The year is Nineteen -Thirty-Nazi !

 

Basic Adventure Game System

BAGS is a game for bags, written by bags.  As such, the design goals were to be:

·        Simple

·        Short

·        easy,

·        simple

·        short

The inspiration was a boardgame and lots of random cards to create adventures, perils, villains, treasures, etc.  Plus, Pete wasn’t ready for the western game, and this got thrown together. See: Baggishness.

Setting ?  This setting is PULP ADVENTURE, set in Nineteen-thirty-Nazi.  You are playing a character in a roleplaying game. I am running it.   If you don’t know what a roleplaying game is, get the hell out of my house.  Come back when you don’t have a life, okay ?

"Nineteen-thirty-Nazi"? That ill defined period of time for pulp adventures which includes:

• Nazi Germany  as a source of mooks and plots and bizarre occult investigations (either as an actual government or just nearly about to be);
• Airships, flying boats, the last of the biplanes, and no rockets, jets or flying wings
• Less Rays, no RAdio Detection And Ranging apparatus. *
• Revolvers, shotguns, rifles, Thompson guns, Styr SMG's, BARs
• Big fast mobster type cars and motorcycles with sidecars
• Cool diesel & tube (valve for purists) crazy science, often in the service of the New occult….
• Unexplored and poorly mapped Pacific and African wilderness with big game hunting, lost tribes, cities and treasures; often forgotten by time.
• Maybe starting to recover from the Great depression, maybe post prohibition, but still lots of gun running, rum running, and Mobsters.
• Revolutionary ferment, Banana Republic wars, Anarchy vs Communism vs Fascism....
• Less commandoes and rangers, more international spies & Comintern
• A world at peace, just running up to, but not into, world war two actually just yet. 

How do I play this?  What do I do ? Where is My Butt?  I’ve used both hands and I can’t find it !!   Okay, here is the topline: You pretend to be a someone else having a bad day, otherwise called a HERO having an ADVENTURE. 

·        Since adults argue even more than five year olds playing cowboy (got ya !  Nuh UH!) we have numbers and rules to make decisions asy and (sorta) impartial. 

·        To do stuff you roll dice to see if what you want to do works, and how well.  The better you are at stuff, the more dice and higher numbers you generate –which is good, because harder stuff needs bigger results.

·        When you screw up, bad things can happen, like when you fail to jump a chasm (you fall to your doom), or fail to not be punched (you get ouched).  In which case, since no one here is very creative, usually this means you get hurt or lose cool stuff. Sometimes you die.  Again, we have numbers and rolls to determine when or if this happens (see: playing cowboys).

·        Players work together , dealing with a scenario designed and run by a referee.  Everyone says it isn’t player vs GM, but we all know the truth after our first game.

·        If you make a point of doing well, you can get better at what you do, or learn new things. Plus, you get to keep cool stuff, especially when the bad guys “don’t need it any more”.

·        Got all that ?

How would some online academic wannabe describe the game: Dice pool resolution, stat and skill, task numbers & opposed rolls. D6 only.  Rules-lite.  Minimalist chargen, stats as skills.  Retro-Stupid.  Gamist. Genre simulation, non-narrative, screened (gamemaster controlled, low player agency). 

While we are answering questions, what is all this about “Bags” ? If you have to ask, consider yourself blessed.

Who is this “Pete” (or “Joel”) of whom you speak ? See above.

More Goetry (Yes, I like writing the word goetry. Goetry, goetry, goetry !)

Summon Familiar

Duration: special
Casting time: 12 Hours. The caster must spend the casting time undisturbed and with access to campaign appropriate magical resources.

Cost: caster allocates 100 Solidi (gold) per maximum effect desired.

 

This summons a magically enhanced animal as a companion for the caster. It is a summoned spirit combined with a fragment of the casters spirit all bound into an animals body. As such is extremely honest, obedient and loyal to the caster, and is only released by its death or banishment by the caster, or the casters death. A familiar has a high intelligence for its type and can communicate with the caster as if they both were speaking a common language. Only one may be in play at any time, and this spell can only be cast under a full moon.

 

Before casting the spell, the caster must decide what maximum effect is possible if the spell is successfully cast. This is the maximum effect that the spell can generate. The caster must provide 100solidi/point to cast this spell. When the spell is successfully cast with an effect of greater than 0, all the materials are expended, and the caster may then allocate the effect points to build the familiar. An effect of 0 means that no familiar is available until the next full moon, although the materials are not expended. Allocate effect points to the familiars size rating up to a maximum size of 6 and consult the summoned animal table in use in the campaign; any extra effect points may be used to enhance the familiar as noted below, as well as to add special features. If the spell is successful, but does not generate the desired effect points, the casting can be aborted; this requires the caster to wait another month, but the costs and resources are not expended. If the spell is cast and fails, the caster must also wait a month, but also loses ½ of all materials and resources.

