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d4 d4RoleplayingGame

System

By Kyle Schuant, 2004Jim Bob Productions

Demo Versionwith one to three pages of each chapter

More examples and other stuff in the full version! 89 pages and35 illustrations of gaming goodness! And only one table for

players to worry about!

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Credits & Acknowledgements

Comments and development discussion are acknowledged from: Russell mmm, Doritos Andrews, for his term, "Thespmaster"

Clash hola! Bowley of Flying Mice Games for his comments on the Game Play Styles chapter

Steve there's a girl... Darlington of rpg.net, for his term, "Pixelbitching"

Bill it's free and legal, I swear! Edmunds for his advice on layout, and artwork acquisition

Mark "We haven't had a combat since you left the group" Moncrieff

John Well, there's a story about that Nowak for his many and various discussion of the manuscript,

and game theory, for which in truth he should be named as second authour, though he denies it.

Scott Yes, you do deserve this suffering Rhombus of rpg.net, for the cover illustration.

Belinda Engrishu prease Sag as layout consultant.

The many stimulating and mad people at rpg.net over the past couple of years who have impressed me

by the immense variety of games played, and styles of game play.

The Forge, for showing me how important it is to write so that people can understand you.

Byron Hall, for showing the evil that an excess of concern with realism can lead to, especially when you

haven't done your research.

DisclaimerTrademarked names and copyrighted works mentioned in the text are mentioned for discursive purposesonly, and no infringement is intended or should be inferred, and anyone who thinks the opposite is aknucklehead.

The roleplaying game Kill Things and Take Their Stuff does not exist. It's a joke. No, we won'twrite it. Only comic strip writers and cynical old game designers produce games from jokes.

CautionThe following game mentions issues of race, racism and so on. It assumes that the players are decent,unprejudiced people, or at least try to be; it does not assume their characters are the same. Either of theseideas, or the implied concept of what is decent and unprejudiced could be offensive to some people.

The following text refers to individuals by their individual gender, and to people in general asthey. Persons who consider this to be grammatically incorrect are directed to the Oxford EnglishDictionary. The only exception is in the chapter discussing annoying gamers, who are usually male; they'rereferred to as he. Cat Piss Man is legendary. Has there ever been a Cat Piss Woman?

A Note on Printing & CopyingIts assumed that the GM will be the one purchasing this book, in pdf electronic form, and that theyll makea printed copy for themselves, and one electronic or printed copy for each of the players in their group, fortheir convenience. This copying will be interpreted by Jim Bob Productions as fair use under copyrightlaws.

When a person leaves the gaming group, they ought to destroy or pass to the group their printedor electronic copy of the text. If the original buyer wants to sell on their electronic copy of the text, theyought to make a copy, pass it on, receive payment, and then delete their original electronic copy. Wherepossible, they ought to destroy, or to pass on to the new electronic copys owner their printed copies of thetext.

Contents

Introductory Chapter page 3The Basic Game Mechanics Chapter page 4

The Character Chapter page 9The Traits Chapter page 15

The Combat Chapter page 52The Game Play Styles Chapter page 70

The GMing Chapter page 80Index ... page 84

Trait Index ... page 85Character Sheet ... page 87

GM Combat Sheet & GM Session Sheet... pp 88-89

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Introductory Chapter

DesignAll rules are optional. That goes without saying, you'd think, but a Game Master (GM) once said tothe authour, "those are the rules, and they are not bendable, however logical your argument." Thissystem is not designed for that kind of GM.

d4-d4 is a roleplaying system best suited to campaigns set in modern (post-1600) or futureworlds. Certainly it can be used for other settings, but these are what its been specifically designed for;its not quite universal. A die roll of two four-sided dice, the one subtracted from the other and addedto a Trait, and compared to a Difficulty level, resolves most actions. Traits are rated with a description,so that you can say, "Djim is an Outstanding Cook," or "Jane is a Middling Swimmer."

The system works best for one-off games and for campaigns of a dozen adventures or so. Ifplaying the same character for a longer campaign, for many years, they will become too powerful, andthe system will break down, becoming less realistic and gritty than it began. Many games aim topresent systems for characters that will last many real years of game play. But the reality of roleplayinggame groups is that often the group breaks up after a few months, or the players and GM get tired of

the setting or the characters and want something new.The system aims for a descriptive feel. This is the reason for its "granularity." Suppose two

fencers are practising. Will they really know that one has 67% skill while the other has 64% skill?Probably not. Both will be regarded as "good," while the new guy with his 22% skill will be seen as"ordinary." It's quite difficult to measure abilities very precisely and accurately in a single test on oneday. Thus, the Performance Ladder, as at the middle of the page.

The idea is that with these Trait descriptions, plus the Personality Aspects, the player will havea good idea of their character's behaviour and abilities. Few of us could rate our own Fitness orConfidence to an exact percentage, but we ought to be able to guess that we've Ordinary Fitness andGood Confidence, with a Philosophy of Empirical Science, and a Demeanour of Friendly or whatever.

The settings which will initially be available ford4-d4 will be: Guomindang, set in China 1911-49, from the Revolution to the Warlord period to the

Japanese War to the Revolution, focusing on the middle two. Commonwealth 2271, a space exploration Royal Navy campaign. Heirs to Empire, set in the Ottoman Empire of the 17th-19th centuries. Osere, an espionage campaign in Europe, from the 1970s to the present. Humidity, a swampy chaotic post-apocalyptic Australia

Structure of BookThis book has several chapters. Each chapter begins with

a Summary section. Once you've read and played out the stuff afew times, this should be all you need to look at to remind you. Therest is just discussion and explanation.

Important rules are in bold.Examples are in italics, and the text will be indented from

the rest of the page.

Optionalrules will often appear assidebars from the rest of thetext. Of course, the entire setof rules is optional, but this

part is where it's suggestedthat if the GM and players

want a different style of game,they should use this option. Itshould make it easier for agame to be chosen with moreor less "realism" and so on.Sometimes this will also be anexplanation, a different way olooking at what's just beendiscussed.

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Basic Game Mechanics Chapter

Summary of Game MechanicsEvery character has a set of Traits describing them, with a word, such as "Good", or "Ordinary",describing their capability in that Trait. These are arranged in the Performance Ladder, from Famousto Crap. When characters act, the players roll d4-d4 (one four sided die subtracted from another), andadjust the performance of the character up or down rungs on the Performance Ladder. They comparethis performance with a GM-set difficulty, or with the performance of another character.

Performance LadderEvery character has some Traits, and these are rated on thisPerformance Ladder. The Performance Ladder will appear on everycharacter sheet. These descriptors are known as the Trait RatingsEvery person's performance on a task can be placed somewhere onthe ladder to the left, from a Crap to a Famous performance. Almosteveryone will spend their whole lives within the boldface letters

region, from Poor to Outstanding.If these terms don't seem right, simply put in others. If the

group doesn't like words and prefers numbers, then call "crap" 0,terrible 1, poor 2, etc. But this text will assume that the group'ssticking with the words already here.

Trait Level Descriptions Crap: the person's ability is simply atrocious. Watching them even try is embarrassing, and you're

certain they'll hurt themselves or someone else in the process. "For pity's sake, stop!" Terrible: this is a really bad performance, which you'd rather not watch, but they probably won't

injure anyone. An 8th grade ability. Poor: If the person tries to do anything, it'll be immediately obvious they have almost no talent in it.

A 10th grade ability. Ordinary: This is pretty much what everyone is in most abilities. They're not going to fool anyone

that they have talent here, except perhaps themselves. This'll be spotted very quickly. An 11thgrade ability.

