Who broke the mirror? Who broke the glass? Who took my yesterday And let it pass?
One piece remembers, One piece lies, One still dreams With borrowed eyes.
Gather the pieces, One by one. When they are mended…
Which one have I become?
You wake with no memory and empty spaces where a person ought to be.
You do not know your name. You do not know where you are, what you have done, or why someone is trying to break through the door.
Your mind remembers nothing.
Your body remembers everything.
MIND FRACTURES is a game for two to five players and a Referee. Each character begins as an empty sheet. Whenever you need an ability, you discover that you had it all along. Write it down, give it a die, and make it part of your past.
With the launch of the 2026 One Page RPG Jam, I decided to make a super-light version of AME.
Characters
AME uses Step Dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12. A d8 is competent. Characters have two Attributes and one Career.
Body covers strength, movement, endurance, reflexes, violence, injury, and physical survival.
Mind covers perception, knowledge, willpower, judgement, persuasion, investigation, craft, and technical skill.
Your Career is what you are: Detective, Pilot, Sailor, Wizard, Soldier, Scholar, Thief, Doctor, Medium, Engineer, and so on. It replaces skills and applies whenever your training, background, reputation, or habits would help.
System
When an action is risky and uncertain, roll:
Attribute + Career
The Referee chooses whether the pressure falls on Body or Mind. The player explains how their Career applies. If it does not apply, roll the Attribute alone.
One Success means the action works. Two or more Successes mean it works cleanly, quickly, quietly, or with extra benefit. No Successes means failure, delay, cost, exposure, or a worse position.
A Complication happens even if the action succeeds. It may mean harm, stress, lost time, damaged gear, witnesses, suspicion, debt, or future trouble. A Disaster means the situation turns sharply against the character.
Each character begins with 1 Nudge per session. A Nudge raises one die after rolling, usually enough to turn failure into success or a 1 into a 2. It always represents strain, luck, desperation, or cost.
Harm
Characters have no hit points. Harm comes directly off Attributes. Physical injury usually reduces Body. Shock, terror, exhaustion, psychic damage, poison, or mental collapse usually reduces Mind.
If an Attribute reaches 0, the character suffers a Critical and is incapacitated. They are out of the scene unless stabilised, rescued, or allowed one desperate final action.
Weapons
Weapons inflict base Harm on a successful attack.
1 Harm: fists, clubs, knives, improvised weapons, minor attacks. 2 Harm: swords, axes, pistols, rifles, shotguns, serious claws or bites. 3 Harm: heavy weapons, explosions, vehicle impacts, monstrous attacks, military firepower.
Extra Successes may add +1 Harm, disarm, knock down, pin, drive back, bypass cover, or create another advantage.
Armour
Armour reduces incoming Harm by its rating, from 1 to 3.
Lost Attribute points recover through rest, treatment, or genre-appropriate healing. Eight hours of rest restores 1 Attribute point. If an Attribute reached 0, the character needs urgent help before recovery can begin.
Now, if you want some help in how to integrate AME into your game, get in touch!
Main change is the clarification and standardisation of Harm when Fighting or Shooting. We present the option we use most, with a sidebar on how else it can be used.
We also fully justified the text as it was annoying AJ.
The scenario, titled “Psilence is Golden,” follows a crew of four “Espers” navigating the dangerous underworld of a near-future Seattle where psychic abilities are both a gift and a curse. The team consists of Harry Finch, a psychometric antiques dealer; Marley, a telepathic courier; Randall, a pyrokinesis-wielding goon; and Whisper, a specialist in mind control. Operating out of a shared safehouse, the group balances their personal lives and illicit businesses with high-stakes missions that often pit them against powerful corporate interests.
The primary antagonist of the narrative is Muon Biochem, a pharmaceutical firm led by the ambitious Oliver Guttierez. The company is the source of Psilence, a critical drug that suppresses the psychic “stress” that accumulates when Espers use their powers. As the crew investigates Muon, they discover a dark secret: Guttierez has been keeping a young Esper named Ella captive in a hidden basement facility, using her unique biology to facilitate the mass production of the drug.
The story reaches a climax when the crew orchestrates a daring raid on the Muon Biochem facility to rescue Ella and seize a valuable stockpile of Psilence. During the operation, the team navigates tight security and moral dilemmas, eventually liberating Ella from her containment. However, the extraction turns chaotic when Randall loses control of his pyrokinesis, triggering a massive, supernatural “all-consuming conflagration” that levels the building and covers the group’s tracks.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the crew finds themselves in possession of several boxes of Psilence worth approximately $360,000 on the black market. While they have dealt a massive blow to Muon Biochem and saved Ella, they remain wary of the inevitable corporate retaliation. The campaign ends with the team safe for the moment, having secured both a massive payday and the responsibility of protecting a powerful, traumatized young Esper.
