TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
   
  Ego 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  A RPG where you play intelligent items created in less than 24 hours by Maurice “Moe” Tousignant © 2015
  
   
   
   
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  Credits 
  Ego was designed, written, and barely edited by Maurice (Moe) Tousignant in under 6 hours on 
  October 6th 2015 as part of the RPGGeek.com 24-Hour RPG 2015 contest. 
  Legal Information 
  This game is copyright © 2015 by Maurice Tousignant. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this 
  document in whole or in part for personal use, and to share it with your personal play group as long 
  as it is free of charge and not modified in any way. All rights reserved. 
  About Ego and the 24 Hour RPG 2015 
  I almost didn’t submit a game this year at all. My work schedule has been horrific as of late and I didn’t 
  think I would have any time take part in this awesome RPGGeek contest this year. That just felt wrong 
  to me as the defending champion from the last two years. So I started this game at about 6pm on the 
  last day of the contest, only giving myself 6 hours to put this thing together (and I’m sure it shows). 
  There wasn’t a set theme for this year’s contest (last year was Travel) but there was a random table 
  that you could roll on. I love random tables so I rolled. I got Focus: Object, Theme: Apotheosis and 
  Period: Fantastic. That’s where the idea of an RPG where you play intelligent weapons trying to take 
  over the characters that wield them came from. That of course evolved into intelligent items, which I 
  just think makes more sense.  
  The mechanics were written on the fly while I wrote up the rest of the rules. I had the concept and 
  knew I wanted some kind of test system, but had no idea what exactly do with it. My first thought was 
  something like Drama System from Robin D. Laws, but I tossed that out as I wanted something that 
  would end more quickly with a definite winner. The rules as they stand are fuzzy. I’ll admit that, but 
  they were the best I could think of with this time frame. 
  Overall I really dig the concept of Ego. I love the idea of playing items trying to take over characters, 
  and I dig the thought of playing it as the start to a new game. I only hope that you think it’s as cool as 
  I do.  
  Cover image 
  The Kingmaker Limited Edition Medieval Sword by Soren Nidziella. A Microsoft word filter was 
  applied to the original image which is released under creative commons attribution 2.0 license. 
  Contact Info 
  Email: HUgilvanblight@gmail.comU 
  Facebook: HUwww.facebook.com/gilvanblightU 
  Google Plus: Hhttps://plus.google.com/+MoeTousignant 
  Twitter: HU@windsorgamingU 
  
   
   
   
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  Table of Contents 
   
  Introduction 
  What is Ego  
  1 
  You are an intelligent item  
  1 
  You don’t like being an intelligent item  
  1 
  Ego is system agnostic  
  2  
  Ego can also be mechanically agnostic 
   2 
  Ego can grow 
   2 
   
  The Basics 
  How Ego works 
   3 
  Create characters as normal  
  3 
  If you love someone let them go  
  3 
  Create your item  
  4 
  Play your game  
  4 
   
  Item Creation 
  You are a thing  
  5 
  What kind of thing are you? 
   5 
  You are also a person 
   5 
  You have a goal  
  5  
  You have a belief  
  6 
  You are not perfect 
   6 
  You are not a number!  
  6 
  You are more than this  
  6 
   
   
  Test of Wills 
  You aren’t going to like what that character is doing  
  7 
  A Test of Wills 
   7 
  Spend an Ego point  
  7 
  My mechanics or yours  
  8 
  Roll a die  
  8 
  Modify that die 
   8 
  Use that dominance  
  8 
  The character resists  
  9 
  Someone wins  
  9 
  If you win gain dominance  
  9 
   
  Domination 
  Total domination  
  10 
  The build up to domination  
  10 
  The domination roll  
  10 
  If a character wins the domination roll 
   11 
  If you win the domination roll 
   11 
  So what if there’s a tie?  
  11 
  Domination is inevitable  
  11 
   
