Grod_The_Giant
2014-07-10, 08:14 PM
STaRS
The Simple TAbletop Roleplaying System
The Promise:
No books! No math! No prep time! No more than 15 minutes to make a character and start playing!
STaRS is a universal, rules-light system, capable of handling everything from gritty noir to high-flying superheros. It walks the thin line between running on a book full of rules and running on GM fiat, all the while striving to be free of the narrative elements that haunt games like FATE. Friendly towards new and experienced role-players alike, STaRS is great for one-shots and long campaigns alike.
Current Draft
Due to size and formatting, the draft is available as a .pdf, via Dropbox.
Update 2/22: Version 5.5 is up
Update 3/21: STaRS WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE HERE, AS I MOVE INTO THE FINAL STAGES BEFORE SELF-PUBLICATION. I'm happy to provide copies via direct message, though-- just let me know and I'll trade you an advance copy for feedback.
Update 12/12: We're up to version 7, according to my current reckoning. Re-imposing some simplicity again.
Update 6/1: Version 7.3 has been sent out for copyediting, and will hopefully be coming soon to a DriveThruRPG near you. The Rules in Brief will continue to appear here for at least a little bit, and have been updated to the new draft.
Update 2/22: Official release scheduled for March!
The majority of this book will be filled with rules. We’ll take time to explain things carefully, go over our reasoning, and give examples. But before we get to that, we’d like to do a quick run-through of things. If your friends already know how to play, this is probably all you need to get started.
The Core Mechanics
Characters are primarily defined by their ten Abilities—Agility, Awareness, Dexterity, Intellect, Manipulation, Physique, Presence, Speed, Will, and Wits. Abilities are ranked between 3 and 8, with higher numbers being better. Whenever a character attempts to do something with a chance of failure, make a Check by rolling a ten-sided die. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Ability score, you succeed.
The Difficulty of these Checks can change, based on circumstances. At any point, the Director can assign a Modifier, making a task easier or harder. Modifiers can also be gained through Traits and actions (see the Conflict/Challenge rules). A Modifier provides either a +2 bonus or a -2 penalty to your Ability rank, depending on if it’s positive or negative.
Characters can occasionally have adrenaline surges, where they attempt otherwise-impossible tasks. At any point, you may take a -6 penalty to your Check; if you still succeed, you accomplish something that's just beyond the normal limits of what a human can manage.
Conflict
The Conflict rules exist to turn a single Check into a prolonged scene with back-and-forth action. The most common type of Conflict is a fight, but everything from arguments to attempts to escape a burning building can be a Conflict.
In a Conflict, it often matters exactly how well you did. For every two points by which the result of your Check is less than your Ability, you score an extra success. For every two points your roll exceeds your Ability, you're saddled with an extra failure .
If timing is critical, everyone makes Speed checks. Those who succeed act before the enemies, while those who fail act afterwards. On your turn, you can take one Major Action (usually attacking), one Minor Action (usually moving), and infinite Free Actions (usually talking).
Once a conflict has begun, there are four main actions you can take:
Move (varies)—Move a short distance as a Minor Action, or a much larger distance as a Major Action.
Overcome (Major)—To directly overcome the challenge (or a specific foe), make an appropriate Check and deal one damage per success. In a direct confrontation this is probably Physical or Mental damage to a single foe, but it could also represent your lead in a race, leads gathered through research, progress made towards repairs, or similar such measures.
Complicate (Major)—To hinder an enemy in specific tasks, make an appropriate Check to impose a Complication on another character, giving you a Bonus on relevant Checks against them for one turn per success.
Aid (Major)—To help an ally with a specific tasks, make an appropriate Check make give an ally a Bonus for a limited time—one Check per success. You can sometimes Aid yourself, depending on what you’re trying to do.
When it’s not your turn, you need to make checks to defend yourself.
Against Attacks—When attacked, roll an appropriate Ability check and take one damage per failure.
Against Complications—When an enemy attempts a Complicate action against you, make an appropriate Ability check. If you fail, you’re affected by a Complication, imposing a Penalty on relevant checks for one turn per failure. You or an ally can attempt to remove Complications early with a relevant Ability Check.
Health
You have a set amount of Mental and Physical Grace, equal to the relevant Ability score. (Will for Mental and Physique for Physical). Grace represents your plot armor, in a sense—how many blows narrowly miss you or clang off your shield, how many insults you can swallow, how many bruises you can take before something really hurts. Damage is subtracted from your Grace. If you’d be reduced to zero or less Grace, you’re Taken Out, and the attacker can choose your fate. Alternately, you may choose to suffer an Injury, a sort of long-term Complication which makes relevant Checks harder until it heals. If you suffer an Injury, your Grace is instantly refilled. However, you may only ever have three Injuries at a time.
All Grace is recovered after a minute or so of calm. Injuries require appropriate treatment. After they’re treated, you may recover from one Injury every time the group reaches a Minor Milestone. (see below).
