Universal Game System

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Table of Contents

Legal Nonsense 2

How to Play - Basics 3

How to Play - Parts of a Character 5

STRIFE! - What youre REALLY here for 7Damage, Death, and Dying 21Vehicles and Items 22

Getting Better - Character Advancement 24

For the GM 25

Setting the Stage - Alterations for Different Settings 27

Making your Character 29


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Legal Nonsense

Look, you probably dont care about any of the legal junk, and neither do I. You know

who DOES care, though? Lawyers. Incidentally the people who could sue my donkey off if I so

much as look at them the wrong way. So were just going to get this out of the way. TheAdaptive Tactical System takes a fair bit of inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons (owned by

Wizards of the Coast) and PDQ#(owned byAtomic Sock Monkey). Note that I say inspiration.

TheATS is its own system, and is not intended to break any copyright laws. If it looks like I have,

I probably just didnt know about whatever other thing I allegedly may have plagiarized or

whatever.

So there. I am now absolved of all legal repercussions. But what about YOU, the reader?

Good question. Lets ask my friend, Creative Commons. He says that this work is out under an

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)license. So what the

heck does that mean? Just so were perfectly clear, this means that you can go ahead and steal

the heck out of theATS, as long as your version is released under the same license. It also

means that you cant make money off your derivative. Also, if you DO make a derivative, you

have to link back to theATSsomehow, even if thats just fine print at the bottom of the credits

page saying Based on theAdaptive Tactical System.

So thats the anti-lawyer shield done. Now we can get on to the stuff youre

actually reading this for.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/


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How to Play - Basics

The very first thing youll need to do is track down a copy of theATSrulebook

which I guess youve done since youre reading this. The next thing to do would be to find a

group. You can play with as few as two and with as many as 7 billion+ people. Then each person

playing will want to find at least one twelve-sided die (check Amazonor a local game shop) and

a bucket of six-sided dice (you know, the kind that come with every game ever). Well, maybe

not ACTUALLY a bucket, but a bunch. Or one, I guess, but itll go faster if you have several. Then

get some one-inch graph paper (the bigger the better, since itll serve for maps in the game).

Then your group should designate a GM, or Game Master. The GM runs the game, settles all

rules disputes, judges the legality of intended actions, sets the difficulty of actions, tells the

story, and controls every character not played by the rest of the group. Its a big job, but it

comes with a lot more control over what happens.

Once thats all sorted out, just follow this book to learn how you actually play the game.

The basic rule used to determine the success of any action that the GM deems difficult enough

or random enough (drinking a glass of water is usually an automatic success for any characterwithout a nervous system impairment, but riding a motorcycle through a gridlocked street in a

high-speed chase is not so simple) is the following: roll a 12-sided die (hereafter referred to as a

d12) plus one six-sided die (or d6) for each rank your character has in an ability relevant to the

task. You then compare it to either a target number set by the GM or another characters roll. If

you meet or exceed the target, you succeed! Below are two examples:

1. Bob is attempting to attack the evil sorcerer with his sword. He has one rank inSwordplay, one rank in Mercenary, and one rank in Superhuman Strength, so he rolls

1d12+3d6 (one each for his ranks in Swordplay, Mercenary, and Superhuman Strength).

Bob rolls a 10, a 2, a 6, and another 2, for a total of 20! The evil sorcerer defends himself

with magic, so he can use his two ranks in Sorcerer. The sorcerer rolls 1d12+2d6 for atotal of 21. Bobs roll isjust under the sorcerers so he unfortunately fails to inflict any

damage.

2. Aerith is attempting to hack into Megacorp, Inc.s computer system to steal some vitalinformation. She has two ranks in Hacker and one rank in Former Megacorp Employee,

so she rolls 1d12+3d6. The GM says that she must roll higher than a 20 to succeed, since

Megacorp can afford good security. Aerith rolls a 6, a 5, a 4, and another 6 for a total of

23, so she succeeds!

