There and Back

a meta-system to allow players to stay involved after character death

Author: Clinton R. Nixon
Date: 2002
Copyright: This work is copyright 2002 Clinton R. Nixon. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
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Set up

All players start with 20 Story Points at the beginning of a campaign. The game being played does not matter (although someone might want to check to make sure nothing about the game conflicts with these rules.)

All players also start with one character. There is not a set GM for the game, so everyone involved makes a character.

Running a game

At the beginning of each session, anyone who wants to run the next game may bid to do so. The minimum bid for this is 5 Story Points. If more than one person bids, the players can bid off - that is, increase their bid - until only one player remains. This player is the GM for the session, although his character may be present. This is not required, however.

At any point during the game, another player may bid to run a scene. This scene will pick up exactly where the other player left off, allowing the new GM to change the outcome of the current scene. The minimum bid to run a scene is 2 Story Points. Other players (including the current GM) may bid against this, raising bids until only one player remains. This player then runs a scene.

Rules for a scene are:

All actions in the game are determined by the game's normal resolution system, including character death. However, character death does not result in the loss of the player. Instead, that player can still bid for sessions and scenes. His character may come back in those scenes if they are flashbacks to a time before the character's death. In fact, these scenes can change the current timeline as long as they do not directly contradict an action that has already occured. For example, someone could initiate a scene where he gave his magical dagger to his best friend a day before he died. He could not initiate this scene, though, if he died wielding the dagger in combat, as this would be contradictory.

A player may even run a scenario or scene that brings his character back from the dead, as long as it does not contradict the rules of the game the group is playing.

In between sessions

In between each session, each player should make a copy of their character sheet and record the game-world date on it. This will be used for flashback scenes.

More characters

A player may bring a new player character into his portfolio during any scenario or scene he controls. The cost for this is only 1 Story Point. This character is permanent. However, each player may only have one character present per session, including the GM for the session.

Getting more Story Points

At the end of each scene run by a player, each player votes on the score. This can be any number from 1 to 5. The median (not mean) number is the number of Story Points the player receives. (For example, if the votes were 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, the player would receive 2 points.)

At the end of each session run by a player, each player votes on the score. This can be any number from 1 to 10. The median number is the number of Story Points the player receives.

These votes should be written on scraps of paper and handed to the player receiving the points, who will then tabulate.

If a player runs out of Story Points, he may continue to play, but cannot bid unless he is given points by another player. If everyone runs out of Story Points - well, the game was obviously not very good, and the campaign is over.