Fair: People who know the person well will have guessed this is their ability level. They do okaysometimes, but really they should leave it to the professionals. A decent 12th grade ability.

Middling: This person gives no particular impression. They do okay most of the time, and couldperhaps make a living using this ability, but won't get promoted without sleeping their way up (atleast good appearance). A top 1st year university student's ability.

Good: Now we're starting to get somewhere. They're not great, but their friends will know they'vegot some ability, and maybe admire them for it. A top 2nd year, or low 3rd year university student'sability.

Excellent: It's immediately apparent they know what they're doing here. They're a professional inthis field, or if they're not, they should be. A Master's degree ability.

Outstanding: This person impresses with their ability. They'll be known among their friends andcolleagues for their ability, and if they use it professionally, will do well in their career and winpromotions and top wages regularly, or run their club if it's some hobby. A remarkably competentPhD.

Olympic: Okay, maybe Macrame isn't an Olympic sport, but if it were, and the character hadMacrame: Olympic, they could get into the competition. This is top-level stuff.

Famous: the stuff of record books, documentaries, biographies, and so on. Keep it up and thecharacter will be a household name, at least among people who know of that particular ability andadmire it.

Note that the normal human range is from Poor to Outstanding. Most people spend their entirelives in that range without descending to Crap or ascending to Famous.

FamousOlympic

OutstandingExcellent

GoodMiddling

Fair--- Ordinary ---

PoorTerrible

Crap

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Trait TestsIn the d4-d4 system, performance is determined by taking acharacter's Trait level with a d4-d4 roll added, and comparing withthe difficulty level. The result is called their Performance.

So, for example, the player may tell the GM, "I want Djim tobend the iron bars." The GM tells Djim's player, "That's an Olympiclevel performance."

Example: Djim has Excellent Strength. The player gets twofour-sided dice (d4), preferably of different colours, anddesignates one as an "add", the other as a "subtract."They're rolled together, and one is subtracted from the otherto get a result from 3 to +3. Suppose Djim rolls 4-2. 4 2 =+2. Djim's Excellent Strength, for this one action, moves uptwo rungs on the ladder, to Olympic level; he bends the ironbars.

Suppose Djim's player had rolled 1-2. 1 2 = -1.Djim's Excellent Strength wouldn't be very well applied inthis action, he'd move down one rung on the ladder, it'd bejust a Good performance. Bob's tendons on his arms and

hands stand out, his face grimaces and turns red, but thebars remain firm. Can he try again? See "Continuing TraitTests," below.

Notice the percentages next to the numbers. They're thechance of rolling that particular result on d4-d4. See that about two-thirds of the time (okay, 62.5%, if you want to be picky) the person'sperformance will hover aroundtheir Trait Level.

Many systems have itthat a character with higherability can have successes, andfailures; it's simply that the more

able character will fail lessoften. They have it that youcan't tell the difference betweenthe "success" of someone with99% skill, and the "success" ofsomeone with 23% skill.

But this isn't the waythings really work. A moreskilled person consistentlyperforms better than a lessskilled person; they don't merelyfail less often, they do bettermost of the time, and they dobetter when they do succeed.

So, someone of Ordinary Strength will performOrdinarily, Fairly, or Poorlyabout two-thirds of the time, thatis, be within one level of theirbasic ability. A consistentperformance. Similarly, anOutstanding Artist will usuallypaint Outstandingly, thoughsometimes only Excellently well,and sometimes of an Olympicstandard. There's even achance she'll produce

something which may becomeFamous.

+3 6.25%

+2 12.75%+1 18.75%0 25.00%

-1 18.75%-2 12.75%-3 6.25%

Optional ViewSome people get a littleflustered when they getnegative numbers andso on. If so, think of itthis way. Put your finger

on the Trait Level beingtested. Roll one die,move your finger UP thatmany rungs on theladder. Now roll anotherdie, moving your fingerDOWN that many rungson the ladder. Whereyou are now is your

performance on thatparticular task.

Optional RuleThe die mechanic here means that if two people are competing on a task,there's a chance of them matching each-other, even if they're at differentends of the Perfomance Ladder, so long as they're both within the Pooto Oustanding range.

The Poor character will achieve a Middling performance 6.25% of thetime, as will the Outstanding character. They'll be equal in (both getMiddling) performance 0.39% of the time.

If you want a greater chance of performance overlap, then you canallow the dice to be open-ended. On a +3 or -3, roll again both dice anadd the result, so that possible results go from -6 to +6.

The probability of each result, after the two rolls have been addetogether, is as follows:

+6 0.39%+5 0.78%+4 1.17%+3 1.56%+2 13.67%

+1 19.53%0 25.78%

-1 19.53%

-2 13.67%-3 1.56%-4 1.17%-5 0.78%-6 0.39%

Notice what this means. With open-ended dice, the results gathemore towards the middle. Where before there was a 6.25% chance of +3,now there's a 3.91% chance of +3 or better. So, you're more likely to geta result closer to your Trait level, but there's a chance it'll beextraordinarily good or bad.

This will make Famous and Crap results more common in play.It doesnot actually give a greater chance of performance overlap, but it meansthat characters of widely separate Trait Levels have a chance omatching one another. It means, too, that someone of Ordinary abilityhas a chance of a better than Good performance; normally, they havenone. They also have a chance of a worse than Crap performance.

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The Character Chapter

Summary of Character CreationEach character has a Character Sheet. This lists their Personality & History, and their Traits. Eachcharacter should have defined their personality, background and appearance. This will include,

BackstorySome words, a paragraph or two about the character.

Background & AppearanceNameRace & SexHeight/WeightHair/eyes/skinDate & Place of Birth

PersonalityPhilosophy (religion or worldview)Demeanour (how the character presents themselves to the world, their attitude)Habits & MannerismsLikesDislikesHobbiesAmbitions

TraitsEach character will have Traits, which are their abilities, skills, talents, etc. Most of these Traitswill be rated on the Performance Ladder, from Poor to Outstanding; they begin at Ordinary.

Each player will have levels they can spend on their Traits. How many they have depends onthe type of campaign being played:

Realistic, 20 levels of Good Stuff, with up to 5 levels of Bad Stuff (and thus up to 5levels more of Good Stuff)

TV action-drama, 30 levels Good Stuff, up to 7 of Bad Stuff. Cinematic, 40 levels; the GM should consider allowing Olympic level Traits; plus up

to 10 of Bad Stuff. Super-heroic, 50 levels; the GM ought to insist on some Olympic or Famous level

Traits (the super-heroic dont merely have many Traits, they have some incredibleTraits!); plus up to 15 levels of Bad Stuff.

Backstory

Some players and GMs dont like to bother with this, some do. This could be just a couple ofparagraphs about the history of the character before the start of the adventure. What their familybackground is, what events shaped them, etc. The player can write this, and then get inspiration for thePersonality Aspects and the Good and Bad Stuff Traits out of that; or they can put all the Aspects andTraits together first, and afterwards come up with a Backstory explaining them.

In the character creation examples that follow, the player has no idea about the setting theGMs throwing him into, and so hell use the second method Aspects and Traits first, story later.

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Background & AppearanceThe character's Background and Appearance encompasses their race, culture, origin and so on.These shape their Personality.

Example: the GM tells the player, the game will be set in 1930s Africa, beginning inEthiopia. Id prefer you start off as native to that country, but of course youll be able to

travel. You can be Educated, but remember this is the 1930s, so you wont have thingslike computers and so on.The player, a chunky Australian male IT nerd, scratches his head a bit and

says, hmmm, okay, interesting. I guess Ill read up a bit, eh?

NameThis ought to be something appropriate to the character's background, culture, era and so on. Choosea name you can stand being called for a while.

