[The Last Word]: An Experiment in Letter-Tile RPG Mechanics

[avidreader]

The idea for the mechanics of The Last Word have been percolating at the back of my mind since November 2003. I was working on a collection of word games, and I was also starting to read and collect different role-playing game systems.

I started thinking about a more collaborative method of conflict resolution, and the idea of using letter tiles, like those you might find in popular parlour games, struck me as a intriguing mechanic.

RPGs are all about words, not dice. The goal of The Last Word isn't to roll the right number, but to find the right word at the right time, and to keep the story moving. I hope it's an interesting change of pace, and I appreciate any feedback you folks can share.

You can find a PDF of these rules at http://www.chirographum.com/tolenmar/?p=143 (that's my gaming blog)

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Getting Started - Everything you need to start playing The Last Word.

Mechanic

The basic mechanic for The Last Word is simple: players draw letter tiles and create words. Each tile has a point value, allowing players to create high-scoring words. Those words are then used to continue the story of the game.

That's it. Whenever a player would roll the dice in another RPG, they draw tiles and create words.

Equipment

To play The Last Word, you'll need somebody to be the Gamemaster, at least one player, notepaper, pencils, erasers, a standard dictionary (I recommend anything by Oxford) and lots of imagination.

Tiles
Using your favorite word-processing program, create a set of 96 letter tiles as follows:

Letters - Value - Quantity

Vowels - 1 point - 6 of each (30 total)
Consonants (except J K Q X Y Z)   - 3 points - 4 of each (60 total)
J K Q X Y Z - 7 points - 1 of each (6 total)

Cut the tiles out, place them in a bag, and shake well.

Alternatively, you can use the letter tiles from any parlour games you may own. If those games include blank or "wild" letter tiles, remove them before play.

Style

The Last Word is intended to be a rules-light, cinematic style of play that is concerned more with the effects of actions than with the scientific and statistical probability of those actions. In other words, this is a game, not a simulation.
Improvisation is really the key style of the game. Players have to think on their feet and find fun and interesting ways of working their words into the game story.

Setting

The Last Word is designed to accommodate nearly any setting or genre of gameplay, but I was particularly inspired by genres that include a lot of banter, repartee, debate and dueling. My initial thought for a setting involved cryptographers trying to decode ancient or alien languages, or perhaps one involving sorcerers collecting words of power and dueling with the strange powers unleashed by their utterances.
But really, the choice is up to you.

Character Creation - My favorite part of any RPG system.

Characters
1.Draw 26 tiles from the bag.

2.Create as many nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs as you want. You can only use each tile once.

Note: Names and locations may only be used at the Gamemaster's discretion.

3.Write these words down on your character sheet or a piece of notepaper. These are your Characteristics.

4.Write down the total word value of each Characteristic. This is your Characteristic value.

5.Write down any unused tiles on your character sheet in a separate box. This is your Inspiration pool.

6.Write down the total number of tiles in your Inspiration pool (not their total value). This is your Inspiration value.

7.Return the tiles to the bag and let another player create their character.

Characteristics

Your Character is defined by Characteristics: words that describe your Character, what he can do, how well or how poorly she can do it, things that he owns, places she's been, etc.

Any noun, verb, adjective or adverb that can be found in the dictionary is fair game as a Characteristic.

The value of each of your Characteristics determines how many tiles you draw when you use that Characteristics for conflict resolution.

You can add Characteristics or improve existing Characteristics by spending tiles from your Inspiration pool.

Inspiration

The unused letters from the character creation process represent your character's experience, health, and a resource pool for improving characteristics.

Conflict

During conflict resolution, you can use your Inspiration pool in two ways:

* You can choose to draw tiles based on your Inspiration value rather than a Characteristic value.

* You can add tiles from your Inspiration pool to the tiles drawn for a Characteristic value. If you do, these tiles are lost.

Health

When Characters suffer damage either through combat or accident, players flip Inspiration tiles greater than or equal in value to the damage received. These tiles are unavailable for use during conflict resolution, but the character's Inspiration value is unchanged.

