GOSS – GrimOgre Storytelling System

Gaming without Dice (for most parts)

People like to think that dice are needed to offer something like fairness in a game; but what if I tell you that GM and Players often haggle at the table for modifiers and difficulty numbers? Each one makes a case to make the die roll harder or easier, more or less effective, and then you ask the dice for a result that is interpreted like some sort of mythical augury device. What if we focus on the economy and flow of that discourse instead of the dice? 

But what when you can't agree? Well, GOSS has a Poker Dice mechanic to solve these situations for you.

In the mid 2000s I made a game that took inspiration from two very interesting games I bought at that time. On one hand, you have Nobilis – a diceless game that offers so much complexity, and I found it hard to really approach it because it was so complex. And then you have Engel – a game (not the d20 edition) that used a very simple format to describe characters, and used Tarot cards to interpret the outcomes of scenes. I thought the two might work well together.

You can use these mechanics (not the art) in your games! All you have to do is credit me as the creator of the GOSS system. License CC BY 4.0 for the second page.