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THE MIST ENGINE

Learn more about

Legend in the Mist

The Mist Engine is a collective name for the rules behind Son of Oak games, which guide you through creating your character and playing them, taking action as them, and guide the story through the actions of the Master of Ceremonies (or Game Master, or Narrator).

Legend in the Mist is a narrative roleplaying game with optional tactical features, that evokes the feeling of an old fireside tale. Gather companions, explore hidden villages and fog soaked valleys, overcome natural and ancient dangers, and discover how the consequences of your choices shape your character. The design brings story and gameplay together, from simple rules at the table to tools that help shape personal arcs and moments of transformation.

Learn more about

Legend in the Mist

The Mist Engine is the rules system behind Son of Oak games. It guides character creation, action, and story through the GM while bringing narrative and gameplay together. Legend in the Mist uses it to tell fireside-style tales where your choices shape who your character becomes.

CHARACTER SHEET

ALL DESCRIPTORS,

NO STATS

Son of Oak's games take a different approach to roleplaying by using keywords instead of stats: player characters are made purely out of “tags” which players invoke during action rolls to gain bonuses.

Any character detail can affect gameplay: not only physical and mental attributes, skills, and spells, but also motivations, feelings, backstory details, and even character catchphrases.

Any character, ability, or magic system can be created simply by describing it, and the game has a wealth of tools to help players make the most of this freedom as well as maintain balance.

CHARACTER SHEET

ALL DESCRIPTORS,

NO STATS

Instead of stats, Mist Engine characters are built from tags. These keywords cover anything from skills and spells to backstory, quirks, or catchphrases. If you can describe it, you can use it, with built-in tools to keep things balanced.

ACTION RESOLUTION

ONE ROLL TO

RULE THEM ALL

Mist Engine games have just one type of roll, simple yet all-powerful: players roll two six-sided dice or 2d6 and add the action’s Power.

Power stands for all the factors that affect your action. Every tag in the game – your own, your opponent’s, or in the environment, from qualities, through tools, to conditions – can affect your action’s Power. Every roll drives the story forward, resulting in success, Consequences, or both. 

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ACTION RESOLUTION

ONE ROLL TO

RULE THEM ALL

Gameplay runs on one roll: 2d6 plus Power, which reflects every factor affecting your action. Tags from you, your foes, or the environment shape the result, always pushing the story forward with success, consequence, or both.

NEW PLAYER FRIENDLY

QUICK TO LEARN

No more intimidating, overcomplicated character sheets. Mist Engine character sheets are made of tags only, so anyone, even players new to roleplaying, can read them right off the bat. 

No more memorizing or endlessly looking up rules, spells, or effects while the excitement of the moment passes. Player actions – whether in combat, dialog, magic, or crafting – are about narrating what happens and then choosing which tags to add or remove from the game.

NEW PLAYER FRIENDLY

QUICK TO LEARN

Character sheets are simple—just tags. No long lists of rules or spells to memorize. Whether you’re fighting, negotiating, or casting magic, you describe your action, add or remove relevant tags, and see what happens.

SWITCH SEAMLESSLY

NARRATIVE + TACTICAL

Our games allows the GM to opt between quick (narrative) and detailed (crunchy) resolution for each action: resolve it quickly and move the story along, or delve into a play-by-play conflict.

The GM also chooses how many tactical tags to introduce such as restrained, cornered, distracted, cover, rough terrain, fog, etc. – controlling the level of crunchy detail in each conflict.

Condition tags ranked 1 to 6 called statuses replace Hit Points. These affect the Power of player actions, and when a status hits its Limit, characters are downed, killed, or forever transformed. The descriptive flexibility of tags means PCs and adversaries can have ad-hoc “HP bars” for every imaginable kind of “damage”: wounded, charmed, humiliated, cursed, and so on.

SWITCH SEAMLESSLY

NARRATIVE + TACTICAL

The GM can keep things fast and narrative or add tactical depth with tags like restrained, cornered, or fog. Condition tags replace hit points, so harm can look like wounds, curses, humiliation, or any other status that changes the flow of play.

CHARACTER EVOLUTION

PERSONAL STORY ARCS

Each player character has multiple and sometimes conflicting motivations that the player must juggle between.

Players are encouraged to make hard choices, which can eventually transform their characters in dramatic story moments: they swap out themes and all the tags associated with them for new themes and ability sets, changing the character’s gameplay.

PCs constantly evolve narratively, changing their “class”, shifting to a new role in the party, or resolving a major backstory event – and coming out of this transformation with newfound abilities.

CHARACTER EVOLUTION

PERSONAL STORY ARCS

Characters are driven by multiple motivations that force tough choices. These decisions spark dramatic transformations, swapping old abilities and themes for new ones as characters evolve, resolve backstory, or step into new roles.