Interior Illustraons: Bob Brown, David Powell and Gary Buckland Interior Illustraons: Bob Brown, David Powell and Gary Buckland
Playtesters: Eldie Syamsul, Lewis Travers, Jodie Lever, Jordan Dean and Molly Playtesters: Eldie Syamsul, Lewis Travers, Jodie Lever, Jordan Dean and Molly
Brimecombe Brimecombe
Copyright: OneDice Universal ©2014-2017 by Peter Cakebread. All rights reserved. Reproducon of this work
Copyright: OneDice Universal ©2014-2017 by Peter Cakebread. All rights reserved. Reproducon of this work
by any means without the permission of
by any means without the permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. This material is protected underthe publisher is expressly forbidden. This material is protected under
the copyright laws of the
the copyright laws of the United Kingdom.United Kingdom.
DEDICATION DEDICATION
To the fantasc Sunday Junior Gamer Group – Edlie, Lewis, Jodie, Jordan and Molly. To the fantasc Sunday Junior Gamer Group – Edlie, Lewis, Jodie, Jordan and Molly.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Aaron Huss, Adrian Gawain Jones, David Underwood, Nick Clements, Gary Buckland, Aaron Huss, Adrian Gawain Jones, David Underwood, Nick Clements, Gary Buckland, Peter Kastberger, Luca A. Volpino, Herb Severson, Bob Brown, Bil Bas, Pete Murphy, Peter Kastberger, Luca A. Volpino, Herb Severson, Bob Brown, Bil Bas, Pete Murphy, David Powell, Ian Stead, Edlie Syamsul, Lewis Travers, Jodie Lever, Jordan Dean and David Powell, Ian Stead, Edlie Syamsul, Lewis Travers, Jodie Lever, Jordan Dean and
Molly Brimecombe. Molly Brimecombe.
Introducon
Introducon 33
About
About this this book book 33
Chapter 1 –
Chapter 1 –
The Rules
The Rules 66
Making
Making a a Character Character 66
Abilies 8 Abilies 8 Skills 10 Skills 10 Fights 19 Fights 19 Iniave 20 Iniave 20 V
Vehicle ehicle Combat Combat 2424
Stunt
Stunt Points Points 2626
Equippi
Equipping ng YYour our Character Character 2929
Finis
Finishing hing TTouches ouches 3434
Experience
Experience and and Levels Levels 3434
Example
Example of of Play Play 3636
Chapter 2 –
Chapter 2 –
Gamekeep
Gamekeeper er SeconSecon 4141
Game
Game Styles Styles 4141
Hazards 44
Hazards 44
Mooks
Mooks and and Minions Minions 4545
Sanity
Sanity Loss Loss 4747
Awarding
Awarding Experience Experience 5353
Skins 54
Skins 54
Skin
Skin One One – – FantFantasy asy 5555
Skin
Skin TwTwo o – – Super Super Heroes Heroes 6060
Skin
Skin Three Three – – Space Space 6464
Chapter 3 –
Chapter 3 –
Sample A
Sample Adventurdventureses 6969
The
The Hollow Hollow Horror Horror 6969
Solo Adventure –
Solo Adventure –
Raid
OneDice
OneDice is an easy, quick and flexible Roleplaying Game (RPG) system. is an easy, quick and flexible Roleplaying Game (RPG) system.
Whether you want to design worlds where you play mighty barbarian
Whether you want to design worlds where you play mighty barbarian
heroes exploring a fantasy land, rebels on the run in outer space,
heroes exploring a fantasy land, rebels on the run in outer space,
superheroes fighng supervillians, or anything else, the
superheroes fighng supervillians, or anything else, the OneDiceOneDice system system
has been developed
has been developed to be easily to be easily adaptable for your games.adaptable for your games.
About
About
this
this
book
book
This book contains everything you need to get started with the
This book contains everything you need to get started with the OneDiceOneDice
system.
system.
The Introducon
The Introducon – is what you are read – is what you are reading now.ing now.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 – has all the rules you need to know to play the game and an – has all the rules you need to know to play the game and an
example of
example of playplay..
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 – has – has some ps for Gamekeepers, some oponal rules and threesome ps for Gamekeepers, some oponal rules and three
sample sengs (skins) to illustrate how to use the rules
sample sengs (skins) to illustrate how to use the rules to make your ownto make your own
worlds.
worlds.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 –includes a couple of sample adventures – –includes a couple of sample adventures –The Hollow Horror The Hollow Horror , an, an
This revised edion of
This revised edion of OneDice Universal OneDice Universal is essenally the same game as is essenally the same game as
the original edion (with only minor rules revisions), but various oponal
the original edion (with only minor rules revisions), but various oponal
rules have been
rules have been gathergathered together from othered together from other OneDiceOneDice releases and added releases and added
to this tome for your convenience.
to this tome for your convenience.
What’s different in this edition?
What’s different in this edition?
hat’s different in this edition?
hat’s different in this edition?
What’s different in this edition?
Graxlek 5.
At the end of the end of the book there is a character sheet for your personal use.
There are a host of OneDice books available direct fromCakebread & Walton via theirDrivethruRPG store and in stores fromStudio 2 Publishing. For ease, they all include the rules needed for running the game as well as specific material for the parcular genre or seng covered. See the advert in the back of this book for link to the store.
What is a Role-Playing Game?
Role-playing games (RPGs) are a kind of “Let’s pretend” – but you don’t need to dress up and run around, you all play around a table, using your imaginaons to tell the story.
Players play a character in the imaginary world – and you describe what your character says and does.
You can say exactly what you want to say (as long as its the kind of thing your character would say), get your character to aempt to do whatever you want him or her to do, and the Gamekeeper is there to tell you what happens next.
When you want your character to act in the game, the Gamekeeper will somemes get you to roll a dice to see if your character succeeds
or fails in what he or she is trying to do. The Gamekeeper is in charge – it’s only fair, they have to present a story, apply the rules and keep the game moving.
A game can last as lile as two or three hours, but you might want to play a long adventure, that carries on week to week, like a TV series – the characters gaining experience and skills as they go along, defeang old villains, meeng new ones
OneDice to Rule Them All
neDice to Rule Them All
What will I need to play?
This book; some friends to play with (two is enough for a game, but more is beer); some pens, pencils and paper; some tokens to represent Stunt Points (toy coins, poker chips, squares of cardboard - whatever really); and a six-sided dice (the sort you get in most board games).
Rolling the bones
A six-sided dice is the only dice you need to play the game. When you want your character to do something that is risky (such as have a fight, climb a steep cliff, etc.), the Gamekeeper will give you a Target Number and ask you to roll a dice to beat it. You’ll roll a number between one and six – which you might get to add a bonus to. What you rolled, including bonuses, is compared to the Target Number. If you equal it or beat it, your character succeeds in what he or she was trying to do, if you don’t, your character fails.
If you fail, you might need to spend some Stunt Points to save your character. Everyone has some Stunt Points at the start of each game session. You can use these to perform cool stunts or avoid disaster.
So it’s simple – you roll your dice, add any bonuses, and find out if your character has had a success or failure.
Perhaps the best way to describe the difference between the Gamekeeper and the Players is to imagine it’s like a movie. The Gamekeeper writes and directs, as well as playing all the extras, villains, etc. The Players are the actors, who play the role of the main heroes (their characters). But, unlike in the movies, there isn’t a set script that everyone has to follow – the Players decide what their characters are going to say and do, and those acons will oen change the direcon the movie takes and the reacons of the Gamekeeper’s characters.
