# Overview

## The 5-minute version

Ok, I know a full-fledged book for an SRD may look intimidating, so let's get straight to the point. If you don't have the time or the energy to read through the whole thing, here's a quick start.

### How to create a Push-powered game

1. Create your **Pitch**, a short paragraph telling about the world, its conflicts and protagonists
2. List the **Themes** of your game and add a **safety tool**
3. Create a bunch of **Traits** players will pick from to make their **Characters**
4. Come up with a **Quest** that includes:
   1. A **Mission**, the inciting incident that requires immediate action
   2. A **Matrix**, a table of 36 prompts with moments that could come up during the adventure
   3. An **Agenda**, a list of 6 goals that express behaviors you want to reward the players for
5. Fit it all in two pages and you're done!

### How to run a Push-powered game

1. Read the **Pitch**, the **Mission**, the **Agenda**, and go over the **Themes** and **safety tools**
2. Create your **Character** by picking one **Trait** from each category
3. Roll on the **Matrix** to determine how the adventure starts
4. Establish a **challenge** that needs to be overcome here
5. Frame the **scene**, adding elements and details
6. Perform your **actions**, and **roll some dice** if you want to
7. Check the **Oracle** anytime you have a question
8. When you feel the scene is over, roll the next prompt on the Matrix
9. When you feel the mission is complete, get your **Rewards**
10. Start a new adventure or a new game!

That's the gist of it. The entirety of this book is dedicated to explaining all the **bolded** terms above, offering advice and guidance on how you can use this system to make and play your own games. Enjoy!

## What is Push

Push is a lightweight, story-driven RPG system designed for cooperative, action-packed adventures. This is a genre-agnostic engine that you can use to create your own games about extraordinary characters embarking on perilous quests through fantastic worlds.

A single core mechanic powers the whole system, pushing the story forward through emergent complications and inviting players to assume higher risks and use their imagination.

The complete absence of stats brings story weaving to center stage and invites beginners and veteran players alike to try a freer, lighter role-playing experience.

The conciseness of the rules allows you, the designer, to fit an entire game on a single sheet of paper if you want to. A two-page template for your new game is provided with this SRD.

### What you need to play

Push-powered games will need:

- 1 to 5 players (the text assumes a group, but you can play it solo with no changes to the rules)
- Some six-sided dice (one is fine, but two per player is ideal)
- A copy of the **character sheet** for each player
- A copy of the **Quest Sheet**

### Core premises

- **Cooperative gameplay:** Push has no Game Master. All players share the responsibility to bring the story to life, take turns under the spotlight, add flavor to the world and its inhabitants, ask and answer questions and keep the game space a fun and safe environment. Gameplay is based on consent. Whenever an agreement can't be reached or a burning question has no obvious answer, the Oracle is there to save the day.
- **Stat-free:** There are no stats in the game. Characters, foes, weapons, items, money. Nothing has a number nor a mechanic attached to it. Dice rolls are influenced by luck and risk-taking only, and the dice influence the fiction only. No resources to keep track of.
- **Emergent narrative:** Push-powered games do not offer a preloaded lore of the world. Instead, the quest-centered design provides players with evocative prompts that can be acted upon. Setting emerges through people, places, items, and events. Through the interaction between characters and situations, players build a world of their own with the framework provided.
- **Imagination first:** Push does not use grids, rulers or prescriptive definitions of abilities and challenges. Players are encouraged to come up with creative uses of their character's traits and to use their imagination to freely determine how far, how fast, how difficult things are in any given circumstance.
- **Dice bring drama:** Rolling the dice is _always an option, never an obligation._ When you do so, the system is heavily steered towards partial successes. But even a failure is never a dead end. "Nothing" never happens. Circumstances change after every roll.
- **Competent protagonists:** characters are the protagonists of the adventure. As such, they're unique and capable of influencing the course of their story. And they don't die unless their player decides so.

### What is this document?

This is a **System Reference Document**—or **SRD.** It provides the rules and instructions for you to make your own games using the Push system. Together with a step-by-step guide, you'll find commentary on game design choices, behind the curtains information on how the mechanics work, and ideas on how you can customize the system to make it your own.

This book is a little lengthier than one would expect for such a simple game, but that's because I included a full example of a game created using this system, with detailed explanations on each step. My goal was to make it accessible for anyone interested in using it, regardless of their previous game design experience.

# Core mechanic

## The basic roll

Push-powered games apply a single mechanic to all types of conflict resolution. Let's see how it works.

Whenever your character attempts something that you consider _dramatically interesting,_ roll 1d6. Check your result:

- On a 7 or higher, it's a **MISS.**
- On a 5 or 6, it's a **STRONG HIT.**
- On a 4 or lower, it's a **WEAK HIT,** but you can **choose** to roll +1d6. If you do so, you **must** add it to your result.

And this is the human language version, the one I'd use when explaining it to someone in person:

> So, when you want to do something cool, you roll one die. If you get a 5 or a 6, that means you get what you wanted. You did the thing. If you get a 4 or less, you also get what you wanted, but some sort of complication happens too. However, you can decide to roll a second die and add the two results together to try and get a 5 or 6 and avoid the complication. But here's the catch: if your total reaches 7 or more, that's a miss. You get what you didn't want, and that's usually bad.

