Torei, a Role-Playing Game
by Gospodin http://toreans.deviantart.com
icons by Lorc and Delapouite http://game-icons.net
DRAFT VERSION https://github.com/gospodinp/torei-rpg
Torei is a half-finished planet out in the empty space between the galaxies. Vast inscrutable terraforming machines rule from their ziggurats at the poles, while humans scratch out what livelihood they can around the equator.
But times have changed since the greater spacefaring society discovered Torei, and the new city-towers around the space elevator form a rich hub of intergalactic trade. Now the powerful AIs struggle to keep the economy and ecology of the world in balance, fighting to keep their biological advances safe from scheming outsiders. The visiting off-worlders, for their part, must learn to adjust to a society where slavery and sexual domination is the norm.
Torei
Torei as a setting is meant to be evoked rather than defined. It’s a kinky BDSM planet inspired by both Æon Flux and Gor, but exactly how that looks is best defined by your group during play. Your games may result in a detailed sourcebook that lays out some amazing worldbuilding, or you may re-invent it constantly as you go.
This means that you shouldn’t take this section too seriously. If a player wants to know something about Torei, the GM should probably turn the question back to the group most of the time. Instead of asserting a veto on the group’s idea via GM fiat, it’s important to Say Yes or Roll the Dice!
That said, there are a few elements that are probably the most helpful in defining a shared understanding of the setting. We’ll start with those:
High-tech and traditional BDSM are part of the Torean way of life
Torei has various forms of formal institutionalised slavery, and human relationships are often viewed through the lens of dominance and submission. It can be loving, twisted, adventurous, or abusive.
The three AIs are inscrutable mad gods, keeping Torei a backwater while trying to finish its biosphere
Torei is relatively unchanged by the mainstream human culture partly due to the power of these thinking machines. Every unfathomable action they take appears to serve the struggle to finish the terraforming project that created the planet in the first place.
Torean biotech can do some amazing things
The technology of the greater human society can do many things Toreans can’t, but the biological sciences on Torei surpass anything else in the universe. Much of this comes from the AIs’ research while developing the Torean ecosystem.
Torei is hard to get to from the rest of the cosmos
Torei orbits a lonely star outside any colonised galaxy. In a universe where travel between the stars is as routine as a train journey, going to Torei still feels like an adventure and takes a long time.
Earth is gone and forgotten
Human culture filled the Milky Way before Torei was even constructed, and is so vast that no one probably even knows for sure where we originated. Dragging Earth into things just makes everything feel smaller. After all, can you name the exact spot in Africa where the first human family lived?
The Star
Torei orbits a lone hypervelocity star near Andromeda, which is why the greater spacefaring human civilisation didn’t discover it for so long. While it’s reachable from Andromedan stars, the journey is expensive and time-consuming. It should take at least a few months of subjective time for a character to cross the distance between Torei and anywhere else in the universe.
The Space Elevator
Once in orbit around Torei, the first port of call is the space station at the top of Torei’s single space elevator. This station is run by an off-world business cartel, subject to a complex set of treaties.
At the base of the elevator, the Toreans have (with help from off-worlders) built a number of arcology spires. This cluster of towers is the most urbanised spot on the planet.
The Ringdoms
The habitable part of Torei covers a fairly narrow band around the planet’s equator. Because of this “ring” shape, the nations on Torei are called “ringdoms”. Each is different, and the laws can change dramatically from ringdom to ringdom.
The Antipodes
The farther you get from the space elevator on Torei, the more rural and relaxed the pace of life becomes.
That isn’t to say that life is easy out in the farming ringdoms, but there is a dramatic contrast with the dense urban core.
The Badlands
Most of the surface of the planet between the equatorial band and the poles is a harsh wasteland. The terraforming project struggles to claim this area, bit by bit, for human settlement. For anyone looking to hide, the badlands are an obvious (if dangerous) choice.
The Ziggurats
At Torei’s two poles stand vast black artificial mountains built by the AIs that fashioned Torei. The polar Ziggurats, Dahom to the North and Mazos to the South, house the biomechanical engines that isolate elements from the planet’s mantle to generate a breathable atmosphere.
Humans live within these enormous hives, and the unluckiest of them are placed inside sensory control suits called isolation laminates to become the Emissaries of the AIs. Equatorial Toreans often refer to these Emissaries as “dæmons”.
