Tomorrow Morning's Game

 Tomorrow morning I have a game with a group of middle schoolers. What is important here is not the rules, but getting them to express themselves narratively. However, I will still need to be able to express myself clearly to them and walk them through the character creation system. Often, when I am explaining a new system, or if I am going to teach a subject or grammar structure I am unfamiliar with, I will walk through the process a few times in my head. Preferably, if I have a free space, I will walk through it outloud. This is a dwindle derivative. Dwindle, of course, uses the class resource die, this one uses Stress. If the stress doesn't work, I'll move them over to Full Dwindle.

Today, I'm going to try to do it here.

I mocked up some character sheets here, if you want to follow along at home. Yes, there are 2 character sheets per page. The original page size was A4, but it'll probably fit ok on Letter size.

Character Creation

So this game, is going to be different. Instead of 1 long story, I want to do a lot of small, silly stories with these characters. You will make a character, it can be anything you want. It can be like sailor moon, you, a monster, a talking animal, a robot, anything you find exciting. If you have an idea in your head, let's get started.

To start your character, I want to do your skills first. Here is a list of possible skills:

1. Driver: This is what you'll use for driving, riding horses, steering boats or planes. 
2. Entertainer: This can be used to be interesting to your friends, or to a group of people. Maybe you are a singer, or just good at chatting.
3. Grifter: This is your ability to trick people. You can lie well. You can run a scam.
4. Healer: This is your ability to heal people or animals. You can apply medicine or do surgery.
5. Prowler: This is your ability to move, and also to hide. You can climb, run, jump, move quietly.
6. Tinkerer: You can make, repair, or use items. They could be computers, robots, or anything. 
7. Investigator: You can find details, get information from books or people. You can look for clues, and are good at logic.
8. Thief: You steal things from people. You are good at hiding things, getting past locks, and stopping security.
9. Skirmisher: You are good at fighting. You might use your hands or a weapon. 
10. Survivalist: You can find necessities in any environment from the worst desert to the scariest city.

Note: I need to rewrite this with Definition tags.....

You what is your best skill? Put it at the top of the blue box. The slash 5 means you can at most 5 points in that skill. Each point will give you a better die for that skill. (These students already know the main RPG dice array).

You will roll a d20 and your skill die. If you are over 15, you'll succeed.

Next, put the rest of your skills into the list. Make sure your best skills are at the top, and your worst skills are at the bottom.

Now you have 15 points to put in your skills. Remember the number on the page is the most points that can be in it. The more points, the bigger the die you can use with it.

When that is finished we'll work on your Specials (I want to rename these Hashtags #) in the green box. For each Special, you'll roll an extra d20. But you'll only keep your best d20. You can have 5 specials, but you don't have to think of them all now. For the first one, what is your character? A person, a fairy, a unicorn? 

Next, for Special 2, what is their job in the group? A fighter, a magician? How do they do it? Are they big and full of muscles? Or do they have lots of weapons? What sort of magic do they do? The power of fire, wind, life, blood?

For Special 3, is there anything special they use? A magic weapon, gadgets, tools, a lucky rock? 

For specials 4 and 5, you might want to think of their hobbies or their other skills. Like are they good at climbing, or good at smelling things like a dog?

Next, look at the purple box. You have 5 ability points. It will cost you 1 point to make an ability. It's Level will start at 0. That just means it is weak. It's level can go up to 5. Using your ability will have a Cost. The cost starts at 3. Cost can only go down to 1. You can put extra points to make it stronger or to make it cost less. You can also use your points to make more abilities.

There are 5 basic abilities. Think about which ones you would like to have.

Break

This is for fighting or breaking things.

Defy

This is good for stopping something bad from happening. Maybe you protect yourself, or someone else.

Discern

This means you can notice something. Tell how it is used, or get meaning from it.

Manipulate

This one is for changing people's minds, or moving things somehow. 

Restore

This one is for healing people, or fixing something that is broken.

When you use an ability, it will cost stress. You gain stress, when your friend fails a roll, but wants to try again. They will give you stress. Stress makes your target number go up. It starts at 15, then 16, making it harder to roll. If your ability has Cost 3, you'll have to spend 3 stress to use it, which means you'll have to save stress so you can use it. You can also spend extra stress to make it stronger when you use it, but 6 is the strongest an ability can be.

Now, you need to think about how the Ability is related to one of your specials. Like, a robot with break might have a laser, or a gun, or a robot punch. But a magician with fire power, might throw a ball of fire, or have a dragon's breath. So think about how a special and the ability work together, and we'll make a cool name for it.

Now put in the rest of your points. Either in that ability, or in other abilities.

Wow.

That is character creation in NeuDwindle. A group fluent in the language, and familiar with games could probably get it done in about 30 minutes.

If time permits, I'll introduce them to the cafe, and just start introducing them to characters.

PS: If you recognize the Trauma and Healing progress, it is borrowed from Blades in the dark. Instead of a pyramid, the injuries are in a list. Or does Blades call it wounds? The healing track is different than a quartered clock, but their abilities are also a bit more powerful, potentially.