The Character Sheet is the RPG Challenge

[tadk]

Hi Errinn

Thanks for the nod towards Taking. I apprecaite it and glad you liked the little critters that flowed fm my mind to my fingertips....

I just skimmed Terror Town. I liked what I saw. Going to print yours off and take a closer look at it. But I loved the movie Silent Hill so I am sure I will love your game as well...

But first read through I liked what I saw of Terror Town a lot

TK

[ErrinF]

Glad you liked Terror Town, Tad. After reading 'Taking', I had the inclination to create a survival horror game of my own for the character sheet challenge. About a week after that, a friend mentioned being scared by the film Silent Hill, so I rented it to check it out. Not that scary (at least not to me) but it was very interesting, with the weird monsters and the shifting of dimensions within the town. So I used a similar theme and made my own strange monsters to create Terror Town RPG. I was really happy with the end result, and it looks like other people have enjoyed it as well.
I'm thinking I might end up making more one page RPGs, but for now I'm taking a break. I hope others will make character sheet RPGs in the near future as well, even if they've already sent in one or two. Beyond just the challenge, the character sheet RPG is a new genre of RPG that is very convenient to play and a breeze to create; I'm sure more will join the ranks of 1km1kt games. Jeff Moore's original concept of a game encompassed entirely in a character sheet ended up working out fantastically well in my opinion. The games are a fun challenge to make and a fun challenge to play. I know I've enjoyed every character sheet RPG that's been submitted so far.

[ravensron]

Finally go to try out "Terror Town." Was a lot of fun. Love the concept of the overlapping worlds, would be grist for the mill of a full-sized rpg. Did notice though that if you happen to leave the mortal world too early - that is, you happen to roll the numbers needed to go to somewhere the monsters - then you're monster-chow right away because you don't have weapons and the monsters always outweigh you. Somehow, would manage to roll for transition into the monster worlds after a couple of rounds in the mortal world but never managed to roll for transition back before the monsters got my character! To make the game just a tad easier on the monster-hunter, suggest that you can acquire a key on 2 and 12.

[ErrinF]

Feel free to add any variant you like, Ron. I realized there's a possibility of getting stuck in Dark World too soon before grabbing enough weapons, but I factored in the dynamic that fleeing from combat will usually be to the advantage of the player. Unless you catch the giant tentacle or the dark mayor at a bad time, you should be able to outrun most monsters. In fact, the only punishment for failing to flee is to have to fight one round with the monster, after which you can try to flee again. If the game's being too tough for you, I would suggest the 'flee first' approach whenever in Dark World. Dark World is meant to be tough and worrisome... the player should have a feeling of dread every time the possibility pops up of ending up in Dark World.
btw, have you checked out the other character sheet RPGs that have resulted from this challenge? Besides my 3 games, there's the games Hex, RagePrecognitionGrace, Soloquest, OnePageRPG, and Taking (I think that covers them all). Each are available for download here, and the posts in this topic provide links to most all the games. I think they are all solo type games except for Taking and OnePage. You might also want to check out the Doom Semper Fidelis RPG that inspired this character sheet RPG challenge.

[jeffmoore]

Rage, Precognition, Grace isn't a solo RPG... it's meant to be run by an experienced GM. I have run it a few times and it works. It makes a good beer and pretzels kind of game experience. Also, since I designed it to introduce some newbies to the hobby I think it works for that too. Thanks for the very kind words regarding this challenge Errin. I really didn't expect this level of response. But, you are right the "limiting" scope of the challenge also means it's a fairly quick one to complete... at least where actual time at the keyboard is concerned. So it's a good way with someone with some new game mechanic ideas to put together a "play-test" version of their game and get it to the tabletop quickly. Then if things work, you've got a spring board on which to build a more developed version of your game so it seems like a "win win" to me.

[MachFront]

[jeffmoore]

I'm pretty sure this is what you're looking for!!

[ErrinF]

While checking through one of my 'best kept secrets', I discovered this one page RPG from all the way back to 1998. I think this qualifies as a character sheet RPG. Here's the link to Star Cadets:

[jeffmoore]

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!!

[ErrinF]

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. I wonder how many other one page and/or character sheet RPGs there are out there.
On a side note, I was contacted recently by a fellow who wanted to make a computerized version of my Treason Season RPG (he was making a version of it for Palm OS). He needed my permission to make the game, apparently, which I gave, but I'm still waiting to hear back as to whether he has made the Palm version yet. I'm not sure how it works, but 1km1kt seems to go beyond it's website to reach an interesting collection of gamers. What's interesting is that it has been the character sheet games I have made that have received the most response outside of 1km1kt. I'm due to make a few more, but right now I'm looking into making a quick and easy game that's more than one page.