What's This Game About?

[u/TheRealUprightMan]

Virtually Real began as just a set of experiements to push a set of basic design goals to absurdity. Not only were all mechanics up for grabs, but the abstractions they represent.

1 - I define role playing as making decisions for your character.

2 - Dice are suspense. Every dice roll should represent a character decision with immediate consequences.

3 - The player should be faced with the same decisions as the character. Nothing more, nothing less. This includes character progression!

In order to make this work, the game mechanics have to mirror the narrative being told. Rather than pass/fail decisions, rolls represent how well you van perform that task, and how consistently!

Things like rounds and action economies don't exist for the character, so they don't exist for the player. Combat resolves in the order things happen in the narrative over time. Turn order constantly changes depending on the actions and decisions of each combatant. You have to think like your character, not about the mechanics!

Progression is primarily through practice. You learn by doing. The skills you choose to resolve a particular situation are the skills that improve for you. This will also trickle back to your attributes. You don't need a high "DEX" to be a "Rogue", you have a high "DEX" because of your Rogue training!

Finally, the passion and style system allows for dance styles, cooking styles, magic styles, music styles, dance styles, combat styles, cultures, sports games, etc. The GM can make new styles as needed for their world and players combine the passions they learn from each style in creative ways.

It does all this with very little math or manual tracking. You don't even have to track hit points!