If the Character's Health reaches zero, the Character is knocked out. Health is restored at whatever rate the Gamemaster deems appropriate.

Conflict Resolution

Without conflict, there is no character development.

There are four types of conflict resolution in The Last Word: Basic; Contested; Duplicate; and Narrative.

Basic

The Basic conflict resolution method is most appropriate for simple, unopposed tasks, and follows this sequence:

1.The Gamemaster describes the task and assigns a Target Number from 2 to 18, ranging from the ridiculously easy to the ridiculously hard.

2.The Player chooses a Characteristic and justifies to the Gamemaster how that Characteristics helps in the situation. Each Characteristics can only be used once per scene or game session.

3.The Player draws tiles based on the Characteristic value. The Gamemaster may decide to reward a clever proposed resolution with up to 2 extra tiles.

4.The Player creates a word with a value greater than the Target Number. The Player may spend Inspiration tiles.

5.If the final word is greater than the Target Number, the Character succeeds in the manner described; if the final word is equal to the Target Number, the Character succeeds marginally, and the Gamemaster describes the outcome; if the final word is less than the Target Number, the Character fails, and the Gamemaster describes the result.

Contested

Contested conflict resolution is suitable for a duel or a debate:

1.Each Player chooses their Characteristics and draws the appropriate number of tiles.

2.The Player who drew the most tiles creates a word and notes the value.

3.The second Player creates a word intersecting the first word and notes
the value of the word, including the shared letter.

4.Play continues until one player cannot play any more words.

5.The Player with the highest total wins. If this is combat, the loser takes damage equal to the difference.

Duplicate

Duplicate conflict resolution is best suited for a single, dramatic conflict.

1.Each Player draws tiles equal to their Inspiration value, creates a word in secret, writes that word on a piece of paper and hands it to the Gamemaster. Inspiration tiles are not used.

2.Players exchange tile pools, create words, write them down, and hand them to the Gamemaster.

3.The player with the highest total wins the challenge.

Narrative

Narrative conflict resolution does not rely on word value. Each Player tries to create the most appropriate word to resolve the conflict. Success or failure is determined by consensus with other Players and the Gamemaster.

Rewards - In RPGs, experience is its own reward.

After each game session, the Gamemaster rewards Players who have done particularly well by whatever role-playing standard you prefer with up to 5 Inspiration tiles drawn at random from the bag.

Players add these letters to the Inspiration pool and may use them to improve their Characters.

Add Characteristics

Players can create new Characteristics from the letters in their Inspiration pool, following all the normal rules.

Improve Characteristics

Players may assign letters from the Inspiration pool to a matching letter in a Characteristic. Note this on your character sheet by marking a check under the letter.

These checked letters represent permanent Inspiration tiles. When the associated Characteristic is used during conflict resolution, the player may add the checked letters to their letter pool.

For example, if a Player is using the Characteristic RAPID in a conflict and the I is checked, the player may add an I to his pool of drawn letters.
Checked letters are restored along with the Characteristic.

Each letter in a Characteristic may only be checked once. When all the letters in a Characteristic are checked, the Player receives an additional bonus: The player draws additional tiles equal to the number of letters (not the value) in the Characteristic.

For example, if a Player is using RAPID as the Characteristic in a conflict and all the letters are checked, the Player draws 5 additional tiles, and may add an R, A, P, I and D to his pool.

What's Next?
I've been sitting on these basic rules for twenty months; I hope that I can work through these next steps sooner!

* Write up a character sheet incorporating these rules.
* Add examples to this document.
* Flesh out a sample setting for a full The Last Word rules document.
* Add bonus rules for using very specific Characteristics.
* Add rules for cooperative conflict resolution

[Paul Czege]

Hey Stephen,

You've got some clever stuff in The Last Word. I think it has potential. Some mostly hard questions below. I apologize in advance. Truly.
[list=1][*]In your "Inspiration" section, what do you mean by "dice are...arbitrary and counter to the aims of narrative immersion and development"? Superficially, "narrative immersion" sounds like something I'd like to buy. But upon reflection, I'm not quite sure what it means. I disagree that dice are counter to play which produces powerful narrative. Dice mechanics have just historically been implemented in ways that are counter to powerful narrative.

