Dungeon Squad, Dungeon Delving from d4 to d12

Review #53 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Dungeon Squad, Dungeon Delving from d4 to d12

July of Adventure is making an appearance in August!

Dungeon Squad is a simple RPG with a Tri-Class System. You have three “skills” that are Wizard, Warrior and Explorer. Each one covers a broad area of expertise and abilities, and every character can attempt a roll with any one. Some will be more successful than others. In this regard, characters in this game are more “rogue-like” than usual ones. Sword in one hand, and magical scroll on the other.

But what really caught my eye about Dungeon Squad is how it uses a whole set of dice. Your roles use the d4, d8 and d12, while your starting items use the remaining d6 and d10. In my group we found it easier to keep each die on our character sheet, over either the role or item it belonged to. That's actually what the game had in mind, as it's developed trying to appeal to both young and not-so young players.

A problem we encountered, though, was that there are no rules for social rolls. Dungeon Squad is for a... well dungeon environment, so you will fight, find treasure and escape traps. If your group, like mine, likes to talk (or rather, lie. We are not perfect, ok?) to NPCs, here are two ways to handle it: no roll, your talk is as good as you actually talk; or, use Explorer, as you are maneuvering over “social hazards” with quick wit.

So here you have Dungeon Squad. Characters take, like, 30 seconds to make, and the action is fast with easy rules. Definitely great for a quick pick up game, especially using the equipment sets to prepare the characters inventory.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Download Link: http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/dungeon-squad

Ring of Thieves, solo adventure for Risus

Review #37 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Ring of Thieves, solo adventure for Risus

Risus is a great and simple RPG game I’ve already talked about. Today, I offer you the solo adventure Ring of Thieves.

You use Risus’ rules to play the story of the Halfling Thief Lucas Marks, investigating the disappearance of his partner. You have a few clues to go on, but it’s going to be a challenge.

One can think of it like a “Choose your own adventure” kind of book, only cooler.

Ring of Thieves is a lot like a rougelike video game, given that, even if you make the exact same choices, you are going to roll differently each game and everything will change.

This supplement is a fun way to test Risus rules to see if they are of your liking before running a game. It’s also great if you are bored and feel like being a Halfling for a while.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/thieves.htm

Badass, The Roleplaying Game That Kicks LOGIC in the FACE!

Review #26 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Badass, The Roleplaying Game That Kicks LOGIC in the FACE!

I didn’t write that title. That’s 100% from the game. And when a game introduces itself like that, you know you are in for a treat. The only requirements to play Badass are getting rid of logic and fear. Got it? Then let’s begin.

Badass is a simple system, perfectly crafted for the genre. There are no stats or skill, just a blanket badass type (Kickass improves physical rolls, Smartass mental ones and Wiseass social) and a few flavas or abilities. All rolls are 2d6, and can be improved spending Badass Points.

And that’s one of the games best features. You see, by spending Badass Points, either when using abilities or to augment your rolls, you turn them into Awesomeness Points. Get enough of them and you can acquire some new abilities.

Pretty fast our game turned into a race to spend Badass points, even though it was a one shot, so characters weren’t going to spend Awesomeness. Three of the five characters did get enough points though. So right before the end, after they “defeated” the final boss, I asked them what they were buying. Cue an epic soundtrack (One Winged Angel, from Final Fantasy) and the real boss! That way they got to use their shiny new powers.

If you run a one shot with Badass, I seriously recommend finding a moment to buy flavas. It makes the game a completely different (and better) experience.

Another great aspect of Badass is how it handles NPCs. Quick, dirty, most mooks are a mob and bosses have a few special “bad guy-only” flavas. Highly recommended for wild and fun escapades. Leave your serious face home.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://www.stargazergames.eu/games/badass/

Situations, a new best friend for GMs

Review #22 – Free RPG Material

Situations, a new best friend for GMs

Instead of a game, today I offer you a nice guide for GMs. It's setting-free and easily adapted to your favorite system, so I'm pretty sure anyone can find it useful. If you don't plan on GMing soon, send this link to your GM! Let's help some Masters out there.

“Situations” offers six broad structures to build an adventure around. They are just bare

skeletons, but they make it easier to put your ideas down on paper. Written in a simple and complete way, you'll find yourself creating adventures while you read the guide even for the first time.

