There are four things that make SINS unique compared to other tabletop engines.

 

The first is that player creation takes minutes, not hours. There are no other races to worry about with stats and there is no stat allotment. All of your stats are determined from your base number plus or minus the stats alloted from your class and your equipment. Character creation, which we will go over in a later chapter, only involves you selecting a class, your weapon, and both pieces of armor. Once that’s finished, you’re ready to play the game.

 

The second is accessibility. Instead of using special dice, or any dice for that matter, SINS uses a standard deck of playing cards (1 deck per 2 players). The objective is to use the cards to create hands that will deploy abilities. Everyone plays open-handed with all of the players able to see what their allies are holding. This leads to the third thing, and that is SINS is highly strategic. You will work with your allies on your team to defeat enemies together. With everything being fully disclosed, players won’t have any excuse but to work with one another.

 

One of the more important things is that, in the content created and distributed by Scribbcrib Publishing, a Game Master is not required. Everyone is allowed to play. For example, in the game, By Gods and Kings, one of the players will be dubbed as the administrator. This player will read the text to the players and try to keep everyone on task. They will manage the NPCs and the Enemies. This role can be split and shared by everyone and does not have to be by just one person. Ultimately, in the game By Gods and Kings, the administrator is comparable to the banker in another, very well-known board game.

 

Finally, SINS is about the overarching narrative. We want players to experience a scenario from the start to the finish. Because of this, we encourage that a scenario arc last a few hours at the most, and not days. While you are welcome to play multiple story arcs with the same characters, making them stronger and progressing to tougher content, SINS is meant for players to start and finish a story in one session; and while there are certain arcs where the story grows from scenario to scenario, there are clear stopping points for players as to not get lost.

 

Next Page: Scenario and Scenario Arcs