Last night I got a chance to play Austin Walker’s Realis role-playing game, a space fantasy setting using a diceless narrative system.
REALIS
https://thecalcutec.itch.io/realis
Realis is a place—a cursed orbital sphere of 1,000 mystical moons filled with mystery, magic, and impossible technology.
Realis is a game—one of diceless storytelling, where characters deploy powerful Sentences, which are rewritten over the course of their saga.
As a place, Realis is a setting for moon-hopping adventure, arcane discovery, fatal conflict, and meditations on the ever-changing nature of the self, society, and history. It is an uncanny solar system where a thousand satellites orbit a massive, incandescent planet, the titular Realis, from which only the saint-like Radiant have ever returned. Above it, the Corpse Sun roils and emits its final dregs of light. Below, the Great Void churns, eager to swallow anything that errs too near. And between, across the Thousand Moons, the great powers squabble, scheme, and skirmish.
As a game, Realis is a set of rules that shapes conversation into an engine for collaborative storytelling. You will tell the story of a Band of protagonists who use malleable Class Sentences, useful Ephemera, and the raw power of their Dreams to explore, love, fight, worship, and unfold their stories across the Thousand Moons. Realis is designed to explore how these characters, which begin iconic and archetypal, become increasingly specific over the length of a story, and it is interested in the power and vulnerability present in such a transformation.
Most importantly, simply by playing the game, exploring the Moons, and defining your characters through play, you will make Realis yours.
This Ashcan Edition of Realis Features:
* 20 Playable Classes across Nine Spheres
* 40 NPC Classes
* Three Grand Factions
* Three Example Moons… Or four, for the observant.
* Original art by Sam Beck and Oddesque
* 125+ Pages
* Single-page, spread, and printer-friendly PDFs will be included with each purchase.
Realis was designed by Austin Walker, with additional design by Jack de Quidt and additional writing by Janine Hawkins. Realis (Ashcan Edition) was laid out by Tyler Crumrine and was published by Possible Worlds Games.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SUMMARY NOTES
Digital character/GM sheets available here, designed by Takuma Okada and Brendan McLeod.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
TAKING ACTION
When you Act, declare Intent and Means.
If there is a Counter, they intend to prevent your intent, and they declare Means. If there is no Counter, you succeed.
You can then do any of the following:
* Spend a Token to boost the Rank of your Means for this conflict.
* Hone your Sentence to boost the Rank of your Means for this session.
* Spend your Dream to succeed automatically, once and only once in your character’s career.
* If your Means is a Bond or a Band Sentence, then any participating players can spend Tokens to boost it.
Then, compare Means. The higher Reality Means wins, with ties going to the Counter. A Countered Sentence is struck-through and marked. It cannot be used for the rest of the situation, unless it gets Realized.
A Sentence with 3 marks is Primed and can be Realized, giving it a condition and +1 rank. A Sentence can be Realized at any time except when Means are already being compared.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MEANS
You can use the following as Means:
* Your class Sentences.
* Your bond Sentences.
* Your band Sentence (once per session, and only if everyone agrees).
* Your Ephemera (but mark it when you succeed, and it’s no longer useful after 3 marks).
* A Moon Sentence (if you spend your Token).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
HONING A SENTENCE
Once per session, you can Hone a Class Sentence to give it +1 for the rest of the session.
When you do, give it a temporary condition as if it’d been Realized, increase its rank by +1, and mark the Sentence as if it had just been countered and write that condition in parentheses so that it is clear it is temporary. Remove the condition and rank at the end of the session.
You cannot do this to a Sentence that’s already Primed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SPENDING YOUR TOKEN
You can spend your Token to:
* Boost the Rank of a Means (including a Bond that another character has with you, or the Band Sentence).
* Use an extant Moon Sentence as a Means.
* Create and then Use a new Moon Sentence.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
RECHARGE YOUR TOKEN
“You can recharge your Token by:
* Invoking a Tragic Success, where one of your Sentences deliberately leads you into trouble. You can’t do this if you’re already Acting or Counter-Acting.
* Realizing a Bond, which will also recharge the other player’s Token.
* Acting on an Impulse, be it your Sphere’s Impulse or the current Moon’s Impulse.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
ILLUMINATING FAILURE
Once per session, you may frame a scene where any of your Means automatically fails, allowing you to deliberately mark it. It’s then countered until the end of the next scene, unlike a regular failure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
MORE INFO AND DEMO