Its pretty simple. Theres no end to the number of things you can do with this system, and

you can apply bonuses from any ability you have as long as you can convince the GM that that

particular ability will help you complete the action in some way. Even if you dont have any

relevant abilities, you can still make a check as long as it doesnt absolutely require a specifictalent or a lot of specialized training or knowledge (for example, Aerith can attempt to cook a

gourmet meal without any relevant abilities, but Bob cannot use psychic powers if he doesnt

have a related ability). In some cases, a character might have an ability that applies somewhat

to a check, but is a poor fit. In this case, that ability is said to be partially applicable, and the

character can apply up to half of his or her ranks in that ability (rounded down) to the check.
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In some cases, you may need to improvise or do something very specific. For example, Bob

may know he cant last long against the evil sorcerers magic, and decide to try and decapitate

the sorcerer in one shot. For another example, Aerith might try to make a program that will

hack into Megacorps server for her, to help her escape detection. Finally, the evil sorcerer

might try to cast a spell that will remove Bob from existence, rather than kill him. In all of these

cases, the characters are trying to perform nonstandard actions which have either abnormaleffects or are simply outside of the normal scope of what a character might do. In these cases,

the GM should assign a Difficulty Factor (or DF) based on the difficulty of the action. Bobs

attempt to behead the sorcerer, for example, is a rather difficult thing to pull off, so the GM

might give him a DF of two. Aeriths action, while time-consuming and requiring lots of

expertise, is not actually all that difficult, so the GM might assign it a DF of one. The evil

sorcerers spell is an exceedingly difficult thing to pull off, and is ridiculously broken in combat,

so the GM might give that a DF of three or more. But what does a DF do? Well, if you would

normally roll 1d12+4d6 on a check with a DF of 1, you can only roll 1d12+3d6 on that check. If

that check had a DF of 2, youd roll 1d12+2d6 instead. If the DF of a check is greater than your

number of ranks in applicable abilities, you simply cannot succeed on that check.


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How to Play - Parts of a Character

Dont worry; this isnt an anatomy lesson. This section is just here to tell you about each

aspect of a character, be it your character or a character controller by the GM. By now, you

should have a basic idea of what abilities are, but well go over it again here just in case.

1. Abilities - These are, simply put, what your character knows how to do particularly well.They can range from things like Swordsman (indicating that your character knows how

to use a sword) to Flirt (you can seduce people like nobodys business) to Assassin

(you know how to kill people without being seen) to Politician (you know how to kill

people without being seen) to Sailor (you know your way around a ship) to Genius

(you are great at getting and retaining information) to Super-Strength (you can lift

really heavy things and punch really hard) and more. You have a number of ranks in

each possible ability. Your rank in an ability is assumed to be 0 unless otherwise

specified. Your rank in an ability can be as low as 0 and as high as 5 (unless youre

playing a superhuman character, in which case all bets are off). Whenever you aremaking a check, you add 1d6 to the roll for each rank you have in a related ability.

Heres a chart of what each rank means:

0 Untrained; you arent necessarily inept at this, but you dont know a whole lot

about it, either.

1 Hobbyist; you know something about this, but arent really that skilled.

2 Skilled; you know as much about this as someone who makes a career of it. You still

make mistakes, but youve put in the time to learn about this.

3 Respected; among those trained in this, you are seen as particularly skilled. You

may not be the best, but you certainly know what youre doing.

4 Prodigious; not only are you well-trained, but you have either time or genetics onyour side. Most people will never get this good.

5 World-Renowned; you may not necessarily be the best there is, but you are unlikely

to meet many as skilled as you are.

6+ Superhuman; ordinary people are literally unable to match your skill.

2. Attributes - These fill in when an ability will not do. They can be used in place of anability when you dont have any applicable abilities, but should still be able to complete

the task at hand with some competence. Unlike abilities, they cannot take damage

(which youll learn about later). These help determine how you can distribute your

Abilities. There are three of these: Physical, Mental, and Social. They are rated on the

same scale as abilities.

3. Flaws - This trait is unique to player characters; GM-controller characters couldtheoretically have flaws, but they would have no actual function. A flaw is something

that stops your character from being a total Mary Sue, or perfect character. A flaw

might be something like cannot talk to women, afraid of snakes, horribly clumsy,

allergic to peanuts, or has ADHD. Whenever a flaw that your character has comes

up, you get one or two points of Drama (discussed later) and the GM is encouraged to

add a DF to any checks you try to make involving your flaw. When you make your


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character, you can choose to have either one or two flaws. If you choose to have only

one flaw, you get two points of Drama when it comes into play. If you choose to have

two flaws, you get one point of drama whenever either comes into play.

