Sword & Blaster

I am starting a new blog called the Sword & Blaster Inn. Sword & Blaster is where I'll post about pulp fantasy and classic science fiction, the role playing systems I think work for those genre, and the role playing games that I run. This blog will continue to be aimed more at rpg creation and development.

Latest in Very Light Rules

My latest effort at very light rules is Adventurers! Exploring the Unknown. It draws heavily from Searchers of the Unknown, the d20 OGL and Microlite20. Adventurers! has only one class...Adventurer...and a very small number of stats, but I think there is enough there to make for a fun game...and yes, you can use magic. :)

I've gotten it down to 7 pages, only 2 of which are text, with the rest being tables for arms, armor, equipment, and magic items. A character sheet will easily fit on an index card. Heck! You can get it in the signature line of a emial or forum post. So, go to http://mypbem.com/files/ and download Adventurers.doc and tell me what you think.

Over the last few months, I've been paring rules down to a very bare minimum. I mostly run games online (PBEMs) where rules and stats get in the way and slow things down more than they help. Even through I've focused on what I need for online games, I think this also applies to face-to-face games. I think Adventurers! will do just fine for my fantasy gaming.

My next foray into rules will be a very light SF game. Traveller was, is, and will always be what I think of when I think of an SF RPG, so I'll be basing my tinkering on that system. Mongoose Games has released a System Reference Document (OGL) for their version of Traveller, it is very close to CT, which is the baseline for me, so that's where I'll start.

SLUG

The Simple Laid-Back Universal Game (SLUG) system by Steffan O'Sullivan is about the most "rules lite" rpg system you'll ever run across. If you don't know Steffan O'Sullivan (SOS on line) he is the creator of several role playing systems, the best known of which is FUDGE, and the author of several GURPS supplements. I think it was the increasing complexity of GURPS in the early 90's that lead SOS to move to the much more rules lite systems that he has created.

Although SLUG has been around since 1992 I doubt many roleplayers are aware of it. Why?

Well, probably because it's absolutely free, so nobody can make any money off of it, thus it gets no publicity. Being only available on a single webpage buried deep on O'Sullivan's site probably didn't help it any either.

In a nutshell, SLUG can be written in a few short statements, to whit...

Character Creation --

1. Players describe their characters however they want, using dice, cards, anything; including whatever skills or stats they think are appropriate. The character as written on the character sheet has to be understandable by the GM.
   
2. If the GM approves then that's it, but the GM can amend, modify, or reject any character that the GM doesn't think will work in the game.

Action Resolution --

1. The GM either rolls or calls for the player to roll some dice, how many and what kind are up to the GM or player.
2. The GM adds or subtracts any Modifiers the GM thinks are appropriate maybe based on the character's sheet, maybe based on environmental factors.
3. The higher the roll (with modifiers) is above average the more likely it is the action succeeded. If the GM wants the roll to be low that is fine, too.
4. The GM tells (usually) the player whether and how well their character's action succeeded.
5. Sometimes the GM rolls without telling the players why (often for information gathering or environmental things). Sometimes the roll is public, sometimes it is private.

Character Advancement --

1. During play, if something comes up that isn't on the character's sheet, the player may tell the GM how good (or bad) that character is at that skill. The player should have a good explanation for their character's skill if the GM asks.
   
2. The GM may accept the player's statement, ask for an explanation as to how the character came to have that skill and then accept it, or the GM may reject the player's evaluation of their character's skill level and decide on his own. Maybe some rolling of dice is involved, maybe not, GM decides.
3. Either then, or at the end of the session, the GM may allow a player to add notes to the character sheet detailing new or improved skills and stats.

The End!

...and that's it.

I think you can break it down to 3 simple steps:

1. The GM describes what is and what is happening.
2. The player proposes what his character will do.
3. Loop back to step 1.

Everything else is just fluff.

EZd6 0.01

Stats = 1d6 - 1 each

• STR
• DEX
• CON
• INT
• EDU
• CHR (or Social?)
  

HP = 1d6 + STR + DEX + CON

Skills = 1 every 2 years

Careers = roll 1d6

1. Army
2. Navy
3. Marines
4. Merchant
5. Scout
6. Other (where Other is another roll)
1. Criminal
2. Agent
3. Pirate
4. Entertainer
5. Journalist
6. Traveller

Occupation within Career = roll 1d6 on the Career, for example
Merchant Occupations:

1. Bridge Crew
2. Engineering Crew
3. Cargomaster Crew
4. Medical Crew
5. Steward Crew
6. Administration/Broker

Where if you roll Bridge Crew you would roll or skills on a table like...
Bridge Crew

1. Pilot
2. Navigation
3. Sensors
4. Computer
5. Stat Increase (roll to increase one Stat by 1)
   
6. Cross Training (roll on another table of your choice)
   

First Post

Well, here I am!

I've been wanting a place to write about all things role playing for some time now. Static web pages are a great way to publish a lot of content, wikis are wonderful for collaborative projects, and I still think email is the best way to role play online...forums are great, but for me email works better...but none of the above do what blogs seem to be good at doing. Blogs allow you to easily post ideas and for readers to easily post replies and comments.

RPG Fever is where I plan to post my thoughts about role playing and various rpg systems. I also plan to publish posts on ideas I've had for a number of games. Finally, this is were I'll put links to interesting blogs and websites relevant to roleplaying that I come across.

I plan to have fun here, and if you, dear reader, choose to follow along I hope you have fun, too!