Foiled Fortunes: OSR-ish + Swords Without Master (Or something like that anyway)

Art By Lukas Koelbel

Even though I recently finished up a system (less a system and more a massive amalgamation of house rules, mechanics, and tables stolen from various blogs, thrown with some of  my own ideas into a sack, and then shaken and smashed against office buildings and trees and old stone walls until they were thoroughly jumbled*) I found myself tinkering with a new thing, inspired wholesale by the "kriegsspiel" game that Darkworm Colt and Underground Adventures have been working on and the excellent storygame Swords Without Master. 
God only knows why I think this game needs to exist: essentially, if you want to run an OSR game with a really strong emphasis on tone, themes, and style for some reason, I think this would work well? Swords and Sorcery type stuff is the easiest example, given the colossal amount of theft from Swords Without Master this game involves. 
In any case, because I'm home from work due to some sort of unidentified muscle tremor, I figured I'd go ahead and type it up in case anyone finds it interesting. 

Foiled Fortunes**

Tones 

Throughout the rest of this write up I'm going to be talking about Tones fairly often, so I figure it'd be a good idea to get a description of them out of the way before I get into the game proper. I've stolen the idea of Tones as they relate to this game entirely from Epidiah Ravachol, who made Dread, and Swords Without Master and just generally has good ideas about games even if they are a bit outside my typical OSR wheelhouse. 

Tones, are, essentially, broad collections of thematically related attitudes, moods, descriptors, and details that are used as guides for narration. They are not strict, but rather, intended to spark inspiration and direct both player and GM narration. Swords Without Master, where the Tone system originated, uses the Tones Glum and Jovial.

Glum is presented in the book thus: 

"Still, moody, muted, cool, introspective, understated, entangled, ensorcelled, sorrowful,
lonely, melancholic, eerie, chilling, foreboding, beckoning, strange. 

The gray-green sky just before a storm, a starlit path, whispers from forgotten languages,
the blade drawn swiftly across the throat, stifled laughing, gentle weeping, subtle
enchantments, erudite conversation, the furtive glances of new lovers, a song sung in a
minor key, a book enjoyed by candlelight, armies awaiting each other in the rain." 

and in contrast, Jovial follows:

"Vibrant, passionate, cacophonous, hot, boastful, seized, spellbound, crowded, mirthful,
terrifying, painful, clear, cheerful, welcoming, aggressive, familiar.

Sun-drenched plains, a road heavily trafficked by trade caravans, eldritch names
screamed from spire-top, the sure heft of a swinging axe, mirthful wrestling, open sobbing, flagrant magicks, carousing, a flirtatious laugh, a song sung in a major key, the swell of the sea in a storm, the chaos of the battlefield, oaths and forbidden curses, the arterial spray from a now-headless foe."

When narrating with under a Tone, it's suggested that you choose only one aspect of that Tone and really hit that aspect hard, pulling out all the stops. The Tones are not supposed to be subtle: every meaningful description should ideally be easily identifiable as one tone or another.

In a game of Foiled Fortunes, the GM (and, optionally, the players as well) should decide which two Tones they are going to use in this campaign or adventure, or whatever, and assemble a similar collection of descriptors to the ones above. These two Tones will really determine what the game will feel like, so the decision warrants some thought and is ultimately just a personal one. I would all but insist that the Tones contrast with one another in some meaningful way, but even that "rule" could be bent or broken if you wanted it to be.

 I'm going to use the following example Tones:

Grim

 muddy, brutal, dull, grimy, slow, dusty, unpleasant, painful, dreaded, downcast, lost, cautious

A muddy road flecked with blood, an orphan coughing on smoke from a smoldering cottage, city streets slick with filth, a lethal fight over food, a slow death to a rusty blade, a boot heel on a begging hand, a door shut on a crying voice, a hovel in the shadow of a castle, a tree growing twisted from an old battlefield, loyalty sold for a pittance

Heroic

shining, lofty, triumphant, hopeful, quick, rash, loved, confident, loyal, noble, glamorous, charming

A bright road up a steep peak, towers shining in the distance, bright laughter in the face of death, the clash of shining blades, a torch glinting off of discovered gold, white sails in a harbor, a true friendship made in a single day, a banner billowing out over snow, the clink of golden goblets, a beaming grin, a door flung open and cheers from within

In some ways, they mirror the Glum/Jovial Tones pretty closely, in other ways, they differ. Glum and Jovial create games about rogues with great sadness and great mirth, whereas this game is about dirty gears in shining machines, heroes and their hirelings, wealth vs poverty, etc. Feel free to cleave similarly close to the original, or set out in another direction entirely: maybe your games Tones are Rust and Chrome, or Blood and Wine, or Pen and Sword. There's an excellent Swords Without Master hack for Star Wars that uses Imperious and Rebellious as the Tones

Anyway, now that you've heard me talk about Tones for way too long, on with the rest of the game. If you are intrigued by Swords Without Master, I urge you to pick up a copy: it's one of the few storygames that's won my heart entirely. 

Character Creation

Characters are composed of Core Traits and Named Traits. 

Core Traits
are your character's core stats, I'm just being obnoxious for the sake of consistency.

What these Core Traits are is decided by the GM at the same time that they decide the Tones for the game. Because it's easy and I like them, I'm going to use the three stats from Chris McDowall's Into the Odd (Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower) but you could also use the standard D&D spread, or whatever. You could say your Cyberpunk game (those are hot right now, right?) has "Meat, Metal, and Metanet" or whatever the fuck. I will say that three Traits seems to work pretty well, and since I'm aiming to keep this game simple, consider that my official recommendation/mandate. 

Roll 1d6 for each of your Core Traits, in order if your GM made an order for them and tells you to do that, or not, if they didn't or don't. 6 is excellent, 1 is quite shit, and 3 is average. If 2 of your Core Traits are 0 you have died, or are removed from the game, or whatever. Surprise! 

Then, roll 2d6 6 times (the 6 times is assuming you have 3 stats, basically, roll a number of times equal to twice the number of Core Traits in your game). On a 9+ (9 or more), write a Skill next to one of your character's Core Traits. These should usually take the form of professions that your character knows how to do. Talk to your GM if you wanna do something else. 

On a 5- (5 or less) reduce one of your character's Core Traits by 1 (choose or roll randomly) and write a Penalty that explains why your character isn't as good at that Trait as they might be (maybe they have a bad leg, or they wear weights that they swore never to take off, or they were cursed, or whatever). 

You can reduce 1 of your Traits to 0 like this, but not 2, so if you would reduce 2 Traits to 0, instead just ignore that roll and continue on (If you're using more than 3 stats, which I told you not to do, you'll have to figure out how many stats you can have reduced to 0. If you have 6 stats maybe 4 of them can be 0, or 3 of them can, or whatever, I told you not to do more than three).

Then roll 1d6, minus the number of Skills you have and plus the number of Penalties. The result is your number of Named Traits

Named Traits 

Named Traits are basically just things that are so important to your character that they merit a name. 

If I'm in a hurry I have my players roll on these 4 d100 tables of items that I stole from different blogs, but it works just as well to have the players choose their own items from a list, or better yet, make them up. 

If you are going to make them up, here's a few things to keep in mind

• They probably shouldn't be living creatures (talk to your GM about this one)
• They should be helpful
• (Most important of all) They need to be something that can be lost, or can break, or die, or whatever.
• Regardless of whether you make them up or not, THEY ALL NEED TO HAVE A NAME that is meaningful to the player's character. It doesn't need to be a proper noun: "Knife That My Father Gave to Me After Killing A Shark" works fine, and so does "Fireball Spell That I Learned In Hell" but cooler names are cooler, so why not have "Ol' Fishguts" and "1000 Wretched Souls Bathe in My Hellfire"? 

Each one of your Named Traits needs to have a custom Tone that replaces one of the Tones in the game when you use your Named Trait. For example, if you give one of your Named Traits the Tone "Deathly" you need to note that "Deathly" replaces "Heroic" for this Named Trait. Each of these Tone's needs to be unique.

These Tones can, and should, be more specific than the Tones for the game. For example, "Violent" is probably not an ideal tone for your game, but it works fine as a tone for Ol' Fishguts! "Stolen" is not a good fit for the whole game, but it's a good (and interesting) choice for 1000 Wretched Souls Bathe in My Hellfire.

Last, if the name pf the Trait alone doesn't give enough info, you should include a bit of description so it's clear what the Trait is. 

Example Character 

Name: Samuel Snickersby, Mouse Gambler

Core Traits
Strength: 0 - Penalties: frail frame (mouse)
Dexterity: 1 - Skills: Gambler, Penalties: missing left thumb
Willpower: 6

Named Traits
Frozen Egg of the Sacred Salamander (won in a game of cards)
Chain Vest of Jou Chorradero, Priest of the Sacred Salamander (won in a game of cards)
Ceremonial Opal Mace of Jou Chorradero, Priest of the Sacred Salamander (taken from his body)
My Lucky Black Arrowhead
Matchbox Portrait of my Father (a mouse in a monocle and top hat)


Alright, that's a wrap. Character Creation finished. 

Procedures of Play

Core Mechanic

The game is played using two 6 sided dice. Each one of the dice has one of the game's Tones assigned to it. 

 The GM will assign a Tone to each scene, either rolling both dice and choosing the Tone of the higher die, or choosing of their own accord. 

Play is a freeform negotiation (taking into account character traits, equipment, etc.) between the players and the GM until a player wants to attempt something that would impact their character if they failed. 

When this happens, the player declares what Core Trait they will be using to make the attempt, roll both of the dice, checking to see which die is higher. The higher die’s Tone will preside over the coming action. The player will then add the results together, add the value of the Core Trait they selected, and try to hit 9+. In cases of more extreme difficulty, the GM may rule they need to roll higher than 9 in order to succeed, in general adding 1 to the difficulty of the task for every significant factor making the task harder than it would otherwise be. 

If they do, the attempt succeeds, and the player and GM narrate the character’s successful action and any effect it has, making sure to stay true to the Tone that was rolled. 

If they do not, the attempt fails and the player and GM narrate the character’s failing action and any effect it has, making sure to stay true to the tone that was rolled. The player loses 1 (or more, but usually 1) point of whatever Core Trait they were using to make the roll. 

Skills

If you are using one of your character's Core Traits, and you have a Skill written next to the Core Trait you are using that is relevant to the circumstance and situation, you reduce the difficulty of the task by 2. So in most cases, when using a skill, you have to roll 7+ instead of 9+.

For example, breaking into a building is relevant to the "Thief" skill and making something in a forge is relevant to the "Blacksmith" skill. On the other hand, dodging a fireball hurled by a devil is not relevant to either of those skills, but it probably is to the "Devil Hunter" skill. 

Named Traits

You can always choose to use one of their character's Named Traits instead of a Core Trait for any roll. If you do, you roll dice like normal, with two important exceptions: 

You only need to roll a 5+ to succeed
You do not add anything to the roll
Skills cannot apply to the roll
When checking to for the Tone of the roll, remember that your Named Trait's custom Tone replaces one of the Tones. I recommend having a unique die for each unique tone, or at least one unique die that you use for all unique tones. 
On a successful roll,  you succeed.

On a failing roll, you succeed, but the Named Trait you were using is lost, narrate how.

It's important to note that choosing to use a Named Trait is essentially just guaranteeing your success at the risk of losing the Named Trait that you choose. Your Named Trait does not have to factor into your success if you don't want. You could use your "Father's Sword" Named Trait to sneak past an ogre, and if you succeed, just have successfully avoided the ogre's gaze. If you fail though, since you lose your "Father's Sword" Named Trait, maybe you stumble, and your Father's Sword slips from your belt and lands at the ogre's feet...

Doubles

If you roll doubles on your dice, the Tone of the whole scene flips from its current Tone to the other Tone, and your action is that Tone as well.

 If you rolled doubles while using a Named Trait or any other circumstance where you have a unique Tone, the whole scene flips to that unique Tone. So if your "Father's Sword" trait has "Honorable" and "Grim" and the scene was Grim when you roll doubles, the scene is now "Honorable". 

Combat and Conflict

In combat or in any other conflict were two or more parties are directly pitted against one another, you roll like normal, choosing a Core Trait or Named Trait to make the roll, checking for Tone, etc.

However, instead of rolling to beat a target number (usually 9, sometimes less or more depending on skill and difficulty as is mentioned earlier) you and your opponent both roll, and you try to beat your opponents roll. 

If you fail, you lose 1 or more points (GM discretion taking into account weapons, strength, etc) of the Core Trait you used, unless the GM rules that the opponents attack affects a different Core Trait. If you and your opponent tie, you each take damage. 

IF 2 OF YOUR CORE TRAITS REACH 0 YOU HAVE DIED (or have gone crazy or whatever)

If you use a Named Trait in combat, you automatically beat your opponent's roll, unless they use a Named Trait as well, in which case you tie. 

Combat Maneuvers are handled like this: 

• if you hit and also roll high enough to succeed at your roll then you perform the maneuver flawlessly
• if you miss but roll high enough you lose the points of your Core Trait but succeed
• if you miss and don’t roll high enough you take lose the points and  also suffer an ironic reversal

Tones in Combat: 

The Tone of the winner's dice determines the Tone of the action. If you and your opponent tie, your success is narrated using your rolled Tone, and their success is narrated using their rolled Tone. 

The GM is encouraged to introduce enemies with unique Tones, or attacks/effects that alter one of the players Tones, etc. Maybe if you get hit by a werewolf, one of your tones gets replaced by "Bestial", and if you get hit again it becomes "Wolfish". 

And that's that! Now you've got a system that is rules light and can faciliate OSR style play, while also being weirdly narrative and genre driven. Did you ask for this? Hell no! Why did I make it? Because it wouldn't get out of my brain until I did! Do you like it? Let me know! 

Lastly, now that you've stumbled through that overwritten mess, here's the lean, stripped back essence of the system. The TL;DR version. 

The TL;DR

• When you are attempting something that would impact your character on a failure, choose a Core Trait or a Named Trait that you're gonna use to attempt your action.
• If you're using a Core Trait, roll 2d6+your Core Trait and try roll 9+ (more difficult tasks means you have to roll higher)
• If one of the Skills written next to your Core Trait is relevant to the situation, reduce the difficulty of the task by 2.
• Check to see what the Tone of your roll is. If you roll doubles, the Tone of the scene switches to the other tone and so does your action. 
• If your roll was successful, you succeed, action takes place according to Tone
• If your roll fails, you fail and lose 1 point of the Core Trait you used, action (fails) to take place according to Tone
• If you are using a Named Trait, roll 2d6 and try to roll 5+
• Check to see what the Tone of your Roll is. If you roll doubles, the Tone of the scene switches to the other tone and so does your action. Remember your Named Trait's unique Tone!
• if your roll succeeds, you succeed, action takes place according to tone
• if your roll fails, you succeed, but your Named Trait is lost! Action takes place according to tone
• If you are in combat or another conflict, the same rules as above apply except that instead of beating a target number you need to beat your opponent's roll
• In addition, the GM may rule that if you fail, you take damage to a Core Trait that you didn't use if they think it's more appropriate
• The Tone of the higher roll is the Tone that governs the action
• If you and your opponent tie, you both take damage, and each of your actions takes place according to the Tone that each of you rolled respectively. 
• If 2 of your Core Traits reach 0 you have died
• Combat maneuvers are handled like this:
• if you hit and also roll high enough to succeed at your roll then you perform the maneuver flawlessly
• if you miss but roll high enough you lose the points of your Core Trait but succeed
• if you miss and don’t roll high enough you take lose the points and  also suffer an ironic reversal
• The GM should feel free to introduce enemies that have unique Tones and change the Tones of the players or the scene

*Sorry about the weird digressions, I'm sick

**This isn't a good title but I think it's funny because it's almost maybe a pun, the Tones are "Foils" to each other. Like I said, I'm sick.