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Post by Craig Cartmell on Apr 3, 2015 8:31:57 GMT -9
“Let me explain, no that would take too long, let me sum up…” – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride Like a growing number of roleplayers over the last two decades, I have found the increasing complexity and length of most commercial roleplaying systems overwhelming. I’m sorry everyone, but I like to play RPG’s for fun, not as a second life. I like to be carried along by the story, not the dice. I like to spend my playing time finding creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems, not rolling handfuls of dice against skill tables to see if I succeed. I understand that the commercial authors of rules have mortgages to pay and businesses to run and I applaud the fact that they have found a way to do so. However, I do not see why I as a games' master have to own several multi-hundred page books, all of the supporting novels, the associated figures ranges, the maps and floorplans and a bucket of dice, just to give my friends an evening of fun. All this complexity is driving the roleplaying out of RPGs. The straw that broke this old camel’s back was when Dullards of the Coast decided that D&D had to become a superpowered skirmish game that mimicked World of Wiffwaff. Already known for my ability to distill a wargame down to a single page (FUBAR) I decided to try and do the same with a classic fantasy RPG. Well folks I failed.. well not entirely. Dead Simple is indeed a single page, but I couldn’t help myself and wrote a dozen supplements on such things as creating dungeons, villages, cities and monsters, each a single page long. So the rules now span a dozen pages, but you still only need the first page to play a game. You can create and develop a character and play it in a game with that single page. I published this game on my blog a few years ago now, and it has gone from strength to strength. With only a single page to mess about with I found it easy to convert to other genres and before I knew it I had about twenty variants on the books. A few of them became very popular, such as Carbon City – 1930’s Superhero Roleplaying. Well all this has now outgrown my original blog and so I have built a new one to chronicle and support it: deadsimplerpg.wordpress.com/Important Note: All of this is free! Please download anything you like here and bend, fold, staple, mutilate and adapt it to your heart’s content. All I ask is that if you publish it on the interweb that you put a link back to where it came from. Also, if you have the time let me know how it is going. Now, wo ist meine kleine goblin-hammer…?
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Post by 8rad on Apr 3, 2015 12:39:08 GMT -9
Just grabbed the forth edition, looking good. Have you thought about going in for the one page dungeon contest. Love the idea of condensing things on to one page, also had a crack at this sort of thing and its not easy.
Do you have solo rules.
Peter
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Post by cowboyleland on Apr 3, 2015 13:32:44 GMT -9
Hinter dem couch?
I didn't quite understand the toughness role part.
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Apr 4, 2015 6:27:48 GMT -9
Hinter dem couch? I didn't quite understand the toughness role part. Here's an example; You are Gobsmash the Dwarven Barbarian. You have been merrily slaying lots of orcs but one has snuck up behind you and landed a telling blow (i.e. scored 15 or more on its attack roll). In fact, the sneaky sod has scored 19 causing 4 points of damage (19-15). Now you are wearing Light Armour which reduces the damage by 1 point down to 3 points. You must now make a Toughness check using your toughness 'skill'. Your current skill level is 2, to which you add another 2 because you are a barbarian. You must deduct 3 from the roll from the damage you have received. So you roll 1d20, add 4 and deduct 3. To succeed you must score 15 or more or you will become wounded.
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Apr 4, 2015 6:28:28 GMT -9
Just grabbed the forth edition, looking good. Have you thought about going in for the one page dungeon contest. Love the idea of condensing things on to one page, also had a crack at this sort of thing and its not easy. Do you have solo rules. Peter Hi Peter, No solo rules at present I'm afraid
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Post by Vermin King on Apr 5, 2015 14:42:31 GMT -9
Your blog is a very good read. I haven't done any gaming in ages, but you make some very good points and it brings back some good memories
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Post by imnntt on Apr 6, 2015 4:20:24 GMT -9
I'm was wondering, in the 5th ed., why did you get rid of the ability to use you money to pay for training to improve your character? I understand wanting to have "experience points", it makes sense that a character improves with experience, but they should also be able to train. A knight doesn't become a knight without training (or a more powerful wizard for that matter). What if you allowed the characters to use their money to train, but only let the training be worth a limited amount of destiny points (or half of the amount needed to raise it) toward improving their character? Keep the Improving Adventurers sections from both the 4th&5th editions and add the line "Training will cut the amount of destiny points needed to improve the character in half". This way the players could raise their abilities through experience, training, or a combination of the two.
