"No-one has ever decided to try an RPG becayse they thought a dice mechanic sounded interesting" You vastly underestimate how nerdy some people can be 😂
Yeah lmao, I really love Kamigakiri where every player holds a set of d6 they can swap when doing attribute rolls. However these dice are also used to power their skills. It leads to a very interesting interesting dynamic where you can save your 6s to guarantee succsess on checks, purposefully fail a check to get numbers that power your abilities, or high rolls for damage.
@@kertisjones2092 I've picked up a copy of Dred for this reason, haven't brought it to my game group yet, probably as a one off to see how they like it. Probably when this one member can't make it, who I doubt it will appeal to.
Exactly my thought! And I think it would bring an interesting decision of "do I want to build my cube so that I have a good probability of having the colors I need, regardless of the side... or would I rather have more chance of failure, but big successes when I roll properly?"
You start with a scrambled cube, each central color is related to an attribute: Body (Strength, Dexterity), Social (Charisma, Manipulation), Mind (Intelligence, Wits). When you test one of these attributes you have to scramble the cube 1 time for easy checks, 2 times for average checks and 3 times for hard checks. Then you count how many colors equal to the center square you have on the face of the atribute tested: 0-1 Fail - 2-5 Weak Hit - 6-8 Strong Hit. Or something like that. You're allowed 10 seconds to look at the cube and plan your best moves before the test.
I really like how that makes the cube act as the resolution mechanic as well. I had tried to make the system not use dice myself, but I eventually gave up on that.
One thing to keep in mind is that the center squares of a 3x3 Rubik's Cube don't move relative to each other as the edges rotate. This could be useful in assigning the colors their unique definitions
@@I_Love_Learning Huh, okay. Back when they first came out, they didn't. Just colours. And after seeing this game, I dug out one I bought a year or two ago; last time I went shopping I cast my eyes over the shelves. ... none of them had a mark. Just colours. The one in front of me right now, no marks, just colours. I could ask "What do you mean?", but... look, I don't know what to say. I live in the southern hemisphere, we have a butt-load of American merchandise, and I ain't seeing it here.
Eldritch Horror version: they all opened up a page of some book with some eldrich horror that eats away their sanity. The top represents morale, while the bottom represents those ancient horrors themselves in their unknowable ancient evil. You could even start with a solved cube and have the colours on the sides represent each character's personality as this eldritch being from beyond reality alters their very being.
I love this meandering format, where you bring us along during the design process - asking the questions and finding possible solutions. It creates far more insight (and ideas) than if you'd just presented a finished project.
When I first got into story gaming I wrote a short sequence of "bad idea games" in this fashion, for example a story game centering around a game of 3D tic tac toe.
Yeah! I would be interested in other genres that the cube might be useful for. Cyberpunk-ish sci fi seemed perfect, but I'm sure it can be used in other ways.
This was an excellent first video I didn't even realize it was one until I went to look for more. The system seems very interesting I always forget you can use things outside of dice for TTRPG.
This is actually the second channel I've started. That one got to about 500 subs, so I'm bringing over a slight amount of know-how, if not good equipment haha. I have a few more videos recorded and products created, so there will be more soon. I'm glad you liked this one!
Wow, I was JUST having a conversation w a friend saying how so many RPGs are backwards looking these days. Lots of refinements, but very little innovation since about 2012 (with a few exceptions, ofc). This got my gears turning. Excellent job, gladly sub'd.
the trouble with having the bottom face be a secret to the players and making revealing it be a Moment, is that the bottom corners are always uniquely determined by their already-visible colors, and which edges are on the bottom is uniquely determined by the 8 edges which are fully visible. worst-case, the 4 bottom edges have all-different visible colors, and the entire bottom face is inferrable. best-case, the 4 bottom edges all have the same color, in which case the only unknown information is their permutation (max. 24 options, or 4.5 bits of hidden information)
there is an interesting intermediate case: suppose you only have 2 fully-visible edges of each red, green, blue, and orange, and the bottom face is the yellow center. so the remaining two of each of those colors are on the bottom. you check and see that all of the exposed colors of the bottom edges are different. this ends up being only partially determined, with 6 permutations. but this is before bringing up edge orientation parity. those 6 permutations are actually only 3 valid permutations, and even the all-same case in my initial message doesn't actually have 24 options, but 12 (only 3.5 bits of hidden information)
Yeah, the game is written assuming that players don't have much experience with Rubik's cubes, so the underside will be a mystery to them, at least at first. But I don't see it as a problem if they learn how to figure out what the bottom is, or if someone knows, since it can be part of the narrative of the AI learning how to better reprogram itself.
