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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 5681799" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[MENTION=6671274]onedtwelve[/MENTION]</p><p>I have an actual play experience that touches on what you're speaking of.</p><p></p><p>Years ago I ran a two-shot game for a friend and his girlfriend, and we started with a complete tabula rasa, inventing the game as we played. It was a lot of fun <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>He was explaining RPGs in general, when I said "Grab some color pencils and draw a picture of your characters, you've got 2 minutes." As they furiously sketched I jotted down twenty or so ideas/themes for the adventure. When we finished, we compared what we'd come up with, and we were really into each others' ideas so we decided to swap pieces of paper and do some "selective editing" like giving a character a scar or circling several words on the idea/theme sheet.</p><p></p><p>Then they described their characters with all that info, and it so happened they both were spellcasters - he was a formally trained Mage who was exiled and she was a hedge Mage with nature magic. All we had dice wise were a couple d6 so we decided to use a dice pool system where the number of dice you rolled was equal to the relevant attribute. Actually I think there were 12d6 so we arbitrarily decided each player would get 6 dice to build their character with.</p><p></p><p>Both focused heavily on magic. My friend came up with a system of "true names" by which he could alter anything that fell under a certain sphere of influence, e.g. Memory (2). His girlfriend had more specific powers like Sense Danger (1) and Animal Friendship (2), so we decided her rolls would get a +1 bonus to compensate for being more specialized.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and I decided the target number for most actions was 4, with failures counting against successes, e.g. if you had Memory (2) and you rolled a '4' and a '2' your net result would be neutral, meaning something may have changed but it was neither to your benefit nor working against you. The number of successes you netted determined the degree of success, which was really up to us as a group not just me as a DM.</p><p></p><p> My friend suggested we make natural '6's explode, which meant you got to roll again without jeopardizing the success of the '6' (yes this allowed some obscene sequences). OTOH, being the wicked DM that I am, I declared natural '1's to drain the character so that they either took a -1 penalty on all future rolls with that attribute or decreased the number of dice in that attributes pool by 1. His girlfriend called these "evil ones" and the name stuck. I also came up with a story element (a magic deer) later on which provided them with a small consumable dice pool they could use to make an extra roll with no chance of failure.</p><p></p><p>We never works out any statistics behind any of this, it was all completely ad lib. None of knew the rules - we were all inventing them. I remember one situation where they both rolled something like six or seven 6s and were able to quarantine a magical plague spreading through the city.</p><p></p><p>I can remember all the details but it was great fun! I suggest everyone try it <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 5681799, member: 20323"] [MENTION=6671274]onedtwelve[/MENTION] I have an actual play experience that touches on what you're speaking of. Years ago I ran a two-shot game for a friend and his girlfriend, and we started with a complete tabula rasa, inventing the game as we played. It was a lot of fun :) He was explaining RPGs in general, when I said "Grab some color pencils and draw a picture of your characters, you've got 2 minutes." As they furiously sketched I jotted down twenty or so ideas/themes for the adventure. When we finished, we compared what we'd come up with, and we were really into each others' ideas so we decided to swap pieces of paper and do some "selective editing" like giving a character a scar or circling several words on the idea/theme sheet. Then they described their characters with all that info, and it so happened they both were spellcasters - he was a formally trained Mage who was exiled and she was a hedge Mage with nature magic. All we had dice wise were a couple d6 so we decided to use a dice pool system where the number of dice you rolled was equal to the relevant attribute. Actually I think there were 12d6 so we arbitrarily decided each player would get 6 dice to build their character with. Both focused heavily on magic. My friend came up with a system of "true names" by which he could alter anything that fell under a certain sphere of influence, e.g. Memory (2). His girlfriend had more specific powers like Sense Danger (1) and Animal Friendship (2), so we decided her rolls would get a +1 bonus to compensate for being more specialized. Oh, and I decided the target number for most actions was 4, with failures counting against successes, e.g. if you had Memory (2) and you rolled a '4' and a '2' your net result would be neutral, meaning something may have changed but it was neither to your benefit nor working against you. The number of successes you netted determined the degree of success, which was really up to us as a group not just me as a DM. My friend suggested we make natural '6's explode, which meant you got to roll again without jeopardizing the success of the '6' (yes this allowed some obscene sequences). OTOH, being the wicked DM that I am, I declared natural '1's to drain the character so that they either took a -1 penalty on all future rolls with that attribute or decreased the number of dice in that attributes pool by 1. His girlfriend called these "evil ones" and the name stuck. I also came up with a story element (a magic deer) later on which provided them with a small consumable dice pool they could use to make an extra roll with no chance of failure. We never works out any statistics behind any of this, it was all completely ad lib. None of knew the rules - we were all inventing them. I remember one situation where they both rolled something like six or seven 6s and were able to quarantine a magical plague spreading through the city. I can remember all the details but it was great fun! I suggest everyone try it :) [/QUOTE]
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