Thomas Deeny

Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh wants you and all his d1 Acre Wood friends to join him in a grand Adventure. However, you know that when the Owl-Pooh wants to have an Adventure, it really means you’re going to get into Troubles. But that’s okay, he’s such a Silly old Owlbear that nobody really can stay mad at him for long.

CHAPTER 1
In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh and His Friends

Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh is an Owl-Pooh, a very special sort of Bear. He’s also a very special sort of Owl. Th e Owl-Pooh (or as he is known on Th ursdays, Pooh-Owl) is a very inquisitive Owl-Pooh of very little brain, except on Th ursdays when he is a very inquisitive Pooh-Owl of very little brain. He lives in d1 Acre Wood, with his d1 Acre Wood friends. He does what he does every day and goes on Adventures. Everyone else in the d1 Acre Wood calls this “getting into Troubles” rather than “going on Adventures”, but everyone has such a good time with Winnie the Owl-Pooh, nobody stays upset for long.

You are one of Owl-Pooh’s d1 Acre Wood friends. All of the d1 Acre Wood friends are like Owl-Pooh: odd little sort of mythological creatures found in fi rst editions of fantasy role-playing games that made no logical sense whatsoever. All of the friends are child-like versions of these strange little monsters. You choose your monster or creature or what have you and that’s what your d1 Acre Wood friend will be. You can either take a piece of paper and write down what type of creature your d1 Acre Wood friend is or you can just remember it.

Let’s say you want to be a Gelatin Cube. Well, we all know that full-grown Gelatin Cubes are ten feet on all sides, but that would mean that you are much, much bigger than the Owl-Pooh. Let’s make you Owl-Pooh sized, so instead of ten feet here and there, you’re two feet there and here.

Also, think about all the things that a Gelatin Cube can do. Well, not all the things that a Gelatin Cube can do, but things that make Gelatin Cubes Gelatin Cubes and not Owl-Poohs. For instance, a Gelatin Cube is soft and squishy, so if a Owl-Pooh falls on one from a Great Height, he’ll just bounce off with great joy. Gelatin Cubes can also clean things by sliding over them. Owl-Poohs can’t do that.

Once you have thought up what your d1 Acre Wood friend can do, you should write them down or just remember it. If your d1 Acre Wood friend can do a lot of things, you might want to write them down. Or not.

Play as a member of an ensemble cast on a science-fiction television show. Survive the episode and upstage the other actors! An RPG where you can actually win.

In Scene Stealers, you’re playing a member of an ensemble cast of a science fiction action show that’s primarily watched by teenage boys. Teenage boys that belong to the science club. Each game takes place during one episode of the show. During the episode the cast members are not only trying to overcome obstacles, they’re also trying to steal the spotlight from the other cast members.

Each episode is broken up into several ?scenes?. These scenes are basic major chunks of time: The crew breaking into an abandoned space station is a scene, running from a bunch of angry natives is a scene, fighting a bunch of bad guys with zapguns is a scene.

1.2 These Games We Play

The crew is captured by the Gamesters of Omegacron-5 and are forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. Between battles, they try to convince their fellow slaves to stage a revolt against the Gamesters.

Here’s the section where every role-playing game describes what a role-playing game is. It’s pretty straight forward. It’s a GAME. Where you PLAY a ROLE. Look, just go to http://landfill.thesnakefarm.com/aboutrpgs.php and read a delightful comparison between Our Town and a cyberpunk game.

There’s going to be a group of people sitting around a table or at least in the same room with each other. All of the players (except one) control an actor in a television show. (This character is referred to as either an “actor”, “character”, or “cast member” intermittently throughout these rules. They all mean about the same thing.) The other player controls everyone and everything else as well as describes the settings, determines the results of the cast’s actions, and pretty much knows the whole plot of the episode before the others start to play. As this is a game that is about a television show, we’re tempted to call this player something cute like “the Director” or “the Executive Producer” or “the Gene Roddenberry”, but we’ll call him “the GM” instead. (“The JMS” would work in a pinch.)

All the people that aren’t the GM are referred to as “players”, even though the GM is playing the game with everyone else. Role-playing game terminology is pretty silly that way.

1.3 Set Up

On a botched attempt at rescuing a stranded vessel, the crew is mistaken for pirates. Can they prove their innocence to the system authorities before the third moon rise? Each player chooses a character sheet (or creates his or her own cast member using the incredibly simple actor creation rules that follow). The other characters aren’t used in this episode. Separate the plot cards from the script cards and place both decks face down in the center of the table. You’ll also need a couple six-sided dice and some markers to keep track of how much star power the actor has.

The script deck contains 36 cards, all of which can be used to help your cast member outshine the others or add complications to the plots. Each player gets to draw five of these cards. With a full cast of six people, six of these cards will not be used.

If you have more cast members than six, go ahead and divvy up the cards so everyone has the same amount. For this version of the game, there’s just some squares you can cut out and use as cards. If this was created for something called ?7 Day RPG?, these would be actual cards with artwork and everything.