Title:           Diceless Storyteller
Author:          qinop
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/gUy4wTwf
First Edit:      Friday 10th of March 2017 11:37:00 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Last edit on: Saturday 18th of March 2017 08:48:31 PM CDT

Diceless Storyteller RPG (DSRPG) is a game that can be played, and for good times even, but was designed by a nerd as a challenge to himself to balance out a group of characters for a story he was writing.
This is the second edition of that game, which is meant to actually be played by anyone who wants a rules-light gaming experience without any complicated number crunching or dice rolling
 
This is DS2E
 
Foreword
This isn't for people who are new to roleplaying games. So there will be no helpful hints about rping or such. But the actual mechanics will be explained with examples as best that they can be
 
CHARACTER CREATION
 
 
1: Pick Skills
Characters have 20 character points to spend on their skills. What they're good at. Nothing can be greater than 6+level at any time, even at level up.
Skills can be anything as long as they are specific enough to define your character.
(Weapon) isn't specific enough of a skill, but (Crowbar) is perfectly narrow enough. One could even use (Club) and still use crowbars.
I suggest only having 4 skills, but to each their own.
 
I also have some suggested skills if you like that kind of thing:
Anyone skills
-Weapon
-Defense
-Magic Prep
-Magic Type
Experty Skills
-Persuasion
-Stealth
-Gymnastics
Priest-like Skills
-Medicine
-Ritual
-Exorcise
Scholarly Skills
-Crafting
-Knowledge
-Investigation
Warriorish Skills
-Athletics
-Presence
-Instinct
 
2: Pick a class
After you figure out some skills, pick an archetypal class to use for your character. We have:
Expert, Priest, Scholar, Warrior or Wanderer
 
Experts are rogues, or thieves, or pirates. They know how to deal with bad situations
Experts know many subtle but useful tricks. Picking pockets, sneak attacks, picking locks...
Experts get a bonus 2, 2 and 1 in (Stealth) or (Weapon) or (People) or (Acrobatics) as they choose
 
Priests are healers, or prophets, or doctors. They make life easier for others, in some way.
Priests and their spirit magic specialize in changing living creatures
Priests get a bonus 5 to divide between (Spell Preparation) and (Spell School), as they choose
 
Scholars are wizards, or professors, or artists. They change how things work through thinking
Scholars excel at riddles and spells that change nonliving things
Scholars get a bonus 5 to divide between (Spell Preparation) and (Spell School), as they choose
 
Warriors are soldiers, or thugs, or survivalists. They fight life to come out on top.
Warriors fight. That's what they're good at.
Warriors get a bonus 3 and a 2 in (Endurance) and (Weapon), as they choose.
 
Wanderers are vagabonds, or NEETs, or hobos with shotguns. They live life as best they can.
Wanderers cannot disable traps, heal, cast spells, or master combat. They wander around.
Wanderers get a bonus 7 to divide between (Misc) and (Etc) as they choose
 
And that's it, that's a character
Go play
 
 
LEVELING UP
Right
When you level up, you get 5 points to spend on your skills
Ask your GM if you unlocked any new skills, which will likely get 1 or 2 of your 5 points
 
Or
As you level up, your GM will assign the 5 points based on frequency of skill use, and unlock skills that have been used particularly often despite having no points in them
 
 
USING SKILLS
Yeah, okay
It's pretty fast and loose, but it's like this
If your number is triple their number, you win every time
If your number is double their number, you have to give them a chance to use some skill you have no counter to
Otherwise, deal with them.
 
Dealing With Them:
Think of each skill as like some mmo mana bar. It drains as you use it, 1 point per use until you can relax for like some short amount of time. Take a nap or whatever.
As you drain out your skills, you win or lose against others.
But what if you both have the same number in whatever skill? Use a different skill
Their Sword = 100
Your Sword = 100
Use your Shield, which is at like 50
Their Sword whittles down to 50, your Shield is at 0, your Sword is 100
ez
"But I don't want to spend a decade whittling down big numbers!"
Smart. Don't do that, it's dumb
Instead, hit numbers that are smaller
Their Sword = 100
Don't use Sword (100) or Shield (50)
Use your Lies (12)
Their Guessing isn't even a skill, so it's at 0. Lie your ass off, dude.
 
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Okay, seriously, last thing
Every 5 points you have in a skill unlocks a special ability
Just like with skills, your GM may assign you special abilities, work with you to make up new ones, or let you make up your own.
Each special ability has to tie closely into the skill it came from
Like say your warrior has Sword 5
You could have any of these
 
Power Attack: trade accuracy for damage
Parry Attack: trade damage for defense
Two Sword: fight with two swords like they're one
 
...and others of that general power level
But hey, what if you have like... Sword 30?
Try these
 
Sword Mastery: Your sword can't be unarmed, broken, parried and it blocks as a big shield
Ghost Blade: Your sword isn't blocked by anything but magic armor and can hit ghosts and such
Called Sword: Your sword can be summoned/dismissed using hammer space and can do the same to you, but you have to see it
 
Pretty good
 
That should be it, feel free to ask me if you have questions