I have yet to play or run Tricube Tales, but I thought I would test its effectiveness at translating well-known fictional characters. Naturally, I chose Ghostbusters.
Tricube Tales (available here through DriveThruRPG) is a minimalist role-playing game that resolves actions using 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6. Characters are created by choosing a trait (agile, brawny, or crafty), a concept (selected or created by the player), a perk (which lowers a task's difficulty at the price of karma), and a quirk (which raises a task's difficulty, but awards karma).
This is how I translated the main characters of the first Ghostbusters movie:
Dr. Raymond Stantz, a crafty Ghostbuster who is an expert on Occult Studies, but overly enthusiastic.
Dr. Egon Spengler, a crafty Ghostbuster who is a brilliant inventor, but socially clueless.
Dr. Peter Venkman, a crafty Ghostbuster who is charming, but vain.
Winston Zeddemore, a brawny Ghostbuster who is a combat expert, but a Ghostbusting novice.
Janine Melnitz, a crafty secretary who is confident, but sarcastic.
Louis Tully, a crafty lawyer who is dedicated, but awkward.
Dana Barrett, an agile musician who is brave, but naive.
As you know, I am always deeply interested where the Ghostbusters are involved and especially if its TRPG related. This is sounding sort of Cypher System-ish but with a simplier D6 based resolution. But...
ReplyDeleteFrom this I don't get how that resolution works. Are we aiming for a Target Difficulty Number, a number of Successes, or what? How do the character descriptions above relate to the dice?
You definitely have my attention.
Tasks are resolved by rolling one to three six-sided dice. The GM will call for a trait roll (agile, brawny, or crafty) and state a difficulty (4, 5, or 6). If any die equals or exceeds the difficulty, the character succeeds.
DeleteIf the task matches both the character's trait and concept, the player rolls three dice. If the task matches one, but not both, the player rolls two dice. If the task matches neither the trait nor the concept, the player rolls one die.
Characters start with 3 points of karma each. If the player wants to reduce the difficulty after rolling, the player can spend 1 point of karma to reduce the difficulty by 1 if it can be related to the character's perk. If the player wants to increase the difficulty before rolling, the player gains 1 point of karma and the difficulty increases by 1 if it can be related to the character's quirk.
Dr. Raymond Stantz
Trait: crafty
Concept: Ghostbuster
Perk: expert on Occult Studies
Quirk: overly enthusiastic
So, if the GM says deciphering the mystical writing in a pentagram requires a crafty roll with a difficulty of 5, Ray rolls three dice (because he's crafty and it fits his concept) and succeeds if any of them come up 5 or 6. After rolling, he can choose to spend a point of karma and reduce the difficulty by invoking his perk (Occult Studies expertise). If he wants to regain karma, he can raise the difficulty to 6 before rolling the dice by invoking his quirk (overly enthusiastic).
If the GM says firing the proton pack at the lethargic poltergeist requires an agile roll with a difficulty of 4, Ray rolls two dice (because he's not agile, but he is a Ghostbuster) and succeeds if any of them come up 4, 5, or 6. He can probably justify using his perk or his quirk to modify the difficulty.
If the GM says using a crowbar to bludgeon a hostile robot requires a brawny roll with a difficulty of 5, Ray rolls one die (because he's not brawny and the task does not fall under the purview of being a Ghostbuster) and succeeds if it comes up 5 or 6. He cannot invoke his perk since robot-fighting is unrelated to Occult Studies, but he could use his quirk of being overly enthusiastic to raise the difficulty and regain karma.
I should also mention that the rules are available to read in their entirety in the game's preview on its DriveThruRPG.com page.
Delete