceeds the Potency of the spell you're attempting to counter, it's negated with a clap of thunder and a puff of smoke, leaving the caster somwhat dazed in the process. A counterspelling roll can be enhanced with Power Dice.
If you haven't mastered the Arcanum of the offending spell, or if it's already taken effect by the time you take umbrage at it, counterspelling is no longer an option. You'll have to deal with it by other means!
In general, spell effects don't directly oppose one another. If you surround your rival with all-consuming fire, and your rival responds by teleporting away, no conflict exists: your spell successfully filled the targeted area with fire, and your rival's spell successfully moved them to another location. You both got exactly what you asked for – though it may not be entirely what you wanted! In the case of such indirect opposition, no numerical comparisons are made between the two spells; the interplay of the two effects is resolved through the players' descriptions and the GM's judgment.
However, sometimes you'll run into situations where two spells can't both be effective, or when the effect of one spell directly attempts to prevent, mitigate or destroy the effect of another spell. Some examples include:
You use Transmutation to turn a rock into diamond, but another tiny frog wizard simultaneously attempts to turn the exact same rock into ruby.
You Evoke a storm of fire, and the targeted area partially overlaps another Evocation that fills its area with ice.
Faced with an impenetrable wall of stone raised from the earth via Transmutation, you Animate a nearby rock and command it to batter down the wall.
This is known as direct opposition. When direct opposition occurs, to the extent that the two spells are mutually exclusive, the spell with greater Potency prevails. The spell with lesser Potency remains fully effective with respect the portion of its effects (if any) that don't conflict with the spell of greater Potency. A spell whose effects are entirely overridden by those of another spell is considered to have been terminated.
If two directly opposing spells have precisely equal Potency, the GM will decide what happens.
Spells of the True Arcana cannot be opposed by mundane actions. In any situation where the direct opposition rules would come into play, a mudane action that contends with a spell fails utterly, regardless of the spell's Potency. For example, a flame conjured via Evocation cannot be extinguished by any mundane means while the spell's duration persists; even if it were thrust underwater, it would continue to burn!
There are, however, three saving graces. First, spells tend to be narrow in their effects. If a rival attempts to squash you with a large rock summoned via Conjuration, for example, only the rock's actual presence is unopposable. Nothing you do (short of casting a spell of your own) will prevent the rock from appearing, but actually hitting you with it is a mundane action on the part of the spell's caster, and you're perfectly able to simply hop out of the way. Likewise, the magical portion of the aforementioned Evoked flame merely dictates that there be fire; it doesn't guarantee that the fire will accomplish any particular goal. The “Direct Opposition” section of each Arcanum's description will clarify where the spell's magic ends and ancillary mundane actions begin.
Second, if you notice someone casting a spell, you can try to react with a mundane action before the casting is complete, typically by getting out of Range or breaking line of sight. Like all mundane actions, the success or failure of such evasions is governed by plausibility: in this case, the plausibility that you'd notice the spell being cast in time to run away, and that you'd be able to reach cover before its casting is complete. Otherwise, you're out of luck – trying to dodge a curse fails like any other mundane action directly opposing a spell.
Finally, some Arcana – for example, Alteration or Domination – can grant certain types of mundane actions an effective Potency. This doesn't guarantee that such mundane actions will succeed, nor does it render them unopposable by other mundane actions; however, such actions can contend with spells of equal or lesser Potency.
Sooner or later, your tiny frog wizard is going to be on the receiving end of a spell whose effects your do not care for. Unless taken totally by surprise, you always have a chance – typically exactly one chance – to defend yourself with a spell of your own. Best make it count!
The first and most reliable option is to counterspell. If you've mastered the Arcanum of the incoming spell, you can attempt to block it. Unlike the other means of defence discussed here, this snuffs out the offending spell entirely, so it's handy for defending others as well as yourself. The downside is that you have to beat the incoming spell's Potency.
Failing that, your next best option is Abjuration. “Magic” is a totally valid subject for a ward, so a low Control die is no problem here. Abjuration is almost as good as counterspelling for defending your friends, since you can ward a whole area if you need to. As with counterspelling, you'll have to beat the incoming spell's Potency.
If your mastered Arcana include neither Abjuration nor the Arcanum of the hostile spell, your options depend on what you're up against.
If the hostile spell affects an area, like an Evocation, a Transmutation, or possibly a Conjuration that tries to drop a heavy object on you, you can simply leave the affected area. Using Conjuration to teleport yourself away will usually work. Alternatively, an appropriately phrased Evocation or Transmutation might be able to hurl you out of the way, though it'll probably hurt. In any event, this doesn't count as direct opposition – you're not stopping the hostile effect, you're just not being there when it goes off – so you don't need to beat the spell's Potency.
