Jesse Galena, author we already knew for One Page Lore, revealed his new project: Lexicon. Certainly first he will have to complete the latest practices related to the Kickstarter just mentioned; but after that he said he wanted to devote himself to this new work. However, the idea was not born just now; the dedicated website has been online for more than a year and a half and this suggests that this work is something he cares a lot.
The game system
Jesse Galena does not hide the nature of Lexicon: a narrative system, light and suitable for bending to satisfy the imagination of the players. In particular, this role-playing game is based on three principles:
- Be fun for both the players and the narrator.
- Put the roleplay at the center of attention.
- Let it be learned in ten minutes.
How to do all this? With a system that always requires only the launch of 2d4, with modifiers (in increments of +1 or -1) based on “how” you decide to perform an action.
The character sheet is minimal and elegant. Inside it contains the name of the character (and of the player), the role in the story, the Motivations, the Traits, the Skills, the Possessions and a section for things that he needs to remember. As it is easy to understand, these characteristics outline the character for who he is, what moves him and what his means are (qualitative and practical).
These features can give bonuses to the tests we talked about earlier. In fact, first you need to describe the actions of your character, then the relative modifiers are assigned, so the dice is rolled and finally the result is described. But the successes are not easy to obtain: the fixed threshold is equal to 7.
Even the fights, the distances, the magic, the economy of the actions, the progression of the character and many other aspects are made deliberately light. The intent of Jesse Galena is clear: Lexicon does not want to waste time on excessive technicalities.
Where will Jesse Galena take us with his Lexicon?
Strictly speaking, this RPG can take us anywhere, literally. The author even brought examples that show very distant narrative universes: epic fantasy and crazy science fiction.
If, on the other hand, we refer to its development, we currently know little else. We will continue to follow the project, hoping to be able to bring you news about a launch window and a platform where to find it. In any case, the contents linked in this article are all official material; by following the Lexicon website you can see all the news introduced by Jesse Galena.
It must be said that at the moment the rules and the character sheet don’t have illustrations yet, but only the essential data. At the same time we are sure that, by trying the available material, each of us could give his opinion and help the author in the creative process.