Craig House

Adventures into the new world is a role-playing game where the characters are explores of a new continent. The players are from a 17’s style setting. The characters walk on a map made by the GR (game runner), and the GR tells them what they see in words. The characters name things and make maps, but the action comes mostly from the players dealing with the inhabitants( who could be Indians, or oriental or anything). The GR makes the whole thing before hand, and the players choose where to go and what to do.

The GR makes events about what the players have decided to do to keep a story going. If they did not, the players would simply show up and what they did would just work.

Combat is not intended to be a major part of this game. However, combat is handled like this. Each action takes a certain amount of seconds. The GR counts off the seconds and any completed actions take place at the end of the second. The players can choose an action from a list or they can make their own and time it (or just guess how long it would take).

The players have an “advantage”, which is like a class in other role-playing games. The player picks a category like trait, skill, possession, etc. and the gets advantage powers with it.

I hope you enjoy this game as much as I have enjoyed making it.

PLAY

The players make all the decisions about where to go and what to do. When the players move, the GR has a map of the continent which he marks with tiny dotted lines, each dot represents on day journey. The GR tells a description of what the players see when the hit rivers, can see mountains, etc. Most of the interest will be in dealing with the natives. When the players move, they make a map (themselves) and name things. plains, forests, mountains, rivers.

When the players decided to do something (called their goal), the GR creates “trigger events”, things that will happen to the players when they do something. This is to prevent the players from simply doing something that just works. The trigger events do not have to be bad or a problem. They could be good, bad or just a reason to stop. An Indian who wants to sell something to you, a hostile road block or an invitation to dine with the Japanese style noble are examples of trigger events.

UNCERTAINTY

Often times what happens is uncertain. Will the people accept the players trade? will the player hit it with his gun? These questions are resolved by the GR setting a percent chance that it will wok and rolling two ten sided dice to determine it.

COMBAT

Combat begins by tearing off little pieces of paper where the players are, making a ‘five foot’ ruler on another piece of paper and drawing the places on the sheet. The GR then counts off seconds and completed actions happen at the end of the second. How many most common actions take is listed below. The players can make their own actions and time them. After estimating the fixed time, the GR adds a d2, d3 or d4 or to the total time. The players do not know how long the enemies are going to take to finish an action.

Cloaks and Daggers is role-playing game where the characters take the roles of spies in a spy organization. The players are let loose in a large GR (game runner) made world where they go do anything they want. If the players are at a loss about what to do, then the GR gives them an “involving event” to get things going again.

The players give their characters an “advantage” which is like a class in other role-playing games. They pick from the categories like talent, trait, and possession and then give themselves powers with it. i.e. a 5% chance to make someone believe them.

Combat is handled like this. Characters declare their action, which have a time to complete in seconds. The GR counts off each second and finished actions happen at the end of the seconds. They can pick from a list of actions or use their own. Combat is not intended to be a major part of this game.

A section on spy equipment and tactics is provided to give the players some sense of what they could do as spies. Without it, they would not know what to do more than a normal person off the street would.

I hope you enjoy this role-playing game as much as I have enjoyed making it

The basic concept of players collide is that the players divide up between two (or possibly more) groups, then the oppose each other in some sort of situation. The GR (game runner) might make police on robbers, space pirates on a company shipping security or two spy organizations. The players make the leaders or controllers of the side for their characters and then the GR makes the rest of the side they chose. The player’s however, get to give their side things.

Play works like this. The GR takes what the players of a side say they are doing and how long it will take for the actions to be completed is then determined. The GR then goes over to the other side and gets their actions and how long they will take. The GR then informs a side if something interesting interrupts their actions, which could be the other side’s action. Combat is handled by each person involved saying what they are going to do. The action has a time in seconds and each second is counted off and finished actions happen at the end of the second. The players could look up an action on a table or make their own by timing things in the air or just estimating how long it would take.

Craig House is the Author of Players Collide and can be reached at craig.house@mycampus.durhamcollege.ca

Investigation Squad is a role-playing game set in a Game Runner made city packed with crime organizations and people. The players are the main members of a crack down organization created to control it.

The players get a set amount of people and money to make the organization, then they make their own decisions about what to do and where to go. Part of the organization is the tactical squad that handles the combat portion of the game.

The Game Runner (GR) creates all the things that the crime organizations do on a calendar of events and all the people and places in the organization. Thus the players discover a hidden world, it is not made up as they play.

The players do not create much of a character because it is not really necessary in the game.

This game is difficult to play because it is not always apparent what to do. I hope you enjoy the challenge

Crime Kings is a role playing where the players take on the role of criminals and try to make as much money as they can by doing bad guy things. The players decide what to do and what crimes to commit; then the GR improvises with his knowledge and tells them what happens.

The GR also makes a city with police that have procedures and other factions like drug dealers etc. These can also prove a problem to players and result in a more challenging game.

Repeatedly showing up on the scene of banks and robbing them with nothing happening would get boring. The game runner (GR) puts unexpected things in all the things the players do.

I hope you enjoy to game as much as I enjoyed making it.

Secrets of the City is a role-playing game set in a city filled with cults, rituals and musty old books. It departs from other role-playing games in many ways.

The first of which is that instead of a class, characters select an “advantage”. They make their own advantage from a list of categories like talent ( eg. con man), Skill ( Chemist), possession, and others. They use this to give them advantage powers, which are like class abilities. There are no levels or experience.

The next is the combat system. Actions take a certain number of seconds and when the seconds are up, it happens at the end of the second. You can pick from a list of actions or make your own. You can either guess at how long the action would take, or you could do it in the air and time it. Characters in this role-playing game are fragile just like people in the real world. The characters are not supposed to just try to kill things like in other role-playing games; neither are Game Runners (GR) supposed to put something in their way just to kill.

The last major difference is that there are no adventures. The GR makes a story or situation with something like cults abducting people or a plan to summon a demon. The GR then is either “passive” and improvises with the information he has prepared while the characters follow their own plan or “active” where he gives the characters things to get them into the story. When the story has ended after a few gaming sessions, it is over; unless the players and GR want a sequel or want to use the characters and the city over again.

I find that an adventure in a role-playing game consists of a series of places to go and things to exchange attack roles with. The actions of the players affect nothing; they will go to each event and talk, attack or solve some kind of simple problem. I hope you enjoy my attempt to break away from this.

Methods of Terror is set in a Game Runner (GR) made world where the government of the country you live in is being taken over by an evil regime that is executing, torturing and doing horrible wrong to people. This is done unknown to the people of the country who think they are letting in a new kind of liberal government. Only you and a handful of people know, and you have formed a good guy terrorist cell to try to bring down the government.

The players begin by making their cell with details like their “basement”, a modus operandi, a plan, and other features. Then they make their characters who have an “advantage”. An advantage is basically the source of the characters powers, and is made by the player from categories like skill (chemist), talent (conman), trait, etc.

When the players are done with talking about their plans, they go do something, which is called an “operation”. The preplanned actions of GR controlled characters, the events the GR has planned and the players actions are co-ordinated with time. Depending on the events that are happening, the GR checks off each hour, minute or second and lets the events continue or stops the players and tells them some event interrupts them. Combat comes up in operations

This game is a difficult one to play. Not everyone can think of a plan to bring down a government or sneak into a building. I have included a list of ideas to use if the players can not think of anything.

I hope you enjoy this role-playing game as much as I enjoyed making it.