I wanted to talk about the TTRPG I'm (slowly) working on! There's a lot of stuff in it that I think is pretty cool, and maybe if other people also think it's cool I'll be inspired to work on it more. It's still pretty drafty, though I have successfully run a short campaign of it.
"It has been an age since the High King fell, and the Witch King took his place..."
So how does this game work? If you're familiar with The One Ring, you'll see a lot of similarity. To Places Lost came from me reading through the travel rules in TOR and feeling unsatisfied, then doing my best to build something better. I like to think I've made some significant developments, but the core dice system remains similar, and still uses the same dice pools of one d12 plus a number of d6s for skill checks.
When you want to do something difficult, and there is danger or other stakes, you make a skill check. The GM tells you the target number you're trying to reach, and you roll the d12 and a number of d6s equal to the number of levels you have in the skill. If the total reaches or exceeds the target number, you succeed! If not, you fail, and the DM introduces a consequence. If you roll a 12 on the d12, you get a Triumph! This means you succeed regardless of the total, and you regain 1 Spirit (more on that later). If you roll a 1 on the d12, you get a Mishap. You fail regardless of the total, and an additional negative consequence occurs. Generally this will be damage to your equipment, though it could also be a loss of spirits, an injury, or a worsening of circumstances. Whenever you succeed on a skill check, you make a tally next to that skill. Once you've gotten enough successes, your level in that skill increases. The amount of successes needed increases with each level, and they max out at level 5.
Your character has 5 attributes: Prowess, Agility, Intellect, Will, and Presence. These attributes determine how much your spirits are or how hard you are to hit in combat. You can also use your attributes to turn a failure into a successful by invoking a Trait. Traits are words or phrase that describe your character, like Opportunist, Solitary, Sensitive, Inventive, or Collector. When you fail a skill check, you can spend Spirits to add your most relevant Attribute to your roll by describing how your Trait helps you succeed where you otherwise would have failed. As an example, day you fail a Crafting (woodworking) check to build a raft. An Inventive character could spend Spirits to invoke that Trait and add their Intellect to the total. The player would then describe how the character weaves together river reeds to make extra rope and finish the raft.
And that's basically how the system works! I'd love to hear folks' thoughts or questions if you have any.