The 1PG Companion

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C

CO

ON

NT

TE

EN

NT

TS

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INTRODUCTION . . . .2

1PG TABLETOP SYSTEM . . . . .3

VEHICLES: UNDER THE HOOD . . . . .3

V

EHICLE

M

OVEMENT

. . . .3

A

ERIAL

M

OVEMENT

. . . .4

O

UTER

S

PACE

M

OVEMENT

. . . .5

W

ATER

& U

NDERWATER

M

OVEMENT

. . . .5

T

ERRAIN

E

FFECTS

. . . .5

VEHICLE COMBAT . . . .5

R

OLL

O

UT

T

HE

G

UNS

. . . .5

C

LOSING

W

ITH

A

NOTHER

V

EHICLE

. . . . .5

F

IRING

U

PON

A

NOTHER

V

EHICLE

. . . .5

V

EHICLE

A

RMOR

& D

AMAGE

. . . .5

D

AMAGE

A

GAINST

C

HARACTERS

. . . .6

MISCELLANEOUS RULES . . . .6

V

EHICLE

D

ESCREPENCIES

. . . .6

M

OUNTED

M

ANEUVERING

& C

OMBAT

. . . .7

P

LAYER

C

HARACTERS

& V

EHICLES

. . . . .7

S

AMPLE

V

EHICLES

. . . .8

BLOOD AND GUTS . . . .9

BRAWLING . . . .9

A

TTACKS AND

D

AMAGE

. . . .9

R

ECOVERY FROM A

KO . . . .9

A

DDITIONAL

R

EALISM

. . . .9

S

EVERE

B

EATING

R

ECOVERY

. . . .9

MOVEMENT . . . .9

HEALING . . . .9

LOCK N’ LOAD . . . .9

R

ELOADING

. . . .9

J

AMMING

. . . .10

C

ALLED

S

HOTS

. . . .10

S

EEKING

C

OVER

. . . .10

S

WITCHING

W

EAPONS

. . . .10

F

IGHTING

I

N THE

D

ARK

. . . .10

F

IGHTING

P

RONE

. . . .10

K

NOCKDOWN

/K

NOCKBACK

. . . .10

CONTROLLING THE GAME . . . .11

M

IXING

G

ENRES

. . . .11

G

ETTING

R

EALLY

W

EIRD

. . . .11

B

ALANCING

E

RAS

. . . .11

E

NEMY

M

INE

. . . .11

P

ENNIES

F

ROM

H

EAVEN

. . . .12

A

DDING

O

DDITY

. . . .12

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT .13

ADVANCEMENT RULES . . . .13

I

NCREASING

S

KILLS

. . . .13

I

NCREASING

A

TTRIBUTES

. . . .14

B

UYING

S

TUNTS

. . . .14

STAT REFERENCE CHART . . . .14

DESIGNER NOTES . . . .14

1PG SCENARIOS . . . .14

THEISS INCIDENT(DISASTER) . . . .15

OPERATION: BLOWBACK(AGENT SEVEN) . . . .16

UNDERBURMASKIES(BATTLEFORCEBRAVO) 17 BLACKMARY(BLOODEISLAND) . . . .18

TERRORONMILTON HILL(SHRIEK) . . . .19

BETRAYALATNIVENVI (STARLEGION) . . . . .20

THESPEEDRECORD(SIXGUN) . . . .21

THE KAISER COMMANDS DEATH (DIME HEROES) .22 9MMWEDDING (FULLCLIP) . . . .23

WRITTEN BY

J

AMES

S

TUBBS

EDITED BY

S

AMANTHA

D

OWNING

M

ARK

B

RUNO

COVER BY

T

ODD

D

OWNING

LAYOUT BY

M

ARK

B

RUNO

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

S

AM

C

ARLISLE

@

I

LLUSTRATION

W

ORKS

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL BY

G

ERRY

S

ARACCO

1PG SYSTEM

DEVELOPMENT

T

ODD

D

OWNING

1PG LINE PRODUCER

J

AMES

S

Deep7, LLC.

C

CR

RE

ED

DIIT

TS

S

Permission granted to print (and/or reproduce portions of) this manual for non-commercial, personal use. Unauthorized duplication or distribution is strictly prohibited under international copyright law.

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I

’ve got to be honest with you – I never expected the 1PG to be anything more than a few hours fun, or to go any farther than Shriek. Before I really understood what was happening, we had a sci-fi game, a western game, a pirate game, and we were selling the bloody things to an ever-growing online community of fans. Some of our first players asked about campaign rules, while a couple early reviews derided the product line for not holding the GM’s hand enough. Still other fans cheered for a product that made roleplaying fun and easy (both for veterans and novices), not an exercise in calculations and bickering. Others wanted mechanics for putting models or figurines on the table (especially Here Come the Monsters!, which is vir-tually useless without them). The late Wounds Unlimited e-zine praised Six Gun and the 1PG system for being quick, easy and inexpensive, while the Games Unplugged review of

Battleforce Bravo singled out every selling point of the

prod-uct as if they were bad things, and then gave us a D- for not having maps.

I had tried to fill a niche in the hobby and suddenly the little time-waster game system I’d written in four hours had to be all things to all people. Everyone was taking it for more than it was intended to be, good or bad. So, why a 1PG Companion? Did we feel we had to beef up the system to mammoth proportions in order to satisfy power gamers everywhere? No. Did we think we could add some depth and detail to help 1PG players do things they really want to do? Certainly.

First of all, let me try to explain how we got from point A to point B. In my experience, the thing that makes roleplay-ing enjoyable is the gatherroleplay-ing of friends around a table to share in an interactive event, not the monsters or the treasure or (dare I say it) even the characters. Too often, players become waaaay more attached to their characters than most psychologists would say is healthy. There’s nothing wrong with playing a character for an extended period of time, as long as at some point you can retire him or kill him off grace-fully without bawling your eyes out like he was your beloved grandpa. I think a factor that contributes to this rather strange connection with an imaginary quantity (aside from the obvious immersion/emotional connection) comes from the fact that losing a character means the player now has to start over from scratch. And in many game systems, starting over from scratch really bites, because it takes such a long time to go through the process of character generation, skill selection, shopping and so on.

So the first part of the 1PG philosophy is that characters had to be incredibly easy to create. We’ve clocked first-time convention players at about 10 minutes to generate a charac-ter and learn the system with a GM, 15 if they were left to

read it themselves. We really haven’t changed much where that’s concerned, so mission accomplished – still.

The second part is, because characters were so easy to cre-ate, they could be pretty much disposable. That comes in handy when you are playing Shriek or Battleforce Bravo. But the 1PGs’small number spread and static damage weren’t meant to support things like long campaigns with recurring characters. They were meant to keep play simple and quick. I kept getting asked when we were going to include a full-on magic system or that kind of thing, and I maintained that doing that would be like piling stones on a platform made of balsa wood. Sooner or later, the weight would be too much for it to carry. Well, I’m 1 for 2 so far.

