10acity RPG

Storyteller

Contents

10acity Storyteller is a lite version of the 10acity system designed for narrators who wish to focus more on a story and less on the mechanics of a game. The ruleset here is scaled back to provide quicker and simpler conflict resolution so that the mechanics of the system gently supports your story without “ruling” it. 10acity Storyteller is no less of a complete system than 10acity Tactics, it is simply a rule set designed to be more streamlined and easily managed.

First rule of Storyteller is that you don’t talk about Storyteller… at least not in the idea of having to reference rules as written. The idea is to have less looking up anything and more moving forward with the story. You are still going to use the attributes and skills for challenge resolution, and the talents, stances, and advancements for your special abilities. But you’ll be focusing more on the narrative rather than the tactical. Storyteller is really about creativity and freedom of expression. As such, we strip down the tactical aspects that require you to keep track of various numbers throughout the game. Those aspects are great on a battle map with tokens and trackers, but if you would rather play through theater of the mind then keeping track of all those numbers is more hassle than benefit.

In Storyteller, we eliminate round tracking, most negative spin, and impact options for a more streamlined experience.

Actions are now straightforward and simple. You explain what you want to do. You roll the appropriate skill compared to the roll of the appropriate challenge rating or the opponent’s ability, if your value is greater than the opposing rolled value, then you succeed.

Performing Actions and Rolling Dice

Taking actions in 10acity is as simple as stating what you would like to do. Often, in a story driven environment, that’s all there is to it, the narrator will then explain what happens with their knowledge of your character and the situation. There is no need to roll for every action and in fact that can be tedious, slow down the game, and detract from the story. And Storyteller is all about the story. So we suggest only rolling the dice when there is a chance of failure and that failure would result in something that progresses the story for good or for ill. For example, if there was a character that was known to be a great musician, there is no need to make them roll for every performance. That does nothing but introduce the opportunity to fail, which a highly trained musician would not do in their standard environment. Let them be successful when there is nothing on the line. Let them prove their worth as the character they created. Failure without purpose only serves to detract from the character and probably makes the player feel lousy too. Narrators, don’t do that to your players. However, if that same musician were to enter the battled of the bands, that is a different story. Now there is a challenge in which they can win or lose and the success or failure does progress the story.

In situations where the die would determine your success or failure such as a competition, combat, jumping a cavern, climbing a cliff, racing away from a charging bull, calming an angry mob… that is when you need the dice. So choose your action, choose the appropriate skill that would best accomplish that action, and then roll those dice for all your worth.

How the rolls work

In 10acity there are three (3) types of dice that will be used during gameplay:

  • Hero Dice: 10-sided dice (d10). These are the dice used by the heroes of the story to perform actions. The character will roll the number of d10 dice displayed on the attribute and take the highest rolled number. You will then add your skill rank to that number.
  • Impact Dice: 4-sided dice (d4). These are the dice used to resolve the outcome of actions and determine how much impact the action has (damage, crafting completeness, levels of social interaction, etc.). Roll the number of d4 dice displayed on the Skill Impact and add them all together. You will then add equipment or special ability bonuses to that number.
  • Challenge Dice: 6-sided dice (d6). These are the dice used by the Narrator to determine challenges that the characters will face. When a character attempts to perform an action, the narrator will determine the difficulty of the action on the following scale (or reference the NPC card) and then roll to establish the the challenge rating that the characters will need to overcome.
    • Untrained Challenge: 1d6
    • Trained Challenge: 2d6 (most common)
    • Expert Challenge: 3d6
    • Master Challenge: 4d6
    • Legendary Challenge: 5d6

As a player, you will only need to use Hero Dice and Impact Dice, which are determined upon character creation. You have 6 attributes and each attribute has 4 skills that they represent for a total of 24 skills.

When you created your character, you would have assigned attribute dice and ranks of skill. These are your primary tools for performing an action. Choose a skill, look at how many dice the attribute of that skill will give you and then roll that number of 10 sided dice (d10), then take the highest number of all the dice that you rolled. Once you’ve established your die roll, you add your skill rank to that number to create your final value.

For example, if the above character was going to make an investigation check to find a trap, they would roll 2d10 dice as shown on the Focus Dice Attribute in which the Investigation skill is under. Then they would take the highest die value. So if they rolled a 3 and a 6, they would take the 6 and then add the rank of the Investigation skill (2) to that number to give a total value of 8.

The objective is to beat the challenge (ties always go to the defender). So if the challenge roll was 7 or less, then the character would succeed. If the challenge roll was 8 or greater, then the character would fail the check at this point unless they look into other options.

What are my options if I fail?

