Introduction
Stitcher is my attempt at combining features and mechanics I like into a cohesive, simple set of rules for pen and paper or digital roleplay. I want to own the system in order to create content for it without worrying about ever changing licenses. I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here, so everything will be as straightforward and down-to-earth as possible.
Stitcher is a turn based game. At the beginning of a new game, a Game Master (GM) sets the expectations for the game’s themes, tones, and setting.
Players take turns describing the actions of their Playing Character (PC), while the GM reacts, directs entities, and narrates consequences. The GM can take extra turns to introduce a setting, or to narrate interludes, time skips, etc.
In Stitcher, players have to “stitch” together narrative and game elements to assemble dice rolls that can be used to overcome obstacles. On top of that, optional Patches can be “stitched” to the core game to expand and customize it with additional rules.
Stitcher in its most basic form is best suited for one-shots or shorter campaigns that don’t need a lot of crunch. The game rewards player resourcefulness, where characters start from rags and must use all the tools at their disposal in order to overcome obstacles. Players are encouraged to push the narrative to its limits and have fun with their characters, rather than realistically simulate scenarios.
To play, only a good bunch of D6s and a way to take notes for the GM and players should be needed.
I want the core rules to allow for an easy set up with your friends at the pub with just an app to throw dice and another to take notes. The base setup is casual and relies on the narration of the GM, but Patches can add crunch and depth to the system. Examples of Patches are not currently included, as I’m still cleaning those up, but at least a couple are planned for version 0.4. Patches will be distributed free of charge, same as this source document.
Principles
- Easy to pick up, easy to hack and expand upon
- Setting agnostic, geared towards action and narrative
- Narrative and fun > rules, with good rolling dice dopamine
- Classless: characters can do what their equipment warrants, plus playstyle
- Simple D6 pools, with exploding dice
- Dual axis of interpretation: mixed successes and failures
Traits
Traits are the main feature of Stitcher: in the Core System rules, Traits are just descriptive keywords that can be used by players and GMs to describe something. They don’t need to be strictly defined, to allow for interpretation and expression.
Traits can be a race, a piece of equipment, an adjective, a skill, a background, a profession, a location’s defining feature, a familiar, the intensity of an event, etc. Traits can be acquired or lost during a game as events unfold, more gear is found or breaks, and / or more skills are acquired.
Traits can have a Weight, expressed as a number between parentheses, that tells how “strong” a Trait is. If not specified, Traits have a default Weight of 1. Not all Traits can have a Weight past 1. If someone is, for example, an Elf, they cannot be more Elf than any other Elf. On the other hand, Warriors could come in different levels of training and skill. A Warrior (5) is presumed to be much more skilled than a Warrior (2) for example. The decision to what can have Weight above 1 and what cannot is to be left to the GM and the players, unless some Mod comes with specific rulings.
To avoid confusion and mix-ups, Traits are compartimentalized into the following categories:
- Quality Traits describe the physical, tangible properties of an entity, regardless of their impact on the game or what they are attached to. For example Tall, Sturdy, Fragile, Beautiful, Muscular, etc. Someone could be an Elf, an Orc, or could be Fatigued or Hungry.
- Skill Traits describe what something can do, its effects, regardless of what it is and how it looks: someone could be a Warrior, or a Gunslinger, or Athletic, Dextrous, etc.
- Object Traits refer to items, props, weapons, armor, etc: any word that is used to describe what something is, regardless of their qualities or skills. A Boulder, a Mountain, or a Dagger are all Objects in the context of Traits.
For example, a Warrior is someone who is skilled in the art of fighting, and such Trait could be applied during combat - but it doesn’t imply that someone is also Muscular or carries a weapon. On the other hand, someone being Muscular doesn’t necessarily imply they are skilled at fighting. Lastly, someone carrying a Dagger might be neither skilled in the martial arts, neither strong enough to wield a weapon with enough power to hold harm.
It’s worth noting that Trait management follows the narrative at the table, and tries to reflect it with keywords and tags. Traits can be upgraded, lowered, added, erased, etc., depending on what happens in a game.
Getting started
PCs in Stitcher are also made of Traits. PCs start the game with some, but they can gain or lose more during play.
At the beginning of a game, the GM would set the expectations for themes, tones, and setting.