More on Gamekeepers and Players
ore on Gamekeepers and Players
The rules for OneDice are simple. Somemes you will need to roll a six sided-dice to see if your character can do what you want him or her to do – mostly that’s it! The rules are presented alongside rules for making a character...
These rules are for creang generic characters. When playing the game, you are most likely to be playing in a parcular seng – a point in history, the far future, a fantasy world, etc. The seng will affect how you build your characters. There are some examples of how this works later in the book.
Making a Character
To make a character, you will need to:
Decide your character’s background – your race, naonality, hometown, home planet, etc. This will depend on the seng you are playing in.
Decide your character’s abilies – the abilies are Strong, Clever, Quick (and somemes another ability, such as Magic, if you can be a spell-caster in your game).
Calculate your Health, Defence and Move – These are calculated based on your character’s abilies.
Give your character some skills – your character is allowed up to 6 skills to
Give your character some spells – but only if they have some magic!
Give your character some stuff – give your character some starng money and equipment and let them buy some extras.
Give your character some finishing touches – including a name and 6 Stunt Points (more on them later!).
As your character completes adventures, his or her skills and abilies rise. Experience and Levels, explains how this works.
Your Character’s Background
Characters don’t usually start out as heroes. They will have a background – a home town, previous job, etc. In some sengs a character’s background can determine how many points a Player has to spend on his or her character’s abilies (usually if you have magic in the seng), somemes background will affect the job they can do in the world, other mes background is purely there for flavour.
Example 1
In a fantasy seng, a magical race might be required to spend at least one Ability Point on Magic.
Example 2
In a space seng, all characters might be able to decide their abilies as they see fit, but only those coming from a Noble background are allowed to be officers in the Space Navy.
The Gamekeeper should decide what backgrounds are available in his or her game, according to the chosen seng – there are some examples of seng specific backgrounds later in this book.
Assign Abilities
Characters usually start the game with 6 Ability Points to share between Strong, Clever and Quick. In a game including Magic, they might have to share the 6 points between the Strong, Clever, Quick and Magic.
If you want a high-powered game or for your Players to have more experienced characters at the start of play, simply raise the number of Ability Points they can distribute between their abilies (e.g. from 6 to 8).
Abilities
All characters and creatures have a set of abilies as follows:
Strong – How strong your character is. This is good for when you want to li, carry, push, pull, thump enemies with your fists or kick them with your foot, hit someone with a sck or other hand weapon, threaten someone to get what you want, etc.
Clever – How clever and sharp your character is. This is good for when you want to read a map, aim and shoot a gun, read a difficult book, work out how to use an object you’ve never seen before, negoate with someone to get what you want, etc.
Quick – How quick your character’s reacons are and how nimble your character is. This is good for when you want to climb, go first in a fight, fire a bow, throw a dagger, scramble out of quicksand, sneak about, hide from an enemy, etc.
Magic – Your game might not have magic. If it does, this is how much your character is auned to, or knowledgeable about, magic.
When you have decided on your character’s background, you will spend ability points to give them a Strong, Clever, Quick (and possibly Magic) score between 1 and 3.
Example Modern Character
Angela Smith, Spy, Strong 2, Clever 2, Quick 2
Angela was an army surgeon, when she was recruited by SpyBranch to go undercover with a team of operaves.
Remember: At the start of the first game, no ability can start higher than 3 or be lower than 1
(Unless you are using Magic, in which case some character backgrounds might not have it, while others will.)
Everyone usually starts with 6 ability points.
Health – Show how healthy your character is. If your character has an accident or gets hurt in a fight, he or she will lose Health. Health can be restored, so you should always keep a note of your character’s maximum Health. Maximum Health is your character’s Strength mulplied by 3.
Defence – The score an aacker needs to roll to injure you. Defence is three mes your character’s Strong or Quick (whichever is higher). You can buy armour to raise this score.
Move – How far your character can run in metres in a combat round. Move is ten mes your character’s Quick.
Example Modern Character
Having worked out Angela’s basic abilies, her Player can also work out the character’s Health, Defence and Move. The character now looks like this: Angela Smith, Spy, Strong 2, Clever 2, Quick 2, Health 6, Defence 6, Move 20
Skills
All characters have some specialist skills. Somemes these are natural talents, other mes they are things that the character has learnt along the way.
Every starng character receives 6 skill points, which can be spent on buying skills.
Like Abilies, skills are given a number – you may spend no more than two points on any starng skill.
It’s best to have skills which fit with what you want your character to do (for instance, if you want a gambling minstrel, you’ll want to choose something in Gambling and Entertainer).
The following is a list of example skills:
Acrobacs (Quick) – Good at acrobac moves.
Archery (Quick) – Good with bows.
Arllery (Clever) – Good at firing arllery weapons.
Art(Clever) – Good at creang art.
Blades (Strong) – Good at hand-to-hand fighng with a bladed weapon (sword, axe, laser-sck, etc.).
Bludgeon (Strong) – Good at hand-to-hand fighng with a blunt weapon (hammer, club, cosh, etc.).
Bruiser (Strong) – Good at unarmed fighng (punching, kicking, head bung, etc.).
Climb (Quick) – Good at climbing.
Command (Clever) – Good at giving orders.
Computers (Clever) – Good at building, repairing and using computers
Cra (Clever) – Good at making and repairing things.
Cryptology (Clever) – Good at creang and breaking codes.
Disguise (Clever) – Good at carrying off a disguise.
Dodgy (Clever) – Good at dealing with criminals and being streetwise.
Drive (Quick) – Good at driving an automobile, hover-car, horse and cart, etc
Engineering (Clever) – Good at building, repairing and understanding engines.
Entertainer (Quick) – Good at entertaining others (by singing, dancing, juggling grenades, etc.).
Gambling (Quick) – Good at gambling (and cheang).
Inmidate (Strong) – Good at bullying others.
Invesgaon (Clever) – Good at looking for and analysing clues.
Language (Clever) – Good at speaking a language (other than the character’s own). Each language is a separate skill.
Lore (Clever) – Good at knowing stuff.
Medicine (Clever) – Good at healing people. Only people with medicine (or magic) can restore Health.
Navigate (Clever) – Good at reading maps and following them.
Negoate (Clever) – Good at talking their way out of trouble.
Percepon (Quick) – Good at nocing and hearing things.
Pilot (Clever) – Good at pilong an aircra, sea cra or spaceship, etc.
Pickpocket (Quick) – Good at picking pockets.
Psychology (Clever) – Good at reading people’s emoons and nocing when they are lying.
Research (Clever) – Good at researching a topic (using libraries, computer archives, etc).
Science (Clever) – Good at science.
Security (Clever) – Good at creang or picking locks; arming or disarming traps; etc.
Shoong (Clever) – Good at firing a gun.
Sneaky (Quick) – Good at creeping up on people or hiding from them.
Survival (Clever) – Good at surviving in the wilderness.
Swim (Strong) – Good at swimming.
Teaching (Clever) – Good at geng basic concepts over to others.
Throw (Quick) – Good at throwing weapons (such as axes, daggers, etc.).
Track (Clever) – Good at finding and following tracks.
