Trenchcoats, Katanas and Sunglasses!, An inspiration for SR5 perhaps? Options

[Aes]

A friend and I, having consumed more thna our daily ration of beer, came up with some quick and simple rules for a RPG system. While we like that SR4 has tried to cut back on the number of rules as compared to SR3, we felt that the step needed to be taken further to ease new players into a cyperpunk game. While this system is mainly intended for late-night con scenarios, it is possible (if unadvisable) to base entire campaigns on this system. We've tried to get most of the stereotypes pressed into this firmly tongue-in-cheek rulebook, containing as few rules as possible. The basic rules are pasted below. Feel free to comment.

Once we sober up, Suicide_king will clean up the remainder of our notes and post the advanced rulebook, containg such exciting chapters as: Magicalness/Hackerness/Cyberness, Character Advancement, Alternate settings, Mooks, Boss Battles and Defeating the Point!

Feel free to comment. :D



Trenchcoats, Katanas and Sunglasses, 1st Edition:

Chargen:
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All characters start with 4 Attributes. An attribute can never drop below 0.

1d6 + 6 Katananess
1d6 + 6 Sunglassness
1d6 + 6 Trenchcoatness
0d6 + 3 Oneness (1d6 + 3 if playing a high-power campaign)

Finishing touches:
- Determine Sex: Male, Female or Rarely. (Rarely must deduct 1 from sunglassness, but gains a bonus in Kataneness or Trenchcoatness, whichever is lower. If both are equal, the GM chooses.)

- Name. Anything you want. It is reccomended you stick to an appropriate theme. (Examples: Deo, Morphinys, Trinitess, Max Damage, Sashashishi Sushi, bAsh Chainshaw)

Congratulations, you now have a fully fledged Trenchcoats, Katanas & Sunglasses 1st Edition PC.

Playing the game:
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All dice rolls are determined as opposed tests. (Player vs. GM or Player vs. Player if you're into that).
The participating players announce which attribute they intend to use for the test, and for what purpose. Ideally, the player will describe how exactly he uses his attribute, as this may earn him Oneness (See "That's COOL!" later on).

To determine success, each participant rolls 2d6. On a roll that is higher than the declared attribute, the test is an automatic failure. If neither participant fails, the winner is determined by the lowest roll. In case of ties, the defender always wins. If the attacker wins, the defender loses 1d6 to the attribute he used to block with. Prior to the damage roll, the defender can opt to declare he is using his Trenchcoatness to soak instead of the blocking attribute.

The general use of attributes is as follows:
- Katananess is used to do physical damage (Hitting ninjas, breaking doors, slashing trucks in half) or blocking attacks (including laser beams. ANYTHING can be blocked by a katana, except sunglassness).
- Trenchcoatness is used for all physical tests outside combat (Sneaking, picking the lock on the door, dodging the truck). Trenchcoatness can be substituted for katananess in defense, soaking damage instead of blocking.
- Sunglassness is used for all social interactions. If used as an attack against a npc, a success will lose the defender his next action while the player wows him with his slick sunglasses. (Even as the other players pummel him with their katanas).

Against NPCs, the GM will declare what stat the player must defend with. A player can choose to default to another attribute with a +3 penalty to the dice roll.

If an attribute other than Oneness is reduced to 0, the following happens:
- Katananess: The blade breaks. Until a replacement is found, this player can no longer make physical attacks
- Trenchcoatness: The player loses his/her clothing and must use both hands to cover up their private parts. A player with 0 trenchcoatness gains +1 sunglassness versus things of the opposite gender. Rarely is never effected by this, nor can they gain the bonus against others.
- Sunglassness: The sunglasses are broken, and the characte ris no longer cool. All socal tests automatically fail, as noone want sto be associated with uncool people.

Oneness:
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A character may declare the use of a oneness point by loudly shouting "I AM THE ONE!" prior to a dice roll. Doing so will immediately use up a point of oneness. If oneness is invoked, the player rolls 3d6 instead of 2d6, discarding the highest die.