Players are given 5 points they can spend to add Traits to their PC. Each Trait needs to have a minimum Weight of 1. One Trait is allowed to have a maximum Weight of 3, while the rest can only be set lower.
The GM can decide to start a game with different amounts of points and limitations to suit different paces or power levels. It’s also important to clarify that during a game, PCs can:
- Gain more Traits
- Lose Traits
- Grow or lower current Traits
Unless otherwise specified, a PC is presumed “average” in the context of the setting they are being played in. Average appearance, average clothes, average knowledge. Assuming every Trait adds to a presumed “average” quality, the following scale can help put them into perspective:
| Weight | Reference |
|---|---|
| 1 | Above average |
| 2 | Significant, noticeable, improved |
| 3 | Expert level, or masterfully crafted |
| 4 | Someone at the top of their field, top quality |
| 5 | The absolute, physically and scientifically sound possible higher limit in the context of realistic fiction, rare or unique |
| 6+ | Supernatural, divine, natural phenomen, environmental catastrophe, power justified by magic or other fictional elements |
| At last, players should pick a name for their PC. |
John is starting a fantasy campaign, and the GM has just finished introducing the setting.
The GM awards John 5 points he can spend in Traits to build his PC. John wants to play a fighter type, so upon consulting with the GM he settles on the Warrior Trait. He gives the Trait a Weight of 3, marking it as Warrior (3) in the PC’s notes.
John now has 2 points left to spend, and the GM warns him: the Warrior Trait is just a Quality, and at the moment John’s PC has no weapons or armor. John decides to add a Sword Trait, a simple one to start with.
The starting location is also a rugged mountain, and John decides it would be wise to carry a Long rope with him. The Object is also marked as a Trait on the PC’s notes.
Both sword and rope have a default Weight of 1, and as such it is not needed to specify it in the notes.
At last, John gives his PC a name: Farek.
Here’s how John’s PC would look in Stitcher notation:
Farek
- Warrior (3)
- Sword
- Long rope
Task resolution
If the result of any action, player or GM controlled, is not obvious, six-faced dice (D6) are rolled to decide and the result is interpreted by the GM.
Pools
Dice to be rolled are first assembled in a Pool. A Pool can contain a maximum of 5 dice. If at any point a Pool would contain more than 5 dice, extras are not rolled. Instead, any extra 2 dice above 5 are considered one automatic Success.
Pools are assembled starting from 1 D6 each. Each Pool can be expanded by “stitching” together relevant game elements that add to the narrative. Such elements could be relevant Traits with their Weights added as dice to the Pool. Relevant game elements could also be positioning, in-game events, environmental features, information, equipment, or anything else that makes narrative sense. Every element unique enough that manages to get “stitched” to the Pool grants D6s equal to their Weight, if any, for a minimum of 1 D6 each.
When dice are rolled, numbers 4, 5, and 6 are counted as Successes, with their total occurrences being used to determine the outcome of an action.
Results of 6 are each considered a Critical Success and explode, allowing for another die to be rolled. And again and again, if new 6s comes up. Exploding dice do not count towards the 5-dice Pool limit, since they are rolled after the Pool has been assembled.
Results of 1 are counted as Critical Failures.
Challenges
A Challenge is an attempt to perform an action that has only one active side. The “active side” is usually the players, but sometimes GM controlled entities such as NPCs or Enemies might attempt an action by themselves.
Examples of Challenges:
- Trying to climb a wall
- Trying to jump from one roof to another
- Lockpicking a door
- Lift a big rock
- Read a room for clues
The GM would set a Difficulty Score (DS) for each Challenge. If the number of Successes in the roll is greater than the DS, the Challenge is passed and the action is carried out successfully.
| DS | Difficulty level |
|---|---|
| 1 | Easy |
| 2 | Tricky |
| 3 | Hard |
| 4 | Heroic |
| 5 | Legendary |
| 6+ | Impossible |
Abigail is playing Yavin, a smuggler gal in a low sci-fi setting:
Yavin
- Smuggler (3)
- Techie (2)
- PDA
She finds a closed door blocking her way forward. She needs a Keycard to open it, but she doesn’t have one. Abigail decides that Yavin will try to hack it open using her Techie Trait. The door is old and not up to date with security standards, and the GM sets a DS of (2) for the hack.
