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10acity Storyteller is a lighter 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.
To play the 10acity Storyteller rpg you will need to choose someone to be the Narrator, this is the person that guides the story; what what other systems would call the Game Master (GM), however, since 10acity is a narrative driven system, we refer to them as the Narrator. You will need two (2) six-sided dice (d6), and up to five (5) ten-sided dice (d10). You will build a character using the rules in the Character Creation section which will then establish your character's capabilities. When the game has a challenge that must be overcome, then the d6 and d10 dice will be rolled by players to establish both the rating of the challenge and the result of the character's skill to overcome it.
The Narrator
The narrator guides the overarching story using the player characters as the main protagonists. That means that the Narrator describes environments and non-player characters (NPCs) that the player characters interact with. As the player characters interact with this world, their actions will affect the story progresses. The narrator, either using their own story or a module, will be the person who paints the picture and describes the results of actions taken by the player characters. During the progress of this story, the player characters will eventually be faced with challenges that they will need to overcome. This is where the abilities of the characters on the character sheet and rolling the dice will come into play.
Character Statistics
The character sheet is where your character is described and where statistics representing their capabilities and equipment is listed. Many of these statistics have numeric values that represent how good they are in certain situations. The character sheet is described in much greater detail in the character creation section and we will reference other parts of the character sheet further down in this guide, but for now we are going to focus on the character statistic called SKILL SETS. SKILL SETS are groups of skills that are the first point of reference for player characters when they are faced with a challenge that they need to overcome.
Each SKILL SET represents a combination of physical aptitude, mental aptitude, and training for the skills that would fall within that SKILL SET's group. For example, the SKILL SET called STRENGTH / TOUGHNESS would govern how good the character is at activities such as lifting heavy objects, swimming, and jumping. While the SKILL SET called SPEED / AGILITY would govern how good the character is at activities such as sprinting, dodging, and stealth. On the character sheet, you will find all five skill sets listed and an example of the types of skills the SKILL SET would represent.
Next to each SKILL SET, you will find a number. This is the character's aptitude rank when attempting to perform actions that would use a skill represented by that SKILL SET. This number translates into game mechanics by representing the amout of ten-sided (d10) dice that you will roll to overcome challenges. Once you roll your dice, your result will be the highest rolled number from those rolled d10 dice. The higher your rank in a SKILL SET, the more dice you will be able to roll when using that SKILL SET for an action. The more dice you can roll, the more likely you are to roll a high number, which is what you want in order to succeed at passing challenges.
NOTE: Think of the SKILL SET as your basic training and aptitude for performing skills. For example, medical skills would fall under INTELLIGENCE / CUNNING. Having a high INTELLIGENCE / CUNNING SKILL SET means you are good at medical skills with your natural mental aptitude and what training you have, but it does not make you a doctor. To be a doctor, you would want to choose one or more Special Abilities that gives a boost to your medical skill such as Medical Specialist or Astral Healer. Through the use of Special abilities, you can add additional bonuses and capabilities beyond your base SKILL SET.
When a challenge would require a character to roll dice to find out if they are able to succeed in the action, the Narrator will call for a challenge roll. Let's say, for example, a character wanted to attempt hacking into a computer terminal, they would roll an amount of ten-sided (d10) dice equal to their INTELLIGENCE/CUNNING value. If they were attempting to leap across a ravine, they would roll an amount of ten-sided (d10) dice equal to their STRENGTH/TOUGHNESS value.
Rolling One Die
In the case listed above where the character wanted to attempt hacking into a computer terminal, they would roll an amount of ten-sided (d10) dice equal to their INTELLIGENCE/CUNNING value. Their INTELLIGENCE/CUNNING value is 1, so they would roll 1d10 and take that result.
Here, the character rolled their 1 die which resulted in a 6, so their outcome for this action would be 6 since that is the highest valued result of the die that they rolled.
Rolling Two Dice
In the case listed above where the character wanted to attempt leaping across a ravine, they would roll an amount of ten-sided (d10) dice equal to their STRENGTH/TOUGHNESS value. Their STRENGTH/TOUGHNESS value is 2, so they would roll 2d10 and take the highest result.
