Sidetracked ! - Playing with rules. Making a game.

Apologies to anyone following the goings on in Rockport.

For the past week and a bit I have been distracted by an old labour of love.

I have been playing around with mechanics, rules, and settings since my early teens. Soon after discovering role playing, which super charged my already vivid imagination, I began to tinker with the rules I read and worked on my own legends, lore, and worlds.

I have half penned many different rules, bare bones and complex, in the decades since then. I experimented with d100 based stuff first of all, then had my stint of mucking around with the d20 systems. I have tired playing cards, coins, tarot cards, and narrative word game style conflict resolution.

They all sit in draws and on drives in various states of completion / abandonment.

So recently I dug up and read a d6 based game I started working on in 2011. It's very much in the old school vein. It's name is very bad, a 'Dad Joke' of the highest order, but it will not change.  What I had was only a few pages of very rough ideas and rules, but that was enough for the bug to bite me again.

A few pages have grown to twenty, and today my first rough for a character sheet happened.

I want to create the game I imagined when first reading the rules for Red Box  Dungeons and Dragons in my first year in high school back in 1984. The game and the friends I have made through it really changed my life.

The second premise, rules that only use six sided dice. Everyone can find some d6!

In this game I wanted all of the characters to become a stronger version of their core concept. As they level up Fighters become more fightier, Elves more Elfy, and so on. One of the things that disappointed me as I came to grips with the Red Box version of DnD was the blandness of the Demihuman characters as they grew more experienced. Even the Human core classes left a little to be desired.

Don't get me wrong though, I loved every minute of the game I played!

So now I get to write the rules, I have set out to give each of the Old School concepts for player characters their own flavour and flare. As they level their essence strengthens and this leads to a more concentrated and powerful archetype.

Play testing will show me how balanced they are, but to be honest balance not my goal. I am flying by the seat of my pants fuelled by the rule of cool.  Thirteen year old me and my mates did not care, or even think about game balance. Fun, imagination and junk food were first and foremost in our minds.

Junk food may be of the table for 46 year old me, but fun and imagination are not :)

Anyway, enough rambling, if you're waiting on an update for my Horror Solo adventure it will be along soon.

For the time being here are a few bits and bobs of my recent work for you to have a look at.

If you would like to know more leave me a message and I can post some more details or maybe even send you a draft of the rules when I have enough written.

Always happy to talk games and game design with anyone :)

This is an early draft for a character sheet, I am going with hand draw all the way.

Printers and photocopiers were almost unheard of where I lived back then, and expensive if you could access them. I don't know about you, but pocket money was a rare privilege, so we did it all by hand most of the time.

It was all theatre of the mind back then:)

Below an early version of the Halfling Demihuman class;

Halfling

- Innate magical resistance: x2 Wits versus direct magical effects.

- Nimble: + 1d Moves versus area effect damage.

- Fey sight: Can see well in all light levels, blind in darkness.

- Overlooked: Enemies will underestimate you and target allies first.

- Sturdy: + 1d Brawn versus poison, disease, and environmental hazards.

- Small: cannot use heavy armour and weapons

- Stout: -1d [10 meters] movement.

Traits: Moves>Brawn>Wits

Halflings may choose 3 Moves skills, 2 Brawn skills, and one Wits skill at first level.

See the skill list and skill descriptions on page xx in the Skills section.

Level Progression

Level	Xp Required	Benefit
1	0	As per character creation guide. Max 1d6 Turning Points.
2	250	+ 1 Skill. Second Breakfast.
3	500	+ 1 Trait Die. Magic Resistance.
4	1000	Max 2d6 Turning Points.
5	2000	+ 1 Skill. A Hearty Meal.
6	4000	+ 1 Trait Die. Underfoot.
7	8000	Max 3d6 Turning Points.
8	16000	+ 1 Skill. Hardy.
9	32000	+ 1 Trait Die. Lucky.
10	64000	Max 4d6 Turning Points.
11	128000	+ 1 Skill. Sure Shot.
12	256000	+ 1 Trait Die. Artful Dodge.

Second Breakfast: Somewhere, somehow a halfling can always clobber together enough food to feed every one. 1 / day you can find enough food to feed everyone in your party.

Magic Resistance: + 1 Die to Wits saves versus Direct magic.

A Hearty Meal: No matter where, no mater when, a halfling can always make a nice comfy nourishing meal to remind every one of home and better times. Once per day you can cook up a delicious and restoring meal that satisfies hunger and restores 1d6 Hit points. It also refreshes Wits Dice depleted due to spell casting.

Underfoot: Being small and quick on your feet you can get in under large creatures guard. You may use 2 x you Moves dice when fighting or dodging creatures of large or greater size.

Hardy: Healthy country upbringing has made you from sterner stuff. You get + 1 Dies to Brawn saves versus poison, disease, environmental effects.

Lucky: The little people are favoured by fate. Haflings receive 2 x the amount of Turning Points.

Sure Shot: Long practice and strong short arms mean that you now lower the difficulty of ranged attacks by one level.

Artful Dodge: Adventuring and its hazards have quickened your reflexes and sharpened your mind, you may now take a dodge action as well as any other action every round.

Give us a yell if you are interested.

Cheers,

Don