Core Mechanic Options

Tribute's core mechanic is here. This post addresses optional rules that can be applied to it. 

There's a bit of a fad or trend in some modern games for rules to give results beyond binary success or failure. This isn't really a new idea, D&D has had critical hits, and at many tables, critical fumbles since the beginning.

Even so, I like this trend, and wrote a mechanic that tries to do that. When you ask a question of the game and roll the dice, the standard mechanic gives answers like "Yes", "No", "Yes, and something good happens" and "Yes, but something bad happens". What it doesn't do is give results like "No, and something worse happens", and "No, but something good happens", which can be just as interesting as the various shades of success are. This post seeks to change that.

 

Below are some optional rules for use with the core mechanic.  I personally foresee using Options 1 and 1a in my own games, but I saw enough merit in leaving them out of the standard core that I wrote them up as options rather than change the previous entry to account for them. They have the potential to slow the game down a bit, and the core mechanic has a certain flow to it.

Core Dice Mechanic (CDM) Option 1: My Trash is your Treasure, and Vice-Versa. 

When you have Profit on a Test, you have the option to apply it to the opposition, where it's treated as Waste. 

Conversely, you can give your Waste to the opposition, which they use as if it was Profit. This choice is best if you have nowhere else to apply the Waste. 

Unless you're using "Profit and Waste on a Failure", below, this only applies when you Match.  

CDM Option 1a: Profit and Waste on a Failure

This rule requires the use of "My Trash is Your Treasure..."

With this rule, Failure is no longer a binary matter; you can come close to succeeding and thereby mitigate an Effect. On the other hand, you can Fail very badly, and make a moderate Effect worse.

When you Fail a Test, you should still count up any Profit and Waste. However, since you can't spend it on Effects, you must give it all to the opposition as described in "My Trash is your Treasure...".  

Example 1: 

Both the Player and the GM are rolling to modify an Attribute at Rank 0 - the roll will be the final result. 

The Player rolls 3 FOCUS dice [5,3,2] and 2 BURDEN dice [5,5], for a roll of 0 with 1 Profit. 

The GM rolls 1 FOCUS die [4] and 1 BURDEN die [2], for a roll of +2, and no Profit or Waste.

The Player Failed, and so has nowhere to spend the Profit, other than to give it to the Opposition. 

The Player then gives his Profit to the GM, which means that the GM now has a roll of +2 with 1 Waste. His successful roll is now mitigated.  

Example 2: 

Both the Player and the GM are rolling to modify an Attribute at Rank 0 - the roll will be the final result. 

The Player rolls 2 FOCUS dice [3,3] and 3 BURDEN dice [6,5,1] for a result of -3 with 1 Waste. 

The GM rolls 1 FOCUS die [5] and 1 BURDEN die [1] for a roll of +4. 

The Player then gives his Waste to the GM, which means that the GM now has a roll of +4 with 1 Profit. The Effect the GM was going for is that much more powerful. 

CDM Option 2: I Am a Leaf on the Wind

With this option, the GM spends all of your Profit and Waste for you, you have no control of where it goes. 

Using this option should be agreed upon ahead of time, and is best for groups that want to avoid anything that could be construed as metagaming. The standard method of allocating Profit and Waste isn't meant to model metagame control, but it could easily be used that way.  

This method might be good for games that are about deep immersion.  It will slow the game down a bit. 

CDM Option 3: Enemy Mine

With this option, Players choose how their opposition's Profit and Waste is spent, and their opposition does the same for them.  

Unlike Option 2, this is very metagame, and will tend to result in less favorable uses of Profit, and more unfavorable uses of Waste. 

This will likely undercut the effect of Profit, while making the effect of Waste more pronounced. It might be good for horror games.  It will slow the game down at least twice as much as option 2.