Example: the player decides tocall his character, "Djima Makele,"known as "Djim" to his friends.

This fits in, more or less, with thegames setting in 1930s Africa. Hedoes a sketch of an Ethiopian guy,

Race & SexConsider these carefully. In some cultures anderas, this choice could affect your character's lifeconsiderably. They will also affect theirbackground, history, philosophy and so on.

Consider also that "race" is a fluidconcept. It's not merely the colour of your skin orthe shape of your eyes. In most cases, some sortof culture, history, goes with it. What are minor ornot even noticed differences to an outsider can bea great importance to one within that culture.

In the modern United States, forexample, almost everyone with at least onegrandparent who is of sub-Saharan African origin,

and is dark-skinned, will be called, "African American." However, if that person goes to Nigeria, theywon't say, "welcome, brother African!" but will try to discover if he's of Hutu, Tutsi, Ibo, Oromo, etc,origin. Similarly, while in Australia someone may identify themselves as "Chinese", in China itself it willbe significant that they're from Guangzhong rather than Beijing. There's as much or more cultural andlinguistic difference between someone from Guangzhong and someone from Beijing as there isbetween a Frenchman and a Belgian.

There's also the issue of the mixed-race individuals. In the West, traditionally the nativepeoples of the Americas and Australia, and the imported African slave stock, were looked down upon.

At the same time there's been a general loss of depth of Western culture in the past two centuries, asit's become broad and included aspects of other cultures. For this reason, it's very common that ifsomeone has any African, Amerindian, or Aboriginal blood at all, others will see them as that race, andthey will identify themselves as that race. A one-quarter English and three-quarters Aboriginal callsherself, "Aboriginal," while a three-quarters English and one-quarter Aboriginal also calls herself,"Aboriginal."

The thinking of both the full-blooded pale and dark-skinned peoples is that the darker blooddetermines the race; this thinking comes from the racist laws of the past, where the "dark blood" washeld to "pollute the white blood". So for example in the United States during the era of slavery, if amaster had a child with his slave, the child would be half white, half black and would be called,"Negro", and be born a slave. Anyone at least one-eighth Negro could be owned as a slave. Later on,this view of race applied to the segregation laws.

On the other hand, in 19th century Brasil, anyone who was any part European by blood was

called, "white." So, just as in the USA some light-skinned people were called, "coloured", in Brasil,some dark-skinned people were being called, "white."

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PersonalityEach person's personality is made up of a number of Aspects. These are: Philosophy, Demeanour,Habits & Mannerisms, Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies and Ambitions. Each character should have at leastone of each, and possibly two. The one listed first will be the Primary one; the second, the Secondary.The Primary one is the one the character is more passionate about.

These personality aspects are simply there, or not there. They don't have levels as Traits do.The various aspects may be important in play. They define the character's personality, and make themmore than just a set of numbers. It helps inspire the GM for plots and adventures. In certaincircumstances, the character aspect may give bonuses to actions, since people make more effort andtend to be better at things which interest or are important to them.

Note on PersonalityThe GM and players ought to be careful in listing thepersonality aspects of the characters. It's alwaystempting to create characters with extreme personalitytraits, to create fanatics and madmen. This alwaysseems funny at first, but can get annoying after a while.The player risks creating not a character, but acaricature. For example, a common method of

caricature is the one-dimensional character. The Warriorwho has: "Likes swords, dislikes blunt swords, hobbiessharpening swords, ambition to have a bigger sword."This is funny at first, but quickly becomes dull; better notto bother with Personality Aspects at all, since thenatural and spontaneous improvisation of the player willalmost always create a more interesting character thatthe Sword Warrior.

Use of Personality Aspects in gameThe Personality Aspects may come into play in gameterms. Specifically, the GM may rule there's a bonus or

penalty of one or two rungs to the Performance Ladder,to any action relating to that Aspect. In effect, aPersonality Aspect may act as a Complimentary Trait.See Complimentary Traits, page 7.

Examples: Philosophy: Racist, a character of Vietnamese race, comes across an ethnic Meo from

the mountain regions of Vietnam robbing a Vietnamese civilian. Since this action by theMeo corresponds with the Vietnamese racist conception of the Meo as "bandits", the GMrules that any action by the racist in resisting the Meo will have a +1 to his die rolls.

Philosophy: Empirical Scientist is sitting in his laboratory one day when a gigantic red-arsed demon with horns and the stench of sulphur appears through a grate in the floor. Thescientist at first assumes it's his PhD student playing a prank. He reaches out to poke thepudgy flesh of the corpulent demon's body, and burns his hand on the acidic blubber.Horrified, he suddenly realises that "demons are real." As this goes rather against EmpiricalScience as commonly conceived, the GM rules that the scientist will have a 1 to all his dierolls while the demon is about. Once it's gone, he can rationalise the experience and thepenalty will disappear.

Demeanour: Obnoxious fellow is at a job interview. The interviewer asks him that dreadedinterviewers question, "what is your major weakness?" The player will get a 1 penalty onhis die roll to give a Fast Talk charming answer, or a +1 bonus on their die roll to Intimidatethe interviewer, such as by pounding their fist on the table and saying, "my major weaknessis that I hate stupid questions."

Optional RuleGMs and players of the Thespmastervariety may like to treat Personality

Aspects just like any other Trait. In thatcase, the GM ought to give out an extra10 levels for players to use on theircharacters Personality Traits.

Personality Traits could be testedwhen players are asking themselves,what would my character do? andtheyre not sure, because the characterhas conflicting desires. They couldindicate the level of passion the characterhas in that area.

They could also be useful indetermining the course of discussionscharacters have with others, which the

player doesnt want to roleplay in detail.They could be used as Complimentary

Traits, much as has already beendescribed here.

Of course, all this is extra work for theplayer and GM both, work which may notachieve what they want to achieve fromthe game, which is why its an optionalrule.

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PhilosophyThis represents for most people not a wholesystem of thought carefully considered andlogically presented with footnotes, like a Kantianbook of epistemology; instead, it's simply the filterthrough which they view the world, the way theyinterpret events. They interpret events so as to

support their Philosophy. Also, they seek outevents that support their philosophy: a Capitaliststarts a business; a Catholic goes to Lourdes tosee a miracle; an Empirical Scientist, if they don'tactually have a career in science, joins theSceptic's Society or watches sciencedocumentaries.

Example: A person has a long illness, andis told they've six months to live; they pray to Jesus, and live on, recovering fully.

The Empirical Scientist will call this a "spontaneous remission," and perhapsthink it'd be good to study the hormonal effects of prayer, and whether thosehormones promote natural antibodies, and

Whereas the Charismatic Christian will say, "it's a miracle." The same event isthus interpreted differently by different Philosophies. In all philosophies, people tend tolook for evidence to support their point of view: the Empirical Scientist sees "facts"everywhere, while the Charismatic Christian sees "miracles" everywhere. Of course,there are different degrees of philosophy. Its up the player how strongly theyll play thevarious Aspects.

Common philosophies include (mentioning only those with at least ten million believers world-wide): Atheist, Catholic, Protestant, Charismatic Christian, Secular Christian, Sunni Moslem, Shi'iaMoslem, Secular Moslem, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Shinto, Animist, Jewish, Secular Jewish, EmpiricalScientist, Conspiracy Theorist, Racist, Apocalyptic, Messianic, Environmentalist, Survivalist, Capitalist,Socialist, Nihilistic, Liberal Humanist, Therapist, Hedonist, Altered States. There are many others,these are just a sampling for inspiration.

