roll_for_hooves

a specific game based on the roll for shoes engine by Ben Wray In this game you play as tiny demon larvae let loose on Earth. Grow bigger, eat each other, raise hell, fulfil your mission.

Optional roll a demon here to help you get started: https://github.com/cromlyngames/roll_for_hooves/blob/master/roll_a_demon.md

Rules

The core rules are short and simple enough we will start with them

1. Say what you do and roll a number of d6s.

2. If the sum of your roll is higher than the opposing roll (either another player or the GM), the thing you wanted to happen, happens.

3. The number of the d6s you roll is determined by the level of skill you have.

4. At start, you have only one skill: Corrupt anything 1.

5. If you roll all sixes on your roll, you can get new skill one level higher than the one you used for the action. The skill must make sense for what you said you were doing.

6. For every roll you fail, you get 1 XP.

7. XP can be used to change a die into a 6 for advancement purposes but not for success purposes.

8. Ties: On a tie, the GM will offer the player a hard bargain. You still succeed, but at a cost. There is no XP.

9. Damage: There are no health points. You are demons larvae, you can't really die. Damage happens in the story, is often cartoony, gory, causes people to slip over in the ectoplasmic goo and can be used by a canny player to drive new skills.

Expanded rule examples:

1. Say what you do and roll a number of d6s. - this is simple but important. Don't roll a skill and then try and figure out what you did. Say what you are doing and figure out if you have a skill for it yet. If not, you might get lucky on your roll!

2. If the sum of your roll is higher than the opposing roll (either another player or the DM), the thing you wanted to happen, happens. - Two details here. One is that rolls are always opposed, even if it's just the GM rolling one dice to represent luck or reality. The other is that the thing you want to happen, happens. The GM is allowed to negotiate with you before the roll, but fundamentally, their job is to allow you to get into trouble by saying yes. An example of negotiation that actually happened: "you want to sink to bedrock then tunnel for 500 km? Do you want to do it fast or safely? Fast means five rolls, one for each 100km. Safe means one roll, but I can't guarantee those chasing you won't catch up"

3. The number of the dice you roll is determined by the level of skill you have. So for Corrupt anything 1 you roll one dice. For Gelatinous body 2 roll two dice. There's no upper limit on high a skill level can be, but the higher the skill the more specialist it will be. Enjoy the success when it comes up, you've earned it!

4. At start, you have only one skill: Corrupt anything 1. Want to open a door? roll to use the doorknob. Want to mutate your maggot body into a horror blimp? roll. Want to take a bite out of Charlie? Both of you roll.

5. *If you roll all sixes on your roll, you can get new skill one level higher than the one you used for the action. The skill must make sense for what you said you were doing. * Say, Clinging tendrils 2 if you were climbing a wall, or Telekinesis 2 if you were trying to turn a door knob you couldn't reach. For higher skills, the subset means it is stronger but more focused than the skill it came from. If you rolled two sixes when using Clinging tendrils 2 to hang onto a fast moving car, it'd make sense to add Barbed griphooks 3 or Grip of terror 3. The setting uses demon larvae because it makes sense for them to mutate and gain new skills over the course of the game. These skills can by physical manifestations like barbed griphooks or straight skills like speak French.

6. For every roll you fail, you get 1 XP. In the case of player versus player, this means the loser gets XP. The GM doesn't get to collect XP, they've already got massive world creating powers.

7. XP can be used to change a die into a 6 for advancement purposes but not for success purposes. If you try to do something and fail, you can spend the XP you just got to advance that skill, but you have to let the other players take a turn in the spotlight before you try that same thing again. Poker chips are great for tracking XP.

8. Ties: On a tie, the GM will offer the player a hard bargain. You still succeed, but at a cost. There is no XP For the GM, these are the results that allow you to give the player what they wanted to happen, AND to introduce a new round of complications to drive the story forward. Sometimes the tied result is obvious and feels natural - like two different demons divvying up body parts to consume. Other times it need the GM to think a little, or just give them what they want and introduce a completely new complication. Example of new problem: "You shape shift into the shape of Virgina's bed before she gets out of the shower, but you hear a police car pull up outside. There's knocking on the door..." Example of moving the player character: "As you strain and wriggle you attract the attention of the slow coach spawn still in the alley. You can feel the ground give way below you - You can free yourself but only by going down [into the sewer]. What do you do?"

