The Nomads Unbound system employs a universal mechanic for tests — the same one applies to character actions and to questions posed to the system. For beginners in GMless play, think of it like this: the questions you’d typically ask a GM — “Is the door locked?” or “Does my character see anyone in the dark alley?” — you ask the system instead.
How does it work? Both actions and questions are categorized, through a quick judgment (or debate, if playing with a group), based on logic and common sense, into one of four levels of increasing difficulty: Trivial, Likely, Unlikely, or Absurd. The harder the action, the higher the category. The less likely a “yes” answer to a question, the higher the category.
Then you draw cards quickly. The number depends on the category:
• Trivial → automatic success
• Likely → draw 1 card
• Unlikely → draw 2 cards
• Absurd → draw 3 cards
Plus, if a character has a Talent tied to the action or question (let's say the character is trying to use a pistol and has a Talent for shooting), the difficulty drops one level, making the test easier.
If there’s at least one red card, the action fails, or the answer is “no.” If all are black, the action succeeds, or the answer is “yes.” The intensity of the result is set by the last card drawn (the one on top of the discard pile). Let's say you are trying to kick a door down. A 9 would result in a clean kick that would open the door masterfully, while a 2 would still open the door, but in a much messier way.
But here’s the true twist: if a face card shows up (J, Q, or K), an Oddity happens, shaking up the scene with an unexpected event — good, bad, or maybe a rival suddenly entering the story. And the game will guide you through these possibilities with many pre-populated tables, which are commonly called Oracles in Solo RPG lingo.
In practice, the system is lightning-fast. Most checks fall into likely or unlikely, so players just draw one or two cards and check the colors. In solo mode, the flow is almost as quick as your own train of thought, and the more you play, the more natural it feels. That's the true motivation behind the card-drawing system instead of a traditional dice-based one. With a little bit of practice, it will feel very organic and much cleaner than constantly picking up dice and counting results at every move.
And the more weird the players’ questions get, “Could my attacker be feeling stomach cramps? What if a bird flies out of nowhere and gets in the middle of their shot? What if the gun malfunctions?”, the more cards are drawn, the greater the chance of Oddities, and the greater the chance of Singularities, which trigger when the deck runs out of cards. We will address those in a future post.
Let's just say that the weirder the players get, the more bizarre your adventure will become!