Cadell Roonan] Hey Kinney
Hawthorn McKinny) Hey Cade, how’s things?
C] Things are good. I’ve got an idea!
K) Of course you do. Lay it out for me
C] I think we should play a duo RPG in chat. We spend most of our time together in chat after all… and I think I’ve got a fun way to make that happen!
K) I’m intrigued… go on
C] Instead of a GM and Players, I am thinking about dividing game play roles into World Master and Party Master. The World Master controls the environment, the NPCs, the monsters, etc… much like a DM/GM does. But the Party Master controls all of the PCs in the party – even NPCs which tag along for a time with the party.
K) I’m with you
C] Outcomes of actions are entirely table-based. We will use only 1d6 to determine results of attempted actions. Tables will eventually be populated with good descriptions from play.
K) I may need to playtest this a bit to understand.
C] Sure… Your party, just two PCs currently, is walking down an overgrown forest trail when suddenly you hear a rustling nearby. Moments later you are surrounded by wolves… two in front of you and two behind you. What do you do?
K) Algor draws his sword and readies his shield for attack. “Ready yourself Denila!” he yells. Denila begins casting a spell. “Wolves don’t like fire I assume…” she says calmly
C] A wolf from behind snarls and leaps, making a bite attack against Algor.
Action> Bite Attack L1
[d]
K) Algor is suddenly embarrassed by the loud howl he let escape from his mouth. He attempts to bash the wolf away from him with his shield.
Action> Shield Bash
(d)
C] That is the basic idea anyway. There are lots of gaps to be filled in as we play.
K) What is a Blunder Table?
C] It is like a Critical Fail. There will also be Dominance Tables for Critical Hits.
K) So how can I roll less than a 1 with a d6?
C] Modifiers. The wolf currently has a Defense of 0… but if it had a +1 Defense, your roll would suffer a -1. (1d6-1) So then if you rolled a 1 against a target with +1 Defense, then your result would be 0 – which would trigger the Blunder Table. It is simply another set of results (no modifiers apply on Blunder or Dominance tables). Roll low against the Blunder Table and you might drop your weapon, or expose a vunerability to the enemy, or trip and fall, etc.
K) Cool idea! So you end up writing out full tables every attack?
C] I anticipate a set of tables per weapon, per level, with generic descriptions which can be embellished during gameplay.
K) I see. And the World Master does all of the table work?
C] Yes, I expect so. Although there is room for both players to contribute to the tables. For example I thought maybe the Party Master would help design items and weapons
