The NarraTime System

NarraTime is entirely about telling a story. Everything is dictated by the story and what the characters in it decide to do.

The Storyteller tells the players what happens in the story.

The players tell the Storyteller what their characters do.

It’s that simple. At any point during the game, a player may raise their hand and describe an action their character takes - given the current circumstances. Other times, your Storyteller may prompt you to answer questions or make decisions.

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I find younger players sometime benefit from an example of the difference between what happens in the story and what their character does.

For example, a player cannot say…

"Okay, I walk away from the battle and go find a magic dog who then solves all our problems."

...because then that player would be describing something that happens instead of describing an action that their character takes. Instead, if that player is really set on having a magical animal solve their problems, they should express their actions like this…

"I look around for magic dogs."

...then the Storyteller gets to decide whether or not that character finds a dog. Who knows, maybe the story is about magic dogs, and they see a great dog in the window of the local magic-dog-store. 

Character Creation

For most campaigns, players come up with just four details.

• Race. What is your character? Elf? Dwarf? Robot?

• Class. What does your character do? Thief? Fighter? Wizard? Rock Star?

• First weapon/spell

• Second weapon/spell

Other campaigns may come with pre-made characters. And since NarraTime partners with you to offer the experience you want - we can find a unique way for you to design you own.

Cards

When a character makes an action, in most situations, the Storyteller doesn't get to decide if they are successful. That's up to the lords of chaos.

Instead of rolling a bunch of different dice, which is probably what most people imagine when they think of DnD, I use a deck of cards. When a player wants to make an action, I'll flip over the top card of the deck - and that determines the outcome. I do the same for fictional characters within the story.

Cards are an excellent tool for this kind of game. Since the game is conducted over a zoom call, regular playing cards provide an excellent visual on the screen so everyone playing can see the result. If you have your own compliment of 20 sided dice you want to use, however, I’m not going to to stop you.

Every story and situation calls for different considerations, but this is roughly the scale that I use to determine what is successful and what is not.

Flip over a 2-4

• Critical Failure. Something bad happens as a result of the action.

Flip over a 5-6

• Failure. Nothing terrible happens, though.

Flip over a 7-9

• Success, but not a very exciting one.

Flip over a 10-King

• Success, which gets more and more awesome based on how high the face card is. If it's a King, something amazing happens.

Flip over an Ace

• Success, resulting in an incredible, world-defining moment.

Flip over a Joker (Optional)

• Something absolutely ridiculous happens.

Combat

A big part of traditional Dungeons and Dungeons is it’s complex combat system. For decades, players have enjoyed having the campaign lead up to fighting the big baddie at the end. This happens in plenty of my stories too, but not all of them.

Some campaigns might not have any combat. If you’re a parent, you might want a campaign that dis-incentivizes violence.

Otherwise, combat is done on a turn by turn basis (instead of having players just raise their hands), and uses the same card system.

Customizable

Do these rules not sound good to you?

That is one million percent okay.

NarraTime is here to support you. We can work together to build exactly the kind of game you want.