Twee

is a character-rich story-focused de-make of the Sentiment ttrpg system. Largely built from the 0.6-0.8 revisions of the beta ruleset, Twee is an attempt to simplify the system even further, optimizing for an open table environment.

• Quick Reference
• Example of Play

Attributes

Every character consists of three unique stats, each with a name and colour.
These Attributes are your character’s core personality traits, convictions, features, and interests.

Names

You may name Attributes in any way, from ‘Crystal Girlie’ to ‘Beatboxing’ to ‘My old Co-Worker Brendan’. Poetry, Unicode characters, drawings, or anything else you can think of to meaningfully represent an aspect of your character are also valid.

These names are critically important, as all three represent your character entirely!
Whatever you choose, have a clear idea of what these Attributes represent, and how to communicate that with your facilitator as needed.
The name of an attribute is permanent and cannot be changed without undergoing significant narrative and mechanical character growth.

Colours

Attribute colours are entirely vibe-based, though a rough guide is provided in the Colour Words graphic. Each Attribute must be a different colour. Attempting to balance or concentrate a character around the wheel may help guide their formation, but take care to avoid using one of the guiding colour words as an Attribute. While allowed, you won’t have much fun playing a boring character!

Levels

Each Attribute has an associated level, which adds a bonus value to a roll when you lock it in as your Swing. As a character progresses through multiple sessions, you may spend Potential to increase these bonuses individually. Attribute levels can be tracked on your character sheet next to the relevant dice slots. The bonus is equal to the level, starting at 0.

Dice

Each Attribute is represented by a coloured d6 which are used to act on or react to the world around you. Normally living in their home slots on your character sheet, performing a roll using an Attribute dice will bring it to the forefront. This die is physically placed in the Swing slot of your character sheet.
You are encouraged to roleplay your character as embodying their active attribute.

Rolls are largely self-determined by player intention, but the facilitator will regularly call strays as they are caught in freeform dialogue.

Roll to Do

Whenever you perform an action or influence something in the world, you Roll to Do.
This could be anything from lifting a box to hitting someone or hitting on them.

• Roll all Attribute dice
• Select one to act with
  • add attribute level
• Lock it in as your new Swing

While you will normally want to use the highest value, you will have to justify to the facilitator how and why your character is using that Attribute to perform the action (if not self-evident). Bonuses may be granted by the facilitator based on clever incorporation of context like a prop.

Success

When rolling against another character, you will be contesting a roll to die.
The Roll to Do must exceed the Roll to Die in order to succeed, dealing damage equal to your Swing (die value + attribute level). Mark a point of Potential if you deal enough damage to Wound your target.

In other situations, you may simply roll against a static threshold determined by the facilitator.
A normal success will be partial, somehow complicated by a contextual setback, unless the threshold is cleared by a wide enough margin (~2).

Clashes

If you Roll to Do using a die the same colour as your target’s current Swing, it becomes a clash.

• A successful attack deals double damage.
• A successful defence deals normal damage.
• A tie banks the damage and prompts a reroll. This banked damage will be dealt to the losing party along with the value of the winning roll.
  • Damage banked by successive tied clashes can stack indefinitely.

Roll to Die

When acted against, you Roll to Die.
This is your roll to weather external action, influence, or attack.

• Reroll your Swing
  • add attribute level

Roll to Discern

At any point outside of a fixed turn order, roll your Attributes to examine your character’s inner thoughts or feelings. The values presented by the dice can help guide character or roleplay decisions. A higher value in one stat might mean a certain tendency or viewpoint is acting up while a lower value could indicate a lack of confidence.

• Roll all Attribute dice
• Assess the vibe
• Lock one in as a Swing

Health, Damage, and Wounds

A successful Roll to Do deals damage equal to your Swing (die value + attribute level).
Each character starts with 10 health points.
When all health is lost, your character is Wounded

• Select the most relevant Attribute (defaults to Swing)
  • discard Attribute die
  • completely unusable until healed
• Restore health to full
• Select a new Swing
• Mark a point of Potential
  • (2 points for every subsequent wound)
  • Potential is also gained for dealing a wound.

A wound represents critical damage to a core aspect of your character. Consider how this could blight or invert their behaviour in certain ways.