Abigail needs to put together a Pool of dice for Yavin: she starts from 1 D6, and she adds 2 D6 from the Techie Trait. She also argues that her PDA will help with connecting to the door’s systems, and an additional die is granted. She can roll 3 D6 now.
She rolls a 2, a 4, another 4, and a 6 (Critical Success). The 6 explodes, allowing her to throw one additional die, which results in a 5. Now on the table there are 4 total Successes for Yavin: the two 4s, the 5, and the 6. This is higher than the initial DS (2), and Yavin is successful in hacking the door open.
There’s no subtracting dice in Stitcher, as players should focus only on increasing their own Pools while the GM’s needs to manage other elements of difficulty. If the PC is marked with negative Traits, or is impeded by the circumstances they are in, these elements will be used by the GM to increase the difficulty of the current action. For example, if John gains a “Fatigued (2)” Trait, its Weight (2) can be added to the DS when John attempts to do something that requires physical effort.
Farek, John’s fighter PC, is being chased by bandits. He has gained an Injured Trait and is trying to get to safety. He finds himself at the edge of a narrow chasm, and has to jump to the other side. The GM tells John that this would normally be a DS (2) Challenge, but the Injured Weight will be added to it to account for Farek’s current condition, making it a DS (3) Challenge. Farek can only count on his Warrior (3) Trait, and John rolls the dice…
Degrees of success
An action in Stitcher can be:
- An Overwhelming Success
- A Regular Success
- A Mixed Success
- A Mixed Failure
- A Regular Failure
- Or a Disaster
A Regular Success happens when the number of Successes in a roll is greater than the DS. And a Regular Failure happens when the number of Successes in a roll is equal or lower than the DS. Critical Successes and Critical Failures cancel each other out, only outstanding ones are counted after the roll.
A Pool of 4 dice is rolled against a DS (2) Challenge, and the results are 1 (Critical Failure), 4, 4, and 6 (Critical Success). The 6 explodes, resulting in another 5. The total number of Successes is 4 (4, 4, 5, 6), and there are no outstanding Critical Successes or Critical Failures (the 1 is balanced out by the 6). The Challenge resolves successfully.
An Overwhelming Success happens when Critical Successes are present in the result, but no Critical Failures are. The action is carried out successfully, and the active side also gains unexpected, extra positive benefits or advantages.
In the previous example with Abigail’s Yavin, she managed to hack open the door by also exploding a 6: that was a Critical Success. Since no Critical Failures were present in the roll, that made it an overwhelming success! The GM tells Abigail that Yavin also found some corporate logs in the system, that exposed the access codes to a secure storage inside the facility she’s in.
A Mixed Success happens when Critical Failures outnumber Critical Successes in the result. The action is carried out successfully, but the active side suffers negative consequences or setbacks.
Ian is playing a detective PC named Jack.
Jack
- Detective (3)
- Old Gun
- Notebook
- Magnifying Glass
Jack is trying to find a document inside a messy, unorganized file locker. The GM sets a DS (2) Challenge, and Ian pools together Jack’s Detective (3) and Magnifying Glass Traits. Adding in the starting D6, that’s a Pool of 5 dice. Ian rolls 1 (Critical Failure), 1 (Critical Failure), 4, 5, and a 6 (Critical Success), that explodes into a 4. In this case, the roll is successful, one Critical Failure is balanced out by the Critical Success…but there’s an outstanding Critical Failure: Jack finds the document he was looking for, but he accidentally sets fire to it dropping the cigarette he was smoking! Parts of the document are now completely unreadable…
A Mixed Failure happens when Critical Successes outnumber Critical Failures in the result. The action fails, but the active side gets some positives out of it.
A roll against a DS (3) Challenge results in a 1 (Critical Failure), 2, 4, 6 (Critical Success), and 6 (Critical Success). The two 6s explode into a 2 and a 3. The total number of Successes is 3, meaning that the Challenge is failed. But the outstanding Critical Success here would allow for the active side to gain a particular advantage despite the failure. Maybe the next roll won’t go so bad…
Lastly, a Disaster happens when not only the roll fails, but Critical Failures are present with no Critical Successes in sight. The action fails spectacularly, putting the active side even more at a disadvantage.
Margareth is playing Buffy, a military engineer.
