Alan Bahr: The Designer Who Keeps the Rules Small
Alan Bahr’s documented design work centers on a practical question: how little procedure does a table need before play can move?
The TinyD6 test
Gallant Knight Games’ official Tiny Dungeon 2e cheat sheet defines the standard Test as a roll of two six-sided dice. A `5` or `6` on either die succeeds. Advantage uses three dice; Disadvantage uses one. Focus broadens the next Test’s successful faces to `4`, `5`, or `6`.
That procedure is compact, but compact does not mean credit-free. Official publisher pages identify Alan Bahr as TinyD6 designer/developer. This profile does not claim that he invented dice pools, threshold successes, minimalist roleplaying, or notecard characters.
A small engine across settings
The official Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition page describes a minimalist fantasy game using one to three six-sided dice per action and characters that can fit on a 3×5 notecard. It also lists many separate writers for its micro-settings. Those credits matter: Bahr’s line-level role does not make him the sole author of every setting or book.
The Tiny Frontiers: Revised page describes the same TinyD6 engine in a stand-alone space-opera game and again emphasizes one-to-three-die mechanics. The recurring engine is documented; sole authorship of every contribution is not.
Product credits stay product-specific
The official SAINTs & Synners page gives a clean role split. It says all the rules were written by TinyD6 developer Alan Bahr and that Brandon Verhalen created the setting. The same publisher page calls Alan the founder of Gallant Knight Games.
For Tiny Pirates: Second Edition, the publisher presents ENNIE-winning author Ben Woerner alongside TinyD6 designer Alan Bahr. The page does not divide every writing, design, and revision task, so this profile does not invent that partition.
The publisher’s For Coin & Blood: Second Edition page describes the earlier edition as Alan’s first dive into that style of game design. That is a useful attributed statement, not permission to assign him every credit in the revised book.
EDITORIAL INTERPRETATION — design as hospitality
TinyD6 can be read as design hospitality: a familiar resolution loop lowers the cost of beginning, while genre-specific material gives the table a reason to stay.
That is editorial interpretation. The official sources establish the compact procedure, Bahr’s TinyD6 role, and several title-specific credits. They do not measure how welcoming every table found the games, prove a market-wide effect, or establish an invention claim.
What the evidence supports
Bahr built a documented role around TinyD6 and founded the publisher that carries the line. The clearest evidence is deliberately narrow: a standard two-die Test; one-to-three-die variants; notecard-scale characters; and product records that keep rules, settings, writing, and collaboration roles distinct.
The legacy profile’s claims about Planet Mercenary, Tombpunk, Siege Perilous, cyanstarlight, and a direct Greg Stafford influence are excluded from this source-reviewed version because the bounded official record did not close their exact credit or influence claims.
Gallant Knight Games carried a dated Alan Bahr byline in March 2026, supporting current professional activity at that evidence cutoff. No citizenship, nationality, or country-display conclusion follows from that byline.
References
- Tiny Dungeon 2e cheat sheet: https://www.gallantknightgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TD2e-Cheat-Sheet-Printer-Friendly.pdf
- Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition: https://gallantknightgames.com/products/tiny-dungeon-second-edition
- Tiny Frontiers: Revised: https://gallantknightgames.com/products/tiny-frontiers-revised
- SAINTs & Synners: https://gallantknightgames.com/products/saints-synners-tinyd6
- Tiny Pirates: Second Edition: https://gallantknightgames.com/products/tiny-pirates-second-edition
- For Coin & Blood: Second Edition: https://gallantknightgames.com/products/for-coin-blood-second-edition
- Gallant Knight Games home: https://gallantknightgames.com/
Cinematic
A source-bounded overview of Alan Bahr’s TinyD6 procedures and product-specific credit boundaries, with editorial interpretation kept distinct from credited facts.
Read transcript
Alan Bahr is a TinyD6 designer and developer and the founder of Gallant Knight Games within the publisher record. Tiny Dungeon 2e uses a standard two-d6 Test, succeeding on any five or six. Advantage uses three d6, Disadvantage one d6, and Focus succeeds on four through six. Tiny Dungeon 2e and Tiny Frontiers: Revised describe one-to-three-d6 mechanics and notecard-scale streamlined play. SAINTs and Synners credits Bahr with rules and Brandon Verhalen with setting. Tiny Pirates 2e presents Ben Woerner alongside TinyD6 designer Alan Bahr, without an invented task partition. For Coin and Blood is described by its publisher as Alan’s first dive into that style of game design. Keeping rules small is editorial framing, not a universal claim.
Vertical
A source-bounded overview of Alan Bahr’s TinyD6 procedures and product-specific credit boundaries, with editorial interpretation kept distinct from credited facts.
Read transcript
Alan Bahr is a TinyD6 designer and developer and the founder of Gallant Knight Games within the publisher record. Tiny Dungeon 2e uses a standard two-d6 Test, succeeding on any five or six. Advantage uses three d6, Disadvantage one d6, and Focus succeeds on four through six. Tiny Dungeon 2e and Tiny Frontiers: Revised describe one-to-three-d6 mechanics and notecard-scale streamlined play. SAINTs and Synners credits Bahr with rules and Brandon Verhalen with setting. Tiny Pirates 2e presents Ben Woerner alongside TinyD6 designer Alan Bahr, without an invented task partition. For Coin and Blood is described by its publisher as Alan’s first dive into that style of game design. Keeping rules small is editorial framing, not a universal claim.
Audio Overview
A source-bounded overview of Alan Bahr’s TinyD6 procedures and product-specific credit boundaries, with editorial interpretation kept distinct from credited facts.
Read transcript
Alan Bahr is a TinyD6 designer and developer and the founder of Gallant Knight Games within the publisher record. Tiny Dungeon 2e uses a standard two-d6 Test, succeeding on any five or six. Advantage uses three d6, Disadvantage one d6, and Focus succeeds on four through six. Tiny Dungeon 2e and Tiny Frontiers: Revised describe one-to-three-d6 mechanics and notecard-scale streamlined play. SAINTs and Synners credits Bahr with rules and Brandon Verhalen with setting. Tiny Pirates 2e presents Ben Woerner alongside TinyD6 designer Alan Bahr, without an invented task partition. For Coin and Blood is described by its publisher as Alan’s first dive into that style of game design. Keeping rules small is editorial framing, not a universal claim.
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