Jim McClure & Jim Merritt

thirdact.pub

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SETUP

Each Player gets one sheet of paper and they write down any six skills their character is proficient with (e.g. Swordsmanship, Investigation, Tea Ceremony, Hopscotch). The players may choose any skills they desire and may write those skill in any size and orientation on the paper. This paper is the player’s character sheet.

GAMEPLAY

One player will be designated as the Game Master (GM) while all other players will be the Characters. The GM will establish the setting (Fantasy world, Space Opera, Wild West) and the goal of the scenario for the characters to achieve (slaying a dragon, smuggling cargo out of the solar system, completing a stagecoach heist). The characters will play out the events of the story through collaborative storytelling of their characters and their actions. Anytime a character tries to do something that requires some amount of skill, the GM will ask if the player has a skill on their character sheet that applies to the situation. If they do not have an appropriate skill, they fail the action. If they do have a skill that would apply, the player must make a “tear” and then automatically succeed at the action they are attempting. The game ends when either the goal of the scenario has been completed, or all players have been removed from the game.

TEARS

A “tear” is when a player must physically remove a piece of their character sheet and throw it away. There are two situations when a character must make a tear: They use one of their skills or their character takes damage.

When a player uses one of their character’s skills they must tear away part of their character sheet that contains at least one full letter from the skill they are going to use. As an example, if a character is using their Swordsmanship skill, they must rip a piece of their character sheet o that contains at least one full letter of the word ‘Swordsmanship’ (although in practice it is often very di cult to remove only one letter).

When a character takes any kind of damage, be it physical, mental, or emotional damage, the GM chooses a skill on their character sheet and the player must make a tear removing at least one full letter from that skill.

RULES FOR TEARING

The tear must always remove at least one full letter from a skill. The tear must go from one edge of the paper to another, thus completely removing a section of the character sheet. When making a tear no foreign objects can be used, only the hands of the player. The tear must be done in one continuous rip, the player is not allowed to release or change their grip on the paper once the tear has begun. The tear must remove a section of paper large enough to cover the entire template shown on this rules sheet.

CHARACTER DEGENERATION

As the players progress through the GM’s scenario their characters will become weaker from the use of skills and the mental, physical, and emotional damage they take. When a skill is completely removed from a character sheet (no letters left on the paper) they no longer have that skill. If there is at least one full letter of a skill left on the character sheet the player can still use that skill.

If a character has no skills remaining on their character sheet, or they are asked to make a tear and do not have enough paper left on the sheet to cover the template, the character is removed from the game. Based on the GM’s discretion the character is knocked out, killed, driven insane, too exhausted to continue, or any condition that is appropriate for the story.

LAST DITCH EFFORT

At any point in the game a player may choose to crumple their entire remaining character sheet into a ball and toss it at the GM to try and automatically succeed at any skill (even a skill that is not on their character sheet). If the ball of paper hits the GM they succeed at the skill. If the paper misses, they fail. Regardless of the outcome the player is promptly removed from the game after this action.

TEARING FAUX PAS

A tearing faux pas is when the GM calls for a player to make a tear, and the player breaks one of the tearing rules (Does not tear a piece that contains at least one full letter, does not tear a big enough piece, readjusts their grip, etc). When this occurs the player must make another tear in additional to the tearing faux pas they already made.