Skip to main content


Thinking about a tabletop RPG where the attributes are roles.

So - basically take the Leverage (RPG) model with Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief, Mastermind and then use that in place of like, Strength, Dex, or Intelligence and so on. I would probably use a die pool system since I love it, and so you'd end up with Role + Skill.

And then I think the secret sauce is that you set the consequences of failure based on the Role used. So a Hitter failing generally is hurt, a Grifter is identitied, and a Thief is seen.

If you have each role be attached to a specific kind of health bar - it can incentivize changing roles and so on.

#TTRPG #RPG

reshared this

No! I've done this with FAE with classes and approaches - but this is super cool.
@cwdolunt I was thinking this sounded like Fate Accelerated.
FAE Accelerated is focused on Style, whereas in my brain, I want people to be like "I wanna be good at Face stuff, I'm gonna put 5 points in Face, and only 1 in Rigger".

I'm thinking about the Class and how it's a metafictional contract. And I dunno.

My current Burning Wheel game has class setup as a thing everyone *is*. Each of the PCs are a class, and so the game is more lenient on them when they are trying to embody that. And having tools to say "You are the Wizard" is interesting to me, without writing down a list of Wizard Only powers, or a list of skills that, if you take them, make you a wizard.
more and more I think this is the right way forward for most genre-based RPGs. E.g. D&D should have Fighter, Rogue, Wizard etc. as its stats
I think D&D is a bad example, as it's "levels as packages of powers" thing does this well. Though 5e makes the thing you pick at level 1 have too much weight
Well, there's my most fucked-up game,

SSK: Schizophrenic Serial Killers vs. the Insects from Shaggai
https://mdhughes.tech/rpg/ssk/

#ttrpg #rpg #ssk #bugsInYourHead
Interesting! Have you heard of Barbarians of Lemuria? Some similar ideas, although rather than Role + Skill, the player would roll Career + Attribute.
I think I have a copy of Barbarians lying around here somewhere yeah.

And career based skills definitely have the things I'm thinking about!
I think the secret sauce of this is to not link a Skill to a Role. So if you roll Climbing like a Hitter it's fictionally different than rolling it like a Thief.

A Mastermind can climb to set a trap, and a Hitter can climb in order to fuck someone up, and a Thief can in order to get somewhere. Feeling some level of Blades in the Dark actions in this thought process.

People have been mentioning a lot of systems that do this - and I don't know how my thought differentiates from them, except in saying I think it's more like FAE.

Also - I am loving all the games I'm being pointed at!
Yeah - I've mostly played Marvel Heroic, Firefly, Serenity, and Leverage - but Leverage definitely feels like the ur-text for the roles thing.

But yeah - this is definitely me wanting to do something Cortexy.

But I think Leverage (and cortex by extension), makes you wanna roll your best stat all the time, and the times you don't are either because Plot Point, or because you're doing it for a specific kind of fun.
Yeah! Exactly that!

Dictating success and failure!

Failing on the Lockpick/Rogue pool means the door isn't open.
Failing on Warrior/Battleaxe means that you are *noticed*.

And that stuff seems like the thing I wanna try messing with.
Definitely! Yeah - but fiction following mechanics. And, honestly, when the Wizard goes to open that door because it's a secret room in the bottom of a Wizard Tower, I don't want to be like "Ok, roll Rogue?".

I want the dice to match the feeling in the fiction. If you approach the door of the Tower of High Sorcery and you try to Warrior through, I want that to be horrible, but if you Rogue or Wizard, that should be easier.

And, to be clear here, it's not about blocking the Warrior, it's about opening the Wizard as a valid option, and so on.

I also think adding things like "Role HP" is my useful brain.
Yeah - so Wizard Climbing might be Flying and Wizard Swordplay might be Mordenkanen's Sword

I just always worry about that kind of thing where, why would a Wizard main ever roll Rogue, if Rogue can pick locks, but a Wizard can magic them open

I've not seen enough Dragon Prince to know if you can, say, detect the workings of a wizard or whatever
That makes sense
Blah, I need to get into that series and game

Tiiiiime