9. Damage: There are no health points. You are demon larvae, you can't really die. This is the real test for the GM. Thinking about damage and adapting to changes to their character take time and mental effort. It's why players will often ask if they 'loose a dice' or similar for damage. Although mechanically it makes the game more difficult, it's easier to think about it. Purely narrative described damage is something people are actually quite adverse to and will make effort in the story to avoid. The same applies to death. Although making a new character takes seconds, if you allow death you can get player vs player descending into a huge and powerful demon player chasing down and killing a weak re-spawned demon player again and again. While a great image and fun game if the player of the weak demon actively volunteers for it, it could be boring and frustrating session for that player if they feel trapped into it by the table's social contract. In the two cases where player demons really should have been dead, I offered a choice. One was "what does it take, you name, memory or eyes?" The player sacrificed their name, and spent the rest of the game trying to eat other's memories to reclaim it. In another situation, the player's plant demon was sitting in a drain full of acid bile mixed with flesh eating bacteria and mild beer. They failed their roll. "The corrupt liquor burns deep into you. You have the choice of abandoning this body and starting again as a tiny seed-pod with a couple of leaves, or withering back to a blacked and burnt husk of dead vines." The player chose the latter, and in very short order, extracted the calcium and remade themselves into a skeleton draped in a cloak of dead vines. Intrusion into player self image smarts in the way that crossing off a health box doesn't even if the GM has to think a little more.

Principle Rules for the GM

Be a fan of the characters.

Help the players get into interesting situations

Make the world seem real.

When in doubt: make them feel small at the start separate them push them together ask a loaded question tell them something their demon has only just noticed tell the consequences and ask give them something to fight for give them something to fight over take away their stuff introduce a complication introduce active opposition

a) When the GM rolls for generic reality to oppose a player, roll a single dice. If this seems low and too easy for players to beat, don't worry. The more confident they are about rolling, the more they will do and the more trouble they'll get into. You'll get your opportunities. Every success they have should change the situation significantly. This is not a game for grinding down hit points. One good hit is all they should need. Two if you want to make a point of how tough this opposition is.

b) If reality rolls a six, reality gets a new skill. The GM doesn't collect XP, but you can upgrade reality by rolling sixes same as other players. It also means that the reality 'stiffens' against precisely the things your players are doing (and getting better at). The more players there are, the faster this will happen, and player's will find they need to focus on a niche. This won't happen as fast with only one or two players, which is good as they'll have more to do. I like manifesting high level reality skills (3 dice or more) as anthropomorphic personifications, nature spirits, Greek gods or similar.

c) It is better to roll against players than create Active opposition The game comes from the players doing things. Remember that! However, I use the principle of introducing a 2 Dice level angel into the scene every time someone rolls a pair of ones. If the demons start off as maggot size larvae, then a seagull shaped angel is huge, cunning and with beautiful snow white wings. There are also times when active opposition just makes sense for the story the players have made. If you are a maggot sized demon crawling about in the open, a pigeon will try and eat you.

d) The players are weird, not the world. The players are mutating demons because that reflects the nature of the rules. Don't give them more to process. Keep the world real and modern and based in an example city to save you having to make a map. Answer questions. Remind them they may have extra senses.

e) Add detail, be gruesome The players will be reflecting your descriptions when they describe their actions. Go full silly horror film on them. Seek to entertain, not shock.

f) Have and use the x-card Read this to your players: By the nature of the game, players will probably do some pretty horrible things in the fiction. Sooner or later you might hit a topic the pulls someone out of the game. Don't sweat it, don't ask about it. If they reach out, touch the X-Card, retcon that shit out of the fiction on the spot. Sex attacks is a common trigger, but so can phobias or things like dead babies. You aren't edgelords, and you are all here to have fun. If someone asks for a topic to be avoided, avoid it. Don't circle it, refer to it or sidle up to it to provoke a reaction. Just drop it. As GM, use the X-card yourself, on yourself, early on, to make it seem possible to use it.

Acknowledgements: Ben Wray invented Roll For Shoes and Daumantas Lipskis provided the public ruleset that I have modified: http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/11348/microdungeons-i-roll-to-see-if-i-have-shoes-on/