Algie, 34, Fil-Am, any pronouns. Mess of a blog; usually offline; untagged queue. If you like any of the stuff I've made, you're welcome to buy me a coffee!
Time has been repeating.
You don't know how long this has been happening. You don't know how many times you have lived through this—or how many times you didn't live through it.
You know you have been here before. You know that while the broad strokes of the loop remain the same, exact events differ each time. You know you have hazy memories of what happened in some loops, but—whether because of your current reality asserting itself, or because of some power (or powers) struggling for control of the timeline, or because your tiny human brain can't hold that many versions of reality—you can't remember everything.
You know you aren't alone.
And you know you will never be here again. The timeline is done repeating, stretched almost to its breaking point. Whatever happens now, happens forever.
So you're going to have to make this one count.
i have finally put together the core mechanics, which means this weird little game is technically in a playable state. i have yet to write up the gm's guide, which will consist of explanations of how to play ttrpg as scenes, suggestions of actions the gm can take in response to failures and successes, prolly some advice about making time weirder as continuity gets low, some npc suggestions, maybe a module of pre-made setting and loop info? we'll see.
HOWEVER. if you as a gm feel like you've played similar games and think u wanna give this one a shot, by all means! i am hungry for feedback. like genuinely if u have feedback or questions or something you'd like clarified or think would be helpful for playing the game. pleaseeeeeee.
once i get the gm stuff together i will prolly put out an actual call for playtesters, but dont let that stop u from playing or whatever. blease.
text of the game under the cut; apologies for any typos i haven't caught, i keep working on this while at work or when v sleepy.
EDIT: made significant edits to the game, partly based on feedback and partly based on spinning ideas around in my brain and rubber ducking em at my friends.
it does appear that readmore on dash of reblogs specifically keeps the old text instead of the new reblog.... it didnt always used to do that.... anyway fresh new edits on THIS version.
Setup:
You will need:
at least 3 players, one who will be the GM
something to write or otherwise record information about the fame, including both a shared record and individual character info
2d6, 2d4, and so, so many d12s; i think you roll at minimum 1 and at maximum 20 if you're really gaming the dice pool. an online roller may be useful
Creating the Loop:
Before playing, create the Loop your PCs are stuck in. [there will be premade loops added later, but at base there are instructions for creating it as a group:]
First, decide where and when it occurs—pick a setting, a genre, a location. Keep it as vague or specific as you like; the rest can be filled in as you play.
Have each player name a place within your larger setting, with a 1-sentence description.
Have each player name an NPC who exists within the loop, with a 1-sentence description.
Moments:
As a group, name twelve Moments—significant events you have encountered on previous loops and have vague knowledge of. Keep these names short, a handful of words or a short sentence at most, leaving room for interpretation. These aren’t necessarily all problems, either— they might turn out to be dangers you faced, tragedies you suffered, wonders you saw, triumphs you won—any event of significance. Make sure everyone at the table gets to decide on at least one Moment, and write them down.
These Moments will form the bones of your loop. They may occur in any order, and perhaps in unexpected ways, but the PCs must encounter and fulfill all twelve—whether “fulfill” means accepting, altering, or averting them—to complete this final loop.
Whenever the players fulfill a Moment, the GM will check it off the list and roll 1d12 against the remaining Continuity. If it is higher than the current Continuity, subtract the difference between those two numbers from the current Continuity.
—
Character creation:
Every player except the GM will create a player character, or PC, to play. You will likely want to create a backup character, just in case.
Give your character a name and a brief description.
Write down three Memories, small details you remember from previous loop(s) (not one of the twelve Moments shared by all players).
Write down your Keepsake, a seemingly unremarkable item with emotional significance to you, which you carry with you.
Write down two Goals you want to accomplish, and name something that has stopped you from accomplishing each of them in a prior loop.
Write down two Promises you made in previous loops, and name who you made those promises to.
If you break a Promise or abandon a Goal, roll 2d4; add that amount to the Continuity pool, and subtract the same amount from your stat health, distributed as you wish.
Choose one (nontime) Special Ability; you can use this once to start. More uses can be gained with Continuity points.
roll 1d6; heal that amount of stat health, total, across your own or someone else’s stats
teleport instantly to another PC
everyone who can hear your voice is knocked unconscious until the end of the scene
name a stat. you may automatically succeed at one roll of that stat. the stat remains the same for future uses.
set one thing you touch on fire; this lasts until the fire is put out or burns itself out.
change the weather; this lasts until the weather would naturally change.
create an illusion, perceived normally by sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, but can’t physically impact anything; it lasts until the end of the scene
read someone’s mind
levitate one person or object, up to 2d6 feet off the ground, until the end of the scene
turn invisible until the end of the scene
summon an animal until the end of the scene; you can roughly communicate with the animal you summoned.
negate a (non-time) power used by another character (including NPCs).
Finally, distribute 12 points among the following stats, however you want; you may make a stat negative in order to add more points to another stat. These will be the maximum possible health of each of your stats. You begin the game at maximum stat health.