Here, the character rolled their 2 dice which resulted in a 2 and a 7, so their outcome for this action would be 7 since that is the highest value rolled from all dice.
Rolling Three Dice and So On...
As characters grow in experience and ability, their skill set dice continue to increase up to a maximum value of 5. So if a character were to increase the rank of a SKILL SET to 3, they would roll three dice for any action that would fall within that SKILL SET.
Here, the character rolled their 3 dice which resulted in a 9, a 3, and a 5, so their outcome for this action would be 9 since that is the highest value rolled from all dice. And so on and so forth for however many dice your character rolls for their action.
Rolling a Natural 10
If ever your highest rolled SKILL SET die result is a 10, then you did particularly well. You automatically get a temporary 10acity Point that must be spent on that action. 10acity points may be used to add a +1 to the SKILL SET result, a +1 to the impact result of the roll such as damage, or can be used to immediately activate one of your special abilities. If you do not immediately use this temporary 10acity point, it expires and disappears.
10acity Points on Actions
10acity is your character’s inner strength that can be used to fuel special abilities or give a bonus to SKILL SET result or Action impact results such as damage. Call it luck, karma, inner strength, chi, perseverance, maximum effort… whatever you call it: 10acity is a character’s energy that they can tap into to activate their special abilities or to give a +1 to any roll. You can spend more than one (1) 10acity on an action, but you cannot activate any single special ability more than once in an action.Challenge Dice
When rolling your SKILL SET dice, you are trying attempting to overcome a challenge. These challenges also have their own dice to determine how difficult the challenge is to overcome. The challenge dice are 2 six-sided dice (2d6) that are rolled at the same time that you roll your SKILL SET dice. Just like your SKILL SET dice, you take the highest rolled value from the challenge dice and compare it to your highest rolled d10 SKILL SET die. If your highest rolled SKILL SET die is higher than the highest rolled challenge die, then you have accomplished a partial success. If your highest rolled SKILL SET die is higher than the sum of both challenge dice, then you have accomplished a flawless success.
Let's take the example above where the character wanted to attempt leaping across a ravine with their two STRENGTH/TOUGHNESS dice. This time, we will also roll the 2d6 challenge dice so that we can see the result of their challenge.
Compare for Partial Success
In this case, the highest SKILL SET value of 7 is greater than the highest challenge die of 5, so our action is at least a partial success. Next, let's compare it to the sum of both dice rolled to see if we managed to pull off a flawless action.
Compare for Flawless Success
The sum of both challenge dice is 8, and our SKILL SET roll of 7 does not beat that, so unless we have some way to boost our SKILL SET value or reroll any of the dice, then our final result is a partial success. What is the difference between a flawless success and a partial success? In combat it is the difference between a direct hit and a glancing blow. When performing actions it is the difference getting the exact outcome you were aiming for, or something not going quite as expected as you succeed in the goal. We'll speak more on that later, but for now, let's talk about challenge difficulty.
Challenge Difficulty
When performing actions, the standard 2d6 challenge dice is considered an average challenge for a trained task. However, the narrator can establish challenges that are harder or easier by applying a modifier to the challenge roll. The modifier is a bonus or negative number applied to the highest rolled challenge die which also affects the sum value of both dice since the highest die has been increased or decreased.
To make a challenge easier, the narrator can assign anywhere from a -1 to a -3 modifier depending on how much easier the task would be considered. Anything easier than that shouldn't even require a roll. To make a challenge harder, the narrator can assign anywhere from a +1 modifier for a little more difficulty to a +6 modifier for a nearly impossible task.
Example: Easier Challenge
Here we see an easier challenge being given a -1 modifier. The highest rolled challenge die value was originally 3, but the modifier brought that down to 2. Adding the other challenge die to that would bring the sum of all challenge dice to 4. The highest rolled SKILL SET value of 5 beats both the partial success challenge of 2 and the flawless success value of 4, so this action would result in a flawless success.
