The Character Sheet is the RPG Challenge

[MachFront]

Yep. Got all that.

Wow.
That was harder than it shoulda been, huh? -lol-
Yikes, I feel like a dummy, but now I know how the confusion started/existed.

Got 'em both now. Thanks, man.

Whew.
How in the world can I ever referee a game if I can't get these things straight, huh?

[ErrinF]

Cool. The important thing is that you have the complete game now. I wouldn't feel too much the dummy... this all ended up being an interesting adventure beyond what I initially thought it would be, so I don't mind. It actually helped clear up something I was confused about as well. All's well that ends well. Enjoy the game.

[SirDonzer]

Hello there.

I am the author of StarCadets. I am excited to see that someone has mentioned my little game somewhere.

To answer some questions:
---------
jeffmoore stated:
Wow Errin!! This is Great!!!! Thanks for the link!!

Actually, I'm Jealous of this... it's got character creation, item lists, a space sector map, a sample adventure!! This is the way to get it done!!
---------
I like hearing this. Yes I tried to cram in everything I could think of. I liked the thought that it is a more detailed RPG than most of the micro RPGs that existed at the time.

Though I like your "character sheet RPG" name, I never made up a character sheet for it, or included any in the file...So does it qualify as a character sheet RPG?

---------
ErrinF asked:
I was surprised to randomly find the Star Cadets game. It's interesting to me that it creates a more complex gaming world than the simple scenario provided. Too bad it was never expanded into something more, though I suppose it's all there for players to make their own scenarios. I also wonder what the initial inspiration was for it's designer to make a one page RPG.
---------

The initial inspiration was Mr Kim's web page (now defunct). It was filled with all of these great games! The most interesting ones were these "rules lite" games. After a while I thought that I could make one of those...I challenged myself to it. I think I drove myself crazy on and off for two months writing it.

The idea behind it was to keep the rules simple, and spend more time on the background/adventures/fun stuff. I was thinking of 25% of each new page being rules, and the rest the fun stuff. To make my game stand out, I initially gave my rules a great gag -- Make the title longer than the rules! In the original text file, the huge title block took 17 lines, and the rules block took 16.

I did expand it later. Giving each section or subsection it's own page. I think it is up to 6 pages now. I didn't do much with the background...Real Life(tm) kept interfering...Anyone who want to may expand the background/etc in anyway they want.

[ErrinF]

Well I never expected the creator of Star Cadets to pop up here. Thanks for showing up and giving us details about the game. Starting last year, making one page or character sheet RPGs has been a minor focus here via various 'challenges'. Basically, any RPG that fits onto one page (can be two-sides of a page if need be) is the goal, with an additional emphasis on having the one page RPG also function as it's own character sheet.

During the first such challenge in 2006 is when I discovered Star Cadets and shared it with the rest of the group here. A lot of us agreed that it covered much in one page and was a fun read/play. Plus it was cool to see other examples of one page RPGs outside of the ones we have made here. Besides last year's submissions (which you can download via links in this thread), we started a 2007 challenge, one that included 1km1kt and it's sister site RPG Lab. Here is the link to a blog about the submissions for 2007 so far:



I know I ended up making a few this time around, and hope to make 1 or 2 more before the year is through. Who knows... maybe you'll be interested in partaking in the challenge this year too... it's not over yet!

Anyway, thanks for showing up here and sharing some background about you and Star Cadets. I'll have to re-visit that game, as I still have it in my pdf collection.

[SirDonzer]

Every once in a while, I do a web search for StarCadets...I see the last time was over a year ago. It is interesting to see who has commented on it. There is a Japanese site that lists it on the link page. A German site (not sure, can't read any of it) also mentions it. I also found out there is a band called StarCadets - same spelling! It is amusing that the Japanese site lists it as a "traveller parody". There was a copy of the Traveller Book handy when I wrote it...But it isn't a parody of anything.

I might write up something for the new challenge. I will have to put some thought into it. Say, I could just pull out the old StarCadets and replace something with a character sheet and submit it...probably too easy though...8-D

[Max W]

Do blasters need power cells? Do they come with them? Do the cells run out after four shots, or do you just have to spend a while fiddling with the gun? Did you envision any aliens coexisting with humanity in the game?

Sorry about just bombarding you with questions, I'm just shocked see the author of StarCadets and all these questions keep coming up whenever I run the game.

[SirDonzer]

Questions from: Max W

1) Do blasters need power cells? Do they come with them? Do the cells run out after four shots, or do you just have to spend a while fiddling with the gun?

Official Answer: All Blasters and Blaster rifles come with a single power cell. The number of shots is per power cell. Changing power cells takes a single turn. Power cells may be recharged, in an hour, from any utility or ship power source.

2) Did you envision any aliens coexisting with humanity in the game?

Official Answer: I did intend aliens in the game. They were to be like humans (IE: could be good or bad) In the original version, I did up an "aliens" supplement (a page). It didn't feel satisfactory, but Real Life(tm) kept interfering with further development.

3) Sorry about just bombarding you with questions, I'm just shocked see the author of StarCadets and all these questions keep coming up whenever I run the game.

No problem. I am excited that someone is enjoying my little game. Say, did you encounter any other problems with it during play?

[Max W]

I did run into a few other things, but they largely revolved around items. Most of them seemed to involve jetpacks, and I don't know why. I'd guess the player wanted a Boba Fett wannabe for a character, or something. The ones that didn't revolve around jetpacks concerned personal spaceships and/or weirdness.

I pretty much disallowed the personal spaceships by making them prohibitively expensive (think Star Wars).

The weirdness discussions were about things like faster than light travel, psychic powers and force ripoffs, and teleportation. For the most part, I tried to keep these things to a minimum (although I have to admit that the escapist opened up by FTL were tempting).

Other than players wanting exotic items and supernatural powers, not much came up. The system was good; simple enough to play with the distance rules enforced and complex enough to convince players that conflicts were based on a concrete engine, and not just the gamemaster's whim.

By the way, is there any chance that you'll post the aliens supplement? I'm sure that whatever condition it's in now would be good enough to vastly increase the game's fun factor for most people.

[SirDonzer]

Max W;

I uploaded the original StarCadets, and the Aliens supplement, using the submission form.
I have converted both text files to PDF format.

The html version of StarCadets that is on the web, is a "poorer" version of this text file.

If all goes well, they should be appearing any day...

[Max W]

I can't wait to look at them!