### What about modifiers?

There are none. The core roll is not affected by skills, talents, abilities, advantages, difficulty ratings, attributes. Why not? Three main reasons:

1. It has been done before. Extensively. If you need an SRD that does that, you can find great examples out there, such as [LUMEN by Gila RPGs (itch.io)](https://gilarpgs.itch.io/lumen), [24XX by Jason Tocci (itch.io)](https://jasontocci.itch.io/24xx), [The Caltrop Core (v 0.0 Early Access) by titanomachyRPG (itch.io)](https://titanomachyrpg.itch.io/caltropcore), [Charge SRD by Fari RPGs (itch.io)](https://fari-rpgs.itch.io/charge-srd), and many more (I recommend you visit [Fari Community - Free and Open RPG Resources](https://fari.community/) for a vast collection of SRDs). My intention is to offer an alternative (albeit not original) take on how dice rolls work in a game.
2. Probabilities don't matter as much as we'd like to believe. Unless you're rolling hundreds of times in a single game session, that +1/+2 modifier might not make much of a difference. You can prove that yourself using a [dice roller simulator](https://www.geogebra.org/m/UsoH4eNl "Dice Roll Simulation").
3. I want the core mechanic to be as easy and accessible as possible. You can explain the above rule in less than a minute, even to someone that has never played an RPG before. I don't want (and don't need) modifiers to get in the way of that. It also frees designers to focus their creativity on the narrative aspects of the game: devising compelling character choices and thrilling quests.

## Breaking down the roll

### Dramatically interesting

The core rule states you should roll \*when your character attempts something that **you consider dramatically interesting.\*** Note that this is a purposely vague and personal definition. You, the player, decide when to roll. You never _need_ to roll, but you may _want_ to. It doesn't have to be a risky, high-stakes effort. If you're excited to roll for an action, do it. The dice won't punish you—at least not mechanically. Because of how they work, when you go for the dice, you're inviting drama into the scene.

On the other hand, if you don't feel invested in the potential surprising consequences of an action, simply don't roll for it. In case you're not sure whether you should or shouldn't roll, check with the other players or with The Oracle.

Remember that there's no target number, difficulty level, or other mechanical restrictions for what you try to do. Instead, the game relies on its cooperative nature to determine the plausibility of what you're attempting. Does it make sense in this context, considering the world's truths and your character's traits, that you would be able to do it? Does it sound fun if you did? Again, if you're not sure, ask the table and/or The Oracle.

### Strong Hit

If you get a 5 or a 6 as a result of your die roll, you get a **Strong Hit.** That means you get what you want from that action. Whatever your character set out to do, they did it successfully, with no further consequences. Describe how you perform the action and set up the scene for what happens next.

### Weak Hit

If you get a 4 or less as a result of your die roll, you get a **Weak Hit.** That means you get what you want from that action, but there's a cost or a complication. Whatever your character set out to do, they did it successfully, but with unwanted consequences. Describe how you perform the action and how the complication manifests itself in the situation. If you can, use it to set up what happens next in the scene.

Alternatively, if you want to go for a Strong Hit, you can choose to roll +1d6 and add this second roll to your previous result. Three things to keep in mind:

- If you decide to roll the extra die, you run the risk of getting a 7 or higher, which is a **miss**
- If you roll the extra die, you **_must_** add it to your result. You can't decide not to add it after you roll it.
- If you roll the extra die and still get a Weak Hit, you can choose to roll **_another_** extra die and add it to the previous two. You can repeat that as many times as you want until you get a 5 or higher.

### Miss

If you get a 7 or more as a result of your die roll, you get a **Miss.** That means you get what you don't want from that action. Describe how the complication manifests itself in the situation. If you can, use it to set up what happens next in the scene.

Let me reiterate this: it's "You get what **you don't want"**, and not **"You don't get** what you want". Whatever your character set out to do, it brought about unwanted consequences. The situation changes somehow. "Nothing happens" is never an option. Something always happens when you roll the dice. If you're trying to decipher weird scriptures, a Miss is not _"you don't understand what it is"_ but rather _"you learned something you didn't want to know"_ or something like that. You get the point.

### Costs and complications

Most of the time (at least in theory), your die rolls will bring costs and complications. That's the foundation of the Push engine. It serves two main purposes:

1. It invites players to push their luck and roll an extra die every time they get a Weak Hit, which in turn provides dramatic scenes and relevant choices.
2. It pushes the narrative forward with that "out of the frying pan into the fire" effect we love from pulp adventure stories.

However, coming up with new costs and complications every other roll can be taxing on players, and the fun snowballing of consequences may become an avalanche of frustration. Here's how to avoid it:

- **Don't overthink it.** There's no need to come up with intricate consequences every time. They should serve the story, yes. But if you can't come up with something, say your character twisted their ankle and move on. Don't bog down the game over a single roll.
- **Diversify.** Consequences can happen to you, your allies, the environment, the enemies, the story as a whole. There's no need to attach a complication to the performed action. If you want to declare that, as a result of a roll while picking a lock, it suddenly starts to rain, go for it. A consequence can even happen off-camera, in a completely different place.
- **Cooperate.** Invite other players to make suggestions. You don't need to decide what the complication is before every roll, but every now and then you can go, "Ok, I'm about to pull that lever, what do you think should happen if it goes south?" Just be reminded that you have the final say over the consequences of your own rolls.

If you feel your players would benefit from more guidance to come up with consequences, you could provide a list they could check (or roll 1d6 on) like the one below:

#### Table 01 - Complications

1. A character is negatively affected (hurt, stressed, sick, afraid, sad)
2. A character is put in danger
3. A character loses/breaks an item/resource/opportunity
4. A current threat/obstacle is worsened/intensified
5. A new threat/obstacle appears
6. A twist or inconvenient truth is revealed

**PRO-TIP:** The list above can be customized to further highlight the themes of your game. Grittier games might have more severe consequences, whereas light-hearted ones could remove any kind of harm whatsoever. The list can even mention specific threats of your game world and how they make a move every time characters make a mistake.

## The Oracle

**The Oracle** is a mechanism that answers those questions you would normally shoot the GM about lore, rules, truths, and so on. Here's how it works:

Whenever you have a question for which the group does not have an unequivocal answer, phrase it as a Yes or No question. Decide which one is more likely to be true and then roll 1d6. Check the result:

- On a 7 or higher, it's a **MISFORTUNE.**
- On a 5 or 6, it's the **UNLIKELY** outcome.
- On a 4 or lower, it's the **LIKELY** outcome, but you can **choose** to roll +1d6. If you do so, you **must** add it to your result.

