Over on theartifact.net, I wrote about a social conflict system that used draws for mechanical advantages over an opponent.
Then I thought, what if you made that the central resolution mechanic of a game?
I imagined two swordsmen looking for an advantage over the other. Each character has their own draws, things that they want. They can be an advantage to them, or a disadvantage depending on the circumstance. For instance “Has to win”, “Loves to make money” and “Wants to be a tough guy” could be some of a character’s draws.
Now what I’m thinking of for a resolution system is a system of offers that the characters can make to each other to get the advantage. For instance I’m going up against the character described above, I could offer him something like “First move” that plays on his “Has to win” draw and I can offer “Wait for my move” which means he can’t use his draw for this turn. The idea is that taking my “First move” offer is a trick that I can use to spring a trap with. Maybe my character has some kind of counter move that uses his attack to harm him.
The core idea is that each turn, a player has to choose between offers. I’d like to see multiple kinds of offers that would allow for a wide range of tactics.