FotN: Ragnarok is primarily a narrative rpg and I'm not the biggest fan of narrative games, but this one also has combat that can be based around miniatures, which I thought was pretty cool. So, getting to the meat of the system; what is what and what does what and how do things happen.
First, the system does not use dice. Like some other non-standard games that skip dice in favor of cards or similar resolution tools, this one uses what it calls Runic Game System (RGS) which means it uses a bag of Runes to help resolve actions.
Second, the runes are core to characters in that they represent a couple of different things. The number of runes in a player's bag represents the characters Essence, everything that the character is (skills, abilities, life, etc); the number of runes that a character can draw from the bag during their turn is the character's Destiny, any change that the character can have on the world around them (actions that the character can take).
Third, characters in this game have a level, but it's not levels like those found in D&D or similar other games. The levels in FotN:R are more about balancing your Essence and Destiny during creation (and later to upgrade) by buying them based on level. Starting character, known as dwellers, can purchase Essence and Destiny for 1 and 2 level points, respectively. For example, an 8th level dweller could buy an Essence of 4 (runes in bag) and a Destiny of 2 (number of runes drawn per turn) or, an Essence of 6 (runes in bag) and a Destiny of 1 (rune drawn per turn).
Fourth, the runes also have colors which represent traits of a character, they also act as methods for enhancing actions that the character takes or spells cast. The runes have three primary colors, Red (physical), Blue (mental), and Green (spiritual), plus there is a blank rune, the Void rune, that acts as an extra rune when a character is called upon to Wyrd (to call upon their Destiny by drawing runes from the bag).
Fifth, conflict resolution is simply stating character actions using verbs based on the number of dice runes drawn from the bag, then resolving reactions to those initial actions. His example was that if you drew three runes from the bag, then your character would get three actions.
1) I draw my sword, 2) I walk across the room, and 3) I stab the guard with my sword.
That's it. The stated actions occur, period. However, it is then up to the opponent, in this case the guard, to use runes to make reactions (dodging, blocking, etc). At it's most basic level, that's all it takes to play the game. Of course, he did say you can add more complexity to the game based on other game rules but he has seen entire games played with nothing more than drawn runes and stated actions. That's the beauty of the game's design, you can tailor it to whatever level of complexity you like.
Those are the fundamental core mechanics that I can remember from our main conversation, however there are a couple of other points that would also be of interest that I'll post tomorrow evening, when I get a chance to snap and post some book pics to help explain.
The current print books I bought while at GCXI:
