The Paganini Universal Storytelling Game System THE PAGANINI UNIVERSAL STORYTELLING GAME SYSTEM (C) 2000 by Nathan E. Banks All rights reserved http://www.crosswinds.net/~paganini/ CREDITS A big thanks to the members of the RPG-Create online discussion forum for exhaustive reading and endless constructive criticism. Special credit to Brett A. Paul (The Ice Mage) for creating the durn' thing in the first place. :) Special thanks to: Travis S. Casey for almost singlehandedly creating a useable advancement system, and for reading every single post. Sergio Mascarenhas for his inspired die mechanic. Marco Rocci for keeping me honest about attributes and skills. Everyone else who read and replied to my many "Ultimate Proposals." I couldn't have gotten this up without you guys! WHAT IS ROLE-PLAYING? There are probably as many definitions of role-playing as there are people who role-play. Simply, role-playing is interactive storytelling. One person, the Game Master (GM for short), acts as a storyteller for the other players, describing situations and events surrounding the characters. Alternatively, role-playing is a resurrection of the old children's game "Let's pretend" with rules. In a Role-playing Game (RPG for short), each player takes on the personality of a character within the game world, guiding and describing the character's actions within the story. The rules are used to resolve such situations as used to arise in the old "Let's pretend" games (Bang! You're dead! No I'm not, you missed! Did not!). In a role-playing game, there are no winners or losers, just a fun time. The GM isn't out to get the players, or vice versa. REQUIRED MATERIALS In order to get started role-playing, you will need some people to play with. Three to five people are best (A GM and two to four players), but it can be done with more players, or less. You will need at least two people to play. In addition to players, you will need this rulebook, an adventure (found in a setting supplement, campaign book, or made up by the GM), and some paper and a pencil for each player. The character sheets printed in the back of this book are also useful. The only other materials required are some special dice, called polyhedral dice. Polyhedral means that the faces of the dice are shaped like polygons: triangular, square, etc. These dice can be found at any local hobby store. The dice come in several different varieties: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d30 are the most common types, where "d" stands for die, and the number is the number of faces the die has. A d6 is a normal six-sided die, while a d20 (the only die-type required for this game) has twenty sides, and will generate numbers from one to twenty, inclusively. Die roll notation is abbreviated to XdY where X is the number of dice to roll, and Y gives the number of faces on the die. Therefor, 1d10 means to roll one ten-sided die, and 2d6 means to roll two normal six-sided dice. WHAT THIS GAME IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT This game is a complete, cohesive, universal storytelling game system. It contains a fully developed set of light, fast playing rules for role-playing. This game is not rules-heavy, number crunching RPG. You will not need a calculator for this game. You will, however, need an imagination. No matter well done a game is, it can never provide you with something like that. This system does not include an original fiction world, setting, or campaign. It has no information on how to role-play, act a part, or devise a story. There are many good sources for this type of information on the Internet. A UNIVERSAL STORYTELLING GAME This game is what is known as a universal system. A universal system is one that can be used to play in any setting with the same mechanics. With this system, you can play any character, from Robin Hood, to Indiana Jones, to Luke Skywalker. While the different genres might call for different skills, the same core mechanics can be used for any genre. Another important thing about this game is that it's a storytelling game. This means that it focuses more on the plot and the characters than on math and mechanics. This idea is explored in more detail in my Reflections on Role-playing Rules series of articles. They can be found on my web site. The whole idea can be summed up in the following maxim: "We only need rules for situations with an outcome that is not obvious." Another way of putting this is that rules are used to answer questions. Does my character successfully climb the rock face? Does my character successfully open the door? Does the guard mecha notice the freedom fighters, or do they manage to slip past its sensors? In order to answer these questions, a system is needed to describe characters in terms of their capabilities relative to the world around them. TRAITS This system uses a collection of attributes and skills to describe what a character is capable of doing. Attributes and skills