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Plank

To begin, choose one person to be the Game Master. While the Game Master comes up with a setting for the story, the other players should come up with their character. Pick a name and a short description, such as, “Jora is a sentient Roomba with some (literal) screws missing.” Don’t worry about coming up with any backstory, you can make that up as you go along. Instead, write down something your character is good at. The more specific it is, the better they’ll be at it—someone who is good at everything is rarely great at anything. You can write up to three things that your character is good at, but you must also write something they are bad at for each.

Once everyone is done, take turns introducing your character to the room. The Game Master goes last, and instead introduces the world you will be playing in. The players then role-play as their characters and tell the Game Master what they want to do. While playing, the players may use any item that would make sense for their character to have. A musician would have a guitar, but a wizard would not have a gun.

When an action a player wishes to take involves a notable amount of skill or luck, the Game Master will instruct the player to “flip for it.” If you have only one coin, take turns flipping (the player then the Game Master), but flip synchronously if you have two. If both coins land on tails, then the character fails to perform the action, worsening the situation. If both land on heads, they succeed. When one lands on heads and the other tails, it is up to the discretion of the Game Master to decide if they succeed or not. Take into consideration the difficulty of the scenario and whether the character is good or bad at that task. As a result, the Game Master may decide that they: (1) fail the action and face unintended consequences, (2) perform the action but encounter complications, or (3) succeed in an unremarkable way.

Play out the story until it naturally comes to a conclusion, or you run out of time.