The Limelight System

LIMELIGHT
A game about upstaging and co-operating

THE CENTRAL MECHANIC
There ain't no rolling in this game, son. When you try something, you're at the mercy of your co-stars. Sure, ostensibly, they're on your side – but everyone wants to be centre stage, and you looking bad makes them look good. Everyone has a finite stock of Fumbles and Flourishes, and when someone attempts an action, everyone else has the chance to spend their Fumbles and Flourishes on this action. If Fumbles outweigh Flourishes, the action is Fumbled and the attempt fails. If Flourishes are more common, the action Flourishes and succeeds. When an action is opposed, such as one character attacking another, the process is the same for both participants, and the one with the greater wealth of success is victorious.

DOUBLE-CROSSING AND SCENESTEALING
So why should you screw over your friends? Because a successful action grants you Limelight, and Limelight lets you steal the Scene – and you want to steal the Scene. By preventing others from gaining Limelight, you have an easier job of taking the Scene for yourself. Of course, if everyone Fumbles everyone, then nothing gets done and nobody gets Limelight. Not to mention, both friendly NPCs and even villains can gain Limelight and steal the Scene, which is even worse than your asshole friends getting it.

UPSTAGE, DOWNSTAGE
Of course, it's not all about being the centre of attention all the time. Sometimes, it's important to support your fellows by Downstaging yourself. If your character can feasibly aid theirs, you can Downstage – you count on their success, and if they are successful with your aid, you gain an additional Fumble or Flourish for the next scene and a portion of the Limelight from the action. If you do want to make it all about you, go ahead and try to Upstage somebody. You count on the failure of an action, and if it does fail you get a shot at accomplishing the task yourself in their stead with the promise of double the limelight if you succeed. However, if the original action succeeds, you lose Limelight equal to what the successful player gains, and your attempt at the action can itself be Upstaged.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
You might be wondering what all the fuss is about Limelight and Scenes. Well, spending three Limelight points on an action gains you an additional success, and if you end a scene with the most Limelight and take the Scene, you can spend that Scene later to gain an automatic, critical success on an action (though this action only grants you 1 Limelight). If you end the Show with the most Scenes (Or the tied most Scenes and the most Limelight), you've stolen the show, and beaten your worthless friends (Feel free to laugh in their stupid face). Slightly less important is that the GM is obliged to give you some token of reward for this achievement, usually an extra Aspect point.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MEEEE?
But of course, there's your character. In LimeLight, your character is an assemblage of Aspects. These are short descriptions of your character that serve in place of attributes or skills. These represent core parts of the character, such as “Swordsman” or “Hacker”, and come into play when they attempt related actions. For instance, a character with the “Gunslinger” Aspect, when slinging guns, receives one automatic success.
A player can invest multiple points into a single Aspect, which can be “spent” once per scene to add an additional success to an attempted action. By default, a player gets 9 points to spend on Aspects.

THE LAW OF PROTAGONISTIC DIVERSITY
You're probably wondering how specific or broad an Aspect should be, and a good rule of thumb is that no two players should have the exact same Aspect. For instance, if your group is largely composed of civilians, then being a Soldier sets you apart. However, if you're an infantry squad, and all soldiers, the Soldier Aspect is no longer unique to any of you. Instead, it is suggested that you take more specific Aspects like Sniper and Demolitions Expert.

HOW HARD CAN IT POSSIBLY BE?
You might have noticed that the Aspect system seems somewhat easy to exploit; if you take, for instance, the Aspect "Conversationalist", surely you can apply that to everything that involves talking, and you'd be right. However, inkeeping with the previous suggestion it is suggested that specificity of Aspects is maintained across the group; if someone else wants to specialize in being a Liar, you might find it more appropriate to take Aspects like Pacifier or Persuasive. On the flipside, it is encouraged that you stretch the limits of how far an Aspect can go, and the outer edge of this is best illustrated with an example. If you find yourself and your squad on board a ship at sea, and all the crew suddenly die, taking the wheel yourself might prove disastrous. However, you have the "Captain of the Squad" Aspect, so when Pvt. Jones asks if you if you're really sure you can do it, you need only quip "I'm a captain, aren't I?" and follow it with the magic words "How hard can it possibly be?"

I DON'T DO MY OWN STUNTS
By default, a character starts each show with 3 Chances. When an attack, cutting remark, or trap succeeds in damaging a character, that character loses a Chance. By default, what this entails is the character dodging by a hair's breadth or taking a slight hit and shrugging it off, but a player may choose to adopt an injury. Rather than having the shot slam into the wall beside the character's head, the player can choose to take it in the shoulder and suffer an injury for the remainder of the scene. They take additional failures to every action the injury would affect, but gain additional Limelight if they succeed anyway. If a character loses all their Chances, they go down – usually (if this is physical) this is just unconsciousness, but if everyone agrees that not even a protagonist could have survived, and the GM agrees, the character bites the dust. One Chance is regained at the end of each scene, provided it is not an injury. A chance lost by an injury must be treated somehow – a wound dressed, a fractured ego given time to heal, a ruined outfit changed, depending on the injury.