The Ministries
Despite the differences in ringdoms, they all have common international institutions known as ministries. Local management may differ radically, but the various ministries do try to coordinate worldwide.
Here’s a few of the most common ones:
Ministry of Truants
This organisation manages the capture and punishment of those found to be in violation of slavery or curfew laws. They manage the return of runaway slaves, and perform the role of a local police force in many ringdoms.
Ministry of Improvements
This organisation is a sort of hospital infrastructure that makes heavy use of Torean Biotech. It is most commonly associated with cosmetic enhancements, performance improvements, and the installation of devious implants.
Ministry of Wombs
This organisation tracks the status and records of women on Torei. They regulate trade unions, issue travel passes to applicants, register debts, and perform appraisals for the slave markets.
The Game
This is a game for collaborative storytelling. You will create a character that will become involved in a story that you create together with the GM and your fellow players. When your characters can’t agree on something, you’ll roll dice according to the rules for a Conflict.
Many similar systems you may already be familiar with started their lives as combat simulators, and added other things only for completeness. Your characters in those games are armed to the teeth, and the GM might say “well I guess you could put something about cooking or singing on there, if you want to waste the slot.” And so everything that does not contribute to effectiveness in battle gets pushed off into “character notes” and used as colour during the telling.
This game is not one of those. Games set on Torei will be
FIXME:
clean this up and finish it.
Character Creation
You play humans from the greater intergalactic civilization, come to Torei for your own motives both public and secret.
Male or Female?
On Torei, your sex is extremely important. Female Toreans outnumber males 9:1, and the whole economy runs on contracted and enslaved female labour. Males often live lives of aristocratic privilege, but their status as breeding studs often complicates their Relationships.
As an outsider, your life will have been different from that of a native Torean. Think of how your experience of being a man or a woman (or however you identify) was different from that on Torei.
Where Are You From?
Invent a new planet around some new star in a nearby galaxy, and make that your homeworld. Or perhaps it’s a union of worlds that you think of as your nationality. Be creative!
Remember that Earth is gone and forgotten!
Why Did You Leave?
- Why did you come to Torei?
- What reason do you tell people?
These are often two different things!
Stellanova
Stellanova is a woman from Amalthea, which was for most of its history part of a colonial commonwealth of stars. Her father, though, was from Hotchkiss and she has dual citizenship in the Commonweal and in the Confederacy to which Hotchkiss belongs.
The official story is that she went to Torei to follow her wife Sophietta’s posting as an ambassador, and that her background in human rights law was in demand there. In truth, the idea of being a mistress appealed to her rather more than she let on.
Hierarchy
Whose power do you represent?
Torei is fond of hierarchy. Everyone is beneath someone and above others. What power do you serve or represent, that brought you to this world?
Who represents your power?
Status on Torei comes from the people you command. Are you a manager? An officer? A parent? Do you have elected status in any organization, no matter how small?
Background
To make a character, one of the first things you must choose is which of the five background types your character has. Try to pick the one that best describes your character.
Well-Rounded
You’re straightforward, adaptable, and well-balanced. Just the sort of person to set out to seek your fortune on a frontier world like Torei.
Strong History
You’re well educated, trained, or experienced. You’re on Torei because something about your history makes you the best choice for the trip.
Complicated History
You’ve had a troubled past, or a series of events left their mark on you. You’re likely on Torei to grow past these problems, or to find a solution.
Strong Connections
You’re socially adept and a good former of friendships and alliances. You may have come to Torei as a diplomat or a trader, to try and connect the Toreans to some off-world concern.
Complicated Connections
You’re socially vulnerable, and your Relationships tend to be messy. You may have gone to Torei to get away from someone, or to try and heal a bond with others who came before you.
Stellanova’s Background
Stella’s competent, but her background isn’t particularly special or troubled. Her friends tend to drag her into messy situations, which suggests Complicated Connections as the best option.
Stats
Everyone has four Stats, represented as sets of six-sided dice to be rolled during play.
Acuity
It comes into play when doing something that requires attention to detail or delicate accuracy (talking, shooting, difficult piloting, picking pockets).
Body
It comes into play when performing a physically demanding task (running, lifting, dancing, wrestling, swordfighting).
Heart
It comes into play when competing in a more indirect or non-violent way (talking, racing, working, dancing).
Will
It comes into play when competing directly against someone else in an attempt to best them (wrestling, swordfighting, shooting, dogfighting, breaking a slave).
Traits
Your Traits are aspects of your character that help you get what you want. You can express Traits as narrative descriptions, skills, quotes, or even flaws. There are no set Traits to choose from. You make them up!
The most useful Traits are the ones that make the best narrative hooks. The more ways you can justify a trait’s relevance in a given situation, the more often you will be able to bring your trait into play. A good trait will be evocative, without being too specific to be useful or too generic to describe your character.
You might want to check out the Stellanova’s Traits and Relationships to get some ideas.
Relationships
A relationship is a strong connection between your character and a person, place, organisation or fetish. Relationships are very similar to Traits in that they grant you dice for use in a Conflict, but only if the relationship is involved in the stakes.
The GM will tell you when you should roll a Relationship’s dice at the beginning of a Conflict, typically because the target of your Relationship is already directly involved.
Each character should take at least one Relationship with one of the other players’ characters.
Allocate your dice
Your Background type determines what dice you have to allocate. Remember that Stats have a minimum of 2
and you can’t mix die sizes in Traits or Relationships.
Background | Stat Dice | Trait Dice | Relationship Dice |
---|---|---|---|
Well-Rounded | 17 |
1 4 2 |
4 2 |
Strong History | 13 |
3 4 3 |
1 4 2 |
Complicated History | 15 |
4 2 2 |
5 2 |
Strong Connections | 13 |
1 3 2 |
4 4 3 |
Complicated Connections | 15 |
6 2 |
4 2 2 2 |
Don’t roll these dice yet!
Your character sheet will actually list the sets of dice themselves next to your Stats, Traits, and Relationships.
Save Some Relationship Dice!
Most characters should leave their Relationship dice largely unallocated. You’ll add them in as you meet people during play!
Stellanova’s Traits and Relationships
Since Stella’s background is Complicated Connections, she has 15
for Stats, 6
2
for Traits, and 4
2
2
2
for Relationships.
4 |
Heart |
5 |
Acuity |
4 |
Body |
2 |
Will |
1 |
Graduated law school on Amalthea with a distinction in human rights and treaty law, but never passed the bar. |
1 |
|
2 |
Years on Torei made me a fearless negotiator. |
1 |
I’ve spent my single life as a lusty and aggressive cruiser. |
2 |
I can spot a trap a mile away…but not two miles. |
1 |
I let my jealousy and frustration get the better of me. |
2 |
Sophie’s twin nieces are double trouble! |
2 |
I own a “soubrette” maid-slave in Sophie’s apartment. |
2 |
My ex-wife Sophie is the Amalthean Ambassador to Torei. |
1 |
unallocated |
1 |
unallocated |
Belongings
Does your character carry anything? Tools of the trade? Restraints? Whips? Vibrators?
Try to work out where the belonging was made, and whether it’s terrible or excellent.
A belonging is only excellent if people meeting your character would notice and comment on it: “Now that is a masterpiece of a whip!” or “Aren’t you worried someone will steal that?”
Torean Objects
1 |
if it’s Torean. |
2 |
if it’s excellent Torean equipment. |
1 |
if it’s terrible. |
Off-World Objects
1 |
if it’s from off-world. |
2 |
if it’s excellent off-world equipment. |
1 |
if it’s terrible. |
Biotech
2 |
if it’s Torean biotech. |
3 |
if it’s excellent Torean biotech. |
4 |
if it’s Torean biotech from the AIs. |
1 |
if it’s terrible. |
Starting Equipment
Your character starts out with one special belonging of your choice. It must be something your character can wear with a catsuit. That means anything that would fit on a utility belt, in your boot, as a bracelet or pendant, tucked behind your ear, or however you might keep something on your person without having to hold on to it.
Anything else, you need to find, steal, buy or borrow. Most of the time, we can just assume that you use what is at hand.
The game is about your character, not your gear, so don’t get too caught up in Belongings!
Guns are Complicated
Guns are the one place where die sizes are mixed: all guns get an extra 1
in addition to whatever else they have. This means that an excellent off-world gun would be 2
1
, and an ordinary Torean gun would be 1
1
. A terrible gun would be 2
no matter where it was made.