If the hostile spell affects you directly, like a Domination or an Imprecation, your options are more limited. There's no area of effect to avoid, so you'll have to either get completely out of range (and your enemy is likely to have a nice fat Range die to work with, since targeting a tiny frog only requires a Magnitude (Size) value of 1!), or break line of sight using a solid barrier. Both Conjuration and Transmutation work well for this purpose.
Unlike evading an area spell, outranging or breaking line of sight on an individually targeted spell does invoke the direct opposition rules, since you're trying to stop the hostile spell's effect from happening at all; whatever you use will have to beat the spell's Potency.
Alternatively, you can just try to duck out of the way. As a mundane action, no dice or numeric comparisons are involved; it's entirely up to the GM whether a tiny frog could plausibly get out of the way before the hostile spell goes off. Factors the GM might take into account include whether the enemy wizard announces their intentions and the proximity of sufficient cover.
Though a sufficiently determined group can play a long-form campaign in nearly any game, this text's default assumption is that Tiny Frog Wizards will be played episodically: each session consists of a series of scenes, in which the tiny frog wizards arrive to discover a problem which warrants wizardly meddling, meddle, and move on. These scenes may form a connected narrative, or they may stand as isolated episodes – tiny frog wizards are creatures of the moment!
In episodic play, the Gamemaster alternates between a proactive role and a reactive one. When setting each scene, you're calling the shots: as the scene opens, the tiny frog wizards have already arrived, and the problem that requires their attention is already in progress! From that point on, however, the players are in the driver's seat, and your role is simply to describe the outcomes of their actions and provide the reactions of any non-player characters who may be present. Don't worry about pushing the story in any particular direction; in an episodic game, the story is something that happens after the fact.
As a player, the main expectation is to seize the opportunity provided by the scene the GM has set and run away with it. The game's premise hangs on the presumption that tiny frog wizards are constitutionally incapable of passing up the chance to interfere in other people's problems. It's okay if you want to invent a specific reason for your tiny frog wizard to get involved, but inventing reasons not to get involved and obliging the GM and the other players to wheedle your character into participating is bad form – though making a dramatic show of your reluctance to get involved, then proceeding to do so anyway is fine!
Each scene consists of three elements: a place, a set of non-player characters to inhabit it, and a problem for the tiny frog wizards to meddle with. Any setup beyond this is unnecessary: the scene should open with the tiny frog wizards' arrival. If the players are interested in how their tiny frog wizards found out about the problem, how they got here, etc., they're free to retroactively invent these details as needed.
It may be the case that the players will draw conclusions about the nature of the problem that requires their tiny frog wizards' attention that are very different from what you had intended. No effort should be made to correct their mistake; either it will be come apparent in the course of play, or their tiny frog wizards will go away satisfied that they've solved a problem that didn't actually exist. Either outcome is acceptable.
In subsequent scenes, the previous scene's conclusion may provide enough direction to make most of the preceding considerations unnecessary. However, the same approach should be followed: unless how to gain access to wherecer they're going is, itself, the problem that needs to be overcome, the GM should generally gloss over the transitional bits and open the scene with the tiny frog wizards' arrival.
Each scene continues until one of three things has occurred:
The tiny frog wizards agree amongst themselves that the problem at hand has satisfactorily been resolved. After the requisite congratulations and back-slapping – and once any objections from NPCs present have been considered and summarily dismissed – the GM should devise a new problem for the tiny frog wizards to stick their snouts into, and move on to the next scene.
The finy frog wizards agree amongst themselves that no further progress can be made at this time, and the true root of the problem lies elsewhere. The players should take a moment to sort out what their tiny frog wizards think is really going on; this functions much as the preceding option, except the players take the reins in deciding where the next scene will lead. The GM is under no obligation to have their presumptions turn out to be correct.
The tiny frog wizards have collectively suffered a number of Misfortunes during the current scene that exceeds the number of tiny frog wizards. (For example, four Misfortunes in one scene, in a game with three tiny frog wizards.) If this threshold is reached, the tiny frog wizards' interference causes the problem to spin out of control, forcing them to retreat from the scene. The GM decides what new predicament they find themselves in, as well as whether they're afforded any opportunity to tend to the wounds to their bodie and egoes before being thrown into the thick of it.
Power Dice are a physical representation of your tiny frog wizard's arcane oomph. You can expend them to pump up your dice pools and augment your rituals – or, alternatively, to set ritual aside and shape reality through pure force of will. The Casting Spells section covers how to spend Power Dice.
First, your tiny frog wizard begins play with three Power Dice. This is also the number you reset to if you decide to bring the same tiny frog wizard back in a future misadventure, so there's no point hoarding them between sessions!
Second, you can gain Power Dice via your Path of Power. Every tiny frog wizard has a source their power flows from, or a shape that power likes to take; when you cultivate that source or encourage that shape, your power grows.