Note that two or more philosophies may be combined. Catholic Apocalyptic is one whobelieves the end is nigh, when the Lord shall come "with woundes redde to damne the quick and thedead." Scientific Messianic is one who believes science will solve all our troubles, and lead us toparadise on earth. A Capitalist Survivalist probably makes a living from sales of survivalist gear; hethinks the world will probably fall apart, and is prepared for it but he's also prepared in case it doesn'tfall apart, and he just needs wads of cash.

Example: Djim has chosen for him the Philosophies Hedonist and Coptic Christian. SoDjim's a person who's pretty much into having fun. He won't turn down a drink or atoke or a shag if it looks halfway alright. This'll be pretty apparent fairly soon aftermeeting him. But he does have some religious beliefs, and goes to church and tithessome of his meagre income.

DemeanoursThis represents the way the person presents themselves to the world, how they behave. It's notnecessarily related to their Philosophy. Not all Charismatic Christians are Chirpy, and not all EmpiricalScientists are Geeky.

Common Demeanours include: Aggressive or Obnoxious, Bitchy or Catty, Bookish, Butch orMacho, Chirpy, Courteous, Elegant, Extraverted, Feminine or Camp, Foul-mouthed, Friendly, Geeky,Happy, Humble, Introverted, Loud, Nervous or Jumpy, Oblivious or Obtuse, Partier or Clubber, Passiveor Accommodating, Poetic or Eloquent, Quiet, Sarcastic, Sceptical or Cynical, Serene, Serious,Slovenly, Smug, Sour, Sporty, Stylish, Talkative, Thoughtful.

Note that two or more Demeanours may be combined, as with the Philosophies. All of us knowpeople who are Slovenly yet Friendly, or Camp and Foul-Mouthed, etc. Again, the primary demeanourwill be the dominant one.

Example: Djim has chosen for him, Demeanour: Talkative / Happy

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The Traits Chapter

Summary of TraitsEvery character may be described in terms of several Traits. These are their abilities, what they can doand what they know. Some of these are Anyone Traits anyone can try them and some areSpecialist Traits only specially trained people can try them. Everyone begins with all Anyone Traits atOrdinary. When creating a character, the player can assign 20 levels to their Traits to improve them.

Also, there's Bad Stuff. These are Traits that hinder you. The player may assign up to 5 levelsof these, and these add to the levels of Good Stuff which the player can assign.

In some campaigns, there's a limit to the different Traits you can have as better than ordinary.It takes brains and effort to keep them all in practice.

However, that's not so bad, because some Traits are similar. If you have one, then it may giveyou some knowledge of another one.

Types of TraitsHere in d4-d4 there are three kinds of Traits:

Anyone Traits: Good Stuff Anyone Can Try. These depend on the game world. In the modernwest, anyone can jump a fence, drive a car, swim, etc. But they begin with an Ordinary level in it.Everyone begins with a Ordinary level in all Anyone Traits. To improve them beyond that level requireseffort. The first level you buy for your character is Fair.

Specialist Traits: Good Stuff Only Specialists Can Try. This is stuff like brain surgery or flyinga plane, "don't try this at home." People begin with absolutely no ability in Specialist Traits.. They can'teven try. The first level you buy for your character is Ordinary.

Bad Stuff: this is stuff that hinders you, like being impoverished, having one leg, or beingilliterate. It might also be an Anyone or Specialist Trait that you have at worse than Ordinary level.

When you develop a character, you normally begin with 20 levels (this may vary, see theCharacter Chapter, page 15) . With these, you can get Traits. So you could take twenty Traits up to fairlevel (20 lots of +1, Ordinary + 1 becomes Fair), or ten Traits up to Good level (10 lots of +2, Ordinary+2 becomes Middling), or five up to Excellent level (5 lots of +4, Ordinary +4 becomes Excellent), orsome combination in between.

Characters may not begin with better than Outstanding in any Trait. No-one can begin asOlympic or Famous in anything. You have to earn your famous status, mate.

When you purchase Specialist Traits, the first level you buy takes you from Ordinary to Fair,just as with Anyone Traits. But remember that if you don't buy any levels in it, you cannot even try it.

Bad Stuff is purchased differently to Anyone and Specialist Traits. When you "buy" levels ofBad Stuff, the first level you buy is Poor and then goes down the ladder to Terrible, then Crap, and nofurther.

As with Specialist Traits, if it's not listed, it usually means that you don't have it at all. But if youbuy levels in it, they add to your total remaining. So if you took one level of Enemy, that's a PoorEnemy (everyone has some Ordinary Enemies!), and you'd have a total of 24 + 1 = 25 levels to spendon Anyone and Specialist Traits. Just to keep it sane, it's recommended that the GM restrict characterto not more than five levels of Bad Stuff. Someone with that maximum is bound to end up on Oprahsomeday. Anyone with more than five levels of Bad Stuff will end up on Springer.

Note that a person may, if they really want to, choose to take one of the Anyone or SpecialistTraits as a Bad Stuff.

Examples Tom may choose to be a Crap Driver, giving him three extra levels to spend - since Crap is

three rungs lower than Ordinary - instead of just an Ordinary Driver, or Mark may choose to have Poor rather than Ordinary Confidence giving him one extra

level to spend, or Kyle may end up with Terrible Agility, giving two extra levels to spend.

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The GM should be alert to abuse of this, for example, a person who already has Crap Strength andAgility is probably a wheel-chair bound cripple, so if they take Terrible Sprinting, well, that's pushing it abit. Characters should not be able to take as Bad Stuff Traits which they don't ever expect to use, suchas a medieval knight being Terrible with Biochemistry. Players should consult with the GM beforetaking worse than Poor in any Trait, since it's a very serious hindrance, beyond the human norm ofincompetence.

Similar TraitsSometimes a person may not have a Trait, but mayhave something similar. A Similar Trait defaults tothe other at 3. These are skills which are somewhatrelated, have some overlap in learning, for exampleChemistry vs Biochemistry, Big Guns vs Smallarms,Computer Operations vs Computer Programming, etc.

So if for example someone has OutstandingChemistry, they will have Middling Biochemistry astheir default, since Middling is three rungs lower on thePerformance Ladder than is Outstanding. Without anyparticular effort towards Biochemistry, they use their

education, their knowledge of general Chemistry tofigure some things out. Of course if they just hadMiddling Chemistry, then their Biochemistry wouldn'tbe up to much, being Poor. Since it is probably aSpecialist Trait, they'd be grateful at least to be able toroll, try to scratch up the relevant knowledge fromsomewhere

Characters get the higherof the Similar Trait level, and the Anyone Trait default of Ordinary.So, Similar Traits only help if the primary Trait is better than Good, or if the secondary Trait is aSpecialist one, which they wouldn't normally get any ability in without effort.

Don't bother writing your Similar Traits in; they will be determined as relevant during play.

Example: Djim finds himself in need of AreaKnowledge (Addis Ababa), to know his way aroundtown, as hes looking for a particular street. He doesnthave any extra ability in Area Knowledge of any kind,so the GM tells his player that he just has AreaKnowledge (Melbourne) Ordinary. Ah! says Djimsplayer. But I am Streetwise in Addis Ababa. Ive gotGood Streetwise, good knowledge of the lowlives ofAddis Ababa. Doesnt that help? The GM explainsthat yes, Streetwise is a Similar Trait for AreaKnowledge. Streetwise gives you Area Knowledgethree levels lower. So, Streetwise Good becomesArea Knowledge Ordinary. The GM tells the player, if

your Streetwise were Excellent, then thatd make yourArea Knowledge Fair. If you had StreetwiseOutstanding, itd become Area Knowledge of AddisAbaba, Middling.