While checking the system out, i got brain blasted with an odd concept for an open concept roleplay thing me and my friends did a while back. It was focused on a business man who was suddenly plagued with the voices of spirits in his mind. We didn't do much over the hour of play, so I can only imagine where it could have gone. This feels like a much better groundwork for something like that, where the host body would get damaged, along with the structure of the spirits themselves over-time. If I ever run this system, that might be my approach, but the core you built is still really cool and I'd def like to see this system played. Even in a podcast setting, I think it will fun to experience!
Our game group had a cool concept we played a few times, involving everyone playing an imaginary friend of the main character. We were all aspects of this character's psyche, but we wanted to be useful in order to stay around, so we would end up causing problems just so we could stay around. The whole thing centered around a bidding mechanic for which friend would come to the forefront. Bidding was cool but it also involved narrating for fixed amounts of time (30 seconds per poker chip in the bid) which didn't always work out well. The whole thing spawned some memorable moments though.
Hey! Wow! I love jib of your cut! Bravo. Yes, I would play that game. First thing that popped into my head was something along the lines of a Dark Tower ka-tet, the symphony of destiny that binds and guides a group of significant actors in this theater of hope and despair called reality. Maybe each side is an archetype keyed to the core color, and the color and position of the exterior bits defines scenes that are destined to play out. The beauty of the game is in seeing the order that these things happen. Off the top of the dome, the Indian directions, east is "lovers," south is "warriors," north "ancestors", west "seer." Then colors could be keyed to settings. Like a table per setting.
I could imagine using the Rubik's Cube for a relationship based game. As an idea your characters are teenagers in the 80's navigating popularity. Each colour connects to a social click and a skill related to it, such as the theatre kids and performance or jocks and athletics. Afterall if you're spending time with that click you're using and improving that skill with them. The top of the cube shows your popularity with each click and thus your connected skills and is considered the personality you show the world. When you encounter challenges in the game the GM tells you the skill and number of that colour squares you need to succeed. You get one twist of the cube, or two if the situation is particularly advantageous such as receiving help from another player. If you match or beat the difficulty with all connected squares on top you succeed. If you match or beat the difficulty with disconnected squares you succeed with a complication. If you can't match the challenge number you fail. However if that challenge is a personal conflict it's not about the personality you show the world. It's about your true self; the bottom of the cube. When the conflict occurs the GM sets the skill/s. The conflicting characters make twists in their character Rubik's Cubes at the same time as each other without looking at the bottom until either one says stop. The other conflicting character/s can then decide whether they do stop or all must make one more final twist. The bottom, true selves of each character's cube are then shown and the highest of the target skill wins. The winner can then, in addition to narrative effects of success, choose which side of their opponent's cube is now the top. On a tie the initiator of the conflict succeeds narratively but doesn't reorientate their opponent's cube. It gets in the whole high school stuff of popularity constantly shifting, especially when being noticed using skills that some value and others look down on, and also not being certain of your real potential.
Additional note: For the bottom side to work best you might want to mix up the stickers a bit first so that each colour does not have a full side of matching colour.
Ooh, I really like this. I was wary of using the turning of the cube as a resolution mechanic, since that might do too much to favor players who are good at solving Rubik's Cube, but the way you're describing it is simple enough that I think most people could engage with it.
Ok, only so far into this, but the cube uses stickers and on one side the certer cube USUALLY has a sticker with a logo. You could base the sheet by the logo and what side it is on (since those are also the only spaces that don't change/move. Also, it's stickers. You can replace the stickers or write on them as well.