Let's dive a little deeper into it. Consulting the Oracle should take just a few seconds, but we will take this opportunity to look behind the mechanics and understand how it works in detail.

### A question

What kinds of questions would you ask the Oracle? Well, any kind, really. It can be about the story of the game world, a detail in the scenario, the limits of a character's ability, the fate of a foe, the reaction to a character's action, and so on. They can be a simple circumstantial doubt or a large world-building factor. If you've played a traditional RPG before, think of a moment where you would ask a question to the GM. Since there isn't one in Push, you ask it to The Oracle instead.

Here are a few examples:

- Is he dead?
- Can elves fly?
- What do they say?
- How long before winter?
- Do we know the name of the prince?
- Can I cast fireballs?
- Is it raining?
- Are there zombies in this world?
- Have I been here before?
- What do we see?

Oracles are a common technology of solo and cooperative games, but in Push they may also answer one very important question: **_Is it done?_**

See, since enemies and other challenges don't have HP or any other "life tracker", how do we know when we overcome the challenge? Was a single roll enough to knock the guard out? To crack the safe open? To cross the river balancing on a rope? In other words, the thing you set out to do: **_is it done?_** Or is the challenge still up?

From all the questions you may ask the Oracle in this game, that's the most important one. This is a very peculiar game design choice, and I'll talk a little bit more about it below.

### An unequivocal answer

Before you ask the Oracle, check with the group. Maybe the answer is obvious, and you all agree upon it. Don't roll on the Oracle if you have a strong gut feeling about what the answer is (or should be).

Remember the old saying: Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to. And by that I mean, if one of the possible answers of The Oracle does not interest you, don't roll for it! Just talk it out and decide it. If you don't want vampires in your game, don't ask if there are vampires. If you feel the Big Bad should be dead, don't ask if they are, unless you are open to being surprised by the dice.

And this also applies to the big question, **_"Is it done?"._** If you roll to jump over a chasm and get a Strong Hit, this particular challenge is most likely over, right? Don't need to check the Oracle for it. The inverse is also true. If you hit a dragon for the first time with your dagger, it's probably not dead yet, right? No need to check either.

In terms of game design, the ability to determine when a challenge is over gives the players the narrative authority to decide how much **"screen time"** a scene deserves. Are you still invested in this negotiation with the Dwarven lords? If so, just declare it's not over yet, and keep talking and rolling the dice. If not, just wrap it up and move the story forward. If not sure, ask the Oracle. Are they convinced yet? Roll and find out.

Without numbers telling you when a challenge is over, there's no need to drag out a scene after it offered what you expected from it, and also there's no need to cut short a scene you're still enjoying. And you can always resort to the Oracle if you can't make up your mind.

### A Yes or No question

Right, now that you decided that you don't have the answer and you want to ask The Oracle, you need to phrase it as a Yes or No question. To be honest, most of the time, that's already the kind of question you'd normally ask. "Can I...", "Is she..", "Have we..", Is there..", "Do we...", all of these are straight yes or no questions that form the majority of inquires players usually have.

If you have an open-ended question (usually the ones starting with How, When, Where, Who, What, and Why), then you need to rephrase it. "Where is the castle?" becomes "Is the castle nearby?". "How are they dressed" becomes "Are they wearing fancy clothes?"

As you can see, you need to come up with at least a hypothesis for an open-ended question, and then check if it is true using the Oracle. If you're playing in a group, that's a good time to invite your friends to collaborate. You shouldn't spend too much time on it, though. The first idea that comes to your mind will usually be the best. The only thing you need to make sure of is that you're truly interested in both outcomes, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to ask the Oracle in the first place.

### Likelihood

Now that you have your question, you need to decide whether Yes or No is more likely to be the answer. That's not always obvious, but again, you shouldn't overthink it. Just go with your gut. If you feel both answers are equally plausible, choose the one you're more excited about as the likely one.

Now simply roll the die! Again, this whole process shouldn't take more than a few seconds to complete.

### Reading the results

If you get a result between 1 and 4, the answer is the more **likely** option. If you get a 5 or a 6, it's the **unlikely** option.

Now, if you get the likely answer and it doesn't favor you, you can try and push your luck, roll an extra die and bend the fate in your direction. If you do so, you must add the results together. Careful, though. If you get to a total of 7 or higher, you have a **misfortune:** not only the situation does not favor you, it is worse than you anticipated.

> Let's say you're trying to get into a dinner party without an invitation. You ask the table, "Are there guards outside?", and since you don't have an unequivocal answer, you check the Oracle. You decide that the most likely answer is "Yes". You roll the die and get a 3, so yes, there are guards. That's not good. You choose to push your luck and roll an extra die, maybe you can increase the total result to a 5 or 6 and declare there are actually no guards! You roll and get a 5, so the results combined give you an 8—a misfortune. You talk to the table and determine that not only there are guards, but one of them is an old enemy of yours! Oh no!

You might want to determine what the possible misfortune is _before_ you decide to roll the second die, so you know what kind of risk you are taking. And as with the core roll, you can keep rolling extra dice if you want to until you get to a total result of 5 or more.

Notice that you can only confront the Oracle (roll +1 die) when you get the likely result. If you get the unlikely answer and it does not benefit you, tough luck. You already had the odds in your favor but the dice decided otherwise.

### Chaining questions

If you're not familiar with Oracles or feel that you need to include more guidance in your game about them, here's a good tip I learned a while ago: **chaining questions.**

If you originally had an open-ended question and had to rephrase it as a yes or no question, you can keep testing your hypothesis if the Oracle gives you a no for an answer.

> Imagine you're asking "What is this tall building we see?" So you check the Oracle:
>
> - "Is it a castle?", if not, then
> - "Is it a fortress?", if not, then
> - "Is it a temple?", yes!

