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Argument Diceless Storytelling

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Version 1.4b 1 2 Contents 1 Player Section 7 1 Character Creation ..................................... 7 2 Character Development .................................. 8 2 GM Section 9 1 Character Creation ..................................... 9 2 Character Development .................................. 10 3 Action Resolving ...................................... 11 4 Combat actions ....................................... 12 5 Creating the story ..................................... 14 6 Setting and specific rulings ................................ 16 6.1 Races ........................................ 16 6.2 Cybertech ...................................... 16 6.3 Magic ........................................ 16 7 Argument and frustration ................................. 17 8 Acknowledgements & afterwords ............................. 18 A The Standard Fantasy Races 19 B Kalevala Magic 23 3 4 Argument DSS Copyright & Author info What is Diceless role-playing? c Copyright 2002 Rainer K. Koreasalo1 Diceless role-playing is a role-playing genre of (shades@surfnet.fi). All rights reserved. systems that don’t use any random number gen- Copies of all or portions of Argument DSS may erators to determine the end results of a par- be made for your own use and for distribution to ticular action. This means no flipping the coin, others, provided that you do not charge any fee rolling the dice or spinning the bottle to deter- for such copies, whether distributed in print or mine i.e. how much damage a hit to the head electronically. with a beer bottle does. You may create derivative works such as ad- There is a lot of commercial work on this ditional rules and game scenarios and supple- field of RPGs worth your time and money. The ments based on Argument DSS, provided that excellent “Amber - Diceless Role-playing” from such derivative works are for your own use or for Phage Press is the pioneer and you might still get distribution without charge, or for publication in your hands on “Theatrix” from Backstage Press. a magazine or other periodical. Others include “Persona” by Tesarta Industries, Every derivate work must include the follow- Inc. and “Epiphany” by BTRC. ing “About Argument” section in it’s entirety: You might also want to read the ”rec.games.frp.advocacy FAQ - part III” for some reflections on the subject. The nature About Argument DSS of diceless role-playing is also described in this document. This document uses the Argument Diceless Sto- rytelling System by Rainer K. Koreasalo. The argument system is a free diceless role- The Argument system playing system, created to be distributed free of charge on the internet. The Argument system comes in two parts. All material using the Argument DSS is to be Chapter 1 is for players and contains all the nec- distributed free of charge. essary rulings for character creation and devel- opment. From that on the chapters deal with The original, unaltered Argument DSS is resolving actions and conflicts and how to be available at the Argument DSS web site: the GM with Argument. There are no secrets in the GM sections — if a player wants to un- http://people.cc.jyu.fi/˜rakorea/argument/ derstand how the system works he/she can read those chapters too. What is a Storytelling System? Argument is designed to be diceless — but if the GM wishes the character creation pro- “A storytelling system” is just another name for cess could be randomised to some degree. Argu- a role-playing game system, used to emphasise ment is a storytelling system that is designed for the fact that role-playing is supposed to be about generic environments; you easily can play both stories and having fun, not about tables, charts fantasy and sci-fi with it. I use the industry and experience points. standard abbreviations for the usual role-playing terms. PC is a “player character”, NPC is a “non 1Except where a separate author is given, Copyright player character” and the GM is of course “the the respective author game master.” 5 Appendix submissions The Argument DSS distribution is open to addi- tions. If you wish to have your derivative work included in the main distribution of Argument DSS as an appendix, contact the author. All writers who contribute an appendix will retain the copyright over the submitted material but all material included will be published un- der the same license for further derivation. All writers will be duely credited. About this distribution This document was typeset with LATEX, a free- ware typesetting program for all platforms. PDF versions were produced with the bundled pdfLATEX software. The version number is composed of two parts, the version number and the appendix letter. The version number 1.3B would translate as release 1.3 of the core document and B as the latest appendix. When a new release of the core chap- ters is written — usually with some additions or spelling fixes — the number increases. When a new appendix is added, the letter part changes. 6 Chapter 1 Player Section 1 Character Creation • Motivation — What does your character want? What is the main driving force in his Role-playing is based on the character. life? What makes his clock tick? Your gaming experience is dependent on how happy you are with your character. No game • Curriculum Vitae (CV) - What has your master can make the story flow right or have character done? interesting enough things happen to you, when If you don’t start playing a newborn, your your character doesn’t feel right. With diceless character is bound to have a past. role-playing we aim at greater depth of character. The first thing you need to do when creating Come up with both good things and bad a character for the Argument system, is to come things that have happened. Be creative and up with the character concept and talk about it don’t hold back - take enough time to put with the game master. If the GM approves your some mass into this part. choice of concept, try answering the following For a modern genre game you could even questions and then fill in the details. write the actual CV for your character. Later, when you answer the questions be- • Name — Start with the name. It may diffi- low, come back to this and see if it needs cult if you’re not used to making up names, additions or changes in light of what you but stick with it. Give your character a put down below. name. You get a certain wholeness to the picture when you can place everything in a • Love interests — Is your character mar- named context. ried? Names define us all, so the name comes first. If not, is the character in love? Or is the Don’t give your character a comical name if character perhaps living “la Vida Loca”? the setting isn’t comic. Maybe the character has homosexual ten- • Occupation — What does this character dencies or the character is a gay person. do for a living? That’s the second thing Don’t hold back with this part of description people ask a normal person, so that should either, love — or the lack of it — is a big come next. part of our lives. This is usually the defining part of character creation. In dice using games this is usually • Religious / Magical attitude — If the done by selecting the character class. Think GM’s setting is a magical one, what does about this choice for a moment, don’t just your character think about magic? put down “an adventurer”. Is the character perhaps a magic user? If You could be anything; a botanist, car sales- not, does he fear those who practice the man, or in a fantasy setting — a knight. arts? Make sure the rest of the choices you make If the setting is religious one, or the world during this process reflect your choice of contains any religions at all, is the character lifestyle. a member of such churches? 7 Is he just a member or a devotee? Does your Also note that can be quite difficult to distin- character even believe in that stuff anyway? guish between attributes and skills. Depending of the setting you are going to play in, the GM • Good / Bad attitude (stuff) — Do dogs might give you more attributes — fortune for ex- bark at your character? Are birds singing ample is one of the optional attributes. Your at- when he walks in a forest, or do they try to tributes define your character, if you have a par- hit the character with their faeces? ticularly high or low attribute, make that show Is the world a good or a bad place to live in? on your character description. Are you happy? Do you make others happy too? 2 Character Development • Anything else? — By now you should understand why and how to answer these Character development is the key to all drama. questions and build the background for your In most games this is done by experience points character. The questions are here to guide etc. All you see in those games are rising percent- you write your character beyond simply ages, hit points and all sorts of other numerical marking the colour of your eyes on the char- information. That is not the kind of development acter sheet. that adds depth to your character. Argument uses an intuitive system of CV- But don’t stop here, think about the ques- based skill tracking for your character’s devel- tions and when the GM tells you something opment. It’s best I demonstrate to explain: more about the setting you are going to play in, come up with your characters opinions, The aforementioned John Doe gets a job as a manners, thoughts etc. about any particu- limousine driver for a very respectable company. lar subject. He spends four months as a driver for the C.E.O.
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