Now that I am, how do I have? (or, Stuff) <- More rules.

Now that I am, how do I have? (or, Stuff)



Oh Yeah.  Throw in a mask, and I'll drive it off the lot !

If you need something that isn’t permanently linked to your character, you need to roll enough successes, which vary by the value & scarcity.  The career you use is citizen, unless your adventuring career would be more appropriate. As a guide, your social class is defined by your CITIZEN career.

Night Train Rockafeller,
Millionaire Hobo
(rejected player character)

Class                                         CITIZEN

·        RICH                                   5

·        UPPER                                 4

·        WORKING                             3

·        POOR                                   2

·        BUM                                     1

·        DESTITUTE                         0

 

Forobtaining  stuff, determine how many successes it costs from the table below:

·        If your CITIZEN is greater, you have it (until it gets blown up) !

·        If your CITIZEN is equal, you can be assumed to be renting it, but have to make a single success citizen roll each adventure to keep it.  If it is blown up, you now have a new hobby –paying it off !

Ha !  Thought you were safe up here !
Luckily I have
MY VERY OWN HELICOPTER !

·        Otherwise, roll the above number of dice, adding the citizen rating to each.  Yes, the rich can have it all.   As ever, each 7+ is a success.  If you have enough successes, you have it till you don’t

You can only roll if it is possible to succeed.  However,  if the item requires more successes than possible, a player can gain one free success before rolling by reducing your Citizen by one . Two successes requires lowering it by  TWO levels. OUCH ! If you get it, you lose it between adventures, but regain your CITIZEN points.  

While lots of common stuff is bought using your CITIZEN skill, career specific stuff can be different.  Any time you need to roll for an item, instead of your CITIZEN, you can use an appropriate CAREER . The adds are still the citizen rating, but the number of dice rolled is determined by the career.  Thus, a BUM (1) would normally  be unable to obtain a pistol (cost 2) as he can only roll one dice at +1 (CITIZEN dice +CITIZEN) ; however, an ex Army (3) BUM rolls three dice for +1 (ARMY dice +CITIZEN).  Two successes and hes a Hobo with a pistol !

NOTE that in a major pinch, you can reduce the career you substitute as if it was CITIZEN.

If you have NATURE instead of CITIZEN, your effective CITIZEN is BUM.  Use careers where you can, Tarzan.   In his case “RICH BASTARD HEIR” turned out to be his career.

Cost of stuff with some examples, or, everything has its price, sweetheart !

NOTE: that Items rated at 6+ require either being WEALTHY, or reducing you CITIZEN or CAREER, or being an NPC villan or patron, who can have a citizen higher than 5. Characters, never.

Free/dumpster divings      0             Rags. Old butts.  Ketchup and chickenbone soup. Squirrel.  Shank. Club. Beano.

Cheap/Ubiquitous               1            Old clothing, gum, shiv, smokes, Poison Liquor. flop

Inexpensive/common           2            Zip gun, , Cheap Booze, Old Car. hardscrabble, apartment

Affordable/uncommon         3            Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun Sm House, Car,  good stuff Booze, farm    

costly/Unusual                    4            Lg House, fancier car, sm airplane,country estate Military arms (BAR, Grenade) top                                                               shelf Booze:

Luxury/uncommon               5            Mansion,Yacht, fighter, race car, lab, big/new plane, tank, plantation,  best Booze

Ruinous/Rare                      6            Secret base, rocket, flying yacht/HQ

Priceless/Unique               7+           Hope Diamond, The Mona Lisa, Battle cruiser, Spy army

Examples of transport:  match with value (hints: one is 0, one is 6)

 

 

Some FAQqy stuff for BAGS I left out, or possibly have been written since

Daring dudes doing stuff doingly !

 

What all this should look like.

The Century Goose destroys the KMS Death Sun with a lucky shot (tm)

 

 

The earlier post jumped right into character generation.  here are the two semi-mandatory "how to roleplay" and quickstart parts.

 

 

PseudoFAQ

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 easy 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 do I know what to roll ?

Here is the quickstart version for those too excited to actually read the rulebook before play; nowadays, this is invariably described as the universal resolution mechanic, which, as far as I’m concerned, illustrates much that is wrong with RPG design these days (future rants on this topic will include the terms “engine”, edition versioning, rules “patches”, GNS (?) theory, “standard modifier”, “immersive fiction”, fiction as example”, "cultural models", "quickstart" and probably more….)

·        So, to do stuff, you roll some six-sided dice, add modifiers to each dice, and determine how many get a 7+. These are successes. Then add automatic successes for the final total.

·        The number of dice you roll is 1 + the career relevant to what you are doing.  Basically each career is rated from 0-5 indicating how long you have been doing that, or how good you are. 

If you have no relevant career, and you cannot whine beg and rationalize a way to use one that you do have, you roll only the one dice. Plus, you should be ashamed to call yourself a gamer.

