Exploring Characters pt. 2: Keywords

All of this replaces proficiency from my last blog post.

Keywords are things used to define a character's narrative. They are short, punchy ideas that carry mechanical weight--any time you can apply a keyword to a roll d20 roll, you roll a d6 as well. If the d6 is a 5-6 and the d20 a success, you have a critical success. If either the d20 or d6 are a success and the other is not, the roll is a success. If both fail, it's just a failure.

Keywords: Dragonslayer & Devil ; art commissioned from Ragnar Pendon

Keywords are pretty abusable, so they require an unwritten social contract to not abuse them. If my keyword is "Mercenary" then I can take advantage when rolling against fear vs battlefield horrors, or having a clever getaway plan, or fighting dirty, but I wouldn't on something weird like politically influencing a king or something. Note the fighting dirty one--if your keyword influences fighting, it should only do so under certain conditions. This will require some thought from Ref and player, but in games of both player skill and narrative evolution, this should be assumed IMO. I considered making it so each keyword has like 6 things they key off of specifically, but that's way too much minutia for me and encourages something other than player skill.

Keywords are kinda' like backgrounds in 2E, but they go beyond backgrounds. Mercenary above is a keyword, but so is "Coward."

The problem with keywords is that too many keywords limits what other keywords can do. The pro of keywords is that they make for character development through progression, as buying keywords via XP would be a thing with this system. To solve this problem, the Ref should select 20 keywords for a given campaign, and those are the only words players can choose from. Use them as a tool for worldbuilding.

You choose keywords to supplement your class. Sometimes, this may lead to a weird result, like a Fighter with the "Magically Trained" keyword. The fun here is reasoning out what this means for the character/player. A fighter that is magically trained may be trained in recognizing magic, could be a witch hunter, or could be someone who knows the trick to breaking spells.

Some keywords might require description. Not sure yet.

Below are some keywords by project or genre:

Princess Mononoke Keywords

1. Eyes Unclouded by Hate
2. Bond With Animal
3. Nature Friend
4. Vicious Leader
5. Bodyguard
6. God-raised
7. Scornful
8. False Monk
9. Cursed by Hate
10. Hated by Gods
11. Gunsmith
12. Foreign Prince(ss)
13. Hunter
14. Samurai
15. Former [Prostitute/Slave/Exile]
16. Ambitious
17. Schemer
18. Silver Tongued
19. Lord/Lady
20. God Killer

Dark Sun Keywords

1. [Insert trade] Slave or Slaver
2. Disciple
3. Survivor
4. Cannibal
5. Defiler or Defiled
6. Oasis Preserver
7. Templar
8. Desperate
9. Hard to Kill
10. Gladiator
11. Whispering Bard
12. Elementalist
13. Druid
14. Dead Mind
15. World Traveler
16. Raider
17. Tribal Leader
18. Grain/Well Noble
19. [Insert trade] Merchant
20. Caravan Guard

Cyberpunk Keywords

1. [Insert specialty] Hacker
2. Back alley Doctor
3. Shadowrunner
4. Bladerunner
5. Data Horder
6. Drone Fanatic
7. Neuromancer
8. Dirty Celebrity
9. Body Mod Dealer
10. Enhanced [Insert Personality Trait or Body Part]
11. Off the Grid
12. Double Life
13. Gun God
14. Street Punk
15. Corporate Protected
16. A.I
17. Bio-engineered
18. Uploaded Immortality
19. Ganglord
20. Hired Muscle