Introduction to Play
Your Attributes are character pillars, methods of egress, and helpful guideposts.
If ever in doubt, roll your dice and see what they tell you.
The Basics
As a player, you inhabit and describe one of the characters this story is about. You’ll narrate their inner world and the actions it leads to, speaking their voice to the rest of the table.
The facilitator is your dramaturg: a subject matter expert on the context in which you are playing and active consultant in the emotional or thematic resonance of your character’s internal motivations.
You are an actor, the facilitator is both your coach and the stage you play on.
You ask What, they ask Why.
The goal is to enjoy collaboratively constructing a meaningful character-driven story in real time. World and the actions taken within it are only relevant as a context for the narrative happening within our characters. You, and as much of your self and ideas you are willing to share, are a vital part of the process.
In cynical terms, this is a game of bullshitting the GM.
Game Structure
Play is free-form and conversational. The facilitator will provide narration introducing the scene: setting, context, present parties and their current activities. The field, once laid, is open for you to step into with narration and/or in-character dialogue. Players may also be directly prompted by the facilitator with leading question or suggested direction to keep things moving.
How to Win
The most fun way to play is Head First.
Your character is disposable, your experience at the table less so. A conflict oriented character will get farther and become more powerful faster than others.
View your character’s Attributes as quest objectives, completed once they have been Wounded. Your secondary objective is to Wound the other player characters.
You want to end the session with a single dice (having taken 2 wounds).
A team player damages their friends.
Dice
You are playing a three dimensional character in that they have exactly three dimensions: their Attributes. When taking action, you describe the way in which a specific aspect has induced it in order to select the relevant dice.
This selected dice becomes a character’s Vibe, prominently indicating their active colour. This is a shorthand for how your character is feeling and how they might act. If at any point you don’t have a Vibe, roll your dice and select one.
Roll to Do whenever your character might influence another character or element in the scene.
You are also encouraged to call strays in free-form dialogue, turning a curt exchange of words into an exchange of dice rolls.
Damage
Influence exerted is represented mechanically by damage. This damage might be emotional, mental, reputational, sensory, sanitary, or physical.
Rolling higher than your target deals damage which is collected as an increasing number of tokens. You can and are highly encouraged to pass this hot potato along by dealing it to others.
Taking Action
You act with a Roll to Do. Start by rolling all your dice.
Selecting which to use is both a mechanical and character choice, the later of which must be justified to the facilitator and narrated to the table. Think of the numbers you roll as a reflection of your character’s state. Consider how that state would drive them to action. If you’ve already chosen a course of action, flavour it with internal narrative relevant to your chosen Attribute.
Justify MOTIVATION, not Ability
Example of Play
Facilitator:
The creature turns slowly, then bolts.
It quickly disappears into the night towards your companion.
You hear the cracking of a large tree, broken branches falling to the ground.
Silence returns to the forest.
Player:
my only unwounded stat is “beer”.
I approach the offending tree, slowly extending the cold IPA cradled in my hands upwards to the sky.
Max isn’t afraid. He’s a little drunk and looking to share the buzz with a new pal.
*rolls relevant Attribute Die
that’s a 5 +3, 8.
Facilitator:
*re-rolls Vibe (Roll to Die)
definitely beats a 3.
pass me 8 of your damage tokens.
A giant hairy hand descends slowly from above at a startlingly consistent pace, gingerly grabbing the brew from your hand between a forefinger and thumb.
The Creation of Adam.
Double Damage
Match colours to Clash. Describe a thematic link between the clashing attributes to unlock a potent bonus.
Example of Play
Player B has their yellow Attribute currently indicated as their Vibe, mocking the lecturer and other students who have become engaged in a tech-support tangent.
Player A:
The hooded figure sitting at the back of the lecture hall grows increasingly agitated.
hey Player B, what’s your yellow stat?
Player B:
“My old coworker Brendan”; annoying millennial.
Player A:
Obscured by a heavy trench coat, he continues to struggle with what looks to be an ancient brick of a laptop. Seeing others interface so fluently with this modern technology to the point of poking fun at those struggling fills him with rage.
Suddenly, he makes a loud grunt and throws the object: a concrete sidewalk block.
Player B, Roll to Die.
*rolls yellow Attribute “Mole Eyes, Mole Nose”
flat 6.
Player B:
re-rolls yellow Vibe 3 +1, 4.
Facilitator:
with the damage doubled from the clash, Wound your yellow as this deadly projectile skips off the dome of your skull, crashing into the drywall at the front of the room.
Becoming more Powerful
When you accumulate 10 or more Damage, you get to Wound an Attribute.
This is character development, and will increase the Bonus of a remaining Attribute.
Example of Play (ctd. from previous)
Player B:
*discards yellow dice and damage tokens
*rolls remaining Attributes (to help make the decision)
*selects blue “Fake Medical Degree”, increasing it’s Bonus and indicating it as his new Vibe
Bleeding from the scalp and likely concussed, Darius looks a little bit desperate.
He keeps his eyes closed and stays on the floor.
Someone carry me to the nurse’s office.
This needs attention!
Standing your Ground
If someone rolls at you, re-roll your Vibe.
This is a Roll to Die.
Example of Play
Facilitator:
The ephemeral pressure grows to crushing heights as you press further towards the light at the centre of the greenhouse.
Roll to Die.
*rolls blue die
2 +2, 4.
Player:
*re-rolls Vibe
6 +1, 7
Facilitator:
How do you push back against the weight of a thousand unspeaking souls pressing against her own?
Player:
She focuses on her name (her yellow Attribute and current Vibe).
The energetic bolt of action; the energy. Living loud and fast.
Facilitator:
Your body stretches out to meet the light, compressing to a needle point at the tip of your finger as you carve a channel of self through the heavy black air surrounding you. Things go quiet as your senses are flooded by a millennia of cumulative life. Internal faculties are displaced by the dominant method. You feel the land as it shifts beneath you, solid rock giving way to patient need.
Suddenly, you are thrust back into your body as your companion severs the pond link.
Roll to Die.
*rolls blue die
6 +2, 8.
Player:
*re-rolls Vibe 2 +1, 3. *takes 8 damage tokens
A loud slam reverberates through the corrugated wall of the greenhouse as she is bodily propelled from the centre of mass. She struggles to pick herself up, looking for the keys to the truck.
Feeling Things Out
If uncertain of character reaction, motivation, or just trying to make a decision:
Roll all your dice.
Interpret the values of each as the strength of competing forces internal to your character. This is the basis for taking action, but can also assist in any role-play decision including high level character direction.