The Game Loop and Shape of the Game

Originally, I had wanted to make this game another 1-page game. I find the constraints of the 1-page games fascinating and super focusing in terms of creativity. I began writing it out and as I did, I realized that I wanted to get a bit more in depth with this particular game. 

At its core, I see this game pretty much as a Diplomacy variant mixed with something like Funemployed or with the cards of Once Upon a Time. Where it really should go, and where I hope it will go, is in offering shy, nervous, or people uncomfortable with improv a way to dip their toes into some aspects of roleplaying.

The basics of the game are: 

0 - The Goal of Saving Throws
In Saving Throws, players take on the role of a single attribute on a character sheet. Each round a different player will play as the controller or Charisma attribute and will, using the points associated with the charisma stat, set the challenge value of the confrontation the adventurer will have to deal with. Values are all determined by the number of points each attribute currently has. There are X number of rounds where X is the number of players. After X number of rounds, the player with the highest value wins and names the character that was just played.

1 - Introduction
In Saving Throws, you "play" as one of 6 different parts of a single adventurer trying to get through their day. Your power, your abilities as an attribute count on 3 specific things: 

1. How powerful that stat is.
2. Your cunning and ability to bluff.
3. Your ability to be bluffed or conned. 

To begin, you must make your character. How you make your character depends on your intended difficulty: 

There are 3 choices: 

• (hard difficulty) roll 3d6 6 times.
• (medium difficulty) assign a standard array of points (15,14,13,12,10,8).
• (easy difficulty) roll 4d6 6 times (re-rolling 1's and dropping the lowest die roll).

Assign the 6 values to your character. Their class, gender, race, and everything else doesn't really matter for this game. The 6 stats are: 

• Strength (STR) is how strong your character is. 
• Dexterity (DEX) is how agile, how deft your character is.
• Constitution (CON)  is how hearty your character this. Think about cardio or heartiness. 
• Wisdom  (WIS) is your character's ability to connect their intelligence to the current situation.
• Intelligence  (INT) is your character's book smarts. 
• Charisma (CHA) is your character's personal power, their magnetism, and the ability to lead.

Your scores generally reflect your character's abilities. A strong character will be adept at things requiring strength. Your wise characters will understand puzzles, intelligence is an ability to suss out puzzle solutions, and dexterity will be about agility but also stealth. Constitution is your character's heartiness. So this score generally reflects one's ability to keep sustained energy on an issue. 

Now that your character is made, you must assign these attributes to the players. 

• In a 4-player game, assign Str/Wis, Dex/Int, Con, and Charisma. 
• In a 5-player game, assign Str/Wis, Dex, Int, Con, and Charisma.
• In a 6-player game, assign attributes randomly at first. 

Charisma runs this game. Nearly every aspect of life is determined by our charisma. It doesn't matter how intelligent, strong, wise, or hearty we are, if we're not charismatic, we can't be noticed in a game about super heroes. 

Sequence of Play at a glance: 

1. Roll to determine the challenge type.
2. Charisma assigns a challenge number in order to determine the difficulty of the challenge.
3. Introduce the narrative. (tell a little story about what's happening).
4. The players discuss what they should do (charisma player cannot participate in the discussion).
5. After the discussion phase, each player (who isn't playing charisma) writes a single sentence and assigns a portion of their points to the challenge or reinforce 1 of the 2 values. 
6. After the players submit their sentences, the Charisma player (without looking at them) determines which of the 2 values will be the focal point of that challenge.
7. The charisma player then narrates what occurs to the hero during the challenge (in order of submission). 
8. After narrating, determine how scores shifted. 
9. The charisma player then moves to the left with each player handing off their attributes to the player on their left as well.
10. Return to 1 until all players have played as charisma.

Where this game will be made or broken is in the scoring system.  It needs to have the speed of a poker game with the frustrating scoring feel of hearts but needs to be contained with a sheet of paper and a PDF.