Karma + Fortune Mechanics

[Paganini]

Okay, so this is me, you all know me by now right? When I'm thinking hard about something my first reaction is to design something with it to see how it works.

My basic idea is this:

Use Fortune to determine where narrative control lies - that is, Fortune determines who has the right to narrate when there is conflict.

Use Karma to determine character effectiveness - that is, Karma determines what characters accomplish in the game if there's no dispute over narrative rights.

Both the Karma and Fortune elements of the system are closely tied together. The effect is that the more closely your character is tied to a conflict, the more likely you are to get to narrate it.

Here are the details:

The default mode of play for this game is with the GM in the typical role of storyteller, presenting situation and narrating outcomes based on Drama. This means that normal play goes something like this:

Player: D'Artagnan wishes to seduce the evil but beautiful Milady!
   GM: <Checks relevant scores and sees that D'Artagnan's Dashing Gascon trait is higher than Milady's Something to Hide trait.>
   GM: <Narrates D'Artagnan's success.>

HOWEVER, any player may call for any time his character is involved in a conflict. Normally a character only rolls one die, but if he can explain how the conflict is important to the character by relating one or more of the character's traits to the conflict he may add a number of dice equal to the trait's rating. If the player rolls any odd numbers the right to narrate shifts to him for that one conflict. However, all is not lost for the GM. :)  If there is anything standing against the character that is also tied to the conflict - Milady's Something to Hide, or the Great Height of a cliff) the GM may roll  a number of dice equal to those trait levels. Odd numbers rolled by the GM cancel out odd numbers rolled by the player.

So, perhaps D'Artagnan is a Dashing Gascon 3, while Milady has Something to Hide 2. I roll 4 dice for D'Artagnan and the GM rolls 2 dice for Milady. Any odd numbers rolled by Milady cancel out odd numbers that I roll. If I don't get any odd numbers, the GM narrates. If I do get odd numbers, I get to narrate.

This is not meant to be a math-hiding system like FUDGE, but I do have tags in mind for the different levels to help assist characters and GMs in assigning trait levels. In general, all traits have dice (that's what traits are, in mechanical terms), so 1 is the minimum level of a trait. That doesn't mean that such traits are insignificant; 1 is simply the lowest level that a trait can have and still be a defining component of the character. If it had a lower rating, it would not be a trait, just a minor quirk of the character's being, not sufficient to add dice. 2 represents a powerful trait, something that really defines the character's choices and motivations. A trait level of 3 is the maximum, a truely integral element of the character. Garet Jax is a Weapons Master 3. Athos is Wise and Noble 3, a Drunkard 1, and Scarred by Past Love 2.