Lastly, the 1PGs are now and have always been firmly rooted in movie genres. With the exception of the sequel, you pretty much go to a movie expecting to see new charac-ters do things for a couple hours. Therefore, the character improvement rules for surviving PCs were arbitrary and mostly useless for long-term play of a single character.

It wasn’t until John Sullivan e-mailed me with the propos-al for the Island Mojo voodoo supplement for Bloode Island that I started to think outside my original assumptions of the 1PG. When James Stubbs delivered the manuscript for

Dime Heroes (and its own magic supplement), it was evident

that these guys knew the system was capable of things I’d previously thought impossible. When you build a car from scratch, and have assembled the engine yourself, you think you know everything there is to know about it. Suddenly, some other grease monkeys come in and say, “y’know, if you just tweaked that, and ran this hose over here…” And you find out your little car is actually race-worthy!

So the outcome is this – The 1PG still fits all my original criteria. It is still simple and quick to learn, still cinematic and characters are still disposable if need be. However, I think you’ll find with this companion, we’ve added some support for things like magic and psionics, equipment prices, variable damage and campaign rules to facilitate character growth without completely unbalanced silliness.

We’ve also included the full 1PG Tabletop System, which we hinted at in Star Legion and Battleforce Bravo. Now you can have your character jump in a car, a tank, a helicopter or a spaceship and be able to function. You can grab a $2 bag of plastic cowboys and Indians from the local drugstore and set up your climactic Six Gun shootout. You can take a cou-ple Hot Wheels from your kid’s toy box (or your own – I’m lookin’at YOU, James!) and enact the car chase from your

Full Clip game.

In short, we have tried to stuff this product full of useful, handy stuff, not just fluff for fluff’s sake. We hope this com-panion will bring out some of the more hidden fun of the 1PG system and help your games come alive.

- Todd Downing, Deep7 Creative Director & 1PG System Developer

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What is the 1PG Tabletop System?

1PGTS is a simple tabletop miniatures ruleset that will allow referees and players to use plastic cowboys and Indians, hot wheels cars, toy soldiers and the like to resolve 1PG combat, especially in regards to vehicular combat. While 1PG combat is primarily intended to be cinematic, there are many occasions where exact distances or positioning is important information to know. With that in mind, the 1PG Tabletop System was designed to physically represent movement, distances, and com-bat between both characters and vehicles.

VEHICLES: UNDER THE HOOD

All vehicles under the 1PG Tabletop System are represented by five primary stats. They include the following:

Maneuverability Rating (MAN) – This is the numerical

representa-tion of the vehicle’s maneuverabil-ity and speed. MAN ranges from +2 to –3. Refer to Table 1 for MAN benchmarks.

Gunnery Rating (GR) – This is an

overall measure of how capable the vehicle is when being used as a weapons platform. It can also be an indication of how heavily armed the vehicle is. GR ranges from +2 to –2. Please refer to

Table 2 for GR benchmarks.

Damage (DMG) – Damage is an

indi-cation of the effectiveness of the vehi-cle’s weapon(s). Table 3 gives general gauges of typical damage.

Armor Value (AV) – Vehicle

armor functions exactly as the AV granted to characters who are equipped with body armor. Armor is subtracted from the damage inflicted upon the vehicle.

Structural Integrity (SI) – This is a

representation of how durable a vehicle is, or well it can withstand damage inflicted upon it. Once a vehicle’s SI has been depleted, the vehicle is either totally destroyed or nonfunctional, depending upon the referee’s ruling.

VEHICLE MOVEMENT

It is recommended that vehicle

com-bat be played out on a com-battle mat with hex grids for tracking the movement of vehicles. Vehicles move three hexes forward per round of play, modified by the MAN. For example, a

tractor-trailer has a –1 MAN due to its large size; it can only move two hexes per round. On the other hand, a Ferrari has a +1 MAN and can move four hexes. The +2 MAN is only recommended for extremely high-performance land vehicles (such as top fuel dragsters) or air/space superiority vehicles (such as fighter jets or combat starfighters).

Turning

A vehicle turns in 45-degree increments. One 45- degree turn, is equivalent to moving forward one hex. A character piloting a vehicle has his Pilot skill modified by the MAN of the vehicle to determine how many 45-degree turns he can safely make in one round. The pilot can attempt to push his skills and make even more turns than is allowed, but he will suffer a –1 penalty to Pilot checks for every two 45-degree turns after those initially allotted (rounded up). For exam-ple, John has STURDINESS 2 and Pilot 2 and is driving a sports car (+1 MAN). He can safe-ly turn the vehicle 180 degrees (Pilot 2 + 1 from the car). If he wanted to make a 225-degree turn, his Pilot skill would receive a –1 penalty to attempt the additional 45-degree turn required. Thus, John would need to roll a 3 or less on 1D6 to per-form his turn at cruise speed.

Speed

All of the above information assumes that the vehicle is travel-ing at Cruise speed. The move-ment of a vehicle can be doubled by Speeding and quadrupled by having the Foot To The Floor. Moving faster than cruise speed, however, incurs penalties to doing anything other than just moving in a straight line. A –1 penalty is applied to Pilot or Shooting checks for Speeding and a –3 penalty is applied to those same skill checks for hav-ing your Foot to the Floor.

Alternatively, vehicle opera-tors can choose to go Slow. This halves the cruise movement rate (round down). If the vehi-cle’s movement is already 1, it requires two rounds to advance one hex at this speed; however, slow-moving

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+2 GR: lots of weapons/ advanced fire control +1 GR: stable firing platform

0 GR: average weapons & stability for its type -1 GR: under-gunned or poorly designed -2 GR: no weapons / defenseless

Table 2: GR Benchmarks

+2 MAN: highly agile/very fast +1 MAN: very maneuverable/quick 0 MAN: average mobility for its type –1 MAN: sub-par or big/utility vehicle –2 MAN: large or enormous vessel –3 MAN: immobile / defenseless

Table 1: MAN Benchmarks

1: heavy machine guns

2: heavy machine gun platform (B-17), bazookas, small field artillery.

3: AA or SAM missile, tank or AA guns, small naval guns, torpedoes.

4: midrange naval guns, near future weaponry (rail guns etc.), smart bombs, heavy field artillery

5: battleship guns, future anti-vehicle laser weapons, etc.

6+: real futuristic weapons: particle beam weapons, photon torpedoes, etc.

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cles gain a +1 bonus to Shooting and Pilot checks. Keep in mind that slow moving vehicles can only turn 45 degrees for each hex they move, so for a vehicle that has its MAN reduced below 1, it will take them more moves to complete a 45 degree turn.