If you fail a roll, the action does not have to end there. If you would like to accept the failure, then no problem, let the narrator know that you are going to stick with your result. But if you would like to try to push a failure into a success, there are options.

Special Abilities: Sometimes you have a special ability like a Talent that could be activated to give a bonus to your result. If so, you can spend a 10acity Point or Spin in order to activate that ability and add that bonus to the result.

Raw 10acity Points or Spin: If you don’t have a special ability that would apply, you can still spend 10acity Points or Spin to gain a +1 to your result. You can do this for as many 10acity Points or Spin that you have.

Push to Succeed at a Cost: If you do not have enough 10acity Points or Spin, or you do not want to spend 10acity in order to boost your value to a success, you can choose to succeed at a cost. You may take as much Negative Spin as necessary to increase your result to a success. Every point of Negative Spin gives a +1 to your result. This is one of the few times you can actually accrue Negative Spin, and you can only do this if you do not already have Negative Spin.

*Negative Spin does not automatically go away at the end of a scene or encounter like standard Spin. It stays with you until you gain enough Spin to bring the value up to 0 again.

What happens when I succeed?

When you succeed at a challenge, you then make an impact against that challenge. What does that mean? It all depends on what you were trying to do. Each of your skills have an impact die rank listed next to it, this is how many impact die you will roll when determining the results of your action. For example, if your action was to cause damage to an opponent, you would roll 1d4 (or more if you are higher skilled) impact die and add the bonus damage from your weapon to that number to determine the amount of stress you would cause to your opponent. The same thing applies if you are attempting to talk your way past a bouncer or crafting a new weapon. You roll your skill, and if you succeed you roll the impact dice of your skill plus any bonuses to see how much you are able to persuade the bouncer or how much closer to complete that new weapon would be.

Types of Actions

The sky is the limit when taking actions—this is not a video game, you are not restricted to any particular action. Just describe what you would like to do and together with the Narrator you will determine what skill to roll. Then narrator will determine the challenge and results. However, here are some common actions that can take place during the game for reference.

Use a skill: If you need to climb a wall, jump a gap, pick a lock, etc. You might need to make a skill roll to determine if you succeed. In these cases, the character will roll their appropriate skill using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number rolled, and then compare that result to the challenge roll of the Narrator to find out how they did.

Sometimes, you just need to use a skill real quick for a part of the story and do not need to make it a big event. If the Narrator does not want to roll a full social standing encounter or full combat or full crafting scenario, they might just have you roll your skill once against the challenge to try and perform the action and move on… like trying to punch the bartender out cold, or quick talk your way past a guard, or create an improved set of lockpicks out of a paperclip and stick of chewing gum. That’s great! Keep the story moving! The beauty of the 10acity system is that it’s flexible, you can make the encounters and challenges as complex or as simple as you like.

Dealing damage: When attempting to deal damage to an opponent, the character will roll their attack using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number. The defender will roll either their hero dice or the NPC’s challenge dice to try and defend against the attack. If the attack result is higher than the defense result, then the attack is successful. The amount of damage dealt will be equal to the roll of the skill’s impact dice plus any additional damage bonus granted from equipment or special abilities. Once the final number is established, that is the amount of stress applied to the opponent. If the total amount of stress accrued is over the amount of maximum stress that the opponent can take, then the opponent must either mark off a point of wound or fall unconscious, either way, the amount of stress then resets back to 0.

Create an advantage (Spin): When attempting to create an advantage, the character will roll their appropriate skill using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number. The defender will roll either their hero dice or the NPC’s challenge dice to try and defend against the attempt. If the skill result is higher than the defense result, then the attempt is successful. You may then grant a point of Spin to yourself or an ally.

Create a condition: When attempting to create a condition, the character will roll their appropriate skill using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number. The defender will roll either their hero dice or the NPC’s challenge dice to try and defend against the attempt. If the skill result is higher than the defense result, then the attempt is successful. You may then roll your impact die to see how much penalty or damage the condition does to the opponent each round that it sustains.

Craft an item: To craft an item, you first need to have a formula (simple formulas can be memorized). The formula will detail the skill and components necessary to create the item. It will also determine the challenge rating, the impact requirement, and time period for crafting the item in minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or possibly years. The character will roll their appropriate skill using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number plus any modifiers and compare that to the Narrator’s rolled challenge rating. If successful, the impact die is rolled and that is how much progress is made in the time spent. Once that time has passed, the character can roll again. Once the total amount of impact equals the impact requirement of the item, the item is complete.

