The M'hael
First Post
I am in the process of designing a role playing game based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, and have run into a problem. I want to have it be GMless to emphasize the isolation present in a lot of the fiction, but I am struggling to find a way for there to be secret attacks between characters without a referee of some sort.
The basic chassis is like games such as Werewolfs, Town of Salem, or Mafia where the players each have a secret role/job that gives them their goal in the game. Often this involves killing another player. I want a way for these attacks to be anonymous, but with a die roll + modifier resolution system. My current idea is that each player has a deck of cards. During the night time part of the round (one player has their head up at a time), if they are performing an anonymous action they roll a d10 (d8?) and add their appropriate modifier. Then they take the card of the appropriate value corresponding with the total and suit corresponding with the type of action, and put it in front of the player who is the target, maybe in an envelope of some sort. On the day time part of the round (all players can freely interact), the players open their envelopes and see which type of anonymous actions were taken against them. They compare the "attack" numbers to their "defense" constant and narrate the result of the action. Then at the beginning of the next night time phase each player in turn retrieves their cards.
This works, despite being kind of unwieldy, but I am struggling to find an alternative. I don't have a ton of experience with GMless games, so any and all suggestions are welcome.
The basic chassis is like games such as Werewolfs, Town of Salem, or Mafia where the players each have a secret role/job that gives them their goal in the game. Often this involves killing another player. I want a way for these attacks to be anonymous, but with a die roll + modifier resolution system. My current idea is that each player has a deck of cards. During the night time part of the round (one player has their head up at a time), if they are performing an anonymous action they roll a d10 (d8?) and add their appropriate modifier. Then they take the card of the appropriate value corresponding with the total and suit corresponding with the type of action, and put it in front of the player who is the target, maybe in an envelope of some sort. On the day time part of the round (all players can freely interact), the players open their envelopes and see which type of anonymous actions were taken against them. They compare the "attack" numbers to their "defense" constant and narrate the result of the action. Then at the beginning of the next night time phase each player in turn retrieves their cards.
This works, despite being kind of unwieldy, but I am struggling to find an alternative. I don't have a ton of experience with GMless games, so any and all suggestions are welcome.