How To Play Discworld

How To Play Discworld

Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m a player in an upcoming session using the rules for the official tabletop roleplaying game of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my fellow players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Discworld game at home.

I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.

1. Game category

2. Tests

3. Traits

4. Rolling dice

5. Luck

6. Group tests

7. How to attack

8. Magic (Jommetry)

9. Dying

10. Helping allies

11. Building a character

Game category. Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld book series has sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. In the 1990’s, Pratchett was the UK’s best selling author. Fans adore these forty one books, and their characters such as Rincewind, Sam Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, Tiffany Aching, Moist von Lipwig, and the anthropomorphic personification of Death. This is the official Discworld tabletop roleplaying game. Mechanically, this game uses opposed rolls to determine outcomes. Players cite one of their traits that they feel gives them experience at what they’re attempting to do. The Game Master thinks about how well prepared the player character is, and how this specific situation affects the difficulty, and tells the player to use either a four, six, ten, or twelve sided dice as their outcome dice. The Game Master always rolls a d8 for their narrativium dice. If the player outcome dice result is higher than the Game Master narrativium dice result, they influence the story as they intended. On a tie they still do, with a complication. When the GM’s narrativium dice result is higher, the story is influenced all right but in a way the player might not have been anticipating. The GM describes the complication. That’s a quick summary of the rules. Let’s go into more detail.

Tests. When your character tries to influence the narrative, they will make a test. If you pass the test, you influence the story in the way you intended. If you fail the test, you influence the story in a different way than you intended. Whether you succeed or fail depends on an opposed dice roll. You will roll a dice called the outcome dice that could have four sides, six sides, ten sides, or twelve sides. The words d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 refer to which dice you’re rolling, with the letter d meaning dice and the number meaning how many sides. The Game Master will roll a dice called the narrativium dice that has eight sides each time, a d8.

Traits. Every character has a few traits that define them. These traits are your character’s organization, background, species, niche, quirks, core and luck. During a test, you will cite one of your character’s traits as a reason why they should be good at doing something. The GM will consider how much experience the character has with the situation and what they’re trying to do, and will tell the player which outcome dice to roll, a d4, d6, d10, or d12. The GM can compel you to use a trait you’d rather not for a test if it’s more appropriate. If your character has a trait that fits the situation perfectly, lots of experience in what they’re doing, and it’s a well justified action, the GM will tell you to roll with a d12 outcome dice. If you’re trying to do something you’re entirely unprepared for, the GM will tell you to roll with a d4 outcome dice. For example, a character with the trait Hits Like A Troll will probably be told to use a d12 when smashing into a locked door with their shoulder, but a d4 when finely picking the lock. The difficulty of the situation can affect which dice gets used. The rule book uses the example that if a thief who is used to scaling roofs normally would be granted a d12 by the GM, the dice could be decreased to a d10 or even a d6 if the roof is covered in goose fat and the thief is having saucepans thrown at them while they carry a heavy bag of gold.

Core traits are different than other traits. Every character can only have one core trait. You don’t start out with one. When you have a particularly meaningful moment with your character, you can state what narrative trigger formed your core trait or brought it to the surface. If you’re using the core trait as part of a test in the moment of identifying it, use a d12 dice for that first test where it’s being formed. Not every character will claim a core trait. Don’t try to force the moment. Similarly, if someone is forming a core trait, let them have their moment. The rule book says, quote, “Don’t butt in. Butts are for goats, after all. Let them have their moment as their character realizes just who they are and what they stand for. Then, after a sufficient pause, crack that witty one-liner you’ve been holding back.” End quote.

Rolling dice. The Game Master and the player will both roll dice during the test to see what happens. If the player’s outcome dice is a higher number than the Game Master’s narrativium dice, then the player influenced the story in the way they intended. If the GM’s narrativium dice is higher, then a capital c Consequence happens. A Consequence is a twist in the narrative. A complication. If the outcome dice and narrativium dice are the same number, then both happen: the character is successful and there’s a Consequence. Consequences can be things in the story, and they can also be that the character gains a new, less than positive trait. Traits gained from capital c Consequences are temporary. If your character takes the time to deal with them, they go away.

Luck. All player characters start with four luck. Four is your maximum luck, too. There are two ways to spend luck during a test. The first way is that a player character may spend one luck to avoid the capital c Consequence of their action. The second way to use luck is that before a player rolls their outcome dice, their fellow players can offer that they’re going to spend one luck to help. The first player may accept or reject this offer of help. If accepted, the second player spends their one luck, then asks the GM what outcome dice they’d get if they rolled this particular trait from their character. The GM’s narativium dice does not get rerolled. The second player’s outcome dice then replaces the first player’s outcome dice, whether it was better or worse. By helping, the second player has opened themselves up to the consequences if this test fails. Because only one luck may be spent per test, there is no way to spend a luck to avoid the consequence if a player helped on a test. Luck doesn’t recover on its own. When the GM feels you’ve done a particularly ridiculous plan or excellent roleplay or wants to reward you in some way, they might tell you you’ve gained one luck.