Anyway, later in the game you've got lots of resolution mechanics that don't seem to support what gamers commonly mean when they say "immersion", so I'm confused about what you're trying to say.

[*]I gotta say, your layout is nice and clean and very usable.

[*]In the "Style" section you write, "Players have to think on their feet and find fun and interesting ways of working their words into the game story." Is that what you mean by "narrative immersion"? If so, I'm thinking you shouldn't use the phrase. You're just going to annoy gamers for whom it means something else. Anyway, only one of your four conflict resolution mechanics is based qualitatively on the word the player creates. The others are all numeric. So, the "working the words into the game story" challenge is for Characteristics in Basic and Contested conflict resolution, and for the word created in Narrative conflict resolution? Where does that leave Duplicate conflict resolution?

[*]I like the character creation mechanics. I like the way the left over letters also become part of character effectiveness.

[*]Because 15 of the 26 letters share the exact same value (3 points), don't your mechanics mostly just test to see who can create the longest word?

[*]In the "Inspiration" section, you write, "You can add tiles from your Inspiration pool to the tiles drawn for a Characteristic value. If you do, these tiles are lost." Is your Inspiration value then reduced? Does your Inspiration value fluctuate with the size of the pool? I would have assumed yes, except later you specifically say that the Inspiration value isn't reduced when tiles are "flipped" due to damage.

[*]"Contested" conflict resolution specifies that the loser takes damage equal to the difference between the word values. Is this also true for "Duplicate" resolution? Does a character not take damage from "Basic" or "Narrative" conflict resolution? How do you resolve an attempt to scale a cliff that might result in the character falling and taking damage?

[*]In the section on "Health" you write that "players flip Inspiration tiles greater than or equal in value to the damage received." You mean the player who took damage has to turn enough tiles from his Inspiration pool face down to total up to the amount of damage? The player didn't keep those tiles. He wrote them on his character sheet and put them back in the bag for the next player.

[*]In the section on Basic conflict resolution, you specify that a Characteristic can only be used "once per scene or game session." Do you anticipate scenes that span game sessions? Otherwise, doesn't "once per scene" cover it?

[*]I guess I'm a little underwhelmed by Basic conflict resolution. The word need have no relation to the conflict at hand? So, another RPG might have you roll a number of dice equal to your characteristic, and sum the result; The Last Word makes you work for the result. I have the same reaction to Contested and to Duplicate conflict resolution. They're just word games tacked on to a random draw.

[*]You write that "Contested conflict resolution is suitable for a duel or a debate." How so? Because you can imagine that a duel or a debate is a series of "plays"? But the series of plays in The Last Word doesn't contribute any imaginative content. So it's just handling time.

[*]For Basic and Contested conflict resolution, the player draws based on a Characteristic. For Duplicate conflict resolution, they draw based on their Inspiration value. What is their draw based on for Narrative conflict resolution?

[*]Your rules for "permanent Inspiration" are interesting. If players were sometimes in the situation of trying to create the most appropriate word for winning a conflict (the way they would be if Narrative conflict resolution draws from Characteristics) it might be they try and justify using a Characteristic that will give them some letters from permanent Inspiration they'd like to use in their word. Dunno how it would work, but interesting to consider.[/list:o]Anyway, I gotta say, in case it's not obvious from the questions, I think you have too many resolution types that are just word games tacked on where another game would use a die roll. I think probably you've been personally frustrated in your roleplaying that your own intelligence didn't have more of an impact on your character's effectiveness. And I can sympathize. But really, making words with the tiles is just handling time. I recommend ditching Basic and Contested conflict resolution. And making some changes to Duplicate resolution. (As it stands, it's the weakest of the four. The exchange of pools for the second word renders the relative sizes of the Inspiration values irrelevant to the outcome. It's all player ability. It's a word game resolution mechanic that's even more tacked on, in that it has utterly no relevance to the attributes of the characters or the in-game situation. At least in Basic and Contested conflict resolution the player has to argue for using a specific Characteristic.) Minimally, eliminate the switch for the second word. (If you're irrevocably wedded to tacked on word games, you could avoid irrelevantizing contestant Inspiration values for Duplicate conflict resolution by having each player make a word. And the second round would be making a word from the tiles you used for your first word, plus the ones the other player didn't use from his first word.)