Braking

Stopping a moving vehicle is a simple matter of hitting the brakes or reversing thrust. When attempting to stop a moving vehicle, it moves down the scale of the current speed to zero for each hex entered. If Speeding, the vehicle speed would progress from Cruise to Slow to finally Stop in the third hex that is entered. This is if the vehicle is moving in a straight line. Drivers can attempt a more rapid stop by turning the car at an angle to allow for resistance to slow the vehicle down. This incurs the requisite speed penalty on Pilot checks (see the Speed section above) but, with a successful check, skips one rank of speed for the purpose of determining how quick-ly you can stop. In other words, if a vehicle is traveling Foot to the Floor and the driver makes a successful Pilot check when trying to rapidly brake, the next hex the vehicle enters will be at Cruise instead of Speeding.

Jumping

There comes a time when someone will to send a cle airborne in an attempt to leap over an obstacle. A vehi-cle can jump a distance equal to one-half its movement hexes at the speed it was travelling at the time of the attempt. If the referee wants to be especially mean, he can request a Pilot check upon landing to see if the driver can regain control without smashing into something first.

Losing Control

Anytime a driver fails a Pilot check, he has lost control of the vehicle. The result of what happens is based on the margin by which the Pilot check failed (i.e. they needed a three and rolled a five – that’s a failure by two).

One: Driver dazed. The vehicle continues its current course

at its current speed for one round heedless of any obstacles in the way. The driver automatically regains control the following round.

Two: The vehicle spins 1D3 45-degree turns from its current

course. The player must immediately make a successful Pilot check or the referee gets to take another result from Losing Control based on the player’s second check.

Three: Damage! A machine can only be pushed for so long

before it can’t take anymore. The vehicle’s MAN rating is reduced by one.

Four: The vehicle suffers severe damage and its MAN is

reduced by the margin of the failed Pilot check.

Five Plus: The vehicle rolls 1D3 times and suffers 1D6

points of SI damage per roll. The vehicle is now automatically considered immobile (if not destroyed). Vehicle occupants suf-fer 1D3 Blood damage per roll.

Collisions & Ramming

Whenever two vehicles touch each other (occupying the same hex) – either intentionally or unintentionally – SI damage occurs. The damage inflicted upon both vehicles is equal to the speed of the vehicle that initiated the contact times two. For example, Mark is driving his Porsche (+1 MAN) at Speeding and hits another car. He was travelling 8 hexes per turn. Therefore, he causes 16 points of SI damage to both vehicles. This damage calculation also applies to hitting characters not in vehicles except that damage to the vehicle from hitting a char-acter is only one-fourth the total. Armor reduces damage to vehicles as normal. Vehicles that have had their SI reduced to zero from collision damage, transfers the remaining damage to the operator and/or passengers equally at the rate of 10 Blood for each point of remaining SI damage.

AERIAL MOVEMENT

Movement in aircraft is only slightly different from land vehi-cles. The rules for Turning, Speed, Braking, and Collisions &

Ramming are unchanged. Jumping rules are irrelevant in this

case and the Losing Control table is replaced with a Pilot Error table (see below). The biggest differences are variable eleva-tions that aerial vehicles can attain on a z-axis. To represent air-craft movement, it is recommended that participants use poker chips, which can be stacked to mark altitude. Marked coins could also be good, too, or the participants can put a small post-it note on the model and make changes wpost-ith pencil notes.

Climbing & Diving

An air vehicle can either move forward its allowed number of hexes (see Vehicle Movement above), climb or dive in altitude, or perform a combination of both. VTOL aircraft or helicopters have the option to remain motionless and hover. Gaining or los-ing one “hex” or clip of height comprises one hex of forward movement. There are five levels of altitude: Ground, Low,

Medium, High, and Ceiling. When using poker chips, it is

rec-ommend that two blue chips represents Ground and Low alti-tudes, a white chip represents Medium, and two red chips rep-resents High and Ceiling altitudes.

Pilot Error

Anytime there is a failed Pilot check while operating an air-craft, the vehicle has gone out of control. The result of what happens is based on the margin by which the Pilot check failed (i.e. the pilot needed a one and rolled a five – that’s a failure by four).

One: The aircraft drops one altitude level. The pilot

automat-ically regains control the following round, but must spend that round reorienting his aircraft.

Two: Uncontrolled roll. The aircraft goes into a roll and the

pilot must make a successful Pilot check to bring the plane back on a level heading. It veers off 1D3 hexes to either the right or the left, depending on the referee’s call.

Three: Exceeded design specifications. The vehicle’s MAN

rating is reduced by one because of a weakened airframe.

Four: Stress damage. The vehicle suffers severe damage and

its MAN is reduced to 0 or, if already zero, to –2.

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Five Plus: Burn Out! The engines die. The craft plummets

earthward while the pilot takes 1D3 Blood damage per round. All Pilot checks are at –2 to restart the engines.

OUTER SPACE MOVEMENT

Movement in outer space is very similar to movement in an aircraft, with one big difference – altitude doesn’t matter. Poker chips, cards, or self-adhesive notes can still be used, but partic-ipants just keep on stacking or removing chips of any color as the vehicle climbs or descends. If a ship has done nothing but descend, use all red chips to indicate that it is on a downward trajectory. There is no maximum upper limit of “height” of “depth,” unless the pilot has the unfortunate experience of being pulled into a gravity well or colliding with another vessel. If a starship is capable of entering a planet’s atmosphere, it auto-matically assumes all the characteristics of Aerial Movement once it does so.

Failing Pilot Checks in a Starship

Determine the result of what happens based on the margin by which the Pilot check failed (i.e. the pilot needed a two and rolled a five – that’s a failure by three).

One or Two: Pilot disoriented. The vehicle continues its

cur-rent course at its curcur-rent speed for one round heedless of any obstacles in the way. The pilot automatically regains his orien-tation on the following round.

Three or Four: Pilot distracted. All actions from the pilot are

at a –1 penalty for the next 1D3 rounds.

Five Plus: Adrift! An erratic and unsuccessful maneuver has

jinked the engines! The vehicle is considered adrift and will slowly drift one hex every two rounds in the direction that it was traveling before the engines died. A successful BRAINS/Technical Knowledge or STURDINESS/Pilot check at –1 will be required to get the engines going again.

WATER & UNDERWATER MOVEMENT

Movement rules for water-based vehicles are handled similar to land movement for a ground-based vehicle. Turning, Speed,

Braking, Jumping and Collisions & Ramming remain

unchanged. Failed Pilot checks use the results from the Outer Space Movement section for larger ships or underwater vehi-cles. If using high-speed vessels such as cigarette boats, use the loss of control table from the section on normal land movement for vehicles.

Underwater movement is unchanged from water movement with the exception that there is no Jumping. Also, models are handled for submerging as if the vehicle was an aircraft using a reverse “altitude” range that you can just rename to depth. It goes from Surface, Shallow, Medium, Deep, and Bottom.