Trade (Clever) – Good at spong a bargain, selling and negoang a good price.
Remember: The seng you are playing in might offer a choice of some extra skills and disallow some of the above list. Only pick skills appropriate to the seng – a fantasy warrior will not have Computers (unless you are playing in a world where they do!).
Creating new Skills
You might want a skill that is not listed above. New skills can only be created by the Gamekeeper or with the Gamekeeper’s permission. When coming up with a new skill there are two things to check:
1. Check it isn’t already covered by another skill.
2. Check it is reasonable – a skill should be useful, but not more powerful than all the other skills.
Example
In a game where everyone plays a scienst, you may wish to have separate skills for Biology, Physics, Archaeology, etc., rather than the standard Science skill.
Example Skill Choices
The role your character has in a seng might make it necessary for you to pick certain skills.
Example 1
A Dwarven Fighter might need to pick skills as follows: Blades 2, Mining 1 + 3 Points to spend on any other skills.
Example 2
A Space Ranger might need to pick skills as follows: Pilot 1, Navigaon 1, Arllery 1 +3 Points to spend on any other skills.
Example 3
Let’s go back to our modern day spy. We already know she is an army medic-turned-spy, so her Player decides to give her Medicine 2 and Survival 1 (from her days in the army) and Computers 1, Invesgaon 1 and Sneaky 1 (more recently learned skills). The character now looks like this:
Angela Smith, Spy, Strong 2, Clever 2, Quick 2, Health 6, Defence 6, Move 20 Computers 1, Invesgaon 1, Medicine 2, Sneaky 1, Survival 1
She also has 6 Stunt Points, ready for the first game session. All Angela needs now is some money and equipment.
Skill Use
There are three occasions when you might be asked to roll your dice to make a skill check.
When you want your character to perform an acon
Examples: When you want your character to climb a rope, track a trail, navigate using a map, etc.
When your character is trying to perform an acon and someone is working against him or her
Examples: When your character enters an arm-wrestling contest, wants to sneak up on somebody, is negoang a trade, is hacking an account, etc.
When the Gamekeeper wants to see whether something happens to your character
Examples: When the Gamekeeper wants to see if your character has resisted a poison, has spoed an object, has fallen unconscious, etc.
Note: Stunt Points can be spent to gain an automac success on a non-combat skill check (see p.26).
How To Use Skills To Perform Actions
Most characters, and some creatures, have various abilies and skills they can use to aempt to perform an acon (such as climbing up a rope, searching for a clue, etc.). The basic chance of carrying out an acon depends on how difficult it is.
Roune everyday acons are considered so easy that they can be usually be done automacally. For instance, a driver doesn’t need to make a Drive roll every me he or she is driving sensibly down a clear road. You don’t need to roll a dice to get your character to perform these roune acons. But if the weather is terrible and someone is chasing you, you will need to roll a dice for these more difficult acons.
The Gamekeeper always decides the difficulty of any task. In the list below, the figure beside the difficulty is the Target Number (TN) needed to succeed at an acon:
Difficulty Target Number (TN) Example No roll needed 3 6 8 10 12+ Roune Mildly Challenging Challenging Hard Very Difficult Nearly Impossible
Driving on a wide quiet road on a clear day
Driving in the pouring rain on an unsuitable road
Driving in a thunderstorm on a cliff road
Driving in the rain while you are being chased
Driving in a storm while being chased and being shot at
Driving in a storm while being chased on a cliff road
Anyone can try almost anything, as everyone has at least 1 in each ability. You don’t need to have Navigate to try and puzzle out a map – you just use your Clever score. Likewise, if you don’t have Climb, you will just have to use Quick on its own.
Example 1
Angela is climbing a steep cliff. The Gamekeeper decides it is a Challenging climb, and sets the difficulty at 6. The Player controlling Angela rolls a dice – and gets a 4. Angela’s Quick of 2 is added, for a total of 6. She doesn’t have Climb, so can’t add anything for that. She just makes it!!!
Example 2
Angela has been bundled out of a dinghy and le on a deserted island by burly CrimSyn agents. She needs to find food and shelter. The Gamekeeper decides it’ll be hard to find what she needs so late in the day, so sets the difficulty at 8. Her Player rolls a 4. Adding Angela’s Clever (2) and Survival (1), she gets a total of 7. Angela will have to go hungry tonight and sleep out under the stars.
Remember! When the Gamekeeper asks for a skill roll:
Roll the dice + Ability (Strong, Clever or Quick) + Skill (if any) = result
Example: Angela is trying to find a clue le by someone who broke into her hotel room. She has a Clever of 2 and Invesgate 1. The Gamekeeper decides it is a Challenging task (so the Target Number is 6). Her Player rolls a 6, adds the 2 and 1, for a total of 9. Angela beats the target by 3 points and easily spots the muddy sneaker print le by the intruder.
then add to the result the relevant ability (the character’s score in Strong, Clever or Quick) and skill (if he or she has one). Compare the result to the Target Number – if you equal or beat it, you have succeeded. If you have failed to beat it, your acon has been unsuccessful (and there may be a consequence).
Skill Rolls
kill Rolls
The Gamekeeper may rule that some tasks are just too difficult for an amateur to have a go at. It’s unlikely that the starship’s entertainment officer will be able to fix a meltdown in the warp drive without the Engineering skill, even if they are exceponally lucky.
Medicine is one of the skills which cannot be pracced untrained. Anyone can try and stop the bleeding, make a paent comfortable, etc., but only a character with Medicine can heal Health (their own or that of other character’s).
A character wishing to use the Medicine skill must decide how much damage they wish to heal (on the table below), then roll against the appropriate Target Number – a failure means that no healing takes place.
Use of a medical facility (casualty staon, sick-bay, hospital, etc.) gives a +2 bonus to the roll. A Medicine roll of 1 is always a failure – so even if the character combined his or her Clever and Medicine, for a starng total of 6 or above, a dice sll needs to be rolled – as a 1 would sll fail (and it would be 24 hours before the medic could try again).
8 10 6
1 dice mulplied by 2 1 dice
Amount of Healing Target Number (TN)
1 dice divided by 2
Exceptions to the Rule
xceptions to the Rule
Exceptions to the Rule
Healing isn’t Easy
ealing isn’t Easy
Skill vs Skill
Somemes your character will want to do something that another character wants to challenge. Whether arm-wrestling, compeng in a running race, sneaking up on someone who is trying to spot you, or commanding an unwilling army, you’ll need to make a Skill vs Skill test for your character to see who succeeds.
To make a Skill vs Skill test, the player rolls a dice and adds any bonuses. The Gamekeeper rolls dice for whoever is opposing (unless it is another Player’s character), also adding any bonuses. Whoever gets the highest total wins. If both the Player and the Gamekeeper get the same totals, it’s a draw (unless that makes no sense, such as when trying to sneak up on someone, in which case the Player wins).
Example 1
Angela and Adrian are playing cards for money. Angela’s Player rolls a 5 and adds Angela’s Clever of 2 for a total of 7. Angela doesn’t have Gambling, so can’t add it. Adrian’s Player rolls a 5, adds 2 for Adrian’s Clever and 1 for his Gambling, for a total of 8. Angela has lost! Had she also got a total of 8, it would have been a draw, and neither character would have won the pot.
