The pool
The Pool is a free universal role-playing game released in 2000 and written by James V. West.
The idea behind The Pool is a narrative role-playing game in which the player and game master work together to tell a story. For this reason, it relies on a regular system, an open property system and conflict resolution instead of task resolution. This concept set the standard, and today The Pool can be considered one of the established Indy RPG systems. Many role-players see it as one of the most important representatives of narrative role-playing alongside Sorcerer .
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Basics
The Pool is based on a pool system with several W6. Each player starts with a pool of 15d6 dice that changes in the course of character creation and the game.
Character creation
Character creation is done by writing down motifs - things that describe the character. As in classic role-playing games, it can be about attributes and skills, but also about archetypes ("greedy industrialist"), character traits ("melancholy"), relationships ("love for my wife") or other characteristics ("likes spicy food") ). Each of these motifs is assigned a value from 1 to 3 which must be purchased from the initial stock of 15d6 dice. The cost is the value of the motif to the power of 2. A motif of 1 costs one die, one of 2 four dice and one of 3 nine dice. Dice given out for motifs are no longer available during the game.
Conflict resolution
Conflicts are actions the outcome of which is uncertain, such as climbing a wall. The basic stock of dice for carrying out the action is the value of a suitable motif, or 0 if one is not available. The player can improve the chances in this conflict by using dice from his supply. The game master can also provide 1-3 dice, depending on how important the happy outcome of the conflict is for the further course of the game. If the dice show at least a 1, the conflict has ended happily for the player, otherwise it has failed and all dice from the supply that were used for this test are lost. After a successful conflict, the player receives 1-3 dice from his game master, which he can add to his stock of dice, and the game master tells the outcome of the conflict. The player can also refuse this reward and instead hold a so-called "monologue" - the player describes the outcome of the conflict.
Experience
At the end of a game session, a player's dice supply is increased to 9 if they have fewer dice, otherwise they stay at the previous level. The player can use this supply to buy new designs or to improve existing ones at the same cost as with of character creation. The dice left over after the increase form the dice supply for the next session.
Web links
- ↑ http://www.caleidos.de/data/pool.pdf ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive )