Sentiment TTRPG System

[clockworkmonkey]

Salutations and Happy Spacetime. I have come here today to share my hyperfixation of the last year-and-some-change in the hopes of spreading the word of some indie creators and also some genuinely incredible entertainment fiction.
I have been working for the last year to adapt my part of an old forum RP section into a proper setting. God knows I have the characters to fill it, each with an egregiously hyper-specific place just for them, because this is just what I do with my spare time. I make blorbos. Have you seen them? There are literally hundreds of them. But this thread is not about them. It isn't even about the setting. I only mention the setting for one reason. Because it is built on the back of an indie TTRPG system I stumbled into and fell in love with. My setting and my adaptation of this system are deeply intertwined with one another.

This system is called Sentiment, though it started as Windrose. The link provided gives a general overview of the system and in turn links to the 0.6.0 version of the rules (the current version available to patrons of the Sentiment TTRPG Patreon is 0.8.1, and I would be happy to share with anyone interested, though the core mechanics have remained mostly unchanged). It's a system that is rooted in character driven narrative, rather than stats and numbers, and it's been tested and shaped by multiple games in different styles, including social drama, high-lethality horror, and superhero anime. The system is rules light, but requires no small amount of work on the part of the GM in tailoring the abilities available to the players. It's, uh. Very much a game for game designers, at least insofar as GMing.


Some people, when designing a character, will ask themselves what the character is like at their best, and at their worst. These are good questions. As is the question of motivation. Sentiment's character creation asks: "What are the three things that most strongly define your character as a person?" These can be physical attributes, mental acuity, their philosophy, that one thing they got famous for and now they can't ever live it down. Each of these three things is an Attribute, and is assigned a color. When you play your character, everything you do will be based on those three Attributes. They quite literally define you. Which means one of two things: you will either become very good at roleplaying, or you will get very good at bullshitting the GM. If you can explain to me why your Hockey Star attribute enables you to leap a chasm or not blow a social interaction, you can get away with it.
This rules-light, roleplay-centric nature is what first attracted me to Sentiment. What has kept me fascinated with it, kept my hyperfixation strong. Is the content. The very first game run using the system was Windrose Everlasting, run by Jay. It's hardly an epic tale, but it's a solid starting point and it establishes the system well in its early stages. Also it features JelloApocalypse, which is how I found it in the first place. Judge me all you want. Thirteenth God, run by Christian, with Jay as one of the players, goes deeper into the system, telling a more complete story in another part of the same world. It's heavily inspired by chanbara (samurai films) and anime tropes, and it did a lot to develop the world these guys would continue to build. Daisuisen, also run by Christian, follows a similar path in a similar but different setting, still part of the same world, with less emphasis on action and more on personal stakes, travel, and discovery. Unlike Windrose Everlasting or Thirteenth God, each episode of Daisuisen can be taken as its own complete story without needing the context of those that came before. It further helped to develop the world at large. All of this worldbuilding pays off in Forgotten Indigo and Wilting Vows. Forgotten Indigo is a mix of social drama and mystery horror, and has a lot more emphasis on social mechanics and personal narrative, with the overarching story being built week by week around the actions of the players (and lots and lots of mini RP sessions outside the system). If you're a fan of the Yakuza games, you will enjoy Indigo.
The rest of these games are not connected to that world. If you're invested at this point, I'm sorry. I feel your disappointment. But they are still good. And we're starting strong. Are you a fan of From Software and the Souls games? Immortalize is an experimental game heavily inspired by Dark Souls where Twitch chat was the player. It got chaotic. I was there. I'm not even a Dark Souls fan. This one has a heavy emphasis on its action and player choices. We fought the optional superboss and got the True Ending. It rules.
How do I introduce Reflection? The official description on the playlist is "Turn back the apocalypse with a superweapon from a d100 table! Psychic world hopping, reality bending TTRPG in the sentiment system!" Reflection is heavily inspired by Arknights, with many concepts that feel reminiscent of Final Fantasy 14. In a world made of flame that has died and been reborn (no less than) twelve times, superweapons called Reflections are formed from the tales of heroes and legends of worlds past. The heroes of this world bind to those weapons and fight back against the demons that have ended those past worlds. We are in the middle of the final act right now and all I can say without spoiling anything is "it's fucking peak."
Necroveritas is a game run by Brin Mataujall, who is an artist and co-GM for Reflection. Brin is a Call of Cthulhu GM. He likes his games to have high stakes and high lethality, and the modifications he has made to the system really emphasize that (most notably damage is almost guaranteed to Wound and you can only Roll to Dye when someone shoots at you, so if you lockout one of your dice you will be without it for a while. If these terms are foreign to you: read the rules doc you goober.) The best way I can describe Necroveritas is that it's like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex if you replaced all technology with necromancy. So the ghost is literal.
And here at the end we have the newest game to hit the channel, Beginning of the End. This game is run by Tom Laflin, aka Arimnaes, whom you may recognize as the voice of the villain from Dragon Ball Daima. This game is the story of an apocalypse and a people wholly unprepared for it. People who are made of rocks! Action has been sparse, favoring a lot of intrigue instead. A fascinating world with a fascinating magic system that has so far barely been explored in the first act. Between these elements and the characters at play, I am very excited to see where things go.
I will eventually either continue this thread with my own musings on the system and some of my worldbuilding and mechanics, or I'll make another thread specifically for that in the future. Not sure yet. I have a lot of mind threads to comb out.

