A simple four page RPG system that does not require much effort to play....
Stuart Lloyd’s quick and dirty d100 RPG system or: Stuart Lloyd’s RPG with a lack of snappy title. Introduction This is my simple RPG system which leaves a lot of room for the referee to do as they please. For ideas of setting, skills, magic level and tech level, there are plenty of free RPG systems to draw inspiration of such as d20 SRD, the d6 system, OSRIC or any number of free RPGs. You can find another list of free RPGs here. Setting The setting can be anything you like. High fantasy, historical, low fantasy, scifi, hard scifi, modern. Skills Every adventurer starts the adventure with 10 skills (but they may have more or fewer depending on the length of the adventure). Skills can be determined by the referee who needs to take into account the setting and the situations that will occur in the quest. Skill is a broad term that could cover something that the player could train in or it could cover a physical or mental attribute. Some historical/fantasy skills: heal, hunting, appraise, craft, profession, climb, swim, acrobatics, unarmed combat, sword fighting, strength, great memory, magic (or different schools of magic). Some scifi skills: Psychic ability, shooting, piloting, unarmed combat, great memory, programming, engineering. Magic, psychic powers and tech level You need to determine the capabilities of the technology in your world. In a fantasy setting, has gunpowder been invented? In a futuristic setting, is teleportation and faster than light travel prevalent? For the magic level or psychic powers level, you need to think about what magic uses are capable of and how difficult the effects are. Is it easy for magic users to fly and cast fireball or are they only capable of magical effects that are unseen
Ability points Heroes start a quest with 100 ability points (although it could be any value depending on the difficulty and length of a quest) which they can use to help them with difficulty checks. Difficulty Checks The referee sets the difficulty of a task and the hero can see if they achieve the task by rolling d100 and getting a value higher than the difficulty. The difficulty is usually 0-99, but it can be negative or above 99 for very easy or very difficult tasks. Heroes can assign any number of ability points to add to their die roll for a task but only if they have a skill that would help them with that task. Combat Combat is basically a difficulty test. If a hero has a combat ability, they can use them in the normal way. They may also gain bonuses from using weapons and armour. Both combatants need to decide on their strategy – defensive, neutral and offensive. Heroes who choose a defensive strategy, get a bonus to their roll (around 10 but it’s up to the referee). Heroes who choose a neutral strategy get no bonus to their roll. Heroes who choose an offensive strategy get a penalty to their roll (around -10 but it’s up to the referee). The same applies to the hero’s opponent(s). If they decide to be defensive, then the difficulty of the combat will be higher by 10 and if they are offensive, then the difficulty of the combat will be lower by 10. Neutral strategies give no modifier.
Wounds status for heros and opponents in combat Opponent's strategy → Hero's strategy ↓
Defensive
Neutral
Offensive
Opponent wounded/Hero OK
Neutral
Opponent OK/Hero OK
Opponent killed/Hero wounded Opponent wounded/Hero wounded
Defensive
Opponent OK/Hero OK
Opponent OK/Hero OK
Offensive
Opponent killed/Hero killed Opponent wounded/Hero killed Opponent OK/Hero wounded
The green letters are for when heroes win the combat. The red letters are for when they lose. Although heroes and opponents may be OK if they lose a combat, they will have still clearly lost the combat and this may have implications in the case of competition or losing face. Wounded status The heroes’ statuses could be unwounded, wounded and dead. Wounded heroes need at least a week to recover which involves doing nothing other than light tasks. It will take half the time of complete bed rest. Sanity status It may be appropriate in some settings to measure heroes’ sanity. In this case, you can measure it as sane, shaken and insane. Shaken heroes have some kind of mental affliction such as obsessive compulsive disorder or paranoia which will give them penalties to certain tests. Shaken heroes can recover given lots of time and help. Insane heroes need some serious help or magic to cure them.
Fate points A hero can spend a fate point to give themselves a bonus to a roll (around +10 but it’s up to the referee) or be given a chance to escape a difficult situation. They can spend a fate point if they would be killed in combat to turn it into a wounded result. Fate points should only be awarded in very rare situations. Rewards for completing quests After a quest, a hero can receive rewards in the form of treasure, powerful equipment, a fate point, more ability points per quest or a new skill. The size of the reward depends on the difficulty of the quest, the hero’s involvement and roleplaying and how successful they were. Conclusion So that’s my system. If you have any comments, please email me at
[email protected] or visit my gamebook blog at http://virtualfantasies.blogspot.com/.
