DIP-Styx

A 24 Hour RPG done on April 20/April 21, 2008 (7 pm to 6 pm), in which the PCs play ordinary people who must investigate and face down creatures of darkness. The DIP-Styx system was designed to encourage Develop in Play character creation style and to be friendly to beginning gamers.

DIP-Styx

An introductory RPG for the 24 Hour RPG Project
Written by Timothy Dedeaux
Begun Sunday night, April 20, 2008 around 7:00 pm
Ended Monday, April 21, 2008 around ??
Premise/idea: one non-roleplayer who’d tried roleplaying and hadn’t fallen in love with it told me the hardest part was character creation. Cross-referencing this in my mind with what I’d read years ago on the old Rec.Games.frp.Advocacy group about Design at Start vs. Develop in Play styles, I decided to write an RPG to emphasize the DIP side of things, and perhaps help new roleplayers get over the “character creation” hurdle. Develop in Play is abbreviated “DIP,” and thus the “DIP” part of the name. The “Styx” part comes from the setting. For the record, this is designed for an at least somewhat experienced GM to use to introduce new players, not to be easy-access for a group of total newbies.

For thousands of years, Charon guarded the entrance to the underworld, protecting us from the things that go bump in the night. But now, he’s gone missing, and creatures are slowly breaking free, and it falls to ordinary people to stop them. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and strange spirits must be put to rest, and only you can do it: are you up to the task?.
The game begins with a group of relatively ordinary people (the player characters, perhaps with a few NPCs around for flavoring) finding themselves in a strange situation. They have to figure out what’s going on and how to stop the creature. Ultimately, the game is a game of investigative horror, though the horror can be run anywhere from G-rated, funny cartoon monsters to Unrated disturbing things. The characters may find themselves chasing ghosts through old, haunted mansions, seeking lost children in the dream world, chasing a vampire through the slums where he preys on prostitutes, Jack the Ripper style, or hunting (and being hunted by) a werewolf on a country estate.

Download

• dip-styx.pdf

Tags: Timothy Dedeaux

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm and is filed under 24 Hour RPG, Free RPGs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.