[clockworkmonkey]

I just finished episode 72 of Reflection. I don't know how much linger this show is going to go, but we're deep in the final act. Stakes are high and the emotions are fucking real.
It's a big time investment, 72 episodes ranging anywhere from 3 and a half to 6 hours, but I promise you it is so worth it. I love all of these characters, I love all of these players.
There is so much work that went into making this game, from Jay making literally hundreds of maps for each act, to the work the three co-GMs put in behind the scenes during sessions, the amount of worldbuilding and creating character connections, the music (there is a lot of music pulled from JRPGs but there are several pieces composed just for this game, and an animated OP and ED with their own original themes)
This shit deserves your time and your support, I promise I promise I promise it is fucking peak.

[clockworkmonkey]

Okay so thinking about it maybe it does make more sense to go into more depth about the system itself here directly than expecting people to find a link on a page I linked, so I'm gonna go into depth about the system and its mechanics, because this is vital information for when I eventually start rambling about my own modifications to it.

"Every character has a collection of statistics named Attributes. These Attributes are each assigned a color and a name during character creation. Characters in Sentiment typically begin with a Red Attribute, a Blue Attribute, and a Yellow Attribute."* It is possible to have more than three Attributes, and it is possible to have different colored Attributes, but Red, Blue, and Yellow are the simplest starting point.
These Attributes can be named anything you want, and represent the core of your character's identity. "The important thing is to have a clear idea of what they represent, and to be able to communicate it with your GM when you need to."* Since your Attributes are so intrinsic to what makes your character who they are, changing the name or color of an attribute is not something that should typically happen, as it is tantamount to changing a fundamental aspect of the character. It is possible, but should ideally only happen at moments of personal growth or transformation.
"Each Attribute is represented by a d6 of the same color, called your Attribute Dice. Your Red Attribute uses a Red Attribute Dice, and so on. These Attribute Dice will be used to modify most rolls you perform in Sentiment, but only when the Attribute's name applies to the situation in which they are used."*
"Throughout the game you will regularly be asked to bring one of these Attributes to the forefront of your character, invoking them in exchange for a boost to your odds of success. Players are encouraged to roleplay their character embodying what that Attribute means to them! If an Attribute named 'Confidence' is locked in, they might be more daring and boastful! Conversely, Attributes may become temporarily unavailable to a character by being Locked Out or even Wounded! Players are similarly encouraged to roleplay how their character would act in the complete absence of one of the cornerstones of their identity or ability!"*
Attributes can be increased in power by spending Exp to Level Up, but the current version of the rules doesn't have the revisions to how that works yet! Oops. I can at least talk about how it was on the earlier rules doc. Basically whenever you gain Exp it goes into a bank and you can spend it at any time to permanently increase one of your attributes, your HP, or Level Up one of your Gifts (which we'll get into later), and the cost increases proportionally with each Level Up. Leveling Up one of your Attributes gives a bonus on rolls made with the associated Attribute Dice.
Speaking of which, there are two main types of rolls in the Sentiment System: Roll to Do, and Roll to Dye.
Whenever you want to take an action or in some way effect the world, you Roll to Do. Attacking, skill checks, anything that the character does with intent to affect change around them is performed with a Roll to Do. To perform a Roll to Do, roll 1d20 and add one of your Attribute Dice to the total. If none of your Attributes can feasibly be applied to the roll, use a colorless d6 instead. This is called a Wild Roll, and does not gain the benefit of any of your Attribute bonuses. If your Roll to Do is an attack, the damage dealt is equal to your Attribute Dice (or colorless dice) result plus any applicable bonuses. If you rolled an Attribute Dice, you may lock in the value of that dice as your Swing. (I'll get there in a minute)
When your character reacts to something, be it an incoming attack or an awkward situation, you Roll to Dye. To Roll to Dye, roll all of your available Attribute Dice and add up the total. You may Lock In any of these Attribute Dice as your Swing, and add the Attribute Bonus of the associated Attribute to the total. You may also Roll to Dye at any time outside of a Conflict to reflect on how your character is feeling.