I don't recommend going for more than 3 chained questions at once, otherwise you slow down the game too much. If you get to your third hypothesis, go ahead and come up with two alternatives before rolling, like "Is it a temple? If not, let's say it is a tower".

You can also use chained questions to increase drama in a significant situation too. Instead of making a single high-stakes Oracle check, break it down into smaller questions and chain them together.

> Let's say you come across a treasure chest and you want to know what's in it. Instead of asking, "Is it the Scepter of the Galaxy?", if you feel that would be too _Deus ex machina_, you could divide it into three questions, like so:
>
> - "Is it a magic item?", if so, then
> - "Is it really rare?", if so, then
> - "Is it the Scepter of the Galaxy?"

This way, if you do get the Scepter, you feel that you deserved it, and didn't abuse the narrative authority you are given. Of course, this resource is to be used for those climatic points of your story, not at every mundane question you might ask.

### The Quick Oracle

The idea for the Oracle above is to use the same core roll as the one you use for character actions. But if you feel that's too much for your game, you're welcome to use the quick version below.

Whenever you have a question for which the group does not have an unequivocal answer, phrase it as a Yes or No question and then roll 1d6. Check the result:

- On a 3 or lower, it's a **NO.**
- On a 4 or higher, it's a **YES.**

This version does not require deciding which is the more likely outcome, and in return does not offer the ability to challenge its result, nor the opportunity of a misfortune. It's much faster, though.

# Creating your game

Ok, if the core mechanic caught your attention and you feel like giving it a go and making your own game using it, here's my step-by-step guide on how to do it.

## The Pitch

The majority of the world-building happens during play, so you don't need to worry about it too much right now. There's no need for a comprehensive lore of the world, with cosmology, history, locations, factions, events, geography, all intertwined and cohesive. In fact, your game benefits from the blank spaces you leave. That's where gameplay will breathe.

For now, all you need is an elevator pitch. A short paragraph that conveys what kind of world that is, what the major conflict is, and how characters take part in it. If you can, show what makes this world unique. Something like that:

_"In a galaxy divided by the Robot Wars, there's little space for joy. You are The Pierrots, a troupe of android comedians devoted to bringing laughter to the outer planets, and constantly entangled in conundrums they never signed up for."_

_"The Narrow City coughs up smoke and crime. You are members of the Eternal Family, the vampire mafia that runs its shady business throughout the centuries. Will you rise to the top of the organization or work to bring it down along with this damned place?"_

Even with just a couple of sentences, you can imply factions, historical events, and a major plot point. It doesn't matter if you don't even know what those names mean—that's exactly the point, you're not supposed to. Keep it vague, keep it short. If it fits on a single tweet, you're doing it right.

> Throughout this chapter, I will create a game of my own as an example. Let's go with a vanilla fantasy setting so it is really easy to do. Here's the pitch: "After the fall of Queen Nahlet, the Just, Danoria was seized by Korlax, the Crimson Wizard. You are The Prestige, the remaining heroes of the fallen kingdom, that swore an oath to retrieve the Lost Relics and restore peace and prosperity to the Danorian."

## The Themes

With your pitch ready, spend some time listing the major themes one would come across while playing your game. This serves two main purposes:

- **A guide for you.** On the next steps, when you are further defining the aspects of the world, you can go back to your list every time you need to check whether the elements you added are aligned to the themes you envisioned for the game. If they are not, adjust accordingly (either the elements or the themes).
- **A safety tool for the players.** An upfront exposition of themes helps potential players decide if that's a game for them. In this section of your game, I recommend you also introduce a safety tool of your choice. My favorite is the [Script Change RPG Toolbox by Beau Jágr Sheldon (itch.io)](https://thoughty.itch.io/script-change). But feel free to suggest others or create your own. Just make sure you include one.

Your list of themes doesn't need to be comprehensive but should cover the main and most sensible ones. I'd recommend you also include what the game is not about, and the things you expect players won't use your game for.

> For **Relics of Danoria** (that's the name of my theoretical fantasy game), the themes I listed are:
>
> - Fantasy
> - Exploration
> - Battles (mild violence)
> - Magic rituals
> - Occultism
> - Mild horror
>
> I've also included a link to script change and the following orientation:
> _This is not a game about "killing monsters and taking their stuff". The only enemies are the spawn of Korlax, the wizard. All species you find across the lands of Danoria belong there and are intelligent, even if your limited perspective might not understand their reasons. The characters are heroes with a noble cause, despite their flaws._

## The Characters

Characters in Push are unique, competent, adventurous protagonists. They don't have stats, but they do have **_Traits._** Character creation is just a matter of choosing a number of traits from different categories and you're done!

### Traits

Traits in Push are organized into **categories.** When creating your game, I recommend you start with the six standard categories and customize them if you need to. Here they are:

**GIFT:** things you were born with. Includes talents, innate abilities, heritage, bloodline, powers and magic acquired by birth, singularities.

**UPBRINGING:** things you were raised with. Includes cultural backgrounds, prophecies about you, ethnicities, fantasy and alien species, social status, families.

**EXPERIENCE:** things you went through. Includes training, studies, occupations, professions, life events, journeys taken, paths chosen, challenges faced, skills acquired, decisions made, twists of fate.

**MARK:** things that shine through. Includes peculiarities, mannerisms, beliefs, instincts, values, personality traits, looks.

**CHARM:** things you cherish. Includes artifacts, gadgets, weapons, armor, vehicles, mounts, trinkets, outfits, pets, familiars, animal companions.

**BOND:** things you are attached to. Includes missions, obligations, family ties, affiliations, debts, personal goals.

Now you should provide a few example traits for each category. I'd recommend going for 3, 6, 12, 18, or 36 traits because then the player could roll for a random one using one or two d6. For a one-page, one-shot game, go for three. For an average length game, I'd say 12. I wouldn't go beyond that unless you're super inspired by all these cool options you want to give your players.