Example 2
Joe the Knife is trying to pick a pocket. His Player rolls a 2, adds Joe’s Quick of 3 and Pick Pocket of 2 for a total of 7. The Gamekeeper rolls for the trader he is trying to rob, and gets a 3. He adds the trader ’s Clever of 2 – unfortunately for Joe, the trader also has Percepon 2, so also gets a total of 7. As Joe is a Player’s character, while the trader is the Gamekeeper’s, Joe wins – but only just!
Somemes one of the sides in an opposing skill test will have an advantage or disadvantage and the Gamekeeper will give an extra bonus or penalty to the dice roll.
Example
Joe is on the rob again. He decides to pick the pocket of a drunken businessman who he has been eying up in the hotel bar. It’s busy; the drunken character is distracted, chang on his phone; and it’s a fairly dimly lit place. The Gamekeeper decides to give Joe’s Player a +3 bonus to add to his dice. Joe’s Player rolls a 3, adds a bonus of 5 (the total of Joe’s Quick and Pick Pocket) and a further +3, for a total of 11. The Gamekeeper makes a roll for the drunk businessman to spot the robbery – she rolls a 6 and adds the businessman’s Clever of 1 for a total of 7 – he won’t be happy later, when he finds that his wallet has been stolen!
If Joe was drunk, rather than the businessman, the Gamekeeper would impose a penalty on Joe’s roll instead.
Somemes the amount that the winner wins by makes a difference. How much of a difference is up to the Gamekeeper.
Example
Joe wants to sell a ring he stole to a fence. The ring should sell for $100. Joe’s Player rolls a 3 and adds Joe’s Clever of 2 for a total of 5. The Gamekeeper gets a 5, adds the fence’s Clever of 2 and Trade of 3 for a total of 10. The difference is 5 (The fence’s 10 minus Joe’s 5). The Gamekeeper decides that the fence will pay a maximum of $50 (deciding a 10 dollar penalty should be subtracted for every point of difference between the two rolls).
Having the Advantage
aving the Advantage
Having the Advantage
Making a Difference
aking a Difference
Fights
Being a hero means sooner or later your character will get into a fight. Fights take place in combat rounds, each lasng just a few seconds. In a combat round each fighter takes it in turns to try and hit and damage their opponent(s).
Note: Don’t forget that Stunt Points can be used to perform special acons in combat, on top of those described in this secon.
Surprise and Distance
Somemes one of the sides in a fight will be surprised – if one side is expecng an aack and the other isn’t; if one side has successfully sneaked up on opponents who have failed to spot them; a successful ambush,
etc. If so, the side who is surprised doesn’t get to make aacks in the first round of combat. If both or neither side is surprised, then it cancels out, so combat starts normally with Iniave.
How far apart the opponents are at the start of combat depends on the terrain – if both pares turn a corner and bump into one another, then they can move instantly into hand-to-hand; if both
pares spot each other at the other side of a long beach, they won’t be able to start fighng unl someone moves Combat rounds basically work like this:
Everyone rolls Iniave at the start the combat – to find out who goes first (roll the dice and add Quick - highest wins).
Then, from highest to lowest Iniave, each character:
Rolls to hit – Roll the dice and add any bonuses to beat the opponent’s Defence. A character can also try to move (charge into combat or run away) in this part of the round.
Calculates damage – on a successful hit. Remove any damage from opponent’s Health.
Combat Basics
ombat Basics
into the range of the other side’s weapons (assuming they have ranged weapons); both sides clash in hand-to-hand fighng, etc.
In this case, don’t roll Iniave unl someone can actually hit someone else.
Initiative
Unless the Gamekeeper judges one side to be surprised (in which case the other side gets a free aack), each character in a fight must roll Iniave at the start of combat. Roll the dice and add your character’s Quick.
You only roll Iniave at the start of the fight – anyone joining the fight rolls Iniave when they enter the fray.
Example
Angela has a Quick of 2. She is fighng a bouncer at Club Soviet, who also has a Quick of 2. Federica rolls a 1, adds her Quick of 2 for a total of 3. The Gamekeeper rolls a 4 for the bouncer and adds 2 for his Quick for a total of 6. The bouncer goes first.
What if there is a draw?
If there is a draw, the Player’s character goes before the Gamekeeper’s character. If two Player’s characters are aacking each other, and they draw on Iniave, they act at exactly the same me.
Roll to Hit
In this part of a round the character can try to hit an opponent or try another sort of acon. He or she can try to hit using a ranged weapon (bow, gun, etc), hand-to-hand weapon (sword, club, laser-sck, etc), unarmed aack (fist, kick, etc), or, if using Magic, a spell (Magic Spear, Fireball, etc). In each case you roll the dice, adding the relevant Ability and Skill (if any). Forhand-to-hand fighng (with or without a weapon):
Forguns andarllery:
Roll die + Clever + Skill (Arllery, Shoong) Forranged weapons other than guns: Roll die + Quick + Skill (Archery, Throw) Forspells:
Roll die + Magic
In most cases (other than Magic) if the total beats the target’s Defence, damage is done. In the case of Magic, if the score beats the Target Number for the spell, the spell works.
Having the Advantage
Like with skill rolls, somemes the Gamekeeper will judge that one side or another has a natural advantage (fighng an enemy who is climbing up a slippery slope, having cover from ranged aacks, etc.). The Gamekeeper can insist that one side receives a +2 Defence bonus unl they lose the advantage.
Other Actions
Instead of trying to hit someone, a character can try to move or take another acon in this part of the round. Doing any of these acons lowers the character’s Defence by 2 for the duraon of the round.
Moving
If a character isn’t in a hand-to-hand fight and wants to move, up to his or her Move in metres, they can (instead of aacking – you don’t get to do both). This includes moving into a hand-to-hand fight.
Getting out of Hand-to-Hand Combat
If a character tries to move out of hand-to-hand fighng, they risk their opponent geng a free aack. The opponent has a choice – take a free
swing at the fleeing coward or give chase. If he or she tries to give chase, both sides make a roll, adding their Quick. If the chaser wins, he or she catches up, and both pares are back in hand-to-hand fighng. If the person running away wins, he or she has escaped. If it is a draw, the chase connues next round (unless someone gives up).
Non-Combat Actions
Somemes a character will want to do something, not covered by the above, such as try to open a chest; unlock a door; retrieve a computer disc; une a hostage; etc. The Gamekeeper determines (secretly) how long such acvies take and while the character is working on them, he or she cannot fight back (although does sll have a Defence rang, with a -2 penalty).
Quick Actions
Some acons are really quick and don’t cause the character to miss an aack – these include things like geng out a weapon, shoung an order, etc. You can do any one these things without a penalty.
Calculate Damage
(If using Magic, see the spell descripon.)
For all other damage, take the total of the hit roll and subtract the target’s defence. Then add any damage for the parcular weapon. The result is the amount of Health the injured party loses.
Example
Adrian fires his pistol at a CrimSyn thug. The thug has a Defence of 3 and 6 Health. Adrian’s Player rolls a 5, adds Adrian’s Clever (2) and Shoong (1), for a total of 8. The difference is 5 (Adrian’s roll to hit of 8 minus the
thug’s Defence of 3). Adrian does 5 damage, +3 for the pistol, for a total of 8 damage! The thug is no more.
