What you need in the gym bag
- A rules reference or booklet
- A full polyhedral set plus a d100
- A character sheet and pencil
- Two or more people and a few hours to play
Player Guide
Rules, reps, and righteous explosions.
Core Action Loop
Understand what happens when the GM calls for a roll and the table starts sweating.
Describe the action in the fiction before anyone reaches for dice.
Choose every ability that honestly helps the attempt.
Spend XP before the roll if you want to raise one chosen ability die.
Roll one die using the highest die size among the abilities you picked.
Resolve the result as a success, failure, explosion, or fumble.
What are your stats, and how weird can your swolecery get?
Abilities are your Words of Power
Your sheet is built from named abilities under MUSCLE and WIZARD. You can use ANY word as long as you can justify it to the Gains Master (GM). Every ability starts at d4, and your GM decides whether it really applies to the action you are trying to perform. In other words: your whole build runs on believable nonsense.
Muscle
- MUSCLE abilities are non-magical, generally for force, stunts, grit, movement, and physical nonsense.
- Magic for the letter M in MUSCLE? Sure, perhaps your character has incredible sleight of hand and is skilled in deceptive card tricks.
- Levitation for the letter L in MUSCLE? If you can explain how it works without magic, then go for it. Maybe your character has incredible thighs and treads the air like a swimmer.
Wizard
- WIZARD abilities are magical. This often means even more creative freedom. It is up to the GM to establish limits and balance to allow for scaling.
- The letter I could be for incantation. How you cast your spells could bolster their effectiveness. Or be more direct: Z for zap, to blast your enemies with lightning.
- Some magic can be inherent. W for werewolf or A for Auspicious. Not everything needs to be something you can cast, many abilities are passive.
Judgment rule
How silly can you go? How far can you stretch logic? Establish with your GM ahead of time the scope of your games. There is nothing less fun than undermining your neighboring players.
PC growth
Leveling up!
XP is the engine that makes your Words of Power stronger. Bigger dice mean taller floor, better rolls, and most importantly a lower risk to fumble your way out of the set.
Starting Size
Every Word of Power starts at d4 as a MUSCLE WIZARD or a d6 as true MUSCLE or true WIZARD.
Choose Growth
Spending your XP, you can select which important abilities can rise to larger die sizes.
Risk and Reward
Larger ability dice improve the likelihood of better rolls and reduce the chance to fumble, but they also lower the chance to gain additional XP from EXPLODING!.
Build Direction
Choosing which abilities deserve long-term growth is part of building your character.
Level Up XP Cost
1 XP
2 XP
3 XP
Everyone loves a bit of power creep and a little pump.
Gaining and spending XP
XP is also a live resource at the table. You earn it through play, then decide whether to bank it for long-term growth or spend it right before a crucial roll that needs a little extra arcane protein.
How you gain XP
Mechanical
- Exploding during rolls
At GM Discretion
- Meaningful interactions with NPCs or other players
- Impactful decisions and sacrifices
- Moments the GM judges as memorable and game-shaping
Spotting allies
A good spotter changes the odds.
Declare that you are spotting before the other player rolls.
You must be near enough or otherwise available in the scene to help.
Count how many of your abilities can meaningfully support the attempt.
Every two supporting abilities increase that player's explosion range by one.
Gaining XP on Explosion
| Die Size | XP Gained |
|---|---|
| d4, d6, d8 | 1 XP |
| d10, d12 | 2 XP |
| d20 | 3 XP |
| d100 | 10 XP |
Damage, injury, and healing
Players take damage when the fiction says they get hurt. In Muscle Wizard, that damage comes off your abilities, not a separate health bar, because even your suffering is build-specific.
Table shorthand
Injured means the ability is offline until it is healed again. If that same injured ability takes any more damage, the Muscle Wizard is wizard toast.
When damage happens
Know the trigger, then brace for the bruise.
Damage happens when:
- You fail a roll that would cause you to be hurt.
- You fumble.
- A Cursed Item triggers, or you become Cursed by a Curse that would hurt you.
Then resolve it like this:
Choose an ability used, or a relevant ability that would've been damaged by the effect.
Decrease its ability die size by one.
If an ability's die size ever goes below d4, it is Injured and cannot be used until it is healed again.
If an ability that is Injured takes any more damage, you die.
Healing
Recovery is simple, but even magic hates skipping the bill.
You can get healed by:
- Spend XP to get healed.
- Succeed on a roll with abilities that can provide magical or practical healing properties.
- Use items that have healing properties.
External modifiers for your flexecution.
Items and curses
Items
- Items in Muscle Wizard can be found and created by players.
- Items generally give an additional die to rolls they can be used in, or a flat bonus equal to half of the item's die size.
- Found items can either be predetermined, or the GM may require a roll to find them.
- When players create items or roll to find them, the booklet uses an item table to determine the die size or flat bonus.
Curses
- Bad item results can create a Cursed Item instead of a useful one.
- Cursed Items and Curses can trigger harmful effects that directly hurt you.
- Because curses can damage abilities, they are part of the same risk loop that leads to injury and death.
When the rep goes bad.
Fumbling
What matters most
A Fumble always starts on the very first roll, and once it happens the roll turns into a spectacular fail.
When a roll collapses
This is the price of overflexing.
1
Whenever you roll a 1 on the first roll of any dice roll, you Fumble. You can add no additional dice or bonuses from items, other players cannot assist you.
2
Fumbles always result in a spectacular fail, and the GM gives the player the effect.
3
Only the first roll can Fumble. Extra rolls from Exploding do not, even if they roll the lowest number.
4
If you would ever Explode on a 1 from a specific item or condition, you instead cancel out the Fumble and do not Explode.
Explode!
Use the threshold walkthrough to see how your die, extra words, and perfect fits widen the Explosion range until the whole roll starts doing backflips.
Step 1
Choose the die you are rolling
Start with the highest die size among the words actually pulling weight in the action. With no extra words added, you only Explode on the highest face of that die.
Current Die
Step 2
Count relevant, but imperfect words
Every applicable word lowers the threshold by 1, which means you Explode on more numbers instead of only the top result. If you have to justify the use of your Word of Power, it usually counts as relevant but imperfect.
Extra Words
Step 3
Add perfect fits
Perfect fits count for 2 word value. Each one lowers the threshold by 2, so they widen the Explosion range faster than a normal extra word. A perfectly matched word is doing the heavy lifting, not just showing up in a cape.
Perfect Fits
Current Die
d20
Word Value
0
Explosion Threshold
20+
Formula
D20 max - 0 word value = 20+
The threshold never drops below 1+, even if the word value gets comically jacked.