More important than the quantity, though, is the quality of the traits. Remember I said not to worry about preloading your game with lore? Well, now you can inject some more implicit world-building in the trait options you create. Come up with names, factions, kins, events. Make them unique and evocative. Again: you don't need to know what they mean, as long as they spark the players' imagination. Want to have "Shadow Keeper" as an Experience trait but you have no clue what a shadow keeper is? Perfect! I bet your players would love to play and find out.

I'd also include these three instructions for players on picking their traits:

- **Choose. Roll. Create.** Look briefly over the traits available and go with the one that catches your eye. If you can't decide, roll for it. If no option interests you, create your own and share it with the group for validation.
- **One player by trait.** Characters are unique, so two players shouldn't choose the same trait. If more than one player is interested in the same trait, come up with variations (someone picks the "Storm Tiger", the other creates "The Flaming Lion", and everyone is happy).
- **Fill in the gaps.** Players are invited to share their interpretation of their traits with the group. Make up stories. Create connections between the characters through their traits. Discuss how they see the traits coming up in play.

> Relics of Danoria will be a shorter game, so I’ll come up with six traits for each category. Let’s see:

#### Table 02 - Character Traits

| GIFT                  | UPBRINGING            | EXPERIENCE                    |
| --------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Fire whisperer        | Raised by Moon Wolves | Blade dancer                  |
| Star blessed          | The last Mohtaka      | Zyox war veteran              |
| Ancient soul          | The winged elves      | Storm bringer                 |
| One with the night    | Dragon touched        | Survived the Diamond Desert   |
| Bear strength         | Lord of Quaruna       | Disciple of The Silver Tongue |
| Purple eyes of Sohria | The Iron Folk         | Sandstone Bearer              |

| MARK                                   | CHARM                    | BOND                               |
| -------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- |
| A poem for every occasion              | A snow hawk              | The Black Sea Guild                |
| A cup of Nuna tea solves most problems | The Sapphire Sword       | Restore the Faith of the Lost Tree |
| Always carries a hidden dagger         | The Shapeshifting Scroll | Find my real mother                |
| The truth is overrated                 | A white dragon’s tooth   | Bring down The Tempest             |
| Reflexes of a silver cat               | The Amulet of Jonaris    | The Forgotten Folk                 |
| Never takes off their hood             | A clock of clouds        | Recover the First Song             |

And that's all you need to define concerning characters! No HP, weapon damage, armor class, attributes, skills, nothing. Remind players that characters have all the mundane equipment and provisions they need to live their adventures. Push-powered games are not about survival or resource management. Scarcity may be a plot device in your game (like for a group of scavengers in a post-apocalyptical world), but it is not a mechanical device. Remember, you can reinforce the themes of your game through the **complication list.** Magic corruption, mind-shattering events, loss of abilities, exhaustion—all the pushbacks of your world can be represented through the narrative prompts offered by the list of consequences you customize.

After players choose their traits, they’re invited to share their vision of their characters with the group, along with their name, description and pronouns. That’s an opportunity to further define and weave their traits together, establish truths and expectations and really bring their characters to life. This is also a moment to practice sharing the spotlight and actively listening to your peers. Be a fan of everyone’s character. Celebrate their uniqueness an d show your excitement to learn more about them during play. It’s OK to leave blanks. Maybe they don’t know yet the meaning of every single trait they chose. This is great! That is yet another opportunity for them to enrich the world as they play.

## The Quest

Push-powered games are quest-oriented. That means when you're creating your game, you're actually creating adventures by filling out the **Quest Sheet.** There is no world-building (and game designing, really) outside of quests and characters. Let's see how you do it.

### The Mission

The first thing you need for your Quest is the mission. Think of an inciting incident that requires immediate action, so the characters are set into motion. If you need help, try following the structure below. Start with this sentence:

```
A foe wants to A + B so you must A + B otherwise C + B
```

Now you can roll 1d6 or pick from the table below for each entry.

#### Table 03 - Missions

| A - Action                       | B - Target                                | C - Consequence                      |
| -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| 1. Find (explore, discover)      | 1. Entity (person, faction, creature)     | 1. Loss (failure, cost)              |
| 2. Destroy (defeat, overthrow)   | 2. Knowledge (information, secret, idea)  | 2. Domination (opression, influence) |
| 3. Protect (defend, save)        | 3. Value (reputation, power, wealth)      | 3. Destruction (ruin, extinction)    |
| 4. Conquer (captivate, dominate) | 4. Location (path, community, place)      | 4. Harm (death, sabotage)            |
| 5. Overcome (survive, escape)    | 5. Resource (object, ingredient, element) | 5. Change (shift, corruption)        |
| 6. Capture (recover, imprison)   | 6. Event (phenomenon, incident, legend)   | 6. Dispute (disturbance, strife)     |

Refine it a little bit, throwing in some mysteries and world-building elements, and your mission is done. You can even provide this table in the end of your game if you want to give a tool for your players to come up with their own missions later.

> I’ll use the suggested structure to come up with my mission. Let’s say:
>
> "A foe wants to **DESTROY + RESOURCE**, so you must **FIND + ENTITY** otherwise **CHANGE + KNOWLEDGE.**"
>
> I think I can work with that. Let’s refine it:
>
> _"The Brothers of the Beast learned the location of The Serpent Scepter. If they destroy it, the Lizard Folk won’t believe in the return of the Cobra King anymore, and will then join the sinister brotherhood. You must find the king's lost daughter, the only one who can wield the scepter and avoid this disaster."_

### The Matrix

OK, now for the core of your quest: the **Matrix.** The Matrix is a table of 36 prompts on which players will roll every time they need to create a new scene, define what happens next or add extra color and meaning to their storyline.

These prompts are the most direct way to communicate what your game is about. When creating them, think of the **moments** you want your players to experience, what kinds of scenes they will be able to build around them and what kind of feelings and situations they evoke.