The cases are (taken from the index): “Long Knives is used to create situations for intrigue that the characters are tied to. Broken Places builds situations where a villain of some

sort has taken over an organization. The Quest is used to generate adventures that will take the characters out on significant journeys. Transgression is a generator for social movements and the resistance to those movements. Predator Souls is a means for making monster-hunting scenarios for your games. Nine Rooms is a method for setting up dungeons, the classical limited-space perilous situations.”

If you ever GM, you should definitely check it out. Even if you don't use the specific structure proposed, you'll find your ideas more organized in no time.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102507/Situations-For-Tabletop-Roleplaying?src=s_pi

For the Author’s site: https://sites.google.com/site/amagigames/home

Pockets Full of Adventure, Dimensional Pants Hopping

Review #18 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Pockets Full of Adventure, Dimensional Pants Hopping

What’s not to love here? The setting is great and straightforward, but the cool mechanics is where this game really shines.

You take on the role of… someone, tasked by Keeton the Scientist to travel to other dimensions through his pocket-portals and retrieve his stuff.

To crate your character, you grab a book and play a mad limb kind of game. You choose some words from a page at random to complete this sentence: “You can think of your PC as (Adjective) (Noun) with and (Item) who can (Verb)”. The result is crazy and fun, trust me.

And the conflict resolution system has a nice twist in it. You play cards to take actions, and discard them when hurt. Face cards can interrupt another character’s action. It’s simple and fast, making action dynamic and keeping the game moving.

Right now I should say that, on the “counter” thing, we made a house rule as soon as we started playing. Following the written rules, to counter an action you have to play a card of the same suit as the action card. We didn’t do that. NPCs didn’t have normal skills (to much bookkeeping) and if you could only counter with one suit, it limited your defenses. Instead, we forgot that rule. The GM could play any card she wanted as an action, and one could counter with a face of any suit. It worked great for us.

So, final “rating”: solid, fast and exiting game. You should definitely give it a try.

- The Storeman

External Links Ahead!

This game was an entry to the “Harder than Granite” 24 hour game contest. I might talk about some other submitted games. Check the rest out!

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/pockets-full-of-adventure

24 hour RPG Challenge - Wacky Love – The End

Babbling at the Counter #17.5 – Pen and Paper

24 hour RPG Challenge - Wacky Love – The End

Well, now I’m wrapping up my little 24 hour project. I’m pleased with the final result (link at the bottom of the post) but we’ll talk about that later.

Today, I want to say how fun the 24 hour RPG Challenge is. If you abide by the rules, having a set time and working on something completely new, it will surprise you what you are capable of.

I really recommend it to everyone who would like to try his hand at RPG game designing. By working on such a short time span, you can actually see what your design strengths and weaknesses are. And by the end, you’ll have something to show for it.

As a personal example, I’ve been working on 3 different RPG ideas for the last few months. What do I have so far? Almost nothing. I’ve written and rewritten things thousands of times, and now it doesn’t amount to much.

And even though I’ve done the same at the Challenge (and the final result is not as vast or complete as I would have wanted), at least now I see how I actually work.

So, yeah, loads of fun. Try it.

And for video game designers, I’ve read about the 7DRL Challenge. It’s pretty similar to this, only a week long and about Rogue Like games. Just saying…

Will leave a link to a nicer version of the game as soon as I have one. For now, here are the plain rules. Tell me what you think!

- The Storeman

Tiny d10 – My First Playtest

Babbling at the Counter #15.5 – Pen and Paper / Tiny d10 Playtest

Tiny d10 – My First Playtest

What’s Tiny d10? Well, it’s a free RPG system that’s in its early stages of development. As such, its author is asking for some feedback about what’s been published so far.

As the game is “Absolutely free… forever”, it’s right up the Warehouse’s alley. I, as the Storeman, had to give it a try. So here are my impressions with the system, after testing it with a friend.

Note: This isn’t a weekly review because the game is not complete yet, but it’s actually playable. If you give it a spin, please let the author know your opinion, so the game can continue growing and improving.

Tiny d10

Core Rules: The rules are well-written and are easy to understand and follow. They are simple right now, but I expect to see more specific rules when the Setting Supplements are published.

Character Creation: It’s fast and simple. Once you get it, it takes a minute to create your character. You have four stats, and between them they cover every kind of action: Power (physical strength), Reflex (quick feet and readiness), Intelligence (mental ability and knowledge) and Aspect (social skills). You choose what you are great at (+3), good at (+2) and the rest gets +1. There will be character classes, but they are incomplete right now. As my player didn’t used the special abilities we made (following the guidelines on the site), I can’t say how they would have worked.

