Table of Contents
A few days ago we’re published an extensive review of EVENT, a minimalistic tabletop Role-Playing Game (RPG) System with the ambitious goal of combining simplicity, efficiency and speed to offer Gamemasters and Players a unique and engaging gaming experience. The project is currently undergoing a Kickstarter campaign that will end on September 30, 2018 to publish an improved Kickstarter Edition (in digital and paperback format): a brand-new product of around 120-160 pages featuring awesome artwork, a lot more Actual Play examples and a huge amount of additional optional rules, perks and mods that the authors is writing during the playtesting phase.
It’s great to know that some of these optional rules will be released for free within the Creative Commons Edition of the game! Today the author announced just that with a post in the Kickstarter Project Update Page, introducing v1.1.180810 which contains the following new optional rules:
- Session Pool, a shared number of dices available that Players can get within each sessions to increase their chances for crucial rolls.
- Trigger, a secret “insurance” that each Player can secretly write at the start of the session that will most likely trigger a specific response action (or interaction) from that player’s character. The trigger is basically a defensive mechanic that can be used by players to prevent a potential threat (or any event) that they think could hit their character during the session.
- Reckless Roll, a neat optional rule that will allow Players to bet against the Master to try again whenever they’re not happy with the first roll!
- Reckless Die, a way for Players to get an additional die, similar to the Reckless Roll.
Here are the four new rules, as they’re written in the EVENT Creative Commons v1.1.180810 Game Manual, which is available for free download in English and Italian language.
SESSION POOL
At the start of each session the master places a certain number of dice in a dedicated spot, such as the middle of the table: such space will be known as the session pool. During the course of the session, whenever a player has to build his personal dice pool – such as to face an action or interaction – he can choose to take a single die from the session pool; the die counts just like any other die and gets discarded after that one-time usage (it doesn’t come back to the session pool). The players are free to debate and discuss before taking dice from the session pool: they could even agree upon enabling the veto rule to have the chance to prevent fellow players from taking too many dice during the session.
TRIGGER
At the start of each session each player secretly writes down a single sentence into a piece of paper, hiding it under his character sheet. The sentence must contain a specific situation that will most likely trigger a specific response action (or interaction) from that player’s character. The trigger is basically a defensive mechanic that can be used by players to prevent a potential threat (or any event) that they think could hit their character during the session and should be written in the following form: “someone does something (or something happens) to me at a certain time and / or in a specific place”. The syntax may vary, as long as most of the components defining the context (who, when, where, what) are there. The trigger could either happen or not, depending on the development of the story; as soon as it does, the target player reveals the trigger and ask the master to give it a value, from 0 to 3, that will correspond to the additional (bonus) dice he’ll get to take the triggered response action. The master should give the trigger a higher or lower value depending on how narrow, relevant and contextualized it is. Some examples: “someone attacks me” will most likely get a value of zero as it’s way too broad; “someone attacks me in the tavern” will get a value of 1, yet will also have more chances to trigger; “Robert attacks me from behind during dinner” will get a 2 or even a 3. The trigger value can be discussed between players and master, but the latter always gets the last word on it.
RECKLESS ROLL
Each time a player is not satisfied with the result of a dice roll, such as experiencing a failure or losing any kind of contest, he can ask the master for a second chance with a reckless roll. The reckless roll is basically a reroll that will replace the previous one – even when worse: to gain the right to attempt it, the player must propose a bet to the master by putting something at stake that will happen to his character (and/or his surroundings, including other players) in case of a subsequent failure: the master can choose to accept the bet, refuse it, or override it with a different bet which the player can also accept or refuse. If there’s an agreement, the player can (and must) execute the reckless roll. In case of full success or partial success, nothing happens; in case of success (full success, partial success or winning contest) nothing happens; in case of failure, the bet result will be honored by the master within the story, in addition to the standard failure consequences.
RECKLESS DIE
Each time a player is not satisfied with the number of dice he’s entitled to get for a roll or a contest, he can ask the master for a reckless die. The player propose a bet to the master by putting something at stake that will happen to his character (and/or his surroundings, including other players) in case of a subsequent failure: the master can choose to accept the bet, refuse it, or override it with a different bet which the player can also accept or refuse. If there’s an agreement, the player gets the additional die. In case of success (full success, partial success or winning contest) nothing happens; in case of failure, the bet result will be honored by the master within the story, in addition to the standard failure consequences.
That’s it, at least for now. If you do like EVENT concept, don’t forget to back the Kickstarter project to bring this project to life! If you’ve never heard about it and you’re curious enough, we strongly suggest to check out the following links:
- EVENT Review and Author Interview
- EVENT Video tutorial on YouTube
- EVENT Official Page at RPGGeek.com
Have a good play!