4. Drama! - Drama is a numerical representation of plot-based intrigue related to yourcharacter. The primary method of obtaining Drama is to face your flaws, but your GM

may choose to award you Drama for exceptionally good role playing or just doingsomething amusing enough. Once you have enough points of Drama, you can spend it

on one of several things:

Add a d6 to a check 1 Drama!

Re-roll a d12 1 Drama!

Dictate background events* 1 Drama!

Dictate relevant events** 2 Drama!

Create an NPC (non-player character) 1 Drama!

Give an NPC ranks in an ability 1 Drama!

Get 3 extra AP in battle 2 Drama!

Remove one damage from yourself (and recover from being KOd) 3 Drama!

*Examples: I have connections with the merchants in this town, or Megacorp, Inc. was

tried for fraud once, but was acquitted.

**Examples: There is a conveniently open sewer entrance leading to the building we

need to go into, or I may not have brought the tool I needed for this job, but luckily

someone left one right here! Your GM may ask you to spend extra Drama depending

on just how significant the event youre describing is.

5. Speed - Speed indicates how fast you can move in combat. By default, it is 30 feet percombat round (equal to 5 feet per second, or about 3.5 miles per hour). If you are

playing a game with multiple species, such as Elves and Dwarves, or Martians and

Starfish aliens, your GM might see fit to alter your base speed depending upon what

species youre playing. Regardless of your base speed, however, add five to your speedfor every three ranks you have in an ability related to swiftness or mobility (or just

moving quickly). You do not have to have three ranks in a single ability to do this; just

three ranks total from all applicable abilities. Your GM may also temporarily reduce your

speed if you are carrying an item or configuration of items that is particularly heavy or

restrictive to movement.

6. Name - Whats your character called? This has no impact on gameplay, but its nice toknow!

7. Backstory - Wheres your character from? Who are his friends? Who are his enemies? Ishe even a he (Im just using the masculine for exemplary purposes; calm down

feminists)? Your GM may ask for a specific amount of detail in your backstory, or mayask that you make it up as you go!


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STRIFE! - What youre REALLY here forWe ALL know youre playing this game to kill stuff, so lets just get down to how you do

that. First thing: real world logic? THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW! This is an RPG (role-playing

game)! In which you might wield an RPG (rocket-powered grenade)! Real world logic and

physics DO NOT APPLY!

Second thing? Use some darned common sense. No, you cannot shoot that person who

is behind a concrete wall with your handgun. If it doesnt make sense and youre not using

magic, you probably cant do it.

So now you probably want to know how to actually get combat started. The first thing

you need to do is have everyone participating in the battle roll Initiative. Initiative is rolled like a

check, and you can apply anything related to combat prowess or alertness. Everyone acts in

descending order of Initiative. Once Initiative has been determined, the first round starts. A

round is composed of one turn for each character in the battle. If one or more characters have

ambushed another set of characters, however, the ambushers get a free round before theambushees get to act. Once any ambushes have been taken care of, the character with the

highest Initiative gets to act.

On your turn, you get 6 Action Points, or AP. If you have any left from the start of your

last turn, they disappear before you get your new AP (but if you have any from spending Drama

or from some other effect, those stay with you). They can be spent in different ratios to

perform actions of different lengths and complexities. Heres a chart showing some examples:Deploying a trap 6AP

Attacking 3AP

Moving up to your speed 2AP

Retreating 2AP

Drawing a weapon 1AP

Sheathing a weapon 1AP

Drinking a potion 1AP

You can end your turn at any time, even if you havent spent all your AP, but once you have

spent all your AP, you must either spend Drama to get more AP or immediately end your turn.

Just get to how to attack, you may be saying. I say that you already know how. Its

simple: just roll a check with any abilities relevant to the attack youre performing, and the

target of your attack (if theyre in range) rolls a check with anything related to their method of

defense. If the attackers roll exceeds the defenders roll, the attacker does damage to the

defender equal to the difference in their two rolls.Damage? What are you talking about? you may be asking. Dont worry; youll learn

about this in the next section.

