Tabletop Game / To Serve

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A 2022 d6 Tabletop RPG created by David J. Prokopetz, To Serve puts players in the role of a brave Knight setting off on a magnificent quest for greatness... or else drops them into the shoes of the Knight's thankless, underappreciated retinue of Servants who see a side of their liege that the storybooks tend to gloss over. These servants have been charged with keeping the Knight outfitted, fed, and fortified against the dangers standing in their way; and as the vainglorious Knight encounters various obstacles in their path it falls to the Servants to keep their liege out of trouble (or die trying).

The game is played in a series of scenes equal to the number of players — after Servants assign skills amongst themselves, the player in the role of the Knight lays out the quest. For each scene, the Knight describes a new challenge barring the way forward and how they intend to surmount it. Servants debate the most appropriate skill their Knight would employ to tackle the peril and roll to determine the outcome. The Servant responsible for the agreed-upon skill can allow the Knight go ahead with the plan (gambling against the Knight's well-being and reputation) or else choose to intervene (sticking out their own neck and suffering the consequences of a failure).

If the Servants are clever in their preparations (and/or discreet in their intervention) they can usher their Knight to the end of the quest without death, disaster, or being wholly discredited. Should the Knight survive, they will get all the credit (while the Servants will have to be satisfied with a job well done).

The game can be found at Prokopetz's itch.io page.

Tropes:

• Beleaguered Assistant: The Servants. They keep their Knight fed, clothed, spiritually instructed, socially graced, and otherwise fortified for their quest. While the Knight is afforded all the accolades for the ultimate success, it is the Servants who put in the work to make it happen. As the introduction puts it, "many challenges will be overcome through the Servants' careful preparation and occasional direct interference, and the Knight will — of course — receive all the accolades. The Servants' players will tolerate this state of affairs because there are no rules for altering it."
• Character Class System: Knight and Servant are the only two "classes." One player takes on the role of the Knight and the remainder are Servants. The Knight acts as something of a Game Master in that they describe the challenges that the party encounters. Servants temporarily take control of the character of the Knight (or at least their fate) when they roll for the Knight's skills and describe the outcome of a particular challenge.
• Character Customization: At the start of the game, all players in the role of Servant distribute their allotted dice amongst skills (up to a maximum of three dice in a single skill) as desired. The role of Knight has no mechanical customization (but the player is encouraged to assign the Knight as many titles and accolades as they can think of).
• Dump Stat: Any skill can be a Dump Stat. During character creation, Servants can choose to assign zero dice to a particular skill. Rolls made with a zero-dice skill see players roll two die and take the lower number.
• Hit Points: Abstracted, but there is a certain amount of "damage" that Knight and Servants can rack up before they're removed from play:
  • Servants: Misfortune and Attention. A Servant who accrues 3 misfortune or 3 attention tokens has suffered too many injuries or drawn too much notice in the course of their service to the Knight. They're either too injured (or dead) to continue their work, or too conspicuous in their intervention and face dismissal from the retinue.
  • Knights: Weariness and Ignominy. A Knight who accrues 5 weariness or 5 ignominy tokens has suffered too many injuries to continue their quest, or else has been too humiliated by their repeated failures to succeed.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: The Servants, for the most part — the Knight may have the appearance and mannerisms of a Knight in Shining Armor, but in reality their success depends on the thankless work put in by their clever Servants.
• Knight in Shining Armor: The Knight's public persona — a famous and successful champion of justice who must embark on The Quest that gives structure to the game.
• The Quest: The Knight's job is to complete a dangerous and difficult quest (as determined by the players), winning fame and eternal glory. (The Servants' job is keep the Knight alive.)
• Skill Scores and Perks: Each Servant possesses the skill of "Effrontery" by default, and at the start of the game the Servants distribute responsibility for the Knight's skills of Armoury, Accountancy, Cookery, Hostelry, Livery, Pageantry, Poetry, and Theology amongst themselves. (Larger groups can add the additional skills of Augury, Barristry, Forestry, and Strategy to the pool.)
  • Effrontery: the skill of not being noticed, of intervening quietly and discreetly. "Effrontery" is the only skill that represents the Servants' own merits; all other skills are technically the Knight's. The distribution of dice into each other skill represents how well the Servant has trained and prepared their Knight to make use of that ability.
  • Accountancy: the Knight's financial literacy and material means
  • Armoury: how well-maintained and efficacious the Knight's arms and armaments are
  • Augury: the skill of divining the future (or relying on pure chance)
  • Barristry: knowledge of the law
  • Cookery: how fortified and well-fed the Knight is
  • Forestry: how well the Knight is prepared to survive the wilderness
  • Hostelry: the condition of the Knights horse and the skill of horsemanship
  • Livery: the state of the Knight's wardrobe (because they can't just wear their armor all day)
  • Pageantry: manners and proper conduct, how the Knight behaves in good company
  • Poetry: the skill of words, diplomacy, and wit
  • Strategy: the skill of conducting oneself in battle
  • Theology: the Knight's learnedness in matters of religion, philosophy, and moral guidance
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The player in the role of the Knight is encouraged to come up with a long list of titles and accolades that the Knight has already racked up, and to freely add to that list should they succeed in their quest. The example given by the playbook is:
  Oak Penderton Sevillie The Third, Conqueror of the Western Wastes, Slayer of the Ancient Northern Dragon, Hunter of Great Beasts, Third Fairest in the Middle Kingdom, Vanquisher of the Dread Necromancer of the East, Silver Medalist of the 1122 Camelot Games, BA, Esq., MD
• We Cannot Go On Without You:
  • Averted with Servants — those who accumulate either 3 Misfortune or 3 Attention tokens are removed from the party and can no longer take the "Intervene" action, but the Knight can continue in the quest and still has access to the dice those Servants assigned to their skills.
  • Played Straight with the Knight — if the Knight accumulates either 5 Weariness or 5 Ignominy tokens, the quest ends immediately and the game is over. (Though unlikely, it is possible for a Knight to reach 5 Weariness or Ignominy tokens and complete their quest on the same turn. It's assumed they've died or been discredited in the course of their duties; this still counts as a win.)