are closely linked, and treated much the same way. For this reason, this system refers to both attributes and skills collectively as traits. Traits are rated on the following simple adjective ladder. The meanings of the different levels are pretty obvious. A Great rating in a trait is better than an Average rating. Superb Great Good Above Avg. Average Below Avg. Mediocre Poor Terrible ATTRIBUTES Attributes represent the core being of a character...attributes are raw untrained ability. Every character of the same type in the game world has all of the same attributes to one degree or another. Another way to think of attributes is as broad skill groups, while individual skills are specific refinements of these abilities. The basic human attributes are: Fitness - Strength and endurance Coordination - Agility and dexterity Quickness - Speed and reflexes Intellect - Knowledge and reasoning Focus - Willpower and concentration Wits - Instinct and perception Keep in mind that the attribute set is mutable depending on the genre and the character or object being represented. For example, a giant mecha will need a different set of attributes than a human, and a game with sorcerer characters might need to add a Magic attribute. Setting supplements and campaigns will contain any necessary changes or additions to the attributes. SKILLS Whereas attributes are broad descriptors of inherent functionality, skills represent abilities that people can learn to use. This system differentiates among three different types of skills. General skills are learned just by living. Anyone can use a General skill at the Average level without training. An example of a General skill is running. Experience skills depend on practice for effectiveness. Anyone can attempt to use an Experience skill, but only those who have been trained will be very effective. Experience skills can be used at the Terrible level without training. An example of an Experience skill is horseback riding. Special skills may be used only after study or training. Someone without training in a Special skill has no idea how to even approach its use. An example of a Special skill is neurosurgery. If a character ever wants to use a skill not listed on the character sheet, the information above will be used to find the default level for the skill in question. Since this system is designed for use with multiple campaigns and genres, there is no set list of skills. The type and scope of skills available to a character depends on the campaign world and the preference of the GM. Setting supplements and campaigns will include genre specific skill lists if necessary. Note that while many skills may be common to a number of genres, each genre might treat the skill in a different way. For example, in a gritty, realistic setting, firearm skills could be treated as Experience skills, while in a heroic space opera campaign firearm skills could be General skills. In any case, a skill list is provided for reference only. It is inevitable that at some point a character will want a skill not listed. When this happens, it is up to the GM to fit the skill into one of the categories above. DICE ROLLING Each rung of the rating ladder is associated with a number of dice. While this game only uses one type of die (twenty sided) there are two ways to roll them. When High Dice (HD) are rolled, all dice but the highest showing are discarded. When Low Dice (LD) are rolled, all dice but the lowest showing are discarded. The number showing on the remaining die is taken as the result. Superb 4 HD Great 3 HD Good 2 HD Above Avg. 1 HD Average 0 D Below Avg. 1 LD Mediocre 2 LD Poor 3 LD Terrible 4 LD ACTION RESOLUTION An action is any one thing that a character attempts to do during the game. Any time an action does not have an assured success, the character will need to make an action check. When a character makes an action check, the number of dice in an appropriate skill are added to the number of dice in an appropriate attribute (HD and LD cancel out) to form a dice pool. A single additional die, called the base die (BD) is added to the pool before rolling. This ensures that a character will always get to roll at least one die, even if he has a dice-pool of zero. Before the BD is added to the dice pool, the GM modifies the total number of dice depending on how hard the action is: Nearly Impossible +4 LD Very Hard +3 LD Hard +2 LD Above Avg. +1 LD Average 0 D Below Avg. +1 HD Easy +2 HD Very Easy +3 HD Nearly Automatic +4 HD To find the outcome of the action check, compare the resulting roll to the following chart. 