i had a funny rpg idea, though i dont know if it would work

basically: you are cooperatively writing a story, and the main currency is word count. resolution happens by rolling 2d20, then you get to write that many words.

except the passage you write is considered ‘unresolved.’ after writing your passage, you point to someone else, perhaps asking them a question as an informal prompt, and they get to take their turn.

if anyone who takes a turn after you writes a passage that references or follows after what you wrote, your passage becomes ‘semi‍-​resolved’

once everyone has taken their turn, every ‘semi‍-​resolved’ passage becomes ‘resolved’, and every ‘unresolved’ passage is considered ‘skipped’.

the round ends with an editing phase where the resolved passages are arranged into a page, and the skipped passages are discarded, not be considered part of the story.

two exceptions. first, ideally players should try not to contradict each other, but if, say, two players try to resolve the same passage in incompatible ways, then both cannot be included. in short, ‘semi‍-​resolved’ passages my also be skipped if they would break continuity

second, note that the last player who takes a turn is in effect the ‘last call’ for what gets semi‍-​resolved that turn, but their own passage is a part of both turns, essentially; because it can reference a previous passage to mark it as semi‍-​resolved, but it is otherwise considered a part of the next round.

if you get skipped, you gain a meta point

but the main way to gain meta points is a mechanic i didn’t mention

when you pass your turn to someone, after they write their passage, you may propose to complicate things.

if they accept, then you must make two statements, one denying part of the passage, and one affirming it. (for example, if someone write that the punched a guy and knocked them out, you can complicated it and say, sure you punched them, but you cant knock them out.)

if they agree to your complication and rewrite their passage to match it, they gain a meta point.

what are meta points for?

first, a meta point can be spent after you roll to reroll your dice, or before you roll to instead roll 3d20 drop lowest

second, a meta point can be spent to highlight a detail. when something is highlighted, everyone who references that detail can do the reroll without spending a point until your next turn

finally, a meta point can also be spent to create setup.

when you create setup, roll 2d20 drop lowest, and write that many words. (for dramatic effect, don’t show anyone what you wrote.)

you cannot use setup the same round it’s created. if setup was created last round, you must spent a point to pass it. if it was created two or more rounds ago, you can pass it for free. you can pass setup even when it’s not your turn.

when you pass setup, point to someone: they gain your setup. (show it to them now if you kept it secret.) when you have been passed setup, you can reference it in your passage, and you gain a meta point.

otherwise, you can pass it again as if you had created it. (it’s possible to have you own setup passed back to you; this is the only way to use it yourself)

and that’s it for core resolution. i have some other mechanics idea (what if you had different stats like exposition, narration, action, etc. and got wordcount modifiers for them? what if your character has a cool sword you can describe how cool it is for free?)

but i don’t know if this is anything really