Each Path includes a pair of actions you can take to trigger it: one that gets you in trouble, and one that just requires you to run off at the mouth for a bit. In either case, any player – including the GM, if present – can toss you one Power Die if they think you've fulfilled your path's trigger in an entertaining fashion. This Power Die doesn't come out of their own pool.
To make sure nobody hogs the spotlight, each tiny frog wizard can be awarded a Power Die for triggering their Path at most once per scene. However, if another player deliberately prompts you to trigger your Path just to see what you'll do, that doesn't count against the once per scene limit – and yes, other players are explicitly allowed to offer the Power Die as bribe to get you to do it!
Finally, adversity breeds strength; each time you suffer a Misfortune, you gain one Power Die. This can be combined with fulfilling a Path trigger.
This document outlines nine common Paths of Power. If none of these strike your fancy, you can also invent your own, with your group's approval.
The Path of Balance
The cosmos is a harmonious alignment of forces in perfect balance, and your magic demands that you live your life by the same principles. You may tolerate neither favours or insults: each must be repaid in precisely equal measure.
Triggers: go out of your way to repay a favour or insult; justify or explain something by citing the Cosmic Balance. When another player's tiny frog wizard pays you a favour or insult, repaying it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of Denial
Power demand sacrifice – for you more than most. Your magic depends on a complex system of behavioural prohibitions; you may be a strict ascetic, or your prohibitions may be more esoteric. Think of two or three important ones before play begins (though you're also free to invent new ones on the spot).
Triggers: be thwarted by one of your prohibitions; weasel around a previously established prohibition by explaining why it technically doesn't apply. When another player's tiny frog wizard points out that you're about to trip over a prohibition, that doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of the Dramaturge
Most people think of the universe as a place that's governed by rules: gravity makes things fall, one and one adds up to two, and so forth. You know a little secret: the universe loves a good story, and it's willing to bend the rules for the sake of drama. And wizards? Well, wizards just tell the best stories, that's all.
Triggers: push the story along the path of well-worn trope or cliché at the expense of your own best interests; re-narrate what just happened in a trope-friendly fashion. When another player's tiny frog wizard hands you an obvious setup, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of Excellence
Your magic is fuelled by your boundless confidence in your own arcane might – or, as the less charitable might put it, by your towering ego. You don't necessary disrespect your fellow tiny frog wizards, but deep down, you probably believe that you're just that tiny bit more, well, wizardly.
Triggers: rise to a challenge and get in over your head; boast about your magical prowess in a way that's likely to make trouble for you later. When the challenge comes from another player's tiny frog wizard, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of Fool
Magic is a great mystery – but then, for you, so is everything else. You're not really sure why you're able to do the things that you do; you just seem to have a knack for it. You're not going to let it bother you, even though sometimes you really should.
Triggers: fail to consider the extremely obvious consequences of your actions; casually reveal some absurd fact or belief. When another player's tiny frog wizard hands you a golden opportunity to do something unwise, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of the Gourmand
At its heart, magic is tranformation: the reshaping of reality mediated by the will. Lesser practitioners dabble with alembics and beakers, but you've surpassed the need for such fripperies and made an alchemic cauldron of your own flesh, working transformative miracles within your belly. In plain terms: you like to eat stuff!
Trigger: suffer bizarre – or at least inconvenient – side effects from eating something unusual. When another player's tiny frog wizard offers you something strange to eat, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of the Mountebank
You understand something that your fellow tiny frog wizards don't: magic is a trick. It's a lie you tell the universe, so persasively that it has no choice but to play along. Theory and ritual are important, but the particulars don't matter – they're just props to make the lie more convincing.
Triggers: get in trouble for a lie where the truth would have served you better; tell a particularly creative lie. When you lie in response to a question put to you by another player's tiny frog wizard, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of the Philosopher
Scholars propose that knowledge is power; ironically, they don't understand how right they really are. To understand a thing is to control it, and some day soon you'll understand everything. Then you'll show them – you'll show them all!
Triggers: propose a theory and take a risk to test it; provide an entertaining (not necessarily correct) explanation for what's going on. When another player's tiny frog wizard challenges your knowledge, your response doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
The Path of the Righteous
For other tiny frog wizards, magic may be a wondrous gift, but for you, it's a heavy responsibility. Your mystical might flows from a higher power, and with it comes the duty to use it for the greater good – protecting the downtrodden, avenging the innocent, fighting for justice, and so on, and so forth.
Triggers: take the moral high road at some personal cost; pause to explain the Very Important Lesson the current situation can teach. When another player's tiny frog wizard prompts the lesson or dilemma in question, it doesn't count against the once per scene limit.
Bad things can happen when you're tiny frog, even without magic in the mix. As when defending yourself from a spell, the GM will usually afford you an opportunity to cast a spell to avoid potential harm, unless you've been completely caught out. However, at times even this may not suffice.