20 Critical Success 17-19 Great Success 14-16 Normal Success 11-13 Marginal Success 8-10 Marginal Failure 5-7 Normal Failure 2-4 Great Failure 1 Critical Failure Not only does this tell whether or not the character succeeded or failed, it also tells the overall quality of the attempt. If two characters are working against each other in an opposed action, the character with the higher result is favored. However, it's up to the GM to interpret the outcome of any action in story terms. Sometimes the GM will call for rolls to determine whether or not something happens. For example, the GM might ask all characters to make an Alertness check to determine whether or not they notice a trap before it springs. Such rolls cannot be precisely called action checks, but they are treated the same way. SCALE MODIFIERS In some genres the GM will need to have rules for handling beings of vastly different size. In this case, the following rules for scale modifiers are available. The scale modifiers are based on the difference in scale between the entities. When the GM feels that scale needs to be taken into account, he can apply the scale modifiers to rolls as HD or LD, whichever makes sense. Each step of scale is double the level of the previous step. Scale 0 is human, scale 1 is 2x human, 2 is 4x human, 3 is 8x, etc. The scale is inverse into the negatives: Scale -1 is 1/2 human, scale -2 is 1/4, etc. To find the relative scale modifier, you find the difference in scale between the entities involved. This definition of scale assumes that humans are the default character race. If some other race is the prevalent race, it should be used as scale 0 instead, and the scale of other beings rated relative to that. While the basic definition of scale is size, entities can have multiple definitions of scale that apply to different abilities, to take into account differences in construction. For example, a Giant is twice as strong as a human, so the giant has scale 1 strength. When the Giant needs to work against a human, he gets +1 HD (or the human gets +1 LD, whichever makes more sense). Setting supplements and campaigns that include beings of vastly different size and construction will give scale definitions for them. GMs that create their own settings, or need to do scaling on the fly will need to use the above guidelines to apply scale to their creations. CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT As characters grow and gain experience, they will improve their abilities and become more powerful, more knowledgeable, and more dangerous. While skills change dynamically throughout the game, attributes are only altered as a result of major changes in a character's construction. Aging, the loss of a limb, and major alteration by a magical power are all examples of potential attribute modifying circumstances. These same circumstances on a more severe level can also be responsible for altering the scale of a character. For example, a newborn might be at scale -3, and move up to scale 0 as it grows. In General, attribute modification will only be called for in specific setting supplements that involve major changes in the core makeup of the characters. SKILL ADVANCEMENT POINTS For every day of game time in which the characters are active on an adventure, each character gets one advancement point. These points can be applied either to skills the character has used during the adventure, or to ones that the character has been given an opportunity to train with during the adventure. For example, a character could assist another character with healing a wounded comrade and use that to justify an advancement point for a healing skill. For each week of game time, a character normally gets two advancement points; these can be used either to learn a new skill or to improve an existing skill. The GM may rule that a character must have a trainer in order to advance a Special skill. A character may opt to intensively learn for a week. If this is done, the character gains five advancement points that week. However, in order to do this, the character cannot be adventuring during that time and must have an in-game reason why he is able to train so intensively (for example, being a full-time student, or taking military basic training). Furthermore, the GM may rule that a skill cannot be studied in this way if it is rated Good or above. The GM may decide that a given adventure consumes so much of the character's time that "normal learning" cannot be accomplished (In other words, the characters do not get the weekly two advancement points). However, if the GM does so, each character should be given two advancement points per day from the adventure, to be used as adventuring advancement points are normally used. This reflects the fact that such intensive adventuring involves more use of skills under pressured conditions. In the case of a time-consuming adventure, the GM may decide what one of the advancement points is used for. If, for example, the adventure involves a lot of riding, one advancement point must be used for the Riding skill, and if the adventure involves a lot of wilderness survival, the point must be used for the Survival skill. Under certain conditions, the GM may decide that a character's rate of learning is reduced: for example, a character that is penned up in a dungeon may have limited