Extras
While the basic Roll for Shoes rules are purposefully simplistic, there are some extra rules and systems you can add to a game to emphasize themes or add mechanics as necessary.
Damage
By default, outcomes are handled purely narratively, around goals and actions that characters perform. Each action is a discrete move towards a goal, with no resulting values taken into account other than success. This works fine in most games and groups that don’t have a need to track damage.
Alternatively, you can use the difference between opposing roll results as a Damage value, and assign the damaged character a Status related to the damage.
Statuses
Statuses act as temporary modifiers to any relevant rolls, instead of being treated as a rollable Skill (or Weakness) on their own. Statuses can be positive or negative, and are typically written with their signed modifier value first to differentiate their usage (e.g., +1 Strengthened, -2 Poisoned). A character can have many effective Statuses, and multiple Statuses can affect a given Skill/Weakness roll. Statuses are intended to only be temporary, and should be dynamically added or removed when narratively appropriate.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses are similar to Skills, but instead have a negative number associated with their level (e.g., Running -2, Climbing Ladders -3). Weaknesses are rolled with the noted number of D6s (as absolute value), but only the single lowest rolled die result counts.
A few important notes:
- Weaknesses are intended to be permanent, being analogous to negative Skills.
- Broad Weaknesses should start at -2 since -1 does not make sense as a roll on its own.
- Advancements are not possible with a Weakness, so rolling all sixes simply gives the character a single result of 6.
- Weaknesses can be quite punishing, so it’s recommended to only use them—and optionally the related rules below—when it’s fitting to the setting, style, and mood of the game.
Getting Worse
A possible additional rule is to invert advancement for Weaknesses: any Weakness roll of all ones grants a Weakness more specific to the action, at one level lower than the failed task.
Gaining Weaknesses
Weaknesses are typically given at the beginning of a session, to emphasize an aspect of a character at creation. Alternatively, particularly bad Skill rolls could result in creating a Weakness: any Skill roll of all ones grants a Weakness at a related level, specific to the rolled action. This should only occur for Skills above level 1 (by default anything other than Do Anything 1).