Example: Harder Challenge
Here we see a more difficult challenge being given a +2 modifier. The highest rolled challenge die value was originally 4, but the modifier brought that up to 6. Adding the other challenge die to that would bring the sum of all challenge dice to 8. The highest rolled SKILL SET value of 7 beats the partial success challenge rating of 6, but not the flawless challenge rating of 8, so this action would result in a partial success.
Challenge Ratings
| 1d6-3 | Very Easy Challenge |
| 1d6-2 | Easy Challenge |
| 1d6-1 | Novice Challenge |
| 1d6 | Trained Challenge |
| 1d6+1 | Highly Trained Challenge |
| 1d6+2 | Professional Challenge |
| 1d6+3 | Specialist Challenge |
| 1d6+4 | Expert Challenge |
| 1d6+5 | Master Challenge |
| 1d6+6 | Legendary Challenge |
Even if the dice didn't perform very well on your challenge roll, that does not necessarily mean you are stuck. Now is the time when your special abilities, theme, or raw 10acity points can come into play to change the results. There is no need to activate anything before the roll, these options are designed to alter your rolls after they have already been made.
Special Abilities
Sometimes your special abilities have the option of supplying bonuses during certain activities for the cost of a 10acity point. For example, the ace pilot special ability can grant a +2 bonus to any pilot check for the cost of a 10acity point.
Raw 10acity Points
Even if you don't have a special ability that gives you a bonus, you can still spend raw 10acity points on any action for a +1 bonus per 10acity point spent in this way.
Theme
A character's theme represents their chosen profession and key trait. This is what the character is known to be good at. Whenever your character is attempting an action that would be considered a part of their theme, you can spend a 10acity point to reroll any dice of the dice in the action, but you have to keep the new values.
Performing actions is straightforward and easy. You simply tell the narrator what you would like to do and what SKILL SET you think would best accomplish the action. If the Narrator agrees, they will then assign a challenge modifier (if any) and then ask you to roll. Since the players roll both their SKILL SET and challenge rolls together, that mean nearly all rolls are performed by the players and the narrator rarely ever needs to even touch a die. This keeps most of the action in the hands of the player and keeps the narrative moving forward smoothly.
Combat actions work pretty much the same way as standard actions except that your result can now deal damage, create a condition, or generate an advantage for the other characters. In a combat scene, each character gets an interaction (such as drawing/sheathing a weapon or opening a door), a movement action, and a standard action which can be an attack or attempting a task. Some abilities allow characters to make more than one action, if you activate one of those abilities it will describe how your additional action would work.
Attacking
When attacking, you can choose to attempt to deal stress damage, apply a condition like a grapple, or tactically create an advantage.
Dealing Stress Damage
Just like any standard action, your attack result can be a flawless success, partial success, or you can fail to overcome your target's defenses. A partial success is a glancing wound, which means it only deals an amount of stress damage equal to the one d6 challenge die that you beat with your SKILL SET value. You do not add your weapon damage to partial successes; glancing strikes are so indirect that the type of weapon causing the glancing stress is inconsequential. A flawless success means that you scored a direct hit and you deal an amount of stress damage equal to the sum of both d6 challenge dice and add your weapon damage.| Flawless Success: | Apply an amount of stress damage equal to the sum of both 2d6 challenge dice plus your weapon modifier. |
| Partial Success: | (A glancing strike) Apply an amount of stress damage equal to the one d6 challenge die that your SKILL SET value beat (DO NOT add your weapon modifier). |
| Failure: | The attack was defended and no damage is applied. |
Apply a Condition
There are three types of conditions that can be applied to a character. On each turn, a character that has a condition can ignore the condition and take their action as usual, or they can use their action in an attempt to remove the condition if it makes narrative sense that they can do so.
1. Damaging condition: Such as setting someone on fire or poisoning. Damaging conditions deal 1d6 damage to the character at the end of each of their turns until the condition is removed.
2. Hindering condition: Such as being grappled, entangled, or drugged. Hindering conditions increase or decrease the challenge rating of actions as makes narrative sense to the condition and situation.