or no opportunities to advance skills. Raising a skill... From: To: Costs: Terrible Poor 2 points Poor Mediocre 4 points Mediocre Below Avg. 8 points Below Avg. Average 16 points Average Above Avg. 32 points Above Avg. Good 64 points Good Great 128 points Great Superb 256 points Since all skills in the game have default levels (except Special skills) it's easy to raise skills even if they aren't listed on the character sheet...improvement just begins from the default level. Special skills default to Terrible for the purpose of learning. While a teacher is not absolutely required for learning a Special skill (other methods exist; book study for example), some method of instruction must be used to justify the character learning a Special skill at all. In addition, advancement of a Special skill is double the normal cost if a teacher is not present. MELEE COMBAT In almost any game there will come a time when characters are driven to fight their way through a problem. The following section has a few more rules than the rest of the system, but it is still very freeform compared to most combat systems. Combat is fought in a series of rounds. The length of a combat round varies depending on what the character's are doing. In general, a combat round is as long as it takes for every character to make one or two attacks. INITIATIVE At the start of each combat round, every character makes an initiative roll to determine the order of action. Characters act in order of highest result to lowest, with all characters rolling the same level acting simultaneously. If a character rolls a Critical Success, he makes another initiative roll in addition to the first one and acts twice in the round. Once all characters have acted, a new round begins and initiative is rerolled. The initiative roll is made using either the Quickness or Focus attribute (GM preference) and a combat or awareness skill. Just as difficulty and situational modifiers apply to normal rolls, the GM may give modifiers to the initiative roll to take into account things like surprise and ambush, and unwieldy weapons. Scale modifiers can also be added to initiative, for example, if the GM has a big, slow, giant, or a tiny, quick pixie. INITIATIVE TURN When a character's turn comes up, he may make an action. This may be any action, but the GM may rule that long actions must be maintained for more than one round in order to complete them. The most common action that a character takes in combat is to attack. An attack has two parts: Finding out whether or not the attacker hits the defender, and if it does, finding out how badly the defender is damaged. Finding out whether or not the attack hits is easy. The attacker and the defender each describe their actions, and roll the appropriate skill. The character with the highest result is successful. It's up to the GM to interpret the outcome of the attack in story terms. For example, an attack that gets a marginal success may not actually hit the opponent, but might drive him back instead. Depending on the campaign and the setting used, a hit might only occur on a critical success. DEFENDING AGAINST MULTIPLE ATTACKERS A character may defend against as many attacks per round as he wants, but each defense after the first takes a cumulative +1 LD modifier to the roll. MODIFIERS TO ATTACK AND DEFENSE ROLLS Some specific modifiers should be given to attack and defense rolls depending on the situation: +1 LD when attacking from non-optimum weapon range +1 LD if attacking from a vulnerable direction +1 LD to movement based actions like dodges if wearing heavy armor +1 HD to defense roll for target shields, +2HD for kite shields, +3HD for tower shields +1 to +4 HD / LD for situational conditions (poor footing, hills, bad light) +1 to +4 HD / LD for the difficulty of the attempted maneuver as described Scale modifiers can also be added to attack and damage rolls. Keep in mind that it's easier to hit a larger target, but in general, a larger target can absorb more damage. In addition, each weapon should be given a Quality rating, based on how well balanced it is, and how easy it is to use. The quality rating is added to every roll in which the weapon is used. DETERMINING DAMAGE The amount of damage a character can take is rated on a 25 point scale. Every 5 points of the scale corresponds to a wound level. When the character has reached a wound level, the penalty associated with that wound level is applied to all the rolls that a character makes. +4LD +3LD +2LD +1LD [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][]][] Near Death Severely Wounded Battered Scratched Wounded Every character, from ants to mecha, is rated on the same 25 point scale. What differs from character to character is the amount of damage that the character is able to shake off from any given attack. Every time a character takes damage a Fitness roll must be made to determine whether or not the character avoids unconsciousness. The