Group tests. There are two types of group tests. Seeing if one person failed is a type of group test where everyone in the group is doing an activity and one person’s failure can stop the group from achieving their goal. For example, if the whole group is sneaking and one person’s lack of stealth would alert the guards. For seeing if one person failed, everyone rolls dice and the lowest outcome dice is compared to the GM’s narrativium dice. Seeing if one person succeeded is a type of group test where one person’s success lets the group achieve the goal.For seeing if one person succeeded, everyone rolls dice and the highest outcome dice result is compared to the GM’s narrativium dice. People involved in the group test can’t help one another because they’re all rolling.

How to attack. Physical fights and contests of wits are like other tests. Say what you want to do, what trait you’re using to do it, and roll the outcome dice the GM tells you is appropriate for your level of experience and the difficulty of the situation. If your result is higher than the d8 narrativium dice you succeeded. If lower, you impacted the story in a way you weren’t intending. If equal, then both things happen.

Magic. Some characters can do magic. There are lots of types of magic. The type performed by wizards is called jommetry. People of any gender can be wizards, which is the topic of the Terry Pratchett book Equal Rites. If your character can do jommetry, it goes like this. Step one, state what you want to do with your jommetry magic. Step two, name the trait you’d like to use, and why it will get you the largest outcome dice. This is usually your niche trait or quirk trait. Step three, spend luck. How much luck depends on the impact to the story. If the story isn’t impacted, there is no luck cost. If you minorly impact the story, the spell costs 1 to 2 luck to attempt. If you’re trying to majorly impact the story, that will cost either 3 or 4 luck. Huge impact spells could cost more, like a spell affecting the whole Discworld is estimated to cost 10 luck in the example in the rule book. Any character helping can contribute any amount of luck to help the spell get cast. So you spend the luck amount the GM says is required. The last step to casting jommetry magic is to roll the outcome dice and compare to the GM’s narrativium dice. If you succeed, name the spell and suffer a capital C Consequence because magic has consequences. Magical consequences can’t be avoided because you already spent luck on the test. If you fail, you didn’t cast magic and there is no capital c Consequence. Remember, you can’t magic another wizard without knowing their name. And you’re very very unlikely to permanently change someone’s shape.

Dying. The mechanic for dying in the official Discworld tabletop roleplaying game is that if you fail a roll so astronomically badly that the Consequence would see your character removed from the scene or possibly the story, this is called a capital e capital c Exceptional Consequence. There are two types of Exceptional Consequence: a near death experience, and a magical mishap. Examples of magical mishaps are that your character could become quote, “an orangutan, a talking dog, or pile of something particularly unpleasant.” Another magical mishap is teleportation, such as being hurled through the dungeon dimensions. The player should be involved in deciding how their characer changes, and help come up with an appropriate new or changed trait with which to return to the table. A near death experience is that Death, the person, not the state, appears. Wizards and cats can always see and interact with Death. Now you can, too. Everything fades to gray and all the other characters freeze as Death arrives on the scene. Death speaks in all capital letters. The player now has a choice. Do you take Death’s hand and let Death guide you to where you need to go? Or do you talk to Death about why you need to return tot he story to finish what you started? The decision is up to the player. If you choose to return to the party, then your character will have a new or permanently changed trait to reflect their near death experience. If you choose to take Death’s hand, then the player can continue in the session as a different character, for example a non player character who appeared earlier in the session.

Helping allies. The major ways that you can help allies in the official Disworld tabletop roleplaying game are that you can spend luck to help them on a test or when they cast magic. The person who spends luck to help their friend also suffers from any capital C Consequence if there is one.

Building a character. There are nine steps to filling out a character sheet. Consequences, Luck, Name, Picture, Organization, Background, Niche, Quirks, and Core. Consequences. Your character doesn’t start with any Consequences, so, you’re done. Voila. You’ll acquire Consequence traits when you fail rolls during gameplay. Luck. All player characters start with 4 luck, so write a 4 here. Name. Write your name here. Picture. You’re welcome to put a picture of your character here. The picture is called an iconograph on the example character sheet. The organization is the group your character travels with. For us, that’s Firebreathing Kittens. Background is where you’re from. Most people write their species and where they’re from here. Niche is something that you can uniquely do, compared to the other people your party. Each character gets three quirks. There are tables for them on pages 73 to 90 to give you ideas. Here are six examples. What is the first thing people notice about you? What is your favorite hobby? What class did you struggle with and why? What was the tipping point that caused you to take action? Why did you pick your career? What do you wish you weren’t? Lastly, leave core blank. You can gain a core trait during a defining character moment during the roleplay of the game.

Here is an example character sheet. Consequences start blank. Luck: 4. Name: The Luggage. Iconograph: there’s a picture of a wooden chest with many feet. Organization: Twoflower is mostly unaware of his Luggage’s habits, and would not believe you if you told him. Rincewind on the other hand is all too aware. Background: A large sapient pearwood chest supported by far too many legs. Niche: Dog-like righ tup until it becomes much more eldritch. Three quirks. Half suitcase, half homicidal maniac. More legs than most are comfortable with. Bigger on the inside. Core starts blank.

Hopefully this little rules chat helps my players build their characters and understand how to play. For everyone listening, if you’d like to hear an example adventure, the episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast right after this is a demonstration of us playing Discworld in a oneshot game session. We invite you to listen to it to hear an example of Discworld in action. We encourage you to find the official tabletop roleplaying game of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld rule book yourself, and play a game with friends.