Wednesday, August 30, 2017

USR Wednesdays: Monsters

A “monster,” in a role playing game, is any enemy, from the little goblins and huge dragons of classic fantasy, to security guards and ninja in modern games, to little robots and huge mutants in science fiction. They don’t have to be inhuman — even your evil twin is a monster, after all. Since our guiding principle in USR is to be simple and fast, let’s create an entire Monster Manual in one chart.

Like these ones, but all in one blog post. (image: dungeonsmaster.com)
This is inspired by the original monster chart, found in Scott Malthouse’s Halberd Fantasy Roleplaying, page 26. It assigns levels to monsters, to approximate their power and competence. We’ll streamline it here.

Power Level
Main Stat Die
Combat Bonus
Hit Points
Examples
I
D6
+0
5
Giant Rat, Goblin
II
D6
+1
10
Guard, Orc, Thug, Wolf
III
D8
+2
15
Ninja, Security Robot, Soldier
IV
D8
+3
20
Bear, Gang Boss
V
D10
+4
25
Ogre, Super-Soldier
VI
D10
(or D12)
+5
30
Dragon, Vampire Lord

Main Stat Die: The die used for most of the monster’s rolls. In most cases, this will be its Action stat, but a psychic warrior might have its Mind as the main stat, to better use its powers.

You can assign the other stats as needed, based on what’s appropriate for the monster (for example, the guard standing outside the emperor’s throne room has Action as his main stat, representing his fighting skills with that halberd he’s carrying. But if you’re trying to convince him to let you pass, you’ll have to decide what his Wits stat is — probably about the same as his action, a D6). In the same way, Specialisms aren’t listed for monsters, but they can be assigned as needed, probably offering a bonus of +1 or +2, like a starting hero. You might even assign a penalty to a monster’s roll, say -2 if a big, dumb ogre is trying to solve the riddle your hero has posed. And trying to play a riddle game with a normal wolf simply won't work at all, no dice rolls, penalties or bonuses needed.

Combat Bonus: This is used for both the monster’s attacks and defenses, and represents weapons, armor, brute strength, magical ability, and whatever else is needed. It too can fluctuate depending on the specific attack the creature is making: that vampire lord uses a +5 to lure your hero close to him, but only a +2 to throw a punch.

Hit Points: The maximum hit points for the monster, putting Power Level II and III monsters on par with most Domino Writing-style USR heroes. You can take a cue from Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and decrease a monster’s HP to 1, if you want to have heroes wipe out a half-dozen monsters in just a few turns.

The math here is pretty easy to see, so you can create more mosters easily, though most things will fit somewhere on this scale.


Where do monsters in your game fit on the Power Level chart?

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

VSGMR: Updating For A New Tomorrow

So, a long time ago my game VSGMR (Very Simple Generic Miniatures Rules — I wanted a placeholder name, and it kind of stuck. Hey, it worked for GURPS) was popular enough that it earned its own Yahoo Group. I was just there this morning; you can still find a number of expansions written by several participants, everything from cavemen to "Star Wars."


Speaking of old miniatures games... (image: Pinterest, uploader unknown)

But time has passed and VSGMR is a little out of date, especially given the growth of simplified miniatures games like One Page Rules and Games Workshop's own "Age of Sigmar" (much, much easier to get into than the older versions of "Warhammer"). There's room for plenty of games in the world, and so I will be bringing VSGMR back. I revitalized my own Domino Writing-style USR roleplaying game with an ongoing series here on this blog, and I'll be doing the same with VSGMR.

First, it needs an update, if only to actually keep to the "Very Simple" part of its name. Every gamer knows how easy it is to keep adding rules to a game, and looking through the most recent version of 2013 I see rules for buildings, for special abilities, for using a sheet of paper to make measurements, and on and on. I'll be streamlining the game, with the basic rules in one place, then some official expansions after that. "Very Simple" needs to mean very simple.

Here's the core rules: 

  • Use any figures you have, any size. Their equipment and abilities are whatever you say they are.
  • Roll 1 die (a d6) per figure, on a 4 or better (sometimes higher) it's a success.

That's it! Look for the revised rules soon. If you have any suggestions for the revised version, let me know.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

USR Wednesdays: Chases

Two weeks ago, we looked at vehicle rules — vehicles as narration, as equipment and as characters. One of the most common uses for vehicles in adventure fiction is in a chase, where one vehicle (the pursuer) is trying to catch up with another (the target), to make an arrest, to get in a shootout, or just to beat the target to the final goal.

Or to make a cool getaway. (image: clockworkmanual.com).
Let’s take a page from the chase rules developed for the 3rd Edition d20 game system and track a chase in Domino Writing-style USR. In addition to the regular rules, you’ll need a piece of paper and a pencil. Draw a line and put a series of evenly spaced marks across the paper, about every inch or so. Put the pursuer at the first mark on the left (write “P” or use a miniature) and the target two marks farther along the paper (write “T” or use a miniature for it too), so there’s a mark in between them. The two vehicles will move across the line from mark to mark until they reach their goal — usually by going off the other end of the paper, or landing on the same mark.

Like this, with a "P" and a "T." Same idea as the picture above, but a lot less interesting, at least on paper.
Decide if the heroes are the pursuer or the target. Choose a target number based on the difficulty of the terrain (empty space is a 2, a crowded city street is a 7, lava flowing around you is a 10). Have the player acting as driver or pilot make a roll to control the vehicle (usually Action + relevant vehicle Specialism), and have NPCs who are pursuing or who are the target make the same roll.

