Ross Wilkin

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR for short) is a dancing game that, well, has really been a revolution. It has brought to the fray the idea that video games and fitness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Play is facilitated by dance mats, giant controllers that the player stands on. Combinations of directions and buttons appear on the screen in time to the music. When they reach the top of the screen, players need to step on the corresponding spots of their dance mat. Greater accuracy means a higher score.

Example Tournament: The Tournament of Souls In times long gone, the Tournament of Souls was a series of combatative duels, but it has evolved with the times: Now, participants play matches of DDR. The purpose of this competition? To crown one participant champion and gift them with great prizes. Those who fail to reach this lofty summit forfeit their souls to the tournament supervisor, the Master of Souls, unless they can beat him personally in a match.

Characters usually take part in the Tournament willingly, though only when confident in their abilities. However, Master of Souls relies on the souls he earns through the tournament to elongate its existence and youth. If no new particpants are willing to take part for a long period of time, he may be forced to take participants against their will. The Tournament of Souls is thus a good event for very skilled PCs, but is also an option for new PCs.

This game, One Page RPG Fantasy Edition, is my response to Jeff Moore’s “The Character Sheet is the RPG challenge”. I chose to use a simplified version of my BLYSS system for this RPG, and if I do say so myself it’s worked out rather nicely. Though its quite as simple as Jeff’s Rage, Precognition, Grace, I’m still confident that a group of beginners could easily grasp it, and the selection of Attributes and Skills in this flexible point-buy system should suit the more advanced players too. I plan to produce a matching Dungeon Master’s sheet with advanced rules, DM aids like monster and combat trackers, and perhaps an adventure in notation form. Check this one out folks: It’s only a page long, it won’t take much of your time to look at … but it might consume a lot of your time to play!

Sonic the Hedgehog is about freedom from oppression and heroic antics of all kinds. It is also about the corrupting influence of power, embodied in the character of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman. It is about doing the right thing and dedication to ones’ beliefs – Sonic and pals all have power, but they use it to fight the villains of the game, and some have personal quests such as Knuckles’ protection of the Master Emerald.

How to use Sonic the Hedgehog, An Unofficial RPG

Sonic the Hedgehog, an Unofficial RPG is a roleplaying game. This is a game that is played with a group of friends in which each player takes on the role of a character and dictates their speech and actions. These characters are known as Player Characters (PCs for short). One player is known as the GameMaster (or GM for short). It is the GM’s responsibility to create the world and scenarios the PCs will act in, as well as populate them with Non-Player Characters (NPCs), which exist to make the world seem like a real, breathing one, not simply a static, non-evolving environment. NPCs may be allies, enemies, indifferent parties, or even minor character made up on the spot because a PC grabbed a random person in the middle of the street to ask directions. Whatever their role in the game, NPCs exist to give your world depth and the PCs an expanded cast with which to interact. For a more detailed discussion on the nature of roleplaying games, see Jeff Moore’s article, Roleplaying in the Computer Age.

Print out your sheet, pick up your dice, and prepare to play! SoloQuest is a solitaire RPG that requires only the use of a d8, a d2, a pencil and eraser. It consists of just one page, on which you can find both the rules and sections for recording your character’s statistics. With just these tools and a little imagination you can randomly generate a set of challenges to overcome!

SoloQuest assumes a fantasy setting, with the inclusion of witches, guardsmen, familiars, and a set of magick skills for your character to learn. While the rules generate the adventure, it is up to you to “join the dots”. If you meet a witch more than once, is it the same one? What is her interest in your character? Why did your familiar agree to join you? Exactly who is this criminal the guardsmen keep mistaking you for? Is he one of the enemies you’ll fight later? The rules are just words on a page, the true game goes on in your head: Only you can create the story.

Consider expanding on the rules on the page to add to your experience. You might randomly determine if an enemy has a magick skill (probably excluding resurrect). Initial enemies probably only have 1 rank in that skill, with more powerful enemies having additional ranks or several magick abilities. Perhaps you can find and buy amulets or potions of vigour, increasing your Health beyond 1 (to a maximum of 15, perhaps). Further skills are more than possible, and may be the focus of add-on sheets.

Above all, have fun!

How to Play: You need a d8 and d2. Print out this sheet. Name your character. Assign 5 points split between Attributes, and 3 between Skills. Generate adventures by rolling on the Encounter table, then rolling on the indicated table. Repeat. Each encounter equals 1 experience point (exp). Spend exp to add additional ranks to Attributes and Skills. Attribute ranks cost 2 exp x rank (to increase from rank 1 to 2 you would spend 4 exp). Skills cost 1 ? rank. Print out additional sheets for allies and familiars. Allies gain exp only for encounters they take part in. You have 1 Health, which are healed after all encounters with the exception of traps. In combat roll d8, if you roll lower than the enemy?s Defense – your Strength, reduce their Health by 1. Enemies attack you similarly. Each turn you must decide whether to use a Melee or Ranged attack (see Skills.You may have no more than 3 Allies, and only 1 Familiar.

BLYSS is a generic system for guiding the action and establishing the results of roleplaying scenarios, and I think it would make a good addition to 1km1kt.

It is intended to be simple at heart, everything based on the same mechanics: All abilities, powers, and skills are measured on a scale of -1, with each rank corresponding to a certain dice combination. All resolution tasks are rolled in the same way.

BLYSS is meant to be generic, easily adapted to any conceivable setting or situation. Most importantly, it is intended to be modular ? with lots of Options and Variants that can easily be slotted into the system to fully customize it ? and easily adaptable, so that if the right Options and Variants for a person?s game don’t already exist, they should have little problem with simply making their own modifications to the system.

The distinction between the two types of BLYSS ?modules? mentioned above is as follows:

An Option is an entirely new set of guidelines that is added onto the BLYSS system to change the way you play the game.

A Variant is a change to the game which modifies rules that already exist.
Current Options: