2015-04-27

Provenance, a Nano RPG

I blame +David Schirduan for making me aware of the 200 Word RPG Challenge he's running until Friday, 01 May 2015. If you're interested, write something and submit it, and go read the dozens of entries so far.

You can download a PDF of Provenance here (335KB PDF), or from the challenge page when it's up. I'll work on making a more useful/pretty PDF version and make it available, possibly pay what you want on DriveThru. Stay tuned for details.

The funny thing is, this game interrupted the one I actually spent time working on. It demanded to be let out first. So be it.

If you play, please let me know how it goes. I love to hear stories.

And yes, the section names are intentionally alliterative. Because I find language fun.

I blame Lovejoy.


PROVENANCE
Produced by Jim White

Premise: Shady merchants fabricate history to maximize profits.

Prep:  Gather players, blank cards, and dice. Choose six Descriptors. Each player writes two secret Descriptors describing their buyer and three second-hand objects. Write each object’s starting Value: 1d.

Play: Write a desirable incident on one of your object cards and verbally describe it. Choose another player to react. They narrate a response, categorized as Confirm (+1d Value), Endorse (+1d and Descriptor), Decline (no effect), or Reject (-1d Value). Note the response.

Pass: Players may trade items and bargain for future Endorsements.

Pitch: Players may agree to end play at any time. Once all items have reactions from all players, play ends. Reveal your buyer’s Descriptors. Each matching object Descriptor multiplies your object’s Value dice (example: 3d Value “Victorian” object, “Victorian x2” buyer = 9d). Roll dice and note sale price for each of your objects. Optional: Role-play each sale.

Profit: The player with the highest total buys the next round.

Prototypical Descriptors (Modern):
  1. Neoclassical
  2. Victorian
  3. Postmodern
  4. Revival
  5. Deco
  6. Modern
Prototypical Descriptors (Fantasy):
  1. Fey
  2. Shadow
  3. Elemental
  4. Primal
  5. Arcane
  6. Divine
(Patterned from the TV Series Lovejoy.)

Creative Commons License
Provenance is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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