Arcane Manifold is pleased to announce Time Killers, a compact tabletop roleplaying game created as part of PocketQuest 2026.
The title began, appropriately enough, as a riff on the phrase “doing something to kill some time.” From there, it became something stranger, sharper, and much more dangerous. In Time Killers, players take the role of agents dispatched through history to ensure that certain deaths happen exactly as recorded. Not because those deaths are good, just, or merciful, but because continuity demands it.
Armed with limited equipment, buried instructions, and a fragile understanding of cause and effect, the agents arrive at critical moments where hesitation can fracture the future. Their work is ugly. Their orders are precise. Their existence may depend on obedience.
Designed for fast play, moral pressure, and time-bending complications, Time Killers combines dark humour, historical tension, and uncomfortable choices in a small but lethal package.
Arcane Manifold is pleased to announce that Burning Frontier, currently available in playtest beta, will be brought fully in-house ahead of its final publication.
Since its initial release in playtest beta, Burning Frontier has continued to grow through feedback, testing, and development. The decision to bring the project in-house reflects Arcane Manifold’s commitment to giving the game the focused attention, refinement, and production support it deserves as it moves toward full release.
Set against the harsh and dramatic realities of the eighteenth-century frontier, Burning Frontier is a roleplaying game of survival, conflict, and difficult choices in a land shaped by war, wilderness, and competing peoples. The playtest period has helped sharpen the game’s identity and deepen its design, and this next step marks an important stage in its journey.
Bringing Burning Frontier in-house will allow Arcane Manifold to oversee the game’s continued development more directly, ensuring that its final published form reflects the strongest possible version of the project. This includes further work on presentation, structure, and overall polish as the team prepares the title for publication.
“We are incredibly excited about the future of Burning Frontier,” said Arcane Manifold. “The playtest beta has been invaluable in helping shape the game, and moving it in-house gives us the opportunity to develop it with even greater care and clarity before release.”
Further updates on Burning Frontier, including publication news and future announcements, will be shared by the team in due course.
For more information, follow Arcane Manifold for future news and updates on Burning Frontier.
[1:00 PM]Matt | Lategaming.com: Hey folks, I’m Matt, game designer and general nerd. I’ve been writing RPGs for around thirty years (woohoo!) and I’m here to talk about Shifters and the Arcane Manifold Engine.
[1:00 PM]Matt | Lategaming.com: (Done)
[1:01 PM]AJ | Arcane Manifold: I’m AJ, I’ve known Matt for many years, we’ve designed and built a bunch of games and worlds together (some of which are published), including the Arcane Manifold Engine (AME) that Shfters was built with.
[1:01 PM]AJ | Arcane Manifold: (Done)
[1:01 PM]zerotheory: Welcome guys! What is Shifters exactly?
[1:02 PM]Matt | Lategaming.com: Aha, Shifters is a trans dimensional occult horror game. The premise is that there’s a layer of dimensions other than our own…and things grow in them. Sometimes they grow big enough to affect our world – in very negative ways*. And the PCs are set to destroy them with an array of powers and abilities
[1:03 PM]Matt | Lategaming.com: If they don’t destroy them then Great Old One type beings will take action and destroy them – taking part of our world with it
[1:03 PM]Andy-C: Strong Silent Hill vibes there.
[1:03 PM]Matt | Lategaming.com: Yeah: Silent Hill, Nightwatch, even Stranger Things
We’ve uploaded the AME web dice roller to the site so you can test out the probabilities and have a way of having a neat way to roll dice using a simple online tool.
It works on mobile (as you can see) and builds in the Nudge mechanics.
This is the first in a series of tools to help AME GMs understand and use the Arcane Manifold Engine system.
Plain Example of an Action
A character attempts to climb a rough stone wall.
The character rolls Dexterity d8 + Athletics d6.
Dice rolled: d8, d6
Result: 6, 1
Outcome:
The 6 counts as 1 Success.
The 1 creates 1 Complication.
The character successfully climbs the wall, but the Complication means the ascent is not clean. The GM rules that loose stones fall during the climb, making noise and potentially alerting anyone nearby.
Plain Example of Assistance
Two characters attempt to move a heavy crate blocking a doorway.
Lead: The Lead character rolls Vitality d8 + Athletics d6 Assistant: The Assistant contributes Vitality d10
All dice are rolled together: d8, d6, d10
Result: 7, 5, 1
Outcome:
The 7 counts as 1 Success.
The 1 creates 1 Complication.
The crate is successfully moved aside, clearing the doorway.
The Lead decides the Assistant takes the Complication. The Assistant slips while lifting and strains their back, slowing them for the next task.