Change social standing: When in a social situation, your attempt is to increase your social standing in the eyes of the opponent(s) whether that standing is to be trusted, persuasive, entertaining, intimidating, or any other type of influence. You will start on a scale (usually 10) assigned by the Narrator or the NPC card. Usually you start in a neutral position such as 5 unless the NPC(s) already have strong opinions of you one way or another. Your objective is to reach the top of the scale (usually 10) in order to succeed in the social challenge. If you reach 0, then you have lost all credibility with the NPC(s) and often you will want to quite before you reach that level. The character will roll their appropriate skill using their attribute dice and adding their skill rank to the highest number and if it is greater than the challenge dice number, then you can roll your impact die to increase your social standing. Meanwhile, your opponent or the scrutiny of the NPC(s) is attempting to see through your attempt, and will roll challenge dice that you will need to defend against, if you do not defend, then they will roll impact dice to decrease your standing.

Conditions

When a character rolls to apply a condition on an opponent, describe what you are doing and together with the narrator choose one of the three mechanical options that best fits the condition.

  • Hinder: A condition that applies a penalty to actions of certain types.
  • Damage: A condition that continues to damage the character.
  • Grapple: A condition that prevents the utilization of one or more limbs.
    • *Lock: A special Grapple condition that prevents movement and can cause damage.

Hinder Condition: A hindering condition is any condition that would apply a penalty to the opponent’s ability to perform an action. When you succeed at applying a hindering condition, roll your impact dice to see how much penalty the opponent will suffer for certain actions until they remove the condition. Penalties applied by hindering conditions do not stack, however anyone can attempt to apply another hinder condition in hopes that they roll higher impact to create a larger penalty, if not then the original penalty remains. Some conditions can be removed just by moving out of the area that is causing the condition such as moving out of the area of entangling plants to stop a slow condition. Other conditions such as a poison have to be overcome. For a condition that needs to be overcome, the character may attempt to overcome the condition by spending an action and rolling against the challenge rating of the condition. If they succeed, then the condition is removed and they can still perform another action. If they fail, then their entire action was used in the attempt and the condition remains.

  • Movement Condition: Anything that would hinder the movement of the opponent would apply the penalty to the amount of spaces they can move. Moving through a pool of slick oil, a snare wrapped around their legs, etc.
  • Sense Condition: Anything that would hinder one of the senses of the opponent would apply the penalty to actions that would require the sense. Blinded by flashing lights, deafened from an explosion, numb from cold, etc.
  • Physical Condition: Anything that would hinder the opponent’s ability to perform physical actions would apply the penalty when taking physical actions. Poisons, inebriation, physical bindings, etc.
  • Mental Condition: Anything that would hinder the opponent’s ability to think or reason would apply the penalty to taking those actions. Poisons, inebriation, mental powers, etc.
  • Social Condition: Anything that would affect the opponent’s ability to perform in the particular social situation would apply the penalty when taking the social action. Clothing style or condition, harmful rumors, unclear speech, etc.

Damage Condition: A damaging condition is any condition that would continuously apply damage to the opponent. Conditions such as burning, freezing, electrocuting, suffocation, crushing, toxins, necrosis, etc. The character suffering from the condition will take damage of the appropriate element type at the beginning of their next turn and every subsequent turn for as long as the condition persists. A character may attempt to remove their condition with an action by rolling the appropriate skill against the challenge rating of the condition. If they succeed, then the condition is removed and they can still perform another action. If they fail, then their entire action was used in the attempt and the condition remains.

Grapple: The grappled and grappling limb or limbs are rendered unusable for as long as the grapple remains. In order to grapple, the grappler must have an empty hand or be wielding equipment with a grappling property. Neither the grappling limb or the grappled limb can be used while the grapple is in effect except to escape the grapple or turn the grapple into a lock. The grappler can choose to use one or two limbs for the grapple. If the grappler uses one limb for the grapple, then they can grapple one limb on the opponent. If the grappler uses two limbs for the grapple, then they can grapple two limbs on the opponent. If a grappled opponent attempts to move while grappled, it is an opposed athletics check. The grappled opponent can move an amount of spaces equal to the number in which they exceed the grappler’s check up to their maximum movement value. A grappled opponent may attempt to break the grapple with an action by rolling against the grappler’s skill roll, if they succeed, then they can still perform a regular action after that. If they fail, then their entire action was used in the attempt and the grapple remains.

Lock: If you have an opponent grappled, then you can take an action to turn the grapple into a lock. The lock has the same rules as a grapple except: While the opponent is locked, they cannot move at all and the grappler can apply their impact of damage on the grappled opponent as an action without any rolls required. A locked opponent may attempt to break the lock with an action by rolling against the grappler’s skill roll, if they succeed, then the lock reverts back to a grapple and they can still perform a regular action after that. If they fail, then their entire action was used in the attempt and the lock remains.