How traits and tags work

Traits and tags are at the heart of Tagline, so I want to briefly describe how they work and why I went with this design.

Traits

The game went through many iterations over the years - at least in my head, before I wrote anything down. Traits are one of the things that have remained more or less constant. The initial thought experiment was this: Can I make characters as simple as a list of statements of what they're good and bad at? Admittedly, my initial idea was more freeform, and the final version ended up more structured.

In the current design (which of course might still change after playtesting), characters have 6 traits, each rated at bad, normal, or good. The actual traits vary per setting, and the intent is for the GM to define them ahead of time, or even together with the players in the case of collaborative world-building. I also plan to provide examples with the rules.

What the traits represent is open-ended and varies with the genre, setting, and play style. For example, a fantasy game might use the traditional D&D attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma). Or it might use a variation like Brawn, Finesse, Knowledge, Influence, Combat, Awareness - a mix of physical, social, and mental attributes, which define what the character is good at, while making it clear what the game is about. But in another game, traits might represent the characters' values, i.e. what drives them. For example, the Cortex-based Smallville RPG uses the values Duty, Glory, Justice, Love, Power, and Truth - and those would work just fine as traits. Many other dimensions could work as well: skills, roles, relationships, and more.

But the thing that really makes this work (without adding skills or similarly detailed and discrete stats on top of this) is Specializations - free-form areas of competency that sit under each trait. Settings provide a few examples, just to pin down the intended scope and granularity. But ultimately players pick their own, with GM approval. For example, a character might be good at Influence, but specialized in Intimidation and High Society Etiquette. Or they might only be normal at Brawn, but specialized in Climbing.

During character creation, characters start out balanced (normal at everything), and then they can lower some traits to either raise other traits or add specializations (tentatively 3 per lowered trait). In a heroic setting, they might get a free good trait at the beginning.

So what does all of this translate to, mechanically?

It determines how many dice you roll. Tagline's core mechanic is to roll a number of six-sided dice and get a certain number of even results, depending on the task's difficulty. Risky/Hard/Extreme challenges require 1, 2, or 3 evens, respectively.

The starting dice pool is determined based on the trait. 0, 1, or 2 dice, depending on whether the character is bad, normal, or good at it. Specializations add a die. Assistance or equipment can add a die as well.

I'll go more into the actual core mechanic, and the resulting probabilities, in a future update, as there's more to it than a binary pass/fail system. Mixed results (getting less evens than required) or extra evens are both meaningful. But at a glance, you likely see that a character who's bad at a trait but specialized in the specific thing they're attempting effectively rolls the same number of dice as a character that's normal in the trait.

(As an example, I think of my own lack of athletic skills. I'm bad at sports - terrible, even. But I'm at least decent at skiing. So the game would model that as a bad Athletics trait, but with a specialization in skiing.)

Tags

In addition, characters have two tags. These are double-edged true statements. Depending on the setting, they may describe the character's core concept, their motivation, baggage, or something else.

Tags are either charged or not. When a tag is charged, the player can draw on the tag to roll an extra die after the initial roll. That way, the roll is never wasted; they only draw on the tag when it actually matters. And that depletes the charge.

Tags are recharged by turning it against the player. That's why it's important that it's phrased as a double-edged statement. Either the player themselves or the GM can turn the tag against them.

In addition to character tags, scenes and NPCs also carry tags. Mechanically, these are largely consistent with character tags, although they may also have an associated difficulty. That's because of the player-facing nature of the game: the difficulty is what the player defends against when the enemy or hazard acts against them.

Players can create or recharge new scene tags with their action, allowing for highly dynamic combos.

(All of this may sound very similar to aspects in Fate, and that's deliberate. I'll write more about my inspirations in a future update.)

Overall, my sense is that the combination of traits and tags provides ample opportunity for character differentiation, while keeping things simple. It should be perfectly feasible to come up with an idea on the spot, jot down some traits, and start playing right away - one of my main goals for the game.

I'll write about talents and troubles - the other stats that make up a character - in a future post. Side note: Can you tell I love alliterations? 😉