As a final line of defence, you can declare that whatever has befallen you is a Misfortune. In order to qualify as a Misfortune, a circumstance must satisfy two criteria:
It must be harmful
It must be non-transitory – that is, it must be something that's liable to stick around for more than a few moments
Some effects, like spells of the Imprecation Arcanum, are intrinsically Misfortunate and must be declared as Misfortunes if you have an available Misfortune slot. The GM will inform you when this is the case. You may choose to suffer Misfortune on behalf of your pointy wizard hat in order to protect it from otherwise-unavoidable harm, subject to the above criteria.
When you declare an effect to be a Misfortune, you write it down in one of your Misfortune slots. This has four benefits:
You describe how it affects you, rather than the caster (for spells) or the GM (for everything else)
The effect can remove you from play for at most the remainder of the current scene
Once you've suffered Misfortune from a particular spell, effect or circumstance, you can't suffer further harm from it during the current scene; the same spell, effect or circumstance can never oblige to you mark down multiple Misfortunes in the same scene
The effect is intrinsically recoverable, even if it ordinarily wouldn't make sense for it to be
For example, if a boulder falls on you and you declare it as a Misfortune, you'd turn up at the end of the scene, somewhat squished but alive and mobile. Similarly, if turned to stone by an Imprecation spell, you'd regain mobility at the end of the scene, though you'd remain stone until the Misfortune is recovered.
As a tiny frog wizard, you have three Misfortune slots. If all three are full, you can't declare any more Misfortunes, and your fate is in the hands of the GM!
Some important non-player characters may also have Misfortune slots.
In some situations, it might make sense to declare a very short-lived effect as Misfortunate. One common example is a spell effect with a duration of concentration; unless whoever cast the spell is very determined to see you suffer, the effect is unlikely to stick around for more than a few minutes.
Declaring such an effect as a Misfortune doesn't increase its duration. However, you don't get the Misfortune slot back immediately when the effect lapses: the slot remains occupied until it's recovered normally. Once the effect lapses, cross out the relevant Misfortune slot to remind yourself that it's occupied by a defunct effect.
Recovery
Whenever your tiny frog wizard has the chance to engage in uninterrupted rest and relaxation (including, but not limited to, a good night's sleep), clear one Misfortune slot. This recovery is not optional, even if you've managed to twist a harmful effect around so that it somehow benefits you. However, if you're suffering form multiple Misfortunes, you can choose which slot to recover.
Playing Without a GM
One of the perennial sources of strife in tabletop roleplaying deciding who gets to be GM. Fortunately, with only a few adjustments, Tiny Frog Wizards can be played with no GM at all.
First, with no GM, setting the scene becomes a collaborative undertaking. In order, the group should brainstorm answers to the following four questions:
Where are we?
Who else is here?
Why is everyone unhappy?
What stands in the way of fixing it?
For the first scene of each session, you may wish to use the tables provided in the Random Scene Prompts appendix in order to kick-start the brainstorming process. In subsequent scenes, it will generally be more obvious where things are headed, though randomly generating each scene afresh is also an option for a purely episodic game.
Once the scene has been set, GMless play proceeds in a series of turns. Beginning with the oldest (and therefore wisest) player, each tiny frog wizard has their turn in the spotlight.
When you're in the spotlight, you drive the action, and the other players react. If more information is needed about the scene or its inhabitants in order to decide what to do, you ask the questions, and the other players will furnish answers. If the need for magic arises, the other players should find excuses to defer the honour to you; perhaps their tiny frog wizards become distracted or indisposed, or perhaps they're simply curious to see what you'll do.
You keep the spotlight until you've made one spellcasting roll to try and fix the problem at hand. Depending on how quick on the draw you are, your turn in the spotlight might take a while to play out, or it may be over very quickly! After the effects of your spell have been resolved, your tiny frog wizard fades into the background for a while, and the spotlight passes to the player to your right. You still play your tiny frog wizard while you're out of the spotlight, but you're a supporting character for now.
When it's not your turn in the spotlight, you can still cast spells in response to something the spotlight player did – for example, to get yourself out of the line of fire! – but you can't do so of your own initiative. In return, you have two responsibilities:
Whenever the spotlight player's actions raise a question about what their tiny frog wizard can see or what's going on in the scene, any non-spotlight player can jump in and answer that question.
Whenever the spotlight player's tiny frog wizard interacts with a non-player character, any non-spotlight player can jump into the role of that character for as long as needed.
In addition to these, certain players may have more specific duties, depending on the size of your group. These roles will rotate aong with the spotlight.
In a game with two players, the non-spotlight player simply assumes the GM's responsibilties in every respect – describing scenes, playing NPCs, keeping track of the rules, etc. The non-spotlight player's tiny frog wizard effectively becomes an NPC for the duration.
In a minimal two-player game, you may wish to relax the rule that each tiny frog wizard can independently trigger their Path of Power only once per scene; the small group size – and the non-spotlight player's heavier responsibilities – may conspire to reduce the group interplay that would otherwise yield additional opportunities to recover Power Dice.