That's true that it's technically possible to identify distinct sides by the center square, but I figured that remembering which center color meant what kind of side is a step that most people wouldn't bother with. At least I wouldn't haha. It also still runs into the issue of altering the cube, since that still makes you turn the sides and change everything in ways you might not anticipate. Yes! I don't cover it in the video, but the game itself uses stickers and markers to alter the cube as you play. You should check out the PDF if it sounds interesting!
One comment is that the hidden layer can be known. If my side has a yellow side on bottom, I know that the hidden layer cannot be white. If one of my bottom corners is red and I can see the neighbor has a blue corner, then the bottom layer is either white or yellow. Also, when interacting with a Rubik's cube, I think of it in units of pieces (center, edge, corner) as opposed to stickers, so I think the relationships between colors is particularly interesting to me. (Eg. Yellow is the opposite of white always) Are these factors that would shape your design at all?
I actually have zero experience with solving Rubik's cubes, so I designed it mostly from the standpoint of someone who's basically in my shoes: loves roleplaying games and sees a Rubik's cube as basically a randomized color box. While designing, I eventually figured out some of the relations you're talking about, but I count on most players not knowing about them. But if they do know, or they learn through playing, that's not necessarily a problem, since I see it as meta-knowledge that can fit into the slightly diegetic nature of the cube. If a player picks up insight about how to solve the cube, then that's like the AI learning how to better reprogram itself.
Eh, I can't solve a cube to save my life, but I could tell you the exact color combination of the bottom by looking at the top, since 2 colors will always be opposed to each other.
I like where its been so far, but the Power and Logic sides seem to be very similar (and hard to differentiate) I'd maybe have power be specific to dealing damage and healing, or health. (If this game would have an HP bar), but let me check the rulebook then review again. And I agree with you regarding getting into a wider scope of games (I started making one to better facilitate Caribbean folklore)
... I have just dug out my Rubik's cube. I'm about two inches away from DrivingThru. And of course, I'm subscribing. I was about to beg and plead "please, please tell me there's some solo-player rules for this game". And then I thought... ... it strikes me that any game that requires tracking a seemingly-random finite resource across shared systems can use such a cube for a system. Energy distribution in a ship, for example, and the five visible faces are five different systems?
This is such a unique idea and sounds really well designed and thought out! I was blown away to realize you only have 4 subs! 🤯I can easily see that number jumping into the thousands pretty soon! :)
I think each player can have a cube, and they can obviously use their cubes individually as detailed in the video, but they can also collaborate on a task, or "supertask" by placing their cubes next to one another to further chain their stats - however, when they collaborate, they are also agreeing to do whatever the initiating plauer decides to do, even if that's not what was originally expressed as the intention was. Obviously it will be most of the time, unless you want all the other players to see you as "aberrant" and untrustworthy. If the other players decide the first player was acting in "aberration," they can pick a slice and compel the other player to turn it until at least 1 white square is moved onto the upper face.
Hmm, I personally couldn't find a way to make one cube per player work, but I'm totally open to the idea that it could. Just using the top of the cube helps keep things manageable, but I worried about each player's individual Rubik's Cube skill becoming too much of a factor.
"No-one has ever decided to try an RPG becayse they thought a dice mechanic sounded interesting"
You vastly underestimate how nerdy some people can be 😂
Yeah lmao, I really love Kamigakiri where every player holds a set of d6 they can swap when doing attribute rolls. However these dice are also used to power their skills. It leads to a very interesting interesting dynamic where you can save your 6s to guarantee succsess on checks, purposefully fail a check to get numbers that power your abilities, or high rolls for damage.
see? check out how nerdy this person is!
I mean…that’s why I played Dread
That's almost exclusively how my group decides on RPGs.
@@kertisjones2092 I've picked up a copy of Dred for this reason, haven't brought it to my game group yet, probably as a one off to see how they like it. Probably when this one member can't make it, who I doubt it will appeal to.
Look, if you're not making a game where you get to ROLL the rubiks cube, then are sure you're doing it right?
Exactly my thought! And I think it would bring an interesting decision of "do I want to build my cube so that I have a good probability of having the colors I need, regardless of the side... or would I rather have more chance of failure, but big successes when I roll properly?"