   Random Thoughts 
  Here are some of my thoughts about Ego  
  12 
  Not everyone will get domination at once  
  12 
  Mixing in campaign game mechanics  
  13 
  Backgrounds  
  13 
  They must be cursed  
  13 
  I welcome feedback  
  14 
   
   
   
  
  1. Introduction 
  What is Ego? 
  go is a game that you play before you play your game. It is a Role Playing Game (RPG) 
  that you play before, or rather as part of Character Generation for the RPG campaign 
  you are about to start. At the end of an Ego session (or perhaps multiple sessions) 
  you will have very unique character to play in your new campaign. 
   
  You are an intelligent item 
  n Ego the players take on the role of intelligent items. Intelligent items that have 
  already been found by a group of characters. I’m sure everyone who has played a 
  traditional RPG has run across an intelligent item at one time. They are usually 
  amazing and very powerful magic gear that characters find. A big part of the magic 
  item trope is that these items have a will of their own and will often exert that will and 
  try to control a character.  
   
  Ego takes this trope and turns it upside down. In Ego, instead of playing a character who 
  found an intelligent item, you are playing that item that has been found by a character.  
   
  You don’t like being an intelligent item 
  t’s not fun being an item. You can’t move about on your own. Sure you can talk but you can’t 
  really interact very well. You need your character to do almost everything for you. Having to 
  rely on someone like that sucks. The one thing you do have, in addition to your voice, is a 
  very strong ego. Hopefully a strong enough ego to supplant the ego of the character that 
  found you. 
   
  This is the goal of Ego. To take over control of the character that found you and become a 
  character yourself.  
   
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  Ego is system agnostic 
  hile Ego was written with your standard sword and sorcery RPG in mind, it should 
  work with any RPG system. The intelligent item trope comes from games like 
  Dungeons & Dragons but there’s no reason Ego can’t be played before a game 
  of Shadowrun or in a more story telling based game like FATE.  There is no reason 
  your item can’t be a locket in Monsterhearts or a Lightsaber in Star Wars.  
   
  Ego can also be mechanically agnostic 
  He mechanics of Ego are pretty simple and meant to overlay on top of whatever 
  game you are actually playing. A micro game as part of the full game. That doesn’t 
  have to be the case though. Feel free to adapt the mechanics of your game to Ego. 
  Feel free to use the conflict resolution system from your favorite game instead of 
  the Test of Wills as presented here. 
   
  Ego can grow 
  go is meant to be something that you play at the start of a campaign. As part of 
  character creation. It doesn’t have to end here. The events that happen during Ego 
  can and should be part of your full campaign. Enterprising GMs may event want to 
  have the events of Ego have mechanical consequences in the full game. 
   
   
   
   
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  2. The Basics 
  How Ego works 
  n Ego players will make two sets of characters. One set of characters is made using 
  whatever game system you are about to start a campaign in. The second set of 
  characters are made in Ego. These characters are intelligent items. These are items 
  that the first set of characters have found during their initial adventures, before you, 
  as player join their story. To help keep them apart I will call the initially created characters 
  (the ones in whatever system you will be playing) “characters” and the characters created 
  in Ego “items” since that’s what they are at this point, intelligent items. 
   
  Create characters as normal 
  he first step in Ego is to create the characters you plan on playing in your new 
  campaign. You use all the normal rules for making a character in your system of 
  choice. Make the character type you eventually want to play. You make all decisions 
  about the character mechanics.  
   
  If you love someone let them go… 
  ow that you’ve fallen in love with your new character and you are all excited to 
  start a fresh campaign it’s time to let that character go. Pass your character the 
  player on your left or really any other player, the left thing is just arbitrary. Heck 
  if you want make this a mini game and roll for who gets what character. 
   
  That’s right, from this point until the end of Ego, you won’t be the one playing that new 
  character you created. They will be played by someone else.  
   