That's Cool/That sucks:
-----------------------'

At any time during the game, if a player makes a paticularely cool or innovative description of his characters action, the other players and the GM may declare their support by loudly shouting "That's cool!" and raising a fist in the air. For each fist raised (maximum 1 per player, maximum 3 for the GM (mutants are GMs too)), the player making the test gains a culmunative -1 on their roll. It is possible to gets die results below 2 in this fashion.

If all the other players (and the GM) have a fist in the air, the "That's Really Cool" rule is invoked, and the player who made the original description gains a number of Oneness points (minimum 1), determined by the GM.

At any time, if a player make sa boring or bland description, the other players and the DM may reprimand him by loudly shouting "THAT SUCKS!", and pointing at the offending player. Each poining finger inflicts a culmunative +1 penalty to his die roll. It is possible to get die rolls above 12 in this fashion.

Like "That's Really Cool", it is possible to invoke a "That really sucks". This functions much the same way as "That's really cool", though the loss of Oneness is always 1 point. Oneness cannot be reduced below 0 in this fashion.

NPCs:
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All NPCs have one stat, determined by the GM. (Examples: Ninjas have a Ninjaness stat, Doors have a Doorness, Mooks with laser beams have a laserness etc.) One of the players 3 stats is named the default blocking stat against the npc or objects attacks. (Usually kanananess (everything can be blocked by katanas, after all), though some may require other attributes. (For example, a mook who shoots for the eyes may have his laserness locked by sunglassness).

All NPCs strength is directly proportional to his attribue. (Really important NPCs like Boss ninjas will typically have an attribute higher than 12, as the players will be ganging up on him).

Resting:
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At any time outside combat, the GM may declare one of two types of rest.

-You take a breather: Each player declares an attribute they wish to restore and restores 1d6 points to the attribute. An attribute may not be increased above its starting value in this fashion.

-You go shopping: All attributes ae returned to their starting values

Oneness may not be restored in this way.

[Shadow]

:notworthy: So cool! :notworthy:

[paul_HArkonen]

three questions:

First how much beer did you consume before creating this?

Second how long did this take you?

and Finally where can I get a copy of the rulebook?

[Aes]

Lots

An eves worth of binge-drinking and "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if..."

I'm still waiting for suicide king to post his part with the advanced rules. The basic rules in their entirety are in the original post (minus errata). The system is easily adaptable to other settings though. For example, you could use it for a star wars campaign giving your characters Lightsaberness, Robeness, Mindtrickness and Forceness as attributes. Or a Conan-esque fantasy setting with Broadswordness, Loinclothness, Glareness and Rageness. :P

The thing is that when we run the annual con in our gaming club, there's always a few late-night sessions that devolve into silliness. Case in point, last cons Call of Cthulhu scenario (Hunger for the flesh) ended up with the players competing for reaching 0 SAN first. So we thought we'd make a system that didn't take itself seriously, anyone could pick up and play in 30 seconds or less and would be simple enough to follow even after turning it into a drinking game.

[Jrayjoker]

OK, I would play this without the beers. SOunds like a hoot to me. :wobble:

[Aku]

kinda goofy, but i'm still trying to figure out why anyone would ever use Oneness™ since as i read it, you're trying to get the lowest roll possible. Yes, i understand you get to drop the highest roll, but that still seems like too much of a gamble, without as much benifit. Maybe change it so that you subtract the highest roll from the other two?

[Suicide King]

Hey

I'm the other author of this project, as mentioned above.

I think that Oneness™ is very useful. Instead of rolling 2d6, you roll 3d6 and pick the two lowest dice. The difference in probability is not that huge, but it's noticeable.
(I think the chance to roll 2 increases from 1/36 to 4/27, which is an increase of about 12%, or by a factor of 5.33)

Anyways. I've been a little busy this weekend, and ended up very drunk friday, so I'll try and make good on my part and post the advanced rules. Cross my heart and hope to die, I promise :)