Rules and Homebrew

Here are the rules to the system "Follow Your Heart," started in 2019. We're in version Beta.2!

Here is a copy of the character sheet. You can make a copy in Drive and post a link in your GP character "sheet", save as a PDF, whatever, as long as I have access to a copy.

I want to keep all homebrew here and organized for the sake of future editions. I'll be posting a thread with possible story hooks, and can take suggestions as well. We can make almost anything you're interested in - at least, that's the hope!

Regarding the seemingly unbalanced dice. This is partly by design.

* Remember that unless it's changed via Balance or a shuffle in a die improvement, the score itself always ties to the favored Focus. So if my score is 3 on a d4, that's a 50/50 shot, with a 4 on a d6, it's 50-50 as well (1-2-3 vs 4-5-6). Or, I could assign the 4 to the other Focus and have (1, 2, 3, 4) and (5, 6). That's an option. Even if I really push my Favored Trait on a d6, say a 5, I can choose Balance at a later Milestone so that my successes are (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and (5, 6) for each side.

* Standards (d4) can't be perfect/shattered, nor can they trigger Follow Your Heart / Act of Desperation. So yeah, you pass more often, but only normally.

* Milestone Lessons like "Balance" and the mechanics in "Improved Die" allow for some variation. Some thing like the Body scale should be balanced over time, otherwise Fine Motor characters will always be super squishy. But basically, the player can decide if they want to have even chances, or skew things more towards one end of the scale.

This was a big sticking point in Alpha tests haha

Ahah I imagine :)
Seems neat atm. (I haven’t finished reading that’s why I deleted the post)

Gotcha, gotcha. Nah, it's worth mentioning here anyway.

So I can't adjust a standard trait?

I'm not entirely sure how the follow your heart and Act of Desperation work

Whatsup: at milestone 0, it's pointless to adjust a standard. Since the only two options for scores are also just to the sides of center, might as well assign to the other one during creation.

CESN: Basically, it's over-exertion to practically guarantee a result.

I also didn't really get Follow Your Heart and Act of Desperation. When would you use one over the other? I also didn't get why Doubly Perfect was an unfavorable result and Shattered was a less unfavorable result for Act of Desperation. I could see it in another context, but I feel like if it was an Act of Desperation, I would take whatever I could get.

Also, for the critical examples in the GM section, I think it would be more helpful if the examples were using the same person, so that they could be more comparable to each other.

Noted for the next edition. That's a really good point.
Perhaps they're over-complicated. The idea is to challenge how the character perceives themselves, but I'm not sure the almost- guaranteed boon is worth it.

What if, Doubly Perfect isn't just a crit, but it negates/restores the cost of using the move. If it's for one's favored trait, the "Follow Your Heart" aspect also lets the crit behave as one die higher, leading to an even better reaction.

Meanwhile Shattering doubles your cost of using the move, in addition to being a crit. If it's for one's non-favored trait, the "Act of Desperation" aspect increases the crit as one die higher, making the failure even more intense, like the person canNOT deny who they are, and sometimes that has negative consequences.

Thoughts from anyone?

Xaonass LeFleann
Character Sheet
Strengths
Tools 1d6, magic 4+1
Intelligence 1d6, book smart 4
Charisma 1d6, extroverted 4


I like this whatsup! You don't need to incluse the +1 now that they're made, though I appreciate seeing where you spent your points.

As it stands, all of these traits are "roll high." This means you have a success on (4,5,6) for each, leading to a very balanced start. Is that what you wanted?

Additionally, please do assign scores in your standards anyway. It'll help scale things as folks reach new Milestones.

---

I see how you listed your habits, and that has me thinking. I think not tying a habit to a specific scale lends itself to more diverse storytelling. I like it.

Nope. :P I suppose it should be

Tools 1d6, magic 3-1
Intelligence 1d6, book smart 3
Charisma 1d6, extroverted 3
Sure.

I was seriously considering pessimist as a Strength, but I decided that will go with the sci-fi character.

Am I correct that "fine motor 2" and "brute force 3" mean the same as a standard trait?

Yes. Technically the score is just "3" but that does help clarify, doesn't it.

Are we already creating characters? I thought we'd split up into our respective games and discuss settings/concepts first

Let me update the master post, sure, and then we can roll.

How can Body be changed to 5? Isn't it 1d4 or 1d6?
So I can get a Shattered roll with my Strengths but not with my Standards?

Those are the dice you roll when using the traits, but you set the "score" of the trait to a number on the die closest to the middle.

From the rulesThen later you have three points to spend how you wish to buy habits or change your scores by 1 per point. So if you spent one of the points on Body, you could change it from a 4 (assuming you assigned it as a Strength) to a 5.

I'm still working towards rereading the Shattered and Perfect section, but yes, it seems that is the case.

I'm trying to figure this out...

Alex has a Body of 1d6.
He also has a Body score of 4, let's say.
That automatically means he has a "fine motor" range of 4 or higher, and a "brute force" range of 3 or lower for success.

So would that make it like 1 thing instead of 2 different things? In the first place, I wasn't sure what the criteria was for determining whether a pushed roll is "Follow Your Heart" or "Act of Desperation".

Sorry, reread some stuff and deleted my previous reply. This is from the rules again.
So you can just replace Thamior with Alex. It will depend on your focus. In this example, a 5 or 6 on a Brute Force is a failure.