Once the familiar is summoned, the Spellcaster increases his END score by the Size rating of the familiar. If the familiar is killed, his END score is immediately returned to the pre-familiar value. spellcaster then immediately takes 2xSize value as damage; normal wounding and unconsciousness rules for first hit apply. This damage is healed normally. If a familiar is banished by the caster, only the additional END points are lost.

The familiar is a large example of its type, with maximum physical values. The INT of the familiar is its normal int +1d6 -size +any allocated effect. Familiars also have an EDU rating (Learning or LRN) equivalent which is equal to its size plus any allocated effect.

 

The LRN value determines the spells and skills of the familiar that the spellcaster can benefit from. In general, a familiar can have one skill or spell per LRN point. Each level of a skill counts as one point also. Thus a familiar designed to hold two spells and one level three skill must have a minimum LRN of 5.

 

Spells held by a familiar are essentially extra memorized slots for the spellcaster, and skills are usable by the spellcaster as if he possessed the skill. Note that the spells and skills are specified at creation and may not be changed.

 

Other modifications to the familiar are also possible by allocating effect points.

 

• Common Speech (1)Familiar is able to speak an understandable language.
• Scrying (2) For 10 min/day, the caster may see thru the familiars eyes.
• Manipulative skill (1) The familiar is treated as if it had appropriately sized hands; some modification may be necessary, but generally assume that some limbs of the familiar are unusually dexterous and tactile.
• Armor(1) The familiars armror is increased by one level over its normal counterpart
• Stealth(2) The familiar is treated as having the sstealth skill-2 inaddition to any natural benefits.
• Flight(1) The familiar can fly if it is normally unable to, or fly twice as fast if it is.
• Toughness(1)The Familiars END score is doubled with no gain in mass.
• Invisibility(3) familiar can become invisible for 1 hour/day.
• Enhanced natural weapons(1) any natural weapons the familiar has are increased by +1 to hit and +2 Damage.
• Poison.(2) Any successful physical attack by the familiar is treated as poisoned (qv)

While the options are many, and in some ways complex, remember that the caster is essentially creating a unique creature, and may only ever possess one at a time.

 

Goetry and selected spells thus far.

Summon Animal/Familiar
This spell allows the spell caster to summon either a normal animal of any size, or a small animal with human intelligence.

Summon Animal.
This summons an animal to fight for the caster. It is of normal intelligence for its type, but will willingly obey any commands given by the caster as if it could understand speech. It remains for one hour, or until killed or banished (either by another spellcaster, or the owner). Only one such animal may be summoned at any one time.
The effect determines the size of the animal which must be native to the local area, although it need not be common.
When the spell is successfully cast, add 1d6 to effect value, and use this result on the creatures size table. The caster can choose to take a smaller animal instead of a larger one, and in cases where a specific type is needed, such as a flier, this is likely required. While it is possible for the spellcaster to then roll out the values for the summoned creatures, for speed and ease of play, it is recommended that the GM or player develop a list of animals, one per size (up to 12) that can be summoned on land or on sea, with preset values for STR, DEX and END. If the ecosystem supports such, at least naturally occurring flyer should be included in land or sea lists. In general, the summoned creature should be an average example of its species.

Regular earth animal mishmash summoning table
effect+
roll Size Example/choose one.

1 1 Rat, Bat,Giant land snail
2 3 Meerkat/Pangolin/Goliath frog/Parrot/raven
3 6 Large hare,Cat,Huge Owl
4 12 Tasmanian Devil/badger/monkey/swan/Huge Eagle
5 25 Wild dog/baboon
6 50 capybara/Lynx/Wolf/Chimp/Emperor Penguin
7 100 Cougar/Leopard/Hyena/Warthog
8 200 Tiger/Lion Gorilla/Anaconda
9 400 /Wild Boar
10 800 Large Bear
11 1600 Hippo/Auroch/salt water croc
12 3200 Rhino,

Crazy Fun Lost world megafauna summoning table
effect
+roll Size Choose from:
1 1 Archaeopteryx/Microraptor
2 3 Procompsognathids
3 6 Compsognathus
4 12 Velociraptor/Repenomamus robustus
5 25 Pteranodon/Oviraptor
6 50 Troodontids
7 100 Deinonychus/Quetzalcoatlus
8 200 Gallimimus
9 400 Protoceratops
10 800 Megalosaurus
11 1600 Stegosaurus/Allosaurus
12 3200 Ankylosaurus/Albertosaurus



next up: Familiars !