Diceless Travail Saga

 I very much was enjoying my Travail Saga discord based campaign (https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2022/04/travail-saga-jrpg-ish-2d6.html / https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2022/05/travail-saga-pdf-released.html ) but the dice roll and xp recording heavy nature of the game bogged down playing it by post (in my opinion). This has led to the campaign being on hiatus for some time now (that and the fact I wanted to finish a bunch of generators that are still unwritten). While I thought about going a basic freeform route, I felt this would do away with a lot of the granularity of the character system + undo the hard work of the players in building up their characters....Thus, a diceless system that retains a similar level of granularity but does a way with the need for dice rolls! 

Making a Player Character (PC): 

• Each PC starts with a pool of 8 to assign to their attributes! A PC can increase an attribute by 1 each time they increase in level. 
• The attributes are: 
• Body - the PC’s physical faculties. 
• Mind - the PC’s mental faculties. 
• Faith - the PC’s connection with a higher power. 
• Magic - the PC’s pool of supernatural power.
• A PC MUST have at least 1 in Body and Mind, but does not need to have Faith/Magic
  (but not having these will stop them from casting spells). 
• At creation a PC must decide their “Archetype” - determining what school/s of powers they will progress in. These schools are: Spells, Skills and Abilities. 
• A PC must pick whether they will receive:
•  +8 to one school and + 2 to another per level, or,
• + 4 to one school and + 2 to the two other schools per level. 
• A PC gets these pools to allocate to their schools at level 1. A single power within a school can not receive a bonus of more than +2 per level! 

Attribute Descriptor Table: 

1. Severely weak 
2. Very weak 
3. Weak 
4. Somewhat weak 
5. Somewhat strong 
6. Strong 
7. Very strong 
8. Severely strong 
9. Awesomely strong 
10. Impossibly strong 

Thus a PC with Body 2, Mind 4, Faith 6, becomes: 

• The PC is 
• Very weak of body 
• Somewhat weak of Mind 
• Strong in Faith 

Skill Descriptor Table: 

1. Severely inept 
2. Very inept 
3. Inept 
4. Somewhat inept 
5. Somewhat competent 
6. Competent 
7. Very competent 
8. Severely competent 
9. Severely competent and somewhat skilled 
10. Skilled 
11. Very skilled 
12. Severely skilled 
13. Severely skilled  and somewhat masterful 
14. Masterful 
15. Very masterful
16. Severely Masterful 
17. Severely masterful and somewhat godlike 
18. Godlike 
19. Awesomely godlike 
20. Impossibly godlike 

Thus a PC with Slice 10, Wild strike 6, Shield Block 10, Unarmed strike 1, becomes: 

• The PC is 
• Skilled at Slice 
• Competent at Wild Strike 
• Skilled in Shield Block 
• Severely inept at Unarmed strike 

The Schools: 

Spells: Spells require either the Magic or Faith attribute to cast. 

• In the list below an F indicates the spell can be cast with Faith, and an M indicates the spell can be cast with magic. F/M means either attribute can be used. 
• The magical powers listed here are not descriptions of exact spells, but suggestions of periodic elements of magic. What can be attempted with a magical power is determined by the PC and the possibility, difficulty and outcome of that attempt is determined by the referee. 

1. Bless - F

2. Curse - F

3. Cleanse - F

4. Heal - F

5. Banish - F

6. Summon Light - F/M

7. Calm - F/M

8. Glamor - F/M

9. Mesmerize - F/M

10. Hold in place - F/M

11. Predict future - F/M

12. Summon silence - F/M

13. Summon barrier - F/M

14. Summon wind - M

15. Accelerate - M

16. Shrink - M

17. Invisibility - M

18. Intangibility - M

19. Warp internal organs - M

20. Reflect - M

21. Summon water - M

22. Weaken - M

23. Summon acid - M

24. Grow - M

25. Panic - M

26. Summon vegetation - M

27. Warp form of external flesh - M

28. Summon fire - M

29. Crumble - M

30. Telekinesis - M

31. Harden - M

32. Soften - M

33. Summon lightning - M

34. Summon earth - M

35. Summon hole - M

36. Slow - M

37. Cause terror - M 

38. Cause pain - M

39. Summon shadows - M 

40. Summon sickness - M

Abilities: Some of the below abilities are self evident and do not require further explanation other than their name. Others are more specific and have brief explanations of their suggested mechanics, but as with spells, what can be attempted is determined by the PC and the possibility, difficulty and outcome of that attempt is determined by the referee and a test.

