The Magic Brokers— Tabletop RPG Games & Narrative Worlds
We forge tabletop worlds where every roll tells a story, and every story is a deal struck at the edge of the map. Powered by the Raccoon Engine.
The Guild
Brokers of impossible worlds
The Magic Brokers is a tabletop roleplaying game studio built around a single belief: the best stories are negotiated, not narrated. We design systems that hand the reins to the players: a guild of gamemasters and dreamers crafting games where the dice close the deal and the deal becomes the story.
Our guildmaster is a raccoon wizard, part thief, part cartographer, who trades in maps to places that don't exist yet. Everything we make carries his mark: a little mischief, a lot of precision, and a compass that always points toward the next adventure.
Player-First Design
We build systems that hand the reins to the table. The dice are the deal. The story is what you negotiate around them.
One Engine, Many Worlds
Every Magic Brokers game runs on the Raccoon Engine, so a character forged in one realm can walk into the next.
Crafted by Hand
No soulless crunch. Every table, every bestiary entry, every map is drawn, tuned, and playtested by the guild.
The System
The Raccoon Engine: A Universal Tabletop RPG System
One system. Every world we build.
The Raccoon Engine is a universal tabletop RPG system and the mechanical foundation for every Magic Brokers game. Four Aptitudes, eight Approaches, five dice, and one resolution rule that carries across genres and settings.
The Raccoon Engine in depthRules stay consistent even when the worlds change
One Roll, Every Action
Combat, social scenes, stealth, and crafting all use the same mechanic: Aptitude + Approach + Edge. Every die showing 4 or higher is a Hit.
Edge Over Stats
Characters beat extraordinary odds by changing the circumstances. Position, tools, allies, and preparation each add a d6. Hard targets demand it.
Momentum
Hits beyond the Hit Target become Momentum, spent on the spot to add Damage, aid an ally, act again, Deflect, Overwhelm, or land a Triumph.
Failure Moves the Story
A failed roll never just fizzles. Roll a d10 for a Consequence, from Setback and Escalation to Reversal and Disaster, and the fiction keeps turning.
Vigor & Daring
Spend Vigor for Effort, or accept an announced risk with Daring for +2d6. Pushing yourself is always a choice, never a penalty.
Modular by Design
Magic, psionics, vehicles, and cybernetics are Modules that change the fiction, not the dice. One engine powers every world.
The Core Loop
The fiction creates the circumstances. The circumstances determine the dice.
Aptitude
Sinew · Swift · Sense · Spirit
Approach
Strike · Lurk · Parley · Study…
Edge
+1d6 per advantage
Hits
Every die showing 4+
Hit Target
HT 1 – 5
Momentum or Consequence
Excess Hits, or a d10 failure
d4
25%
d6
50%
d8
62.5%
d10
70%
d12
75%
Chance of a Hit per die. Larger dice are more reliable, never more numerous.
The mechanical foundation for every Magic Brokers game
The Compass Wheel — a tabletop roleplaying game of exploration and connection
Our debut game. A tabletop roleplaying game of exploration, connection, and the fight against stasis. Walk the eight roads of Meridian, bind the world's threads, and hold back the Still. Built from the ground up on the Raccoon Engine.
More about The Compass WheelThe Premise
A world woven from eight elemental threads, recovering from a cataclysm called the Turning.
You play wanderers, traders, and explorers who walk the eight roads that radiate from Meridian, the central crossroads-city. The roads are reopening. The caravans are traveling. But something called the Still is creeping in, a force of entropy that freezes regions, hollows people, and severs connections. Your job: keep the world turning.
The Core Tension
Entropy is free. Connection costs effort. The world doesn't stay alive on its own. It stays alive because people choose to keep it alive.
The World
Eight Roads. Eight Threads.
Each road is a region, a culture, a people, and an element, radiating from Meridian like the points of a compass.
Ember Road
Fire
Emberborn
Volcanic rifts and forge-cities
Tide Road
Water
Tideborne
Coastlines and floating markets
Hollow Road
Void
Hollowborn
Caves, archives, memory
Root Road
Earth
Rootborn
Ancient forests, deep soil
Ash Road
Renewal
Cinderborn
Recovering ruins, regrowth
Dust Road
Memory
Dustborn
Deserts, caravans, oral tradition
Glass Road
Crystal
Glassborn
Silica flats, structure, precision
Silk Road
Connection
Silkborn
Leylines, threads, the sky
The Magic
The Weave
Eight elemental Threads bind everything together. They can be bound (constructive, connecting, healing) or severed (destructive, cutting, isolating). Binding is the default and costs Vigor. Severing is powerful but costs Vitality and wounds the world's fabric.
Ember
BindIgnite a blade, kindle warmth
SeverDouse a fire, cool a forge
Tide
BindCleanse a wound
SeverFreeze a river
Hollow
BindPreserve a person against the Still
SeverErase a memory
Root
BindStrengthen armor
SeverCrumble a wall
Ash
BindRestore vitality, heal
SeverWither and decay
Dust
BindRestore the Hollowed
SeverMake something forgotten
Glass
BindSharpen a weapon
SeverShatter a structure
Silk
BindConnect two minds
SeverCut a bond between people
The Antagonist
The Still
Not a villain. Entropy. The Still doesn't destroy. It stops. Things caught in it become heavy, slow, and eventually motionless. It progresses through five stages, and each requires more effort to reverse.
Whispers
Subtle. Water flows slower. Fires burn lower.
Shadows
Visible but deniable. Markets go quiet.
Weight
The region is affected. The Hollowed appear.
Stillness
Roads are closing. People go Hollowed.
Frozen
Nothing moves. Requires a Legendary reversal.
The Hollowed are people emptied by the Still, not killed, but hollowed. They stand motionless, stare, and speak in other voices. Combat doesn't restore them. Connection does.