I’ve been knocking this idea of using five way roshambo as a dice replacement in a PbtA-ish game for awhile. It would clearly need to be attached to a setting in the Shonen vein, but I haven’t quite found it yet.
(Previous attempts were classic wuxia and side-scrolling beat-em-up.)
Do any of you cool cats of the Gauntlet have a suggestion on where to take this kernel of an idea? Is it worth expanding upon?
Old kung fu masters sitting in a tavern getting drunk and telling much elaborated stories of their past glory, arguing with each other about the details.
I can see how this can be used in a player versus player way, but player versus NPC sounds like the GM should be doing this also, and that sounds kind of involved for PBTA. As long as you are aware of that, roll with it, it might even be fun and not get old fast,
That’s the “-ish” part. Though to be fair, the GM still wouldn’t be rolling dice!
I would so play that!
Long time ago I was trying to make a game in that vein where you are DnD-esque adventures boasting about your exploits in a tavern. Never could figure out how to turn beer drinking into a mechanic tho. Nevertheless, would still love a game about boasting that can be played in a bar 
My sense – and keep in mind that I’m coming from way out on the storygame end of things here – is that tying the roshambo result to a roll to resist stress both unnecessarily narrows and fails to commit to the mechanic. Narrows it, because the only negative result you can get is increased stress. Fails to commit to it, because you’ve got this cool new mechanic, but you’re just using it as a prelude to a pretty run-of-the-mill dice roll that determines the real outcome.
If I were designing this, I’d put it like this:
When characters A and B get into a conflict, each throws the sign for their style of approach to the conflict. If A’s sign defeats B’s, A names the thing they most want out of the conflict [perhaps from a predefined PbtA-style list], and then B narrates how that outcome is reached. If A’s sign masters B’s, B names the one thing they want to salvage from their defeat [again, possibly from a list], and A narrates how that outcomes is reached.
I agree to @Stentor_Danielson. An obligatory roll might devalue the mechanic. Personally I’d love to see a two sided resolution system like in Hillfolk. I’d envision the roshambo to handle social interaction, emotions and a form of magic, that’s based on the communication with spirits and animated nature (which is kinda Tolkien’esk, thinking about it). While rolls would be responsible for practical and physical problem-solving.
Something along the lines of: If your style is defeated, either make a concession to your opponent or take disadvantage on your next physical interaction! If your style is mastered, make a concession or take stress! If your style defeats another, your opponent makes a concession. If your style masters another, your opponent bows down.
In fights you could then interact with both forms of tests, roshambo and rolls. Having each fight become a social conflict as well as a physical one.
As for setting… I’m gonna have to think about that.
Don’t forget, you can have both of them throw the same sign, resulting in a tie, which you’d want to make interesting and different.
Also, part of the fun of this kind of system is that you have multiple people, so maybe a 3rd party can use this as a way to affect the story. I’m imagining something much like Baron Munchausen for some reason, where any other person at the table can push back against the tale being told to either incorporate a new difficulty, or get the teller to back down.
Ooh, very good ideas here.
This, especially might dovetail nicely with a couple of discussions I’ve been seeing on Twittter about modeling the classic narrative structure of a fight. Also, using the FATE-ladder approach does allow a bit better for tie results…
So perhaps some kind of consequence slots could be kept to keep things grounded, but fewer numbers.
Thank you all for the suggestions!
About Last Fight! 
As for setting. Probably some premise to get multiversal troupes bumping into each other as they travel the universes on a rod of 7 parts type quest. That would keep the conflicts at the right number of participants.
Thanks again folks.
