This game is something I'd like to try out. I'm a big fan of one shot games (my favorite is Rene/Wuthering Heights, which is basically a Byronic Hero simulator) because they're easy to set up and easy to deal with members not having dedication because they usually don't last longer than one session. As you know, I tried this already with my 30 minute modules, but I don't really like running games for a long period of time and prefer to be a player, but it's hard to start up things without doing them yourself. This game allows me, as the GM, to play an active but separate role in the game. I provide framework for the story and npcs, but most of my job is to step in and guide the players while not railroading them.

Certain aspects of the game having to do with cards and counters have been purged because they don't work outside of a tabletop environment, so this is mostly just the dramatic skeleton of Hillfolk, which is the part I like the most about it. This will either work really well or fall apart completely, so I want to test the waters to see if there is some sort of interest in this before I go out and make a thread because I can't exaggerate how different this game style is compared to usual play by post games. Also character setup is specifically structured so I can't make a thread without getting an idea of who is willing to try ahead of time, there's no jumping in once we begin.

Focus

I prefer story based games to action ones, and this game is that. The idea of this is that we take a close group of people (in this case a tribe) and develop the story based on their interactions as a group. The story exists as a series of one shots with a different theme every game. Each session is broken up into scenes. The GM starts the opening scene, and following that there are scenes set up by the players that introduce interaction, and then lastly there is the concluding scene that wraps the session up. The game is set up to flow like a dramatic work, where groups of characters come up to face the dilemma and in a way it is similar to 3 or 5 act structure.

An important thing to note is that this system is almost completely player versus player. There are moments where there are interactions with NPCs, but the game is based upon dramatic story building from the interactions of a close group. You can either be friends and help each other out, or be enemies and get in the way of one another at the cost of the group.

Character setup

Character creation is collaborative and your character is more fleshed out by your relationships with the others than it is by you alone. The order is shuffled around and the first part covers basics such as name, role, and relationships between characters. Then it goes around again and the players define their desires, and the third time around they state their dramatic poles.

Then a new order is shuffled and the new order goes around where the first player defines what they want from another player character, the other player states why they can't get it. This is adjusted based on the first character's understanding of the situation. This goes around for the rest of the group until everyone has had a turn. This has to go until all characters are objects of at least 2 other characters' wants. Everything not defined appears through play.

There are seven action types: Enduring, Fighting, Knowing, Making, Moving, Talking, Sneaking. The players define these into Strong, Middling and Weak and "How I do it" is applied to Strong action skills.

Lastly, with this new character knowledge, the players use all of it, especially their character poles to complete the statement “My story is of a man/woman who...” This is a sentence and shouldn't be more than 25 or so words.

How the system works

The game exists in episodes that are defined by a theme. The GM chooses the theme for the first, but shuffles an order that shows who gets to define the theme of the next episode. It order continues until the campaign ends and there are no more episodes. An example of a theme is "Hunger," and the episode follows the tribe's struggle to find food.

Within these episodes there is the meat of the game: the scenes. The opening scene defines the theme of the episode. The ending scene closes the episode in some way. It could be a cliffhanger or cleanly done, it is entirely up to whoever player is calling the scene. In between these two are the development scenes that are called by players to deal with interpersonal situations based on the episode's theme.

Scenes are defined by: the cast, the setting, the time instance, the mode and the situation. The order of who calls the scenes is decided by shuffling the order of players. The player who creates the theme goes first, but after that the scene order is used. The GM replaces the person who called the theme in the order.

There are advanced challenging options available that will be described in depth later.

Player versus player is settled based on the level of the characters' action types. A character with a Strong type will always beat a character below that. The original system had a procedural situation using tokens and a deck of cards for less obvious contests, but we'll most likely deal with that via a dice roll to simplify everything.

This the basic gist of the game. In an actual thread I will clearly copy instructions from a reference sheet so nothing is lost via paraphrasing. Tell me what you guys think about doing this. It's a bit heavy on OOC discussion because it's developed for actual real interaction, so I'm not sure how well it would do in a play by post environment, but we might as well try.

Wow, I think I love this.

It'll be a good imagination stretch.

(We're on similar wavelengths, I was heavily contemplating a one shot version of The Awakening)

This sounds really neat. Count me in.

Showing interest.

I will be participating of course because I have to have my finger in all of the pies.

I think I'll sit this one out. Seems like a really fun thing to learn with people, but seems like a lot of the impact is going to be taken out of it if it's played PbP (especially if irregular posters like myself try to mettle with it). But I do hope that you guys can make it work for you, and prove me wrong. I definitely follow along if it goes well.

That's a completely valid reason. I'm still working on how to adapt and deal with the scenes right now so they don't feel weird.

... this is iffy to me
i feel that player versus player interaction is much more fulfilling than stupid npc interaction
but i don't like the "mental framework" we're supposed to fit our posts into

When you say mental framework, do you mean working with scenes?

Also I forgot to note it, but if people have concerns of ideas of how to tweak the system, please say so. I'd fine with editing it so it would be a good experience instead of a trainwreck.