EFFECTS OF TERRAIN ON MOVEMENT

The referee may also wish to impose penalties against either Pilot checks or the MAN of vehicles, depending upon the ter-rain that it is moving through. For example, choppy seas or a storm would impose negative penalties against water vessels. Unpaved ground would cause problems for sports cars or other vehicles not designed for off-roading. Unless the referee plans

on running a realistic game, terrain and environmental penalties should be kept to a minimum unless it will heighten the sus-pense of the current situation. As a general rule of thumb, -1 penalties are for terrain that will make things a little more diffi-cult, yet won’t really endanger or impede the vehicle. A –2 penalty covers treacherous terrain which will impede the progress or possibly damage the vehicle. Penalties of –3 or greater are only for the most dangerous types of terrain or envi-ronmental conditions (ice, hurricane, typhoon, etc.).

VEHICLE COMBAT

ROLL OUT THE GUNS

Whereas the vehicle’s movement capabilities are determined by its MAN stat, combat is a combination of Gunnery Rating, Damage, Armor, and Structural Integrity. These stats determine if you hit, how much damage you do, and if you’ve managed to damage or destroy your target, respectively.

Closing With Another Vehicle

As two vehicles close with each other (even if one of them is attempting to flee), each vehicle operator must make an opposed Pilot check. The MAN of the vehicle is added to the check. This represents each person jockeying for posi-tion, determining a firing soluposi-tion, or establishing a tacti-cal advantage. For every result of two over the lower Pilot check, the character with the higher roll receives a reward via tic marks placed on the vehicle record sheet. This tic can be redeemed at any point for a +1 bonus to any die roll during combat. There is no limit to the number of tics that can be redeemed at any time. Unused tic marks are lost at the con-clusion of the fight. These opposed Pilot checks can continue indefinitely or until one of the vehicles either fires a weapon or they collide.

Firing Upon Another Vehicle

When firing upon another vehicle, the gunner adds the GR of the vehicle to his Shooting skill check. The gunner receives a +1 bonus to Shooting if trailing behind his target.

The attacker must first determine if he is within range for his weapons to hit. Weapon ranges in hexes equal the GR of the vehicle, plus the gunner’s Shooting skill. Any targets outside of that range are incapable of being fired upon unless a specific weapon grants an additional bonus.

If engaged in aerial combat, for every altitude rating the tar-get is above the firing aircraft, the gunner receives a -1 penalty to Shooting checks. Alternately, an aircraft attacking from above will receive a +1 bonus to Shooting rolls. This bonus also applies to underwater combat.

VEHICLE ARMOR AND DAMAGE

Rules for vehicle armor are handled similar to that of a char-acter’s personal body armor. Damage done to a vehicle is reduced by the Armor Value. Any damage that remains is sub-tracted from the Structural Integrity of the vehicle.

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Once the SI of a vehicle has been reduced to zero, the vehi-cle is considered destroyed. Any vehivehi-cle that reaches –3 MAN through damage that does not destroy it is considered nonfunc-tional. Any damage inflicted upon the vehicle that exceeds the AV of the vehicle and does not destroy it results in secondary damage to various vehicle components. When this happens, roll 1D6. A result of 1 to 2 is no appreciable damage. A result of 3 reduces the vehicle’s GR by one. Rolling a 4 inflicts an addi-tional five points of SI damage. A roll of 5 will lower the vehi-cle’s MAN by one. A roll of 6 will reduce the vehivehi-cle’s AV by one. If the vehicle has no AV or it has already been reduced to zero, double the damage upon the SI of the vehicle.

Hits Against Pilot/Crew (OPTIONAL RULE)

In cinematic games, vehicles absorb all damage and the char-acters walk away from the flaming, bullet-riddled wreck unscathed. If there is a desire to make combat more dangerous, a roll of 1 on a hit location hits the pilot or crew (roll random-ly). Occasionally, this is impossible due to environmental con-ditions (i.e. in space, piloting an aircraft, etc), where hitting the pilot or crew would be akin to destroying the craft. Each point of vehicle weapon Damage that penetrates equals 10 Blood damage.

Example of Armor & Combat Damage

An ME-109 fighter plane attacks a B-17 bomber and hits. The fighter’s machineguns do 1 point of damage, so the fighter pilot rolls 1D6 to determine how many hits his guns score. The fighter pilot’s player rolls a 4 and inflicts 4 points of damage on the bomber. The B-17 has A: 3. Thus, 3 points are subtracted from the damage, leaving 1 point inflicted on the SI of the bomber. The referee then rolls 1D6 to determine secondary damage to the bomber and rolls a 2…nothing vital was hit.

DAMAGE AGAINST CHARACTERS

Vehicle weapons turned against characters that are not in a vehicle are extremely dangerous – damage is multiplied by ten, unless otherwise noted in the description of the weapon. For example, a 1DMG weapon turned against a character will inflict 10 Blood, a 2DMG weapon will inflict 20 Blood, etc. A charac-ter wearing body armor will absorb the damage as normal, for all the good it’s going to do them.

On the plus side, most vehicle weapons aren’t designed to accurately hit the relatively small human figure. Any character attempting to avoid a vehicle weapon attack gains a +1 bonus to Dodge checks per each rating of Damage.

MISCELLANEOUS RULES

VEHICLE DISCREPANCIES

There are times when combatants are not always on equal footing, such as a civilian prop plane trying to outrun a jet fight-er. Additional rules need to be added, otherwise a vintage P-51 WWII fighter plane would equal the performance of a modern-day F-15 fighter jet because the rules assume that both

combat-ants will be from the same historical era. Vehicles are divided into eight time/era categories:

Era: 1 - Bronze/Iron Age Era: 2 – Medieval

Era: 3 - Colonial/Wild West Era: 4 - World War I/Prohibition Era: 5 - World War II/Early Modern Era: 6 – Modern

Era: 7 - Future Era: 8 - Far Future

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For every historical Era that one vehicle has over the other, the superior vehicle receives +1 to MAN, GR, DMG, and Armor. So, for instance, if a WWI-era Halberstadt CL IV bi-plane (Era 4) were facing off with an F-18A Hornet (Era 6), the modern fighter jet would get a +2 bonus to MAN, GR, DMG, and Armor.

MOUNTED MANEUVERING & COMBAT

There are a lot of things that players will want to accomplish on a mount, the least of which is having their player characters ride off into the sunset with the girl. As such, here are some of the most common situations that are likely to be encountered in a game.

Chasing/Fleeing/Charging

When chasing or fleeing and both parties are on a mount, the speed of each participant involved needs to be calculated. The standard animal walks and trots at one hex every other round. This is increased to one hex per round at a gallop and two hexes per round at a breakneck run or charge.

Jumping

Occasionally, players may want to have their mounted char-acters hurtle obstacles or barriers. Mounts can only jump if trav-eling at a gallop speed or faster. A Riding check is required to jump simple things like low fences or hedges. Penalties can be applied as the obstacles get higher (i.e. walls, cars, people, etc.).