Stats
Stunt: do something daring or dangerous
Skew: change someone else’s perception
Swerve: dodge or hide from something coming at you
Star: bring the drama; draw attention to yourself
Sense: recognize what’s really here, right now
Shatter: break something; ruin something
Survive: clench your teeth and hold on
—
Gameplay:
Your characters will make their way through this final loop, working to fulfill the group's Moments while trying to achieve their individual Goals and Promises along the way. The GM will is responsible for describing and roleplaying as the environment and NPCs involved in the loop, including describing the instability of the decaying loop, and deciding the effects PC's actions (and success or failure) have on the world.
Play will mostly consist of a series of scenes, which you will roleplay freely until you use one of the special game mechanics or do something which requires a roll.
Rolling:
When you try to do something risky or uncertain, the GM will ask you to roll to determine whether or not you succeed, using one of your stats.
To roll, create a pool of d12s as follows:
+1d12 for every fulfilled Moment
+1d12 if you are using information from a Memory
+1d12 if you are using your Keepsake
+1d12 for every Goal and Promise you have not abandoned
Take the highest d12, and add the current health of the stat you are using to determine your result (if the health is negative, you'll be subtracting).
If you are ever rolling with zero dice, roll 2d12 and take the lowest.
Any result above zero will be a success of sorts, but the higher your roll, the greater the impact of your action; lower rolls, while technically successful, will be less effective.
How a low result is less effective will be determined by the GM, but may include things like your action working for only a limited time, an attack doing less damage to a target, taking more time to accomplish something, or taking damage to your stat health.
Likewise, the greater effects of higher rolls will be narrated by the GM, with extremely high rolls potentially having effects beyond what the player intended.
A zero or less is a failure, with a corresponding scale of impact down into the negative numbers. The GM will narrate your failure, whether you simoly don't do what you were intending, or you make things worse.
Continuity:
Time, forced to warp and repeat and stretch over and over, is fraying. Too fragile to start over again—but not quite broken yet. It’s holding together enough for one last loop, with just enough extra slack for a handful of tricks.
The group begins with a shared pool of 24 Continuity points—simultaneously a meter of how stable this last loop is, and a resource you can use to manipulate the timestream, from pulling knowledge from a previous loop to rewinding time in small, vital increments.
At any time, a player may spend a Continuity point to:
rewind time a small amount (up to the beginning of a scene) (multiple points spent = multiple scenes back)
gain 1d4 charges of your special ability
remember something about a previous loop’s iteration of one of your 12 Moments (add this to your Memories)
reroll a roll before the results take effect
fully heal one stat
add 1d4 to a stat’s max
state a minor event (something that wouldn’t take more than 6 seconds to happen) that will occur before the end of the session; it can happen at any time this session
Paradoxes:
When you use Continuity, you are altering the already fragile timeline, resulting in paradoxes big and small. Whenever a player spends a Continuity point (but not for any lost in other ways), they roll 2d12 on the following table and take the effect:
(there is no 1 but tumblr wouldn’t let me start at 2)
Move into a timeline where you didn’t make it—died, or left, or are just not here. Remove your character from play and create a new character; one of your Promises is to your old character.
Erase an unfulfilled Moment and create a new one. Everyone with a Memory of that Moment keeps the Memory.
Gain a second Keepsake.
Lose 1d6 Continuity.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with one more ability charge than you had.
A new NPC appears.
Swap the maximums of two of your stats.
Gain a new Memory.
Swap the current health of two of your stats.
Something changes about an NPC. You still remember them as they were.
Heal 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
Nothing seems to happen… (The GM rolls secretly on this table. If they get another nothing happens, nothing really happens; if they get a different effect, it happens, but you find out about it later.)
Lose 2d4 stat health, distributed as you choose.
An inanimate object near you is altered.
Change something physical about your character.
Forget a Goal or Promise, and replace it with a different one.
Lose your special ability; roll 1d12 and gain the special ability with that number, with the same number of ability charges you had.
Your Keepsake never existed; replace it with a different Keepsake.
You are suddenly in a different location.
Erase one of your Memories.
Gain 1d6 Continuity.
An NPC you know has forgotten you.
A double of you from another timeline appears. Choose which one to play as; both have the same stat health, but you may alter any other character information you want.
Stat Health and Character Death:
Your characters don’t have regular health to track. Instead, when you get hurt, your GM will have you remove points from one or more of your stats. This doesn’t change the maximum, but you will always roll with current health of your stats.
If any stat reaches -12 health—when, no matter what you cannot roll high enough to succeed—your character dies, retires, vanishes, or is otherwise removed from play. Refer to this list to decide how that happens:
-12 Stunt: your body breaks; your courage fails.
-12 Skew: the truth is unbearable
-12 Swerve: something has caught up with you, and you can’t run anymore
-12 Star: you’ve faded from everyone’s awareness. maybe even your own.
-12 Sense: reality is unrecognizable
-12 Shatter: you can’t ruin anything else. you can’t ruin anything else. you can’t ruin anything else.
