Core System

Shillings uses a pool of tokens to resolve problems. The “classes” in the game all have a set of 3-5 Attributes, used to show how they approach these problems, not what they are attempting. More on that later.

When a character is playing and there is a risk to what they are about to do, they pay tokens. The GM will secretly set a price for this action. This how many tokens the player has to pay to resolve this problem. You then find the attribute that is most relevant and if its value is that cost or higher you complete your action. But if you say you want to do an action and you don’t have a high enough attribute you fail and there is a consequence. Everybody can pitch in adding one to the players stat for every player that does pitch in.

This is most of the gameplay works, here’s an example.

💡 Max is playing his character Steel, and wants to push a guard into a wall. He decides he needs to use his body attribute. The GM decides his action costs 5 tokens. Max looks down at his attributes and see his has a 4 in body. The GM says the cost and he fails! The guard turns around and spots him.