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There are several factors that prompted me to make a new system for my game. I wrote about this before. As I look back, I realize that some of the reasons why I started with a new system was because I was looking for a Goldilocks solution that was “not too hot, not to cold, not too hard, not too soft…. Just right” feel. As I wrote in the Forward to the rule-book:

“…In the end, I endeavored to make my own game system – “Lore RPG System”, in order to create a game that was fast, not too crunchy, versatile for narrative and non-narrative gaming, offered some mechanical differentiation between characters, yet incorporated (mostly) non-mechanical character development rules.”

There were a lot of boxes I needed to check off when making this game. Some time ago I realized that making that right-temperature bowl of soup was not the best of goals because a) many people would rather have their soup boiling hot or ice cold, and b) this approach does not create unique design. So I narrowed down onto certain issues to “solve” which other RPGs don’t necessarily address.

I want to introduce a settings which are somewhat unique. There are many high-fantasy games. There are games that focus on steam punk. There are plenty of games that utilize established genres which everyone knows about. But what if you want to introduce a new setting that doesn’t exactly conform to established genres? It’s a hallmark of the “Fantasy Heartbreaker” to have a book with a lot of unique setting  elements which no one is interested in. But one the reason why people are not interested is partially because it’s difficult to communicate non-generic settings that are not based on a popular IP.  Players don’t want to read a whole book to understand what’s going on.  GM’s who want to introduce a home-brew setting have the same problem.  Very often, GMs think about interesting campaigns and present their idea to the players, but then wind up spending a lot of time saying “Well in this world, you fighter cannot use a flintlock because they don’t exist.”

There are few “post-singularity” high fantasy games that deal with high-fantasy troupes (mind control, teleportation, resurrection) with any sense of rationality. That’s what I want to create. But how do I promote a unique setting to the players at the Table? Do I expect them to read everything about the settings before they play? Do I need to use a lot of exposition? This is a problem that many games and GMs need to deal with: how to best introduce a new setting that does not conform to existing settings

This is where the Lore System comes in. The unique thing this game does is make handing out settings “snippets” through the use of Lore Sheets. Lore Sheets may seem similar to Aspects in Fate, but with more writing and no narrative economy. For the GM, Lore Sheets are communications toosl. They allow the GM to hand out settings in bite-size chunks that are “mechanically” related to the player characters. Players will see Lore Sheets as hand-outs that not only inform them about parts of the setting, but also describe their character’s history, quests, and competencies. This will hopefully promote the players to be more engaged with the story and curious about exploring the settings in-depth.

It’s a simple idea. GMs (and/or setting content creators) write out a paragraph about something the character would know, and try to include a little bit of world setting information. The GM can offer it to the player for free, but the player may reject the Lore Sheet. The GM can also offer these Lore Sheets at an XP-cost discount. This is to promote the player to accept GM-created story elements that presumably have greater tie-in to the campaign.

I believe that players should have a say in the lore, settings, and relationships of the game-world they play in, but there should be some important limitations. Players should not create lore / settings / relationships that go against the planned campaign direction nor against the wishes of other players. I also do not want “meta-manipulation” to replace immersion and problem solving.  The solution to this is for the GM to have veto power in order to prevent Lore Sheets that would damage the campaign or annoy other players.  Furthermore, I want Lore Sheet creation limited as a between-session activity.

Of course, for this to work well, players need to be interested in creating their own personal Lore Sheets to customize their character’s back-story. This is a short writing exercise. This system does not reduce prep-time for GMs; it just allows the GM to more effectively communicate and interact with the campaign settings they customize.