So what do I want? As a player, when I win a conflict, I want to be able to take tiles and spell them into weakness Characteristics on other characters. I want to be able to acquire, and maybe steal, tiles so I can make my Characteristics into qualitatively more impressive words, and for that to have a meaningful impact on character effectiveness. That kind of stuff.

Paul

[FzGhouL]

Insane RPG. I have to say, its really unique and nice. I think out of all of Paul's comments, the last part is the most useful. Making weaknesses when you win. Oh man, that is so awesome!

Also, maybe you should have target words people aim to spell to get bonuses. AKA words that fit the situation really nicely. Spelling "Dog" and "gear" is cool, but spelling "Dodge" is also applicable to the situation if you are in a battle.

Anyways: AWESOME game.

[avidreader]

Paul, FzGhoul - thanks for the feedback (and Paul, no apologies necessary. You have my thanks for each of those hard questions!).

Some of that feedback matches my second-thoughts and notes, and others are sparking new ideas as I type - especially the weakness mechanic. That's pretty cool.

Why are there so many resolution mechanics? Because I was working on a bunch of word games at the time, and I was riffing on the different ways that the tiles could be used. Maybe some would be more appropriate than others given a specific setting. The Narrative style is where I think I'm going to put most of my efforts. There's something very appealing about spelling your "called shot."

I'll be back with v.2.0, and I'll definitely clean up my game-theory terminology.

If anybody else has any feedback, don't be shy!

[avidreader]

I've given Paul's questions some thought. Here they are:

  1. I'm cleaning up the jargon. I'm not a student of RPG theory. Yet.

  2. Thanks for the layout compliments.!

  3. I worried that players wouldn't be able to think of the right word, so I created a point-based system as an abstraction.But you're right, this system is just another form of die-rolling.

I'm going to focus on Narrative, and find new implementations of Duplicate and Contested.

  4. The character creation method is the first part of the game I developed.  

  5. Not any more. See point 3.

  6. Yes, the Inspiration value fluctuates according to the number of letters used. When letters are underlined/flipped to track damage, they represent a temporary loss of effectiveness.

  7. Damage will really depend on the situation. It could be fatigue, if a race, physical damage for conflict, etc. All damage eventually heaths.

  8. The short-hand got the better of me. The value of all letters is a known property, and I'm assuming that players will remember the values.

  9. Once per scene really does cover it, unless the tone of campaign requires a "crueler" approach.  

 10. My goal is to have the players narrate everything that they do with the drawn tiles. I don't want the word games to seem tacked on.

 11. I figured that the banter during the play would contribute the imaginative content.

 12. Narrative resolution draws on the Characteristic. In Duplicate,there might be such a discrepancy between Characteristics that I wanted to choose a middle ground.

 13. I was thinking along those lines. Players would always try to earn permanent Inspiration.

Paul: "(If you're irrevocably wedded to tacked on word games, you could avoid irrelevantizing contestant Inspiration values for Duplicate conflict resolution by having each player make a word. And the second round would be making a word from the tiles you used for your first word, plus the ones the other player didn't use from his first word.)"

***Now that's an interesting idea. Using the unused letters from a player's pool to create negative attributes or weakness!

Paul: "So what do I want? As a player, when I win a conflict, I want to be able to take tiles and spell them into weakness Characteristics on other characters. I want to be able to acquire, and maybe steal, tiles so I can make my Characteristics into qualitatively more impressive words, and for that to have a meaningful impact on character effectiveness. That kind of stuff."

***Stealing tiles is provocative. Perhaps something that adds directly to/draws directly from Inspiration.[/i]