i am (in my dreams) working on making Tsolarja into a ttrpg. i have made multiple rpg systems over the years with their own flavours and mechanics, which is fun in itself.
they were all run by the gm with various fun and inventive ways to determine probability of success and failure, from typical dice to scrying to art interpretation.
Tsolarja is supposed to be a place without rulers and despots though, which seemed somehow counter to the concept of a single gm. i respect the story-telling process and that an auteur can be crucial to creating the landscape of a story for players to explore, so i don't know if the system needs to be completely 100% cooperative, but i would love the mechanics to be while maintaining randomness and chance.
so, friends, help me make a system that is operable and fun to use while still allowing for story, agency and role playing.
i thought maybe we start with Rusty's Rules of Order as a skeleton? for those who don't spend a lot of time in solidarity union meetings or similar decentralised activist orgs, Rusty's Rules is a relatively simply way to hold a functional meeting.
i thought perhaps the chair in this scenario would be the gm (dm). they have the plot in mind, know the world they're playing in, the npcs the beats etc.
the agenda is essentially the campaign, but typically all the attendees would have the agenda well in advance, so i'm not sure how to work with that.
i imagined most of the game would be typical role playing in character as normal. everyone would need to know essentially the strengths and weaknesses of all the characters and be able to reference them in a sort of cheat sheet. if a test was well within the skills and abilities of a player, then failure would be an extremely low probability.
how do we test for success in higher stakes? how do we decide what happens without just rolling dice which (in my opinion) is so boring. (maybe i'm alone in that)
would players propose outcomes to situations and vote and discuss those outcomes with the chair having some authority to shift or adjust? i am fascinated by the potential for democracy in a ttrpg but not entirely sure how to make it work.
you are all very smart and creative, help me please. unless it's just very silly, then tell me that too please.
@lixiebuilds @natalieironside @poliesther