Death, Dying and Recovery
All the characters the Gamekeeper controls die when their Health reaches 0. Player’s characters will also die when their Health reaches 0, unless somebody can Heal them (using medicine or magic) within 3 combat rounds.
If a character is injured, they naturally heal 1 Health for every 12 hours of complete rest (in addion to any medicinal or magical help), unl their Health is back up to its starng level.
Note: Don’t forget that Stunt Points can be used to help avoid damage. Some foes will simply be too tough to damage for an unskilled or weak fighter. If the Gamekeeper wants to give everyone a chance of inflicng damage, he or she can use the following rule. When the aacker rolls a 6, he or she inflicts damage, even if the total aer addions doesn’t beat an opponent’s Defence. Such damage is fixed at the base weapon damage (so 2 for a knife, 3 for a sword, etc.) and removed from the target’s Health. When applying this rule, use common sense – if a target is invulnerable to a certain type of aack, then no amount of luck will help the aacker (that’s what Stunt Points are for!).
If you are running a more epic/heroic style game, you might want the main players’ characters to be mainly knocked out, stunned, gassed, etc., rather than killed outright - although villains aren’t always so lucky!
If you want to represent this in your games, then characters engage in non-lethal combat when they use fists, blunt weapons or engage in magical duels, etc. In this type of fight when a character reaches 0 Health they should be considered unconscious rather than dead, and will regain consciousness when the current fight/scene ends, or by spending a Stunt point. When they recover they get back half their Health.
Of course, if your game has a grier tone then sck to the standard rules.
Optional Damage Rule – Lucky Hits
ptional Damage Rule – Lucky Hits
Optional Damage Rule – Lucky Hits
Optional Damage Rule – Stunning Damage
ptional Damage Rule – Stunning Damage
Vehicle Combat
Vehicles have some abilies much like characters (but usually not Clever or Magic – unless you are playing Smart Arcane Robot Cars From Hell!).
If characters in two vehicles are fighng each other, then combat order is as usual.
Roll Iniave, roll to hit, roll to damage, etc.
Iniave – roll a dice and add the vehicle’s Quick.
Roll to hit – usually using the Abilies and skills of the driver. If the total beats the Defence of the opposing vehicle (or driver of that vehicle), calculate damage.
The Abilies and skills used will depend on the vehicle and the weapon used. If trying to ram, the vehicle’s Quick + the driver’s Drive; if firing a handgun then the driver’s Clever + Shoong. Some vehicles (e.g. tanks) have inbuilt weaponry – for a tank you would add Clever + Arllery, for a starship’s weapons you might use Clever + Shoong for the lasers and Clever + Arllery for the torpedoes. Each weapon should be assigned a damage rang, if it hasn’t already got one (based on its lethality). If ramming, vehicles generally do their Strong in damage (or a third of their Health if not assigned a Strong rang). Either way, any
vehicle involved in a collision also takes damage from the opposing vehicle (so ramming is only usually worth it,
when going against a weaker opponent).
Calculate Damage – Add weapon’s damage (or vehicle’s Strong/Health divided by 3, if ramming) to the difference between the aacker’s to
hit roll and the Defence of the opposion.
Remove damage – From damaged vehicle’s Health (or driver’s Health, if the driver was hit).
In some sengs vehicles might have other Aributes, along with Strong, Quick, Defence, Health and Move (such as Crew).
The consequences of a vehicle reaching 0 Health will vary according to the environment (e.g. in space, a starship might explode at 0; in a destrucon derby, the vehicle might just grind to a halt and the driver get out).
Huge Creatures and Supers
Mostly individuals can’t aack vehicles – punching a spaceship won’t make it go away! So making an unarmed aack is not usually allowed (armed aacks are fine, oen characters will want to shoot out tyres or aim at an opposing driver). But in your seng there might be huge creatures that can aack a vehicle (if so it will be noted in their special abilies) or you might have super heroes who pack enough of a punch to bulldozer a vehicle with a fist.
Chases
Frenec chases, whether on foot, broomsck or vehicle, are a staple of acon-packed stories. Here are some suggesons.
A chase always has one (or more) party who is trying to get away (the escaper), and another who is pursuing (the pursuer).
The pares start at a distance decide by the Gamekeeper, determined by the circumstances of the chase. The distances are:Close, Range, Sight.
If you are at Close distance you are nearly on top of each other - if the distance is closed further you can engage in hand to hand combat, or vehicles may ram each other.
If you are at Range distance, you can easily see each other and engage in ranged combat (if you have a ranged weapon).
If you are at Sight distance, you can see each other but ranged combat is prey much impossible - any further increase in range and the Escaper gets clean away.
In a chase both sides make a roll each round. If on foot roll and addQuick.
If on horseback roll and addQuick + Riding.
If you are in a vehicle, roll and add the vehicle's Quick and the character’s
Drive orPilot skill as appropriate.
The winner of the roll increases or decreases the range by one category - on a draw the range remains the same.
Of course, if neither side wants to change the range, they don’t have to -perhaps the escaper wants to lure the pursuer into a trap…
Chase Hazards
To make chases more interesng, add hazards. These will depend on the nature of the chase - if it’s on foot over rooops, hazards might be slippery roofs, gaps between building to jump, narrow ledges to run along etc. If in cars, then ght bends, pedestrians in the way, oil patches, narrow bridges and so on.
Rate Hazards using the hazard rules (p.44) and impose an appropriate penalty for failing to overcome the hazard - a change in range, damage to the vehicle (or character) and so on.
Stunt Points
Stunt Points are used to perform spectacular moves, save your character from certain death, hit a creature against the odds, etc.
Every Player starts each game session with 6 Stunt Points.
As each game session progresses, the Players play their Stunt Points to make good things happen for their characters.
It’s a good idea to spend all your Stunt Points, as they can’t be carried over to the next game and they’ll be replaced next session!
Some of the characters run by the Gamekeeper might also have Stunt Points, which can be used in exactly the same way as the Players’ Stunt Points. Only more major enemies will have them – more run-of-the-mill opposion never have Stunt Points.
Stunt Points can be represented in the game by poker chips, or coins (real or chocolate!), toy money, etc.
Spending Stunt Points
Each of the following acons cost 1 Stunt Point:
Ÿ Succeed at a non-combat roll automacally – however difficult the task.
Ÿ Ignore an opponent’s Defence – no roll to hit, simply deliver a dice worth of damage + the weapon damage to your character’s opponent’s Health. Armour does not protect the opponent.
Ÿ Avoid damage – Turn a hit on your character into a miss.
Ÿ Avoid character death – If your character drops to 0 Health, they are merely unconscious, not dying.
Ÿ Perform two aacks in one round – you can roll to hit twice instead of once.
Ÿ Stunt Acon – You can combine an aack with a stunt acon (climb, swing on a chandelier or rope, run on a rolling barrel, etc.). You only Giving 6 Stunt Points makes for a reasonably cinemac game. If you want to make the game even more over-the-top heroic, everyone could begin with 12 Stunt Points. Alternavely, for a griy realisc game, where death is an ever-present threat, you could play with no Stunt Points at all.
LESS OR MORE?
ESS OR MORE?
need to roll to hit, and you get to add your Strong and Quick to the dice (plus one suitable skill if you have one, Climb, Blades, Bludgeon, Bruiser, Shoong, Throw, etc.).