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Apr 6, 2015 9:28:05 GMT -9
Hi imnitt,
Dead Simple is what it says on the tin. I try to go for the simplest solution that feels right.
I do like your suggestion and shall consider it. After all RuneQuest II had an experience & training system I remember with great fondness.
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Aug 30, 2015 1:36:37 GMT -9
Well good people, the fifth edition is now available from the blog: deadsimplerpg.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/fifth-edition-arrives/Some of the feedback given here has been included, so thanks to each of you who commented. In the main rules there have been a number of significant changes: 1. Attributes; in comes Agility. I think that this rounds out the attributes quite nicely and is a logical addition. 2. Skill; Agility goes, as it is now an attribute. Speed is replaced by the more useful Mobility, which covers all movement types. The addition of the Agility attribute allowed me to reorganise the aptitudes. Now there is no skill that shares an aptitude bonus with any other. 3. Skill check; this has been moved to the Rules of Play section. 4. Races; we now have Half-Orcs and Gnomes to give a bit more variety. 5. Professions; I have added the Ranger. 6. Improving adventurers; I now allow characters to buy training rather than just save up Destiny points (thanks Imnitt). This is a nice way for GMs to soak up large amounts of loot. 7. Spells; I have reviewed the spells and removed those that were just duplicates in their actual effect. I have also tidied up the writing. 8. Rules of Play; there is a significant change in how we run combat, so read this section carefully. I think it is more balanced than before. 9. Saving throws; a new section that deals with all those opportunities adventurers have to die outside of combat. So there you go. Since releasing this I have also updated two of the supplements.
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Post by paperpusher on Aug 30, 2015 3:31:48 GMT -9
Well good people, the fifth edition is now available from the blog: deadsimplerpg.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/fifth-edition-arrives/Some of the feedback given here has been included, so thanks to each of you who commented. In the main rules there have been a number of significant changes: 1. Attributes; in comes Agility. I think that this rounds out the attributes quite nicely and is a logical addition. 2. Skill; Agility goes, as it is now an attribute. Speed is replaced by the more useful Mobility, which covers all movement types. The addition of the Agility attribute allowed me to reorganise the aptitudes. Now there is no skill that shares an aptitude bonus with any other. 3. Skill check; this has been moved to the Rules of Play section. 4. Races; we now have Half-Orcs and Gnomes to give a bit more variety. 5. Professions; I have added the Ranger. 6. Improving adventurers; I now allow characters to buy training rather than just save up Destiny points (thanks Imnitt). This is a nice way for GMs to soak up large amounts of loot. 7. Spells; I have reviewed the spells and removed those that were just duplicates in their actual effect. I have also tidied up the writing. 8. Rules of Play; there is a significant change in how we run combat, so read this section carefully. I think it is more balanced than before. 9. Saving throws; a new section that deals with all those opportunities adventurers have to die outside of combat. So there you go. Since releasing this I have also updated two of the supplements. Hi matholwch. I just read through your 5e rules I really enjoyed the feel of them. It took me back to my early days of rping. I loved how uou toghled the races with occupation very basic d&d feeling. You definately succeeded at short and concise from a fellow designet with similar goals congradulations!
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Sept 24, 2015 4:59:03 GMT -9
Thanks Bobby I just can't stop fiddling with them...
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Post by paperpusher on Sept 24, 2015 9:51:27 GMT -9
A game designer once told me that when you designed a game that you really love it is never complete you're always fiddling with it
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Post by bluecloud2k2 on Sept 24, 2015 9:58:08 GMT -9
I really need to get back to work on my skirmish rules...
What do you think of S3 (Simple-Skirmish-System) or S4 (Super-Simple-Skirmish-System)? That's the working name of mine.
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Post by Craig Cartmell on Dec 6, 2015 0:31:03 GMT -9
Hi Blue, Sorry for the tardy reply, most of my spare time is going into writing our new set of rules at the moment. I've checked out your blog and googled your rules but I can't find them
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Post by sudsy on Dec 13, 2015 16:31:16 GMT -9
Okay, I've spent the last hour checking out Craig's work. I'm very familiar with FUBAR, and have been printing those rules off for years since finding Forge of War when I got burned out spending way too much on fat rule books that still need more money spent on supplements from a certain very large (and litigious) games company.
I'll have to give the Dead Simple RPG rules a shot as well now! I think I can get my kids hooked on table top games with these simple rules sets. Like you mention in your first post, smaller is in fact better for the table top. No reason to require the use of volumes of rules or computers to play games, except for actual computer games, these days.
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