Tricube Tales

 

A new university term has started, and while I'm no longer a student, I still like to be involved in some university societies. Especially the roleplaying game society, since that's a good source of players. With this in mind, I'd been itching to introduce more players to a roleplaying system I discovered recently called Tricube Tales. 

Created by Richard Woolcock, Tricube Tales is a narrative-focussed roleplaying system with a bare minimum of mechanics. I've previously talked about this before, specifically with The Fools Who Follow, in which the players are companions to an imbecilic Chosen One hero, but the system's recently been updated since then.

When players do something risky, the GM assigns a Trait - either Agility, Brawn, or Craft - and a Difficulty ranging from 4 to 6. The player must then roll two six-sided dice and equal or exceed the difficulty on at least one die in order to overcome the challenge. If they achieve this on multiple dice, that's treated as an Exceptional Success and carries an additional benefit. However, if they roll a 1 on all their dice, that's a Critical Failure and introduces a complication.

Character creation is quick and easy, which makes this system ideal for one-shots. Rather than a complex stat block, a Player Character can be summed up in a sentence. The character profile consists of four aspects:

1. Trait: A character can be Agile, Brawny, or Crafty. If their Trait matches a challenge's Trait, they roll an extra die on that challenge.
2. Concept: This is typically a character's profession. If a challenge is something that falls outside the scope of their concept (such as a wizard picking a lock or a high school nerd trying to intimidate somebody), they roll one less die.
3. Perk: This is a special talent or ability, or perhaps even a signature item. If it makes narrative sense, a character can activate their Perk to reduce the difficulty by one after making their roll.
4. Quirk: This is some kind of hindrance, physical limitation, or personality flaw. Quirks can be activated just like Perks if it makes narrative sense, but this is done before making a roll and increases the difficulty by one.

Players also have three points of Karma and three points of Resolve.

• Karma represents a character's luck and fortitude. It costs one point of Karma to activate a Perk, but this can be regained by activating a Quirk.
• Resolve represents a character's health and tenacity. A character loses one point of Resolve if they fail a particularly dangerous challenge, and two on a Critical Failure. If they lose all their Resolve, they're out for the rest of the scene.

I've been collecting all manner of settings, having run The Fools Who Follow for the society's taster session. So far, I've tried two other settings which use the system: 

• The first is a superhero setting called Metahuman Uprising. 
• The second is Tales of the Goblin Horde, an adaptation of Woolcock's Saga of the Goblin Horde setting for Savage Worlds. 

Both resulted in some silly moments, but I'm still trying to practice the concept of "Effort Tokens" for things which require more than one roll (especially combat).

I'm also looking at running two more settings in the coming weeks:

• Pirates of the Bone Blade, a Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired fantasy in which the characters are members of a pirate crew seeking to break a curse their former captain left on them.
• Samhain Slaughter, a horror setting in which the players are high school students with paranormal abilities who defend their small town from monsters.

I think Tricube Tales is a great system which offers a lot of flexibility. It's great for one-shots, but I haven't tried running a campaign with it. If you're interested, you can find the rulebook here.

Happy writing.

Cover Reveal - Snowflake's Big Adventure by Erin Mackey

 

Blurb

Sometimes going out into the world is scary, but it can also be exciting.

We all worry about our place in the world and Little Snowflake is no different.  When the day comes for him to fall to Earth for the very first time, he’s filled with worry and wonder.  Guided by Mama Snowflake, Little Snowflake and the others anticipate their destination. He knows the possibilities are endless and wishes he could do them all.  There are so many things he could be, but will any of it be meaningful? Will he be satisfied with his destiny?

Snowflake’s Big Adventure is a fun and engaging picture book that helps children grapple with the age old question: “What is my purpose?” It teaches, them how to overcome anxiety and trust the wisdom of those around them. Combining beautiful pictures with powerful life lessons, this book could be your child’s next lifelong favourite.

About the Author

Helping kids to love reading one book at a time.  Erin Mackey writes in various children’s genres, including picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade fiction, and Young Adult fiction.  She has more than 40 completed picture book manuscripts and she continues to develop new story ideas on a regular basis.  So far, Erin has published picture books, middle grade fiction, and Young Adult books.  She enjoys spending time with her husband, family, friends, church family, and her crazy cats who constantly entertain her and get into trouble.

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My First Published Work

 

A couple of weeks ago, I published my first book. Well, kind of. To be more accurate, I published my novelette on Amazon for a general release. 

Gentlemen of Fortune is the first book in a series of adventure stories I'm writing featuring the adventures (and misadventures) of the wandering scoundrels Kestrel and Scar. Kestrel is a romantic thrill-seeking English libertine whose impulsive nature tends to land him in sticky situations. Scar, on the other hand, is a cynical Antiguan ex-slave who seeks his fortunes as a pirate while trying to keep Kestrel out of trouble. They travel the Caribbean (and sometimes further afield) in search of wine, women, and song while crossing paths with numerous unsavoury elements from all walks of life. You could say I wanted to do some Pirates of the Caribbean-type stories but without the fantasy elements which bog down the later films.

In this story, we follow the pair as they're hired as bodyguards by Rosanna Barclay, a former lady-in-waiting who has arrived in Port Royal in search of her missing father, Captain Nathaniel Barclay. They soon learn that he was a pirate who disappeared after attacking a French payroll carrier, and double-crossed his sponsor, Lord Pettigrew. The race is soon on to find Captain Barclay before Pettigrew does.

I started writing Gentlemen of Fortune in 2015, and it went through numerous re-writes over the following years while I exercised other story ideas using the characters. I eventually decided to self-publish it this year for one of my final-year university assignments. It was being considered by one publisher at the time, but they were willing to accommodate the assignment. I printed a couple of paperbacks to submit for assessment and sell at the Book Room at Swanwick. Since the Swanwick copies sold well, I decided to withdraw my submission from the publisher and self-publish via KDP.

With all that said, what happens now? Well, I've got a couple of other Kestrel and Scar stories in the works set before and after Gentlemen of Fortune. I'm currently working on an immediate follow-up, The Pirate King, in which Kestrel and Scar learn that Pettigrew isn't the only one with a score to settle with Captain Barclay.

In the meantime, Gentlemen of Fortune is now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback formats. I'm also planning a launch event on my Facebook page (unless it goes down again). There'll be a pirate trivia quiz with a signed paperback for the winner, along with music and cool art I found on Pinterest.

Bring me that horizon, and happy writing.