In a game with three players, either non-spotlight player may step in to answer questions that would ordinarily be directed to the GM. However, a division of responsibility exists: the player to the spotlight player's left has final say on matters concerning dice and rules, particularly with respect to the outcomes of spells, while the player to the spotlight player's right has final say on matters governed by narrative plausibility rather than by game mechanics: whether a particular object or feature is present in the scene, the outcomes of mundane actions, and so forth. Either player may step into the role of an NPC at need.
Games with four or more players observe the same division of responsibilities as games with three players. In addition, the roles of major NPCs – particularly those acting antagonistically toward the spotlight player's tiny frog wizard – should preferentially be taken on by a player not otherwise burdened with responsibility (i.e., neither the player to the spotlight player's left nor the player to their right). This guideline may also be extended to inanimate features of the scene that display a sufficiently antagonistic orientation.
Mastery of even a single True Arcanum grants nearly godlike power – yet at the same time, each is limited to a relatively narrow sphere of effects. Having mastered only a pair of Arcana each, tiny frog wizards are thus prone to treating their magic as a solution in search of problems; as a certain time-worn proverb goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
Let this be your guiding principle when interpreting the scope of each Arcanum. It's entirely possible that you'll find a way to construe the guidance provided on the following pages such that certain Arcana can accomplish anything and render all of the other Arcana obsolete – but where's the fun in that? Tiny Frog Wizards is a game about overpowered weirdos applying wildly inappropriate solutions to relatively trivial problems. If you're interpreting your own Arcana in a way that inconveniences everyone around you, you're probably doing it right.
You ward a creature or area against harm. Use either the Magnitude (Size) parameter or the Magnitude (Area) parameter, depending on whether you're warding a creature or an area; a ward affecting an area is immobile once created, while a ward affecting a creature moves with that creature.
Describe what exactly the ward is to protect against using a number of words equal to the Control parameter; the described phenomena are prevented from touching the targeted creature or entering the targeted area. Instances of the described phenomena that are already inside a warded area when it's created are neither ejected nor imprisoned, but if they leave the area by other means, they're prevented from re-entering.
Concentration: Yes. A ward's protection persists only as long as you actively maintain it (and for the usual grace period afterward).
Direct Opposition: Against non-magical phenomena, Abjuration's protection is absolute. However, spells that draw on the True Arcana or similarly powerful sources can overpower an Abjuration-based ward if the hostile spell's Potency exceeds that of the ward. This counts as directly opposing the ward.
You modify the physical attributes of a creature. You can produce cosmetic changes to the targeted creature's apperance, cause it to grow or shrink, turn it invisible, or even transform it into another creature entirely. The Magnitude (Size) parameter determines both the maximum size of the targeted creature and the maximum size of its altered form, if they differ. Describe the desired alteration using a number of words equal to the Control parameter.
Alteration tends to preserve the abilities of the target's true form. A creature that's intelligent and capable of speech remains so. Similarly, turning a land-dwelling creature into a fish will grant it the ability to breathe water, but usually won't remove its ability to breathe air. Indeed, turning a bird into a fish may well result in a fish that can fly!
Given that what counts as a loss of ability is somewhat subjective, the rule is this: the target of an Alteration spell retains the abilities of its true form precisely to the extent that the target's player deems appropriate. They're free to invent a narrative rationale for this, but it doesn't have to be a good one. If you want to forcibly remove abilities from the target, you're looking for Imprecation.
Concentration: Yes. When you stop maintaining the spell, the target immediately becomes aware that they're about to resume their true form, and can take advantage of the post-concentration grace period to get somewhere safe if they aren't already.
Direct Opposition: Alteration directly opposes any magical effects that would prevent a targeted creature from successfully making use of new or enhanced capabilities granted by the spell. Making use of those capabilities remains a mundane action.
You bring an inanimate object to life. The Magnitude (Size) parameter determines the affected object's maxium size. State a command using a number of words equal to the Control parameter; the object carries out your command, precisely and to the letter.
An animated object is imbued with sufficient flexibility and motive force to obey orders, but doesn't necessarily gain any extraordinary abilities unless they're natural extensions of the object's existing physical properties. For example, an animated toy dragon probably wouldn't be able to breathe fire simply because it's shaped like a mythical fire-breathing creature; however, an animated candle may be able to hurl its flame. When in doubt, the GM decides what special abilities – if any – an animated object possesses.
Concentration: Yes. You cannot change an Animated object's command while concentrating on the spell that animates it. However, if you let the spell lapse and successfully cast a new Animation on the same object to issue a new command, the existing command is immediately “overwritten”, even if its grace period has not yet expired.
Direct Opposition: Physical actions taken by an animated object, in direct pursuit of its animating command, have an effective Potency equal to the spell's Potency for the purpose of overcoming any magical effect that would prevent that command from successfully being carried out. The actions themselves are mundane, and are resolved as such.
