JARLS: Just Another Rules-Light System

JARLS is a lean, cinematic TTRPG engine that keeps the dice rolling and the story moving. Built for speed and improvisation, it handles tense negotiations, desperate firefights, and high-stakes missions without burying the table in modifiers or lore.

With just four stats, player-facing rolls, and a new Stress system that turns pressure into power, JARLS gives you all the structure you need to tell grounded, emergent stories — and nothing you don’t.

It’s perfect for:

• One-shot operations and small-team missions

• Hard-tech and near-future survival

• Espionage, disaster, or reconstruction campaigns

• Fast conversions of your favorite settings and media

What’s Inside

• Core mechanics for task resolution, combat, gear, and progression

• Modular Stress & Rising to the Occasion rules — where tension becomes clarity

• Templates for NPCs, combatants, and environmental hazards

• Structured downtime and recovery loops

• Optional tone modules: Cyberpunk, Hard Realism, Action-Cinematic, Horror/Survival

• Three sample settings with playbooks:

  • The Zombie War – survival horror on the edge of collapse

  • The Year After the Bombs Fell – post-conflict endurance in the ruins

  • Mining Outpost: Io – corporate grit and vacuum-sealed intrigue

Design Philosophy

JARLS was built to get you playing fast. Character creation takes two minutes. Combat resolves in narrative beats, not math puzzles. The GM can improvise entire missions with only a few notes and a clock.

Stress doesn’t spiral into doom; it sharpens focus. When pressure hits its peak, you roll to see whether you rise to the occasion or crack under the weight — either way, the story moves forward.

License & Credits

JARLS is a loose hack of Mörk Borg, CY_BORG, and Death in Space, with a nod to Twilight 2000’s cool-under-fire grit.
Released under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Created by The Grey Ledger Society + CGCG Helix.

Free to download, remix, and expand. Future settings — from New Babbage to Signal/Noise — will release separately as modular add-ons.

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0