DeScriptors diceless RPG is now free online and seeking feedback for a future edition

#1

DeScriptorsRPG.com has been created to host a free, rewritten and reorganized version of the diceless word play TTRPG driven by transformative character arcs.

First and foremost, I want people to know that it’s free and you can access it online any time! There’s even a fully annotated example of play that shows how the system ensures no player character ends the session with the same traits they start with, definitively realizing a personalized story arc like you get in any good novel, movie, TV show, etc.

But importantly, I’m trying to get eyes on it because the ultimate goal is that this site forms the basis of a new edition of the game. It’s been around in some form since 2015 and has a lot of additional rules and settings with loads of scenario ideas and pregenerated characters. Plus we’ve been working on lots more. It would be awesome to have people provide feedback that we can incorporate into this massive update, planned for later this year. There’s a feedback form on the site for this purpose. (A lot of game design I learned from lurking on these forums has been incorporated into the game already in the release DeScriptors: Definitive Edition.)

I hope to see more folks playing and talking about the game! And hey, even if you don’t, enjoy a freely available game accessible via a cleanly designed website any time you want! It’s perfect for quick-playing scenarios, forum/discord play, convention games and so on. There are even links to actual play sessions performed by the Worldbuilder’s Anvil podcast.

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#2

Hello, I really like the format of DeScriptors : it’s really easy to play. It is probably easy to use in the classroom, too, for individual or collective storytelling.
And because it’s simple, it’s robust and tweakable : locations can be more or less abstract, players can propose some adjectives for their fellow players’ characters, etc. I see you propose a lot of variants. Cool !
That’s the sort of games I would like to be able to make.

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#3

I appreciate that! The flexibility is a huge part of the design we’ll be expanding on in the future. We have several rules variants coming out for the Pleasure-not-Business Card RPG Jam, so you can get a peak out some of our new designs.

#4

I’ve been curious about DeScriptors, so I am happy to find you here. :slight_smile:

Are you saying the rules on the site are effectively a later edition than the Definitive Edition?

I find myself pretty confused about how setbacks function and should be tracked. Can they be spent or not? Or are they removed narratively, and does that require spending another adjective?

Related to that is combat. The play example shows spending two adjectives. But the rules seem to talk about spending one and just losing another of your choice.

I’d love to see the play example extended or fast-forwarded through the damage, out, recovery cycle - I think that might clear up a lot.

(Note that I haven’t gone through the actual plays. Audio without a transcript I find challenging to get through.)

#5

Thanks for your interest!

Are you saying the rules on the site are effectively a later edition than the Definitive Edition?

That’s correct. We’ve done a little bit of iterating on the rules over the years since Definitive Edition was released, and those appear on the site. The idea was to incorporate all changes into Definitive Edition, but real life has gotten in the way, as it often does!

I find myself pretty confused about how setbacks function and should be tracked. Can they be spent or not? Or are they removed narratively, and does that require spending another adjective?

They can be spent. They act just like other adjectives. So in essence it’s a good thing to lose conflicts, because you get adjectives for doing so. The “negative connotation” is solely in the fiction of the moment when you receive them, and because the Narrator sets them, it’s not like Fishing where you have at least some say in what you might receive (usually; that’s not a hard-and-fast rule for Fishing).

Related to that is combat. The play example shows spending two adjectives. But the rules seem to talk about spending one and just losing another of your choice.

The latter is the “correct” RAW way to handle it, but it’s ultimately the same end result, so it’s a great place to let the fiction guide the experience. The player generally takes the reins on describing how they do things, so it’s a perfectly reasonable interpretation.

I’d love to see the play example extended or fast-forwarded through the damage, out, recovery cycle - I think that might clear up a lot.

I see your point, and agree with you. I think extending the example of play a bit more is a great idea. Ideally, we would also have many more actual plays – we did record a few – but once again, real life (in this case technical issues) have hampered us.

(Note that I haven’t gone through the actual plays. Audio without a transcript I find challenging to get through.)

Agreed again. We would like to have more actual plays and transcripts in every case. One of the things you will see in the not-too-distant future is an audio version of the website’s Rules and Example of Play pages, so there will be that accessibility, but we recognize that’s only scratching the surface.

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