Similar Traits don't count during Character Creation. So you can't, for example, take Agility toExcellent level, using 4 levels, then claim that you can take all Traits which are Similar to Agility(Brawling, Climbing, etc) to Middling with just one level each, instead of two. All traits are bought upfrom Ordinary, regardless of any Similar traits the character may have.

Optional RuleThere's a limit to he number of Traitswhich a character may have at betterthan Ordinary. This limit is3 +Perception steps better than Ordinary +Education steps better than Ordinary +Confidence steps better than Ordinary

There's only so much any charactercan notice, remember, or be botheredkeeping in practice.

This rule would mean that there aresome people who have very few, or noabilities at all. There really are people like

this, people who are simply too stupid,ignorant or lazy to learn anything.

The limit would not apply to the threeTraits above, nor would it apply to thecharacter's native language.

Optional RuleSome GMs may feel that theSimilar Traits rule is toogenerous, or may lead tominimaxing, or may be toocomplicated to keep track of. Inthat case, it shouldnt be used.Its recommended that a GM notusing the Similar Traits ruleshould give the players 5 to 10extra levels to build theircharacters with, since theyllhave just the Traits they buydirectly.

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Selecting TraitsIt is strongly suggested that every player consider granting to their character some levels aboveOrdinary in three or more of Agility, Confidence, Education, Fitness, Perception, Strength. The reasonto develop levels in these Traits is that they are Similar Traits for so many others. Speed andToughness are already listed on the character sheet, but you cannot get levels in these, since they arederived from the other Traits listed.

Example: Djim's player wishes him to be asneaky, smart, canny sort of guy. His GMadvises him that the game will be "realistic", andhe'll have 20 Trait levels to spend on GoodStuff, and up to 5 levels of Bad Stuff, for each ofwhich he'll get an extra level of Good Stuff.Djims player says, Bad Stuff is bad! Ill onlytake one level of it. Im sure my sadistic GM willgive me more Bad Stuff later on.

Djim chooses as follows:"I don't want to be a klutz."Agility Fair... uses1 level of Good Stuff"It's a tough world out there." Brawling

Middling... uses 2 levels of Good Stuff"I can take care of myself!" Confidence Good... uses 3 levels of Good Stuff"Hey, it wasn't me."Fast Talk Good... uses 3levels of Good Stuff"I played with the kids in the Embassy Quarter."*Language (English) Ordinary... uses 1levels of Good Stuff - as this is a SpecialistTrait, the first level he buys takes it to justOrdinary."I can seeee you..." Perception Middling....uses 2 levels of Good Stuff"It's good to pump iron."Strength Excellent...

uses 4 levels of Good Stuff"They won't see me coming." Stealth Middling... uses 2 levels of Good Stuff"I know who's who and what's what."Streetwise Good... uses 3 levels of GoodStuffThen,Let's go! Now!"Impulsive Poor... uses 1 levelof Bad Stuff.In all, Djim has 21 levels of Good Stuff, and 1level of Bad Stuff. A balanced character.Djim also gets without any effort, NativeLanguage (Amharic), and Native Language

Script (Amharic), equal to his Education, whichas he hasn't specified it, is Ordinary.Djim's Speed is the average of his Agility - Fairand Strength - Excellent, rounded down: Speed- Middling.His Toughness is the average of his Strength(Excellent), Confidence (Good), and Fitness(Ordinary), rounded down: Toughness Middling.

Notice all the things that arent on Djims character sheet. His Wealth? Income?Attractiveness? Education? Fitness? Computer Operations? All these things are Anyone Traits, atOrdinary level, and so Djims player doesnt bother writing them down. Only the things which are better

or worse than Ordinary does he write down. Of course, the Specialist Traits like Vacc Suit and Surgeryhe doesnt have at all, not even at Crap. But all the Anyone Traits not mentioned as being better orworse than Ordinary, he has them at Ordinary.

Djim

Background

Name: Djima MakeleRace & Sex: OromoHeight/Weight: 1.70m / 70kgHair/eyes/skin: dark frizzy hair,brown eyes, dark skinDate & Place of Birth: April 1st,1908, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Personality

Philosophy Hedonist, CopticDemeanour Talkative, HappyHabits & Mannerisms Movesquickly, Never combs hairLikes: Tall women, short drinksDislikes: Government, RulesHobbies: Dancing, Planning incopious detailAmbitions: to be rich as Croesus,to never pay tax

Traits

Speed MiddlingToughness MiddlingAgility FairBrawling MiddlingConfidence GoodFast Talk Good*Foreign Language (English) OrdinaryImpulsive PoorLanguage, Native (Amharic) OrdinaryNative Language Script (Amharic)- OrdinaryPerception MiddlingStrength ExcellentStealth MiddlingStreetwise Good

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Fast-Talk (Similar Traits: Confidence, Acting): keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em manure.Middling get an extension on a bill.Good talk your way out of a parking ticket (Attractive Trait helps)Excellent explain the lipstick on your collar, or the extra pair of men's boots beside the bed.Outstanding convince a witness that they saw the opposite of that which they did (eg, "he

started the fight!")Olympic make the Repo Man go away empty-handed.

Famous persuade the teacher the dog really did eat your homework.

Favours due: some people owe you favours, which you may collect. Each favour you collect must beapproved by the GM. A stronger trait here could indicate more small favours from several people, or abigger favour from one person.

Firearms licence: This is a licensed right topossess and use firearms of a certain type. InAustralia, this would be:

Poor prohibited from possessingfirearms.

Ordinary no weaponsFair - Bolt- or lever-action rifles and

shotgun with magazines of less than 10 rounds;Middling - Semi-automatic rifles and

shotguns with magazines of less than 10rounds;

Good - Handguns of any kind;Excellent - military-style weapons of

non-explosive type, or licence to carry on yourperson and use in an urban area loadedfirearms.

All Such licences also require absenceof criminal record, a large locker or safe, with aseparate compartment or locker for ammunition.

Licence levels and requirements areabout equal to that of Australia in westernEurope and Britain. They are two levels lower inthe United States; that is, licence and check onlyrequired for handguns and military-styleweapons in most states, and some states permitpossession of explosive weaponry.

Eastern Europe and much of Asia have similarlaws to Britain, but are rather poorly policed in most cases, with notable exceptions such as Singapore.Firearms rules in much of sub-Saharan Africa are simply, "shoot first."

The cost of firearms licences in Japan is three levels higher for each type of weapon, and in nocase excepting only the US President's Secret Service guard detail - would a non-Japanese begranted such a licence.

In Australia, this is an Anyone Trait; improving it is relatively quick. In more restrictive countriessuch as Japan it might be a Specialist Trait, taking some time to improve.

There's an alternate version of this Trait, simply, Firearms Possession.Note: the issue of firearms licences is, in fact, much more complicated than this across the

world. Firearms laws are like other laws, full of exceptions and variation from place to place. However,this isnt meant to be a treatise on gun law, just to give an idea of the issue: most games simply treatthe problem of acquiring firearms as a matter of money.

Prerequisite: No Traits granting a criminal record, obnoxious personality aspects, psychologicalproblems for which medication is required, etc.

Firearms Possession (Illegal): In this case, the firearms are possessed illegally, but the characterhas some other Trait going with it, such as Duty to Crime Family, etc. The Trait is otherwise the sameas Firearms Licence, excepting that the ease of each type of firearms possession is one level lower ineach case, for example only a Middling Firearms Possession Trait is required to have handguns,compared to a Good Firearms Licence Trait.

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Bad StuffConcerning this "Bad Stuff," it's called that because it's something that restricts the behaviour of thecharacter. You can't do any damn fool thing you want, you're restricted by this stuff. From the point ofview of the player that makes this stuff bad. Things such as a Code of Honour are from many people'spoint of view a good thing. But from the point of view of freedom of action of the character, they're bad.That's why they're here.