Trampling

Every so often some darn fool won’t have the common sense to get out of the way of a charging animal, or the PC purposely charges to run down his opponent. Trampling damage is equal to the number of hexes the mount was travelling at the time of impact plus five. A trampling maneuver can only be attempted at a gallop or faster and only against an unmounted opponent. Thus, a normal galloping mount will inflict 6 points of damage.

Shooting from a Mount

Firing a weapon accurately from a moving mount is not as easy as some people like to believe. For each speed increment over a walk or trot, the shooter incurs a –1 penalty to his Shooting checks. Referees should impose a –1 penalty at a gal-lop and a penalty –2 if running/charging.

Conversely, dodging incoming fire while mounted is easier. For every two ranks of Riding skill the target has (round down), he gets a +1 bonus to his Running skill for the purpose of evad-ing. This applies to shots targeted at the either the rider or to the mount.

Getting shot while riding on a moving horse can be danger-ous, however. The struck character must make a STURDINESS check or be immediately thrown from the saddle. The victim will not only take the damage from the shot, but also damage as if Trampled based on the speed the character was traveling at when he was shot.

Leaping from a Moving Mount

This is one of the most risky maneuvers that someone can attempt. The player character physically jumps from his mount onto another or onto a vehicle, with the intent to either take

command or to attack the current driver/rider. Both the attacker and defender must be adjacent to each other when the attacker attempts to leap. If the other mount or vehicle is occupied, treat the leap as a normal opposed Fighting check. If the loser of the contest is the player character, he falls and takes damage as if Trampled (see above) based on the speed of the target the char-acter was attempting to leap onto. If the loser is the defender, he must immediately make a STURDINESS check to see if he can maintain his seat. In either instance, if the player character and his opponent manage to maintain their balance, the fight can continue as normal with the exception that both attacker and defender suffer a –1 penalty to all rolls due to the chaos and unsteady balance of a moving object.

Jumping onto an unoccupied vehicle or mount requires a suc-cessful CRAFTINESS/Riding check at a –1 penalty.

Spooking a Mount

Loud noises can spook even a well-trained mount, although, for the most part, it can be safely assumed that gunfire isn’t enough. Loud explosions (like dynamite) or sudden shrill, unexpected noises (like war cries or train whistles) can spook the mount, however. The rider must make a CRAFTI-NESS/Riding roll to see if he can keep the mount calm. Failure means that the mount runs at full speed wherever it feels safety lies (referee’s discretion) or until the PC can make a successful check to control the animal.

Injury to a Mount

A mount will also become spooked if it takes damage. Treat an injured animal as immediately moving one speed slow-er and in a direction of pslow-erceived safety (refslow-eree’s discretion). The rider must also make an immediate Riding skill check or be thrown from his animal. He’ll also suffer damage as if Trampled based on the reduced speed of the mount.

If the damage is enough to kill the mount, no speed reduction is used. The rider must make an immediate STURDINESS check to get off the mount without suffering any damage. A fail-ure results in Trampling damage based on the speed the mount was moving at the time of its death. Typical Blood for horses is 20, which is the baseline for determining the health of a mount. Adjust Blood accordingly for larger or smaller animals.

PLAYER CHARACTERS AND VEHICLES

What happens when you have dismounted characters inter-acting with moving vehicles or mounts? This is where things become complicated. A PC can move one-half his STURDI-NESS attribute in hexes every other round. Increase this amount by one hex for every two points that the character has in the Running skill.

Player characters turning handheld weapons against a vehicle works the opposite of vehicle weapons being used against PCs. The Armor of a vehicle is treated as being ten times more pow-erful as normal against arms fire. For example, a Sherman tank has an AV of 2. Against non-vehicle weapons fire, the tank is treated as if its AV is 20. Unarmored vehicles take full damage

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from all weapons. Blood rated weapons do half their listed damage to the SI of the vehicle and Damage-rated weapons do their rating times 10 to the SI of the vehicle.

SAMPLE VEHICLES

What follows is a brief list of various vehicles from different genres and eras. They can be easily tweaked to be more or less powerful. For example, an American WWII light tank can be easily modified to represent a German equivalent if the Armor rating is increased and the MAN is decreased.

Catapult

Era: 2 Crew: 5

Weapons: Large stones

MAN: -2 GR: 0 DMG: 3 AV: 1 SI: 15

Notes: The catapult has a range of 16 hexes. A character hit by

a catapult suffers 30 Blood damage.

Chariot

Era: 1

Crew: 2 men and 2 horses Weapons: None

MAN: 0 GR: +1 DMG: N/A AV: 1 SI: 5 Notes: Chariot damage is typically either trampling

dam-age from the horses or from the gunner’s personal weapon. Scythes can be mounted on the wheels to give the chariot a rating of 6 Blood damage, however.

Chevy Corvette Stingray

Era: 6 Crew: 1-2 Weapons: None

MAN: +1 GR: -1 DMG: N/A AV: 0 SI: 8

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Era: 7 Crew: 1

Weapons: Variable bomb and missile payload

MAN: +2 GR: +1 DMG: as per weapon AV: 1 SI: 10 Notes: Possible weapons include anti-aircraft missiles (DMG:

3), air-to-ground missiles (DMG: 3) or smart bombs (DMG: 4)

Giant Godzilla Monster

Era: 6 Crew: N/A

Weapons: See notes

MAN: +1 GR: +1 DMG: as per weapon AV: 5 SI: 15 Notes: Hugely improbable creatures such as those in Here

Come the Monsters! are better handled as “vehicles” rather

than creatures, mainly due to the damage that they can inflict and absorb. These are stats for a "generic" monster, so tweak as you like.

Some typical monster weapons are: atomic fire breath (DMG: 3), laser beams (DMG: 4), big claws (DMG: 2), razor-sharp teeth (DMG: 2), and stomps (DMG: 2).

M4 Sherman Tank

Era: 5 Crew: 5

Weapons: 75mm cannon, .30 & .50 machine guns MAN: 0 GR: 0 DMG: 2 AV: 2 SI: 10

Notes: The .30 gun does 10 Blood damage (1D6 hits) and the

.50 gun does 12 Blood damage (1D6 hits)/1DMG. The .30 gun-ner can fire while enclosed in the tank, but use of the .50 gun requires the gunner to partially expose himself. Any leg hits on someone using the .50 gun is treated as if the bullets hit the tank armor instead.

Narvik-Class (Type 34) German Destroyer

Era: 5 Crew: 325

Weapons: See notes

MAN: +1 GR: +1 DMG: as per weapon AV: 2 SI: 10 Notes: 127mm cannons (DMG: 3), 20mm AA guns (DMG: 2;

1D6 hits), and torpedoes (DMG: 3). The 127mm cannon ignores 1 level of armor on any target with an AV of 2 or less. A torpedo hit automatically reduces the target’s MAN by 1, in addition to any other secondary damage inflicted.