Conflict Resolution: Here’s where I fell in love with this system: single d10 + Stat + Skill (if you have a useful one in the situation). The target numbers used are 6, 8 and 10, and they work great. You easily know which stat to use and then creating a difficulty is fast, too. Combat is treated exactly the same way (redundancy in rules is good design, as it helps learning and remembering them).

The game offered a lot of creative freedom. My job as GM was very relaxed. It was obvious which stat we should use and it was better to play to your strengths, but the character wasn’t crippled if he tried something weird.

The Luck System: This is one of the weakest points of the system. I loved the idea “ask for something and see if the dice give it to you” but, as the chances of luck actually happening were so low (1 in 10), there was no suspense. When he used his luck ability, neither one of us was expecting it to succeed. And it didn’t.

I’d rather give players a more direct control over the narrative, like “Destiny points” or “Plot points” if you’d like. Something to “spend” to catch a break instead of a gamble that will most surely fail.

Action Points: Something like this (read Luck System if you skipped the paragraph and have no idea what I’m talking about). Action Points can be spent to increase your odds of success on any given throw. They are simple and nice. I just would offer the chance to use them as “plot tools” instead of relaying on the separate Luck Mechanic.

One unexpected twist here is that your Action Points come from the same pool that your Health Points. At character creation you have 10 points to split between the two. It’s not a bad twist, though. I see it as having two polar opposites: a lucky bastard that can make explosive moves but goes down with one hit; or a tank that plays it safe. You can make anything in between, favoring Action or Health, or maybe looking for a balance between the two. It’s new and unusual, but in a good way.

Bottom Line: I enjoyed Tiny d10 and plan on playing more of it. It’s the kind of simple game we look for here in the Warehouse. It gives both players and GM freedom to work with, and its rules are explicit enough that no one feels cheated.

I can’t wait to see more from it, and you can expect to see more here. I’ll try to keep you updated, but don’t forget to check the official site, too.

External Link: http://tinyd10.wordpress.com/

- The Storeman

Danger Patrol, Laser Blasting, Sci-Fi and Over the Top Space Action!!! (in your Pocket)

Review #15 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Danger Patrol, Laser Blasting, Sci-Fi and Over the Top Space Action!!! (in your Pocket)

I say welcome, fellow travelers of the interweb, to the Marvelous Warehouse of Trinkets. This way you’ll see the “Amazing Matter-Displacing Thingamagik”, right next to the “Sub-Atomic Survival Suit”. But don’t dwell on those devices right now; come and take a look here. I offer you, Danger Patrol Pocket Edition!

This game provides an authentic “sci-fi show from the 50’s” feel: danger all around the dashing heroes, who must try and execute risky maneuvers to prevent a catastrophe.

Throwing lots of dice (more the more dangerous the action is) and hoping to stop the menaces before the Danger-meter reaches 10 but without getting your hero out of combat makes a very fun, very fast paced experience.

Fair warning though: This version of the game doesn’t have a non-combat resolution system. I roleplayed them and only used dice in combat or high tension situations. It’s not so bad, but can surprise some people.

Still, great material for a wacky one-shot.

-The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Links: http://www.dangerpatrol.com/

(I’ve only tried the Pocket version; I can’t say anything about the others)

And here are some more fan-made random tables:

http://www.story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/372507

Hero, Captain, King; Champions shape the Destiny of the World

Review #11 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Hero, Captain, King; Champions shape the Destiny of the World

This here today is a heroic GM-less RPG, where the players create and save a fantasy world together. “What’s new?” you maybe thinking. Well, unlike other fantasy RPGs, this is not focused on the heroes, but on the world as a whole. Even if players take the role of one character each, after an adventure times passes, organizations rise and fall, legends spread, heroes die or get corrupted and new champions must answer the call.

Hero, Captain, King plays much like Dawn of Worlds, but with a “right there on the battlefield” feeling. The champions can create legacies that outlive them (and can become inspiration for the next generation) and PvP is fun and simple.

Try it for improvisational fun.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/64828/24-hour-rpg-contest-version

Dawn of Worlds, A World Building Game

Review #07 – Free RPG

Dawn of Worlds, A World Building Game

This is a pretty popular game, so maybe you already knew about it, but it’s so good that I felt it deserved to be here.

