Second Guess System SRD

This one page document serves as both a guide and a template for crafting SGS (Second Guess System) games.

Initially crafted  while musing on an Edgar Allen Poe Inspired setup for a game that came to be called One White Eye, I later wrote the following explanation of my thought process:

This also came quickly with the realization that a game of such narrow scope really only needed to be a single page. Thus, the system would have to be short and tight as well. As mentioned, I've been researching a great deal of Wretched and Alone games over the past few months. It's a great system and setup. I only had to figure out how to strip it down in size as 52 prompts is a great deal to fit on that single page. I needed a smaller number, but still needed some random determination to change the flow of the game. And thus, a d20 with twenty prompts.

Of course, one of the best features of W&A using a deck of cards is that it eliminates the recurrence of the same prompt more than once. With a d20, this is a problem, unless you institute a reroll each time you get a number you had previously used. But a simple reroll felt narratively and mechanically flat. Where's the risk or reward in this game? How does it end?

Which lead straight to the idea that the game won't stop you from rolling the same numbers and prompts, but it will twist what happens. Everyone lies all the time. They lie to each other and the lie to themselves. What if each time you rolled a prompt over again you had to admit to something that you had lied about previously in that prompt? Surely someone imprisoned like this has been lying about something.

From there, we just add a quick d6 roll and an escalating tracker of your Dread which must be beaten or elsewise you succumb, and there you have it - a game!

Check out the full document for a little more insight into the core factors that make up a Second Guess Game such as uncertainty and quite possibly, inevitability. 

Other SGS Games by Gamenomicon:

One White Eye - Poe inspired horror reminiscent of The Pit & The Pendulum and The Tell Tale Heart,

The Date - Full of trepidation, you head out on your first date with a new potential lover.

The Second Guess System was inspired by:

• The Wretched and Alone SRD by Matt Sanders & Chris Bissette