Sopwith F-1 “Camel”

Era: 4 Crew: 1

Weapons: Vickers Machine Guns

MAN: +1 GR: 0 DMG: 1 AV: 0 SI: 7

Notes: On a successful hit, the machine guns do 1D6 hits at its

Damage rating. It does 10 Blood damage against characters. The Camel (like most WWI biplanes) is incapable of going higher than Medium altitude.

Stagecoach

Era: 3

Crew: 2 men and 4 horses Weapons: None

MAN: 0 GR: +1 DMG: N/A AV: 1 SI: 6

Notes: Stagecoach damage is typically either trampling damage

from the horses or from the gunner’s personal weapon. Trampling damage from being hit by the stagecoach is doubled.

X’Tal "Holy Vengeance" Tactical Space Bomber

Era: 8 Crew: 3

Weapons: Variable payload

MAN: -1 GR: 0 DMG: as weapon AV: 4 SI: 12 Notes: Possible weapons include anti-matter bombs (DMG: 6),

particle beam cannon (DMG: 7), and/or the "Wrath" mantle-buster bomb (DMG: 15).

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Even though the 1PG system is designed to stress cinematic action rather than an exercise in battlefield tactics, the follow-ing are optional rules and mechanics are available for use by the referee. These rules are provided to enhance and expand upon the core 1PG rules for those who want to approach the 1PG system from a more strategic perspective, use miniatures outside of the 1PG Rules, or run a play by e-mail game and need to provide more detailed information to player questions.

BRAWLING

Some initial reviews of Dime Heroes, criticized 1PG combat, stating it is too deadly and that even a few punches can kill a character. In actuality, a few good punches can kill someone! With that in mind, however, the following optional rules for non-lethal damage are presented.

ATTACKS AND DAMAGE

Attack rolls are completely unchanged. STURDINESS is applied to all hand-to-hand combat, as well as melee weapon damage as per the core rules; however, characters under these optional rules possess a derived attribute called “Umph.” Umph is determined by a character’s STURDINESS and Fighting skill. Add these two together and multiply the result by five. For example, Battlin’Bruno – the world-famous boxer – has STUR-DINESS 2 and Fighting 2. So, his Umph rating would be 2 + 2 x 5 = 20.

Whenever damage is dealt to a character from punches, kicks or other weapons designed to render non-lethal damage, the damage is removed from Umph first before damage starts to carry over into actual Blood points. Yes, this means that you will have to track lethal and non-lethal damage separately. When a character’s Umph hits zero, his is knocked out. Damage inflicted past this point is applied directly to Blood.

RECOVERY FROM A KO

A character remains unconscious for 1D6 rounds, after which he regains consciousness and can either act as normal or “play dead.” Characters gain consciousness with one-half of their Umph score (round down). However, if knocked out again, the character returns with only one-fourth of his Umph. If the vic-tim gets knocked out past this point, the damage is extremely serious and the player character is either out of the game or bor-derline comatose. A full night’s sleep replenishes all lost Umph.

ADDITIONAL REALISM (OPTIONAL RULE)

A human body can only withstand so much abuse before major organs begin to shut down. After recovery from the first knockout, reduce a character’s BRAINS attribute by 1. This is a representation of being “punch drunk.” If this reduces a char-acter’s attribute to 0, he is in trouble and needs medical atten-tion quickly or he’ll slip into a coma. Assuming that a character can get knocked out a second time, his BRAINS attribute is reduced by another 1 point and both STURDINESS and CRAFTINESS are reduced by 1. If he is still standing, repeat the loss of BRAINS, STRUDINESS, and CRAFTINESS until the character either learns to stay down or his BRAINS attrib-ute hits zero and he slips into a coma or dies.

SEVERE BEATING RECOVERY

This is only used in conjunction with the optional rule above. Umph is completely returned with a full night’s sleep as detailed above. Attribute damage, however, requires more time to heal. Only 1 attribute point can be restored per one week of rest. Any type of successful medical check will repair this dam-age, as well as if one week had passed per successful check.

MOVEMENT

Characters are able to move their STURDINESS in hexes per round. This can be doubled if the character runs. If the charac-ter has the Running skill, add those points to the total number of hexes. For example, Thomas Smith has STURDINESS 2. He can move 2 hexes per round walking or 4 running (In the 1PG System 1 round is roughly 2-3 seconds). Each point in the Running skill will add on another hex of movement. So, if Thomas also had Running 2, he could move another 2 hexes for a total of 6 hexes per round if he chooses to run.

A character can both swim and climb at one-half of the listed rates for running. If the character has an appropriate skill, its ranks add to movement as well. Penalties could be incurred for rough water or difficult surfaces.

A character can jump twice his STURDINESS in feet and twice that again if he runs before jumping. A character is able to jump vertically one-half of the amount he nor-mally would when jumping forward.

HEALING

Characters heal at the rate of 1D3 points of Blood per day for natural healing. A successful medical check will award an addi-tional 1D3 points of Blood for each skill rank of the person attempting to administer aid. For example: Cowboy Ted gets shot up real bad and his friends drag his bleeding carcass back to the saloon to patch him up. He’ll automatically regain 1D3 Blood for spending the night, but his friend – who has two ranks of First Aid – tries to fix him up with a stiff whiskey and a pair of rusty pliers. Fortunately, Ted’s buddy makes a successful check and Ted gains back an additional 2D3 Blood for the night! Healing rates can increase or decrease depending on the amount of “realism” in the game. For instance, healing rates can be lower in a 1PG like Six Gun or Shriek, but can be higher in more heroic games like Dime Heroes and Full Clip to represent the rough-and-tumble nature of action heroes.

LOCK N’ LOAD

Guns are a staple of action-adventure movies and RPGs. Either the characters are usually shooting at someone or some-one is shooting at them. Here are a few additional rules to spice up those Friday night gunfights.

RELOADING

Keeping track of ammunition expenditure isn’t generally a big deal with 1PGs because they rely on cinematic “movie”

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precedence where guns rarely ever run out of ammo; how-ever, there are times when high-tension gunfights become important. In this case, the referee should keep track of the player characters’ammo. It takes one full combat round to reload a clip magazine-fed weapon and two rounds to reload a revolver or black powder weapon.

JAMMING

If a 6 comes up on a Shooting check, it’s ordinarily an auto-matic failure. The player must now roll 1D6 again. If it comes up 6 a second time, the weapon has jammed, and a number of rounds equal to 6 minus the character’s Shooting skill is required to clear the jam. Black powder weapons can jam on a roll of 4 or 5 on the second roll and explode on a 6, causing damage equal to the weapon’s damage value to the shooter.

CALLED SHOTS

The AV charts for various body parts on the 1PG character sheet are there for a special reason: Called shots. Called shots can only be done with weapons capable of single-shot fire. Hitting an arm or a leg calls for a –2 penalty to a Shooting check. Hitting the head or a carried weapon or object is a –4 penalty to Shooting. A successful called shot to the head adds 4 additional points of Blood damage to the weapon that was used.