You start with a scrambled cube, each central color is related to an attribute: Body (Strength, Dexterity), Social (Charisma, Manipulation), Mind (Intelligence, Wits).
When you test one of these attributes you have to scramble the cube 1 time for easy checks, 2 times for average checks and 3 times for hard checks.
Then you count how many colors equal to the center square you have on the face of the atribute tested: 0-1 Fail - 2-5 Weak Hit - 6-8 Strong Hit. Or something like that.
You're allowed 10 seconds to look at the cube and plan your best moves before the test.
I really like how that makes the cube act as the resolution mechanic as well. I had tried to make the system not use dice myself, but I eventually gave up on that.
One thing to keep in mind is that the center squares of a 3x3 Rubik's Cube don't move relative to each other as the edges rotate. This could be useful in assigning the colors their unique definitions
And one central square usually has a logo
@@SerifSansSerif ... where are you buying YOUR Rubik's Cubes from...?
What do you mean? Even Rubik's does it!
@@I_Love_Learning Huh, okay. Back when they first came out, they didn't. Just colours. And after seeing this game, I dug out one I bought a year or two ago; last time I went shopping I cast my eyes over the shelves.
... none of them had a mark. Just colours. The one in front of me right now, no marks, just colours.
I could ask "What do you mean?", but... look, I don't know what to say. I live in the southern hemisphere, we have a butt-load of American merchandise, and I ain't seeing it here.
Eldritch Horror version: they all opened up a page of some book with some eldrich horror that eats away their sanity. The top represents morale, while the bottom represents those ancient horrors themselves in their unknowable ancient evil. You could even start with a solved cube and have the colours on the sides represent each character's personality as this eldritch being from beyond reality alters their very being.
I love this meandering format, where you bring us along during the design process - asking the questions and finding possible solutions. It creates far more insight (and ideas) than if you'd just presented a finished project.
When I first got into story gaming I wrote a short sequence of "bad idea games" in this fashion, for example a story game centering around a game of 3D tic tac toe.
Well, arguably I'm still writing "bad idea games", my latest game is inspired by a binary counter.
I really like the idea of the cube representing something in universe, perhaps it can represent a soul cage and taking damage blackens a tile.
Yeah! I would be interested in other genres that the cube might be useful for. Cyberpunk-ish sci fi seemed perfect, but I'm sure it can be used in other ways.
This was an excellent first video I didn't even realize it was one until I went to look for more. The system seems very interesting I always forget you can use things outside of dice for TTRPG.
This is actually the second channel I've started. That one got to about 500 subs, so I'm bringing over a slight amount of know-how, if not good equipment haha. I have a few more videos recorded and products created, so there will be more soon. I'm glad you liked this one!
Wow, I was JUST having a conversation w a friend saying how so many RPGs are backwards looking these days. Lots of refinements, but very little innovation since about 2012 (with a few exceptions, ofc). This got my gears turning. Excellent job, gladly sub'd.
Me at the beginning: "“Gentlemen you had my curiosity." Me at 07:47 "...but now you have my attention.”
the trouble with having the bottom face be a secret to the players and making revealing it be a Moment, is that the bottom corners are always uniquely determined by their already-visible colors, and which edges are on the bottom is uniquely determined by the 8 edges which are fully visible. worst-case, the 4 bottom edges have all-different visible colors, and the entire bottom face is inferrable. best-case, the 4 bottom edges all have the same color, in which case the only unknown information is their permutation (max. 24 options, or 4.5 bits of hidden information)
there is an interesting intermediate case: suppose you only have 2 fully-visible edges of each red, green, blue, and orange, and the bottom face is the yellow center. so the remaining two of each of those colors are on the bottom. you check and see that all of the exposed colors of the bottom edges are different. this ends up being only partially determined, with 6 permutations.
but this is before bringing up edge orientation parity. those 6 permutations are actually only 3 valid permutations, and even the all-same case in my initial message doesn't actually have 24 options, but 12 (only 3.5 bits of hidden information)
Yeah, the game is written assuming that players don't have much experience with Rubik's cubes, so the underside will be a mystery to them, at least at first. But I don't see it as a problem if they learn how to figure out what the bottom is, or if someone knows, since it can be part of the narrative of the AI learning how to better reprogram itself.
