400 independent bathrooms

whatever remains, v2

this is a game you play by fucking up the printed-out text of it with a permanent marker.

Knights: In this document you will find a profile of your target. Your goal is to extract a confession using your recording crystal, or, barring that goal, to detain for further questioning. You are NOT to kill the target, on pain of fines and up to six weeks' confiscation of your sword and shield. The Hegemon awaits your success.

{I gotta imagine you're feeling lost and confused since your memory got poofed. So I got you a copy of your dossier! Yeah, obviously a lot of it is BS, but look: Scratch out everything that doesn't feel true. What remains, however improbable, must be the truth! Use it as a guide, and find me.}

Crimes {Hey! In here you'll find your POWERS. Scratch out whatever you want until what remains is a list of the ways you solve your problems.}
The target is wanted on six counts of breaking and entering, thirteen counts of unlawful expression, and five counts of myth-making. Our experts suggest involvement in several arcane cults, including the Brotherhood of Journalism, the Painting Coalition, and at least one but possibly as many as twelve queer Discord servers. Target assaulted knights during an escape. Target has been tracked using websites which sell weapons and armor, so target should be assumed to be dangerous. Target is fluent in forbidden tongues and is rumored to own a personal library of texts banned by the Hegemon. Witnesses report the target voicing disdain and hatred for our way of life, slandering the Hegemon, and calling for violence.

History {They really dropped the ball on this one. Still, scratch out freely and what remains will give you a road map of your PASSIONS.} The target was borne into this realm on the Styx. Our sources discovered no traces of the past life erased by the waters. Their heritage and upbringing must therefore be considered irrelevant. Target is not to be understood as a person. Target is more easily compared to a trained attack animal. This section will therefore detail methods for handling the target while minimizing risk.

  1. Do not be fooled by attempts to gain sympathy. The target has likely been trained to manipulate emotions. Any knight experiencing symptoms of pity, respect, sympathy, awe, adoration, arousal, love, aspiration, inspiration, romance, or attraction should follow extraction protocol and report to a healing temple.
  2. Always assert dominance. Quiet or gentle behavior will be seen as submissive and weak by the target, who may attack. Never approach alone, as there is strength in numbers. Keep your sword ready at all times.

HOW TO PLAY: Your character will have some number of POWERS and some number of PASSIONS. To find out these Powers and Passions, use a marker or white-out to cover up any text in the dossier. The remaining text will make up your character's Powers and Passions. Organize them into a bullet-pointed list.

When you try to solve a problem using one of your Powers, add a d6 to one of your other Powers and then roll 1d6. Also roll all the d6s for the Power you're using. If any of them come up 4 or higher, you succeed. After rolling them, remove them from that Power.

When you choose to follow one of your Passions, gain a point of Change. When you choose not to follow one of your Passions, lose a point of Change.

Whenever you roll at least 4 d6s at once, you can spend Change in any of the following ways:

  1. Spend 1 Change to add a permanent d6 to one of your Powers. This d6 isn't removed when rolled.
  2. Spend 2 Change to have another player name a book. You can use any one page of that book as a new dossier, gaining new Powers and Passions by removing text as before.
  3. Spend 3 Change to remove one of the following sentences from the canon: Any Knight who breaks the Code is banished to the Void Dimension. You did this to yourself. The Hegemon is eternal.

NPC dossiers! When you get to know an NPC, they might show you some aspect of yourself. All of us are, in some way, constructed by the other. Treat these reflections as dossiers, gaining new Powers and Passions by removing text as before.

(I never wrote any NPC dossiers. I was toying with some ideas but it seemed like too much work I guess.)

I would love if you played this. I would love if you told me how it went. I will try to work out how to enable such communication inside this blog. I would hate for you not to understand that it began to take shape in my mind after I read this post from tumblr user prokopetz.