Sunday, May 3, 2026

All Hail the Ultra Bastard

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Ultra Bastard, my homemade franken-creature of a ruleset is now available for your perusal. 


It's a compact (16 pages for core) distillation of the rules I actually play at my table. 

I've previously described myself as a heterodox, universal harvester and that ethos is evident throughout this project. This is a love letter to the hobby, not a product

I am a big believer in the ethos of DIY and the notion that every DM with the inclination to do so, should make their own D&D. I hope you'll chop it up for parts, excise the sections that aren't a perfect fit and re-combine the remaining bits with your favorite house-rules to make a bespoke ruleset that's perfect for the campaign you're running right now.

A few distinctives:
  • Classless core with optional, simple-to-implement classes
  • Cast as many spells as you like, but they cost HP
  • Hit points are capped at the higher of Strength or Constitution score so they never over-inflate.
  • Speed Sandwich initiative (per Dwiz)
  • Optional Wounds table
  • Wisdom is replaced with Alertness. One stat for perception instead of two for mindfulness.
  • Familiar, old-fashioned D&D chassis but with Advantage/Disadvantage, slot-based encumbrance and critical hits.
I'm proud of this and I hope you'll tear it apart and make something you're proud of.