Update: see my 2w2p tag for all posts on this framework.
Or, "how to play an RPG as if it were a cooperative worker-placement board game." This (sub?)system is in response to Marcia B's worker placement manifesto, which I endorse. It inspired me in a specific way that I realized probably can't be communicated effectively in a couple of sentences so here it is as a whole post.
I have some additional thoughts about how to flesh out this mechanical skeleton (specifically, to use it to replace the overloaded die in the enchantingly fractal structure of Brendan S.'s Hazard System) but in the interest of actually getting a post out there I think this is good enough. Drawing the rest of the owl is left as an exercise to the reader.
structure of play
The GM describes a situation, and the players ask questions and decide what their characters are going to do. The GM identifies what tasks are being attempted, what their goals are and communicates what the risks are for each. The players make a final decision of which characters are on which task.
For each task, dice are rolled and its outcome settled. The GM describes the new situation and the cycle resumes.
before rolling
Find out the number of (six-sided) dice based on the number of people on a task: 1 die for an individual, 2 dice for 2-3 people, 3 dice for 4-6 people, 4 dice for 7-10, and so on. People with experience count as double their number and specialists count triple.
If task uses some scarce resource, there is a risk of using it up. At the GM's discretion, the players may declare that they are using up a scarce resource before rolling to roll one extra die.
after rolling
Once rolled, the players must assign individual dice to goals and risks: each roll of 5-6 achieves a goal or removes a risk and each roll of 3-4 advances a goal or avoids/delays a risk. If no die of 3+ can be assigned to it, whatever the risk threatens happens and whatever opportunity there was for the goal is lost.
Perceptive readers will note that this is more or less the dice mechanic from GHOST/echo, which I have previously riffed/elaborated upon.
Unless the GM says otherwise, no risk may be delayed more than twice, but advancing the same goal three times achieves it.
complications
To increase the difficulty of a given goal, divide that goal into multiple steps which are each treated as their own goals. The opportunity to work on a later step should not be lost as long as an early step is being advanced.
Similarly, risks can be heightened by splitting them into multiple risks; a simple way to do this would be to treat the same consequence for each participant as a separate risk.
