DWARVES AND TROLLS HATE EACH OTHER

players must select to all be dwarves or all be trolls.

the game takes place on the front lines of a vicious conflict in a high-fantasy kingdom. dwarves have steamworks, and also white magic of restoration and healing. trolls have warbeasts, and also black magic of curses and destruction.

it's very much like a world war 2 movie, with a band of soldiers trying to tough it out and cope with losses. the game moves from the players' starting homeland (the high cliffs of the mountains for dwarves, or the lowly, putrid swamps of the trolls) and forward through various battle sites, until the group reaches a final conflict with the enemy, which probably results in group death.

the theme is valiance, sacrifice, and love in the face of strife.
the game mechanic / design theme is player input and teamwork.

there's no GM. each player gets a scene, nominating another player and saying why it should be their starring scene. the player who picked (not the star) gets to frame the scene for that player and decide what has to happen for the scene to end.

all players are present in every scene - it is the neccessity of conflict. they may be missing for most of the scene, but they have to show up at some point, either beginning or end. conflict does not occur unless one player wants to do something, and another player wants to oppose that (player, not character)

for example, if one player wants to move forward through a trench to reach a broken down fort on the other side of the swamp, then that's what happens unless another player says, "no. we run into some wolves trying to stalk us." this way, players get to set the pace of the game, and in unison agree when things need to speed up or slow down. play then goes around the table, each player deciding what happens as part of that conflict: "the wolves take me down, but one of you guys hacks him in half and saves me."

"i charge forward, grabbing a wolf by the neck and slamming him down."

"i get stuck in a pit, weapon too far to reach, with the wolf circling in."

each player then rolls a d6. if they get a 1, 2, or 3, then another player gets to decide something else happens to them instead of what they wanted. if they get a 4, 5, or 6, then what they chose to happen happens. if a 1, 2, or 3 is rolled, the player who chooses what happens must pick two words from the Trait list, cross them out, and use them in the action.

the Trait list is a list of nouns, verbs, and adjectives for all players. at character creation, each player adds two out of the three (a noun and a verb, an adjective and a noun, any combination). if there are no traits left on the list and someone has to pick traits for your character, then your character dies, and you immediately add three traits to the list.

the way to add new traits is if you win your roll, you can add one Trait. or you can invoke Misfortune on yourself and greatly cripple yourself for a number of scenes (including the current) equal to 1 + a 1d6 roll. cripple can mean depressed, panicing, missing a leg and unable to move, comatose, or simply lost. if you invoke Misfortune, you get to add three traits. if half the group or more invokes Misfortune, the scene is a Disaster, and all players take a Hindrance, which is a strong setback to the player (lack of food, broken weapons, lost, hunted by dwarves, etc.)

scene structure works as thus:
-first scene is the going-away party of the chosen race of people.
-second scene is marching alongside the entire army and interacting with them as they reach the battlefield

after that, you have two Character scenes followed by one Action scene. a Character scene has little conflict but a lot of drama and tension between characters. an Action scene has at least one prominent conflict.

so scenes come in threes, starting with the 3rd scene. Character, Character, Action. then, rinse and repeat. if no one invokes Misfortune during a batch of three scenes, all players must take a Hindrance at the start of the next scene following the Action scene. (Character, Character, Action - no one has invoked Misfortune during these three. so, during the next Character scene, right after the Action, everyone takes a Hindrance)

this reflects the hard times of war.

once two characters die, the next Action scene MUST take place in the opposing side's territory, and it is also the very last scene of the game. make it dramatic!