Stellanova’s Belongings
As a legal professional, Stella needs access to documents and records quickly. Since information technology in this setting is ubiquitous to the point of being part of nearly every reflective surface, she keeps a gemstone of Amathean jet on her person at all times. This can be used for calling up contracts and performing automated analysis.
1
- Pendant gem information device.
Initiation to Torei
You may not necessarily be an insider on Torei yet, but you’ve been there long enough for it to make its mark on you. Consider the period between your arrival on Torei and the start of play, and write down something you hope to have accomplished.
Perhaps you hope that you got out of debt, or broke a slave’s will, or resisted falling in love with an abuser. Whatever you choose, make sure it isn’t something that would ruin your character if you lose. “I hope that I didn’t die” is not a practical goal!
The GM will run a Conflict between your character and 4
4
in opposition. The result will be a new 1
Experience trait, such as “I stayed debt-free ever since the belt came off” or “I never did earn my slave’s respect.”
Stellanova’s Initiation
Stella’s a slightly idealistic champion for the underdog, so she chose “I hope I protected someone from a bully” as her hope for the Initiation to Torei.
Stella is on a train late at night, and a young man boards. He’s got an eye for a young woman who’s travelling to work graveyard shift at one of the tower casinos, and he steps over to her to have a word. The casino girl does her best to respectfully decline his advances, but he ignores this and grabs her.
Time for the Conflict!
Conflict
Do you want something, but someone is stopping you?
Say “conflict”!
What are you fighting over?
That’s the stakes.
Who was in the scene when you said “conflict”?
They can join in. Characters who join later can Help.
Roll Stats and Relationships
The first step is to roll the dice from two of your Stats. All your rolls go into a pool of dice in front of you, where everyone can see.
Which two Stats you roll depends on how you’re trying to get what you want:
Talking
Moving
Fighting
Manoeuvring
Are Your Relationships at Stake?
Roll the dice now for any Relationships involved in the Conflict.
Don’t roll your Traits or Belongings yet!
Who Goes First?
The person with the 2 highest rolled dice makes the first Challenge. If multiple people are involved, always pick the person who has the next 2 highest dice.
Who Wins?
The last person in the Conflict wins, and tells us what happens to the stakes.
Everyone then discards all remaining dice, and rolls Fallout.
Stellanova’s Initiation Conflict
Now we’re in the situation, and it’s time for Stella to react! Being a legal mind, she tries to persuade this man that he doesn’t want to keep molesting this working girl.
Stella shouts to the bully: “Leave her alone!”
Since this persuasion is just Talking, that means that Stella rolls her Heart and Acuity dice now for a total of 9
. None of her Relationships are at stake, so she leaves those alone.
Because this is part of Character Creation, the GM doesn’t build a character for this one-off bully but instead rolls 4
4
. So the results are:
- Stella
1
1
2
4
1
4
4
1
1
- Bully
6
6
3
4
1
7
10
10
Ouch! Unlucky roll for Stella, and lucky for the bully!
Challenge
1st Die
2nd Die
Push forward any 2 dice from your pool
Never push more than two in a Challenge!
The higher the total on the dice, the better
- If you don’t have any dice to push forward, you lose.
- Describe how you try to get what you want. It must be something the targets can’t ignore.
- Each target makes a Response.
- After all responses are done, discard these dice.
When narrating your Challenge, remember that pushing forward high numbers would represent powerful actions with excellent chances for success. Low numbers are described by more bumbling attempts that might open you to counterattack (or counterargument).
The Bully’s Challenge
Now it’s time to use these results as currency to tell a story. The Bully’s roll is vastly better than Stella’s, but Stella still has Traits she can use to add more dice as necessary.
Who Goes First? Since the Bully’s two highest dice (10
10
) beat Stella’s (4
4
), he goes first. He puts forth a Challenge with 3
4
:
- Bully’s Challenge
3
4
“Keep your off-world tongue to yourself!” the bully spits back. “I’ll train it properly once I’m done with this meat here!” He leers at Stella.
Response
The target of the Challenge pushes forward enough dice to match the total from the Challenge.
1 Die
2 Dice
3 Dice
..or more!
Fewer Dice is Better
The outcome of the challenge depends on how many dice were used to respond.
Most of the time you will try to avoid taking Fallout. But sometimes, when the stakes are too high, you have to give it all you’ve got no matter the cost!
