Running the Game
GM References
Quick reference sheets, ready-to-run stat blocks, and the tools for the table.
Running the Game
Quick Reference Sheets
One topic per page, built to be read in one look at the table. Select a sheet to open it, and use the arrows to flip through the rest. Every player sheet is also in one PDF, the Quick Reference Guide (7.6 MB), and the GM Reference Guide (8.7 MB) has every sheet on this page, GM and player.
The Basics
How 20 Below Works
The whole game in seven steps, for a new player.
Core Roll
The one mechanic, and every modifier to it.
Advantage & Disadvantage
Where an extra die moves the odds.
Difficulty Chart
Eleven rungs, with examples on each.
Time
How long things last, and what rest brings back.
Characters
Character Creation
Fifteen steps as one path.
Elements and Sub-Stats
What every number on your sheet does.
Skills
The tiers, what they cost, and what they let you pick up.
Elements × Skills
Five Skills, each read through all five Elements.
One Skill, Five Elements
The default pairing, and how to argue for another.
The Fate Triangle
Nature, Fate Tokens and Ki together.
Kotodama
Pricing a claim: Magnitude, Range, Plausibility, Duration.
Boons and Flaws
What they cost, what they pay, and every way to earn a Fate Token.
Ki
One pool, three jobs.
Using a Gift
Levels, the Gift Check, and attack dice.
Resources Ladder
What each Resource Level gets you.
The Resource Index
Why a lower index is the easier check.
Advancement
Earning XP, every price, and what a session buys.
Combat
The Round
Turn order you can follow with a finger.
Actions
Everything a round can buy, and which band it needs.
The Combat Flow
All of a fight as one decision tree.
Making an Attack
Approach, Defense, and where the dice come from.
Taking Damage
Hit, then every die on its own.
Weapons & Armor
The damage ladder, range, and four armor Zones.
Range & Movement
Four bands and three speeds.
Getting Around
Leaving Melee, cover, ground, and climbing, jumping and swimming.
Chases and Travel
Running someone down, getting away, and a day on the road.
The Vitals
Health, Poise and Sanity side by side.
Status Effects
Every condition, and how it ends.
Scars
What going below 0 leaves, how it heals, and the Physical scars.
Scars, continued
The Social and Mental scars, and making your own.
Running Creatures
Stat Blocks
Who rolls what, and which number on the card.
Building an Encounter
Threat, Budget, the five bands, and building a creature.
Variant Templates
Dire, Giant and Mutated, and the twelve Mutation Traits.
Building a Creature
Every number on the card, and where it comes from.
The World
Hazards
Falling, fire, air, cold, venom and Corruption.
Materials
Hardness and Health Levels for things, and how they break.
Adversary Catalog
Adversary Index
Every threat a party might face, with everything needed to run it at the table.
Cryptids
Folkloric creatures, statted and ready for a modern setting.
Nightmare Creatures
Original urban-fantasy horrors, built to unsettle rather than to be recognised.
Encounters
The arithmetic for weighing a fight and building your own adversaries.
Tools
20 Below Battle Tracker
Import PCs and NPCs, roll Initiative, declare Action Brackets with Ki bumps, and track Health, Poise, Sanity and Ki through the turn order. The same tracker runs as an Owlbear Rodeo extension and as a desktop app.
Encounter Difficulty Calculator
Load the party once, then build a fight and see what it costs before anyone sits down. Runs in a browser and as a desktop app.
The Brewery
Write in plain markdown and it lays the page out in the system's own typefaces and colours, then prints to PDF - two columns, sidebars, callout boxes, roll stamps, and a print mode with the gutters and bleed a print-on-demand service expects. The same tool the core book is made with, and it also runs as a desktop app.
Part of the 20 Below core rules.