Rage, Precognition, Grace

So I am sitting around with some new friends. They are non-gamers. They are normal type folks who have heard about the “evils” of D&D, and they really don’t know anything about gaming. They do know that I love gaming and talk about it often. So, they asked me to run a game for them. Suddenly I was daunted! How do you run a role-playing game for someone new without overwhelming them with the detail? Have you ever tried showing the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Players Handbook to a completely uninitiated player? It’s scary.

I thought, “I can do this. We’ll just start playing and I will introduce them to rules as we go along.” To make sure things were kept simple, I jotted down a few notes on a piece of spiral bound notebook paper and we started to play. I created the game on the fly incorporating a number of concepts borrowed from other games (mine or others) and we played. As we played I would explain how things worked and introduce concepts. I kept the number of different concepts small and the game play simple. The end result was excellent and fun was had by all. More than I was expecting, as the friends insisted that I come back the next day to play again.

The next day at work I set about typing up the “rules” I had introduced to my new players. I worked at clarifying and cleaning up a few inconsistencies as I put the rules to paper. The collection of rules were small and manageable enough that I was pretty sure I could get them all on one page, and I set about formatting them identically to the HEX solo-RPG that I had done, putting character sheet and rules all together in one place.

The result is “RPG” the one-page fantasy role-playing game, and I am very happy with it. It is proving to be very functional in play-testing and I believe it to be an ideal way to introduce the uninitiated to the world of Fantasy Role-Playing.

For my players I went ahead and created the characters for them and just started them playing. I explained rules as they came up and just allowed everything to “happen” while we played. It was excellent.

Combat

Roll Initiative (1d6+ Precognition) This determines who goes first.

On your turn, Move up to your Speed and then attack, or move 2x your Speed.

To Attack roll 2d6+ Rage for Swords or other close combat weapons if you are next to an enemy.

Roll 2d6+ Grace for Bows or other ranged combat weapons if you are not next to any enemies.

If you did not move or attack you can cast a spell. Roll 2d6+ Precognition to Cast a Spell.

If your 2d6 roll plus your Aspect equals 8 or more, you succeed.

Damage is based on the Weapon or Spell. Damage is reduced by the Defense of the Target.

Download

• Rage_Precognition_Grace.pdf

Tags: Jeff Moore

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Free RPGs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.