When you’re playing a ttrpg how prescriptive do you want the rules to be?

Do you want rules that leave little room for interpretation? Do you want strange interactions to be addressed directly? Or prefer to leave lots of room for GM interpretation?

Core Rules

When you play a Tabletop Role-playing Game, like Sprouting Tales, you are having a conversation. You are listening intently to the story other people are creating and contributing your thoughts to the shared fiction.

Participants build on others' contributions and share in an experience with the ultimate goal of entertainment. Therefore, each participant serves as a steward of the other participants’ fun. This responsibility begins and ends with respect and communication.

Hi all, going to try and share some development of my card-based tabletop roleplaying game via posts on the forum!

Today’s post is about the initiative system (a.k.a. Tempo System).

Components

Reconsider Tempo Card

When this card is on top of the Core deck, the Guide may change the top card of the Tempo Deck. Then the Guide activates the top card of the Tempo Deck.

These activated card effects are listed below.

Tempo Deck

The Tempo Deck is a pile of nine face-up cards. Eight cards are units of time. The ninth card defines the Tempo Deck and serves as a reference to players.

The top card of the Tempo Deck shows what units of time matter to the current scene.

For example if the top card is “Days” then the story cares about what characters do each day, but the individual hours, minutes, and moments of those days are not particularly important to the story.

Tempo Cards

• Moments: Place the Reconsider Tempo card seventh from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, six moments will have passed.
• Minutes: Place the Reconsider Tempo card seventh from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, six minutes will have passed.
• Hours: Place the Reconsider Tempo card seventh from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, six hours will have passed.
• Days: Place the Reconsider Tempo card eighth from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, seven days will have passed.
• Weeks: Place the Reconsider Tempo card fifth from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, four weeks will have passed.
• Moons: Place the Reconsider Tempo card fourth from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, three moons will have passed.
• Seasons: Place the Reconsider Tempo card fifth from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, four seasons will have passed.
• Years: Place the Reconsider Tempo card sixth from the top of the core deck. When the Reconsider Tempo card next appears on top of the core deck, five years will have passed.
• Tempo reference card

Time Tokens

Each character has a unique time token in the core deck. When their token is on top of the deck the character may act.

A character’s actions define how far “buried” they move in the core deck. Players can strategize by choosing certain actions that take more or less time.

Character actions can be informed by the top of the Tempo Deck. For example, a character may act to integrate into a community more easily over the course of a few seasons, but that might be impossible (or very difficult) for the character to do in a few moments.

@TheFool everyone starts somewhere! You’ll find your voice!

Oooh that sounds pretty cool! You should make a separate topic about the damnation mechanics sometime!

@StraussBelial said:

As a player, I'm trying to play in a more collaborative way with the rest of the players.

Have you thought at all about how this crossed over this into your development too?

Seems like you’re trying to move to more lore first development so that definitely helps with getting people more “cool” moments!

What are you doing differently as a player?

What are you doing differently as a game master?

What are you doing differently as a developer?

@StraussBelial That makes a lot of sense! So sounds like the theme and design make it a little less focused on the nitty gritty of things?

Free League has expanded its open game licenses! Might be an opportunity for developers!

What are some good tips for running ShadowDark as a GM?

Almost all the ways of making coffee boil down to put hot water through puck of coffee or put puck of coffee through hot water

@bellimora said:

Savage worlds tends to have some explosive excitement baked in though

The one shot I played in savage worlds felt like a movie scene the whole time

@StraussBelial said:

I certainly love horror TTRPGs and the best GM I can think of is my best friend, that is a clinical psychologist and create NPCs inspired in what he knows and works with, so every time he describe those NPCs and show how they act, the realism of the situations keep all of us players on the edge of our seats, because how close those stories are to reality. He always GMs Lovecraftian horror themes and make the stories as close to reality as possible, so we can think "well, that could be almost possible", on a absolutely normal and everyday place. So the setting for the characters is not particularly frightening at all, but the situations are horrible.

This GM existing is frightening enough to me haha

What do you consider the best horror TTRPG?

or alternatively

What is your favorite horror TTRPG?

@TheFool

Oh so it sounds like daggerheart is similar to what @straussbelial suggested then?

@straussbelial

That’s neat! Would you make any modifications to support a play by post game?

I’m not familiar with the success/failure mechanics but are target numbers open information? In other words could players infer their pass/failure status without waiting for the gm?

In a world where most TTRPG players’ number one complaint is they can’t find a time they are all free to play, can an initiative system be developed that supports asynchronous and real time play in equal measure?

In a similar vein, is it possible for an initiative system to support the competing needs of the more traditional binary of roleplaying vs combat centered scenes?

Can an initiative system allow for “skill expression,” where certain characters are more likely to act at the opportune time due to their stats, and a degree of randomness that’s still fun?

I believe striking that balance is ultimately going to be up to a significant level of playtesting, but also curious how close initial design could get to that balance with theory alone.