roshambo the rpging

RoShamBo,

The RpGing!©

Core Rules for the ‘RoShamBo’ Roleplaying Game

Written, Produced and Directed by,

Michael McIntosh

mark sabtato (order #5823523)

RoShamBo: The RPGing is ©2009, ‘Fool’s Cap Publishing’.

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RoShamBo©

The RPGing

Written by, Michael McIntosh

cover art by, Jose Pou

ISBN: 978-0-9812760-0-7

FC 10001

Copyright: RoShamBo! The RPGing is copyright 2008, Matthew Webber and ‘Fool’s Cap Publishing’

Written and designed by Matthew Webber, unless otherwise stated.

How To Do Stuff

This game does assume you have some familiarity with roleplaying games and if you’re okay with

it, I’ll forgo the usual explanations of terms or any mission statements about the roleplaying games

are and how this game supposedly fits in. If you have somehow come across this document and

honestly have no idea what an RPG is, I would strongly suggest picking up one of the many

marvelous games out there. Recommendations would include Dungeons and Dragons by Wizards

of the Coast, or my personal favourite, Talislanta by Stephen Michael Sechi.

Unlike many other pen and paper rpgs, this game does not require dice. All it takes is the pencils

and the paper. Our goal is to to provide a rules-lite, cinematic game, that while diceless, still

feels and plays like a traditional roleplaying game.

The basic mechanics are pretty simple. Everyone has played Rock-Paper-Scissors. Paper beats

Rock; Rock beats Scissors; Scissors beats Paper. This roleplaying game works on the same

principle. In the event of a tie, the character’s Skill Number is used to determine the winner. That is

pretty much it.

One person takes on the role of the GameMaster (GM) and runs the adventure, responsible for

running the plot, obstacles, problems, enemies and NPCS (Non-Player Characters, basically

everyone not controlled by the other players). While the others create their characters and try to

make it through the bloody deathtraps concocted by the vindictive GM.

As you read through, please note that no rule is set in stone. You don’t like how something is

handled, want more detail or can think of a better way to do it, change it! Now on to some specifics;

How to do Stuff: Chara cter

Creation

Player controlled Characters, sometimes

referred to as PCs, in RoShamBo don’t have

the endless list of abilities and stats that

require a spreadsheet and an advanced degree

in statistics to figure out, what they do have

are Skills. There are two categories of

skills: Combat and Regular. Combat Skills

handle fighting, be it ranged, hand-to-hand or

nuclear annihilation. Regular Skills cover

everything else from picking a lock, to

casting a spell, to performing an emergency

underwater tonsillectomy.


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Skills

In some games, the Skills are so specific that

the character ends up with a laundry list of

very detailed, very specific skills, most of

which will never actually get used in game

play. Skills in RoShamBo are broad

categories or aptitudes where the character

with such a skill is reasonably expected to be

able to attempt a related task, such as

Magician deciphering a mysterious rune, or a

Tech figuring out a how an unfamiliar engine

works.

Starting Characters have 10 points to divide

amongst all 14 Skills.

Combat Skills Regular Skills

Attack

Defend

Action.

Thievery

Magic

Science

Art

Adventurer

Pilot

Tech

Business

Athletics

*Professional

*Hobby

*Professional and Hobby are catch-all Skills

and should be made more specific to reflect

the character’s interests ie, Professional:

Law, or Hobby: Ethnic Dance, etc. They can

be taken more than once to reflect different

professions and interests.

GMs should feel free to add, expand or

remove Skills as needed to suit their

game needs.

More Points!

If a player writes a history or creates a

portrait for their character, then they gain an

additional 2 points to place anywhere they

wish (Doing both merits 4 points). This

option is only available during character

creation and all histories and portraits MUST

be approved by the other players. GMs may

award more or less points depending on their

own preferences, and/or on the quality of the

portrait/write up. The GM reserves the right

to use the character’s history against them at

any time.

Prime Skill

The player then chooses ONE Skill to be the

Character’s Prime Skill. This Skill

should reflect the main premise of the

character, such as Magic for a wizard or

witch, Thievery for a smuggler or a thief,

Pilot for a race-car driver etc. Warrior

characters can choose between the three

Combat Skills, but the choice should reflect

what kind of fighter (offensive, defensive or

tactical) the character is meant to be.

The Prime Skill also becomes the character’s

Points (Ps), and will play a role in how a

character behaves in battle.

How to do Stuff: Combat

There is no initiative; all characters and their

opponents are assumed to be acting at

approximately the same time during a round

(which is 2 seconds game-time, if needed).

At the start of the first Combat round, the

GM starts with the player sitting on her right.