So now you know how to attack something, but theres still more. For example, how

close does another character have to be for you to attack them? Well, that depends on the

weapon, clearly. Well it depends more on the kind of weapon that the specific weapon, but

same idea. Here are some basic guidelines:


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Standard melee weapon (like a sword, axe, hammer, club, or your fists)

Any square adjacent to you

Polearms and spears

Any square within two squares of you not blocked by an enemy or obstacle

Key:

You

Squares you can target

Squares you cant target


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Short ranged weapons (Darts, shuriken, slingshots, etc.)

Any square within 10 squares not blocked by an obstacle.


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Long ranged (bows, guns, etc.)

Any square within 20 squares not blocked by an obstacle


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Ridiculously long ranged (longbows, sniper rifles)

Any square within 30 squares not blocked by an obstacle


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Advanced Targeting: Standard Melee

When attacking, you can attack more than one enemy, at the cost of accuracy and damage.

When using a melee weapon other than a polearm or a spear, you can target every creature in

an arc around you. Here are some examples of acceptable arcs:


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The following arcs are NOT acceptable:


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See the difference? The squares must form a contiguous line, with diagonal not counting as

being adjacent to each other for the purposes of arcs only (when moving or determining the

range of an attack, diagonals count as being no further than non-diagonal adjacent squares).

So what does attacking in an arc do, precisely? Well, for one thing, you might hit yourallies; ANY creature in an arc-based melee attack is subject to its damage. In addition, for each

target beyond the first, you add a cumulate DF of one. So if you target only one creature with

an attack, you wont get any DF added this way, but youll have a DF of 1 if there are two

creatures in your attack, a DF of 2 if there are three creatures in your attack, and so on.

Since this maneuver involves attacking multiple creatures, some of you may be asking,

Do I roll my attack separately against each target or do I just roll the attack once? Either

method works, but its faster just to roll the attack once.Its still just as random as rolling it

multiple times, since each target will have to roll defense separately. Ultimately its up to your

GM, but both ways of handling multi-target attacks are perfectly valid.

Advanced Attacking - Spears and Polearms

In addition to being able to attack in the same kind of arc as a normal melee weapon,

spears and polearms can be used to attack enemies that are in a line, like so:

With a spear or polearm, you can attack the creatures in both of the highlighted squares at

once, with a DF of 1 to the attack for attacking two creatures at once. Note that the following is


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not a valid form of attack with a spear or polearm, since they are generally quite rigid and do

not bend:

The path of the attack has to be a straight line traced from the center of your square to the

center of the square of the target further from you.


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Advanced Attacking - Ranged Weapons

Why should melee weapons have all the multi-target fun? Ranged weapons are actually

more versatile for attacking multiple targets, as all you need to do is convince your GM that the

creatures you want to target are in generally the same direction. For example, these two

targets ARE in the same direction of the example character:

But these are not:


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Its a bit of a judgment call on the GMs part, but if a given shot doesnt make sense, he or shedoesnt have to allow it.

When attacking multiple targets with a ranged weapon, you can theoretically target any

number, but just as with multi-target melee attacks, you take a cumulative DF of one for every

target beyond the first.

Advanced Attacking - Area Attacks

When using magic, explosives, or anything else that hits each creature in an area, the

player making the attack decides how big the area is. Like multi-target melee attacks, you have

no choice but to attack every creature in the area. Also like multi-target melee attacks, you adda cumulative DF of one for each target after the first.


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Well what about attacking when theres something in the way? You can always try to

make an attack against a creature, but the more obscured a creature is (either by darkness or

obstacles), the higher the DF on the attack will be. The following chart gives a nice reference:Barely obscured (theres a bush in the way) DF 0

Somewhat obscured (hes crouching behind a large

bush, or theres a rock in the way)

DF 1

Mostly obscured (hes in the middle of the forest) DF 2

Completely obscured by darkness (theres nothing

blocking my shot, but I cant see him)

DF 4

Completely obscured by objects You can target the creature, but the attack will

have no effect

So now you know how to attack. Thats all fine and dandy, but just standing there

whacking another person isnt very tactical, now is it? Thats where movement comes in.