In practical terms, those prompts can be:

|        |              |             |
| ------ | ------------ | ----------- |
| ITEMS  | PEOPLE       | EVENTS      |
| FOES   | ENVIRONMENTS | DISCOVERIES |
| PLACES | SENSATIONS   | CREATURES   |

You should create prompts that are evocative enough so players are invested in experiencing it, but that are not too prescriptive as to not leave room for players to interpret and expand upon. A good prompt sits in that sweet spot between vague and precise. And since they are randomly selected, you shouldn’t expect them to come up in any specific order.

There is no better way of explaining it than showing one, so let’s jump to my example.

> Right, I have a clear vision in my head, so it’s time to fill out my matrix. While I do so, I should keep in mind the mission I just created, the main pitch and themes of my game, as well as the character traits I came up with, so my prompts call back to those elements.

#### Table 04 - The Matrix

| **1**                                      | **2**                                             |
| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- |
| 1. A ferocious Drakon sleeps               | 1. A lost amulet                                  |
| 2. The steep Mylantha Mountains            | 2. The caves beyond the frontier                  |
| 3. A nest of purple snakes                 | 3. Thunderstorms are early this season            |
| 4. Traces of a recent scuffle on the sand  | 4. Shared stories around the fire                 |
| 5. The Beast Hunters approach              | 5. Milo, a gecko innkeeper                        |
| 6. The Crystal Moth has a message          | 6. The energy field of a Relic is felt            |
| **3**                                      | **4**                                             |
| 1. An audience with the Rainbow Bird       | 1. A possible heir to the throne                  |
| 2. The Bone Bridge on a windy sunset       | 2. Korlax's spy bats                              |
| 3. Olara, the sunken witch                 | 3. A merchant brings a gift                       |
| 4. The Reptile Council is summoned         | 4. The Cinder Knight stands in your way           |
| 5. The teahouse on the treetop             | 5. The whispering forest                          |
| 6. The Cursed Compass                      | 6. An omen among the stars                        |
| **5**                                      | **6**                                             |
| 1. A marble tower far on the horizon       | 1. Coral, the cobra King‘s cousin                 |
| 2. An ancient scripture challenges beliefs | 2. The Lonely Willow                              |
| 3. The depths of the Pearl Valley          | 3. The Battle of Quaruna                          |
| 4. Brothers on the run                     | 4. The Narrow River holds a secret                |
| 5. The prophecy of Sul-Mahat               | 5. An enigmatic carved door                       |
| 6. A flower, a book, and a duel            | 6. The orb in the trapped ruins of an observatory |

I'm repeating myself, but just to be clear: you don't need to know what any of those prompts mean. They should be compelling and flavorful, but it'll be the players who will bring them to life during their adventure.

### The Agenda

Excellent, the meat of your game is done! Now all is left to do is the **Agenda.**

The Agenda is a series of smaller achievements you expect your players to chase during your adventure. Achieving them will grant rewards—namely, character advancement.

Think of the agenda as your way to reward the players for specific behaviors. If through the traits and the matrix you expressed the themes of your game, through the agenda you reveal its tones and intentions.

The agenda is formed by a list of imperative statements called **Goals**— six of them should suffice. It's the player's job to bring them into the narrative or bend the story to their direction so they get a chance to accomplish them. They're **_group goals_**, so if one character manages to complete one, the whole group benefits from it.

> Here is the agenda for the quest I'm making:
>
> - Make a new ally
> - Learn one of Korlax's weaknesses
> - Show mercy towards a creature
> - Commune with nature
> - Reveal a secret of your past
> - Be gifted with a magical item

And that's your game! If you're feeling fancy, you could add a map and some art, but it's not mandatory. If you're aiming for a more robust game, you could also create more Quests, maybe some more character options (such as "advanced" traits), and custom-made rewards. If you want to give players more freedom, you could provide a long list of prompts and missions so they can come up with their own Quests!

# Running the game

In this chapter, I'll present orientations on how a group of players would go about running a Push-powered game. It's up to you how much of it you want to include in your game, but I'd suggest at least a bullet point list of the main steps detailed below.

## The loop

As a GMless system, it's my belief that it benefits from a structured gameplay loop. Since there's no single authority figure to answer what happens next, the group can simply follow the steps in order and move the story forward by themselves. Here's how it works.

### 1. Roll on the matrix

After players are familiarized with the game pitch and the quest mission (and have their characters ready), they start to play by selecting a player to roll 2d6 on the Matrix for a random prompt. They read it aloud and the group together discuss what they think it means, painting the scene with a broad brush.

> Everyone is ready to play our first session of Relics of Danoria, so I roll on the Matrix and read "The depths of the Pearl Valley". We talk a little and determine that our adventure starts en route as we learned of a possible location of the King's daughter, which requires traversing the Pearl Valley. We've been on the road for a while, so it's probably the first hours of the evening when we arrive at said location.

### 2. Establish a challenge

Every scene needs a challenge to be overcome, no matter how intimate or epic it is. You may be helping a friend fight their inner demons, or you may be fighting an actual demon. Sometimes a prompt instantly sparks an idea for a challenge, sometimes players have to talk it out. The best way to approach it is by answering the following questions:

_- What do we want here?_
_- What's standing in our way?_

If players are stuck at finding a challenge, they can pick one (or roll 2d6) on the table below:

#### Table 05 - Challenge Type

| 1-3        | 4-6            |
| ---------- | -------------- |
| 1. BARRIER | 1. CONTEST     |
| 2. TASK    | 2. MYSTERY     |
| 3. FIGHT   | 3. NEGOTIATION |
| 4. TRAP    | 4. ENDURANCE   |
| 5. CHASE   | 5. THREAT      |
| 6. DEBATE  | 6. PUZZLE      |

Players can mix and match challenges (solving a puzzle during a fight is a personal favorite) and work out how they look together. It might be a good idea to review the agenda for this quest and see if they can frame a challenge that offers the opportunity to achieve one of those goals.

