I’ve been roleplaying for longer than is sensible and have played a lot of systems over the years. I always tended to streamline and simplify the games I played, never really getting into the crunch and the min-maxing side of things. Nothing wrong with playing that way, it just never really worked for me.
What I’m attaching to this blog entry is the latest iteration of the homebrew system I’ve kind of settled on. As with anything else it’s a constantly changing thing I guess and next week I may decide to do something differently. It contains elements inspired by (read: lifted from) some of the better systems I’ve played recently including Powered-by-the-Apocalypse games, Blades in the Dark and a tiny hint of Fate Core.
What it does is provide a framework for GMs and players to craft exciting stories with a minimum of hassle. The player-facing resolution system and tiered levels of success can cover most situations and the abandonment of a complex skill system for a simple Concept based bonus seems to work well in practice.
I’m attaching it here because I like it and other people might too. I make no claims for the originality of each component, but it is a workable blend that does what it is supposed to.
At the end of the document is a sample setting, one that I’ve just started using, and a page of questions for players that help to define the world – a technique I started a couple of years ago and which I really enjoy, not least because it encourages player input into a world which means the GM doesn’t have to do all the work, and what results is usually better than the creation of a single imagination.
The document is attached HERE – the layout was handled using the wonderful GMBINDER site, and the artwork was scavenged from the Internet – I will gladly attribute the art if anyone can point me in the direction of the artists.