1. Unarmed strike - Hits twice, and knocks target unconscious rather than killing them. 
2. Pressure point unarmed strike - Incapacitate a target with bare hands. 
3. Wrestle - Holds a target in place with own body.  
4. Dodge - Improves your ability to avoid damage. 
5. Intimidate. 
6. Holy smite - A melee attack boosted by the Faith attribute. 
7. Ranged attack. 
8. Thrown weapon attack - Ranged attack boosted by the Mind Attribute, the weapon must be recovered after the attack, and there is a chance it may be lost. 
9. Hide . 
10. Sneak attack - an attack on an unaware target. Kills most humanoids/beings of the same type as the attacker. 
11. Pickpocket 
12. Hamstring - Causes target to hobble slowly. 
13. Torture. 
14. Blind - PC uses whatever is at their disposal to blind a target.  
15. Poison edge - Apply poison to a blade. 
16. Throw net - Holds a target in place. Nets are somewhat cumbersome to carry.
17. Melee attack 
18. Two handed strike - A melee attack using both hands, slow and generally attacks last.  
19. Charge - A devastating opening melee attack that requires an appropriately length run up 
20. Flurry attack  - Multiple, quick, low damage, attacks
21. Parry - The PC defends against attacks using their blade. 
22. Riposte - After a successful parry the PC can give devastating attack to a parried target. 
23. Feint - Opens up the target to unsuspected attacks. 
24. Concussive blow - a melee attack with a blunt weapon,  does double damage to heavily armored targets. 
25. Slice - a melee attack with a  blade, does double damage to unarmoured targets 
26. Wild strike - a chaotic and unrestrained melee attack, could miss, cause damage to the attacker themselves, cause them to drop/break their weapon, etc, or may cause massive damage! 
27. Dual wield strike  - Attack twice in a turn. 
28. Enrage self - Become more powerful, but chaotic and unrestrained, in battle.  
29. Enrage other - target only attacks enrager. 
30. Shield block - defense with a shield.   
31. Protected retreat - PC retreats from combat while defending.
32. Armour self - Prepare and re-enforce your armor! 
33. Find weakness -  Find a weakness in a target. 
34. Open wound - Cause a heavily bleeding wound on target. 
35. Disarm - Cause target to drop weapon. 
36. Shred armour -Destroy targets armor. 
37. Predict opponent -Helps greatly in defense/battle strategy 
38. Exhaust opponent - Wear out targets endurance 
39. Topple opponent - The target falls to the ground, prone. 
40. Bite - Does not do a lot of damage, but is terrifying and health restorative. 

Skills: The skills listed here are broad and suggestive, what can be attempted with a skill is determined by the PC and the possibility, difficulty and outcome of that attempt is determined by the referee and the spell test.

1. Meditate/pray 
2. Negotiate 
3. Law Knowledge 
4. Theoretical and academic research 
5. Forensic investigation 
6. Rumour milling 
7. Judge intentions 
8. Monster knowledge 
9. Historical knowledge 
10. Disguise, costuming and performance 
11. Artistic creation 
12. Navigation 
13. Weather prediction 
14. Sailing 
15. Beast riding 
16. Wilderness survival 
17. Mountaineering and climbing 
18. Hunting and fishing 
19. Herblore
20. Alchemy 
21. Poison brewing 
22. Move stealthily 
23. Lock picking and escape artistry 
24. Tracking 
25. Surgery and barbering 
26. First aid and medicine 
27. Economics and merchantry 
28. Valuation 
29. Prospecting 
30. Farming and woodchopping 
31. Cooking and meal preparation 
32. Smelting 
33. Mining 
34. Weapon crafting and repair 
35. Armour crafting and repair 
36. Building and masonry 
37. Skinning and butchery 
38. Tanning and textiles 
39. Sewing and tailoring 
40. Contraptioning and engineering 

Limit Breaks:  Level times a session/day/Length of time appropriate to the campaign, when attempting an action a PC can roll a d6 that explodes on 6's (re-roll and add new dice roll to total). This roll is a added to the appropriate skill, increasing its descriptor for that action.  

Leveling: To level up a PC: 

0, To get to next level, do something mildly interesting 
1, To get to next level, do something interesting 
2, To get to next level, do something that changes a small group 
3, To get to next level, do something that changes a large group 
4, To get to next level, do something that changes a whole building/structure 
5, To get to next level, do something that changes a town/settlement 
6, To get to next level, do something that changes a whole biome/environment  
7, To get to next level, do something that changes a whole continent
8, To get to next level, do something that changes the whole world 
9, To get to next level, do something that changes reality 

Playing the game: 

• The referee presents a fantasy world to the players. 
• The players tell the referee what they want their PC's to do (perhaps explaining why they may be successful in such an endeavor). 
• The referee tells them what happens. 
• If an NPC is taking an action that involved a PC, the PC can tell the referee how they attempt to react (Say, if the NPC was swinging a sword at them for example!) 
• (PC's cant attempt a skill without 1 level in it! They shall have do do broad and inferior simulacrum of such a feat using their attributes!) 
• (If you really need to roll a dice attribute checks would be a d10 attribute level number or below, and skill checks would be d20 skill level number or below)