character must get at least a marginal success to avoid loss of consciousness, and if the GM wishes, low success levels can result in the character being dazed or stunned, causing penalties to initiative or other actions. Weapons are rated in the same way as traits (with HD or LD). To this rating are added the strength dice of the attacker (some weapons may add half or no strength), and one die for each level that the attack roll exceeded the defense roll. From this pool, subtract dice equal to the defender's fitness, and the defender's armor. Subtracting LD is the same thing as adding HD, and vice versa. The rolled result minus one is the damage. Every type of armor has different ratings that apply to different types of damage. The damage types are cutting, piercing, blunt, and energy. Example: A sword (+1HD) is used by a character with +1HD strength against a character with soft leather armor (+2HD against cuts) and 0 fitness. The difference is 0, so the base die is rolled to determine damage. A 7 is rolled, so 7 - 1 = 6 boxes are crossed out. Weapons and armor, like skills, are setting dependant. Reference lists for weapons and armor will be included with setting and campaign supplements as needed. RANGED COMBAT Ranged combat is very similar to melee combat with a few differences. Ranged attacks are resolved as unopposed actions with the difficulty depending on the range to the target. Ranged attack checks are usually made with a ranged weapon skill and the Focus attribute, but other traits could be appropriate, depending on the weapon used. (For example, a thrown weapon should use Coordination as one of the traits.) Short Below Avg. +1 HD Medium Average 0 D Long Above Avg. +1 LD Extra Long Hard +2 LD The exact distances represented by the different ranges depend on the weapon being used. For example, an M16 has a much further Long range than does a Glock. The difficulty of the shot should be modified at the GM's discretion, depending on the circumstances. Some suggested (cumulative) modifiers are: For every 10% of hard cover +2 LD For every 10% of soft cover +1 LD Target moving +1 LD Target dodging / running +2 LD Target lying prone +2 LD Target airborne +2 LD Attacker running +1 LD Attacker braced +1 HD Attacker using telescopic sights +2 HD Ranged weapons are rated in a similar manner to melee weapons. In general, ranged weapons are more deadly than melee weapons. The quality rating for a ranged weapon has to do with the fineness of the weapon's accuracy, and how easy it is too use. The GM may rule that characters must meet certain attribute requirements before using certain weapons. For example, a bow that requires a Good Fitness to use. The damage roll for a ranged weapon depends on the weapon type. Thrown weapons should use fitness, while firearm damage should be independent of the character. In general, fired weapons roll the rating only, while thrown weapons roll Fitness + rating. CHARACTER CREATION Now that the core rules have been completely set out, we can finally make characters to use with them. The first, most important part of character creation is defining the character. This is done not with mechanics, but with a few paragraphs of writing. The character definition should include a brief physical description of the character, a short history of the character's life, and an explanation of the character's personality and motivations. The definition need not be longer than a few paragraphs, but it should be complete. The second step in character creation is to choose the skills the character has. This is done by applying common sense to the character definition. There is no limit to the number of skills that a character can have, as long as each skill is approved by the GM. The third step is to rate the character's attributes. At character creation, all attributes default to Average. A starting character has three free attribute levels that the player can distribute among the attributes. An attribute may be raised further by lowering another attribute an equal amount. No attribute may be raised more than two levels using this method. The fourth step is to rate the character's skills. General skills default to average, while Experience and Special skills default to Terrible. A starting character has one-half the total number of skills taken (rounded up) in free skill levels to distribute among the skills. It takes TWO of these levels to raise a Special skill by one rung. A skill may be raised further by lowering a General skill an equal number of levels. Note that it requires lowering a General skill two levels in order to raise a Special skill one level. No skill may be raised more than two levels using this method. Remember that General skills default to average, so a character can take a lot of General skills at lower than average levels to drive up other skills...but never more than two levels for any given skill. The final step is to give any special details or equipment that