While checking the system out, i got brain blasted with an odd concept for an open concept roleplay thing me and my friends did a while back. It was focused on a business man who was suddenly plagued with the voices of spirits in his mind. We didn't do much over the hour of play, so I can only imagine where it could have gone.
This feels like a much better groundwork for something like that, where the host body would get damaged, along with the structure of the spirits themselves over-time. If I ever run this system, that might be my approach, but the core you built is still really cool and I'd def like to see this system played. Even in a podcast setting, I think it will fun to experience!
That sounds hilarious. I'd love to see the Rubik's cube be used for other weird ideas haha.
Our game group had a cool concept we played a few times, involving everyone playing an imaginary friend of the main character. We were all aspects of this character's psyche, but we wanted to be useful in order to stay around, so we would end up causing problems just so we could stay around. The whole thing centered around a bidding mechanic for which friend would come to the forefront. Bidding was cool but it also involved narrating for fixed amounts of time (30 seconds per poker chip in the bid) which didn't always work out well. The whole thing spawned some memorable moments though.
Hey! Wow! I love jib of your cut! Bravo. Yes, I would play that game. First thing that popped into my head was something along the lines of a Dark Tower ka-tet, the symphony of destiny that binds and guides a group of significant actors in this theater of hope and despair called reality. Maybe each side is an archetype keyed to the core color, and the color and position of the exterior bits defines scenes that are destined to play out. The beauty of the game is in seeing the order that these things happen. Off the top of the dome, the Indian directions, east is "lovers," south is "warriors," north "ancestors", west "seer." Then colors could be keyed to settings. Like a table per setting.
That's a fascinating mechanic for an RPG. Great video! I can't wait to see more of your ideas!
First video comin out with a banger
"No-one has ever decided to try an RPG becayse they thought a dice mechanic sounded interesting"
And I took that personally.
I could imagine using the Rubik's Cube for a relationship based game.
As an idea your characters are teenagers in the 80's navigating popularity. Each colour connects to a social click and a skill related to it, such as the theatre kids and performance or jocks and athletics. Afterall if you're spending time with that click you're using and improving that skill with them. The top of the cube shows your popularity with each click and thus your connected skills and is considered the personality you show the world. When you encounter challenges in the game the GM tells you the skill and number of that colour squares you need to succeed. You get one twist of the cube, or two if the situation is particularly advantageous such as receiving help from another player. If you match or beat the difficulty with all connected squares on top you succeed. If you match or beat the difficulty with disconnected squares you succeed with a complication. If you can't match the challenge number you fail.
However if that challenge is a personal conflict it's not about the personality you show the world. It's about your true self; the bottom of the cube. When the conflict occurs the GM sets the skill/s. The conflicting characters make twists in their character Rubik's Cubes at the same time as each other without looking at the bottom until either one says stop. The other conflicting character/s can then decide whether they do stop or all must make one more final twist. The bottom, true selves of each character's cube are then shown and the highest of the target skill wins. The winner can then, in addition to narrative effects of success, choose which side of their opponent's cube is now the top. On a tie the initiator of the conflict succeeds narratively but doesn't reorientate their opponent's cube.
It gets in the whole high school stuff of popularity constantly shifting, especially when being noticed using skills that some value and others look down on, and also not being certain of your real potential.
Additional note: For the bottom side to work best you might want to mix up the stickers a bit first so that each colour does not have a full side of matching colour.
Ooh, I really like this. I was wary of using the turning of the cube as a resolution mechanic, since that might do too much to favor players who are good at solving Rubik's Cube, but the way you're describing it is simple enough that I think most people could engage with it.
This actually sounds like a great idea!
This was excellent and thought-provoking! I've subscribed and I can't wait to see more! Now to find that old Rubik's Cube...
Thank you! I have a few more things prepared, so more is coming soon.
impressive video, can't wait for more of your ideas and designs
Thanks! I have some more coming soon.
Absolutely awesome, congrats
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
They make small Rubik's Cubes you can roll like dice!