So what's this Swing business? Whenever you Roll to Do or Roll to Dye, you may take the value of any of the rolled Attribute Dice and preserve it as your Swing. On any subsequent Rolls to Do or Rolls to Dye, you will use that preserved value in place of rolling the associated Attribute Dice, and apply its Attribute Bonus as well. When you are Locked In to a Swing, you are considered to be Dyed in the color of the associated Attribute. If you have no Swing, you are considered to be colorless. You may Drop your Swing at any time except during a roll. When Locked In to a Swing, it is encouraged, though not required, to roleplay as though that Attribute has been brought to the forefront of your character's being and is acting as their current driving force. To this end, you may even choose to Lock In a lower value dice result from a Roll to Dye.

"Games of Sentiment are blocked into Scenes, sequences of events blocked out by the GM, usually but not always limited to a single map or location. The length of a Scene is ultimately up to the GM, it could be as short as a few exchanged words or could span an entire war!"* Planning out Scenes in advance is highly advised for the GM for the sake of narrative flow, though obviously you can't account for everything your players will do and will have to adjust on the fly. Conversation between players and the GM between sessions to plan for potential Scenes is very much encouraged.
"Sometimes a GM will decide a Scene needs to be broken down into more precise measurements of time. A Conflict takes the free-form nature of a Scene and alters it so that every character within the Scene gets a fair chance to act."* Conflict is not limited to combat, and may take the form of a social encounter or other stressful or time-sensitive situation. Jay likes to run competitions and other minigames as Conflicts.
Conflicts are broken down into Acts. Each character involved in the Conflict takes a turn, and when each character has done their part the Act ends and a new Act begins. When a Conflict is first called, all participants Roll to Dye. The character with the highest result chooses who goes first, and they may choose themself. When a character finishes their turn, they may choose which character goes next provided they have not already had a turn this Act.
During a turn, a character can perform one Action and one Move. An Action is anything that requires a Roll to Do. A Move allows you to travel a number of spaces up to your Speed (most Characters start with 6 Speed) and can be broken up before and after your Action. Once all participants have taken their turn, a new Act begins. At the start of each Act, each character must decide if they want to Keep or Reroll their Swing. Among those who choose to Reroll, determine who has the highest Roll to Dye, and they may choose who goes first. If everyone decides to Keep, the character with the highest Swing chooses.

Damage is directly subtracted from a character's Health total. Every character begins the game with 10 Health, which may be increased by spending Exp in the same way as Leveling Up an Attribute. When a Character reaches 0 Health, they are Wounded. A Wounded character Rolls to Dye to determine how much Health they restore (this is called a Roll to Recover) and then selects and Attribute to become Wounded. Wounded dice are unusable in any way until they are healed. Players are encouraged to roleplay what their characters would be like in the total absence of one of their core features. When a character is Wounded, they may choose to exit the Scene via running away or being knocked unconscious, etc. However the GM may choose to deny this option in situations with particularly high stakes. A character who is Wounded but has no Attribute Dice left to Wound dies.

There's Exhaust/Ignite mechanics, which allow you to temporarily Lockout one of your Attribute Dice for extra effects, like adding extra damage or knockback to an attack, reducing incoming damage, or other effects specified by Gifts. You can Lockout one of your dice to gain an extra Move, give an extra 1d6 to an ally's roll, tag a prop for a numerical or effect bonus (get creative)

And Gifts, which are not covered in the 0.8.1 rules doc, are a character's abilities or equipment. Each character has a number of Gift slots, and Gifts are crafted by the GM to provide bonuses or special abilities for each character. Ideally this is where players work with the GM to build something unique to their character, though the GM may opt to make a bunch of prefab Gifts that players can earn, or you can do both. Gifts can alter the way your character plays far beyond the scope of the core rules, and I've been doing a lot of mechanical tinkering building prefab classes for my own adaptation. I'll share some sometime, once I've established what my changes to the system are.

_{*quoted text is sourced directly from the 0.8.1 rules doc}

[clockworkmonkey]

A new series in the Sentiment system has been announced!

[clockworkmonkey]

GAMERS, THE 0.9 RULES DOC IS AVAILABLE
https://www.patreon.com/c/sentimentttrpg/posts