Once the GM has gone around to every

player at the table, that is 1 round. The next

round, the second player to the GM’s right

starts; on the third round, start with the third

player, and so on. If there are more opponents

than characters, the remaining opponents act

after all characters have played a turn (see

Multiple Attackers, below).

The acting player then chooses an opponent

and the battle is on. The player begins by

declaring which Combat Skill they would

like to play that round. This is called an

Option.

Attack ~ Defend ~ Action

Attack and Defend are exactly that: taking

either an offensive or defensive stance.

An Action however, is any other action

taken in a combat situation and it can be one

of two things: The Combat Action skill,

or a Regular Skill. The Combat Action

Skill is a maneuver to gain an advantage,

such as drawing a weapon, moving, or

something like a feint, flank or parry, etc. In a

Throw, when a player uses Combat Action


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4

against an opponent who is Defending, they

have won the throw and the Defending

character looses 1P.

A Regular Skill involves using a separate

skill altogether, such as Magic or Thievery

and would use those skill points in the event

of a tie which in this case, would include an

opponent using the Combat Action skill. In

this case, the player must state specifically

they are trying to do. A successful Regular

Skill Action would result in the spell being

cast, or the purse being lifted, etc.

Once the player has decided which Option

their character is using, the GM then declares

which Option they chose for the opponent.

How this is done is up to the GM, but the

recommend method is the GM either

choosing or randomly drawing the

Opponent’s Option, writing it down on a

piece of paper then placing it face down on

the table. The Player then declarers their

character’s Option.

The recommended way to do this is for the

GM finds three Index cards and write one of

the three Options on each card. This way they

can be placed on the table when needed.

Other possibilities include the GM rolling a

dice to decide an Option or even playing

straight Rock~Paper~Scissors.

Once the Player’s Skill has been declared, the

GM’s choice is revealed and the outcome

revealed. Anytime Options are revealed, it is

called a Throw.

Defend beats Attack. ~

Attack beats Action. ~

Action beats Defend.

The winner of the Throw is successful and

the loser suffers the result. In the event of a

tie, both the player and their opponent

choosing the same Option, the character or

opponent with the higher Skill Point total

wins. If there is still a tie, both characters

have succeeded and both suffer the Result.

Phil the Ignoramus stands ready to battle Briss the

Kosher (a GM controlled character). Phil sits to

the right of the GM and chooses first: Action

with 8 points. The GM flips over the card they

had turned over for Bris, and reveals Defend!

Since Action beats Defend, Briss has lost.

The Results

Attack beats Action: The

loser takes damage. See ‘Weapons and

Armour’ for how to do damage.

Action Beats Defend: The

declared action or skill is a success. If the

character was using the Magic Skill, the spell

was successfully cast and the loser suffers the

consequences. For combat Actions, the losing

opponent automatically loses 1Ps. This

represents a loss of position or concentration

as opposed to actual physical damage and

cannot be defeated by armour.

Defend beats Attack: The

character takes no damage.

The Role of Prime Skills

In combat, character’s Prime Skill points

represent the overall stamina of the character.

When a character takes damage, they loose

Prime Skill Points (Ps), which means that

they have less points (Ps) to use next round.

They can also loose Ps from being

outmaneuvered by an Action. In this way,

they are not so much a representation of

actually physical health like traditional Hit

Points, but instead represent the overall

condition of the character and their ability to

hang in a fight.

Lost Ps also affects the character’s Prime

Skill. A fighter with their Prime Skill of

Attack, will find it harder to fight as they go

along, a Mage will find it harder to cast

spells, etc. In this way, the more damage a

character takes, the harder it becomes for

them to continue.





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Since Phil chose Combat Action while Briss

choses Defense, Phil won the throw. Because

Action automatically takes 1Ps from Briss’s

Prime Skill of Attack, Briss now has one less 1

Attack Point to spend in further rounds.

Unless it is their Prime Skill, a character

cannot Throw the same Skill twice in a row.

A ninja can out-maneuver their opponent (as

a Combat Action) or a Wizard can cast spells

(as an Magic Skill Action) all day long, but

they cannot Attack or Defend twice in a row.

Nor can a Warrior with Attack as his Prime

Skill Defend twice in a row.

But How Do I…? How to do

Some Other Fighting Stuff

Ranged Combat

All ranged weapons come with a number

representing how far they can be used. As

long as all parties involved are within that

range, then combat is handled normally.

Hand to Hand 0

Thrown 1

Short 2

Medium 3

Long 4

Extra Long 5

If one of the characters attempts to hit an

opponent outside of that range, then the

difference is added to the defending

opponent’s Skill Number AND Armour in

the event of a tie.