the character needs to have before play begins. As in all the steps, this is subject to approval by the GM. Keep in mind that the number of free attribute and skill levels may change from genre to genre. Campaign and setting supplements will give any necessary details on altered character creation. EXAMPLE CHARACTER We will now follow the creation of an example Non-Player Character (NPC) that the GM wants to use in his fantasy campaign. This character is going to be a thug that the characters run into in a dark alley behind the inn where the Player Characters (PCs) are staying. This thug is going to be a typical greedy streeter...not too bright, but beefy and streetwise. The thug's name is Richaz. The GM puts two of Richaz's free levels into Fitness, and the third free level into Coordination. The GM decides that Richaz isn't too bright, so he lowers Intellect by one, and puts the extra level into Wits. Richaz's final attributes are: Good Fitness (2 HD) Below Avg. Intellect (1 LD) Above Avg. Coordination (1 HD) Average Focus (0 D) Average Quickness (0 D) Above Avg. Wits (1 HD) Based on his vision of the character, the GM decides that Richaz doesn't need very many skills...Richaz is only going to appear in one scene of the game, and really isn't all that important. The GM decides to give Richaz only some basic skills: Streetwise (Experience) Brawling (General) Melee: Knife (Experience) Richaz gets two free skill levels. The GM puts one into Brawling, and the other two into Knife. The GM decides that Richaz' streetwise skill should be higher than Terrible, so he gives Richaz the additional General skill of Knowledge at Mediocre (2 LD) to balance it out. As things stand, Richaz's skills are: Mediocre Streetwise (2 LD) Mediocre Knowledge (2 LD) Above Avg. Brawling (1 HD) Mediocre Melee: Knife (2 LD) Richaz's completed character looks like this: Richaz - Generic Street Thug Attributes Good Fitness (2 HD) Below Avg. Intellect (1 LD) Above Avg. Coordination (1 HD) Average Focus (0 D) Average quickness (0 D) Above Avg. Wits (1 HD) Skills Mediocre Streetwise (2 LD) Mediocre Knowledge (2 LD) Above Avg. Brawling (1 HD) Mediocre Melee: Knife (2 LD) Equipment Belt Knife (Cutting or Piercing damage) Average Quality (0 D), Average Damage (0 D) Loose Coinage QUICK REFERENCE CHART The following is a listing of the important tables form the rules, collected here for quick reference during play. Rating Ladder Difficulty Ladder Superb 4 HD Nearly Impossible +4 LD Great 3 HD Very Hard +3 LD Good 2 HD Hard +2 LD Above Avg. 1 HD Above Avg. +1 LD Average 0 D Average 0 D Below Avg. 1 LD Below Avg. +1 HD Mediocre 2 LD Easy +2 HD Poor 3 LD Very Easy +3 HD Terrible 4 LD Nearly Automatic +4 HD Success Chart Raising a skill... From: To: Costs: 20 Critical Success Terrible Poor 2 points 17-19 Great Success Poor Mediocre 4 points 14-16 Normal Success Mediocre Below Avg. 8 points 11-13 Marginal Success Below Avg. Average 16 points 8-10 Marginal Failure Average Above Avg. 32 points 5-7 Normal Failure Above Avg. Good 64 points 2-4 Great Failure Good Great 128 points 1 Critical Failure Great Superb 256 points Melee Combat Modifiers +1 LD when attacking from non-optimum weapon range +1 LD if attacking from a vulnerable direction +1 LD to movement based actions like dodges if wearing heavy armor +1 HD to defense roll for target shields, +2HD for kite shields, +3HD for tower shields +1 to +4 HD / LD for situational conditions (poor footing, hills, bad light) +1 to +4 HD / LD for the difficulty of the attempted maneuver as described Ranged Combat Modifiers For every 10% of hard cover +2 LD For every 10% of soft cover +1 LD Target moving +1 LD Target dodging / running +2 LD Target lying prone +2 LD Target airborne +2 LD Attacker running +1 LD Attacker braced +1 HD Attacker using telescopic sights +2 HD PAGANINI STORYTELLING GAME SYSTEM CHARACTER RECORD SHEET Name: ________________________________ +------------------------+ Player: ________________________________ | 20 Critical Success | | 17-19 Great Success | Skill Advancement Points: ______________ | 14-16 Normal Success | | 11-13 Marginal Success | | 8-10 Marginal Failure | Wounds | 5-7 Normal Failure | | 2-4 Great Failure | +4LD +3LD +2LD +1LD | 1 Critical Failure | [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][][] [][][][]][] +------------------------+ Near Death Severely Wounded Battered Scratched Wounded Attributes ____________________ Fitness ________ ____________________ Intellect ________ ____________________ Coordination ______ ____________________ Focus ________ ____________________ Quickness ________ ____________________ Wits ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ Skills ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ ____________________ __________ ________ Equipment ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Return to Resources --------------------------------------------------------------------- This site (c) 2000 Nathan E. Banks