Ÿ To cancel an enemy’s Stunt Point – If a Player has spent a Stunt Point to perform an acon, the Gamekeeper can spend a Stunt Point (if the character the Gamekeeper is running has one) to cancel the acon. Likewise, a Player can spend a Stunt Point to cancel a Gamekeeper’s Stunt Point acon against his or her own character.
The following acons cost 2 Stunt Points:
Ÿ Advanced Stunt Acon – You can combine an aack with a stunt acon (climb, swing on a chandelier or rope, run on a rolling barrel, etc.). You only need to roll to hit, and you get to add your Strong, Quick and Clever to the dice (plus one suitable skill if you have one, Climb, Blades, Bludgeon, Bruiser, Shoong, Throw, etc.).
Ÿ Perform three aacks in one round – you can roll to hit three mes instead of once.
The following acon costs 3 Stunt Points:
Ÿ Ignore an opponent’s Defence – no roll to hit, simply deliver a dice worth of damage, mulplied by three, to your character’s opponent’s Health.
Changing the Story (Optional)
Here is an extra way of spending Stunt Points. Check with your group to see if they would like to add this opon.
The following story change costs 1 Stunt Point:
Ÿ Minor Plot Change – Players can spend a Stunt Point to remove a minor obstacle (avoid a patrol, solve a clue, find a different path, etc.
The following story change costs 5 Stunt Points:
Ÿ Major Plot Change – A Player can spend 5 Stunt Points to make a major change to events – escape the mothership; cause a huge rock-slide, covering a retreat; cause a nearby enemy ship to lose all speed and be put temporarily out of acon; etc.
Equipping your Character
Every Player’s character starts with some money to spend on equipment; roll a dice and mulply the result by 10 – that’s how much money your character starts with. They can spend it on equipment before the game starts.
The actual currency in your seng could be anything – Credits, Gold, Dollars, tens of Dollars, Concrete Slabs... so the examples below are le undefined. In your game you might decide to award extra starng money to everyone (e.g. 100-600 or 1000-6000), extra starng money to characters from a parcular background, or just let characters have what equipment they want, as long as it seems reasonable according to their income/the job they do.
In addion to their starng money, all characters start the game with one character ouit (appropriate to the seng) and one weapon suitable for their character.
As with everything in OneDice, Players can only purchase equipment that fits with the seng they are playing in.
Everyday Stuff
Clothing
Fine Clothes: Cost: 200
Pauper Garb: Cost: 0-10
Respectable Clothes: Cost: 50
Adventuring Kit
Backpack: Cost: 10
Bedroll: Cost: 5
Candle: Cost: 1 for 10 candles
Car: Cost: 1000+
Flint and Tinder: Cost: 1
Lantern: Cost: 10
Handheld Computer: Cost: 100+
Mobile Phone: Cost: 40+
Oil, Flask: Cost: 1 for an hour’s lantern fuel.
Powerboat: Cost: 10,000+
Rope: Cost: 2 for 10 metres of strong rope.
Sack (Large): Cost: 2
Sack (Small): Cost: 1
2-Person Sled: 300+
Tent: Cost: 30 for 2 person tent.
Torch: Cost: 1 for a wooden torch that burns for an hour or an electric torch.
Waterskin/Flask: Cost: 1 for a waterskin/flask containing enough drink for 1 person for 2 days.
Wring Kit: Cost: 10+
Food And Drink
Meal Out: Cost: 1+
Travel Raons: Cost: 5 for one day’s raons for one person.
Accommodation
Doss-house: Cost: 1
Tavern: Cost: 5+
Hotel: 30+
Specialist Equipment
Climbing Kit: Cost: 10 (Adds 1 to Climb skill rolls.)
Compass: Cost: 15 (Adds 1 to Navigaon skill rolls).
Doctor’s Bag: Cost: 50 (Adds 1 to Medicine skill rolls.)
Hacker Kit: Cost: 500+ (Adds 1 to Computer skill rolls.)
Weapon
Damage
Cost
Axe 2 15
Club, Cosh, Cudgel 2 5
Dagger 2 10 Hatchet 2 10 Improvised* 1 – Knife 1 5 Laser-Sck 4 100 Spear 3 15 Sword 3 50 Unarmed 0 Whip 1 10
*Chair leg, bole, tea tray, etc.
–
Close Combat Weapons
lose Combat Weapons
Weapon
Damage
Cost
Blunderbuss* 4 60 Handgun, Large 4 300 Handgun, Small 2 200 Laser Pistol 3 200 Laser Rifle 4 500Machine Gun 6x3 damage 2000
Musket* 4 50 Pipe Rocket** 10 5000 Shotgun 5 1000 Sniping Rifle* 6 Rifle 4 1000 1800
Range
Ranged Weapons
*Takes a full combat round to load.
** Damage is to all within a 3m radius of the target.
5 15 10 50 500 200 20 50 20 2000 400
Ammunition
Ammunion: Cost: 10 for 20 small rounds; 100 for 10 large rounds.
Pipe Rocket Ammunion: 200 for 1 round.
Weapon Modifications
Rifle Magnifying Sights: Cost: 800 (Adds +3 to Shoong skill if aached to a rifle).
Guns
uns
Weapon
Damage
Cost
Bow 3 15 Crossbow 3 40 Dagger 2 10 Hatchet 2 10 Knife 1 5 Rock 1-Sling (one handed) 2 1
Spear 3 15
Range
S = Thrower’s Strong. 25 40 Sx3 Sx2 Sx1 Sx3 15 Sx2Armour
Defence*
Cost
Light – Thick leather jacket and trousers; Full Combat Clothing
+1 100
+2 5000
Quick
--2
Heavy* – Full plate armour; Full Powered Body Armour
Shield/Energy Field +1 - 100
*Wearing armour gives a bonus to Defence. But if a character is not strong enough to cope with the weight of heavy armour, it will give a penalty to Quick. If the wearer’s Strong is under the amount of the armour’s Defence bonus, the character will take the penalty to Quick shown in the table above. In other words, a character with 1 Strong will be at -2 to Quick if he or she dons heavy armour.
Other Ranged Weapons
ther Ranged Weapons
Other Ranged Weapons
Armour
rmour
Finishing Touches
If you haven’t picked aname for your character, do so now.
Also, give your Character6 Stunt Points, ready for the first game session. Now is the me tomake a few notes, if you want to, about your character’s personality (kind, mean, greedy, happy-go-lucky, etc.) and earlier life (family, previous job, criminal past, etc.).
You should alsodecide how old your character is.
Experience and Levels
As your characters adventure they learn new skills and increase their abilies.
In game terms, this means the Gamekeeper will award you Experience for good roleplaying and for your character reaching adventure goals and defeang foes. You need to always keep track of the total Experience you have been given.
When your character gets enough Experience, he or she will go up levels. Your character might gain some new things at each level:
Ability Points – You can spend these to increase Strong, Clever, Quick or Magic*. Remember, your character’s Health, Defence or Move might also rise as a result of this increase.
*If playing a game with magic.
Health – Increases your total health.
Skill Points – To increase a skill your character already has or to learn a new one.
Spells – If applicable.
All Player characters begin at 1st Level. The Experience you need to increase your character’s level, and the rewards for doing so, are as follows:
+1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
*In systems where characters have Magic.
