Finally!
I promised a pair of short reviews back in September. I think it's high time that I posted them, how about you?
And in case you're wondering, I have a reason for reviewing these games at the same time: both games reward effort on the part of the players to an extent that I've never seen before. The similarities don't end there, either. Both games are even shorter than Risus; both use West End Games/White Wolf style dice-pool mechanics; and both are free.
Token Storytelling, by James D. Hargrove, is a free, four page gem of a pdf file. His other free games can be found here. Mechanically, characters are represented by a single pool of six-sided dice. Any time the player needs to accomplish something and success is in doubt, the player may elect to roll up to 8 dice or the current size of his die pool, whichever is smaller, and counts rolls of 5 or 6 as successes. The character succeeds if enough successes are rolled, and loses dice from her pool and fails if enough aren't rolled. Other than an injury mechanic that makes combat end before players are totally out of dice, that's it! Well not entirely. Where does this pool come from, you ask?
Token Storytelling rewards player effort up front at character creation - players are given a certain number of dice for coming up details about their characters in certain categories. For example: for "Defining your character's personality in detail" you get three dice; for "Interweaving your character's monomyth into that of another PC" you get five dice. One may only receive the dice for each category once, so the largest possible starting die pool is 25 dice. But if you take the effort to get all of them, you've got a character with tons of adventure hooks for the GM and role-playing hooks for yourself and the other players.
TS takes the last step of the Tri-Stat dX character creation system -where the player is rewarded with extra character points for drawing character portraits or writing in-character fiction and such- and turns it into the whole thing. And I think it would work, too. I'd certainly be willing to try! That said, I'm more comfortable with Spirit of the Century's character creation, where the players have more or less equal resources.
Wushu Open by Daniel Bayn is a free, 10 page rich-text document (the last three pages of which are the Wushu Open License) located here. Wushu rewards player effort during play. In fact, it rewards players in a manner similar to the Stunt Dice one receives in Exalted for trying something neat and/or describing something well. The difference is that in Wushu, the Stunt Dice are the only dice you get! One's die pool during combat is equal to the number of actions one describes, up to a limit based on how important the conflict is. 3-4 dice is the recommended limit for a fight against a mere horde of ninja or other redshirts; 6-8 dice are recommended for more dramatic fights.
Hand-in-hand with this unique take on the die pool is what the author calls "The Principle of Narrative Truth" - everything happens in the 'shared fiction' when and how the player describes it. There are two limits placed on this great freedom. First, actions that somehow don't fit can be vetoed by the other players. Second, a player is only allowed to narrate a "killing blow" or the like after the dice fall and a victor is determined.
These mechanics and the writing style are very evocative of fast-cutting, action movie pacing, and Wushu seems to me like it would be a blast in play. I can't help but wish quality had the same kind of mechanical emphasis as quantity in the rules. On the other hand, quantity is much easier to measure on the fly. The best mechanic I can think of for rewarding quality descriptions would be something like Fan Mail from Primetime Adventures.
Anyways, two fascinating games. Check them out and leave me some comments here - they're short and they're free, what more do you want?
That's all for now, dear readers. I promise not to abandon you for so long again. Until next time...
And in case you're wondering, I have a reason for reviewing these games at the same time: both games reward effort on the part of the players to an extent that I've never seen before. The similarities don't end there, either. Both games are even shorter than Risus; both use West End Games/White Wolf style dice-pool mechanics; and both are free.
Token Storytelling, by James D. Hargrove, is a free, four page gem of a pdf file. His other free games can be found here. Mechanically, characters are represented by a single pool of six-sided dice. Any time the player needs to accomplish something and success is in doubt, the player may elect to roll up to 8 dice or the current size of his die pool, whichever is smaller, and counts rolls of 5 or 6 as successes. The character succeeds if enough successes are rolled, and loses dice from her pool and fails if enough aren't rolled. Other than an injury mechanic that makes combat end before players are totally out of dice, that's it! Well not entirely. Where does this pool come from, you ask?
Token Storytelling rewards player effort up front at character creation - players are given a certain number of dice for coming up details about their characters in certain categories. For example: for "Defining your character's personality in detail" you get three dice; for "Interweaving your character's monomyth into that of another PC" you get five dice. One may only receive the dice for each category once, so the largest possible starting die pool is 25 dice. But if you take the effort to get all of them, you've got a character with tons of adventure hooks for the GM and role-playing hooks for yourself and the other players.
TS takes the last step of the Tri-Stat dX character creation system -where the player is rewarded with extra character points for drawing character portraits or writing in-character fiction and such- and turns it into the whole thing. And I think it would work, too. I'd certainly be willing to try! That said, I'm more comfortable with Spirit of the Century's character creation, where the players have more or less equal resources.
Wushu Open by Daniel Bayn is a free, 10 page rich-text document (the last three pages of which are the Wushu Open License) located here. Wushu rewards player effort during play. In fact, it rewards players in a manner similar to the Stunt Dice one receives in Exalted for trying something neat and/or describing something well. The difference is that in Wushu, the Stunt Dice are the only dice you get! One's die pool during combat is equal to the number of actions one describes, up to a limit based on how important the conflict is. 3-4 dice is the recommended limit for a fight against a mere horde of ninja or other redshirts; 6-8 dice are recommended for more dramatic fights.
Hand-in-hand with this unique take on the die pool is what the author calls "The Principle of Narrative Truth" - everything happens in the 'shared fiction' when and how the player describes it. There are two limits placed on this great freedom. First, actions that somehow don't fit can be vetoed by the other players. Second, a player is only allowed to narrate a "killing blow" or the like after the dice fall and a victor is determined.
These mechanics and the writing style are very evocative of fast-cutting, action movie pacing, and Wushu seems to me like it would be a blast in play. I can't help but wish quality had the same kind of mechanical emphasis as quantity in the rules. On the other hand, quantity is much easier to measure on the fly. The best mechanic I can think of for rewarding quality descriptions would be something like Fan Mail from Primetime Adventures.
Anyways, two fascinating games. Check them out and leave me some comments here - they're short and they're free, what more do you want?
That's all for now, dear readers. I promise not to abandon you for so long again. Until next time...