Set Up

Reward Pool

Play starts with each player having the following set of dice in their reward pool (this includes the GM):

3d4

2d6

2d8

2d10

1d12

During play the number and size of dice in this pool will vary.

Initial Situation

Play starts in the Black Boar Tavern, and this is the only thing we know about the world, that the adventurers have assembled at this appropriate place to discuss a matter before them of great importance that requires their attention.

Barkeep's Questions

Playing the role of the Barkeep at the Tavern, the GM asks the following questions, one per round, in an attempt to discover what it is the PCs are up to:

First round, before any player has taken their turn, “So, what brings you in here?”

“Who wants you to do that?”

“Is somebody in danger? What's at risk?”

“Why is it that they chose you for this job?”

“What dangers stand in your way?”

“What do you all get out of this?”

The GM can ask any but the first question in any order, or change the questions in an attempt to help get the players to establish several facts that must be known before they can leave the tavern.

Leaving the Tavern

The players may not leave the tavern to deal with their quest until they have answered the following questions:

The overall threat

Who wants the threat taken care of

Why the PCs care as a group

Why the PCs care, individually - note that a player may decide not to reveal his character's personal motive to the other players, and instead let the GM know privately

What at least two of the known dangers are

The GM should record the answers to these on his quest tracking sheet. He keeps on having the barkeep ask leading questions until the players have determined all of the above required facts.

Rounds

The narrations in the Tavern occur over rounds of drinks, during which each PC will get a chance to speak. There is no turn order to this, players just speak back and forth as in any normal conversation. Each round, the player can tell a tale to reveal an ability once (see Telling Tales below), and any number of obstacles may be created. The round ends when each player feels that their character has had their say. Generally players are trying to come up with their goals in response to the Barkeep's questions, so that they can get on with their adventure. Though they may decide to prolong things, too, so that they have more chances to tell tales.

Opposition Dice

The longer the characters loligag around in the tavern, the more time the opposition has to plan or for the dangers involved to get worse. Time is of the essence! At the end of the first round, the GM gets a d4 for the opposition bonus pool. At the end of the next round it becomes a d6. A d8 at the end of the third. And so on until it becomes a d12. If they characters still haven't gotten out of the Tavern when there's a d12 in the pool, then the GM gets another d4 at the end of the round, and this then starts to increase as before, one die size per round. This process continues until the character's leave the tavern to go on their quest.

Character Abilities

What Are Abilities

Abilities can represent a wide variety of things; just about anything that the character might find to be an asset in play.

Skills

Talents

Heritage

Personality Traits

Physical Attributes

Mental Attributes

Magical Abilities

Relationships with NPCs

Special Equipment

Wealth

Each ability will have a name and a die rating.

Players reveal character abilities by “Telling Tales”…

Telling Tales

A player may, at any time, narrate something about his character's abilities. Perhaps they brag about them, or they can just think a thought regarding them; just so long as we get an idea of what the ability is. This narration must be linked to something in the game world that they create on the spot. When done with the narration, the player announces a name for the ability, and selects another player to judge who assigns a rating to the ability.

Selecting a Judge

The narrating player may select any other player to be judge (including the GM), but may want to consider the dice that player has left to give. If a player doesn't have a high die in their pool, they can't give you one. Players may offer to be judge, even jumping ahead to doing a very fast judging (see below), and stating what die they're offering the player. This can often streamline the process quite a bit. If somebody offers a die, and the player accepts it, then the ability is written on the character sheet as it was stated, and the die of the ability that was assigned is noted.

Judging Narrations

The player selected as judge decides on a rating for the ability in question. This player should score 1 point for each of the following:

Was the ability suitably narrow in application? If the ability was applicable to a very broad set of circumstances (especially those seem like they can be used all the time), then the narrating player doesn't get this point.

Did the player create an interesting part of the game world as part of their narration?

Did the player link their new part of the world to a part that already exists in an interesting way?

Did the player create an interesting linkage between the character's ability and the part of the world they created?

Based on the points scored, the judge may award the player the following die, or any lower than this die:

Points Scored	Potential Die
1	d6
2	d8
3	d10
4	d12

Lesser dice are often given simply because the ability in question doesn't sound as though it's a really important one, or for several other reasons, all of which are completely at the judge's discretion. And, of course, a judge may only give out the dice that they have in their pool.

Preposterous!

If the judging player finds the narration to be completely preposterous or uninteresting, they may refuse to give a die at all, in which case the player being judged may retract their narration completely… though this is likely rare. Players typically do a reasonable job with narrations. This rule exists just to inform the player that they can't toss garbage into the game and expect to be rewarded for it.

Negotiation

Often the player's narration is OK, but the judge may find part of it to be less interesting than it could be. The judge can offer a lower die, and counter-offer with a higher one to get the narrating player to alter their narration in some way. This power should be used only to make modifications, not take over the player's entire narration and alter it completely. The judge should work with the narrating player to come up with something interesting.

Other players are encouraged to kibbitz and offer suggestions. But in the end, it's up to the narrating player to decide if they want to make any revisions to the narration, and up to the judging player to decide what die they get (if any) as a result.

Be a Good Judge

The reward for being a tough judge is that the world and characters end up more interesting.

The reward for being a fair judge is that other players will treat you fairly as well when it's their turn to be judge.

Don't go too easy or too hard on the other players.

This entire process can be quite informal, with the judge not stopping to enumerate the points they're awarding, but simply leaping to announce the die they think is appropriate. The judge and player can discuss how important the ability is to the player… often the player will be satisfied with a lesser die, saving the big dice for more important things later. Part of being a good judge is moving the process along quickly so that play can proceed with the smallest interruptions possible.

Obstacles

To get more dice into their reward pool, players may wish to create obstacles. An obstacle is something that stands in the way of them achieving their goals. These may be personal goals for individual characters, or they may be the overall goal for the game. The player rates the obstacle by one of the die types, and then adds a die of the same size to their reward pool. The GM records the obstacle and it's rating.

Contradictions

The GM may decide that he'd prefer for something already established as fact by character narration, but not actually verified in play through experience, is incorrect in part or in whole. This is often done to spring surprises on the PCs. When the GM does this, they must award one of the dice in their pool to the player who established the fact, any die he prefers. If the GM is out of dice, this is not an option.

Resolution

Fatiguing Dice

You can narrate doing something extra hard to get a re-roll of a die. This causes the die to temporarily go down by one die type. A d4 goes to a d0, and cannot be used until rested.

A player can also fatigue a die to roll it.

Risking Dice

A player may burn a die at any time to win a contest. The player has to narrate very desperate action, and rolls the die. If the result would have been a failure, the results of the action are narrated in a way that describes how the ability is permanently lost.

Momentum

The quest has a momentum to it that's interrupted if the characters take too much time. After facing one danger this die becomes a d4 that can be used in any roll. After the second, it goes to d6. And so on and so forth, just like opposition dice. If the party stops to rest, for every rest taken, the momentum die goes down by one. This also happens if he party decides to take a safe detour for any reason.

Sequels

If and when the matter at hand has been dealt with, the players may decide individually what they want to do from the following three options:

Play on! - the player keeps their character, and goes back to the Black Boar to invent a new adventure.

New Blood - the player may have their current character sit out the next adventure at the tavern, and create a new character to continue on. Often new characters can bring with them news of the next problem to be faced.

Retire - the player may decide to take a break and not play on in the next sequel.

If all players retire, then the game is over until a new batch of adventurous souls appears at the Black Boar.

Notes

Confessional-like mechanic? Players tagging other players?