Level Ability Points Spells
1 0 2 150 3 300 4 +1 600 5 1,500 6 3,000 7 +1 6,000 8 10000 9 15,000 10 +1 11 30,000+ 22,000
Health Skill Points Experience
+1
+1
+1
+2
The Experience system above is just one way of handling character development. Gamekeepers could always decide to use a different method. You might want to grant a development point, that can only be spent on skills (not Abilies), on the compleon of a major plot goal; or you might allow Abilies and skills to be purchased, but only aer the character has spent a suitable amount of me working out, experimenng, pracsing, researching a topic, aending lectures, etc.
Example of Play
The following example should give you a feel for how the system works. In the example there are three parcipants, the GameKeeper (Jenny), and two Players, Rebecca and Terry. They are playing in a pulp seng. Rebecca is playing a Treasure Hunter and Terry is playing an Archeologist.
Rebecca’s Character
Georgia Smith, Treasure Hunter, Strong 1, Clever 2, Quick 3, Health 3, Defence 9, Move 20
For Players and Gamekeepers who don’t like level-based experience systems, here is an alternave, more “realisc” system. Characters are given Improvement Points, which can be spent as follows:
Skill increase: 2 x the level you want to get to.
Example 1
Bil’s character has Percepon 2, and wants to increase it to 3. 2 x 3 = 6, so he must spend 6 Improvement Points.
Aribute increase: 5 x the level you want to get to.
Example 2
Bil’s character has Quick 1 and wants to increase it to 2. 5 x 2 = 10, so he must spend 10 Improvement Points.
Skills and Aributes can only be put up one level at a me, so to get a skill from 2 to 4 would require (2 x 3) + (2 x 4) = 14 Improvement Points.
To learn a new skill at 1 costs 5 Improvement Points, plus the character must have had me to train in the new skill. Whether this is possible is up to the Gamekeeper – you can’t claim to have learned to ride a camel if you’ve spent the last month rowing across the Atlanc in a bathtub!
Health, Defence and Move will increase as a character’s Aributes increase, in line with the rules on p.9.
Alternate Experience System
lternate Experience System
Climbing 1, Navigaon 1, Pilot 1, Shoong 1, Survival 1, Trade 1, Stunt Points 6
Equipment: Large Handgun (4 Damage); Climbing Gear; Explorer Ouit; $100
Terry’s Character
Utah Johns, Archeologist, Strong 2, Clever 3, Quick 1, Health 6, Defence 6, Move 20
Blades 1, Languages (Ancient) 1, Lore 2, Percepon 1, Research 1, Stunt Points 6
Equipment: Dagger (2 Damage); Explorer Ouit; $120
The Adventurers have been exploring a cave network. They think they’ve finally found the treasure they are looking for.
Gamekeeper (Jenny): From the ledge, you can see vines trail down to the floor of the cavern below. The cavern is about 10 metres below you, and 20 metres in diameter. In the middle of the cavern there are some dusty looking remains, but something is glinng amongst the bones – from the bluish light it gives off, perhaps it’s the Honour Stone. The vine strewn walls look solid enough, although they’re pied with cracks, fissures and crawl spaces.
Rebecca (Georgia): “Excellent, hopefully that’s what we’re aer!” Ok, I tug on a vine. Do I think it’s strong enough to take my weight?
Terry (Utah): “We could get the climbing gear out.”
Gamekeeper (Jenny) to Rebecca (Georgia): The vines seems very strong. And with the number of footholds, you think it’ll be a very simple climb
down.
Rebecca (Georgia): “No, these vines will do fine.” I start to climb down. Terry (Utah): “I’ll follow you down.”
Gamekeeper (Jenny): OK, Georgia makes it with ease, but you’ll need to roll for Utah (Mildly Challenging, TN 3).
Georgia couldn’t fail, as her Quick of 3 + Climb of 1 = 4. So even if she rolled a 1, she would get a total of 5, beang the TN of 3.
Terry (Utah): “We should of got the climbing gear out!” Terry rolls the dice. He rolls a 4.
Utah hasn’t got the Climb skill, so can only add his Quick of 1, for a total of 5. He makes it.
Gamekeeper (Jenny): OK, you’re both safely down. The floor is dry, but dirt strewn. There are tunnels in some of the walls, but they would be hard to fit down, unless you crawled – most of them are barely three foot tall. It seems you were right – there’s definitely a gem amongst them bones. What do you want to do?
Rebecca (Georgia) and Terry (Utah): (Together) I grab the gem!
Gamekeeper (Jenny): (Rolls a dice) As you both stoop down, a creature slides out behind you. It must have been hiding in the tunnels.
Jenny is rolling a creature’s Sneaky (Quick) – she could have granted the Adventurers an opposed roll, against their Percepon, but has decided they are too busy reaching for the gem.
Rebecca (Georgia): What is it?
Gamekeeper (Jenny): You turn and see an appalling creature! It’s a snake, but larger than any known species. It’s green, has long sharp fangs and is hugely fat – but despite its bulk, it’s superfast as it strikes. And it strikes at you, Georgia!
No-one rolls for Iniave yet, as the giant snake has surprised the Adventurers. The giant snake has the following stascs:
Snake, Giant S (Strong) 5 C (Clever) 1 Q (Quick) 3 H (Health) 12 D (Defence) 7 Mv (Move) 40 Sk (Skills) Bite 1 (Damage 3) Sp (Special Abilies) Constrict Ha (Habitats) C (Caves), F (Forest), J (Jungle), S (Swamp) X 100
Note: A creature’s Defence and Health, isn’t calculated in the same way as an Adventurer’s.
Rebecca (Georgia): “Argh!!!” I grab my gun...
Gamekeeper (Jenny): The snake has surprised you and gets a free aack. Jenny rolls a 4. The snake hits you!
There are no migang circumstances to give either side a bonus. The 4 + the Snakes Strong of 5 and Bite of 1, makes a total of 10.
Gamekeeper (Jenny): You take 4 damage...
the 3 bite damage = 4.
Rebecca (Georgia): I spend a Stunt Point to avoid damage!
If Rebecca hadn’t spent a Stunt Point, her Adventurer, Georgia, would probably have died. She only has 3 Health and Terry doesn’t have Medicine...
Gamekeeper (Jenny): OK, you just manage to dive out of the way of the snake’s fangs, drawing your gun as you leap to the side. Iniave me!
Rebecca rolls a 3 for Georgia, Terry rolls a 2 for Utah, and Rebecca rolls a 2 for the snake.
The acon will be in the following order: Georgia 1st: 3 + Quick 3 = 6 Snake 2nd: 2 + Quick 3 = 5 Utah 3rd: 2 + Quick 1 = 3
Rebecca (Georgia): I shoot it in the face! (Rolls a 5). And do 5 damage. That’s goa hurt!
The roll of 5 + Georgia’s Quick of 3 = 8. That’s 1 more than the snake’s Defence of 7. 1 + 4 (Large Gun damage) = 5 damage.
Gamekeeper (Jenny): Sure - it’s bleeding badly – but is just seems to have got angrier! It lunges at you this me, Utah!
The snake has Health 12 – so it sll has 7 Health points le, aer the 5 damage has been subtracted.
Terry (Utah): “Gulp!”
Gamekeeper (Jenny): (Rolls a 2) It hits you, for 5 damage.
The Snakes roll of 2 + (Strong) 5 + (Bite) 1 = 8. The to hit roll of 8 minus Utah’s Defence of 6 = 2. 2 + the bite damage (3) = 5.
