Featured project: ENI, a tabletop RPG system for “any”one and “any” setting!

*As a note, the intro for this was written by Steph from TTRPGkids, and the below description was written by Charles Ward, creator of ENI

ENI, the minimalist RPG ruleset from Japan (pronounced “any”), has met its modest crowdfunding goal and is growing in popularity. Easy to learn, play and run, ENI is ideal for new players, GMs, and schools to run RPG sessions. The free-to-download ruleset has been reformatted and expanded for the ZineQuest4 Kickstarter event and looks amazing!  

This project started off during our daily school run. I GM’ed for my 6 year old son in the car while I drove, so I needed a simple system. Dice was the obvious answer, but I also wanted to add player choice and instill the concept of probability as an educational element. The dice became the character’s potential, and, at the same time, your dwindling potential is visceral and easy to see. The system was then expanded and tested with a weekly session with 6 players, and now it is on Kickstarter!

Let me tell you how it all works:

The system is very simple. Characters have a certain number of dice that they start with. I like to start with one of each: D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20. But you can start with more or gain more as you play. When your character does something difficult, you must choose one of their dice and roll it. If you rolled a 4 or more, it happens. That die is now unavailable until you take a good rest. This means you have 6 chances to do something cool, to change the story, to help your friends.

Teamwork?  Yes, there is teamwork!  Whether you are playing solo or not, other PCs (personal characters) can roll dice with you. Only one result needs to be a 4 or higher, but all the dice become unavailable.  As dice become unavailable, the shy players can come in and save the team. You’ve also all got to know when to run away!

You can also spend a silver eni to add 1 to any die roll.  What is an “eni”? This is how collaborative story building comes in. You get silver enis for being a good contributor to the narrative and for world building. If you get really good at progressing the story, you will end up being a GM eventually. So I guess ENI is like GM training too!

Since you have limited chances to do amazing stuff, and a variable likelihood to succeed, players tend to be more conservative with their dice. This means that players will be more creative with the story and the environment and make stuff up to help them progress. So ENI is less about the crunchiness of the rules, and more about moving the story along quickly.

ENI is really for “any”one, to play “any” setting, to be “any” character that can do “any” thing. The system is setting agnostic, so you get to bring your creativity to the table. If you like the system, you can build on it and incorporate it into your content too – the license for ENI allows you to commercialize any derivative works providing you attribute and share the work correctly.

You can download the free ruleset as a 1 page download or back the kickstarter campaign for the Zine Edition that comes with inspiration tables, longer rules explanations and examples, and a great graphic design.

Thank you for supporting this awesome project!

In addition to checking out the kickstarter, find more information about ENI and future games on our website, twitter, instagram, and facebook!

Charles Ward ( Charlie )

EX1ST GAMES

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