There are a theoretically infinite number of types of movement (flight, swimming, digging,

teleporting, etc.) but there are three used commonly in combat: walking, running, and

retreating. Walking simply involves moving your speed. Its simple, but not the most tacticallyadvisable move in every scenario. Running lets you move faster by ten feet per round, but you

also take a DF of one on every check you take for one round after running, and its a terrible

idea when locked in combat. Retreating is the slowest of the common movement modes, but

also the safest. When you retreat, you move up to half your speed, but it gives not tactical

disadvantages, unlike walking. Moving in any of these ways costs 2AP. Remember that when

moving in combat, each one-inch square on the map is equal to five feet in the game world.

So just what am I talking about when I say that walking and running arent tactically

safe? Well, certain actions that either pull your focus away from the battle or simply force you

to stop devoting significant amounts of energy to defense are called Complex Actions. Your GM

might deem anything a Complex Action, but here are some examples:

Walking Running Swimming Digging Casting a spell Setting a trap Putting on or taking off clothing or armor Making ranged attacks

Any enemy adjacent to you when you begin the action (or, in the case of movement types that

are Complex Actions, leave a square) may immediately spend 1AP to make a Swift Attack

against you. A Swift Attack is a melee attack that cannot target more than one creature and has

a DF one greater than normal. A single action may provoke any number of Swift Attacks, but a

creature can only make one Swift Attack per round. In the case that you take multiple swift

attacks for the same action, damage is dealt in order of Initiative.

So what can moving around help you do? Well, there are certain formations that you

and your allies can assume to either make it easier to hit your enemies or easier to defend


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yourselves. One of these is flanking, in which you and one ally get on opposite sides of an

enemy. If in the following diagram, if you are in the pink square and an enemy is in the red

square, the black squares show where your allies can go to allow you to flank the enemy:

When you and at least one of your allies are in a flanking position around an enemy, that

enemy gets a DF of 1 on all rolls to defend itself from you and your allies that are flanking it, as

long as this DF would not cause it to be incapable of defending itself. Keep in mind that enemies

can do this to you too.

There are also formations to help you and your allies protect yourselves from enemy

attacks. The back-to-back formation is a directional method of defense, but can be incredibly

helpful.

In this diagram, the pink squares show you or your allies. The red squares are squares from

which enemies have a DF of 1 when attempting to attack you with melee attacks, as long as this

DF would not cause them to be incapable of attacking you. This may seem easy to move

around, but look what adding just two more allies into the formation can do:


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If you and your allies form a tight square, you can easily protect yourselves from melee attacks

from any angle.

Charging

When you charge, you move and make a melee attack as part of the same action.

Charging uses an amount of AP equal to that required to perform the desired movement plus

that required to make the desired attack. When charging, you cant Retreat, but you can use

any other mode of movement that does not involve teleportation. You also cant make multi-

target attacks when charging. You must also move at least two squares directly towards your

target. If you do, you have two options:

1. The target takes a DF of 1 to defend itself from the attack at the end of your charge.2. You push the target a number of squares equal to half the damage you inflict, rounded

up. If you select this option, you may choose to forgo doing damage and just push the

target a number of squares equal to half the damage you would have inflicted.


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Death, Damage, and DyingUnlike a lot of RPGs, you dont have hit points in the ATS. When you take damage you

temporarily reduce the rank of any ability you have by one for each point of damage you take

(remember that an ability can never go below 0 ranks). When all of your abilities have been

reduced to zero and you take any further damage, you are KOd and may be killed (to kill a KOdcharacter, just declare that you are doing so when close enough to attack them). When you are

KOd, you are unconscious and cannot act, except for spending Drama!

After the battle is over, you can start healing any damage you took. The GM determines

how long that takes based on the severity of your wounds, but for normal battle wounds, you

heal 3 damage in the first ten minutes of rest, and then 1 damage for every further 30 minutes

you spend resting (or for every hour you spend going about doing normal, non-strenuous

activities).