You call an object or creature to your presence. The Magnitude (Size) parameter determines its maximum size. Describe the desired target using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. You conjure a random object or creature from somewhere in the world that matches your description. The conjured target need not be within Range, nor do you require line of sight to it; the point where it appears, however, must be within Range and line of sight, and not already occupied by another object or creature.
Alternatively, you can send yourself or an object or creature that you're touching to a location you describe, using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. The described location must be within Range, but you need not have line of sight to it. (e.g., “behind that door” is a valid location.) The maximum size of the sent object is governed by the Magnitude (Size) parameter. In the event that you unwittingly send something to an occupied, nonexistent, or otherwise invalid location, the sending still occurs, but the spell's interpretation of the described location may be unconventional.
Concentration: No. Once the conjured object or creature has appeared, the spell's work is finished. You have no particular means of sending it away or otherwise commanding it without using further magic.
Direct Opposition: Conjuration rarely opposes other spells, since the magical dimension of its effects is finished the instant the target appears. Anything the target does after that – like, say, falling on a hapless rival – is a mundane action. However, Conjuration may end up directly opposing an Abjuration-based ward if you're trying to conjure a prohibited object directly into the warded area; appearing out of thin air does, unfortunately, count as “entering”.
You chain a creature to your will. The Magnitude (Size) parameter determines the targeted creature's maximum size. State a command using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. The target is compelled to obey the stated directive, to the best of its understanding and ability. The target need not understand your language (or indeed, any language) in order to obey, though non-speaking creatures may be confused by complicated commands.
Domination doesn't grant its target any means of accomplishing its orders that it wouldn't ordinarily have, nor does it give you any special insight into what the target is actually capable of. A creature that's commanded to do something it can't accomplish under its own power will seek alternative solutions rather than bashing its head against a wall. (Figuratively or otherwise!)
Concentration: Yes. You cannot change a Dominated servant's command while concentrating on the spell that dominates it. However, if you let the spell lapse and successfully cast a new Domination on the same target to issue a new command, the existing command is immediately “overwritten”, even if its grace period has not yet expired.
Direct Opposition: Physical actions taken by a dominated subject, in direct pursuit of its binding command, have an effective Potency equal to the spell's Potency for the purpose of overcoming any magical effect that would prevent that command from successfully being carried out. The actions themselves are mundane, and are resolved as such.
You fill the targeted area with a particular ephemeral phenomenon: raging fire, impenetrable darkness, thunder and lightning, etc. The Magnitude (Area) parameter determines the size of the affected area. Describe the desired phenomenon using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. The described phenomenon fills the targeted area. You can shape it into walls or other unnatural configurations if you have sufficient Control to describe it.
Concentration: Yes. An Evoked phenomenon dissipates once you cease to maintain it. Any second-order effects of that phenomenon (e.g., water frozen by bitter cold, mundane fires set by a summoned flame, miscellaneous collateral damage, etc.) persist indefinitely, or at least as long as such effects ordinarily would.
Direct Opposition: Evocation simply causes the evoked phenomenon to exist within the targeted area. Any effect that would cause the phenomenon to not be there is subject to direct opposition; actually using the evoked phenomenon to accomplish a particular goal is a mundane action, and does not enjoy any guarantee of success.
You call down a curse upon the targeted creature. The Magnitude (Size) parameter determines your victim's maximum size. Describe the desired affliction, phrased as a command, using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. “Go blind”, “turn to stone”, and “get in this bottle” are all valid afflictions – though a merciful tiny frog wizard might opt for “fall asleep” or “forget you saw me” instead.
Concentration: No. Curses are inherently Mosfortunate, and the target must suffer the effect as a Misfortune if they have any unfilled Misfortune slots. If the target has no unfilled Misfortune slots, the curse lasts as long as the described condition ordinarily would; a sleeping target will wake up eventually, but being turned to stone isn't something you get better from. If you have sufficient Control, you can specify time limits on ordinarily irrecoverable afflictions, or set conditions which will result in their removal.
Direct Opposition: Depending on the nature of the curse, another tiny frog wizard might essay an Alteration to undo a physical transformation, or Domination to undo a curse that imposes a particular behaviour. All such remedies must overcome the Potency of the original Imprecation. A creature that's become an inanimate object due to an Imprecation-based curse can still be targeted by effects that target creatures for the purpose of attempting to overcome the curse.
You cast a veil of illusion either over a creature or object, or over a defined area. The illusion is absolutely convincing and affects all senses, but real objects and creatures can freely pass through it.
When the illusion is cast over a creature or object, use the Magnitude (Size) parameter to determine the maximum size of both the thing to be affected and the seeming you grant it. The target cannot be made to appear smaller than it really is, but can be made to appear larger. Describe the target's new appearance using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. If the target is a creature or otherwise animate, the illusion will mimic its actions as precisely as it can; should the target's true size or shape be very different from the illusion's, this may have very strange results. In any case, the illusion moves with the target (or moves as the target is moved, in the case of an inanimate object).
