The Killing Stone

No one knows why or how The Killing Stone was opened, but in a cloud of poison gas there emerged a warrior woman and a fox spirit, imprisoned by a feudal warlord a thousand years ago. Pure in spirit, they work together to fight near-future global techno-fascist warlords.

Mechanic

The Killing Stone uses a simple mechanic to enable colorful storytelling and fast, impactful action. All rolls hinge at 4 - as "shih" in Japanese means both four and death.

This game is GM-less and relies on everyone adding to the story as you play - which sometimes means confronting enemies or suffering other misfortunes. Risky failures take their toll and it's possible that your character will be taken out (what that means is up to you).

Characters and Setting

There are four character archetypes to choose from:

• the Onna-bugeisha
• the Kitsune
• the Ronin
• the Descendant

The first two are the ancient characters, to be played in every game, while the latter two are modern characters who might be considered an "expansion" for when you have more players at your table.

Each character archetype has a special skill that impacts their play in a unique way, an aptitude that provides them bonuses in certain circumstances, and a signature complication that triggers when they fail specific tasks.

Advancement is simple, stepping up skill die sizes as characters make it through sessions.

The setting is near-future in a world governed by techno-fascist warlords - how advanced that technology is, and how steeped in tradition those people are are up to you and your table.

One constant is that the spirit world is close at hand: when characters roll 4s they become Haunted. Struggling through that leads them to a Blessing which grants them temporary power beyond their normal capabilities.

What You Get

The Killing Stone exists solely on Google Sheets, complete with notes in certain cells for quick reference to rules, though it is formatted for easy download/printing.

The game was designed during COVID and was first played online, the idea being that the rules and character sheets would be easily sharable, easy to change values on, and visually pleasing.