  But what if they don’t play them the way I want them to? Well that’s exactly what we 
  want. The ego controlling that character will be doing a horrible job and it’s up to you to 
  set them straight. 
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  Create your item 
  fter you have created the character you eventually want to play you need to 
  create your item. This is the real you. The actual person you will be playing, both 
  during Ego and once you move on to your full campaign. See the later chapter 
  on item creation for full rules on how to make you, the intelligent item. 
   
  Play your game 
  ow your game starts. You play whatever RPG you chose for your campaign using 
  the full rules of that system (or whatever version of the rules your GM is choosing 
  to use). You are playing both the character that was handed to you earlier and 
  your item. Your task at this point is to exert your Ego on that character with the 
  eventual goal of completely supplanting the consciousness in that character and claiming 
  it for your own.  
   
  You will be making all decisions for the character you play as well as for your item. When 
  you don’t like what someone else is doing with your character you can try to change their 
  mind. First verbally but if that doesn’t work through a Test of Wills. Win enough Tests of 
  wills and you can try to dominate that character and earn the character sheet back as 
  your own. 
   
   
   
   
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  3. Item Creation 
  You are a thing 
  ntil you are able to exert dominance over your character you are an it. You are an 
  item. You are a thing. A very smart thing, with a very strong will, but a thing none 
  the less.  
   
   What kind of thing are you? 
  hat type of thing are you? Traditionally most people think of intelligent weapons 
  when they think of intelligent items but there is no reason to limit yourself to 
  weapons here. You could be a Helmet, a backpack, a cyberdeck, a steam 
  powered mecha. You can be pretty much anything you want. 
   
  You do want to make sure you pick something that a character would have on them a lot 
  of the time if not at all times. Something that the character is going use often or at least 
  be present when not being used. It sucks bad enough being an item, you don’t want to 
  spend the entire game packed away in a truck back at the inn. 
   
  On an index card write down what you are. 
   
  You are also a person 
  ou are not only an item you are also a person. You have thoughts, desires, goals 
  and a voice. You also weren’t always an item. You had a life before. You had hopes 
  and dreams. You still have hopes and dreams. Who you are defines you even more 
  than what you are.  
   
   
  You have a goal 
  his is a goal in addition to becoming a real, talking, breathing person again. What is 
  this goal? What do you want from the adventure you are about to start? Remember 
  to think about the campaign you will be playing. What you and the other players 
  want out of that campaign. Your goal should tie into that. 
   
  On your index card write down your goal. When the character who owns you does things 
  that work towards your goal you will get a bonus in a Test of Wills. 
   
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  You have a belief 
  ctually you probably have many, but we are only worried about your strongest 
  one. The one that defines your character. Again this should be tied into the 
  campaign you are about to play and should be discussed with the other players 
  and/or the GM. 
   
  On your index card write down your belief. Belief’s work opposite of goals. When the 
  character who owns you does things that work against your belief your conviction gives 
  you a bonus in a Test of Wills. 
   
  You are not perfect 
  o one is, of course. Here we are looking for a flaw. Something negative about your 
  personality or your drives and ambitions. This is something you aren’t proud of 
  about yourself, or something out of your control. Something based on how or 
  where you were raised.  
   
  On your index card write down your flaw. Flaws hurt you. Whenever the character who 
  owns you does something where your flaw comes into play you get a penalty in a Test of 
  Wills. 
   
  You are not a number! 
  orry, in this case you are. Well at least two parts of you are represented by numbers. 
  Every item starts with an Ego score. A whole number that represents how strong 
  your Ego is and how much will you can exert in a Test of Wills. As this game is 
  currently unplaytested I don’t even know what a good number is for this. I’m 
  thinking a number between 6 and 12 would work. 
   
  You also have a dominance score. This one starts at 0, but will go up during play. 
   