Ok, only so far into this, but the cube uses stickers and on one side the certer cube USUALLY has a sticker with a logo. You could base the sheet by the logo and what side it is on (since those are also the only spaces that don't change/move.
Also, it's stickers. You can replace the stickers or write on them as well.
That's true that it's technically possible to identify distinct sides by the center square, but I figured that remembering which center color meant what kind of side is a step that most people wouldn't bother with. At least I wouldn't haha. It also still runs into the issue of altering the cube, since that still makes you turn the sides and change everything in ways you might not anticipate.
Yes! I don't cover it in the video, but the game itself uses stickers and markers to alter the cube as you play. You should check out the PDF if it sounds interesting!
One comment is that the hidden layer can be known. If my side has a yellow side on bottom, I know that the hidden layer cannot be white. If one of my bottom corners is red and I can see the neighbor has a blue corner, then the bottom layer is either white or yellow.
Also, when interacting with a Rubik's cube, I think of it in units of pieces (center, edge, corner) as opposed to stickers, so I think the relationships between colors is particularly interesting to me. (Eg. Yellow is the opposite of white always)
Are these factors that would shape your design at all?
I actually have zero experience with solving Rubik's cubes, so I designed it mostly from the standpoint of someone who's basically in my shoes: loves roleplaying games and sees a Rubik's cube as basically a randomized color box. While designing, I eventually figured out some of the relations you're talking about, but I count on most players not knowing about them.
But if they do know, or they learn through playing, that's not necessarily a problem, since I see it as meta-knowledge that can fit into the slightly diegetic nature of the cube. If a player picks up insight about how to solve the cube, then that's like the AI learning how to better reprogram itself.
@@ThreeBearsRPGs Came here for this comment
Eh, I can't solve a cube to save my life, but I could tell you the exact color combination of the bottom by looking at the top, since 2 colors will always be opposed to each other.
I like this idea!
Amazing vid!
What a delicious appetizer!
I like where its been so far, but the Power and Logic sides seem to be very similar (and hard to differentiate) I'd maybe have power be specific to dealing damage and healing, or health. (If this game would have an HP bar), but let me check the rulebook then review again.
And I agree with you regarding getting into a wider scope of games (I started making one to better facilitate Caribbean folklore)
... I have just dug out my Rubik's cube. I'm about two inches away from DrivingThru. And of course, I'm subscribing.
I was about to beg and plead "please, please tell me there's some solo-player rules for this game". And then I thought...
... it strikes me that any game that requires tracking a seemingly-random finite resource across shared systems can use such a cube for a system. Energy distribution in a ship, for example, and the five visible faces are five different systems?
This is such a unique idea and sounds really well designed and thought out! I was blown away to realize you only have 4 subs! 🤯I can easily see that number jumping into the thousands pretty soon! :)
I appreciate that! I've made one attempt at a channel before that got to 500 subs, so as long as I can do better than that, I'll take it haha.
@@ThreeBearsRPGs you're already at 40 now, that's 10x in 6 hours. Not too bad already. I'm sub #5 🎉 remember me when you're famous lol
Hahaha will do!
i dare you to make a ttrpg with nothing at all
4:28 swarm of rats rpg
This is so System coded though. ifyyk
I think each player can have a cube, and they can obviously use their cubes individually as detailed in the video, but they can also collaborate on a task, or "supertask" by placing their cubes next to one another to further chain their stats - however, when they collaborate, they are also agreeing to do whatever the initiating plauer decides to do, even if that's not what was originally expressed as the intention was. Obviously it will be most of the time, unless you want all the other players to see you as "aberrant" and untrustworthy. If the other players decide the first player was acting in "aberration," they can pick a slice and compel the other player to turn it until at least 1 white square is moved onto the upper face.
Hmm, I personally couldn't find a way to make one cube per player work, but I'm totally open to the idea that it could. Just using the top of the cube helps keep things manageable, but I worried about each player's individual Rubik's Cube skill becoming too much of a factor.
@@ThreeBearsRPGs valid, I suppose it depends on the group!
This is very interesting. We should get in touch, how can I best reach you?