Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures — Old-school fantasy about a village's young heroes

"Every home needs its heroes."

Diced20 (roll-under checks)

Players3–5

Prep~10 min

Foundry VTTCommunity

Complexity

What is this system

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures from Flatland Games is an old-school fantasy game on a classic D&D chassis, built to be played with no prep. The characters are childhood friends from one village, created together through playbooks full of tables about their youth. In a single evening the group builds its heroes, its village and an adventure — and plays it.

Is it for your table?

Pick it if

your GM wants to run old-school fantasy with almost no prep
your group likes making childhood-friend heroes and their village together
you want a gentle coming-of-age tone like Earthsea or Prydain

Skip it if

you want brutal dungeon crawls with high character death
your players want epic heroes from the first session
your table dislikes random tables shaping characters

Setting

A quiet village at the edge of the unknown: beyond the wall lie faeries in the forest, wicked men and monsters, and the locals rarely stray far from home. The spirit is young-adult fantasy in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain: young, untested, and ready to protect what matters.

What it looks like at the table

Character creation: you take the Self-Taught Mage playbook and roll a d12 on the childhood table — your father was a stern but fair watchman, and a couple of your attributes rise. You add the old mill to the village map; your neighbour adds the innkeeper everyone has a grudge against. An hour later your mage creeps past a faerie sentry: Dexterity 14 plus 2 for the Stealth skill, so 16 or under on a d20. A 17. You spend a Fortune Point to reroll — 9. He slips into the hill.

Playstyle

Narrative Worldbuilding Exploration Fantasy

Key mechanics

Character playbooks

Every hero starts from a playbook: the Village Hero, the Witch's Prentice, the Self-Taught Mage, the Untested Thief, the Would-Be Knight, the Young Woodsman. d12 rolls on childhood tables hand out stats, skills and spells — and tie the heroes together with a shared past.

A village everyone builds

During creation the players put places on the map and write in the important NPCs of their home village. When play begins it is already your home, your neighbours and your secrets — and the GM has something to threaten.

Scenario and threat packs

The GM takes a scenario pack and rolls on its tables, weaving in the NPCs and places the players created. Prep nearly vanishes and a pack can be replayed. Supplements add threat packs that grow stronger over time, the backbone of a campaign.

Cantrips, spells, rituals

Magic comes in three layers: cantrips are cast with an ability check as often as you like, a mage can cast as many spells as their level, and rituals take hours, special ingredients and a check. Classes are Warrior, Rogue and Mage over ten levels, with roll-under d20 checks and Fortune Points for rerolls.

What people say

Usually I am not too fond of random character creation, but the creators of Beyond The Wall took great care that each result is interesting and adds something memorable to the character.— Michael Wolf, Stargazer's World

Art & materials