  You are more than this 
  hese five things (goal, belief, flaw, ego and dominance) are the bare bones version 
  of an Ego character. Your group is more than welcome to add as much to those index 
  cards as you want. These three traits are just scratching the surface. In addition feel 
  free to try to tie these things into the game mechanic of whatever system you are 
  using. They work great as Aspects in FATE games, for example.  
   
   
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  4. Test of Wills 
  You aren’t going to like what that character is 
  doing. 
  hat person sitting next to you is playing your character all wrong! Seriously just 
  watch them. That’s totally not what you would have done is it? It’s time to take a 
  stand. They think they own you, they thing you are their item, theirs to command, 
  time to show them who’s boss.  
   
  During the game whenever the person playing your character does something you don’t 
  want them to do you should try to talk them out of it. Half the fun of having an intelligent 
  item in a campaign is the conversations that arise during play. 
   
  This is pure roleplaying. You play your item, they play your character. The usual back and 
  forth tabletop talk we all love. At some point though words are going to fail. You are going 
  to disagree and that’s when it’s time for: 
   
  A Test of Wills 
  test of wills happens whenever you want to force your character to do something 
  they don’t want to do. It is a mechanical representation of your trying to assert 
  your Ego over theirs. At the end of a Test of Wills one of two things happen: 
  either the character does what you say, or the character does what their player 
  says they do. There is no grey area here. You win or they win. 
   
  Spend an Ego point 
  very time you decide to take part in a Test of Wills you must spend an Ego point from 
  your Ego score. There’s no way to get Ego back so you don’t need to keep track of 
  your original score. You just need to keep track of where you are now. No matter 
  what mechanical system you use for the Test of Wills (see below) you still spend an 
  Ego point.  
   
  The only time you don’t have to spend an Ego point is if you are all out of Ego. At this 
  point you’ve spent all your resources and are scrambling for your chance at a real life. 
   
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  My mechanics or yours 
  n Ego I provide a very basic system for figuring out a Test of Wills (see next 
  paragraph). This was done to make sure the system was fast and easy (and also 
  because I only had 24 hours to come up with this thing). If you have a better system, 
  please feel free to use it. I’m sure whatever game you are actually running the 
  campaign in probably has a great conflict resolution system. No reason to ignore it. I figure 
  there’s probably a really good reason you are playing that game in the first place.  
   
  If you do chose to use your own system remember that you still have to spend an Ego 
  point to start a Test of Wills. That part doesn’t change. 
   
  Roll a die 
  t’s extremely simple. Spend your Ego point as mentioned above then roll. Roll what 
  you say? Well a die, pretty much any die. The die you choose will determine how 
  swingy you want the game to be. A d6 is what I had in mind when writing this but 
  there’s no reason you can’t stick to the tried and true D20. It’s just going to be a lot 
  more random. If you are playing Fate, roll 4DF.  
   
  Modify that die 
  emember those things you wrote down on your index card. Those come into play 
  now. If what the character is trying to do matches up with your goal, add 1 to your 
  die roll. If what the character is trying to do goes against your belief, add 1 to your 
  die roll. Lastly if your flaw comes into play subtract 1 from your roll. 
   
  For all of these keep an open mind. There’s no hard or fast rule on whether something 
  applies or not. Talk it over with the table and make sure everyone is on the same page.  
   
  Use that dominance 
  ominance is another number you wrote down on that index card. It started at 0. 
  Unlike Ego you need to track dominance in two ways. You need to keep track of 
  how much dominance you have and how much you’ve spent.  
   
  After you have rolled your die (or dice) if you don’t like the results you can spend one 
  dominance point to re-roll. The more dominance you have gained the more often you get 
  the chance to re-roll. You can only re-roll once for each dominance point you’ve earned, 
  which is why you have to track how much you’ve earned and how much you’ve spent. 
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  The character resists 
  o one likes to be told what to do, and your character is the same. They will try to 
  resist you in a Test of Wills and they do so by rolling a die. The same die type you 
  rolled. They don’t get any modifiers though, just a straight up roll. 
   
