Worlds Beyond Number is doing a 2-shot using the RPG Roll for Shoes which sounds like a really charming rules-light system. I’ve been having a lot of fun with extremely minimal RPGs like Lasers and Feelings and Electric Bastionland recently, and Roll for Shoes sounds right up my alley.
I’ve also been wanting to dip my toes in doing a little RPG design by hacking one of these rules light systems. So here is a simple idea for a Roll for Shoes hack:
Roll for Shoes in the Dark
- Use step 1 of Roll for Shoes to assemble your dice pool
- In step 2, resolve the dice pool per Blades in the Dark’s dice pool resolution system: roll the dice, read the single highest die, 6 is a full success, 4-5 is partial success or success with complication, 1-3 is failure.
- All other rules per Roll for Shoes
My thinking is two-fold. First, partial successes are fun. Second, because it doesn’t require doing any arithmetic, and doesn’t require the GM to set a difficulty for the opposed roll, it gets you right back to the action. Does Roll for Shoes benefit from these changes? No idea! I need to actually try playing this to find out. But it sounds fun on paper!
Edit: apparently I am not the first person to come up with this idea! I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising. Here is someone who beat me to it: https://boocherry.itch.io/shoes-in-the-dark.