-12 Survive: give up. let go.
Create a new character to play.
—
Ending the Game:
If the Continuity pool reaches zero, the loop fails and time fractures.
If you fulfill all twelve Moments without depleting all your Continuity, you exit the loop and move forward into your new future—with this final route behind you as the definite past.
me: to really understand Frankenstein, we have to take into account that Mary Shelley was surrounded by creative men who really didn’t take her seriously, so in addition to sci-fi horror, it can also be read as an exploration of female creative frustration and-
The burglar that broke into my house: bodily autonomy?
this is one of the most rewarding things about posting self care tips on this site. witnessing people's lives getting better in real time. this is why I post
as we all know, everyone falls in love once and only once with their one true love the first time, and if they had relationships before that they weren’t real and didn’t love each other, and you can’t love more than one person at once, and your friends and family need to be pushed out of the picture to focus more on your romance, and no one has sex with people they don’t love, and if they did, they’re dirty and they have to have hated it and the sex they have with their one true love after they’re officially together has to be better sex than they ever had before, and no one ever breaks up for any reason other than death, and everyone wants to get married and have kids. aren’t you fucking tired.
Girls with swords are great but there aren't enough girls with flanged maces or morning stars to go around. Give me a woman who does bludgeoning damage
If you've committed a crime and a detective gathers everyone involved in the room, especially if he's not actually a detective and is instead a novelist, puzzle-setter, psychic, fake psychic, dog, chess grandmaster, etc. ...
YOU SHOULD NOT CONFESS.
Every year, hundreds of people are put away by non-traditional "detectives" who have either inserted themselves into the case or are working with the police in a dubiously legal capacity as advisor. In 99% of these cases, the murderer gives a full confession even though the evidence against them is circumstantial at best and often requires a long just-so story which can only guess at motive.
If this happens to you, stay quiet, do not attempt to defend yourself or talk your way out of it, only say "I want a lawyer".
Now if you find yourself being investigated by a boy genius, magician's assistant, anthropologist, classics scholar, or philosopher, it's likely that refusing to talk to the police (or investigator with no legal authority) is merely the end of the second act, and by the end of the third act they will have you dead to rights.
YOU SHOULD STILL NOT CONFESS.
Make them take it to court. Force the eccentric detective and his straight-laced police partner to take the stand and explain their methods to a jury of your peers. Have your lawyer look at the chain of custody on the evidence, especially if you believe it to have been handled by someone who has only bumbled into detective work through their natural charm and/or unique set of skills and outsider perspective that come in handy more often than they should.
Know your rights. Don't let eccentric detectives put you away.
If I had a diner, the coffee would be 50¢ a cup. Just 50¢. Always 50¢, price never changes, it’s like the Costco hotdog. But the coffee is bad. Really bad, so bad, lukewarm, watery, medium roast SWILL. But it’s so cheap you feel like you want to finish your cup and buy another because wow, it’s so affordable. You drive by and you think ‘Hey, that’s the place with the cheap coffee, I need to go back there.’ having totally forgotten the coffee is bad, you fall for it again. Why would I do this? Because I’m evil.
I've been thinking of the "Can Granny Weatherwax beat Bugs Bunny" question and this is my full take for Discworld characters:
Vimes - Cares too much, too easy to piss off. Has the innate chase instinct that makes characters run into walls with realistic tunnels painted on them. Might get to arrest Bugs Bunny but the beast will just slip out of the handcuffs to help him lock them, then walk out of the jail cell to have a union mandated coffee break.
Ridcully - Classic hunting season scenario, but has enough charisma to probably still get a few good shots off before the inevitable.
Rest of the wizards - No survivors, only Bugs.
Carrot - The intense near-magical narrative aura of well meaning innocence should make him immune, Bugs will likely be forced to be the villain of the episode.
Lord Vetinari - Flattened by a comically large anvil in the first few minutes of the episode, unclear if it was all a part of his long term strategy or not.
Moist - Has the 'lovable trickster getting away with it' energy, but nowhere near Bugs level. Already fell for the "old lady who swallowed a fly" scenario with the stamp slugs once, won't fare any better here.
Death - Definitely one of those "character is trying to avoid death" episodes, would go back and forth. Might actually get to end Bugs but his spirit will reappear in Death's domain and ruin his garden.
Nanny Ogg - The ultimate in anti-Bugs technology, a gleefully annoying old lady who doesn't give a fuck and definitely won't be the first to instigate the plot bearing conflict. This is a full sweep, he's the episode antagonist.
Granny Weatherwax - Too win-motivated to not lose. Would have to break the story to have any chance. Might do it.
Magrat - Will have sappy ideas about helping the poor animal which honestly has the 50:50 chance of either getting slapsticked or Bugs ending in a ye olde stroller&pacifier gag.
Colon&Nobby - Designed in a lab to be totaled by Bugs Bunny.
Tiffany Aching - A child that also has a large pan that is the perfect thing to hit someone over the head with and make a BOIOIOINGGG sound, so great odds.