  Someone wins 
  hoever rolled the highest total wins the Test of Wills and they get their way. It’s 
  that simple. The highest roll wins. But wait a minute, what about a tie? As noted 
  above, this has to be black and white, someone has to win the Test, so who is it? 
  That is decide by the rest of the table. The table votes on who wins the Test of 
  Wills with the GM breaking any further ties. They should base their decisions on the 
  conversation that led up to the test of wills. The roleplaying that preceded the mechanics.  
  If you win you gain dominance 
  henever you win a test of wills you gain dominance over the character. 
  Mechanically this means you get to write down another dominance point on 
  your index card. A point that can later be used to re-roll in a Test of Wills. 
  Thematically this represents you slowly breaking down the character who owns 
  you. The slow progression of your Ego dominating theirs. You want dominance, you need 
  dominance. Dominance is what will eventually let you completely take over that annoying 
  character. 
   
   
   
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  5. Domination 
  Total domination 
  ure those domination points are great for getting re-rolls and helping you win a Test 
  of Wills but they are also needed for something even more important: Total 
  Domination. Your goal is to leave your mundane item shell and take over that stupid 
  character that’s been carrying your around all this time. It’s time to try to become 
  your own character! 
   
  The build up to domination 
  ure those domination points are great for getting re-rolls and helping you win a Test 
  of Wills but the main thing you are going to want those for is for the domination roll. 
  In addition to building up as much domination you can you are also going to have 
  had to spend a lot of Ego. The spending of Ego represents your persistence, the 
  amount of times you’ve tried to exert your will. The more often you have done this the 
  better your chances of finally taking over that pesky character. 
   
  There’s one more important part to the build up to the domination roll: Roleplaying. This 
  shouldn’t be a case of you saying “I try to dominate my character.” This should be a big 
  moment with some bravado and speeches. You are trying to replace a characters 
  consciousness with your own here and it’s a big deal.  
   
  The domination roll 
  Domination roll is a special kind of Test of Wills and follow mostly the same 
  mechanics. You are still rolling a die and your character is also rolling a die and 
  the highest roll wins. The difference is in the modifiers. Note you do not have to 
  spend an Ego point to make a domination roll (you will see why in a moment). 
   
  You roll your die and add your total domination score (not the amount you’ve spent but 
  the amount you have earned). The character rolls their die and they add the amount of 
  Ego you still have left at the time of trying the roll. The highest roll wins. 
   
  S 
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  If a character wins the domination roll 
  hat character has successfully fought you off. They have kept their wits and will and 
  continue to be their own character. You on the other hand lose a bit of your grip on 
  that character and must lose a domination point. You are welcome to try again later, 
  but it’s going to be a bit harder unless you manage to earn that point back and spend 
  some more Ego.  
   
  This mechanic also discourages players from trying domination rolls too early and too 
  often. The risk of losing that point and having to re-earn it should have most players 
  waiting until it’s more of a sure thing before attempting a domination roll. 
   
  If you win the domination roll 
  ongratulations you are a real boy! Sorry, character, a real character. Take that 
  character sheet from that player on your left (or whoever had it) and write your 
  proper name at the top of that sheet. Cross off that silly background and write down 
  what really happened. Rip up that item index card and toss it in the trash like the 
  life you are leaving behind. 
   
  So what if there’s a tie? 
  ere I have mixed thoughts. Part of me wants everyone to vote on it again, 
  especially if the roleplay leading up to the domination roll was appropriately 
  dramatic. Another part of me wants to say it’s a stalemate at this time. You don’t 
  get dominance but you also don’t lose a domination point. Feel free to try it both 
  ways and let me know how it works out. 
   
  Domination is inevitable 
  ventually your domination roll is going to work. It’s inevitable. At some point you are 
  going to have 0 Ego so that the character only gets a basic die roll vs. your modified 
  die roll. You are going to get enough domination points that there’s no way they can 
  win. This is intentional. Domination is the point of the game. The eventual point is to 
  play that cool character you made at the beginning, the one for your new campaign. You 
  don’t want to play intelligent items forever, do you?  
   