SEEKING COVER

Cover is anything that physically interposes itself between the attacker and the defender. The referee will assign a penalty value to the attacker based on the target’s cover. These values run from negligible, such as a transparent paper screen, to –2 for heavy brush. Remember, cover doesn’t conceal the tar-get; it just makes them a bit harder to hit. This is different from barriers and obstacles.

Barriers conceal parts of a target and are rated for the AV that they provide. They can range from negligible, such as a tipped over card table, or more than 15 AV for things like a steel wall. It’s up to the referee if any part of the target’s body is exposed based on the limitations or size of the barrier. Good generaliza-tions for AV are as follows: 1 AV for light woods, such as pine. Hard woods, such as ash or hickory, can provide 2 AV. Solid woods, such as oak, or a brick wall, provide 3 AV. Thicker walls, such as cinder blocks provide 5 AV. Concrete walls pro-vide 10 AV. Steel-reinforced concrete propro-vides 13 AV. Solid steel walls, doors, and bulkheads provide 15 AV.

SWITCHING WEAPONS

Dropping one weapon and drawing another takes one combat round. The character is unable to use the drawn weapon in the same round unless he has a skill like Quickdraw or a stunt that will allow a similar effect.

FIGHTING IN THE DARK

Poor or dim lighting incurs a –1 penalty to skill checks, while

total darkness imposes a –3 penalty to skill checks. Firing or swinging into a melee situation in these conditions is even more hazardous. For every missed shot or attack, roll 1D6. On a score of 1 for poor lighting or 3 for total darkness, the character has hit one of his allies by mistake. The victim of such an unfortunate incident takes damage as normal. Equipment such as starlight scopes, thermographic sensors, or other types of vision enhance-ment equipenhance-ment may negate these penalties at the referee’s dis-cretion.

FIGHTING PRONE

Fighting or shooting in any position other than standing up or crouching is considered to be “prone.” Anyone trying to fight prone will receive a –2 penalty to hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks and/or –1 for any missile weapon or personal firearm attacks.

KNOCKDOWN & KNOCKBACK

Devastating attacks or explosions can toss characters around or drop them to the ground. Any attack that causes damage equal to or greater than one-half the character’s current Blood total is con-sidered a knockdown. The character suffers no additional damage, but is considered prone until he can spend his next combat round getting back on his feet.

Knockback attacks happen when the damage inflicted is greater than three-fourths of the character’s current Blood total. The char-acter is immediately thrown backward one hex and is considered prone. He must then spend his next combat round regaining his footing. The referee may rule that the knockback attack was so powerful (such as explosions, getting punched by a superhero, etc.) that it sends the target backward two or more hexes. For each

hex the character is propelled backwards, he suffers an additional point of Blood damage. Hitting an object while being thrown backwards results in Blood damage equal to one-half the victim’s STURDINESS times two. The referee may increase the damage if he feels the object or person stuck would cause more damage.

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Characters are fragile and tend to die quickly (and usually gruesomely) under the 1PG rules. This was and is an emphasis built into the system to simulate the disposable nature of char-acters found in most motion pictures. Problems arise when players want a more durable hero that can take a bit more abuse for larger-than-life 1PGs like Dime Heroes or Full Clip. What the referee is left with is a simple question that needs to be answered:

What flavor of the genre do I want?

This can be handled almost exclusively by letting the players start characters with more Blood than what is mandated by the core rules. Heroic games can be accomplished by doubling the initial Blood score, while high-adventure games can triple the Blood score. Additionally, referees who want more competent characters that can’t take a lot of abuse can grant a few more skill points or maybe an additional attribute point. The real responsibility lies with the referee, who is ultimately account-able for the game’s structure. Be wary of awarding too much of an advantage, however, if sourcebooklets like Fistful O’ Six

Gun or Magic & Mysticism are used, as the rules in those

sup-plement already allow for advanced characters.

It is recommend that the referee first make some sample heroes or villains and then gauge the player’s characters accord-ingly. For example, Shriek lends itself well to slasher flicks. If a more heroic horror game along the lines of Buffy the Vampire

Slayer or Monster Squad is what the group is after, then Blood

levels and possibly skill points allotted at character creation can be boosted. Dime Heroes was originally designed to handle the classic adventurer who didn’t have any strange powers like Doc Savage or The Green Hornet. That can certainly be tweaked by using the Magic & Mysticism sourcebooklet and increasing character Blood levels. Additionally, a bonus point in AV can be granted to all of the character’s body parts if they’re not up to the opposition.

Of course, on the flipside, the amount of both skills and Blood available to characters can be reduced. This would be very appropriate for, say, a Lovecraftian horror game using

Shriek or if, in a Star Legion game, the characters as members

of a very primitive alien race. Remember that creative players can overcome even horrible restrictions such as this, so referees should be encouraged to praise the players for clever ideas, plans or interactions with NPCs that help them. The idea is to encourage roleplaying and creativity, helping players overcome their characters’shortcomings rather than punishing them through the mechanics.

MIXING GENRES

Because of their universal design, 1PGs can be mixed and matched, making for some strange yet entertaining premises, such as combining Six Gun with Shriek for a horror western game. Again, refer to the suggested guidelines for flavor. If the players are to be weaker than the opposition, use the default rules for the game and beef up the enemies. Use the default rules for both games to maintain a more gritty or “real” ambi-ence, where every action has importance or dire consequences. Alternatively, beef up the players for a more heroic

action-packed game so that they can shrug off some of the damage and do crazy stuff. Here are a few sample game mixes and the type of game that could result based on a sample movie:

Full Clip & Star Legion = The Wesley’s Mysterious File Six Gun & Agent SEVEN = Wild Wild West

Bloode Island & Disaster! = Swiss Family Robinson Shriek & Dime Heroes = The Mummy Returns Battleforce Bravo & Disaster! = Das Boot

GETTING REALLY WEIRD

If something especially strange is desired, the referee should allow the players to choose the 1PG game of their choice and create characters from their respective 1PGs. This collection of characters can then suddenly awaken in an alien environment, charged with figuring out how to survive, while simultaneously trying to locate a way back to their own worlds/eras. Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series or Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John

Carter of Mars books can be browsed for ideas. Referees

should keep in mind that more “primitive” characters can do things that more advanced characters can’t, such as starting a fire without the help of a blaster pistol to heat rocks and debris. These types of characters are used to roughing it, while a more advanced character can’t survive without their tech-nology to see them through. On the other hand, characters who rely on technology are going to be much more effec-tive in combat situations as far a damage output is con-cerned, and can do things with science that would be impossible for a less-advanced character.

BALANCING ERAS

Characters from different eras should be treated the same as for vehicles (see Vehicle Discrepancies in the 1PG Tabletop Rules) except that each difference in historical time grants a +1 bonus to the Blood damage of any weapon and +1 AV to any body armor worn that is greater than 2 AV.