When you "buy" levels of Bad Stuff, you go down the ladder to Poor (first level), then Terrible(second level), then Crap (third level), and no further. The "worse" the Bad Stuff Trait, the more itrestricts your character's freedom of action.

Bad Stuff Traits do not have Similar Traits, or Prerequisites.

Note on Codes of Honour etc.Most game systems have your character's strong will opposing their "weakness" - like their

Code of Honour, or their Gluttony. So that a strong-willed character more easily overcomes theirhonourable nature to do dishonourable things, or their hunger. But in fact, a stronger-willed person isone who tends to hold to their character aspects more strongly than a weaker-willed person. The willdoes not act against the aspect, it supports it. A weak-willed person is more likely to give up on whatthey believe in (Code of Honour) or what they desire (Gluttony). A strong-willed person sticks to theirguns, or pursues what they want with more determination.

If a roll is called for on a Bad Stuff Trait, then this will usually be an Unopposed Roll against

Confidence, to resist the effects of that Trait. If the Bad Stuff Trait performance is lower thanConfidence, the Bad Stuff Trait gets expressed for that scene. If the Bad Stuff Trait performance isequal to or higher than Confidence, then the character hesitates, and doesn't express their Bad StuffTrait for this scene.

Consider: a Terrible Code of Honour the "Terrible" represents how restrictive the code is.Your characters Good or Poor or Middling Confidence represents their strength of will how stronglythey hold to that code, as well as how strongly they hold to other things. Don't think of it as "am I strongenough to resist my faults?" but as "am I strong enough to behave in the way I feel is natural andproper for me?"

So a person with a Crap Code of Honour and Poor Confidence level, they've got a veryrestrictive code, but they keep breaking it and feeling bad about it; a person with a Poor Code ofHonour and Outstanding Confidence, they only have some light restrictions, but they almost neverbreak them.

That is, the level of the Bad Stuff Trait represents how restrictive it is, while the Confidencerepresents how dedicated you are to it and any other such traits or personality aspects. This does notapply to all Bad Stuff Traits. It's irrelevant to One Arm Trait, for example. And many others will be rolledagainst a difficulty set by the GM according to the situation, rather than according to the character'swillpower and the like. Each Trait describes this.

Many of these Bad Stuff Traits will seem like Personality Aspects. Feel free to treat them assuch, if it seems appropriate. The distinction thats been made here is between Personality Aspects,which the player may choose to ignore in their character from time to time, and Bad Stuff Traits, whichthey cant ignore. Most people can set aside their Catholic Philosophy or Friendly Demeanour for amoment or two; they cant set aside their Code of Honour or Sexuality.

Example: Djim is Impulsive Poor. His character is a bit down on his luck, anddecides to visit a casino, hoping his luck will turn. The GM describes the scene, andthat theres a large wad of cash on the table while the croupier is setting up. Djim's

player giggles, "I should just grab it!"The GM says, "okay, since you're Impulsive Poor, roll that against your

Confidence. If you Impulsiveness comes out as lower than your Confidence, then yourConfidence in yourself wins out, and you grab the cash. "

"Don't I use my Confidence to resist my impulses?""No. Being Impulsive means you think it's good to just jump on in there. Djim

doesn't think of being impulsive as Bad Stuff. He thinks it's good to do things withoutthinking about them. If he had weak Confidence, he might be a bit nervous aboutgrabbing the cash. But his high Confidence means he's not nervous, usually he feelsconfident about life, that he'll be alright no matter what. Now, roll your Impulsive Pooragainst your Confidence Good."

"Ack! The highest Impulsive performance I can have is three levels higher, onthe best die roll. That's Poor, plus three levels, Middling. So even if I roll +3, I still have

Middling Impulsive, which is less than Good Confidence. My Confidence makes me soarrogant, I think I can do any damn thing. I guess no matter what, I'll grab the cash...

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Trait ImprovementThere are three approaches to Trait Improvement. It's recommended that the GM pick one of them,depending on the style of the campaign. These are:

StudySteady RateLearn from Mistakes, Slack Off with Success

Study:

New Anyone Traits: will be learned from Ordinary. Onemonth's training brings it to Fair.

New Specialist Traits: Six month's training, which brings itto Ordinary.

Anyone Traits: a month's training; Skill will improve onelevel.

Specialist Traits: six months' training; Skill will improveone level. For this purpose of improvement only, innate Traits suchas Strength, Agility, Fitness, Perception, Education and Confidenceare Specialist Traits.

Bad Stuff Trait: these can be improved, and when theyreach Ordinary level, disappear in terms of game mechanicseffects. However, the GM must be consulted before changing thelevel of these. Usually, some in-game story or action will berequired. A Dependent might grow up or get better; but how do youget rid of the Enemy without defeating them? Or grow back thatMissing Arm?

Note that the time taken is not a fullmonth or six. It's at most a couple of hours daily over thattime. A couple of hours daily is the most time that may be usefully spent trying to improve something.If, for example, you were to lift weights eight hours a day, you'd get no extra benefit compared to twohours a day. Similarly, with most other Traits. It takes time for the body to recover from the lastworkout, or from the mind to "digest" the information.

A character doing a normal full-time job may attempt to improve Trait at a time; they have a

couple of hours spare each day. A character doing nothing but study may attempt to improve up to fourTraits at once. But each one attempted beyond the first requires a successful Confidence roll, firstly atGood difficulty, then Excellent difficulty, then Outstanding difficulty. That is, can they really bebothered? Or do they just watch TV, surf the Net, and order pizza

This is why you do not find that the idle rich or unemployed are all extremely well-skilled.

Steady Rate:With this method, the GM and/or players nominate the session's "Most Valuable player," the one whocontributed the most to the enjoyment of the game not to the success of the mission, but to theenjoyment of the game. This player gets two levels to add to their character; two Traits improve by onelevel each, or one improves by two levels.

Everyone else gets one level with which to improve their character.A Specialist orBad Stuff Trait takes two levels to improve, an Anyone Trait, one level to

improve.The GM, of course, may award more or less levels to the players, should it seem desirable tospeed or slow the pace of character improvement.

Learn from Mistakes, Slack Off with SuccessThe reasoning of this is that people learn from their bad, bad mistakes, and if they achieve success,they become smug and make a mistake next time.

The player will note if, during the game session, the character achieved a result of Crap on aTrait test. If so, at the end of the session the player should roll the dice, on any result of 0 or better, theTrait improves a level. (Of course, a character with better than Middling in a Trait will have to reallystress it to get a Crap result.)

If the character achieves a result of Famous on a Trait test, the player should at the end of thesession roll the dice, on any result of -1 or worse, the Trait drops a level.

Naturally, the GM may choose to combine two of these methods.All three would be difficult to

rationalise as compatible.

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The Combat Chapter

On Killing

These are "realistic" rules, and thereforenot suitable for all campaigns. They'rehere to reflect the fact that most peopleare not brutal killers, who giggle as theyrun people over, or whose onlyhesitation in shooting unarmed peoplein the heads is a moment's wait to thinkup a witty line. Most people will not kill,even if their own lives are in danger.

It should be emphasised thatthese rules should be consideredaccording to the genre. They're not fordungeon-crawls, but they do fit in wellfor modern technothrillers, for example.Characters who wish to shoot or swingor jab to kill must make a Confidenceroll, with a result required as follows:

Victim a point on a map (eg for artillerymen), Poor Victim a distant blur through sights, Ordinary Victim another fighter some distance away, but recognisable; or a melee fighter in

combat with you, Fair Victim coming for you with obvious intent to kill, Middling Victim begging for life, showing you pictures of his family, etc, Outstanding. Victim is an obvious innocent (child, cripple, etc), Olympic

Yes, its more difficult to kill someone directly threatening you than someone a few dozen yardsaway. This is because the difficulty of killing has nothing to do with the threat they pose to you, but has

to do with how close and identifiably human they are.