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Vehicles and ItemsVehicles have 4 abilities, in which they may have an indeterminate number of ranks. A

vehicles abilities are not used in the same manner as a characters; rather, they are the

physical limitations of what the vehicle can do with even the most skilled pilot. As such, when a

vehicles pilot makes a check to maneuver the vehicle, he or she may only use a number ofranks equal to or less than the vehicles rank in the corresponding ability.

A vehicles abilities are:

Maneuverability, which is used when attempting difficult steering, or when attemptingto avoid enemy fire.

Stability, which is used when attempting to keep the vehicle working under difficultconditions.

Firepower, which is used when making attacks with any built-in weaponry. Mostvehicles will have no ranks in firepower.

Speed, which is used when attempting to make the vehicle go faster than its movementrate (which is listed separately).

Unlike characters, vehicles have no maximum number of ranks in each ability, but have a finite

number of abilities.

In addition to its abilities, a vehicle also has a movement rate, a maximum occupancy, and a

size.

When vehicles are in combat, there must usually be at least two people onboard: someone to

steer the vehicle, and someone to man the weapons.

When attacking a vehicle, the attacker decides whether to attack the vehicle itself or a

character on the vehicle. If the attacker chooses to target only the vehicle, the attack is rolled

normally, and the vehicle takes damage. If the attacker chooses to target a character, the

attacker must roll separately against each targets defenses. If the attacker hits both the vehicle

and the character, the character takes half the damage that would be dealt to the vehicle and

the vehicle takes the other half (if damage needs to be rounded, the character takes one more

damage than the vehicle). If the attacker hits the vehicle, but not the character, the vehicle

takes all of the damage. If the attacker hits the character but not the vehicle, no damage is

dealt.

If the vehicle is hit by a suitably concussive attack (such as cannon fire), the vehicles pilot must

roll the vehicles stability. If he or she succeeds this roll, the occupants of the vehicle are largely

unaffected by the attack. If he or she fails, however, the characters take half of the damage of

the attack (rounded down).

Generally, its assumed that characters will start out with basic equipment for whatever

abilities they have; if a character is a swordsman, its assumed that he starts with a sword. If a

character is a sniper, its assumed that she has a sniper rifle. These items are also assumed to

be of basic quality for an item of their type. If an item is significantly better or worse, however,

it may offer bonus dice on checks made with it or may lessen the DF its user faces. Generally,


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equipment that is simply better made than the average lessens the DF by one. If an item is

magical, however, it is likely to offer bonus dice to checks made with it and/or have other

special properties of the GMs choice (or its creators choice).

Of course, items may also be broken or cursed. A cursed item will always give its user a

DF of one in addition to any other negative effects it might have (but its user will never know

that this DF is being applied). A broken item will likely incur a DF of one (but may incur moredepending upon how broken it is).


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Getting Better - Character Advancement

So you know how to fight, and youve won some battles, and lost some others. Now

youre wondering how to get stronger. Well, theATS recommends one of three systems for

character advancement.

1: You won the battle, and your reward is XP.

Its as old as RPGs themselves; you win a fight, you get experience points, and when you

have enough, you level up. Well, there are no levels in theATS, but you can still apply a similar

idea. For each enemy you or your ally defeats in a battle, you get 5 XP. When you have 100 XP,

you get one Ability Point (see Making your Character).

2: If it aint broke, dont fix it.

It makes sense that if youre winning all your fights, you shouldnt need to make your

character any better. With this option, you dont get stronger until you need to. Each time you

lose a battle, you get one Ability Point (see Making your Character). Your GM may decide toadjust this to have you get additional ranks for every two or three (or even more) battles you

lose.

3: Learn something new, get new ranks.

This is probably the most realistic option presented here, and the easiest to mix with

the other two advancement options. To put it simply, whenever your character actually learns

how to do something new, or spends time researching or training something, you get new

ranks in abilities to reflect that. Its recommended that this be implemented alongside option 1

or 2.


