# The Build-A-Game System **Designed by Groov Games with the help of a couple of kids.** ## What's BAGS? BAGS, or the Build-A-Game System, is an incredibly lightweight tabletop game system built for a couple of kids that wanted to run their own games. This was made to help foster creativity, teamwork, and imagination - all while being super easy to plan and run. It turns out it's great for anyone looking for a quick pick-up game, too! It fits on one page ([available here!](https://groovasaur.itch.io/bags)) and doesn't need a character sheet - a scrap of paper or a notes app and a few d6 are all you need! Tags replace all stats, attributes, traits, and circumstances. When characters want to do anything, they roll six-sided dice based on the tag, and see what happens! You'll find all of the basic rules on the next few pages with optional extras to help make the game your own after that. ### Safety Tools Talk to everybody at the table before things get started. Storytelling can be cathartic, but it can also bring up uncomfortable themes. Make sure you're all on the same page about the things that are ok in the game, and the things that should stay off-screen. I recommend using the Lines and Veils and X-card methods. ### Licencing BAGS is released under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0. If you want to make anything with it, you can - just give proper credit to Groov Games! # How to Play ### Tags and Characters All things, creatures or not, can have a **tag and value**. _Suave Spaceguy_ [2], _Burning Building_ [4], and _A Mob of Ugly Brutes_ [5] are all tags. The narrative will usually tell you how a tag works. A _Live Hand Grenade_ can only be used once but would cause a lot of mayhem. Being an _Expert Tap Dancer_ won’t help you in doing calculus, but it might mean you’re light on your feet. ### Rolling When doing something risky, pick a tag that makes sense and roll **d6** equal to the value. If the action is easier for some reason (someone helping, the tag fits exactly, well prepared) add a die or two. If it’s harder (missing tools, tag doesn’t really fit, trying to affect more than one thing) take a die or two away. For each 5 or 6 on the dice, you get a **hit**. If a die rolls a 6, **roll it again!** Each hit affects a tag (usually by lowering it) or by changing the narrative a bit. If you get fewer than 2 hits, you also get a **drawback**. ### Drawbacks & Stress The GM looks at the story and decides if the action didn’t have the full intended effect, there’s some kind of story complication, a tag is lowered, or if the character adds a **stress** (more than one if they're in serious danger!). If a character rolls fewer dice for an action than the number of stress they have, they’re **barely hanging on**, and one more stress will take them out of the scene. **Stress** and lowered tags come back when it makes sense in the story. Sometimes that means rest, sometimes running confessional if you’re a _Ghost Busting Priest_. ## Push After making a tag roll, a character can choose to **lower a tag** or take up to 3 **stress** to add the same number of extra dice to the roll. This represents your _Laser Gun_ jamming, reckless acts, pushing beyond normal limits, and everything in between. ## Creation Write down 4 tags, then split 10 six-sided dice (d6) between them. Tags can’t go above 4 at creation. Keep in mind these can be as simple as _Strong_ or as evoking as _Raised by Wolves_ or _I would Die for the King_. These may also be items, friends, vehicles, or anything else - just keep in mind that means they can be used by someone else or lost. > ### Final Thoughts > > That's the game! All the extra buttons and levers past this point help you to make the game your own. Before you're loose in the while blue yonder, I just wanted to thank all the creators out there. Keep making art and inspiring others. Special thanks to the Fari Community discord server for ideas, feedback, and just being all-around great people. Cheers! # Tag Extras Here's a few ideas on how you can change tags for your game. ### Snags When buying a mostly negative tag, players can make it a snag. These start at 0 in play, stepping up once or twice up to their max when complicating things. Might include _Insufferable Teenager_, or _Strong Opinions about Pineapple on Pizza_, and can be rolled as normal (though probably rarely), or be used to push **any** roll. ### Drags Instead of **stress**, you may get a bad tag, a **drag**, that works against you. These start at 1 and step up from there. The total values of drags are added together and are treated as stress. When a drag could get worse, roll it and increase it if there are any hits. ### Power Tags These cost double to buy and step up, but when a roll with this **tag** is pushed it adds double the amount of dice. This might be _Chosen One_, _Fire Sorcery_, or _Super Strength_. ### Modifiers Complicated tags may have specialties and flaws tied to them, each that adds or takes away dice when they matter. That _Starship Engine_ [4] might be great at _FTL Travel_ [+1], but a little rusty when it comes to _Planetary_ [-1]. These values should always even out in a tag when created. This can be handled on the fly with difficulty, but modifiers may make it more organized. ### And a Little More **Tags** represent just about everything in BAGS. Use them to make the game your own. The party may have a few of the same tags, such as _Wits_, _Speed_, _Guns_, or _Morale_, while others could have a group tag such as _Funding_, _Heat_, or _Band of Horrible Goblins_. Moreover, scenes and games themselves may have their own such as _Blazing Fire!_ or _Creeping Madness_. Larger and more important tags may make more sense as a few tags. These other tags add up to the total and represent parts of the whole. A _Spaceship_ [7] may have _Engines_ [3], _Cargo_ [2], and _Weapons_ [2] under it. The composed tag can't be rolled itself, and is always the total of its parts, even when they change. Tags provide the framework, the rest is up to the GM and players. Have trouble thinking of Tags for a character? Keep it SMPL with _Smarts_, _Muscle_, _Personality_, and _Luck_. Now go get 'em, tiger. # The Extra Mechanics Grab Bag Miscellaneous rules to keep you on your toes. ### Tracking with Pools Dice pools can be built to a number of dice to track progress or threat. This might be to recruit _Knuckleheads_ to a gang, track the mob boss’ _Patience_ wearing thin, or see _How Much Mrs. Silverlake Likes Us_. These might need rolls, plot, or time to change, or the pool might be rolled to see what happens. The GM sets the goal value, usually between 3 and 8 deep. ### Push Mods These options change how pushing works, giving the game a different tone. - **Action.** Add a hit instead of a die. This will make the game over-the-top at times. - **Belief.** Characters can push for each other. This fosters teamwork. - **Dark.** Take stress and reduce a tag when you push. This makes the game deadlier. - **Flashbacks.** Push to make a tag roll before the current scene. This reduces time spent planning, by letting characters 'plan' before the players. - **Grim.** If a character ever has 5 stress, they're taken out. This lets characters get one-shot. - **Heroic.** Full tag values are rolled when reduced. Heroes are always capable. - **Pulp.** Push to reroll all dice. This encourages risk-taking. ### Characters Getting Better Mark a tick by a **tag** each time it’s pushed, complicates the story, or has a creative use. After each game session, add a tick on any tag. Once you have 5, increase that tag or add a new one at 1. ### GM-less Play Players work together to establish the start of a story. Each scene is set by one player, while the player to their left rolls a d6, and adds complications (**tags**) to the scene totaling the result. The players play out the scene, overcoming it and going to the next until the story has an end. After each scene, the player that rolled the d6 sets the next. Try using pools to track plot progress. > ### Last Minute Tips > > **Fiction First!** > The story comes before mechanics in this kind of game. The GM and the players look at the narrative to see what happens, then to the mechanics if needed. Is the character doing something risky? Would it be interesting to see how well they did? As the GM, ask that kind of question to yourself before pulling out the dice. > > **What about the bad guys?** > The characters are the only ones that roll in this game. Everybody else's actions just happen unless a friendly neighborhood player character decides to stop them -- then they can roll to see how they did! > > **Do I need to do any planning?** > Don't overdo it -- the story conflict only needs to be a tag, which means most of it can be done on the fly. Keep in mind a lot of the story can come from the players too, if they have an idea for a drawback listen to them!