The best part of TTRPGs is telling stories to friends, rolling dice, and making choices based on the unexpected. Great moments arise not when players read their mechanics, but when they use them. As little reading and as much using should happen at the table. During play, choices should be made about the story, and not about rules. When players aren’t speaking they are rewarded for listening. When players are speaking they will need ideas and help from other players to keep the story moving.
Inspiration and fun is found between a fine balance of freedom and limitations. Pure freedom removes consequences, lacks direction and purpose. However pure constraints stop experimentation or expression, and demands unrealistic engagement. All freedoms should be built on top of seeds of restrictions, and all restrictions should give meaning to the freedoms experienced by players.
Mechanics exist to facilitate abstract interactions between people. The majority of that facilitation in a storytelling game is communication. The mechanics contained in TBTTRPG are there to smooth out communication and to focus the storytelling on what is engaging, rather than what is realistic. What is being talked about is more important than what language is being used. Mechanical freedom mid game is endorsed when it creates creative challenges.
TTRPGs should work for you, not the other way around. TBTTRPG provides a complete but rules light experience fresh from the book, and can be expanded and modified to fit any story you want to tell. No game design is needed to play, and to match this out of the book mechanics are narrative based and open ended. All systems in the game can be used to tell entire stories, but can also play supporting roles in telling the story. Players can customize their role in the game, but don’t have to invent from scratch.
TTRPGs should not be black boxes that players enter ideas into and get stories back out of. No system fits all stories, and unapproachable designs lead to stories that neglect the player’s ideas. The design behind TBTTRPG’s systems are apparent and interactable. Guides are provided on how to continue the designs in the book, how to change or add to them, and why they work the way they do. These guides are clearly marked, so players interested in homebrew can easily find them, while players who are learning the system can skip them until they wish to create.
System options are driven by the stories they allow you to tell, not the other way around. System options do not exist just because it seems neat design wise. Clear, strong reasons for each modular system are provided to guide players on which to include/augment.
These rules assume you have a very passing familiarity with Tabletop RPGs and how to play them. If you do not, go pick up the nearest TTRPG rule book/player book and read the introduction or ask a trusted nerd give you a crash course. Almost all of those introductions are the same, so I won’t waste time on this rough draft writing old things in new ways.
The game requires a storyteller, who has final say during play on the rules, and players, who (usually) each play one character.