nicotine girls is a roleplaying game of teenage, lower-income girls looking for happiness.

Characters are young women between 16 and 19 years old.

Motivations

Begin by dividing six points between your character's two Motivations: Hope and Fear. You may not put all six points into one Motivation.

Methods

Your character has four Methods: Sex, Money, Cry, and Smoke. Decide which two of them start at 2. The other two start at 1.

Dreams

Write a sentence describing the life and situation your character wishes for and dreams about.

nicotine girls uses d10's for conflict resolution. When a nicotine girl wants to get something done (e.g. win an argument, attract the romantic attention of a dead-end cruiser who's too old for her), the player decides her Motivation and which Method she'll use, out of Sex, Money, and Cry only. The player rolls a number of d10's equal to the Motivation and counts every die that comes up less than or equal to the Method as a success. The outcome of the conflict is roleplayed by the player and GM. If the result is at least one success, the character's intent is realized. Otherwise, the character's intent is painfully unsuccessful.

There is no player vs. player conflict resolution.

Smoke

A player who wants a better chance of success in an anticipated conflict can call for a Smoke scene with another player character or an NPC where they ask for advice. If the character takes and uses the advice in the subsequent conflict, they get to add dice to that conflict resolution roll equal to their Smoke score. If they do not take the advice, they subtract dice from the roll equal to their Smoke score.

If the subtraction of Smoke results in a negative or zero dice pool, the character automatically fails. This may seem harsh, but it's mitigated by the fact that the player can always add to Fear (see Fear below) to get out of the hole. The consequence is that the nicotine girl's narrative becomes characterized by increased dysfunction and life chaos, and the character is one conflict closer to and endgame where she doesn't have much of a chance of getting her dreams.

Hope

If a character uses Hope as their Motivation in a conflict, and fails the roll, they may not use Hope again as a Motivation for the rest of the game session. If a character uses Hope as their motivation in a conflict, and the roll is successful, the character's Fear goes down by 1. A nicotine girl who uses her Hope in a game session and makes it through that whole session without losing her Hope gains an increase of 1 Hope.

Fighting

Actual fighting to physically hurt someone is a Fear roll, counting ones as successes. If the fight is against a guy, two successes are needed to win. If the fight is against another girl, one success is needed.

Fear

A player can add to their character's Fear score at any time by assuming adversity into the girl's life according to the chart below. The GM will determine the specifics of the adversity.

Death of boyfriend/husband 10
Divorce/separation 7
Jail term 6
Death of close family member 6
Serious personal injury or illness 5
Marriage 5
Fired from work 5
Reconciled with boyfriend/husband 5
Change in family member's health 4
Pregnancy 4
Sex difficulties 4
Addition to family 4
Change in financial status 4
Death of close friend 4
Job change 4
Borrow money over $10,000 3
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 3
Change in work responsibilities 3
Trouble with in-laws 3
Outstanding personal achievement 3
Boyfriend/husband begins or stops work 3
Starting or finishing school 3
Change in living conditions 3
Trouble with boss 2
Change in work hours, conditions 2
Change in residence 2
Change in schools 2
Change in recreational habits 2
Change in church activities 2
Change in social activities 2
Borrow money under $10,000 2
Family gathering 1
Change in eating habits 1
Vacation 1
Minor violation of the law 1

Endgame

At the end of the game a player rolls their Hope, counting ones as successes, and narrates an epilogue for the character. Two successes means the girl gets her Dreams.