Skinky the Skink is throwing a dagger at

Mortimar the Made who is standing a Medium

distance away. Since the dagger has a range of

Thrown and Mortimar is a Medium distance

away, Morti gets a bonus of +2 in the event of a

tie, and +2 to Armour if Skinky does manage to

hit him.

If one of the characters has NO ranged

weapon, then they may not select Attack as

an option during that combat round.

Healing

In keeping with RoShamBo’s cinematic style,

lost Ps are regained at the rate of 25%(of

total, round up) per hour of rest. So a fighter

who has a total of 13P and lost 7 P in the last

fight would regain 4 hit points per hour of

rest and be completely healed within 2 hours.

However, if a PC’s P falls below 0, then their

injuries are considered serious and require

medical attention. (see How To Do Some

Other Stuff: Healing)

Advance and Retreat

Moving into, or out of range during combat

requires an Action throw. What skill is used

is up to the player. Athletics and

Combat:Action are obvious, but a resourceful

player could likely make a case for Thievery

or Adventurer, for example. They may move

one Range level per throw.

Sneak Attacks

A sneak attack is actually handled by a Skill

Throw (Hard~Soft~Nougat) using the

attacker’s Combat: Action (or possibly

Thievery) vs whatever skill the GM deems

necessary. By default this would be Defend,

but it could also be Adventurer if the target is

on watch, for example.

Cover

In Combat, if a character hides behind a wall

or a particularly large Welshman to avoid

attack, they have Taken Cover. There are two

kinds of cover.

Complete Cover: Complete cover comes

when a character is hiding behind an object

large enough to totally conceal them. The

character must not be fighting back in any

way. With Complete Cover and the attacker

must eliminate the cover or find another way

around it.

To do this, the attacker forgoes the usual

Combat Action and instead does a Skills

Throw (Hard~Soft~Nougat) using their

applicable skill (usually Attack, but may





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vary) vs the Durability of the Object

(assigned by the GM).

•If the Attacker wins, she does full damage to

the Durability of the Object. Once the object

looses more than half of its Durability, it can

now only provide Partial Cover.

•If the Object wins, it withstands the assault

with no damage.

•In the event of a tie, the Durability is

compared to the damage of the attack. If the

damage is higher, the difference is subtracted

from the Durability. If the Durability is the

same or higher than the Damage, the object

then takes 1 Damage.

Zar Dweeble the mage is hiding from Phungi the

Elf’s arrows. He dives behind a large boulder

large enough to cover him, sticks his head

between his knees and starts praying to

Yellowstayne, the god of cowards. At the angle

she’s at, Phungi can’t hit Zar directly, so she fires

a few arrows in his general direction to keep him

pinned.

Phungi, using her Attack skill, and Zar using his

Defend skill do a Skills throw. They both chose

HARD. Phungi’s arrows only do 3 damage, while

the stone has a Durability of 10. Zar is safe, but

the stone has been chipped away and now only

has a Durability of 9. If she can whittle the stone

down to Durability of 4, Zar would now be

vulnerable to attack.

Partial Cover: if the object is not large

enough to fully conceal a person, as say

behind a slim elm tree, a ruined wall or a

dachshund; or if the person concealed is

fighting back in any way, then they only have

Partial Cover and are vulnerable to attack and

damage. A Combat throw is made between

both the attacker and the partially concealed

opponent (remember, the partially concealed

opponent may also be Attacking).

The Attack is treated like a normal Combat

Throw and the cover only come into play if

both character’s choose the same Option. In

this case, Durability of the cover is added to

the covered character’s chosen Skill.

Zar decides to fight back and decides to cast

Fuzzel’s Forbidden Furry Fury at Phungi. The

next round, they make a Combat role as normal.

Since Phungi has been circling around to see if

she can hit Zar from another angle, she chooses

her Combat: Action skill 9, against Zar’s Magic

Skill of 4 (which also counts as Action). Since

they are tied, they compare their skill numbers.

Under normal circumstances, Phungi would win,

however the Durability of the rock s added to

Zar’s magic score to give him a total of 13 and he

successfully cast’s his spell while Phungi’s arrow

harmlessly bounces away while she begins to

suffer the truly horrifying effects of the spell.

Note that Partial Cover rules also applies to

the use of shields.

More than One

Opponent

There will be many times when a character is

facing more than one opponent in a round (or

vice versa). Handling this is simple. For the

first opponent, the Throw is handled

normally. Then, for all subsequent opponents,

the throw is handled normally, but character

is assumed to have 0 skill points. Which

means that they would loose in the event of a

tie.