·        The modifiers to each dice are whatever stat is relevant to the task.  Again, they are rated from 0-5, strictly indicating how good you are at that kind of task.  Note that having a stat at 0 = kinda screwed

·        Roll your career dice, add your stat to each one.  All rolls that get a 7+ are a success.

 

·        Harder things need more successes, extra successes mean you succeed elegantly.

 

·        Finally, if you have a relevant advantage, and an advantage is anything from a prop to an amazing physical ability, you get a free success.  Multiple advantages can give you multiple extra successes. Yay team !

 

So, easy tasks should either only require one success, or be a gimmie. A skilled task (one an unskilled character couldn’t be able to do) should require 2, 3 or 4. Note that with a six dice max roll, hitting a 4+ for successes pretty much requires having some free successes from advantages. Plus, there are mechanisms to burn GRIT to get better results. Read on. Or play. 

 

Rules development interlude

Some thoughts on combat:

Thought one:  It’s been done to death at almost every level of granularity possible.

Thought Two: It’s the place where RPGs often dive into complexity of the most baroque kinds imaginable

Thought Three:  Rock paper scissors, while the simplest and most lite resolution possible lacks a certain amount of flavor.

So, the koan for RPG combat is this: what is not a shameless ripoff, has the same  level of granularity, complexity and crunch as the rest of the system, and is fun and flavorful.  Answer:  Very little.

So, rather than just plug in a simple Roll initiative, To hit , Damage by Weapon, Save As Needed, Next round -  type system  (which you’ll probably do anyway), I hoped to do something that addressed each of the points; and not test it.  I mean, come on, this is a gaming blog, right ?

Keep in mind that part of the motivation for this system is good old “lets try something different for a change ” .  So, that’s the answer when the inevitable question “why did you do this differently than usual ? ”  is asked.

So, thusly.

First up, does the combat system have to use the same mechanic as the task system ? 

  In fact, no it doesn’t, and in fact probably shouldn’t.  Tasks are about skills, and knowledge or athletic training and planning.  Combat is and trying not to get killed whilst doing the same.   Most skill use involves concentration, thought and planning; combat is about reacting in “panic hindbrain adrenaline reflex mode” and wetting yourself.  

That said, they should be expected to overlap, some… but the main point is this:  use of a rifle at a range, or a foil in a contest, or a punch in a boxing match is different than what you do when there is somebody firing back and trying to kill or maim you for real, and probably should use a different skill at the very least.

So, as a broad generalization, I’d like a combat system to use two different resolution systems to reflect this.  However, I’m not in love with different dice rolling procedures or tables just for the sake of adding flavor.  So I’ll start off with the following base mechanics:

·        All actions are either combat or normal.  Normal resolution emphasizes what you know and are capable of when no one is trying to kill you ; , and combat resolution is when someone is.    

·        You use different skills when in combat, even if you are using the same tools to do the same things.

·        For BAGS, use very broad categories wherever possible.

So:  Combat skills are used to resolve an attack when in combat.  Combat skills are mostly a measure of how well you keep it cool in a given type of combat; weapons limit range and modify damage, but do not modify the chance to hit when in combat. 

Combat skills are based around four basic types of combat, which consider range, and type of action required.

Skill	Range	MORA*	Action	Typical weapon
Wrasslin and rolling	grappled	C  (contact)	wrestling	Forehead, teeth
Fist City	Arms reach	H (Hand to hand)	boxing	Fist, fungo bat
Horseshoes and Handgrenades	As far as you can throw	T (Throwing)	throwing	Rock, football
Sling Lead	About 100 yds	S (shooting)	Shooting in a firefight	Any firearm
Country mile.	Anything more	L  (long)	Shooting at range	Mortar, machine gun

 

* Mandatory Obsessive Range Abbreviation

So, in combat at range T, your H&H skill is used, regardless of what you are trying to throw (rock, empty pistol, Native Javelin).

Similarly, when you are holding a rifle, but are in combat at H range (hand to hand) you don’t use your rifle skill but rather your Fist City skill.  If it isn’t a combat situation, such as an assassination at close range (a rifle ?  come on…but still) use your rifle skill.  But…the moment someone is tryoing to kill you back you use the combat skill.

Ammo. 

So, some weapons have ammo –when used at various ranges they use up ammo.  These are a function of the weapon.  If a weapon is at a range it cannot use its ammo, or does not have ammo, it, itself may be used as ammo –once.

Weapon effects:

Weapons modify two things: damage, and what ranges can they be used.

·        Damage: The number of hits that a weapon does when you succeed in a combat skill roll (or, a weapon skill roll when not in combat). Some do more, some do less.

·        Range: At what ranges it is effective, limited or not allowed

 

More to come, especially as it becomes obvious that BAGS has a VERY rudimentry combat system, thus far.

 

 

 

 

 

Nineteen Thirty Nazi pt. II

So that was the cover and intro for the rules I wrote for a pickup pulp adventure campaign I ran for a few weeks.  I'll be posting it here over the next while. It has some facets to the rules I think I like, so, guess what, I'm gonna share it here for your edification.

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.