If one group (heroes and/or NPCs) succeed at the roll, move them forward one mark. If the roll fails, the group doesn’t move.

The character who is driver or pilot is usually using his or her turn to control the vehicle, but everyone else in the party who’s in the vehicle can take a normal action, like firing the vehicle’s weapons or shooting their own guns out a window. In a game with more detailed vehicle rules, a character might spend their turn trying to repair the vehicle, or perform a scan for more enemies. If nothing else, a character can spend its turn offering support, providing a +1 to an attack roll or the driver or pilot’s control roll.


What do you do to visualize chases on the tabletop?

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

USR Wednesdays: Vehicles

Cars, trucks, tanks, spaceships, pirate sloops... there are dozens of kinds of vehicles in adventure fiction, and given their size and their power, it may be a challenge to see where vehicles actually fit in a role playing game setting. Here are three ways of looking at vehicles in your Domino Writing-style USR game.

1. Vehicles as narration: In most settings, a vehicle is just a means to an end, a way to get from one place to another. In a modern-day action story, the characters drive fast cars or ride in helicopters, but only because it gets them across the city quickly, and to the next story point. There’s no game rules when using a vehicle as narration; you can just say, “The heroes hop in their cars and get to the police station,” or even “The heroes get on horseback and arrive at the entrance to the dungeon in about an hour.” It doesn’t matter how fast they’re traveling, or what happens on the trip, only that they are traveling.

2. Vehicles as equipment: The flexibility of Specialisms in USR means it’s easy to make a vehicle a piece of gear, just like a weapon or a special tool. Some characters who are closely linked to their vehicles might include the vehicle as one of their Specialisms (for example, Han Solo with his Millennium Falcon +2, or Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl +2). A game master could provide a vehicle as equipment if it’s going to be integral to the story, and more than just narration; for example, the Enterprise could be a +2 Specialism to everyone on the “Star Trek” crew. It wouldn’t be a Specialism just for Kirk or Picard, because all of the heroes in the adventure make use of the Enterprise — as a weapon, as a research station, as a place of healing, and so on. Of course, Han Solo and Jack Sparrow have plenty of adventures not on board their ships, but no one else in their stories is so connected to those ships as they are.

There it is, the classic starship the "+2." I mean Millennium Falcon. (image: wookiepedia.com)

Like weapons and armor, vehicles can be classified as “light” +1, “medium” +2 or “heavy” +3. A +1 vehicle could be a motorcycle or a horse, while a +2 would be a car or space fighter (an X-Wing or Viper), and a +3 vehicle could be something massive, like a semi-truck, a tank or the Enterprise itself.

Also like weapons or armor, you don’t need a separate Specialism for Pilot, Driver or Vehicle Gunner, unless that’s really a core element of a character. The vehicle Specialism includes its flying and shooting capabilities.

The Specialism would be used in any situation the vehicle could provide help — winning a race, carrying a heavy load, or firing its on-board weapons. If the vehicle is seriously damaged, it ceases to be a usable Specialism, until it’s repaired.

3. Vehicles as characters: Some settings are all about their vehicles: Mad Max, Mobile Suit Gundam, even Transformers. In those settings, the single bonus a Specialism provides doesn’t really offer enough to accurately represent the vehicle. So you can add more statistics to a vehicle, like top speed, armament, and maneuverability. Rules for that are in Somnium Void, starting on page 23.

We’re taking a week off from USR Wednesdays next week, but we’ll be back after that for a look at more genres.


How do you use vehicles in your game?

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

USR Wednesdays: Settings

By my count, USR has led to more than a dozen separate games, many found on RPGnow or on the creator’s own website. Here’s the list I have:
  • Anthropomorphic by Jay Murphy (animal people)
  • Beyond Fear by Scott Malthouse (cosmic horror/Cthulhu)
  • Blood And Silk by Shenron (samurai)
  • Ghostbusters by Shenron (um... Ghostbusters)
  • Go Wherever by Scott Malthouse (stonepunk among other ideas)
  • Halberd by Scott Malthouse (fantasy)
  • Halcyon Fantasy by Scott Malthouse (old school fantasy)
  • It Came From VHS! by Scott Malthouse (80s action)
  • Masquerade of the Sundered Sky by Scott Malthouse (gothic horror)
  • Sominum Void by Scott Malthouse (space opera)
  • Swarm Of Barbarians by Peter Segreti (Ancient Rome)
  • Tequendria by Scott Malthouse (Dunsany fantasy)
  • Fear & Loathing by Jay Murphy (gonzo adventure)
  • Sword & Sorcery by Jay Murphy (Conan-style fantasy)
  • Cyberpunk by Scott Malthouse (cyberpunk)
  • Moldvay Era by John Yorio (old school fantasy)

I also have a Western game that I don’t have an author credit for, and there’s a character sheet for USR Traveller farther down the USR Google+ page.

Rabbit bodyguards, Drakkar cage fighters, drug-addled journalists... they're all possible with USR.

It’s exciting thinking about all the opportunities for games that are in these rules sets — combining them, too, gives us Shadowrun (Cyberpunk plus Halberd) or Usagi Yojimbo (Blood and Silk plus Anthropomorphic). I wanted to create this list to have a running total of all the USR rules sets in one place, and to spark ideas for settings that are “missing.” I’ve touched on superheroes in my last few blog posts, but haven’t created a full setting. We have Ghostbusters, but what about Star Wars (including all the eras of the story)?

I hope this list is an inspiration to you to find these games, try them out, and offer your own contributions to a future edition of the list. I’ll be working on some settings, too...

What genre should be developed into a new setting next?

(image: usagiyojimbo.com)