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For the GM

So youve volunteered to be your groups GM (or possibly been thrust into the role). Its

a bigger responsibility that just being an ordinary player, but it can also be a lot of fun. Your

primary role is to keep the game running smoothly; if there is ever a dispute, your word is law,

unless the players can find a rule in the rulebook that contradicts you in a timely manner (of

course, you have the right to add and remove rules from any game youre GMing; after all, you

are the Game Master). Your secondary responsibility is to serve as a storyteller. You describe

the setting the players are in. You decide the actions of every character not controlled by the

players (which should be the majority of characters, unless you have a ludicrously massive

number of players). You control the enemies that the players will face in their adventures.

Some games tell you that youre not supposed to be the players adversary. Other games

encourage you to do everything in your power to kill the players characters. Either way you

decide to go, just remember to keep it fun for as many people as possible.

The first thing youll want to do once youve been officially appointed as GM is to create

a vague storyline for the characters to be the protagonists (or antagonists) of. You probablyshouldnt plan it out too far, though; players of RPGs have been known to baffle the

expectations of GMs and go off in wildly different directions with storylines than could ever be

anticipated. The next thing youll want to do is make a few generic characters that can serve as

the basic mook enemies that the players will come across and beat the tar out of over the

course of the game. You might want to make some to fill a number of archetypes, such as

healers, damage-dealers, tanks, and crowd-controllers. Remember not too make them TOO

tough, though, since the players will probably be expected to fight a number of them at once

and live. Then, just gather the materials youll need to play and organize a time to play.

Another big responsibility for the GM is the creation of adversaries for the characters.Enemies are created in the same way as other characters, but may have a different number of

Ability Points to start with. As a general rule, when facing off against characters created with 15

Ability Points, an enemy with 5 Ability Points will die quickly, an enemy with 10 Ability Points

will provide an adequate challenge for a standard character, and an enemy with 15 Ability

Points will be quite powerful and should be used sparingly.

In addition, enemies not intended to be plot-important should roll a six-sided die

instead of a 12-sided die when making checks.

Generally, enemies made with only five Ability Points will have no ranks in abilities not

related to combat. Enemies made with significantly more Ability Points should have a few ranks

in something unlikely to come up in combat.

Also, improvising difficulties for checks can be difficult to do on the spot, so heres a nice

little chart to help you out. Just check where the characters number of applicable ability ranks

and the difficulty of the task meet to get the target number.


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Super easy Easy Moderate Hard Super hard Ridiculous

0 ranks 3 5 6 9 11 12

1 rank 5 8 10 12 16 17

2 ranks 8 12 14 16 19 21

3 ranks 11 15 17 20 23 25

4 ranks 14 19 21 23 27 295 ranks 18 22 24 27 31 33

6 ranks 21 26 28 30 35 37

7 ranks 24 29 31 34 39 41

8 ranks 27 32 35 38 43 45

9 ranks 30 36 38 41 46 49

10 ranks 33 39 42 45 50 52

11 ranks 37 43 45 48 54 56

12 ranks 40 46 49 52 58 60

13 ranks 43 49 52 56 61 64

14 ranks 49 53 56 59 65 6815 ranks 50 56 59 63 69 72

16 ranks 53 60 63 66 73 76

17 ranks 56 63 66 70 77 79

18 ranks 59 67 70 74 80 83

19 ranks 63 70 73 77 84 87

20 ranks 66 73 77 81 88 91

21 ranks 69 77 80 84 92 95

22 ranks 73 80 84 88 95 98

23 ranks 76 84 87 91 99 102

24 ranks 79 87 91 95 103 10625 ranks 81 90 94 99 106 110

26 ranks 85 94 98 102 110 113

27 ranks 89 97 101 106 114 117

28 ranks 93 101 105 109 117 121

29 ranks 96 104 108 113 121 125

30 ranks 99 108 112 116 125 128

31 ranks 102 111 115 120 128 132

32 ranks 106 115 119 124 132 136

33 ranks 109 118 122 127 136 140

34 ranks 112 122 126 130 139 14335 ranks 116 125 129 134 143 147

36 ranks 119 128 133 138 147 151

37 ranks 122 132 136 141 151 155

38 ranks 126 135 140 145 154 158

39 ranks 129 139 143 148 158 162


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Setting the Stage - Alterations for Different

Settings

FantasyMagic is integral to fantasy settings. It can also be a bit of game breaker when allowed

to be used unfettered. Sure, your GM might just say that you can only cast spells that do

damage, but that makes magic kind of boring. So here are a few ideas of how to limit the

amount of magic that a player can cast.