> We quickly decide this will be an endurance challenge. The Pearl Valley reflects the full moon on all surfaces, and such magic brightness makes it impossible for travelers to sleep here, so we have to soldier on throughout the night. Now if we want to answer the two questions:
>
> - What do we want here?
>
>   _Cross the Pearl Valley safely_
>
> - What's standing in our way?
>
>   _The disorienting glow of the pearly walls_

### 3. Frame the scene

Now it's time to bring this scene to life. Players can pick one element (or roll 2d6 ) from the table below to add to the scene's description.

#### Table 06 - Descriptions

| 1-3                      | 4-6                      |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------ |
| 1. Smells and sounds     | 1. Materials and texture |
| 2. Colors and sights     | 2. Impression or opinion |
| 3. People and creatures  | 3. Posture and attitude  |
| 4. Weather and nature    | 4. Light and time        |
| 5. Mood and atmosphere   | 5. Camera angles         |
| 6. Ornaments and details | 6. Actions and movement  |

Anything from two to four descriptions should suffice for a scene. Make sure different players get to contribute with the details.

> We decide to roll for our descriptions. One player gets "weather and nature" so they say it's a cold, windy night, and there's no sign of vegetation, just the shiny rocks above and around us. A second player gets "camera angles" so they describe the scene as seen first from above, like a drone shot, showing how small our party looks while they push against the wind in this gleaming desert valley.

### 4. Perform your actions

This is the core step of the loop. It starts with the group asking themselves, _"Ok, what should we do?"_ Each player then, one by one, describes how their character helps them overcome the challenge. Not all actions need to be directly geared towards the challenge, though—players are also invited to aid their allies and perform secondary actions at will.

Players must make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the spotlight, inviting each other to the action by asking, _"What do you do?"_ They are encouraged to roleplay other people they might encounter as they keep adding to the description of the scene, and interpreting how the world around them reacts to their actions.

When choosing what to do, players can look at their character traits for inspiration. Traits are a roleplaying guide to inform (but not limit) what characters **could/would/should** do in any given circumstance. It's also a good idea to keep the agenda in mind and look for opportunities to incorporate them into the scene. If a player is not sure their character is able to do something, they can ask the group or the Oracle.

This is the step in which dice rolls are made. Remember it is a player decision first, a group decision second, and an Oracle decision last whether an action requires a roll or not.

From the characters' actions, complications and threads to follow will stem. The story will unfold naturally from here. Players can keep performing their actions as long as they're invested in the scene, taking turns being the protagonist when they're in the spotlight, and offering support when the others are.

> We start crossing the valley, so one player declares they're casting a spell to create a shade over their eyes. They want to roll for it and end up getting a complication. The group decides the spell is successful, but it attracts the attention of some creatures that reveal their heads through the cracks in the walls. Great! We have a new threat to deal with. I look at my character sheet and remember I have a "Snow Hawk" as my Charm. I also check the agenda and read "Make a new ally" and I think this might be a good opportunity. So instead of attacking the creatures, I'll send my Snow Hawk as our ambassador to try and get the creatures to our side.

### 5. Check the Oracle

Every time they need to ask a question regarding the world, the situation, their powers, or anything else, they may follow the procedures to check the Oracle and get a Yes or No answer.

If they feel the scene is over and the challenge is overcome (or no longer relevant), they can decide so and move on. If they're not sure if it's resolved yet, they should ask the Oracle.

When a scene is done, players **cross that prompt out** from the Matrix.

> We are not sure if my Snow Hawk can communicate with other creatures, so we ask the Oracle and we get a Yes! Cool, I invite some other players to describe what the hawk sees when it flies up to the creatures. The scene continues with other characters taking their actions and interacting with the world around us. After a while, we believe the scene has nothing more to give, so we decide the challenge is overcome and the scene is over. Now we have a few mountain salamanders following us along the journey. We cross "The depths of the Pearl Valley" out from the Matrix.

### 6. Start over

Now the loop starts over. If the previous scene offered a clear path on what they should do next, players can even skip the roll on the Matrix (or perhaps just use it for additional flavor). If not, they can go back to step 1 and roll for a new prompt (or pick one that catches their eyes).

> We have no idea what to do next, so we go back to step 1, and we are about to roll on the table again. But one player is willing to interact with other people, so they suggest we pick the "Brothers on the run" prompt instead of rolling. We agree, so we are ready to start framing our next scene.

## The End

Players repeat this loop until they feel it's time to finish the story. The last scene may be their final confrontation to reach their mission's goal, their journey back home, their first step towards a new adventure, or something else completely that no one expected when they first started playing.

Whatever it is, it should come from a collective agreement that they're already satisfied with what the story has provided. The quest matrix offers 36 potential scenes, but it's up to the group to decide how many of them they use for a mission. An adventure may last a single session or span over multiple days.

### Rewards and advancement

After the mission is complete, players earn their rewards. Since characters have no stats, rewards (and therefore advancement) are done through **new traits.**

The idea is simple: characters should get a number of new traits based on how much of the agenda the group fulfilled. The exact amount is up to you., the game designer, but here's a general idea.

If your agenda has 6 goals, each player is rewarded:

- **1 new trait** if the group achieves 1-2 goals
- **2 new traits** if the group achieves 3-4 goals
- **3 new traits** if the group achieves 5-6 goals

Adjust this number to your taste, or leave it up entirely to the players—they can make a judgment call based on their performance. Remember: traits don't have mechanical effects, so it's not like they will break the game.

New traits feel more relevant if they derive from the adventure they just finished. What skills did they learn? What artifacts did they find? What new beliefs do they have? The group should take some time updating their character sheets and talking about their new traits. It's also an opportunity to rewrite or tweak any old traits they feel need adjustments.