Once a killing has be aen deliberately done, a character will find it a level lower in difficulty thenext time in a very similar situation. Once you've bayoneted someone in combat, it's not so difficult thenext time. This will be cumulative, and will apply to easier situations also; for example, once you'veshot a crippled blind begging child, it's not such a big deal to bayonet someone in trench combat.

If the roll is only just failed by one level, the attacker uses some less fatal means to attack. Forexample the bayonet thrust (Stab damage) becomes a whack with the butt of the rifle (Bash damage).

If the roll is failed by two or more levels, the attacker doesn't directly attack the enemy, butuses their weapon to intimidate. For example they fire in the air above their heads, or brandish theirsword with a battle cry (Intimidation skill, with a bonus for weapon use)

If the roll achieves a "Crap" result, or a result three or more levels lower than required, theattacker doesn't use their weapon at all, but finds something else to do. For example they run away,

load magazines for another fighter, surrender, cowers and cries and dribbles all over themselves, etc.This of course should be player choice, according to their character's personality. In this case, thecharacter will find killing in a similar situation a level harder next time.

The difficulty may be modified by such things as, crowd chanting with their thumbs down,officer standing next to you abusing and threatening you, "Stop aiming high, damnit!" and so on. Ofcourse, it may also be modified by appropriate Traits and Personality Aspects, such as Humanitarian,Pacifist, Intolerant, Racist, etc.

This is the reason that d4-d4 does not give copious tables of statistics for guns and otherweapons. For the vast majority of people, even combat soldiers, the problem of weapons is notwhether the .44 Magnum has greater stopping power than the 9mm parabellum, or 38 hollow-nose;it's pulling the trigger while pointing it at a human being. It doesn't matter what the calibre or range orfire rate of the thing is if you never fire it directly at anyone. And if you are willing to fire, then you willeventually kill the guy, regardless of how useless your weapon is.

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Summary: Combat SequenceEach combat round consists of:

1. Initiative rolls2. Statements of Intent3. Resolution of actions, in Initiative Order.

a. If attacking, roll to hit, vs opponent's Dodge or Parry.b. If you hit, roll for hit location.c. Assess Damage, and then Wound.d. If you have been hit, roll to check for Knockdowne. If Knocked Down, roll to check for Knockout.

4. After the combat, if injured, check for Shock.a. Now, wound penalties will kick in.

5. If anyone is still standing against another, return to 1.

1. InitiativeAll combatants roll against their Speed. The highest goes first. The GM may impose modifiers, such asattacking by surprise, a combatant being drunk, and so on. A Poor or worse result means that thecharacter does nothing this round except D&D: Dithering and Ducking.

A character may choose to act later in the round. The GM will simply skip over the character,

going through every other character's turn, and the character pipes up when they want to act.Naturally, if you are knocked down before your turn, one of your two actions will be getting up.

Even if you choose to stay lying down, you must still take a moment to collect yourself and get yourbearings. If knocked out, you simply miss your turn. Hey, it's a tough and nasty world out there.

Example: Djim finds himself in a barfight with Golly Grover, famed pugilist. Hisrelevant combat Traits are Speed Middling, Toughness Middling, Brawling Middling, Strength Excellent.

Golly Grovers combat Traits are Speed Fair, Toughness Excellent,Brawling Good, Strength Outstanding.

In the first combat round, Djims player rolls 4,3 = +1 for his Initiative, so thathis Speed is increased by one level this round, and he has Speed Good.

Golly Grovers player (the GM!) rolls 1,3 = -2 for his Initiative, so that his

Speed is reduced by two levels for this round, and he has Speed Ordinary.Djim will act first.

2. Statements of IntentPlayers decide what two actions their character shall take this round. It's a good idea to have theplayers state their actions in reverse order of Initiative. That is, the ones going last decide their actionsfirst; the ones going first have a little longer to think about what they're doing.

Generally, characters in combat get two actions, two of: Move: 3 metres plus the Speed level above or below Ordinary (eg 2 metres for Poor

Speed, 6 metres for Good, etc) Draw a weapon

Do a melee attack note that some weapons require two actions (basically very

large/heavy weapons) Do an unarmed attack, including fancy stuff in combat (see below).

Do a parry

Dodge (Speed roll). If you do not use a full action to dodge, your Speed/Dodge will be Crap.

Fire a snap shot. This is where they simply raise their weapon and fire. They point it at thetarget; they dont actually focus and aim.

Aim

Change position (prone to crouch, one action; then from crouch to stand, one action; orfrom stand to crouch, or stand to prone in one action). Turning to run away also counts aschanging position.

Reload, fix weapon stoppage etc note that some weapons require two actions.

Orient yourself (check who else is firing, who's been knocked down, is there a way out ofhere? Etc). Useful for avoiding inflicting "friendly fire."

Intimidate (see Trait description)

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Game Play Styles Chapter

Reasons game groups fall apart, and how to counter them

"I don't have the time"Often this is true. More often, not. People make time for things that interest them. People in themodern Western world are forever complaining of how pressed for time they are. Yet they watch fifty ormore hours of television a week, and when studies are done about how people feel when watching TV,the most common feeling is mild depression. When people say, "time," what they really mean is"energy" or "effort."

I received a message from a player while writing this, he said, "I could be quite interested butas I said it comes down to time and availability." That means, "if it's a good game I'll make the time. Ifit's boring I'll say I'm too busy and slink away."

People will find energy, and make efforts, for things that interest them. They'll stay up late towatch a good TV show, they'll go out in the rain to meet a good-looking guy or girl, and they'll find timefor a game they enjoy.

So, you counter the lack of "time" by ensuring they enjoy the game.

Game styles clashConsider the various elements in this chapter. It's easy to imagine, for example, that someone whowants lots of shtick will be bored by a lot of drama, and vice versa. So, smart GMs and players will sitdown with each-other, and try to make sure everybody gets what they want to out of the game. Ofcourse, it's not possible to please everyone all of the time, and it may well be that your game styles aresimply too different to fit together. In that case, find another group. But often you'll find that if you makethe effort, you can put a little bit in for everyone.

Players aren't friendsHere I make a distinction between "friends" and "acquaintances."

An acquaintance is someone that you do just one thing with. You work with them, or playindoor soccer with them, or go to school with them, or roleplay with them. If that activity stops or you dothe activity somewhere else, you'll probably never talk to that person again. You might miss them fromtime to time and wonder how they're doing, but you certainly won't shed tears over their absence.

A friend is a person who you do more than one thing with. The relationship goes beyond theactivity. It doesn't matter a lot what you're doing, because you're doing it with them. That's a friend.Quite obviously, a game group is more likely to last if the players are friends, not just acquaintances.

You build a friendship by doing different things. When you ring them up about the game, chatabout the rest of your lives, too. Get to know them as a person, not just a gamer.

The bond of friendship means that if there's other troubles in the group, people are more likelyto make the effort to fix them. If they're just acquaintances, who cares? And even if you do leave the

game group which has your friends in it, at least you've still got them as friends. The bond of friendshipwill generally make players and GMs more reliable. You can sneak away from acquaintances, ignoretheir phone messages and emails, and just disappear. It's a bit harder to do that with a friend, they'remore persistent. Also, you'll miss them.