When the illusion is cast over an area, use the Magnitude (Area) parameter to determine the affected region's size, and describe its new appearance in a number of words equal to the Control parameter. Features and terrain within the affected area cannot be made invisible, but can appear to be almost anything that's at least roughly the same size. Creatures present within or passing through the area do not have their appearances changed. The illusory veil is immobile once created.
Concentration: Yes. The illusions you create have no true substance, and evaporate once you cease to maintain them.
Direct Opposition: Simulation rarely finds itself directly opposing other spells. Situations where this might occur include special senses granted by an Alteration, or a very particularly worded ward.
You reshape or transform an inanimate substance. Describe what you want to turn the targeted substance into using a number of words equal to the Control parameter. The Magnitude (Area) parameter determines the maximum volume of the targeted substance you can affect. You can affect a portion of a larger object if you wish.
Concentration: Only if you perform an unnatural transmutation; e.g., lead into gold. If you merely reshape the target into a form it could naturally occupy, the transmutation lasts indefinitely, or at least as long as it ordinarily would; water turned to ice melts at the usual rate, while a stone transformed into a statue of yourself is more or less permanent – unless some enterprising art critic takes a chisel to it!
Direct Opposition: The magical part of this Arcanum's effect consists exclusively of causing the targeted substance to assume the desired form. As with Evocations, using this transformation to accomplish a particular goal – like skewering a meddling rival – is effectively a mundane action, and is resolved as such.
This section offers several new ways for your tiny frog wizards to get in trouble. The rules get a bit more complicated with them in play, so don't feel obligated to use them if you're happy with the game's level of crunch right where it is.
If you want tiny frog wizards to be more casually magical in your game, you can waive the rule that rolling at least one die is required to cast a spell. Unrolled spells are called cantrips.
A cantrip automatially has a value of 1 in each of Range, Magnitude and Control. This means it has a range of one hop, can target a creature no larger than a tiny frog (or an area no more than one frog-length across), and must have an effect that can be described in one word.
These limits don't mean that cantrips are weak – a Control value of 1 still allows many powerful effects. However, unrolled spells suffer from a further drawback; they have no Potency at all, and are effectively mundane actions. Cantrips can thus be contested by other mundane actions, and automatically give way to any rolled spell.
Some groups may prefer casual magics to be more limited in their applications than true spells. In this case, each player should choose 1–3 words during tiny frog wizard creation; their tiny frog wizard may perform a cantrips only if the spell's Control parameter uses one of those words. For example, a tiny frog wizard with the word “hat”, having mastered the Arcana of Conjuration and Transmutation, would be able to employ cantrips to summon random hats and turn inanimate objects into hats.
Though they're loathe to admit it, tiny frog wizards have little facility with very complex spells. Some would say – though rarely to their froggy faces! – that they're simply too small for their arts to encompass such big concepts. However, where one frog falls short, two may suffice.
Cooperative magic allows a pair of tiny frog wizards to combine their Arcana in novel ways. The usual spellcasting rules are observed, modified as follows:
Two wizards are required, and each must contribute a different mastered Arcanum; tiny frog wizards cannot cooperatively cast a spell involving only a single Arcanum.
In order to receive dice for declaring intentions, grand gestures, or the wearing of hats, both tiny frog wizards must satisfy the relevant criteria. Only a single die is received for each condition that both wizards meet.
Either or both tiny frog wizards may contribute Power Dice. Unlike dice for ritual actions, Power Dice expenditure need not be “doubled up” in order to contribute to the final pool.
Two Control dice are assigned rather than one, each describing a different dimension of the intended effect. Note that this means a cooperative spell will assign four dice to parameters rather than three, so the expenditure of Power Dice is recommended!
When determining the Potency of a cooperative spell, only the higher of the two Control dice is considered.
If sustaining the spell requires concentration, it weighs on both wizards, reducing future dice pools accordingly; likewise, the spell is disrupted if either wizard is harmed or distracted.
There are no rules governing who gets to decide which dice should be allocated to which parameters, nor which particular Control die each tiny frog wizard gets to use; those performing a cooperative spell must work these matters out amongst themselves. The GM is encouraged to construe protracted disagreement as in-character bickering, and rule accordingly.
There is no master list of all the possible effects for cooperative magic; not only is the number of pairings of Arcana very large, but each pairing may admit multiple possible effects. Cooperative magic is an improvisational affair, and players are encouraged to improvise alongside their tiny frog wizards. Several examples follow to provide a starting point for your imagination; for the sake of brevity, “the tiny frog wizard who contributes the Arcanum of [Arcanum]” is shorthanded as “the master of [Arcanum]” in these descriptions.
