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7 minutes 2 midnight
The world is ending. It's had a good run, but God has judged it and found it wanting. Everything you know and love will be wiped from existence, along with existence itself, when the seven seals are opened. That's where you come in.
One player is the Law - the GM. The other players make characters. You need at least two eight-sided dice that look different, perhaps more if your group tends towards inter-character conflict.
To make a character, come up with a reason why they want to stop the world from ending. Write this down as their Motivation. Split five points between three stats: Light, Fire, and Clay. No stat can have a value higher than three. If Light is highest, your character is an angel; if Fire is highest, your character is a spirit; if Clay is highest, your character is human. If there's a tie pick one. Create a Trait for the stat that reflects your character's nature, such as "wielder of the flaming sword", "naiad of the river", or "big bro".
If you haven't already, talk with the other players over what the seals are. Are they physical structures residing in remote corners of the world? Rituals that must be carried out under specific circumstances? The souls of certain humans as designated by prophecy? Something else?
In play, the Law narrates the world. The other players narrate their own characters' actions. When there's a significant conflict, the player whose character is involved picks up the dice and chooses a stat for each. They then roll the dice and add the appropriate stat value. If the character has a trait that's applicable to the character's action, they can add +1 to whichever stat they like before the roll. If the character's Motivation is at stake, they can choose to reroll one die.
Whichever stat has the highest total determines what you can narrate. Light means that you can say the facts of the matter, explain the state of the world, and describe how what your character does is effective. Fire means that you can say how you retain your freedom of action, assert your character's selfhood, and how what your character does is impressive. Clay means you can say what your character's actions means in context, how things ought to be even if they aren't, and how what your character does is productive. Everything outside a player's current narrative scope is narrated by the Law.
If the conflict is between two or more characters, each player chooses two stats and simultaneously rolls two dice. They compare their highest stat total to the other player's results and discard their lower roll. Whoever has the highest total for a stat is in control of that aspect of narration. Any narrative aspects that are not in control of a player defaults to the Law. It's possible, especially as the number of involved players increases, that there will be players in the conflict who don't have any narrative control at the end of a roll. That's expected.
For a player in desperate need of narrative control, they have the option to request at token of Will from the Law. Receiving a token gives that player complete narrative control over that decision point. (If more than one player requests a Will token during a conflict, those players roll as normal.) They then place the Will token on their character sheet. A character can have only one Will token at a time. At any point in the future, the Law may reclaim a player's Will token during a conflict. Doing so lets the Law dictate to that player a single stat that they must use at that time - they are not allowed to roll any other stat. The player automatically gains that narrative control in a player-vs-Law decision, and rolls that stat during a player-vs-player decision.
The role of the Law in this game is to narrate the world and provide obstacles for the characters. While this game is only suitable for groups who trust each other enough to be comfortable with shared narrative control, the Law ought to provide a certain level of antagonism to the players' actions and make active choices towards opening the seals. Groups can decide at game setup that there are things characters can do that would save the world; however, the default assumption is that the apocalypse cannot be averted, and can only be postponed.
(Optional rule: every time a seal is broken, you may add one trait to your character under any stat. You may only add one trait per roll attempt. Whichever stat has the most associated traits defines your character's nature - if a starting character with zero Light gains two Light traits they become a (shitty) angel.)
Notes:
Based off of this game design challenge. Credit to Nobilis, Wisher Theurgist Fatalist, and Christian mythology.
One player is the Law - the GM. The other players make characters. You need at least two eight-sided dice that look different, perhaps more if your group tends towards inter-character conflict.
To make a character, come up with a reason why they want to stop the world from ending. Write this down as their Motivation. Split five points between three stats: Light, Fire, and Clay. No stat can have a value higher than three. If Light is highest, your character is an angel; if Fire is highest, your character is a spirit; if Clay is highest, your character is human. If there's a tie pick one. Create a Trait for the stat that reflects your character's nature, such as "wielder of the flaming sword", "naiad of the river", or "big bro".
If you haven't already, talk with the other players over what the seals are. Are they physical structures residing in remote corners of the world? Rituals that must be carried out under specific circumstances? The souls of certain humans as designated by prophecy? Something else?
In play, the Law narrates the world. The other players narrate their own characters' actions. When there's a significant conflict, the player whose character is involved picks up the dice and chooses a stat for each. They then roll the dice and add the appropriate stat value. If the character has a trait that's applicable to the character's action, they can add +1 to whichever stat they like before the roll. If the character's Motivation is at stake, they can choose to reroll one die.
Whichever stat has the highest total determines what you can narrate. Light means that you can say the facts of the matter, explain the state of the world, and describe how what your character does is effective. Fire means that you can say how you retain your freedom of action, assert your character's selfhood, and how what your character does is impressive. Clay means you can say what your character's actions means in context, how things ought to be even if they aren't, and how what your character does is productive. Everything outside a player's current narrative scope is narrated by the Law.
If the conflict is between two or more characters, each player chooses two stats and simultaneously rolls two dice. They compare their highest stat total to the other player's results and discard their lower roll. Whoever has the highest total for a stat is in control of that aspect of narration. Any narrative aspects that are not in control of a player defaults to the Law. It's possible, especially as the number of involved players increases, that there will be players in the conflict who don't have any narrative control at the end of a roll. That's expected.
For a player in desperate need of narrative control, they have the option to request at token of Will from the Law. Receiving a token gives that player complete narrative control over that decision point. (If more than one player requests a Will token during a conflict, those players roll as normal.) They then place the Will token on their character sheet. A character can have only one Will token at a time. At any point in the future, the Law may reclaim a player's Will token during a conflict. Doing so lets the Law dictate to that player a single stat that they must use at that time - they are not allowed to roll any other stat. The player automatically gains that narrative control in a player-vs-Law decision, and rolls that stat during a player-vs-player decision.
The role of the Law in this game is to narrate the world and provide obstacles for the characters. While this game is only suitable for groups who trust each other enough to be comfortable with shared narrative control, the Law ought to provide a certain level of antagonism to the players' actions and make active choices towards opening the seals. Groups can decide at game setup that there are things characters can do that would save the world; however, the default assumption is that the apocalypse cannot be averted, and can only be postponed.
(Optional rule: every time a seal is broken, you may add one trait to your character under any stat. You may only add one trait per roll attempt. Whichever stat has the most associated traits defines your character's nature - if a starting character with zero Light gains two Light traits they become a (shitty) angel.)
Notes:
Based off of this game design challenge. Credit to Nobilis, Wisher Theurgist Fatalist, and Christian mythology.