Rewind
What is Rewind?
Rewind is a GMless storygame for one to four players.
You’ll need a bunch of six-sided dices and some index cards.
Inspiration
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell.
The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien.
The Star Wars saga.
The Matrix.
Story
Start with what should normally be the ending scene. And finish with its beginning.
Take the time to introduce the characters and show something specific about them.
The players should discuss about this scene, frame it together, and try to understand what is the theme they want to convey, what is the meaning of this ending. However, they shouldn’t plan anything for the following scenes or their characters. Having already some ideas is okay, though.

The story will follow the following structure:
Act III: the Return
The Elixir. Having returned into the ordinary world, the characters offer to all the benefits of their wisdom, their experiences or some treasure they have brought back.
The Awakening. What has been gained in the other world needs to be retained in the ordinary world. Soon, the characters realize they gained wisdom and therefore freedom.
The Refusal. It’s time to come back to the ordinary world, but the characters refuse at first, considering themselves unable to live again amongst ordinary people or something prevents them from coming back.

Act II: the Initiation
The Reward. Having previously defeated the opposition, the characters benefit from their victory, they are in front of their goal and may seize it.
The Ordeal. The real crisis is at hand. The characters have to overcome the main antagonist or opposition.
The Trial. The characters are not yet suited for the task ahead, they try and fail; they need to practice, to undergo a transformation.

Act I: the Departure
The Threshold. The characters leave the ordinary world and venture into the unknown, discovering new rules or dangers.
The Reluctance. At first, the characters find reasons to refuse the journey. But something or somebody guides them into the adventure.
The Calling. The world is normal and the characters unaware of what will happen. Something strange happens, pushing them into the adventure.
Scenes
Framing
A scene can be one event set in one location during one specific moment, or, if it’s more logical to separate the group of characters, it can be a different event for each of them. Each scene can represent one conflict or a series of conflicts (and therefore will need several rolls). But at least, each player should introduce one narrative element and each character should be able to do something relevant and important for the story. The players should keep in mind the theme to help them framing the scene.

Begin the scene simply with all the players taking a dice and telling, regarding the specific stage of the story they’re in, what kind of event or conflict they want to introduce. It can be something very general story-wise, or something very specific to their character. It’s better if it’s very specific, though. Even if these parts of the story are very specific, they are not traits concerning the characters per say, as you may find in traditional RPGs; they obviously reveal skills and qualities in the characters nevertheless.
Resolution
After having expressed the elements of the story they want to narrate, each player rolls his dice to resolve the conflict at hand.
If the result is a 5 or a 6, it’s a success, he can narrate the outcome freely, his character’s goal is accomplished. But he loses the dice.
If the result is a 3 or a 4, there is a complication he must narrate, and his character’s goal is not completely achieved. He keeps the dice. He should use an index card to write down which part of the story this dice is related to.
If the result is a 1 or a 2, he narrates how the outcome is the opposite of what his character was trying to achieve. He keeps the dice and take one more. Again, he should use an index card to write down which part of the story these dices are related to.

When everybody has rolled at least once, proceed to the next scene.
Again, each player will state what part of the story he is interested to narrate and takes one dice. If it’s a part he has previously failed, then he will add this dice to his previous dice pool. Finally, he rolls all his dices from this pool and keeps the best result. If this time he succeeds, he loses these dices.
Index cards are also useful to keep track of the different subjects that are already important parts of the story and therefore are great to help players framing a scene or a conflict.
Example
Alan, Bruce and Carrie begin a new scene. Each states an element of the story they are interesting in narrating and takes a die. Alan wants to focus on the magical artifact his character was wielding in the previous scenes, Bruce wants to narrate something about the relationship with his character’s lover, and Carrie wants to introduce how tempted her character is to join her forces to the antagonist.
Alan rolls a 6. He establishes how his character has obtained his artifact. But he doesn’t keep his dice.
Bruce rolls a 2, that’s a failure but he keeps his dice and even add another one to his pool concerning his “Love relationship”. He chooses to narrate how he loses his lover during this scene.
Carrie rolls a 4, she must introduce a complication. She narrates how the antagonist breaks her spirit and how she consequently reveals useful informations. That’s probably why the antagonist was so well-prepared during the previous scene. Anyway, she keeps her dice and put it on an index card about “Joining the evil side”. For the next scene, Carrie decides again to introduce this element in the story and so she rolls two dices, taking the best result.