Amalgamate (Conjuration + Transmutation)
You circumvent the usual limits on the complexity of Transmutions by using another object as a template. The master of Conjuration describes the object to be used as a template in a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. The master of Transmutation selects an object within Range and describes, in genral terms, the attributes it should inherit from the template object, using a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die.
The result is a fully functional object that seamlessly combines the attributes of both the template object and the target object. The two objects need not be the same size, but neither can be larger than the rolled Magnitude.
Empower Servant (Animation + Transmutation)
You ensure that your Animated servant has the tools it needs to carry out its task. The master of Animation commands the object in the usual fashion, in a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. The master of Transmutation describes a special ability which would help it carry out that command, in a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die. You don't need to specify how the object is transformed in order to grant the described ability – the magic (and the GM) figures it out for you.
Forbiddance (Abjuration + Imprecation)
You forbid a particular voluntary action within the warded area. The master of Abjuration describes the forbidden activity using a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. The master of Imprecaton describes a terrible curse using a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die. Anyone who violates the prohibition while within the warded area will immediately be struck down by the curse.
Identity Theft (Alteration + Conjuration)
You steal another's body and take it for your own, leaving their mind and soul stranded in your former flesh. The master of Alteration describes the first target in a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die; this target must be willing, and may be one of the spell's casters. The master of Conjuration describes the second target in a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die; the second target may not be one of the spell's casters, and need not be willing. Both targets must be within Range.
For as long as both casters maintain concentration, the first target effectively plays the second target's character, and vice versa. If one of the targets is a tiny frog wizard, the ability to cast spells (and corresponding mastered Arcana) go along with their mind and soul, rather than remaining with their original body; however, as with more conventional Alterations, stealing a larger body does not change how your Range and Magnitude parameters work.
Monstrous Form (Alteration + Evocation)
You achieve the union of the material and the ephemeral within the target's flesh, transforming them into a mystical beast. The master of Alteration describes the target's new, monstrous form in a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. The master of Evocation describes the ephemeral phenomenon over which the target gains dominion in a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die.
The target may radiate or project the described phenomenon at will, as a mundane action, for as long as the transformation persists. The phenomenon can be straightforward, like a dragon's firey breath, but it can also be esoteric – literally anything that the Arcanum of Evocation could call up is fair game!
Phantasmagoria (Domination + Simulation)
You produce a compelling illusion. This illusion, which must be cast on an area rather than a creature, compels those who observe or interact with it to play along with an associated scenario. The master of Simulation describes the illusion using a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. The master of Domination describes the associated scenario using a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die. For example, an illusion of a large cake with a context of “a surprise birthday party” might cause anyone who sees it to suddenly “remember” that they've been invited.
Somebody Else's Problem (Abjuration + Simulation)
You invert the effect of an illusion: rather than causing affected parties to perceive something, you render them unable to perceive something. If you target an area, some feature or condition of that area becomes imperceptible; if you target an object or creature, some quality of that object or creature cannot be perceived. The affected condition or quality may be concrete or abstract.
The master of Abjuraton describes who should be prevented from perceiving the affected feature, condition or quality, using a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. (“Everyone” is a valid choice, though “everyone except me” may be wiser!) The master of Simulaton describes the feature, condition, or quality that should be rendered imperceptible using a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die.
Summon Elemental (Animation + Evocation)
Rather than animating an object, you shape an ephemeral phenomenon into a form suitable to carry out your will. The master of Evocation describes the evoked form in a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die, and the master of Animation commands it in a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die. The form thereafter behaves as a typical animated object, with special abilities appropriate to its nature (as determined by the GM).
Ultimatum (Domination + Imprecation)
You lay a curse that hangs over the victim's head, waiting to strike should they defy you. The master of Imprecation pronounces the curse according to the normal rules governing Imprecations, using a number of words equal to the value of the first Control die. In a number of words equal to the value of the second Control die, the master of Domination defines either a command or a prohibition.
If you define a command, the curse strikes whenever the target disobeys. If you define a prohibition, the curse strikes whenever the target engages in the prohibited activity. An Ultimatum does not require concentration to sustain it once imposed; it effectively functions as a conditional Imprecation-based curse, filling one of the target's Misfortune slots if they have one.
In theory, cooperative spells combining three Arcana rather than two are possible. However, by default this is considered to be a lost art, inaccessible to tiny frog wizards of the modern age. Perhaps the players will rediscover it in the course of your game!
In the event that such a spell comes to pass, extend the above rules appropriately, assigning three Control dice rather than two.
Discussion of conflict between spells now addresses resolving conflicts between spells and mundane actions.
New Playing the Game chapter includes a brief discussion of the game's default assumptions about the cycle of play, as well as some material moved from Workng Your Will.
Expanded discussion of Power Dice, including Paths of Power, a newly introduced mechanic for gamifying Power Dice recovery.
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