Narrative control with dice?

[dmkdesigns]

I'm curious to know what games out there have narrative control determined via dice?

For example if you roll a d12 and
1-6 give control to the GM,
7-9 to the group (Players other than those controlling the PCs involved),
10-12 Player(s) of the PC involved

[Vulpinoid]

I used this in my game Rajah Spiny Rat, and now that I know the rough concept works, I've been expanding on the concept in Quincunx.

My system basically revolves around a d6, and sets set the framing for a scene.

Roll of 3 or under are fails in the system and rolls of 4 or higher are successes, so I maintain this by rolling a die at the beginning of every scene. If you roll 4 or over, you get to test a specific attribute of your character that will impose a moral dilemma within the scene. If you roll 3 or under, one of the players to either side of you gets to pick one of your attributes to test.

If you roll an odd number on the die, the player to the left gets to incorporate this moral dilemma into the scene, if you roll even, the player to your right gets to do this.

So basically...

1 = The player to your left picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
2 = The player to your right picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
3 = The player to your left picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
4 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your right incorporates it into the scene.
5 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your left incorporates it into the scene.
6 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your right incorporates it into the scene.

This gives players a vested interest in learning about one anothers characters, and decided what sorts of things might be important to one another based on the unfolding narrative.

It seems to have worked in the playtests so far.

V

[dmkdesigns]

I used this in my game Rajah Spiny Rat, and now that I know the rough concept works, I've been expanding on the concept in Quincunx.

My system basically revolves around a d6, and sets set the framing for a scene.

Roll of 3 or under are fails in the system and rolls of 4 or higher are successes, so I maintain this by rolling a die at the beginning of every scene. If you roll 4 or over, you get to test a specific attribute of your character that will impose a moral dilemma within the scene. If you roll 3 or under, one of the players to either side of you gets to pick one of your attributes to test.

If you roll an odd number on the die, the player to the left gets to incorporate this moral dilemma into the scene, if you roll even, the player to your right gets to do this.

So basically...

1 = The player to your left picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
2 = The player to your right picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
3 = The player to your left picks a character aspect and incorporates it into the scene.
4 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your right incorporates it into the scene.
5 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your left incorporates it into the scene.
6 = You pick a character aspect, but the player to your right incorporates it into the scene.

This gives players a vested interest in learning about one anothers characters, and decided what sorts of things might be important to one another based on the unfolding narrative.

It seems to have worked in the playtests so far.

V

Intriguing. This sounds like a GM-less game. Does this mechanic of your influence who sits next to whom at your game sessions? For example, do the players rearrange their seating depending on who they want to have narrate for them or who they want to narrate for?

-David-

[Vulpinoid]

This could quite easily develop, but I haven't encoded anything into the system for changing the arrangements of seating. Interesting notion though.

The game isn't GM-less, but this was a deliberate attempt to help spread the GM's duties around the table. I could certainly see how the right group could push it to a completely GM-less model.

Basic scene set up is...

1. Player declares basic intentions based on the events of the current narrative and their location on a map (including how much they are willing to put at stake in this scene).

2. GM rolls some dice, one of which determines the base difficulty of the scene.

3. Player rolls a die to see what moral dilemma they will face (as indicated above).

4. Player to left or right incorporates this moral dilemma into the scene or indicates a trigger point for when the moral dilemma will be raised during the scene.

5. Scene begins, with GM and player taking turns describing the events that occur (any other players involved in the scene may also declare actions; but since they aren't the focus of the scene, they won't face moral dilemmas).

Since each scene is intently focused on a single character and other simply act as support roles during scenes, the mechanism was specifically designed to help other players get more involved in the narrative while it "isn't their turn".

V

[Noclue]

I think you should look up Vincent Baker's Otherkind]http://storygames.pbworks.com/f/otherkind.pdf]Otherkind

[Vulpinoid]

If I were to expand out the "Step 2" mentioned above, it has some fairly strong influences from the 'Otherkind' dice mechanism.

But yes, I agree that the 'otherkind' mechanism is another really nice way to get the dice to help inform the narrative.

V

[maddman]

InSpectres is an example of this kind of game.  When characters roll their 'skills', rather than doing a single task, it means they get to narrate the scene.

[Moreno R.]

InSpectres is an example of this kind of game.  When characters roll their 'skills', rather than doing a single task, it means they get to narrate the scene.

Not exactly. In Inspectres you get to narrate the scene, but you have to narrate something positive for your character,  so the dice don't give you total "narrative control".

I think that Octane does, though. For the difference between these two approaches (having partial narrative control and having total narrative contro in a conch-shell way) you should read the review of Octane on this site.

[Charlie Gilb]

Another game where narrative control is determined by dice is John Wick's Houses of the Blooded.

You bid an amount of dice on each roll to determine additional facts you can establish in certain scenes, and your roll determines who gets to narrate the success of failure of your characters actions.

The pdf is available on IPR for $5.

http://www.housesoftheblooded.com/

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16617&cat=0&hotseller