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CMWGE is a diceless RPG based on the rules for Nobilis 3rd Edition. It features resource-based resolution (i.e., you spend points.
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RPG Rules Summary
CMWGE is a diceless RPG based on the rules for Nobilis 3 rd^ Edition. It features resource-based resolution (i.e., you spend points from a limited pool and add them to your skill total to accomplish goals). The primary driver of play is a quest-based XP system that outlines various general tasks that player characters should accomplish to gain granular amounts of XP, and structures these tasks to attempt to provide a narrative.
Characters in CMWGE have eleven elements:
Types of Skill
There are several different types of skill (each purchased from the same pool and with a maximum rank of 5):
Most PCs start with eight ranks of skills of any type (up to rank 5 on any individual skill), may take a -1 rank skill to indicate an amusing weakness (no extra bonus if you do), and start with a perk for each other PC that grants Connection 1 to that character.
Basic Task Resolution
Each character has a measure of personal energy and effectiveness called Will, and PCs almost always have 8 to spend when they are fully refreshed. Taking actions consumes 0-8 points of this Will, through phrasing an intention. This intention can be specific (“I want to dodge that attack.”), broad (“I want to escape from this fight without harm.”), or even ongoing for a whole chapter (“I want to just go one week without taking a wound!”). They are essentially a project that can go for as long as the player thinks is relevant, or until clearly successful.
Intention You can... 0 or less Attempt to do things, but only make things worse; 1 Use your Skill in such a fashion as to please yourself and make you happy; 2 Accomplish a task; have a tangible impact on the world; 3 Do something “correctly;” impress people around you; 4 Do something effective—something that moves you closer to your goals; 5 Do something productive—something that makes your life better; 6 Do something that looks dang good— impressive, dramatic, and cool; 7 Do somethingreally effective, moving you a lot closer to your goals; 8 Do somethingreally productive—it will make your life a lot better; 9 Do the “right thing,” for some fuzzy definition of right.
If uncontested and not subject to modifiers, an intention’s total rating is equal to the relevant skill plus the points of Will spent (for a range of -1 to 13). You can only spend Will in binary increments (either 0, 1, 2, 4, or 8; you cannot spend 3, 5, 6, or 7 on a single intention). If uncontested, the effectiveness of an intention is judged based on the intentions chart (see to the right).
If contested or otherwise in conflict, the higher intention “wins” (but the lower intention is still as successful as possible up to its rating if there is conceptual space “left over” within the winner’s intention). Conflicts often also involve skill modifiers
You can maintain a maximum of two intentions at one time. If you start a third intention, you have to drop an ongoing one.
PCs recover Will (to the maximum of 8) in several circumstances:
Advancement
Most of the storytelling of CMWGE is based on player-driven XP. Each PC has several types of advancement option for earning or spending XP, each with a particular story-driving fiction attached. Essentially, players are mechanically encouraged to perform actions that create a story and expand on their character motivations in order to advance their characters.
Arcs
Each PC is always actively pursuing one arc (from the set of Storyteller, Knight, Aspect, Otherworldly, Bindings, Shepherd, Emptiness, and Mystic). Each arc has an internal 3-5 step process that guides the character through a personal journey relevant to
trying to change you, resulting in you making a mistake, falling from grace, changing, and/or growing. Possible quests that fit this concept are Mental Training, Poisoned, Labyrinth Diving, The Belly of the Whale, or The Great Dread Witch Hunt.
Each time a PC completes the 3-5 steps/quests of an arc, the arc trait goes up by one rank (improving related traits such as afflictions and granting skill improvements). In addition, for each quest completed that supports a step of the arc, the character gains a perk from those appropriate to the arc. A player that wants to improve the arc trait to a high rank will experience the same steps several times, but each time is represented by different quests, and generally the character’s story grows in scale with each iteration through the process.
You can only pursue one arc at a time, but can switch to a different arc at an appropriate milestone. You retain the rating of all previously pursued arcs, and can switch back to them at the same rank at another milestone.
Quests
A PC can have up to four quests at a time. Generally, one will be a basic quest (used for any-time XP and recovery tokens) and another will be the quest that’s currently supporting the current step of the arc. Two more are available to mechanically incent other missions the player might want to pursue.
Each quest requires 15-50 XP to complete. Each also comes with a list of actions the PC can take to acquire one or more of those
progress through the story element represented by the quest; the GM and player will work together to bring it to an appropriate close as the XP track is fully filled.
Completing a quest grants whatever in-story reward makes sense from its completion. If it is an arc quest, it grants a perk from the current step of the arc. Non-arc quests may grant a Recharge Token or other reward. Once complete, its XP total is rolled into the arc: in addition to needing 3-5 steps, each arc has an XP cost for completion (based on the pacing of the story). For example, an arc that costs 150 XP to complete would require an additional 50 XP from miscellaneous quests to complete if the player completed each of the five arc steps with 20 XP quests.
Genre, Emotion, and Any-Time Actions
In addition to the XP gained from your primary quest, there are three ways to gain XP:
Issues
Much like quests, issues come on cards with notes about what’s going on with your character while experiencing it. Unlike quests, you don’t choose your issues; the GM awards them to you based on things that have happened to you or decisions you’ve made in play. Generally, the GM will give a player an issue (or increase a current issue) once per chapter, based on the GM’s strongest impressions of what each player did, and any plots that were relevant.
Each step of an issue includes advice for how to play up that issue in your roleplaying. For example, In Over Your Head 4 suggests, “You’ve had a brilliant idea and you know how to test or implement it.” Issues normally go up as the GM thinks you’re still playing them, and at every odd step they give you bonus resources in Will and MP (so issues complicate your life, but improve your ability to handle challenges). Once they’re at step 4 or 5, you can attempt to resolve them (gaining another set of bonus resources and solving whatever in-story problem the issue represented). You can also lower issues that haven’t come up lately by one step at the end of a session.
The main issues are In Over Your Head, Hero, Sickness, Vice, Mystery, Complex, It Never Stops!, Calling, Something to Deal With, and Trust. Certain genres and campaigns introduce special issues like Hollow, Illusion, and Isolation.
Perks and Arc Levels
Most character advancement is ultimately awarded through perks and by going up in arc levels.
You get a new perk every time you complete a quest step of an arc (up to 5 perks per arc level). The available perks are based on the current step. For example, at Knight step 3, you can gain a defensive, support, or offensive aura, a rank 1 superior skill, improve a superior skill from another Knight perk by +1 (to a maximum of your Knight trait level), or, at Knight 2+, gain a new Bond with a rating based on your current Trust issue.
You can only have eight perks at one time; once you have eight, gaining a new one means retiring an old one. An exception is any perk that allows you to improve a previous perk (e.g., that +1 to a previous superior skill means the previous perk slot is now a better value) or otherwise alter something. In general, after you’ve been through a few cycles of one or more arcs, you’ll have all eight perks filled, some of them will be becoming more and more powerful, and others will get switched out as you lose interest in favor of new bonuses.
When you complete a cycle of the arc:
When you start a new arc:
Miraculous characters also get particular power upgrades based on their arc trait’s rank.