Terry (Utah): “Ouch!”
Utah’s Health of 6 minus the 5 damage = 1. Utah is on his last legs, but Terry decides not to spend his Stunt Points to avoid the hit – he has a plan!
Terry (Utah): Right - I’m going to take it down! I spend 3 Stunt Points on an Advanced Stunt Acon. I’m going to leap onto the snake’s back, and strike down onto with my dagger as I land” (Rolls a 2)“Groan! I only do 4 damage. Is that enough to kill it?
2 + Utah’s 6 for Strong, Quick and Clever (he can add all three due to performing an Advanced Stunt Acon) + 1 (Blades) = 9. 9 minus the
snake’s Defence of 7 = 2. 2 + 2 (dagger damage) = 4.
Gamekeeper (Jenny): I’m afraid not – it’s badly wounded, but can’t escape with you on its back! It fights on! Next round...
The next round starts in the same Iniave order as the last.
And there we leave it. Georgia and Utah will probably win against the wounded snake – but, whether they’ll manage to get out without meeng further foes along the way is another maer...
Gamekeeper Section
This secon is designed to help Gamekeepers to run OneDice. There’s a brief general look at running games and ps on style.
Then there are a few more rules covering how to award Experience and handle hazards.
Finally, there are three “skins” (seng types) which can be used to run quick games. They are there to give examples of how the system can be adapted to different genres, rather than to offer fully fleshed out game worlds. For more detailed seng skins, watch out for future OneDice supplements.
Game Styles
It is worth giving some thought to the sort of games you and your Players would enjoy.
What Seng should we use?
You might already have a parcular seng and genre (Wild West, Sci-fi, Fantasy, etc.) in mind, before you begin. Either way, chat to your Players – is your seng something they’d like to play in? And, if you haven’t already got an idea in mind, ask them what kind of game they would like to play. You may want to set a game in the world of a TV series, movie or novel; you may like the background of an exisng RPG, but not like the rules; you may have a cool idea of your own; or you may want to develop a world in partnership with your players.
Once you have decided on a seng, spend some me thinking about whether there are any parcular changes you need to make to the rules.
You might want to decide on a set of character backgrounds – perhaps all the characters belong to a certain organisaon, have a certain range of skill sets, etc.
Decide what addions and subtracons to the skill and equipment lists
you might need to make.
And think about what other characters and creatures there are in the world (or galaxy), for the Players’ characters to interact with.
The seng skins at the end of this chapter should give you some ideas for quick and easy adaptaons to the rules to fit in with parcular genres.
Then you need to give some thought to the adventures themselves.
Are you thinking of running a single adventure or a longer campaign?
Single adventures are designed to be played over one or two sessions. They only have a few scenes, a few tasks (rescue the hostage, explore the cave, etc.) and probably only one or two twists at most (the hostage is not willing to go with the characters, there’s a cave-in, etc.).
Campaigns usually run over several sessions and oen consist of a number of “chapters”. Each chapter might have several scenes (or one big scene), and oen there are side-goals (e.g. steal some treasure or recruit some allies) that need to be achieved along the way to telling a much bigger story (e.g. defeat whoever is threatening the world).
Whatever style you choose, story-planning is needed – if you just make it up as you go along, it can easily fizzle out. You need to have some idea of where the game might go, and some ideas for grand finales.
WARNING
ARNING
Do your Players want to follow an excing trail or leave the path whenever they want?
Ploed adventures have a structure, much like a book or a movie, and the players are taken through a number of scenes leading to an excing grand finale.
Sandbox adventures do not start off with a pre-determined plot – the Games Master decides on a few themes, some locaons and a number of characters and lets the story go where it will.
Stories
What style of adventures would your players enjoy?
Lots of fighng or invesgang a mystery? A romanc adventure or a road trip? A monster hunt or dungeon delve? They’ll probably appreciate a mixture and as long as there are plenty of opportunies for heroics, you’ll be on the right track.
Recurring Characters
Every hero needs a nemesis, staunch allies and dubious friends. Whatever the circumstances, and whether friend or foe, recurring characters oen make a story stronger and a final victory sweeter.
Scale of Opposition
When designing adventures, Gamekeepers should always take account of the abilies of the Players’ characters compared to the opposion they are going to face. If the Players’ characters are always confronted with weak opposion, the game will quickly get boring; likewise, it will become frustrang if they are faced with overwhelming opposion (against whom they have no chance of winning). Check that creatures are selected for your adventure that can be beaten (whether by overcoming their Defence, use of Stunt Points, or some other logical weakness, etc.). Creatures and other
Gamekeeper controlled characters do not have to be designed in the same way as Player’s characters – you can simply assign them Health and Defence scores, rather than base their Health and Defence on their Strong and Quick.
Maps
Whether hand-drawn in a hurry or based on an exisng map, it is a good plan to have a rough map of the region (country, world, galaxy) and any specific locaons your adventures are going to take place in. If you know your Players’ characters are likely to end up in a dungeon, make sure you have some sort of map of the place, and ideally some notes about any creatures that live there, traps, treasures, etc. If they are going to end up in a spaceport, have an idea of the layout, and the locaons the characters are likely to visit. This all helps the Players to visualise the world (and stops arguments about what is where!).
Hazards
Most hazards in OneDice can be handled through asking for a straighorward skill check. If you want to see if a character can get out of a smoky room, you can ask for a roll (perhaps adding Strong, if they are going to just try to walk through the smoke, or Quick, if they are making a dash for it, to the roll). The difficulty should be adjusted by the scale of the threat – a large raging inferno is harder to escape than a small blaze.
To help you judge the level of hazard and the possible consequences of failure, check the table over the page.
As usual, offer Defence bonuses or penales (+2/-2) if there are other factors that might make a difference to the outcome for the character.
Hazard
Difficulty/Target
Number to avoid
Examples
Minor Mild, 3 Small fire, small electric shock, weak poison, falling up to a metre, hing thumb with a hammer.
Moderate Challenging, 6
Major Very Difficult, 10
Deadly Near Impossible, 12+
Damage
1 Dice divided by 2(round down) 1 Dice 1 Dice mulplied by 2 1 Dice mulplied by 3+Burning car, medium electric shock, moderate poison, falling up to three metres, hing hand with chisel.
Burning refinery, struck by lightning, strong poison, falling up to 7 metres, chainsaw accident, caught in a
collapsing building.
Falling into a volcano, deadly poison, falling over 7 metres, squashed by a falling city.
Optional Rule – Mooks and Minions
The following rules can be used to run encounters where the Adventurers are faced with significant numbers of nameless followers (weedy goblins, lowlife street thugs, gormless security guards, etc.) – they are not intended to be used when the Adventurers are fighng more major villains/characters.
Mooks or minions are seldom a match against Adventurer heroes, except in overwhelmingly large numbers. That said, by boosng the level of mooks, they can provide sff opposion.
To make life easy for the Gamekeeper, mooks have only 2 states - unhurt
andout of the fight. In other words, a single blow that beats their Defence
threshold takes them out. When you’re fighng a single mook, it doesn’t really maer what weapon you have – any hit takes down the mook.
Mooks do not have Abilies or Skills. Instead they have Combat, and
Everything Else. These numbers are what you add to the dice roll to resolve tasks for them. The Combat rang is used for all types of combat, and the