#### alternative: UPGRADING traits

If you prefer, you can offer an alternative reward. Instead of creating new traits, a player can choose to spend their advancement **upgrading** an existing trait. They come up with an improved version of a trait and share with the group what it is now capable of. They can rewrite the upgraded trait to show its new ability, or draw a little star next to it if that makes them feel good.

> One of the players had a "Crystal Spear" as a trait and chose to upgrade it during advancement, saying "After I got hit by that lightning bolt, now my spear is capable of electrocuting foes. Behold the 'Crystal Electrospear!'"

### New adventure

What happens after they finish their first mission? They may decide that's it, and want to play something else (or even make their own game, perhaps?). If they want to embark on a new quest, here are some alternatives.

- **Continue from where they stopped.** It is likely that a single mission won't go over all prompts from a Matrix. If they are still invested in some of those unused prompts, they can recycle the Matrix and start a new mission using it. You, as the designer, may offer a mission generator and some extra prompts if you want to.
- **A new quest entirely.** Players might feel they want to explore something completely different. In that case, you could provide more quests within your game for them to play, or a template with some guidance on how they'd go about creating a quest of their own.

Whatever the case, players are free to use the same characters or come up with new ones. If they choose the latter, they are allowed to use their rewards from the previous adventure for the new character instead.

#### A note on character death

Since Push-powered games do not have trackable resources such as hit points, stress, or conditions, there's no mechanical way to tell when a character should die. In fact, character death should be an option only if the player is invested in this specific storyline. In other words, your character only dies if you say "I think my character should die now".

# Tweaks

Now I'll present a few alternatives that subvert some of the design philosophies of the Push system, but that might fit better the type of game you have in mind. Use them at your own risk.

## Guided play

If you really wanted to, you could have a person with a role analog to a Game Master in most cooperative (and solo) games without any tweaks in the rules themselves, as long as this person works more as a facilitator than as a traditional GM.

For Push, my idea is that a Guide, if existent, should fill these roles:

- Help role play NPCs and describe the scenes
- Explain how the dice work
- Offer suggestions for complications and setbacks
- Help frame questions for The Oracle (not answer them)
- Describe how the world reacts to characters' actions
- Suggest what happens next
- Help interpret the quest matrix and weave the story together
- Help share the spotlight among players

It shouldn't be a part of a Guide's job to define what is true in the world, what the limits of what a character can do are, how and when the rules apply. They don't have any kind of special authority here. They should offer suggestions and guidance, but ultimately it is the group's responsibility to make the game their own. A guide would be there to help them achieve that.

That means no prep, either. What a Guide could do is create their own Quest Sheet and offer it to the group, as long as they (the Guide) are willing to let go of their preconceptions of what those prompts should mean, and are excited to let players take those ideas and run with them.

## Altering the roll

Alright, alright. I know the concept of having a roll not be influenced by character abilities may sound alien and counter-intuitive, so here are some (of the many) ways you could insert modifiers to the core mechanic:

- **Advantage:** players roll 2d6 and pick the highest when they're doing something that belongs to an area of their character's expertise.
- **Threshold:** the Strong Hit range becomes 5 to X, where X is the character's ability score. So a character with Persuasion 8 would score a hit with any result between 5 and 8.
- **Threshold 2:** the Strong Hit range becomes X to 6, where X is the character's ability score. So a character with Persuasion 3 would score a hit with any result between 3 and 6.
- **Resource pool:** Characters have a resource pool they can spend 1 to 1 to increase the result of the first roll or decrease the second one.
- **Expendable traits:** Characters can spend their traits to bypass a roll altogether and declare it a Strong Hit. They refresh their traits after performing a downtime activity meaningful to your game.

There are countless other alternatives, but I'd strongly advise you to try using only the core mechanic at least once to get a feeling of it. You might realize (as I did) you don't need to modify the roll after all. Or you may think I lost my mind and there's no way it could possibly work without stats.

## Objective success and failure

If you feel you need more concrete standards to determine victory or defeat, here's how I would do it:

- Give each character an amount of Energy, HP, Mana, or some other form of life resource. Let's say 5 per character.
- Give the challenge or the scene an amount of Resistance, HP, Risk, or some sort of measurement of how much the characters will have to work to overcome it. Let's say something between 5 and 10.
- A Strong Hit would reduce the Challenge by 2; a Weak Hit would reduce the Challenge by 1 and the character's Energy by 1; a Miss would only reduce the character's Energy by 1.
- If a character reaches 0 Energy, they're **defeated.**
- If the Challenge is brought to 0, it is **overcome.** Move on to the next Challenge.

See, this could work, but it brings a lot of philosophy changes to the table. Dice rolls are now penalizing, so they won't be as much a player choice as before. Now they should always and only roll when there's a potential risk, as most games do. So make sure that's the experience you want to bring to the table before you make this decision.

# License

**Push** is released under a [Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)) license. That means you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

That being said, you can't use this system to make games that promote bigotry, racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, fascism, or any other form of prejudiced or oppressive behavior. This is a strict prohibition by the author.

In order to give proper credit, just copy and paste the text below into the credits of your game:

> This work is based on the Push SRD, developed, authored, and edited by Cezar Capacle (https://capacle.itch.io/), and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

If you want to, you can use the **Push-powered** logo in your games, available as a [separate file](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-sjEv9VmArLJyZ9qLwTpUkY4I9irwFaR?usp=sharing) with this SRD.

## Templates

This game is accompanied by the following templates:

- [Character Sheet](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-sjEv9VmArLJyZ9qLwTpUkY4I9irwFaR?usp=sharing)
- [Two-page game (includes rules and the Quest Sheet)](https://www.canva.com/design/DAE3ULOPtYk/omPANTMPKKSq97NkJxrbjg/view?utm_content=DAE3ULOPtYk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton&mode=preview)

For all purposes, the templates are a part of this SRD and follow the same license.