Haiku Elvis
Knuckle-dusters, glass jaws and wooden hearts.
Any RPG that names abilities/features after a Fall album goes up at least one notch in my book.
DIE: The Roleplaying Game
hawkeyefan
Legend
Yeah, Kieron Gillen is a big music buff, and one of his earliest comics was Phonogram, which was about music as magic. There are a lot of easter eggs like that in the book.
hawkeyefan
Legend
Fool
The Fool is a swashbuckling type of hero, who dashes into danger without a second thought, and manages to succeed by the skin of their teeth. When there’s fallout from the Fool’s actions, it’s usually those around them who face the consequences. Each Fool begins by picking a trade, which will help flavor how they play. Trades are: Swashbuckler, Trickster Wizard, Rogue, Bard, Hustler, and Con Artist.
Whenever the Fool is about to roll a pool of dice for some kind of reckless action, they can add their Fool’s d6. Whenever rolling their Fool’s d6, they gain the Special: roll an additional d6 and add it to the pool. So the more 6s they roll, the more dice they roll. They can achieve a potentially high number of successes.
The Fool’s d6 is treated a bit different than the rest, though. Before you begin play, you must select one face of the d6 and draw a circle on it (using a non-permanent marker, or alternatively, there’s a little chart provided that you can use). If you roll the number with the circle on it, a Fluke happens. This is some kind of lucky advantage that happens as a result. The more advantageous you make it, the more the GM may tweak it.
If you don’t roll a Fluke when you roll your Fool’s d6, add a circle to another face. When you do roll a Fluke, erase all circles except one, and then add a cross to another face. When you roll a cross, something unfortunate happens to you or, more likely, your companions. When you roll a cross, you erase all crosses from the d6. If all faces of the d6 have a symbol on them, then you don’t do anything if instructed to add a circle. If you are instructed to add a cross, then you must erase a circle and add the cross.
The Fool also begins play with the “If All Else Fails” ability. When things have gotten truly dire, the Fool can cash in all their temporary luck by handing their Fool’s d6 to the GM. The GM will then explain how the Fool (and possibly his companions) manage to escape their predicament. Then, at any point in the future, the GM can hand the Fool back their d6, and inflict some circumstance of luck on them comparable to the predicament they escaped.
The Fool can try and prevent this by deliberately causing some kind of spectacular disaster, at which point they can reclaim their Fool’s d6 from the GM. A clever Fool will try and find a way to mitigate things by causing a less horrible disaster than what the GM would likely inflict by returning the Fool’s d6.
This Paragon is all about luck and gambling. I really like the basic mechanics here. It really rewards the player for pushing their luck and behaving dangerously. But there’s some skill in managing the luck and how it backfires. This is a pretty straightforward Paragon to play, I’d say.
As the Fool advances, they can add new trades, or can gain new abilities that allow them to manipulate their luck even more. They can add abilities that allow them to charm or influence others, or abilities that let them roll their Fool’s d6 when behaving altruistically, or totally selfishly (though they can only have one of these abilities).
All around, the Fool seems to be a fun class to play. It’s pretty straightforward, but offers lots of possibilities for interesting choices as the player will try and manipulate their luck, and let others face the consequences.
The Fool is a swashbuckling type of hero, who dashes into danger without a second thought, and manages to succeed by the skin of their teeth. When there’s fallout from the Fool’s actions, it’s usually those around them who face the consequences. Each Fool begins by picking a trade, which will help flavor how they play. Trades are: Swashbuckler, Trickster Wizard, Rogue, Bard, Hustler, and Con Artist.
Whenever the Fool is about to roll a pool of dice for some kind of reckless action, they can add their Fool’s d6. Whenever rolling their Fool’s d6, they gain the Special: roll an additional d6 and add it to the pool. So the more 6s they roll, the more dice they roll. They can achieve a potentially high number of successes.
The Fool’s d6 is treated a bit different than the rest, though. Before you begin play, you must select one face of the d6 and draw a circle on it (using a non-permanent marker, or alternatively, there’s a little chart provided that you can use). If you roll the number with the circle on it, a Fluke happens. This is some kind of lucky advantage that happens as a result. The more advantageous you make it, the more the GM may tweak it.
If you don’t roll a Fluke when you roll your Fool’s d6, add a circle to another face. When you do roll a Fluke, erase all circles except one, and then add a cross to another face. When you roll a cross, something unfortunate happens to you or, more likely, your companions. When you roll a cross, you erase all crosses from the d6. If all faces of the d6 have a symbol on them, then you don’t do anything if instructed to add a circle. If you are instructed to add a cross, then you must erase a circle and add the cross.
The Fool also begins play with the “If All Else Fails” ability. When things have gotten truly dire, the Fool can cash in all their temporary luck by handing their Fool’s d6 to the GM. The GM will then explain how the Fool (and possibly his companions) manage to escape their predicament. Then, at any point in the future, the GM can hand the Fool back their d6, and inflict some circumstance of luck on them comparable to the predicament they escaped.
The Fool can try and prevent this by deliberately causing some kind of spectacular disaster, at which point they can reclaim their Fool’s d6 from the GM. A clever Fool will try and find a way to mitigate things by causing a less horrible disaster than what the GM would likely inflict by returning the Fool’s d6.
This Paragon is all about luck and gambling. I really like the basic mechanics here. It really rewards the player for pushing their luck and behaving dangerously. But there’s some skill in managing the luck and how it backfires. This is a pretty straightforward Paragon to play, I’d say.
As the Fool advances, they can add new trades, or can gain new abilities that allow them to manipulate their luck even more. They can add abilities that allow them to charm or influence others, or abilities that let them roll their Fool’s d6 when behaving altruistically, or totally selfishly (though they can only have one of these abilities).
All around, the Fool seems to be a fun class to play. It’s pretty straightforward, but offers lots of possibilities for interesting choices as the player will try and manipulate their luck, and let others face the consequences.
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