Stellanova’s First Response
Now the bidding war starts back and forth. Stella must do two things: push forward enough dice for her Response to meet or exceed 7
(the total from The Bully’s Challenge), and then push forward a Challenge of her own. Unfortunately, she can’t do it with fewer than three dice, so she’ll have to Take the Blow.
- Stella’s Response
2
4
1
Stella shrinks a bit under the bully’s stare, clearly uncomfortable.
Fallout Dice
Each time you Take the Blow, you need to set aside a number of dice equal to the number you used in your Response. The type of these dice depends on the riskiness of blow you just took.
Safe
3
.Physical
3
.Violent
3
.Perilous
3
.Stellanova’s First Fallout Dice
Stella Took the Blow with three dice, and the bully’s blow was Safe. This means she must set aside the following dice:
She will roll these at the end of the Conflict, but right now they just build up in a Fallout pool for later.
Need more Dice?
- Get Help
- Use Traits and Belongings
- Change the Game
Don’t forget that Submission is Power!
If you can’t match the Challenge’s total, you lose the stakes.
After responding, discard these dice (unless you Reversed the Blow).
Change the Game
Are you shooting? Take it physical and run away! Fighting? Take it to talking with threats or bargaining. Whatever you do, it must be something the other person can’t ignore!
Roll Anew and Strike Back!
Everyone immediately rolls stat dice for the new type of conflict.
Don’t re-roll any stats you’ve already rolled, and don’t discard any dice already in your pool.
If you change the game to a type nobody’s rolled yet, you do not need to respond, and can instead make your own Challenge now!
Traits and Belongings
- Describe how one of your Traits or Belongings helps you.
- Roll it and add the dice to your pool.
You can only use each trait or belonging once per Conflict.
Help
Anyone can help by describing and rolling a relevant trait or belonging, then giving you their single highest rolled die. The rest are discarded. They now can’t use this trait or belonging in their next conflict.
Submit
You can surrender the stakes at any time, even when someone is challenging you. This saves you from needing to respond, and can prevent fallout!
Keep your two highest dice in your pool for your next conflict (don’t re-roll them!) You can’t help in this same conflict.
Stella Uses her Traits
Stella can’t succeed with these terrible dice. It’s time to use her Traits and Belongings. Stella calls on 2
for Years on Torei made me a fearless negotiator. These dice come up 6
6
, so the balance now looks like:
- Stella
1 2 44
4
1
1
1
1
6
6
- Bully
3 46
6
1
7
10
10
- Stella’s Challenge
6
6
Stella narrows her eyes and snaps back, “That woman works for the Motkan tourism board, and has a fully protected contract with the Tower Authority. You have no right to cajole any consideration from her that would be in conflict with the standards of conduct required by her employer.”
The bully Blocks with two dice:
- Bully’s Response
6
6
“I am a red-blooded male of Torei. Don’t tell me my rights, freewomb!”
- Bully’s Challenge
7
1
The bully ignores Stella’s legalese and begins molesting the whimpering woman.
Stella Changes The Game
Again, this isn’t working out with the dice she has. She needs to Change the Game and try to stop him physically. She thus ignores the current Challenge and rolls 4
2
to bring her Body and Will in for the fight, and decides to tap 1
for I let my…frustration get the better of me. The result of these rolls is 5
4
3
2
3
1
5
which takes the total to:
- Stella
1 2 4 6 64
4
1
1
1
1
5
4
3
2
3
1
5
- Bully
3 4 6 6 1 710
10
Now we’re talking! And since she Changed the Game, she can ignore the Bully’s Challenge and surprise him with a brand new type of Conflict.
- Stella’s Challenge
5
5
Stella runs toward the man in frustration at being ignored. She grabs the man by one arm in an attempt to pry him away from the poor girl.
But since 10
was the biggest raise we could do, the bully Reverses the Blow.
- Bully’s Response
10
The man twirls around the moment he is touched, and soon he has Stella in his arms.
- Bully’s Challenge
10
10
He spins her around and whips some sort of handcuffs out of a back pocket of his trousers, forcing Stella’s arms around a pole behind her back!
Fallout
Fallout represents the negative consequences for participants who took a blow or two in the course of the conflict. Fallout does not stop you from winning the stakes. A general can win a battle, but die in his moment of glory.
After a conflict, roll all your fallout dice (if any) together.
If any of these rolled dice come up 1
, you gain an Experience!
