Overview

A generic and universal tabletop roleplaying game designed to be a great storytelling engine suitable for a wide variety of genres and settings.

Welcome to the True World, a game system for tabletop roleplaying. At its core, the game system is a storytelling engine that borrows from Improvisational Theater and utilizes emergent storytelling to craft unpredictable and captivating narratives. In contrast to traditional storytelling, where outcomes are predetermined, emergent storytelling relies on the spontaneous and organic development of a living story that evolves based on player choices and dice rolls.

Content Organization

The game rules and mechanics are organized into three main sections. The content is organized as a learning resource that can be read from top to bottom and as a reference, with sub-pages as indexes for core game concepts and terms.

• CHARACTERS: The main participants in the game's narrative, serving as a player's avatar within the game world or as non-player characters controlled by the Game Host with whom players interact.

• STAGE: A metaphor for the theater of the mind, where players and the Game Host collaborate to perform emergent storytelling.

• EXTRAS: Modular rules that extend and build on the core game mechanics to support various stories, settings, and play styles.

Before starting a new campaign or adventure, players and the host should both review the entire ruleset.

Group Roles

To play the game, the group is divided into Players, and one person who takes on the role of the Game Host. The host and players work together to create an immersive and collaborative storytelling experience.

• HOST: The host is responsible for establishing the world and its elements. Host responsibilities include creating and facilitating the situations, scenes, and encounters that challenge players, controlling and narrating interactions with non-player characters, and controlling changes to the environment within scenes based on player choices.

• PLAYERS: Players take on the roles of the primary storytellers, crafting the narrative through their characters' actions and decisions. Players must work together, building on each other's ideas and decisions.

Getting Started

To start playing the game, you will need the following items.

• Four complete sets of polyhedral dice (shared between the group).

• Graph paper to draw maps or prepare maps for travel and individual scenes.

• Graph paper, index cards, or printed character sheets.

• A notebook to keep notes on campaign progress.