TEAR Escapes Arduous Roleplaying

The material below is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. You may use it freely as long as you credit me, Ben B. Bainton, as the original author and release derivative works under a similar license.

TEAR endeavours to be a minimalistic, almost free-form approach to roleplaying, which places emphasis on creative storytelling rather than number-crunching.

TEAR is a recursive acronym for TEAR Escapes Arduous Roleplaying. It does not use complex stat systems or dice rolling. Characters are generally defined by a few sentences about their history, nature, motivation etc., and perhaps a short list of their most notable abilities. Instead of dice, tarot cards may be used. Their purpose, however, is not to simply decide success or failure, as most conventional roleplaying systems do, but to inspire creative storytelling.

TEAR is mostly rooted in free-form roleplaying, emphasizing narrative rather than rules. Indeed, any 'rules' that exist within TEAR are designed primarily to inspire storytelling, rather than place restrictions. This is intended to be a game of wonder and imagination rather than of strategy and detail. If strategy and detailed statistics is what you want, this isn't the game for you. However, the purpose of TEAR is to provide a framework of sorts, no matter how minimal, to free-form roleplaying, and the possibility to include a random element to spice up play, if desired.

Note that the definition of 'free-form roleplaying' is not the same in all places. I use the term in the sense of playing without strict rules. Also note that these 'rules' have been written assuming that the reader is familiar with basic concepts of 'tabletop' roleplaying games, and general information regarding such won't be included.

TEAR has not been designed for any certain genre or style of game. It can work just as well for drama or action, for fantasy or modern settings, as long as emphasis is placed on the narrative. The use of tarot cards naturally makes it ideal for games with an occult theme, but it need not be restricted to such.

Last, note that TEAR has not been tested in practice and is not under active development.

Characters

There are no strict rules for character creation. It is largely up to the Game Master to decide what information is needed to define a character. There are some universal features, though, that should be considered. Each character needs a name, for instance. There should be information about his or her physical description, details about background and personality, and perhaps some information about the character's desires and motivations.

Although not strictly necessary, a short list of a character's most important abilities can be provided. The GM may wish that each character has a set number of these, around half a dozen, perhaps. These abilities can include innate physical or mental abilities, hobbies, professional skills etc. No numerical stats are assigned to these abilities, although different words may be used to indicate varying levels of competence.

Character Sheets

A character sheet is a useful tool for character creation and play. This should be simple (no more than one page), and aesthetically pleasing. It should contain sections for name, description, background, abilities and whatever other information the GM may wish to be provided. No more than a few sentences should be required for each point. This does not mean that players shouldn't or couldn't make up more information about their characters, but additional information should be recorded on a separate sheet, and the actual 'character sheet' should be kept as a simple and easy to read summary of the character's personality and abilities.

A simple character sheet can be downloaded here. (PDF format, A4 size. Note, prints two A5 size sheets on a sheet of paper.)

Character Development

Since there are no stats involved, TEAR does not have an experience system such as most conventional roleplaying games do. However, players are free to make changes to their character information, even change their abilities, to reflect their characters' development over the course of the game. Such changes must of course be in keeping with the events of the game, and must be approved by the GM.

Action and Tarot Cards

The majority of the game will be carried out as a dialogue between the GM and the players, like in any roleplaying game, the GM narrating events of the story and players narrating their characters' response to these events.

At points of great significance, when a character's action will determine the course of future events, a tarot card is drawn. Unlike in most games, where a simple roll of dice determines the success of an action, it is up to the player to interpret the significance of the card that has been drawn and shape the narration of the event accordingly.

The cards used are those of a standard tarot deck. There is no one correct interpretation for a card. They are intended to act as a catalyst for the players' own imagination, rather than as any kind of restriction. Influence may be drawn from traditional symbolism of cards as used in divination, but interpretation should never be limited to this, nor is it in any way required to keep any kind of standard interpretations in mind at all. Card decorations may also be used in the interpretation, or it may be based only on the name of the card. It is entirely up to the player in question.

It is probably best to use only the 22 'Major Arcana' at first, as these cards have the strongest symbolim and inspirational names, and are also familiar to many people from movies etc. There is no reason why the 'Minor Arcana' could not be used, though, especially if you use the cards a lot, or if all the players are familiar with tarot. As these cards are not named, the interpretations will draw mainly from illustrations, so it is important to use a deck with good, inspirational illustrations. The traditional symbolism of these cards may naturally be utilized as well.

Some characters are better at certain things than others. We create background information for each character, which should always be kept in mind when narrating a character's actions. However, this background information can also be reflected in card drawing. For each detail in the character's background that is beneficial in the circumstances (these primarily include abilities, but may also include details in the characters history, personality and whatever other information is recorded on the character sheet) the player may draw an additional card. The player may then choose a favoured card to use in the situation. He or she may even utilise more than one card in the narration, either to reflect different aspects or different consequences of the action, or perhaps even to reflect a chain of several actions.

Players should keep in mind that this is not intended to be a strict action resolution system as seen in many roleplaying games, but rather a system to provide additional inspiration (and perhaps challenge) to narration. There is no success or failure involved, as such, only actions and consequences. Cards should shape the flow of actions rather than simply dictate success or failure. Often it may be better to draw a card at an important juncture in the story, before a particular action is indicated, thus allowing the player to shape the whole action according to the card drawn and allowing more freedom in the interpretation of the card, although it is also possible to draw cards after an action has been initiated, thus shaping the consequences rather than the action itself.

When to Draw Cards

There is no simple answer to this. In a nutshell, whenever it feels appropriate. Cards should not be used for mundane actions, but rather reserved for important events, for situations where the character's (or another character's) fate is on the line. Additionally, the GM may allow a card to be drawn whenever a player feels he or she needs additional inspiration for a character's actions.

Whether to draw cards before or after actions are initiated, as described above, is also up to the GM. One method may work better in a certain situation than another. Experiment and see what works with your group.

Always remember that the story is the first priority, and there is no rule to force the use of cards if it would disrupt the flow of the story. Cards are there to provide additional fun, not restrictions.

Setbacks

Action would not be exciting without the chance of failure. Characters should experience periodical setbacks. However, in a free-form system these may be harder to handle than in a traditional stat-based system, as there is no clear success or failure for actions.

Players should be encouraged to be courageous in their interpretations of cards and to strive for an interesting and entertaining narrative rather than personal success. If players from time to time interpret cards to have negative effects on their actions, they should be rewarded in some fashion. See the Fate Point option below for one possible method.

Optionally, the GM may rule that certain cards always have negative impact. This should be used carefully, however, as it could restrict the use of cards, and no card is inherently 'good' or 'bad'.

The GM, of course, always has veto over players' interpretations of cards.

Of course, if players recklessly narrate actions with great risk involved, the GM is free to narrate suitable consequences. There are no hit points, of course, or other 'rules' that may incapacitate a character, other than the flow of the narrative. Player characters should rarely be killed, not unless the story calls for it and it is agreed upon in advance. However, if the story calls for it, if a character behaves recklessly or an interpretation of a card points that way, a character can be knocked out, wounded or removed from action by some other means for a certain period of time.

Optional 'Rules'

Of course, the game system is only limited by the GM's imagination. None of the 'rules' above are written in stone, and may be adapted to suit each group's playing style, or even removed entirely. Likewise, other mechanics may be added, but you should always be wary of making the system too cumbersome, which is exactly what TEAR tries not to be. Below are some additional game mechanics that you might find fun or useful.

Fate Points

Fate Points are primarily a system to encourage players to occasionally interpret tarot cards negatively (creating setbacks for their characters). Fate Points may also be awarded for particularly imaginative and creative narration (whether in connection to a tarot card or not). In such a situation, a player receives a single Fate Point (this can be recorded on a character sheet or scrap paper, or counters may be used). Later, players may use accumulated Fate Points to acquire additional cards. These may be used in a similar fashion as (and in addition to) additional cards received from a character's background and abilities. One point generally buys one card.

Playing a Hand

When several characters face a difficult situation together, you could deal out a card to each player. Actions are then narrated one player at a time, in clockwise order. If characters are entitled to additional card, you may deal such cards at the beginning of the round, or, if such cards are not evident until the player's choice of action, when it is that player's turn to act.

Personal Tarot Card

It might be fun to pick a card that reflects the nature of each character when the character is first created. This card should be recorded on the character sheet. Some ways in which this might be utilised in play include:

When drawn, this card is always positive for the player, perhaps even to the extent of accomplishing tasks normally impossible.

Letting the Numbers Decide

Sometimes it may be useful to simply determine success or failure by means of a random number. Since the Major Arcana cards in tarot decks are usually numbered (generally as 0 through 21), it is easy to pick a number just by drawing a random card. (Alternatively, the Minor Arcana could be used, providing numbers 1 through 14, or even dice.) There are many ways in which this could be utilised, but should always be kept on a very occasional basis in order not interfere with the flow of the narrative.

An obvious use is a situation where two characters are directly opposed in competition. Simply draw cards for each character, and the highest card wins. As usual, a character can gain additional cards for beneficial details in his or her background. In such a case, the highest card drawn is the card used for comparison.

If you wish to indicate a simple success or failure, you might draw a card and compare it to a set target number. Again, additional cards may be drawn and the highest card counted. An action with an average difficulty level might have about a 50% chance of success (cards 11 through 21, for instance). A hard task might have a 25% chance of success (say cards 16 through 21).