Dawn of Worlds lets a group of players design a world from scratch, so it’s not only a game by itself; it’s also a tool you can use when creating a game world or to write a novel; or anything else, really. As a gaming tool, it’s useful because players can make sure that whatever they want does exist in the game world, and it takes a lot of pressure away from the GM.

But enough about that, I want to talk about it as a game, no a design tool. It’s a very fun game, and completely GM-free, so we stressed out GMs can rejoice.

Now, anyone familiar with roleplaying games knows that it’s a serious problem when everyone at the table doesn’t want the same thing. Add to that the fact that messing with someone else’s creation is almost a must here and you have a recipe for disaster.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game and I highly recommend it. Just… try to play it with serious people, because it can get really ugly, really fast.

On a positive note, the worlds created are by far vaster and more complex that what anyone can create by themselves. The stories, the wars, the heroes, everything gets a life of their own pretty fast. You know what they say about too many cooks? Not true when creating a world, at least as far as realism goes.

And something I read a lot while researching for this article: please, don’t be a jerk and cheat a race during the first era with an avatar. That’s cheap, so don’t do it. Anyone who has actually played it must know what I mean.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/games.html

Risus, The Anything RPG

Review #5 – Free Pen and Paper RPG

Risus, The Anything RPG

Risus is a simple universal system, and also a pretty good one. There are special rules created for it, some online, some only found in the deluxe, paid and paper made version, but using just the core, it’s easy to adapt it to your needs.

The basic (and only) characteristic of the PCs and NPCs are “clichés”. They could be anything from “Hardened Veteran” to “Pediatrician” or “Negative Nelly”. Each one has a score from 1 to 4 and, whenever you want to do something, you just take as many d6 as your highest relevant cliché. Throw and add all the results together to try to equal or surpass the difficulty chosen by the GM.

Your clichés tell your character’s story, define his abilities and are used to measure wounds. Fights are opposed contest between a combat oriented cliché of each character, whoever loses reduces his cliché by a dice. If you somehow use a non-combat cliché in battle and win, your opponent loses three dice. If it’s due to their embarrassment or just your sheer lunacy is never quite explained.

As you can see, there is not much to know about Risus, as I said, it’s simple. Character don’t have more that four clichés so they are easy to keep track of, combat and all opposed contests resolve fairly quickly and the system rewards creativity when using your clichés.

What you might not like about this system is that characters are not very mechanically different, so it demands a little more roleplaying that other systems. And it can take a while for the GM to get used to setting difficulties, as adding dice is (at least for me) a bit more confusing when it comes to possibilities of success.

Nevertheless, a solid universal system to have at the ready for any kind of occasion.

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of virus and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

External Link: http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm

Pirates!

Review #2 - Free RPG

Pirates!

Ok, so this is the second week, and this is the second review. For this one I wanted to talk about a pen and paper RPG, given that this and video games are going to be the focus of this blog and I already talked about a video game last week.

The chosen one today is "Pirates!", a single d6 system about, you guessed it, pirates. This isn't a game for realistic simulation or lots of tactical combat, so unless you are looking for improvisational and cinematic fun you are losing your time reading this review.

The system is simple, you have six stats with values from 0 to 5, 0 being the minimum and 5 the maximum. When you want to do something, roll a d6 and try to get less than your relevant stat. Rolled less? Then you were successful. I'd say it's great but given that you are a pirate, most probably someone is going to suffer/be robbed/be set on fire, so I won’t. If you roll more than your stat, then you are hurt and out of the scene, unless you use a luck point, which are shared by the party and charged by drinking and partying.

It's a great game for a tired GM that doesn’t want to work too much.  As GM you don't roll a single dice, because players hurt themselves. NPCs are as simple as a name and as little description as possible, given that they a bound to die at the hands of crazed PCs. All you have to do is set them on the ocean and give them treasure every once in a while.

I could keep talking about the Taboo system that encourages chaos and mayhem (one of the taboos is "thinking before acting") or the Dead Man Chest, a gold bonus triggered by rolling a 5 (so players will keep rolling the dice, believe me) but that's what the manual is for. Download this PDF and enjoy a crazy adventure. There also a French version!

- The Storeman

Disclaimer: I didn’t upload any of the content in the following link. I have downloaded and checked it as I always do. I have even executed it in my own computer and did not experience any kind of problems. But I can’t ensure that it is free of viruses and/or malware that my anti-virus programs couldn’t find. That’s the author’s responsibility.

Link: http://zapti.free.fr/pirates/