3. Stopping condition: Such as being put into a lock, being shackled, or paralyzed. Stop conditions prevents a character from taking certain actions until the condition is removed.
Create an Advantage
Creating an advantage can generate 10acity points for you or your allies. By doing something tactical or creative, you can roll an action against a challenge set by the narrator to generate a point of 10acity on a parital success or 2 points of 10acity on a flawless success.
Defending
One of the differences that you will find in 10acity Storyteller when compared to conventional rpg games is that NPC opponents never roll an attack. In fact, the narrator hardly ever needs to roll dice at all. All of the action is in the hands of the characters. If an opponent attacks a player character, the narrator will call for a defense roll from that character. When they roll their SKILL SET that makes most sense for the defense, they including the 2d6 challenge dice with any modifier from the narrator just like in any other action. The challenge dice represents the attack and the SKILL SET dice represents the defense. NPC opponents will have different resistances, weaknesses, play styles, damage capacity, possible innate bonuses or negatives, and special abilities which can affect dice values or perform unique abilities like breathing fire or trampling over characters which makes them all feel unique.
Ranges
Ranges in 10acity Storyteller isn't exact, it's an approximation using the following basic guidelines:
| Personal: | touch with hands or standard sized weapons. |
| Reach: | touch with very long weapons like spears and whips (about 10 feet/3 meters or so). |
| Short: | Can travel across a large sized room (about 30 feet/10 meters). |
| Medium: | Can travel across a gymnasium (about 100 feet/30meters). |
| Long: | Can travel across a football field (about 300 feet/100 meters). |
| Extra Long: | Can travel up to about a mile/1.6 kilometers. |
| Vehicle Range: | Many miles/kilometers. |
Approximate detail you can see on a person at different ranges unassisted
| 100 meters/yards: | You can see facial features. |
| 200 meters/yards: | You can see the colour of the face and gear but can't see facial features. |
| 300 meters/yards: | You can see a body outline and usually face colour, but little more detail than that, no hands or the colour of pieces of gear. |
| 400 meters/yards: | The body outline is about all you can see, the head starts to blend in to the shoulders. |
| 500 meters/yards: | You begin to lose details on the body shape, individual limbs can be hard to determine. |
| 600 meters/yards: | No head distinguishable, person is a triangle shaped dot. |
Sizes and Area
Sizes and areas in 10acity Storyteller isn't exact, it's an approximation using the following basic guidelines:
| Hand Sized: | Can easily be held in your hand. |
| Arm Sized: | Can easily be held within both arms. |
| Person Sized: | Approximately the size of the character. |
| Tent Sized: | Approximately 10 feet/3 meters cubed. |
| Room Sized: | Approximately 20 feet/6 meters cubed. |
| House Sized: | Approximately 50 feet/15 meters cubed. |
| Gymnasium Sized: | Approximately 100 feet/30 meters cubed. |
| Football Field Sized: | Approximately 300 feet/100 meters cubed. |
| Skyscraper Sized: | Approximately 1,000 feet/300 meters cubed. |
| Mile Sized: | Approximately 1 mile/1.6 kilometers cubed. |
Special Abilities are capabilities beyond what can be performed with SKILL SETs alone. Where a SKILL SET is a broad grouping of skills representing your natural aptitude and basic training when utilizing skills of that category, Special Abilities are how you excel at specific actions and specialties. For example, someone with a high INTELLIGENCE / CUNNING is pretty good at medical skills and would make a good paramedic and could perform as a doctor in a pinch, but to be a true doctor the character would want to take the Medical Specialist or Astral Healer special ability which gives them more medicine based abilities and enables higher bonuses upon spending 10acity points.
Suggestion: When trying to determine which special abilities to select for your character, sometimes it helps to visit the Special Abilities page and just enter key words for your character concept into the search bar to see what is available and give you ideas. For example: for a healer you could look up: "heal", "doctor", "medical", etc. For a solder you might look up "attack", "melee", "weapon", etc. For a psychic you could do: "psychic", "tele", "Astral", etc. The search will pull up any ability that has the word in the title of the ability or in the description.