You can only claim one experience per conflict.
Then take the two highest fallout dice you rolled and add them together. Choose harm from the following table:
- 2-7
- Take Short-Term Harm
- 8-10
- Take Short-Term Harm and one Scar
- 11-15
- Take Short-Term Harm and Trauma
- 16-19
- Take Short-Term Harm and Trauma, and enter a Conflict where the stakes are your own survival.
- 20
- Death! Describe how you exit the game.
Death! doesn’t need to be literal death. Anything that takes your character out of the story permanently will do.
Short-Term Harm
Short-Term Harm reduces the die size of one of your Stats for at least the next Conflict, or until you’ve succeeded at some attempt to clear it. Choose the one that is most likely to have resulted from the blows you took:
Dazed
#
to #
.Bound
#
to #
.Broken
#
to #
.Shamed
#
to #
.Permanent Harm
Scar
- Take a new
1
Trait or Relationship. - Or add
1
to an existing Trait or Relationship.
Trauma
- Remove
1
,1
, or1
from anywhere on your sheet. - Or reduce the die size of a Trait or Relationship by
2
.
Experience
Per the circumstances of the story, choose one:
- Gain a
1
trait, relationship, or belonging. - Add one die to an existing trait, relationship, or belonging.
- Add
2
to the die size (max:10
) of an existing trait, relationship, or belonging.
Play Advice
How to Think about Dice
Lots of small dice can win you the stakes, but they’re more likely to harm you. It’s true that 3
can total up to 12
just as 2
can, but needing three dice to respond instead of two increases your Fallout. So having that fistful of #
can win you the stakes, but you will pay for it later!
How to Think about Fallout
Fallout also has a die-size element to it, keyed to the type of conflict you’re engaged in. The smaller dice used for the non-violent conflict types make it more likely that some of them will come up 1
, earning you an Experience. We learn more consistently by talking or doing than we do by fighting, after all!
How to Think about Changing The Game
The original games that inspired this system all used the word escalation, and that confused a lot of new players. It encouraged them to think of a progression from Safe to Perilous, going in one direction only. This is a mistake!
It’s true that you can escalate from peaceful approaches to more violent ones, but what’s most important is that the current approach won’t work for you and you’re not willing to give up the stakes.
A pirate who breaks from a swordfight to swing from the chandelier is Changing the Game every bit as much as a cowgirl who draws her pistol on an argument!
Submission is Power
If you’re willing to surrender the stakes, Submitting is one of the most powerful moves you can make! You get to keep your two best rolls in your pool, and use them in your next Conflict. You also avoid any further risk of Fallout, and this can help you aim for Experience.
A submissive character may well play a long game of rope-a-dope, Submitting to a dominant character regularly just to gain the upper hand on the next Conflict.
GM Advice
“When we want to let our characters off the hook, we need rules to threaten them; when we want to kill our characters, we need rules to protect them.” – Vincent Baker
The mechanics of this game are based on those of Afraid, the horror-themed variant of Dogs in the Vineyard, by Vincent Baker. The rules may be surprising to new players, but you can use the Initiation to Torei as a gentle introduction.
FIXME:
- Be Bold, and don’t fear fallout
- Play Episodically
- Hone in and test your group’s limits and desires
But once you’re in play, don’t be timid! The Fallout system may not be as deadly as it first appears.
Say Yes or Roll the Dice
This is critical for driving gameplay toward Conflict. If you take nothing else from this section, it should be this mantra. Say yes, or roll the dice! Write it at the top of your notes.
The role of GM in a story-building and world-building game like this one is a lot more participatory than in some popular systems. Keeping players involved and having fun is more important than simulating a strict system of carefully-balanced statistics or plot elements.
So when one or more of your players want to do something that you don’t think is a good idea, that should mean that one or more NPCs object. Have them declare a Conflict and start rolling dice. You will be pleasantly surprised where the story takes you!
And if you’re not willing to get out the dice and turn it into a Conflict, then just say yes! It obviously wasn’t that important, or you’d have made the players work for it.
This idea is so central that I’ll repeat it once more:
Say yes, or roll the dice!
Build Situations, Not Plots
It’s tempting to think like an author, building a story with a beginning middle and end. Unfortunately that rarely results in a satisfying gameplay experience.
Players want to feel that they’re exploring a world and building a story as they go. The plot should be the product of everybody’s participation, and not just a secret tale the GM reveals as the players pass certain tests.
