benlehman

The thousand kings rules are excellently clever, and work wonderfully, but they suck. This is an unfortunate circumstance where the hapless game designer can often find himself pushed towards a sucky game.

Fuck.
That.
Noise.

Remedying this, here's some rules which are much less clever, but maybe don't suck. They are thanks to Erick and Meg.

Memories:
Any time something happens that's important, or you notice something that's important, write it down in one word. That's a memory. If you forget what the word means, erase it. You forgot.

Values:
Will need to be smaller. Only one value from each other player, please. Only Visitors have values now.

Obstacles:
So you're playing. Something is stopping you from doing what you want (there's a big wall there: it's stopping you from getting past. There's a man coming at you with a knife, he's stopping you from not bleeding to death in the gutter.)

These things are obstacles. The door holder sets a number of the obstacle. That's how significant it is.

To pass it, you need to overcome how significant it is. Here's how you do it: get number as big.

To start with you have zero.
Tell a story about the value of yours most appropriate to get that number.
Two other people can give you advice based on their own (real) experience, giving you one each.
Cross off an appropriate memory to get one per memory, if it helps. You should suggest how it might help, but don't, like start saying what the people and things of your memories say and do. You have no control over others, and to presume so is rude. If you do, lose the memory, to no purpose.

Alternative, you can try to route around the obstacle, in which case you might avoid it entirely it get a newer smaller one.

The name of a king is +2 obstacle
The law of a king in +4 obstacle
The palace of a king is +8 obstacle
The crown of a king is 32 obstacle, which is the highest it gets.

Your artifact is a memory that never goes away and counts double. Go your artifact. Your excellence adds two to a value, and widens the value.

If you got a memory specifically for one obstacle (like, you find the sword that's the dragon's one weakness), it counts double at the least. Probably more.

Wounds:
If you get hurt, that's a wound. Any wound raises an appropriate obstacle by one.
Three wounds and you die, with the normal consequences thereof.
There is always a chance to overcome an obstacle to avoid being wounded.
Getting rid of a wound is an obstacle with the same significance as the one that you tried to overcome to avoid being wounded.

Rights:
Move "guestright" into "violable rights." Add: "if you speak for an inhabitant of the Land of a Thousand Kings or try in to directly control their thoughts, actions, or feelings, you have violated your guestright. At least them (and perhaps as many as all those all that share their kingdom) will see you as an enemy."

Need to think about Spirits and Kingship.