City of Ghosts

On this page we will detail the basic mechanics of City of Ghosts without inclusion of setting details or explanations.

Character Creation

Each character has four attached labels these are Tags, Anchors, Relationships and Conditions.

Tags, relationships and the anchor are decided prior to the start of the game with conditions being a label that is only added during gameplay.

Tags

Each character has four tags which represent the person they are. These tags are drawn from the answers to the following four questions. Decide on a short response, no longer than a few words, to each and mark it on your character sheet.

• What drives you?
• What do people notice about you?
• What do you enjoy?
• What can you do better than others?

Anchor

The anchor is what allows a character to exit the City of Ghosts. It should be a personal item of significance to the character and is a physical object that can be carried with them rather than a person or place.

Note your character's anchor down on their character sheet. The anchor itself is not a tag. It can function as an object that exists within the narrative capable of enabling actions and affecting the world but can not be invoked in risk rolls.

Relationships

A character has a relationship tag for each other character in the game. This is a few words that describes the close relationship that the characters share.

Each relationship tag is written on both character's sheets.

Risk Rolls

When a scene calls for something more than being acted out, when a situation arises with uncertainty, or an action needs to move the plot along it is time to make a risk roll. Risk rolls are the core mechanic of the game and should always result from a character's action. There are no passive risk rolls, only active ones.

When making a risk roll the first thing to do is to collect a dice pool. In this stage you determine the number of dice that are to be rolled. There are two types of dice in that can be added to the pool Safe Dice and Risk Dice. The safe dice represent positive influences on your roll whereas the risk dice represent increased risk. In the each roll you add dice for the following:

• 1 safe die for each narrative relevant tag.
• Up to 1 safe die for a narratively relevant relationship tag.
• 1 risk die for each reroll.
• 1 safe die and 1 risk die for using a Word of Power.

When a player makes a risk roll but has no relevant tags or other ways of adding dice to their pool they instead roll two dice and pick the lower result of the two. When using risk dice in such a roll the lower result of the safe dice is the one compared to the value of the risk die. Once you have assembled your dice pool you roll the dice and look for the highest number rolled on each type of die. The highest value on a safe die represents how well the action has gone:

Highest Roll	Result
1-3	Failure - the action fails, the GM narrates what went wrong and a minor consequence is marked.
4-5	Partial Success - the action succeeds but with a complication. The GM describes the complication and the player narrates the success.
6	Success - the action succeeds without any complications. The player narrates their success.
Risk Dice	Automatic Failure - See below

Also compare the highest value rolled on the risk dice to the highest value among the safe dice. If the risk value is higher than the safe value then the roll is automatically a failure, but rather than a minor consequence a major consequence is marked.

If the safe value is higher than the risk value but the player is unsatisfied with the result they can choose to reroll the same dice pool with one additional risk die added. This can be done as many times as the player wants so long as the safe value remains higher.

Consequences

Each character has on their character sheet slots for three minor and one major consequence. Consequences are narrative tools to represent the negative repercussions of characters' actions such as injuries or social and mental troubles caused by failure.

If a character would mark a minor consequence but had all three slots already filled they instead mark a major consequence. If a character would mark a major consequence but that slot is already filled they instead lose their anchor.

Changing Relationships

Each relationship can have one of two states, either healthy or broken. During a risk roll you can add one additional safe die to your pool if you have a healthy relationship with a character whose relationship tag is relevant to the action being performed.

As well as helping in risk rolls relationships can be broken in order to protect a character from consequences. When a character suffers a consequence instead of filling in one of their consequence slots they can choose to break one of their healthy relationships.

Words of Power

The first time a player makes a risk roll with a result where the highest number is on a risk die and that risk die has a value of 5 or 6 instead of the normal consequence they learn a Word of Power. Since this occurs only in the first roll of this result only one word can be learned and further such rolls incur a major consequence as normal. In this case the risk roll gets the character in a very bad situation. Upon being faced with this danger the character finds within them the knowledge of a word or phrase that conjures some magical effect allowing them to escape the situation. Hereafter that character can choose to use the word of power in other situations. Using a word of power is always risky so a risk roll must always be made.