1. Vancian casting. When a magic-casting character wakes up, he or she gets to prepare acertain number of spells for the rest of the day, and must declare what each does ahead

of time.

2. Spontaneous Vancian casting. Like option #1, but you dont have to specify what thespells do ahead of time; in other words, you get to cast a certain number of spells per

day.3. Accelerated Vancian casting. A variant on either option #1 or option #2. Instead ofhaving a number of spells per day, you get them per battle.

4. Exhausting magic. Whenever you cast a spell, you take one damage to any magic-relatedability you have. Its recommended to allow players to heal any damage taken this way

immediately after a battle.

5. Limited spell list. You can cast any number of spells over any period of time, but youhave a limited pool to choose from.

There might also be a number of bizarre species populating a fantasy world, like elves,

dwarves, werewolves, centaurs, or weirder things. If this is the case, its recommended to have

a characters species be an ability in which each character is required to have at least one rank.In addition, it might be a good idea to alter characters base speeds based on their species.

Sci-Fi

Like fantasy settings, sci-fi settings might have a large number of different species

running around in spaceships or whatever. If aliens play a large part in your game, you might

consider making a characters species an ability in which each character is required to have at

least one rank. In addition, it might be a good idea to alter characters base speeds based on

their species.

Superhuman

Settings with superheroes and supervillains usually focus on characters that can do

certain things REALLY well. In fact, thats pretty much the definition of a superhuman character.

This being the case, youll probably want to increase the rank limit from five to ten or more for

at least one ability. You might also want to start out with more ranks to distribute among

various abilities than you might have for another setting.


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Another rule you might implement would be the inclusion of a characters one

weakness, which would be like a flaw, except it ALWAYS causes a character to incur a large DF.


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Making your Character

All right. This is it. Youve got your group. Youve got a GM. You know how to play. Now

its time to get down to business creating a character. Just follow this short guide, and youll

have a character in no time.1. Think of a concept. This could theoretically come last, but your character will likely be

more cohesive if you do this first. Your concept could be as general as tough guy, or

you could go ahead and come up with a whole life story right now.

2. Use 12 Attribute Points to purchase ranks in your attributes. Purchasing a ranks of 3 orbelow in any attribute costs 1 Attribute Point per rank. Purchasing the fourth rank of an

attribute costs 2 further Attribute Points. Purchasing any further ranks costs 3 points per

additional rank. Then find which is highest and which is lowest. Lets assume you have

rank 4 Physical, rank 3 Social, and rank 3 Mental. In this case, Physical would be your

highest-ranked attribute, with Social and Mental tied for lowest. This means that youmust always have more ranks in Physical abilities than in Social or Mental abilities. If you

had rank 4 Physical, rank 4 Social, and rank 2 Mental, then you would always have to

have less ranks in Mental abilities than in Physical or Social abilities. In you have any

Attribute Points left over after putting at least one rank into each of your attributes,

convert those remaining Attribute Points into Ability Points.

3. Use 15 Ability Points (plus any leftover Attribute Points) to purchase ranks in abilities.Purchasing a rank of 3 or below in any ability costs 1 Ability Point per rank. Purchasing

the fourth rank of an ability costs 2 further Ability Points. Purchasing any further ranks

costs 3 points per additional rank. Its recommended that you put at least one rank in acombat style, which describes how you fight and/or with what weapons you fight and

at least one rank into a profession, which describes what your character does to make

money (keep in mind that this could be hobo or millionaire from birth).

4. Choose one or two flaws. These should have something to do with the characterconcept that you chose in step #1 (for example, if your concept was super-accurate

archer, your flaws should not be horribly clumsy and distracted by photos of

kittens, since neither of these actually makes your character more fleshed out as a

super-accurate archer).

5. Finalize the details. Pick out a name. Come up with a backstory. If youre playing a magicuser and your GM wants a list of all the spells you know, come up with those now.

6. Play the game! At this point, youre done. See how easy that was? I told you youd bedone in no time.

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Universal Game System