Time and Place of Game SessionsMy practice in running games has been to have the game sessions at the same time and the sameplace, regularly. Many groups fall apart because the GM's ringing around at the last minute, "thegame's on at Bob's place this week," and getting the reply, "oh, I never heard from you, so I didn't thinkthe game was on this week," and that kind of thing.

Just set a regular time and place and stick to it.As to time, when first forming the group, try to find the least worst time for everyone. Not the

best, the least worst. Of course, some people you'll never please. There's the guy who says, "Monday

is no good for me, let's change it to Tuesday this week." That's the guy who, after you've calledeveryone up, and they've changed their whole week around him, he doesn't show anyway becausethere was something good on TV.

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Pick a time, and stick to it. Suppose you've five players in the group. If you talk for hours andhaggle over what time they should show, eventually they'll all agree on a time, and then only three ofthem will show up regularly. If you just lay down a time and stick to it, no matter what, they'll bitch andmoan and then four of them will show up regularly. It's crazy but that's the way it is.

A regular place is also good. This can be difficult if people are spread out across a large town,but it's still worth trying. Some people have trouble getting across town, especially if they're relying onpublic transport or a car they share with a spouse, but if it's at the same place each session, then they

can plan for it and work around any troubles; whereas if it changes each week you never know if they'llbe able to show.

However, regular time and place means you need to be flexible in your gaming.

FlexibilityMany game groups revolve around one person, the GM, or some key character in the story. If thatperson can't make it, there's no game. If that person misses a session or two, the game group dies. Beflexible. If that key person can't make it, everyone meet up anyway and play something else. Be agroup, not a bunch of followers of the Dear Leader. Your local sports team doesn't forfeit the gamebecause a single player is missing, why should you?

So, be like a sports team play even without the important players, because you're a teamfirst. Think of all the music bands around, some of them have one member out of six leave and the

band dies; others have half the members leave, but they go on. Just meet up every session, if the keyperson isn't there, scratch up another roleplaying game, or a board game, or a video, or a visit to thepub, whatever you like. This also makes that missing person feel envious at having missed all the fun,get worried that you don't need them any more, and so they make sure that they come to the nextsession.

Variety is the Spice of Friendship and GamingIf you're not so comfortable with the personal chat way of getting to know each-other, that's okay. Themain thing is to do different activities. What works well is the Moncrieff Method (named after the GMwho introduced me to it), suppose you have a game session once a week. Every fourth session, dosomething different. Play a different roleplaying game, watch a movie, play a board game, go out fordinner, go bowling, play football, whatever. After each session like that, nominate a person to organisethe different activity for the next session a month later. So if you have six people in your group, eachperson will have something to organise every six months.

This helps everyone get to know each-other in a different setting, know what they like anddislike. It lets the people who are usually players be in control for a change. It encourages that quietguy to do something active as it gives him responsibility. It gives you a break from running or playingthat particular game. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to say about body-building that you should do alittle bit less exercise than you felt like doing. "You've got to stay hungry," he'd say. Do more than youfeel like, you might not do it again. Do a little bit less, and you look forward with enthusiasm to the nextsession, and are more likely to show up and do it.

If the players become friends, the group will last longer.Variety also helps groups last, because often what happens in small social groups is that

everyone becomes accustomed to their roles, and if any of those roles look like changing, the groupfalls apart. If the same guy has GMed the same game system in the same setting with the sameplayers for a couple of years, if they try something different, it's a mess. If the GM's forced to change

the system or setting, he steers the game to closer to his preferred style, or lets the players dosomething stupid, and then says, "well, the campaign is over now, you've screwed it up! I guess we'llhave to go back to the old one." If the former GM becomes a player, he's not used to not being incontrol, so he becomes disruptive and has his character do stupid things does his best to derail thecampaign, so you can go back to his one.

Just as doctors make the worst patients, and chefs make the worst customers, so, too, doGMs make the worst players. The trick is to not let them become professional GMs. Mix it up a bit.A lot of this sabotage by the former GM isn't deliberate, but it gets the same result either the groupgoes back to the old way, or the group falls apart.

So, a little variety every fourth session or so will mix things up a bit and keep it interesting. Ofcourse, this also means that players will have to have a little tolerance. Maybe the nominated personwill run a game, and never has before. Give them a chance. It's only one session.

Incidentally, if a couple of the players are unhappy with the current GM, and want to topple him

in a bloodless coup, this can be a good way to do it. After the variety session, get someone to say,"hey, that was cool. Maybe we could do that for a few sessions?" Just let the old unpopular campaignbe quietly forgotten.

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GMing Chapter

Elements of GamingIn essence, players play for four reasons:

1) Friends: the social group of the players and GM2) Wonder: to explore stories and worlds of imagination3) Heroism: to have the experience of being more brave and capable than you are, and/or tobe a deciding factor in important events.4) Acting: to get into the mind and behaviour of another, imaginary person.

The purpose of the GM is to make easier those four things, and to do a bit of it themselves.GMs run game for the same reasons as players play, but with the extra element that it's nice to seeother people enjoy themselves, and know that you made it possible. In that respect, GMing is likegiving someone a gift, cooking them a nice meal, knitting them a jumper. That's an extra reason to benice to the GM even when they're not much good. Players certainly expect people to be nice to them,even when they're not much good.

The issue of friends has been mentioned many times in the previous chapter. The issue ofheroism is one which depends on player actions, and on the setting of the game. The many sidebarsin the text of the game point to rules you can use to make heroism of the reckless kind easier or harderfor characters to manage. Wonder and Acting will be dealt with below.

WonderThis is something which is difficult to produce. Anyone who has visited some place like the EiffelTower, or the Sistine Chapel, or stood on a mountain on a clear day, or been stunned by the firstchords of an orchestra or band, or explored a deep cave these are all feelings of "wonder." Thatmoment of intense wonder is perhaps impossible to produce just with words from the GM. But you canproduce less intense wonder in other ways.

Music is one way. Often a GM will be inspired to run a game in a particular setting after seeinga movie or tv series in that setting. In that case, buying the soundtrack may be a good investment forthe GM. Put that on in the background while you're playing. Also, if you enjoy that piece, or if there'ssome other piece you feel is appropriate, consult friends and roleplaying message boards, who'll beable to suggest similar music.

Choose the music carefully, though. Music with words will often lead to players singing along,distracting from the game (unless the game requires them to sing!) So, instrumental music can bebetter. Unless, of course, the words have significance to the story.

Illustrations can also be good. Most of us can't draw. But public libraries will have books withthe right illustrations for your setting. Fansites of a movie or tv series or game may have theappropriate illustrations for you; but of course be careful about copyright, and when in doubt, contactthe website administrator their not replying does not mean it's okay to take what you want. Manywon't mind you taking their illustrations for your private use, so long as you check with them first.

Maps are just another kind of illustration. A websearch for "historical maps" will bring up someinteresting ones. There's entire sites dedicated to historical maps online.

In the case of both illustrations and maps, bear in mind that these act as a hint to players. Ifthe characters see twenty things, but the players only see one illustration of a thing, then the playerswill send their characters along that line. If the characters meet fifty people, but only two of them haveillustrations, guess which ones the characters are going to talk to for a long time? Think again of "Push& Pull." A few illustrations can act as a very strong Pull for the adventuring group.

Description is something which many GMs fall down on. Many aim for their game to be liketheir favourite movie or TV series. They focus on the visual medium of these shows. But every gamer,and most characters, have five senses: sight, hearing, touch (including temperature sense), smell,taste. A good description will use at least two of these senses. It doesn't have to be long, thedescription, but it should have two or more of the senses. Compare the two below:

More examples and other stuff in the full version! 90 pages and 35illustrations of gaming goodness! And only one table for players to

worry about!