The Jackrealms Game System

Mechanical Foundation XIV: The Story is the Center of the Action

As a narrative-forward system, the Jackrealms is intended to revolve around the narration of its players. If there comes a time your table produces a plot hole or contradictory event, keep it moving. If both things cannot be true, how were the team made to believe it the first time? As a dealer, don’t introduce more major plot elements than you can track. Likewise, team members should use their attempts to gather information along the same thread as others have during that round, unless they are pursuing a previously-mentioned detail or are attempting to set their character up for a desired course of action.

The Jackrealms system’s mechanics are kept light to prevent table conflict. If an action seems outlandish but would look cool for the character performing it, then call it unsafe and deal them in. It will be more engaging to your players to allow them to attempt an action and for you to give it wild complications than it would have been if you argued about the possibility of them trying it. At the end of the day, the players are here to have fun, and if everyone is enjoying portraying their characters even losing can be fun.