Buffy
- Soldier (4)
- Alien knowledge (2)
- Assault Rifle (2)
- Armor (2)
- Knife
- Repair Kit
- Infrared Goggles
Buffy is trying to destroy the alien nest that is infesting the colony starship they awoken into. They reach a corridor connecting with the nest, littered with pulsating tendrils.
They know that if the tendrils are alerted of her presence they will shriek and warn the aliens. Buffy will attempt to sneak by. The GM sets a DS (4) for the Challenge.
Margareth pools together Buffy’s Soldier (4), Alien Knowledge (2), and Infrared Goggles Traits: factoring in the starting 1D6, the Pool is 8 dice large. Margareth will roll 5 dice, with leftover 2 converted into an automatic Success, and 1 discarded.
The roll results in: 1 (Critical Failure), 1 (Critical Failure), 3, 4, 5. The total number of Successes is 3, not enough to pass the Challenge. Not only that, but the two Critical Failures aren’t balanced out by Critical Successes, this is a Disaster!
Buffy ends up stomping on a tendril, which shrieks loudly. Behind some of the tendrils, a Spitter Buffy didn’t notice also throws a ball of acid towards the engineer, melting away parts of their Armor (2). Margareth is forced to reduce its Weight to (1), and she also adds a temporary Surprised (2) to Buffy’s character sheet.
Consequences, advantages, and disadvantages should be proportional to the difficulty and risks of the action being attempted. A DS (1) Challenge will probably result in some minor gains or losses, while spectacularly failing a DS (5) or higher Challenge could result in a PC no longer being playable.
Purchasing things and money
PCs don’t track money, and they are presumed to be “average” in means unless otherwise specified, which translates in the usual 1D6 starting dice. Traits can be added to a PC to influence means: PCs could be Wealthy, which could grant a bonus to rolls made to purchase things. Or they could carry temporary reserves of cash in the form of Object Traits that gets erased once used.
Purchasing things is treated as a Challenge, with the DS set proportional to the desired object’s value:
| DS | Perceived value |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pocket change |
| 2 | An average week’s worth of work |
| 3 | An average month’s worth of work |
| 4 | An average season’s worth of work |
| 5 | An average year’s worth of work |
| 6+ | Something that usually takes multiple years to earn |
Ian’s detective Jack is now trying to purchase some information from a fixer he knows. Jack has acquired some money in previous rounds, and is now carrying a Bills Stack (2). The banknotes can be used to add 2 dice to the pool when Jack attempts the purchase with an Opposing Roll against the GM set DS (2) Challenge. If successful, Ian will erase the Bills Stack (2) from Jack’s sheet, meaning the money would be spent.
Opposing Rolls
When there are two active sides to an action (such as combat), the GM doesn’t need to set a DS and an Opposing Roll is required. The only exception is purchasing things at a fixed price, which has been covered above.
Both sides try to Pool together as many dice as possible and roll. Each side can also take into account any negative Trait of the other and add its Weight to their Pool. Since there’s no subtracting dice in Stitcher, each side should only focus on increasing the size of their Pool. In the case of combat, each side should also take into account protective equipment to mitigate possible counterattacks!
Examples of Opposing Rolls:
- A round of combat
- Trying to flee from an enemy
- Haggle on prices (as an alternative to purchasing things)
- Pickpocketing (against the victim’s perception and awareness)
- Taming wild animals
Buffy, the military engineer from before, is now face to face with an alien Spitter (2). A round of combat starts, and the pooling of dice begins.
The GM will roll for the Spitter, and will pool together the base Spitter (2) Trait, but also the newly gained Surprised (2) Trait of Buffy. Factoring in the initial 1D6, the GM will roll a total of 5 dice for the Spitter.
Margareth has a variety of options: she can count on Buffy’s Soldier (4) and Alien Knowledge (2) to begin with. She decides that Buffy will attack with the Knife, to avoid causing even more noise. She also takes into account the Armor (now of Weight 1) to mitigate the possible damage incurring from the combat round, and the Infrared Goggles for accuracy too! Including the starting 1D6, that’s a total of 10 dice! 5 will be rolled, with the remaining already granting 2 Successes.
The side that gets the most Successes wins, with the other side potentially suffering some negative consequences, especially if combat is involved. In case of a tie, the side that rolled the fewest dice wins. If it’s still a tie, each side rolls 1 additional die each and keeps doing it until one wins. These dice do not count towards the 5 dice limit of Pools.
