Untitled Everyman RPG

June 28, 2010 4 comments

For a while I’ve been wanting to put together a game that simulates that sub-genre of film represented by movies like Into the Night, After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan, even Fight Club: an ordinary person, with an ordinary life, meets someone offbeat and gets thrown into an adventure. Sometimes this leads to something wonderful; sometimes it ends tragically. With a dose of inspiration from Primetime Adventures, Dirty Secrets, and Houses of the Blooded, here’s what I’ve cobbled together so far. Understand that this is a work in progress, all feedback is appreciated.

Yes, it’s meant to be absurdist, and convoluted. Heh heh.

There are at least 4 players. The game uses only six-sided dice. It is a cooperative game, where all players trade off roles and take turns being the gamemasters. Yes, plural.

You start with everyone rolling a d6. The player with the high result starts as the Protagonist, and names one thing about the character off the following list:

Name
Occupation
Notable Possession
Notable Relationship
Past Significant Event
Upcoming Significant Event
A goal

Go around the table until you’ve got at least one of everything. Everyone should be writing this stuff down. You don’t have to fill them out in order; the starting Protagonist player can name a notable relationship. You can have more than one of everything. It’s okay to give the Protagonist a pseudonym (a la The Narrator in Fight Club and XXXX in Layer Cake). Make a tent card with the Protagonist’s name on it. Make tent cards for Notable Relationships, too.

The remaining players roll again, and the high roll gets to start as the Wild Card character. The chaos factor. The one that tips the canoe. Go around the table and fill in all of the information you did with the Protagonist. Or, if you want it to be a mystery, leave it blank and write “d6″ instead of adding a detail. More on this later. No player can add more than one d6, so if it come around to you again you have to add a detail. you can add a d6 to something already filled in; he says his name is one thing, but the d6 by name indicates he has another name. Make a tent card for the Wild Card’s known name, if he or she has one; if not, write Wild Card for now.

Remaining players roll again. The high roll gets to be the starting Normal Gamemaster. The Normal GM runs the events of the Protagonist’s life as they’re meant to unfold, or as the unfold without him. Make a tend card for Normal GM.

Roll again, if more than 4 players. High roll is the starting Chaos Gamemaster. This person runs the events of the Wild Card’s life, and how they overlap with the Protagonist’s normal life. Make a tent card.

If more than 4 players, don’t worry. They’ll get a chance.

The Normal Gamemaster starts be describing a scene the Protagonist is in. something Normal. Boring. Working. Meeting with Notable Relationship to discuss Future Significant Event. Worrying about the ramifications of Past Significant Event. Hopefully, you get the idea. If you only have 4 players, the Chaos GM plays all of the Normal GM’s Notable Relationships and other NPCs (and vice-versa). If more than 6 players, the GM can assign characters to unoccupied players.The only caveat is that the Wild Card character is also on the scene for some reason.

Go around the table clockwise from there. It will play out in whatever random order people rolled to start. The Protagonist player describes what he’s doing, the Wild Card player describes what she’s doing, the Chaos GM describes something that happens based on the Wild Card player’s background. The only caveat for the Chaos GM is that the Protagonist has to get swept in somehow.

If a Significant Relationship character isn’t in the scene, that character gets a d6. Write it on the tent card.

After going around the table and everyone’s had a turn, pass all the tent cards to the left. Everyone changes roles. Roll d6s, and the person with the high number starts the next turn. Any player can change the scene at the end of a turn. If a Protagonist says he’s leaving and going somewhere else, he leaves and the Wild Card goes with him; the next GM describes what happens along the way, or when he gets there. If the Chaos GM is next, something related to the Wild Card character happens; if the Normal GM is next, something Protagonist-related happens.

This continues until either the Protagonist or Wild Card reach their goal first (if it gets confrontational) or they both reach their goals (if cooperative) or everyone’s dead. Whether it’s confrontational or cooperative depends upon how the story’s unfolding. If the Wild Card decides to screw over the Protagonist, well, we know how things are going to play out. If they get along, fall in love, whatever, it’s cooperative.

The parts to be worked out

Conflict. I want players to take sides and roll dice, adding them together, sort of like Primetime Adventures. Does the Protagonist get past the guard dog, get seriously mauled, or get comically bitten in the butt ruining his suit? Vote with your dice. Add them together, high total wins.

Tagging. The Significant Relationship that doesn’t show up keeps getting dice each turn they’re out. That means when they show up, it’s going to be in a big way. The Protagonist’s fiance, wondering why he’s not at the wedding rehearsal? The drug dealer that’s after the Wild Card? The longer it takes for them to appear, the worse it’s going to be. That player gets to blow all there dice to vote on how things are going to be. Yikes. Does it need a cap on maximum number of d6s?Only playtest will tell.

Reveals. All those blank spots on the Wild Card’s information sheet? If you tag one during a conflict, revealing a bit of information as a logical part of the conflict, you get that extra die. Only one per turn. So when the drug dealer shows up, and everyone’s been assuming the Wild Card is a pimp, the drug dealer’s player can say “Pimp? He’s not pimp, he’s the bus boy at the diner where you first met!” and get the D6 marked next to “Occupation”.

The basics are there. Any other thoughts?