Wednesday, 31 January 2024

The Tactile and Generic TTRPG - Boardgamey tablefeel using bits and bobs.

 Introduction

  • This system is designed to play a character focused TTRPG with some of the tactile “tablefeel” of board games. It uses generic game components that will on hand/easy to acquire (d6, tokens/poker chips, card chits, playing cards). 
  • The referee presents an imaginary game world to the players, who take on the role of characters within that world (pursuing goals self determined, set by the referee or collaboratively determined). 
  • Shout out to Trent B @ https://newfeierland.blogspot.com/ ! The game he has been tinkering around with for the last few years (that I've had the pleasure of playing in a couple of times) uses a d6 system that I've taken heavy inspiration from for this system. 


Player Character Creation: 

  • A player picks something to represent their character (miniature, picture, description, etc). 
  • The referee will determine the number of tokens and life chits that character gets at the start of a session. 
  • The referee will determine how hard/complicated specific actions/defence are for that character, and how many d6s a character gets roll for specific actions/defence, during play. 


Action/Defence Rolls: 

  • When a player attempts an action in which failure has consequence and is not automatically successful, an action roll happens. 
  • Non player characters (or the environment) are automatically successful in actions that attempt to hinder/harm player characters. Player characters may roll to defend against such actions. If the player characters fails their defence roll (or doesn’t/cant defend) they lose a life chit. 
  • The referee determines how many d6 each player rolls for their character and how hard/complicated the action/defence is. How hard/complicated the action/defence is will determine what roll is required for success/to defend. 

Determining Action/Defence Roll targets: 

Difficulty: (Roll on a d6) 

    • Easy, 3+  
    • Medium, 4+
    • Hard, 5+ 
    • Very hard, 6+ 

A complicated action/defence will require a number of dice to be rolled at a certain number or higher. 

  • Easy and complicated, 2 x 3+ 
  • Medium and complicated, 2 x 4+ 
  • Hard and complicated, 2 x 5+ 
  • Very hard and complicated, 2 x 6+ 

Particularly hard/complicated actions/defence may require more than 2 dice to be rolled at a certain number or higher. 

  • If a player rolls at least the required number or higher, on the required number of dice, their character’s action/defence is successful! The referee will need to determine the consequence for failing an action roll if it is failed. This should be something that makes it more difficult or complicated to achieve their current goals. 



Tokens

  • Players may give the referee a token instead of rolling a d6. This token represents a roll of 6. 
  • Players regain their tokens at the start of each session. 
  • Hard Mode: The referee may use any tokens they receive once to turn any d6 result into a 1. 
  • Narrative mode: As hard mode, but any tokens used by the referee go back to the player they are used against. They may use them again in the session.  



Life chits: 

  • If a player loses all their life chits they die. 
  • If approved by the referee one player may give up one of their life chits in place of another player. This represents their character somewhat sacrificing themselves for the other character.  
  • How player characters regain life chits is determined by the referee. 



Non Player Characters: 

  • Can be expressed as a number of life chits and a description that gives the referee an understanding of how hard/complicated their actions will be to defend against.   


Order of Actions: 

  • The referee determines the order in which player characters , non player characters and the environment take action within the game world. 


What happens next/random encounters: 

  • The referee may ask a player to pull a number of random cards from a deck of playing cards. The number pulled will be determined by the referee in relation to how in control the player character is in within the current situation of the gameworld. 
  • The player decides which one of the cards they pulled is applied to the game: 
    • Red cards = Something good for the players 
    • Black cards = Something bad for the players 
    • Number cards = A event takes place, the number determining how great or insignificant the event is. 
    • Face cards = An object or entity appears, the face determine how great or insignificant the object or entity is. 


Player Character inventory: 

  • Each character will have appropriate possessions/equipment (confirmed by referee). 
  • More possessions/ equipment can be acquired through play. The referee will determine how much possessions/ equipment a character may have/carry, and the impact of any new possessions/ equipment on how hard/complicated specific actions/defence are. 
  • Buy and selling possessions/ equipment can be handled through action/defence rolls, with the cost of failure being determined by the referee (loss of inventory/reputation/etc) rather than a life chit. 


Player Character Advancement: 

  • If a player character survives a session, the referee will make a note of something/s that character is better at for future sessions. 


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