> [!info] Work In Progress The GM's role is to present challenges, describe situations, and arbitrate difficulties. The Player's role is to explore situations by taking actions and create lore by describing results. Both the GM and players ask questions and communicate consequences. When creating a game setting, you are encouraged to modify or ignore any part of these rules. You want a far future game where attributes don't matter? Ignore them. A super-hero game where traits are irrelevant? Ignore them. You could make a narrative game where characters are just a list of traits, or a tactical dungeon crawl where traits would get in the way. Do what you want. Have fun. ## Narrative Control A core gole of Asmythe RPG is to distribute effort among everybody in the game. This includes describing actions and the results of actions. This extends to narrative styles and narrative control. Asmythe RPG can support any style of narrative control but prefers "play to find out". Player actions can be broadly divided into two types: performance and discovery. How the player and GM describe the outcome of an action depends on the type of action. **We are all co-authors** Everybody has equal say in creating a story together. Players have full narrative control and can make anything happen. Players always describe the result of their actions and the GM is just another player. **Play to find out** The GM creates situations and players describe what happens. Players have narrative control with GM arbitration. This is the preferred style of play for Asmythe RPG and the system described below. **Explore the story** The GM creates a story and the players explore it. The GM usually describes what happens but may decide to give players narrative control in some situations. This is classic TTRPG style play but creates a lot of work for the GM and can be unsatisfying for players if the GM descriptions feel too arbitrary. ### Performance Actions A performance action is when the player knows what they want to accomplish with the action. Performance actions are things like climbing a wall, hunting for game, or attacking an opponent. Anything with a predictable result is a performance action. When a player makes a performance action they will describe what they are doing and what they hope to accomplish. Then the GM declares the difficulty of the action and players describe the result after rolling their action pool. GMs can "yes and" the description but won't deny or reject the player description. If the player's description feels out of balance with roll result the GM may ask for a luck token or add a complication. The player should have the option to re-state the description if they don't want to give up a luck token or receive a complication. (Note: this complication gives a luck token, but it is immediately spent to enable the description.) ### Discovery Actions When an action is to discover new information, navigate a maze, search for clues, interact with an NPC, or anything where the player can't predict the result of a success or failure then the GM describes the result. When the action results in a surge or bungle the player may "yes and" the description but won't deny or reject the GM description. ## Adventure Design * [[Quest Design]] PCs should earn about 10-15 XP per character per quest and either unique equipment or something that advances a long term project. ## Factions If the game is more politically and socially involved than "Quest of the Week" style play it will benefit the game to define a few major factions. This simple method can be used to create deep faction interactions. 1. Describe a conflict happening in the setting. 2. Create three factions involved in the conflict. 1. Good - A faction friendly to the players and their goals. 2. Bad - A faction opposed to the good faction. 3. Ugly - A neutral faction with a strange objective/characteristic. 3. Describe the leader of each faction. What do they want? How do they feel about other factions? 4. Describe the ideology of each faction. what do they believe? How do they behave? 5. Describe the methods of each faction. What resources do they have? What tactics do they use? 6. For each faction, describe a conflict within the faction. Repeat the above process. Factions can be any influential group: a government, a religion, a corporation, a tribe, etc. ## GM Randomness GMs can use the deck of cards to randomize scenes and encounters using an "Oracle". **External Oracles** - [One Page Solo Engine](https://inflatablestudios.itch.io/one-page-solo-engine) - [Mythic](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/422929/mythic-game-master-emulator-second-edition) - [GM's Apprentice](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/125685/the-gamemaster-s-apprentice-base-deck) - [GM's Apprentice](https://jamesturneronline.net/game-masters-apprentice/) (online) - [Rando](https://rando.brine.dev/) (online) **Simple Oracle** | Suit | Element | Class | Faculty | | ----------- | ------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | ♣️ Clubs | Fire | Artisans | Will and creativity | | ♠️ Spades | Air | Nobility and military | Reason or logic, wisdom, and intellect | | ♥️ Hearts | Water | Clergy | Spiritual matters, or emotions and love | | ♦️ Diamonds | Stone | Merchants | Material matters, or possessions and career | | Random Value | Card Result | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------ | | Boolean | Red=True; Black=False | | Number | Face value (1-13) or Half face value (1-6) | ## Setting Asmythe is a complex world and adventures can take place in any of its many settings. Here are some guidelines for playing Asmythe RPG in alternate settings. Traits will vary with different settings and different eras of Asmythe will be different as society and technology change. This is true for any created settings. - In a horror game, terrors increase stress. - Heavy Guns? Add a stress die for each added attack die, less stress dice if mounted/stabilized. - Super powers? Traits add automatic successes. - Investigation game? Traits are contacts and relationships. ## License Asmythe TTRPG is published under the [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)