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  6. Random Thoughts 
  Here are some of my thoughts about Ego 
  s the deadline for the 24 Hour RPG contest draws near and my brain is running 
  rampant with idea for Ego I thought it would be worth putting some of those 
  random thoughts down. Some ideas on how to make my Ego grow. 
   
  Not everyone will get domination at once 
  his is something I haven’t found an answer to yet but I have had some thoughts. As 
  the system stands now, it’s not only possibly but probably likely that item will gain 
  domination over their characters at different times. What exactly does this mean 
  for the ongoing game? 
   
  The easy answer is nothing. The player takes their character and plays it. The character 
  they took it from continues to play their item but now only has to worry about playing 
  one person, not two. This also means they can focus more on their item character and 
  hopefully hit domination sooner due to that. 
   
  To speed things up I think it may be worth adding this rule: for every character who has 
  already gained dominance add +1 to all Test of Wills and all Domination rolls. 
  Mechanically this should speed up the transformation and thematically it represents the 
  party of characters losing their cool as their companions are slowly taken over by their 
  items. 
   
  Another option is to make it a big scene where everyone gains dominance at once. Once 
  one player gets dominance then every other player then gets to play out a domination 
  scene themselves. A little montage of all the rest of the characters eventually get 
  dominated. This keeps everyone in the game at the same point and lets the actual 
  campaign start right away. 
   
   
   
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  Mixing in campaign game mechanics 
   keep thinking it would be really cool to tie Ego more into the game system you are 
  running. The two main ways that keep repeating in my head are to tie in campaign 
  mechanics to the Test of Will system and to give the players some kind of in game 
  reward after they obtain dominance. 
  For the Test of Wills I want to add in some kind of bonus to the character based on who 
  they are. Like adding their WIS modifier to their Test of Will Rolls in D&D, or being able to 
  invoke an Aspect for +2 in a Fate game. What I worry about though is that this may just 
  drag Ego out longer than it will be welcome.  
   
  The in game reward thing comes from when I was first thinking about Ego and making it 
  bigger than I had time to make it for this contest. My initial thoughts were that your Item 
  would have some kind of skill list and so would your character. And that at the end of the 
  game you would get to pick one or more skills from the character to keep when you 
  eventually win dominance. That was before I decide on total system agnosticism. With 
  the system I have now I’m not sure how this would work but I think a creative GM could 
  come up with something. 
   
  Backgrounds 
  t seems like there’s something cool that could be done with character backgrounds 
  here. I’m just not sure what. Maybe something about each player passing around the 
  characters and coming up with some background info. Especially something dealing 
  with how the characters found the items. 
   
  They must be cursed 
  ne thought that occurred to me in the middle of writing this is this: what’s to stop a 
  character from just throwing an item away. That would kill a game of Ego quick, 
  wouldn’t it? So I had to go back to the source material, the intelligent item tropes: 
  the items must be cursed. The characters can’t get rid of them. Why? Because they 
  are cursed items, that’s why. If you want to have the cursed item debate that D&D players 
  have had for years feel free, but the end result is this: no a character can’t throw away an 
  item (or destroy one). Besides the cursed thing, I would hope that your group is playing 
  Ego willingly and trying to have the most fun with it and the thought has never entered 
  your minds.  
   
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  I welcome feedback 
  f you give Ego a try please let me know. My contact information can be found on the 
  first page. I would love to know how well this thing plays out. I would also love to 
  hear exactly what you did with it, what you modified, what campaign rules you mixed 
  in, what worked and what didn’t.  
   
  If you have any ideas for improvement I would love to hear those too. I’m sure the game 
  as it stands could you a lot of work and I’m open to any and all ideas.  
   
  I 
  
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