Conversely, a character may choose which

opponent they would like to use their Skill

points. So if they are facing a horde of kobold

underlings and the dark wizard, they would

ignore the wave of flunkies and concentrate

on the big baddie.

Note that some monsters or Maxs (bonus

abilities) may allow the use of skill points in

subsequent throws during the same round.

How to Do Stuff besides hit

things: Skills

When a character wants to do something like

pick a lock, jump a dirtbike over a pit full of

rabid wallabies or bake a panini under fire,

they choose an applicable Ability Skill.

As we discussed, Combat is resolved through

a Throw of the options of Attack, Defend and

Skill. Pretty much everything else, including





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Skills and Abilities are resolved through the

options of:

Hard ~ Soft ~ Nougat*

The skill being performed is assigned a

difficulty number by the GM, while the

Option for the skill is randomly selected each

time the skill is selected. On paper it will

simply look like; ‘skill throw Athletics 4’.

The player then simply chooses an Option to

see if they succeed in performing the skill

and if they wins the Throw, then they are

successful.

Hard beats Soft ~

Soft beats Nougat ~

Nougat beats Hard.

*okay fine, make up your own options then.

In the event the character chooses the same

option as the one randomly generated by the

GM, the character’s skill number is compared

to the target number. If they are still tied, a

traditional Rock~Paper~Scissors decides the

winner (play until there is a clear winner.)

If a character does not have an applicable

skill, but wants to try it anyway, they can do

so at the discretion of the GM. They have NO

skill points. In the event they pick the same

Option, they fail in performing the skill.

Moley is trying to break into the bank again. The

GM decides to make the bank’s Security System a

Nougaty 14. Mole’s Thievery skill is 15 and he

chooses Hard. Since Nougat beats Hard, he fails

and the Security System goes into alarm. Had

Moley chosen Soft or Nougat, he would have

easily beaten the system, since Soft beats Nougat

and if he had chosen Nougat, his Skill of 15

would have beaten the Bank’s target number of

14.

How to do Some Other Stuff

Rounding

If you have to round a number, always round

up!

Difficulty

Fear Not! We Have a Chart!

When determining what difficulty something

should be, simply pick a number within the

range given below.

Difficulty Number Range

Why Bother? 1-2

Easy Peasy 3-4

Easy 4-5

Not So Hard 5-7

Hard 7-9

Way Hard 10-15

Xtreme!! 15+

Trying it Again.

Whether or not a PC can attempt a Skills

action a second time is always up to the GM.

Spot

In the classic spot check, the player searches

the room or door for traps or hidden

passages. In RoShamBo, this is handled as a

normal skill throw, using whichever skill the

GM deeps useful in the situation, likely

Thievery or Adventurer depending on the

situation.

Knockout

Knocking unsuspecting guards out with a

concussive blow to the back of the brainpan

is one of those cinematic staples that doesn’t

quite work in real life, but can make for good

gameplay. It is always up to the GM whether

to allow a PC to knock someone out, but if it

comes up, make a Skills throw using the

Attacker’s Combat Attack vs the Defender’s

Combat Action skill.

If the Attacker wins, the defender is now

sleeping like a baby.

If the Defender wins, he takes no damage and

now very aware that he is under attack.

If Attacker and Defender tie, resolve

normally (higher skill points win). If they are

still tied, the Defender takes normal damage,

but is still awake and now able to fight back.





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Make Stuff a Little

Harder

By now you may have noticed that characters

have a one-in-three chance of succeeding at

pretty much anything they attempt. This is in

line with RoshamBo’s quick and dirty,

cinematic gameplay and it does balance

somewhat by the fact that they also have a

one-in-three chance of failing. However, if

there is something that the GM wants to

make a little harder, they can assign difficulty

points to two of the Options.

Teaming Up

If two or more players are able to attempt a

task at the same time (lift a door, fix a car

etc), they may combine their Skill points, but

still may only choose 1 Option for the task.

But my PC Would know

That!

Within reason and at the GM’s discretion,

characters may still attempt the skill check

even when they don’t have an applicable

skill, for example something like jumping a

crevasse, or trying to hotwire a car. If the PC

cannot make a case for using one of their

chosen skills (for example, hotwiring the car

might use Thievery or Tech) then their skill

points for the throw are 0. The player cannot

argue that their PC would know how to jump

the crevasse because based on the character’s

background they were a champion long

jumper in college or know how to hotwire a

car because they grew up next to a Hell’s

Angel clubhouse. If the character doesn’t

have the skill, tough noogies.

However, there may be times when the player

can argue that there may be a something their

PC might know that isn’t specifically covered

by a skill. These would be things general

knowledge of an area, local lore and history

etc. In these situations, then the PC can make

a Skills throw at half their P total.

