#tsolarja

they were all run by the gm with various fun and inventive ways to determine probability of success and failure, from typical dice to scrying to art interpretation.

Tsolarja is supposed to be a place without rulers and despots though, which seemed somehow counter to the concept of a single gm. i respect the story-telling process and that an auteur can be crucial to creating the landscape of a story for players to explore, so i don't know if the system needs to be completely 100% cooperative, but i would love the mechanics to be while maintaining randomness and chance.

so, friends, help me make a system that is operable and fun to use while still allowing for story, agency and role playing.

i thought maybe we start with Rusty's Rules of Order as a skeleton? for those who don't spend a lot of time in solidarity union meetings or similar decentralised activist orgs, Rusty's Rules is a relatively simply way to hold a functional meeting.

i thought perhaps the chair in this scenario would be the gm (dm). they have the plot in mind, know the world they're playing in, the npcs the beats etc.

the agenda is essentially the campaign, but typically all the attendees would have the agenda well in advance, so i'm not sure how to work with that.

i imagined most of the game would be typical role playing in character as normal. everyone would need to know essentially the strengths and weaknesses of all the characters and be able to reference them in a sort of cheat sheet. if a test was well within the skills and abilities of a player, then failure would be an extremely low probability.

how do we test for success in higher stakes? how do we decide what happens without just rolling dice which (in my opinion) is so boring. (maybe i'm alone in that)

would players propose outcomes to situations and vote and discuss those outcomes with the chair having some authority to shift or adjust? i am fascinated by the potential for democracy in a ttrpg but not entirely sure how to make it work.

you are all very smart and creative, help me please. unless it's just very silly, then tell me that too please.

Tsolarja

when i was deep in the throes of covid fever dreams i wondered what sort of "high fantasy" world i would make. i thought how perfect moles would be for dwarves, and what excellent little gnomes shrews would make. then when the word hoppits came into my head, it was over for me. i didn't get much sleep but sure did i world-build.

evil races are bullshit, so don't ascribe malice to any of my beautiful children here. their cultures are different from each other but they are all capable equally of the gamut of expression and action.

also, kings and queens and empires are bullshit. most races have developed egalitarian, participatory societies in Tsolarja. the only threats they face are from natural scarcity, wild monsters, and those who would wield power over the people.

the most well-known hoppits are called the maze keepers. they tend to a species of honey bee which grows larger than the hoppits themselves. hoppits like to say that historically they domesticated the bees when it was quite the other way around actually.

the bees taught the hoppits how to build safe hives for them underground. those are the "mazes" the hoppits tend. in return for safety and protection by the hoppits, as well as gathering water and pollen for them, the bees allow the hoppits to collect some of their honey, which they use for food and to brew a potent mead called foamy froth or frothy foam, depending on who you ask.

every annual harvest, hoppit children dress up like bees and enter the mazes with gifts of pollen and jellies. they do bee dances and play bee games.

despite their terrifying stature, Ogren are usually harmless. it is rare to find whole settlements of Ogren, though there are places in the great tundras where they thrive communally.

most Ogren prefer a nomadic, solitary lifestyle, traveling from place to place, staying in common houses and helping with manual labor where their great strength can be useful.

due to their travels, many Ogren are cherished story-tellers, poets and singers. it is common for an Ogre to speak many languages and know many rituals and rites.

rarely, an Ogre will succumb to a sickness called the loneliness. only then are they dangerous to communities they happen upon. the loneliness makes an Ogre furiously sad, to the point of violence and destruction.

(also yay for recovering from covid! take care!)

kobolds have communities and societies on every continent and land in Tsolarja. culturally they all highly prize dance and song. some of the world's most esteemed dancers are kobolds trained in their ancient traditions.

kobold choreographers have perfected the artistic form of epic dance. stories spanning centuries are told without a single word, in dances lasting an entire day. minute details like extended or inverted claws, tail posture and dilated pupils all have significant meaning in a piece.

communities will organise events to entice world-reknowned epic performance troupes to visit and put on one of the great classics like The Children of the Moon Ocean, or Kalendram & Sicil.

the community will eat and drink all day, with carnival games during the many intermissions. performers will be treated as honored guests and put up comfortably in one of the many common houses.

people from miles around will visit the towns, kobold or not, and bring with them unique gifts to bestow upon the community and epic troupe.

larger even than the Ogren, the Trow are generally very gentle and patient people, and thankfully so. the largest Trow could easily demolish a two-story Hoppit house just by leaning on it.

Trow communities draw travelers from far and wide, since their enormous architecture can easily accommodate many smaller folk quite comfortably. the largest Trow cities host famous bazaars and festivals where peoples from across Tsolarja gather to share customs, foods, goods and to make friends.