A roleplaying game by Skip Rainsmyth.
"It is vain to do with more that which can be done with fewer." - William of Occam
"No, no, the adventures first! Explanations take such a dreadful time." - Lewis Carroll
v24.11.20a - work in progress.
PDF and print versions coming soon!
Decide on what kind of story you want to tell. When and where does it take place? Who are the main characters and what will they be doing? Why and how are their pursuing their particular goals? Take ideas from your favorite fictional universe or create your own.
Choose someone to be the Guide. The Guide moderates the game rules, describes and controls the environment and inhabitants of the game world, and narrates the outcome of actions. Other players create and play the part of a Player Character (PC). These are the main characters of the story.
- Design your story's fictional world and bring it to life by describing what the PCs see, hear, smell, and feel.
- Describe what happens around or to the PCs, and tell them what happens when they speak or act.
- Populate the world with potential friends, enemies, mentors, rewards, and challenges related to their goals.
- Play the role of any creatures or characters the PCs interact with. Give them an agenda, traits, and mannerisms.
- Moderate the conversation and game rules. Make rulings when there is confusion or disagreement.
- Act like the main characters! Describe the actions the PCs take to overcome challenges, pursue their goals, and make their mark on the world of the story!
- Interact with the game world as if it were a real place! Think about how to use and explore the PCs' surroudings, how they would really react to danger or dramatic situations, and what they would do when they are in need of help or information. Actions have consequences, and other characters do not forget how they are treated!
- Get engaged! Ask questions, take notes, and make maps to keep track of the story so far. Keep the story moving by being curious and instigating action.
Give them a Name.
Give them 3 current and maximum Resolve.
Give them 3 starting Tags: broad traits (strong, charming, observant), skills (linguistics, blacksmithing, firearms), or single-effect powers (laser eyes, Magic Missile, telepathy).
Give them 5-10 Items: mundane tools (rope, flashlight, journal), consumables (9mm magazines, rations, currency), tools of the trade (broadsword, wrench, first aid kit), and personal belongings (family pendant, stuffed bear, lucky dice).
PCs can carry a reasonable amount of Items. More than one heavy or bulky Item may impede them. Note the location of dropped or stored Items. Items may be gained, lost, broken, or stolen.
Make sure all initial Tags and Items make sense for the PC and the story. All supernatural Tags and Items must have a cost, drawback, or limitation (Magic Missile: consumes one ruby; Laser Eyes: causes blindness for 5 minutes; Speak With Animals: only under moonlight).
Players may also graudally create up to 3 Tags and 10 Items as play progresses over the first few sessions.
Give the PC a Description, including their background, motivations and goals, appearance, personality, quirks or mannerisms, and connections to other characters or factions. Draw a picture or create a voice for them if desired.
The Guide describes the environment and inhabitants of the game world, makes things happen around or to the PCs, and prompts them to act or react. Other players ask clarifying questions, make plans, and then describe what their PCs say and do to achieve their objectives.
There are no turns - act in any order. The Guide may make the environment or its inhabitants take actions whenever they like, and ask the PCs to respond. However, the Guide may not harm or hinder the PCs without giving them a chance to respond (a pit trap opens up under your feet, what do you do?; the bad guys start to run away, what do you do?)
The Guide decides the outcome of the PCs' actions, describes how the situation changes, and prompts the other players again. Use common sense to decide the outcome of most actions.
PCs have access to all common knowlege and are experts at anything related to their Tags. Hidden or obscure knowledge must be discovered by taking appropriate actions in the game. If a PC looks for something in a reasonable way, they find it, unless it is hidden in a way that would require very specific actions.
When a PC acts, ask the following questions:
- What effect is being attempted with the action? Some effects are impossible unless the PCs have certain Tags or Items, or unless certain requirements are met. Conditions, circumstances, or opposition can also make some actions impossible. If an effect is impossible, offer a lesser effect or revise the plan (the ship is too large and well-armored to destroy in one hit, but you could target a subsystem).
- Are there requirements that must be met first? Will it take time, money or resources? Are there other actions that must be taken first? If so, PCs must fulfill the requirements before the action can be taken (before you can get to the mayor, you'll have to navigate the angry crowd, distract security, and climb the platform; repairing the weapon is possible, but it will take a few days and cost 6000 credits).
- Are there obvious risks? If not, and the requirements are met, the effect simply happens. If so, the PC's player will roll dice to find out what happens (impressing Clara is possible, but you might make a fool of yourself; let's roll to see how you do!).
When a PC acts or reacts under pressure due to time, opposition, or risks, roll two six-sided dice and total them.
- Add 1 if any helpful, relevant Tag is declared.
- Add 1 if the PC has Advantage due to position, preparation, help, circumstances, or helpful Conditions.
- Add 1 if the PC spends 1 Resolve.
- Subtract 1 if the action entails extra Difficulty due to powerful opposition, complexity, or the magnitude of the desired effect.
- Subtract 1 if the PC has Disadvantage due to being overwhelmed or ill-equipped, bad circumstances, or hindering Conditions.
- Subtract 1 if the PC is hindered by 3 or more Conditions.
If the result is 9 or more, the action succeeds. If not, choose a failure option:
- Reduction: success, but with diminished or no effect (you wade into the fray but are only able to take out one or two).
- Complication: success, but lose an Item, take a harmful Condition, or cause collateral damage (you make the jump, but your torch falls out of your pack and tumbles into the darkness).
- Interruption: before the PC can act, a new obstacle or challenge appears that they must contend with first (right before you fire, a tank smashes through the wall to your left, showering you with debris).
There is no outright failure; the action always moved forward. PCs may Exhaust a Tag, if they declared it, to reroll the dice. Exhausted Tags may not be declared again until the PC Rests.
For immersion, the Guide narrates the outcome of PCs' actions. If the group prefers collaborative storytelling, the PC's player or someone else can narrate the outcome instead.
For group actions, elect a PC to lead the effort. They act with Advantage, but the entire group suffers the consequences of failure.
Conditions are temporary effects that help or hinder PCs. They may cause or prevent risks and dice rolls (that broken leg makes this normally simple jump risky, roll to see if you can make it; the flight spell gets you over the wall easily). They also grant Advantage or Disadvantage to rolls when relevant. The Guide describes what ends Conditions (invisibilty potion: 10 minutes; broken arm: medical attention; curse of lycanthropy: swim in Mirror Lake under a full moon).
A Rest is an extended period of downtime, recovery, and practice. It can last from several days up to several months. When PCs Rest:
- Restore all spent Resolve and Exhausted Tags, and clear any relevant Conditions.
- Check for Advancement.
- Narrate how the PC spends the remainder of their Rest. Decide outcomes and roll dice as needed.
During Rest, the Guide may also advance relevant plots and faction agendas.
When PCs Rest, if they have overcome or survived a major ordeal since their last Rest, choose one Advancement:
- +1 maximum Resolve.
- A Tag they used to great effect becomes Advanced: it now gives +2 on rolls.
- Add a new Tag. This can be based on new understandings, downtime training, or something that was always there but had gone unmentioned (they are becoming more Skeptical after being in the city for so long; they're finally getting the hang of the Fireball spell they found; they've always been good at Cooking).
A Tag may also become Mastered; confer with the Guide to create a long-term goal or ordeal that culminates in mastery (Linguistics: find and translate the ancient Book of the Rosette; Swordfighting: defeat all 12 Blade Masters; Hacking: infiltrate the Gibson mainframe and cause worldwide chaos). Mastered Tags give +3 on rolls.
New Tags may also be gained in other ways at the Guide's discretion. New Items, allies, knowledge, and renown must be gained by taking appropriate actions in the story.
Dice of Fate: to leave something completely to chance, roll two dice and take the total. 6 or less: setback or worse outcome; 7-9: as expected, average outcome; 10 or more: windfall, great outcome.
Long-term goals: for long-term projects (building a boat, learning a language, improving aim), confer with the Guide on the requirements (time, resources, actions). Narrate progress toward the goal during Rest or any other appropriate time. Decide outcome actions and roll dice as needed. When the requirements are met, the goal is achieved.
Death: decide as a group if PCs can be removed from the story (death, exile, insanity) due to story events or failed actions. PCs can also exit the story voluntarily at any time; just describe it.
PVP: when PCs compete against each other, everyone rolls dice. The highest result gets what they want. Reroll ties.
Absence: when a player is absent, their PC takes a background role. They cannot act or be targeted directly, but they earn Advancement and experience story events and consequences as normal.
Agency: only a PC's player may dictate what they do, say, think, and feel, unless consent is explicitly given to another.
About the game, inspirations, about the author, acknowlegements, tips for players and Guides, running the game, random tables, combat and gameplay examples, etc. coming soon.
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