The players have just slaughtered a band of

knights wearing a distinctive Mole Rampant on a

Field of Mossy Green livery. The PC, Sir Yohan

De Thickthingie was raised nearby in the royal

court of The High Knolls and might recognize the

coat of arms, so the GM decides that the difficulty

to remember is 4, and then has him make a skill

throw. Since Sir Yohan doesn’t have a specific

background skill that applies here, the GM allows

him to use his half his PRIME skill instead.

Had Sir Yohan have Hobby: Livery of the Little

Kingdoms, then he would have used that skill

instead.

Healing

Characters with 0 or more Ps recover 25% of

their total Ps per hour of rest (round up) until

fully healed.

Once they hit -1 Ps or below, then their

injuries are considered serious and will

require medical attention. For every hour

they do not receive medical attention, they

will loose another P and will expire for good

once they when reach -10.

A PC with below 0 Ps may not fight, perform

skill rolls, walk under their own power. They

may be able to talk, depending on the GM’s

discretion. The Difficulty for all below skill

throws is the total number of Ps lost, plus any

added complications that the GM feels

applicable.

Udderfax the Bully, who started with 13Ps has

taken a direct hit from a fireball spell and is at -4

Ps. Since the GM says that he is currently on fire

and that adds a difficulty of 9, any attempt to Heal

him right now would face a difficulty of 26

(13+4+9).

In some genre games, healing may be done

with specific tools or items. For example,

Spells or Healing potions in fantasy games or

Medi packs in Scifi games. It can always be

done with an applicable skill.

First Aid: Adventurer or any other skill

where the PC might conceivably know First

Aid does not allow them to fully heal a PC,

but does allow them to stabilize the PC.

Every hour, they must do a skills throw and if

they are successful, the wounded PC does not

loose another Ps.

Advanced First Aid: Provided by nurses,

paramedics and military field medics and

other medical professionals may fully heal

PCs who have -5 or more Ps remaining. If the





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PC has -6Ps or less, they can only keep them

stabilized as per first aid until they can get

the PC to a hospital. This also applies to

Doctors who under adverse conditions such

as in a dungeon, on a battle field or in the

middle of the desert.

Professional Medical Treatment :

Can be given only by PCs with the

Professional: Medicine skill and can full heal

any PC with up to -10Ps.

How to do Stuff: Weapons

and Armour

All Weapons and Armour have a number

next to them, the Damage and Armour

number respectively. When a character or

NPC takes damage, compare these two

numbers.

If Damage is Higher than

Armour, the loosing character looses the

difference between Damage and Armour.

Krissy successfully Attacks the goblin, slashing at

it with her sword. The Sword does 5 damage and

the goblin is wearing only 2 points of armour,

therefore it suffers 3 damage.

If the Armour is higher than

the Damage, the loosing character

takes no damage (looses no points).

If the two Damage and

Armour are the same, the

loosing character does not suffer any damage,

however their Armour number is reduced by

1.

A character is considered out of the fight

when their Ps reaches 0. They are considered

unconscious or dying if their Ps drops below

0.

Unarmed characters do 1 point of damager

per strike. Unarmoured characters have 0

Armour and will generally take full damage.

Future supplements may describe races with

natural armour.

Natural Armour can be healed back as per Ps.

How to Get Stuff:

Rewarding Characters

At the GMs leisure, or at end of an adventure,

the players should be rewarded Game points

(5-10 depending on the length of the

adventure) that they can add to their

character’s Skills.

•It costs 5 Game Points to raise a non-Prime

skill by one.

•It costs 2 Game Points to raise a Prime skill

by one.

•It costs 10 Game Points to gain a new Skill.

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and check out some of our other RoShamBo Games

including the game of survival horror with a twist

Zombies AGO-GO!



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3

RoShamBo: The Character Sheet!

Name

Race

kit

Description

Prime Skill Regular Skills

Ps Thievery

Magic

Combat Skills Science

Attack Art

Defend Adventurer

Action Pilot

Tech

Business Combat: Defend beats Attack ~

Attack beats Action ~

Action beats Defend.

Athletics

Skill Checks: Hard beats

Soft. ~ Soft beats Nougat.

~ Nougat beats Hard

Professional (specify):

Hobby (Specify):

Other:

Weapons Armour

Number

Number

Accoutrements Notes

Permission given to photocopy for game use only.



roshambo the rpging

Documents

roshambo roleplaying

roshambo dont

categories of skills

specific skills

combat skills

regular skills

roleplaying game works

traditional roleplaying