- Joined
- Aug 20, 2017
- Messages
- 8,213
- Reaction score
- 23,679
This is an odd game and will probably appeal to the more narratively focused people. A GMless RPG (that as
Stan has pointed out plays as much like a boardgame) with randomly generated events providing the "meat" of the campaign.
Blurb:
Let me know if it appeals. I think it should play fine from 3-6 (including me!)
Blurb:
Greg Stolze's newest tabletop roleplaying game puts you in the corrupt, dissolute city-state of Vindamere, but don't worry. You play the best people there, spoiled children of privilege with nothing better to do than pursue swordplay, flirt outrageously, and snack on delicious vol-au-vents. A single game session covers the social year from Ye Midwinter Balle through the prestigious Alle-Valley Fencinge Championeshippe. Your louche elite blade-swanks fall in love, brawl, sneer and engage in truly petty social rivalries.
Imagine a game that's "Bridgerton, only extremely violent" or "extra-horny Cobra Kai, with swords."
All the game's complexity is emergent. You can play it over and over without having to prep it or continue a meandering story. The hard stuff has already been built into the mechanics and the step-by-step procedures for generating drama, intrigue, and coarse humor. All players have to do is make the key decisions and roll on combinations of four stats (Foppish, Serious, Duelist and Aristocrat) to subtly humiliate rivals, engage in duels of wits (or more commonplace duels of swords), make earnest plights of troth, and carry on with the restraint and dignity you'd expect if Romeo was madly in love with Lady MacBeth.
In full detail, the game works like this:
- Each player portrays the instructor of an illustrious dueling school. Instructors have four stats in opposed sets (Foppish and Serious, Duelist and Aristocrat)
- Each instructor also comes with two Beloveds. When players decide to play a scene as a Beloved instead of their instructor, they get special modifiers to their stats. But beware! Other players can woo your Beloveds away, and that just won't do!
- At the beginning of a new scene, players set up the situation by rolling on prompts, collectively deciding on key details, and determining whether to play as their instructor, a Beloved, or in some scenes, both at once!
- Each player decides on an action for their instructor or Beloved to take, rolls a ten-sided die, and adds the sum of two of the four stats. If the player has advantage, they roll twice and take the highest result. If they have disadvantage, they roll twice and take the lowest result.
- If the total result is 15 or higher, or the player rolls a 10 on the die, they succeed. If the result's lower, or the player rolls a 1 on the die, they fail. Either way, it'll lead to some serious shenanigans.
Let me know if it appeals. I think it should play fine from 3-6 (including me!)