So instead of laying out what should happen during the game, build a few NPCs and some Relationships between them. Find what forces and obligations would drive one of them to desperation, and their desperate act will be the kernel of a situation that affects the NPCs they share Relationships with.
Build a rough sketch of events leading up to the appearance of the players, and let them discover the dilemmas and crises as the NPCs react to their problems.
Keep Revealing
If you Build Situations, Not Plots, then you may be surprised to learn that even your situations shouldn’t be that secret. It’s tempting to present the crises you’ve created as a puzzle for the players to solve. But mystery stories only work because the author presents the clues and discoveries to the reader at a steady pace.
Don’t leave the players in the dark, chasing red herrings or scratching their heads trying to find the next clue. NPCs may be cagey or duplicitous, but they should at least send the players to an NPC who will reveal more of the facts of the situation. Run your games as “howcatchems”, not “whodunnits”!
Creating Situations
FIXME:
Need to design a formula for creating the kind of tension that works best on Torei. It will likely be some sort of interplay between these forces:
- Desire
- Limit
- History
- Connections
One character’s desire is another character’s limit. When one side wins conclusively, neither feel constrained.
Creating NPCs
NPCs have the same four Stats that player characters do; but instead of hand-crafting characteristic Traits, every NPC has these four:
I am taking this very seriously
Write down any quick interests or desires you think of immediately when you imagine this NPC.
This falls within my expertise
Write down the primary areas of expertise the NPC would have.
My life depends on this
Either the Conflict is a direct threat against the NPC’s health or freedom, or some external threat makes this Conflict and obstacle to same. Jot down any debts, masters, diseases, or other forces that could drive the NPC to desperation.
I am fighting for someone I love
Feel free to link this to one of the NPC’s Relationships, or to leave it until the Conflict occurs.
NPC Trait Dice
Every NPC has the four traits above, but allocates dice to the use of each trait in a given conflict type (Safe, Physical, Violent and Perilous). So an NPC may have “My life depends on this: 2
Safe, 1
Violent, 1
Perilous” and another set of dice for the other three.
For an NPC’s trait dice, roll 1
and take a row of dice sets from the table below, and assign them to various conflict types in the four NPC traits.
Roll | Dice |
---|---|
1 | 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 |
2 | 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 |
3 | 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 |
4 | 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 |
5 | 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 |
6 | 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 |
7 | 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 |
8 | 1 2 1 2 2 2 3 1 2 1 1 2 |
9 | 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 |
10 | 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 2 |
NPC Stats
For an NPC’s Stats, roll 1
, and then assign the results from the list to Acuity, Body, Heart and Will as you think best fits the NPC.
Roll | Dice |
---|---|
1 | 2 2 3 4 |
2 | 2 3 3 4 |
3 | 2 2 4 5 |
4 | 3 3 4 4 |
5 | 2 3 5 5 |
6 | 3 4 4 5 |
NPC Relationships
For each of an NPC’s relationships, roll 1
:
Roll | Dice |
---|---|
1 | 1 |
2 | 2 |
3 | 1 |
4 | 2 |
5 | 1 |
6 | 2 |
7 | 1 |
8 | 2 |
NPC Crowds
Small crowds of NPCs can be built as a single character, with individuals forming the traits. Use the same dice as above, but instead of the four core traits, assign them to members of the mob.
FIXME:
Needs an example
Forces of Nature
A storm doesn’t need to have component elements. It can just be treated as one giant trait: Violent Storm. Some Conflicts will pit the players against forces of nature that are easier to model this way.
These behave more like the Conflict in the Initiation to Torei you did during Character Creation. To determine how many dice to use, roll 1
and consult the following table. Most results will allow you to Change the Game at least once, and half will allow you to do this a second time.
Roll | Dice | Change the Game | Second Changing the Game |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 1 |
||
2 | 5 |
3 |
|
3 | 5 1 |
2 1 |
|
4 | 5 1 1 |
2 1 |
1 1 |
5 | 7 2 |
4 2 |
|
6 | 6 1 1 |
3 |
1 4 |
7 | 6 2 1 |
2 2 |
1 2 |
8 | 6 2 |
4 2 |
2 1 1 |
The AIs are vast and inscrutable, and many interactions with them should be modeled as Forces of Nature!