Introduction: Stories System is a very rules-lite set of guidelines for playing story-based role-playing games. It is intended to be fast-paced and unobtrusive, while still providing an exciting level of uncertainty and simulation. It is intended for games in which the exact nature of the rules is really secondary to telling a good story. Additionally, the open nature of Stories System was specifically designed to accommodate rules and characters taken directly from other (less cool) role- playing games, using the other games' stats exactly as written or even using no specific stats at all. That way, a character pulled from, say, a numbers oriented, rules- heavy fantasy game system could stand side by side with characters from esoteric science fiction settings or story- oriented gothic horror games, and all of these disparate characters would be able to interact seamlessly within the Stories System framework. Stories System is also intended to be flexible and customizable, allowing it to be adapted for use with a variety of games and styles. Specific rules and stats can be added and modified as needed to match Stories System to any tone and genre.