Player vs Player: Game Face

written by Vincent Smith

This is a ritual for use when Travelers engage in a discrete contest of skill. This can be anything from physical competitions or sport combat, to something like a game of cards. Specifically, this ritual is meant with the possibility of Player Character vs. Player Character play in mind. With it, any fight is a conversation, a duel of wits, a contest, and, most importantly, engaging for everyone involved.

What You’ll Need

Game Face is a dice-based ritual, for which you’ll need:

• A six-sided die (d6)
• Two eight-sided dice (d8s)
• One twelve-sided die (d12)
• Something opaque that you can use to hide your die, like a cup or mug.

Each participating character’s different Suits are assigned a Suit Die value:

How the Ritual Works

Game Face consists of three rounds of contested die rolls. The character who wins two out of the three rounds first is declared the victor.

At the start of each round, participating players select one of their Suit Dice to roll, representing the kinds of approach or skills they will use to gain the upper hand in this round of the contest. Any one die can be used for any roll, but each Suit Die may only be used once per three-round ritual.

Before rolling, both players describe the approach their characters are using to claim victory. This description should roughly correspond to your group’s shared understanding of the suit each die is assigned to. A player whose first round die is assigned to Clubs wouldn’t describe leaping over an obstacle, for instance.

However.

Within the confines of that, players are encouraged to be as straightforward as they wish, or to describe their action in a way that attempts to bluff or misdirect their adversary. In this scenario, it may be prudent to assign one player who is not participating in the current ritual as a deciding voice in the case of a dispute.

After both players describe their approach, each rolls simultaneously in secret, hiding their roll using their object of choice. Once both rolls are made, the die result is revealed and the player with the higher die roll is deemed the victor for that round of the ritual. The dice used for that round remain out on the table for the duration, in clear view of all players.

In addition, if a player that wins a round for having the higher die roll and also has a higher total than their opponent across all rounds, they gain the added benefit of a +1 bonus to their next roll.

The example below will help clarify this:

Example of +1 Bonus Scenario:

Jeff rolls a 5 on a d6.

Emily rolls a 4 on a d6.

Jeff wins the first round, securing a +1 bonus to their Round 2 roll. However, this does not always apply. See this example of the next roll in Round 2, taking into account the results above:

Jeff rolls a 3 on a d12. Then, they add the +1 bonus for a total of 4.

Emily rolls a 5 on a d8.

Even with the +1 from the first round, Jeff can’t overcome their crummy luck. Emily wins the second round, but because their total across two rounds (4+5=9) isn’t higher than Jeff’s (5+4=9), no +1 bonus is issued for the tie-breaking final round. Jeff’s +1 bonus from the first round does not carry over either.