Concise Elegance: Dash RPG

Today's post is just a review of an RPG system.

Well, the title says it all. That's a wrap - good night everyone...

Ok, obviously it doesn't say it all. As a professional jongleur and wordsmith, we all know I can say a LOT more than that, and just saying a game is "elegant" doesn't really mean much without some elaboration, does it?  So let's unpack.

Dash RPG is, according to its own website, is "a condensed version of Charge that fits on a half fold brochure." This is true - you can get the entire ruleset from its itch.io page as a "Name your own price" download, and print copies of the the formatted character sheets each with the whole reference on the back of that single sheet to hand out to your players. There's even a one-page SRD guide, formatted to fold, to help if you are making your own game based on these rules ("Both Dash and Charge are released under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY." -- the Licensing page)

The modern TTRPG landscape is really more of a seascape, a fluid environment awash with games of every sort, and like the sea it has plenty of trash, but there are also breathtakingly beautiful vistas, and fresh air to fill your sails and drive you to glorious new adventures. As such, it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that a lot of games have elements in common. Designers certainly steal mechanics all too often, but the space is occupied more and more by systems that welcome new content under such licensing as Creative Commons. As long as games clearly make such attributions and credit their sources, this is good. 

If you didn't go look at the licensing page, Dash is the little brother/condensed version of ChargeRPG, one of several offerings from Fari Games, the brainchild of René-Pier Deshaies whom I personally consider a friend and a wonderful human being. Charge is a setting-agnostic adaptation of John Harper's Blades In The Dark (One Seven Design, often referred to as "BitD") which adds Momentum as a metacurrency (with thanks to Alex Ward's blog for the great breakdown of those.)

See what I mean? There might be a whole trade route you have to sail to get to the final product, with some great stops along the way, but at the end of it, Dash is distinct, and for some good reasons. Not a lot of games have this particular combination of being so quick and easy to learn, simple and fast to run and play, available at you-decide-the-cost, actually fun, immediately available for any setting, and still easily customizable. Although it doesn't explicitly mention such details in the abbreviated rules card, it by default inherits the mechanics of Position/Risk and Effect. (I'll let you go read those if you want more details.)

It's a good example of how you do not need elaborate rules for every situation. RP did a great job boiling the rules down to a short version, and honestly, he picked a great base in BitD, which runs on just a few d6's you can raid from the Backgammon and Yahtzee in the closet or buy next to the Bicycle poker cards at the drugstore. I love the way only the player makes rolls in Dash/Charge/BitD, and NPC actions are resolved at the same time...

For those of you that didn't go read all those web links, a Dash character is represented by an abbreviated set of only six actions, each of which is rated by dots representing how many dice they get when rolling. You start the game with four "dots" (think WoD) to distribute among them, no more than two on the same score. You will have two to four with no dots/dice. If you play a character enough for progression those can increase, though most advancements are situationally limited. 

When attempting an action, roll as many dice as that action's score and pick the highest number; if you have no dots, roll two dice and take the low number. A 6 completely succeeds (multiple 6's get bonus effect.) A 4 or 5 is a "partial success" - you do what you tried, but with a cost such as worsened position or damage applied to your stress clock. Any roll of 1-3 fails and still gets a consequence.

Player: I punch him in the head! 

GM: That's a Muscle action. You have two dots. 

Player rolls 2d6, gets  2 and 5.

Player: Five! What happens?

GM: That's a partial success, but with a Consequence. You hit him and stun him... What's the goal here?

Player: Knock him out! I need to get by!

GM: Ok, sure. You scuffle and get hold of him, and choke him unconscious, but you hurt your hand on his helm.

Player: What? You mean I take damage too? That's not cool!

GM: That certainly can happen, but it's not that bad - you are just going to want to favor it a bit - your Effect will be reduced the next time you try.

Note how the player was expecting to roll blow by blow, but the GM just summed up the whole fight in the one roll. It works either way, so this nameless mook can be handled with minimal fuss, but the BBEG later can swing back on every roll, and whether he hits or not can be determined by the player's rolls. 

Also note those Consequences don't have to be the enemy's reciprocal attacks. For all its brevity this is a narrative game; you can absolutely make the consequences from any fail, in or out of combat, create situational complications to worsen the player character's position (his risk in attempted actions) or effect as above, or as the GM points out above, they can check slices off the PC's Stress clock, or even any Danger Clocks ticking the game down to some impending disaster. 

Is it perfect? Well no, of course not, but a lot of what you might call flaws are just a lack of clarity about the usual expectations. For example: maybe I missed it, but there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the difficulty of a task - you pick the action and roll the appropriate number of dice according to however many dots you have in it. Carrying a teammate is Muscle. Carrying two is Muscle. If you have two dots, you roll two dice, and the numbers that define success don't change with a harder task. 

Still, as the GM, you do set the Risk and the Effect; this can be used to back into the same result. Carrying two has more risk and less effect than carrying one, and the results of the rolls are always narrative. The odds don't change on the dice, but what really matters is how it plays out in the story, and telling the tale later it will look the same, so I think this is odd but valid. 

There don't appear to be anything like Fate's Stunts or D&D's Feats until you read between the lines - they are called situational talents. They usually add a dot, improve your Effect or reduce your Risk in some particular situation, but with so few mechanical dials and levers to manipulate, that's usually enough, and they can be more narrative-focused. That's a lot of power.

It's simple, flexible...elegant. 

Tastes matter, though - full disclosure, I very much like and prefer such narrative systems. I like being able to represent things mechanically, but it doesn't really bother me to lean into the narrative side of a game to fit a simple or even simplistic mechanism to an intended action. 

Likewise, while I think it's neat to be able to put my miniatures on a grid map and see whether Brand the Archer has a clear line of sight to Barfwit the goblin, and exact range to set the modifier, I have little interest in games that force me to do it - I very much prefer Theater of the Mind. If someone asks me how far is the gap their character wants to jump, or how heavy is the rock, I'm going to reply with "It's about minus three" instead of a measurement in feet or pounds, and when they badger me for those numbers I have flashbacks to players who want to argue what "the table on page 17 says". 

If you like "crunchy" games, then Dash, Charge, Blades... these may not be for you, but I still encourage you to find out. You never know - some people hate tomatoes, but like ketchup. It's a funny world. 

So if you haven't and you are interested in such things, try it out. Hit a few of the links above, support some designers, and maybe print a few sheets to toss in your gaming bag for those nights when the regular game just isn't going to come together because neither Bob or Steve showed up, or when you just want to introduce some new people to role-playing for the first time.

Or maybe try setting up a whole campaign. What have you got to lose?
- Lee