ENEMY MINE

Another piece of advice to liven up games is to vary the level of enemies. The following is a quote common to all 1PG books (this one taken from Full Clip):

A good rule of thumb when creating a villain or villains is to make them durable enough to be a challenge, but vulnerable enough to make the players believe they have a chance. If you have a street gang, give them 15 Blood. A lone gangster or police officer might have 20 to reflect their more durable nature.

So does that mean that the whole street gang has 15 Blood shared among them or does each gang member have 15 Blood? Yes, No, and Maybe.

The key is varying the opposition to the players, depending on how dramatic or challenging the encounter should be. A group of enemies designed as PC fodder – such as random street gangs, nazi thugs, Martian storm troopers, and the like – should

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only have 15 Blood for the entire group. If referees want to single out a tougher NPC from the group, the designated NPC leader should have his own Blood level of 15, which is inde-pendent from the group total. The same leader can even be more skilled or resilient, depending on how the scene should be play out. For especially challenging or dangerous encoun-ters, each member of the group has the group Blood rating. These types of encounters tend to be deadly for at least one or two player characters, so these encounters should be used sparingly, or if the PCs have been beefed up.

Just remember that, if the power levels of group encounters are varied, the villains’toughness should correspondingly increase. It’s rather anticlimactic to have an extremely tough battle against the evil dictator’s thugs, only to put him on ice with a single shot from across the room.

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

Wealth is generally not an issue in 1PG games, as most char-acters rarely need to buy anything. But there are times where it becomes important, such as when even a high Notoriety score won’t get you a death ray. At this point, the purchasing charac-ter needs to make a wealth check. All characcharac-ters are rated as average unless their character concept would be con-sidered poor. Playboys or other prestigious characters would be rich. No character should possess the super-rich status without lots of roleplaying. Either way, each charac-ter who needs to buy something should make a BRAINS check with a –1 penalty for each level of discrepancy between the wealth rating and the rating of the desired item. This is additionally modified by historical era if the buyer is try-ing to purchase somethtry-ing not native to his era. This check can be modified based on where and with whom the PCs choose to do business. Failure means that the characters are unable to obtain the item, and they can only make another attempt by vis-iting another seller. Asking for something illegal or dangerous repeatedly can draw unwanted attention on the characters in case the PCs go crazy with doggedly trying to get an item. It is always the prerogative of the referee to disallow the existence of an item for purchase.

ADDING ODDITY

The following brief section details how to add magic or psionics to a 1PG game. This is a quick and dirty system. Coincidentally, both Dime Heroes and Bloode Island provide their own individual magic rules that fit their particular set-tings. The following rules are more generic and can be fit-ted to any 1PG.

Magic is only usable by a character if they acquire a skill in magic. Simply acquiring the ability to learn magic could be an adventure in itself! Magic is a WILL based skill – in other words the character’s variable WILL attribute is what is added to his magic skill to determine the Target Number. Referees may apply mod-ifiers on attempts to use magic based on wounds, stress,

environment, etc. The referee may also allow a freeform system of magic where the player describes the desired effect and attempts to make a successful skill check by rolling under the Target Number. Additionally, rank in the magic skill can deter-mine how may spells the character knows.

Psionics work similar to magic, but are based on the charac-ter’s BRAINS attribute. Any PC can possess latent psionic abil-ity by spending three skill points during character creation to gain the ability with no ranks, if the referee allows it. The PC can still attempt to activate his ability without a psionic skill, but must roll a 1 on a 1D6 for it to work. Failing an attempt to use psionics without the skill results in 3 Blood damage per attempt from the mental backlash.

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1PGs were never designed to support recurring characters. For reference, the 1PG rules recommend that referees award one character point for each person at the table, but this is sim-ply a stopgap measure. Assuming that referees want to create an ongoing campaign with recurring characters, the following guidelines for awarding Character Points should be useful:

Award 1 point to each character who survives the adventure. Award 1 point to each character who performed a heroic act or something that put the character in deadly danger.

Award 1 point for good or exceptional roleplaying.

Award 1 point to each character who accomplished a great feat or defeated a powerful enemy.

Award 1 point to each character who escaped from a dangerous situation by either a clever plan or rhetoric.

INCREASING SKILLS

Skill levels can be increased by spending an amount of Character Points equal to three times the new skill level. For example, to increase a character’s Shooting skill from 2 to 3 would cost 9 Character Points. Skill levels can only be increased one level at a time.

INCREASING ATTRIBUTES

Attributes can be raised, but it costs considerably more than increasing a skill. Attribute levels are raised by spending an amount of Character Points equal to five times the new skill level. For example, to move STRENGTH from 2 to 3 would cost 15 Character Points.

BUYING STUNTS

The concepts of stunts was developed after the release of Full

Clip. If the referee wants, he can use Stunts in his game, and by

no means are these relegated solely to Full Clip! Obviously, some games don’t support the concept of stunts very well – for example it would be very out of place in Disaster! So it’s

ulti-mately up to the referee decision as to whether stunts will be allowed.

Stunts cost one Character Point with a recommended maxi-mum of two stunts per character at the start of a game. Stunts may be bought afterward for three points each. A list of sample stunts follows:

Pain & Agony: A devastating and dirty blow to… err… the

more sensitive areas of a target. The target must make a STUR-DINESS check or lose the next action doubled over in pain.

How’s My Driving: With a successful Pilot check, the

pilot’s/driver’s vehicle will absorb hits that are ordinarily reserved for himself or his crew and/or passengers. The vehicle takes damage as normal until it is no longer functional, but the characters are unscathed.

Speed Load: If keeping track of ammo is important, a

suc-cessful STURDINESS check allows the character to reload his weapon without losing a round. The weapon is immediately considered ready for action.

Chink In the Armor: With a successful Athletics check, the

character is able to target a weak spot in an opponent’s body armor, halving the value of armor against that one shot.

Kick N’ Snatch: If the character makes a successful

attack at –1 and the target must fail a STURDINESS check, the attacker kicks the defender’s weapon out of his hand and grabs it in midair – ready to use!

Iron Fists: If a character makes a STURDINESS check,

he is able to focus the chi in his hands, temporarily giving them the consistency of iron for 1D6 rounds. During that time, punch damage is 4 and the character can ignore up to two points of AV on a target.

A Shot In the Dark: The character’s senses are finely honed,

allowing him to hit targets even if he can’t see them. With a suc-cessful CRAFTINESS check, the character is able to shoot at targets with no penalty for poor lighting and only a –1 penalty for total darkness.

Prone Fighting: With a successful Athletics skill check, the

character can fight or shoot while lying prone or on his back with no penalty. Anyone else trying to fight prone will be at a –2 penalty for hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks and/or –1 for any missile weapon or personal firearm attacks.

Ear Slap: The character

can slap both ears of a target once with a successful attack roll. The target suffers no damage but his BRAINS score is treated as 1 less for purposes of determining ini-tiative during combat. This effect lasts for three rounds of combat.