Opposing Rolls can have degrees of success, same as Challenges. For the purpose of interpreting the result, the total Successes of the losing side replaces the DS, and the winning side becomes the active side.
In the above example with Buffy, the rolls resolved as follow:
- Buffy rolls 6, 5, 2, 5, and 2. The 6 explodes, resulting in an additional 5. With the 2 guaranteed Successes, it’s a total of 4 Successes, with 1 outstanding Critical Success!
- The Spitter rolls 2, 6, 3, 4, and 1. The 6 explodes, resulting in additional 6 that also explodes into a new 3. Total successes: 3.
Buffy won the round of combat with 1 outstanding Critical Success! That makes it an Overwhelming Success against the Spitter. The GM recognizes Buffy’s efforts, and declares the Spitter completely incapacitated. Combat is now over, and the corridor is now quieting back down again.
Teaming up
PCs and other GM controlled entities might decide to team up or provide help. They just do their turn together, and assemble all their relevant dice into a single Pool.
Farek, John’s fighter PC, is up against a tough Bandit (5) that managed to reach him. Luckily, his party member Adrian, a ranger, is close enough to contribute with his ranged attacks. The players pool together their relevant Traits: Farek will contribute his Warrior (3) and Sword, while Adrian has his Archer (3) and Long Bow (2). It would be Farek’s turn, but since they are teaming up Adrian is also playing now, and won’t have a standalone moment later in the current round.
Now the players also pitch in 1D6 of starting pool dice each. The resulting pool is 11 dice large, meaning that 5 dice will be rolled and 3 Successes are already guaranteed. The Bandit (5) can also pool Farek’s Injured Trait as a bonus, and given the starting 1D6, now has 1 guaranteed Success on top of the roll they are about to make.
Health and death
PCs don’t track health, but they can gain or lose health-related Traits during gameplay. They could, for example, sustain an Injured Trait as a consequence of task resolution, which would increase the difficulty of carrying out physical tasks.
Death could be a rare, extreme event, the consequence of trying to carry out an action way outside a PC’s current capabilities. It could also be the result of narrative elements such as combat, illnesses, curses, natural phenomenons, or more. But death should never be sudden or unforeseen, and players should be informed by the GM when they are at risk of losing their PC with enough time to salvage the situation. Depending on the setting and on the GM, a dead PC could no longer be playable, or could be recovered through what’s available in the fiction. A player with a dead PC should be allowed to re-enter the game as soon as it makes narrative sense, either with a fresh PC or by following the setting’s options and narrative.
Patches
There are no additional rules required to play a base game with Stitcher. No health tracking, no inventory management, no extra combat rules. It can work as is with narration and cinematic action. But it can be expanded upon with Patches that will use the system of Traits and Pools to add extra dimensions to the game, for added granularity and crunch.
A few examples:
- A simple progression Patch that use level as Traits
- Consumable Traits, or Traits that require a cost to be used
- A Luck consumable Trait to spend in order to influence Rolls
- Super Traits could contain multiple entities nested under them, like an inventory system or a spell slots system
- A basic stats Patch that use universal Traits to cover every situation
- An inventory Patch that “stitches” together with the stats one to provide constraints, burden, etc.
- A more complex progression Patch that involves stats too
- Enemies, Ambushes, and Contingents rules with extra Morale Traits
I plan on releasing some basic Patches alongside this Core System, for free. However, it’s important that the Core works before I start adding rules to it. Prototype examples will be included in version 0.4. In the meantime, feedback is encouraged. If you have time to try this out, please let me know your thoughts. I have a Discord server you can join! Alternatively, you can leave a comment on Stitcher’s itch.io page or send me an email at info@flygohr.com.
Credits
While this system has been put together by me, it is inspired by countless hours of live play, hacking, and tinkering with existing games. The main inspiration behind this SRD comes from Tunnel Goons. Additional inspiration comes from Risus, Star Wars FFG, Into the Odd, and more. Some references might be more obvious than others, but I hope you can appreciate the result.
License
This SRD is licensed under the CC-BY 4.0 License. This means you are free to share, download, print, distribute, and adapt my work (even commercially), as long as you give appropriate credit to me as the original creator.