When a character Wounds their second last Attribute, they may choose to yield. Such a character may remain present or exit the scene but loses the ability to deal damage, take damage, or gain Potential until they are healed.

Death’s Door

A character who continues with only a single remaining Attribute is said to be on Death’s Door. Upon loosing all health in this state, your character will be narratively obliterated and removed from play.
Surviving a hit on Death’s Door grants 2 points of Potential.
A character on Death’s Door may not leave a scene in conflict.

Progression

During play, points of Potential are awarded for character moments like achievements or personal growth. The most consistent way to gain Potential is by taking or dealing Wounds. These can be spent at the end of session on the following:

Attributes may also be healed, levelled, and altered in combination at a discount representative of character growth if it can be narratively justified to the facilitator.

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Advanced

Additional system mechanics exist optionally. Though available to any player that cares to read and bring them up in session, they will not be introduced until a player becomes more familiar and comfortable with the basic system, beginning to crave complexity.

Exhaustion

Certain extraordinary actions may fall at the limit of a character’s ability. To push past this, you may be given the option to Exhaust a die. Place your current swing beside your character sheet, leaving the slot empty. This leaves a character defenceless until they next act, when they may select a new Swing.

Take a Breath

When one or more attribute die is exhausted a character may spend an action to take a breath. Describe how your character stops to reset, regaining their composure and restoring all exhausted attributes. A new swing may also be selected.

Attribute Compulsion

Knowing the name of an attribute represents a significant degree of vulnerability between characters; both a weakness and a strength. While the attributes of player characters are shared, those of NPCs must be discovered through play.

Bond Tokens

Sharing a character moment, developing a friendship, stoking a rivalry, or even just a solid role-play scene will grant you a Bond Token for the relevant character. This includes PCs and NPCs.

Bond Tokens can then be spent in play to bolster or incapacitate the target.

Invoking an Attribute

To support a struggling ally, you may spend a Bond Token to call upon one of their attributes by name, temporarily granting them use of that die as their swing, even if it is wounded. The effect persists until that character takes a wound (in which case the invokes attribute is wounded) or locks in another attribute (in which case the effect is lost). Mechanically, this grants an extra wound but forces the character to use only the invoked attribute (if they choose to keep the effect).

You must be able to narratively justify how to call out the target attribute in this moment.

Example

To invoke an ally’s Heroism attribute, you might give them a rousing speech about a time they saved you.
-Sentiment 0.8.1 Rules

It may also be useful in certain scenarios to invoke an enemy attribute to compel certain behaviour or trains of thought.

Banning an Attribute

To partially incapacitate a target, you may spend a Bond Token and Roll to Do to Ban a known attribute. On a success, it is functionally Exhausted and can only be restored by the following:

• The scene ends
• Your character allows the attribute to return
• The target successfully Bans one of your character’s attributes
• The banned attribute is Invoked

Example

Your target is a proud knight, whose dirty secrets you are aware of. In discovering their misdeeds, you gain knowledge that their Red Attribute is named The One Good Nobleman. You Ban this Attribute by announcing their misdeeds to a crowded town square, nullifying their ability to call upon it.
-Sentiment 0.8.1 Rules

[By] getting to know a dragon and learning that their Blue Attribute is Unending Hunger, you may Roll to Do to prepare a feast of poisoned meat for them, Banning their Attribute.
-Sentiment 0.8.1 Rules

Gifts

Special equipment and character abilities are codified as Gifts.

Especially potent character moments can be crystallized by the facilitator, codifying a mechanical representation of ingenuity, courage, or vulnerability into this form of lasting reusable empowerment. The availability of this option is based on the presence of a compelling idea and it’s relevance to your character.

You may spend Potential to form Gifts of your own from moments you found important, with costs decided by the facilitator. Potential may also be spend on certain Gifts to increase the strength of an effect or mitigate an imposed cost.

Examples

I Know A Guy

Once per Session - Name and conjure an individual fit to tackle the issue at hand.

Roll a number of d6s determined by the facilitator based on their potential helpfulness.
The lowest die value decides your relationship with this individual.

A Gun

On a Hit - Deal 2 wounds.

You can’t bring a gun to school.
If someone sees you with a gun, they will call the police.
The police also have guns.