Character Creation
In addition to their Abilities, characters are defined by their Traits—special skills, powers, equipment, and so on. Characters begin with a score of 5 in each Ability. They then receive 6 Experience Points (XP), 3 of which must be spent on Abilities and 3 of which must be spent on Traits. When spending XP on Abilities, XP and ability ranks essentially interchangeable—you can spend an XP to raise an Ability by one, or lower an Ability to gain one XP. Different Traits have different XP costs.
Armor reduces the damage of a specific type you take by 2, and cost 1 XP per rank.
Companions give you the services of a non-sentient vehicle (for 1 XP) or a sentient ally (for 3 XP). Both have half as many XP as you, and you can spend more on their behalf.
Powers add completely new abilities to your character. A Minor Power gives you a single narrow feature for 1 XP, a Moderate Power offers a versatile or broadly-applicable ability for 3 XP, and a Major Power grants an exceptionally far-reaching power for 6 XP.
Quirks cost 1 XP and let you use one Ability in place of another for certain Checks.
Skills make one type of Check easier, and cost 1 XP
Weapons let you deal an extra 2 damage of a given type, and cost 1 XP per rank.
Additionally, your Traits themselves may have flaws, known as Discounts, which reduce their effectiveness by about half. Each Discount reduces the Trait’s cost by one XP, to a minimum of one. You'll want to add up the total cost of the Trait before applying the Discount.
Character Advancement
Character improvement is tied to Milestones. You hit a Minor Milestone at the end of each session, letting you recover from an Injury and re-assign a Trait Point. Major Milestones come every few sessions, after achieving a major goal, and grant you a new XP Point.
Co-Stars
Because Stars roll all the dice, the characters they interact with don't require their own stats. They have Grace, Powers, Armor, and Weapons, as normal (though you don't need to worry about XP costs), but instead of Abilities and Skills they impose Modifiers on any actions a Star attempts against them. This can be either a blanket "all actions against them take a Penalty" rule, or you can break things down into Challenge Groups with different Modifiers than the rest, such as an ogre who imposes a Penalty on attempts to out-muscle it but grants a Bonus on attempts to outwit it.
The Simple TAbletop Roleplaying System
The Promise:
No books! No math! No prep time! No more than 15 minutes to make a character and start playing!
STaRS is a universal, rules-light system, capable of handling everything from gritty noir to high-flying superheros. It walks the thin line between running on a book full of rules and running on GM fiat, all the while striving to be free of the narrative elements that haunt games like FATE. Friendly towards new and experienced role-players alike, STaRS is great for one-shots and long campaigns alike.
Current Draft
Due to size and formatting, the draft is available as a .pdf, via Dropbox.
Update 2/22: Version 5.5 is up
Update 3/21: STaRS WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE HERE, AS I MOVE INTO THE FINAL STAGES BEFORE SELF-PUBLICATION. I'm happy to provide copies via direct message, though-- just let me know and I'll trade you an advance copy for feedback.
Update 12/12: We're up to version 7, according to my current reckoning. Re-imposing some simplicity again.
Update 6/1: Version 7.3 has been sent out for copyediting, and will hopefully be coming soon to a DriveThruRPG near you. The Rules in Brief will continue to appear here for at least a little bit, and have been updated to the new draft.
Update 2/22: Official release scheduled for March!
The majority of this book will be filled with rules. We’ll take time to explain things carefully, go over our reasoning, and give examples. But before we get to that, we’d like to do a quick run-through of things. If your friends already know how to play, this is probably all you need to get started.
The Core Mechanics
Characters are primarily defined by their ten Abilities—Agility, Awareness, Dexterity, Intellect, Manipulation, Physique, Presence, Speed, Will, and Wits. Abilities are ranked between 3 and 8, with higher numbers being better. Whenever a character attempts to do something with a chance of failure, make a Check by rolling a ten-sided die. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Ability score, you succeed.
The Difficulty of these Checks can change, based on circumstances. At any point, the Director can assign a Modifier, making a task easier or harder. Modifiers can also be gained through Traits and actions (see the Conflict/Challenge rules). A Modifier provides either a +2 bonus or a -2 penalty to your Ability rank, depending on if it’s positive or negative.
Characters can occasionally have adrenaline surges, where they attempt otherwise-impossible tasks. At any point, you may take a -6 penalty to your Check; if you still succeed, you accomplish something that's just beyond the normal limits of what a human can manage.
Conflict
The Conflict rules exist to turn a single Check into a prolonged scene with back-and-forth action. The most common type of Conflict is a fight, but everything from arguments to attempts to escape a burning building can be a Conflict.
In a Conflict, it often matters exactly how well you did. For every two points by which the result of your Check is less than your Ability, you score an extra success. For every two points your roll exceeds your Ability, you're saddled with an extra failure .
If timing is critical, everyone makes Speed checks. Those who succeed act before the enemies, while those who fail act afterwards. On your turn, you can take one Major Action (usually attacking), one Minor Action (usually moving), and infinite Free Actions (usually talking).
Once a conflict has begun, there are four main actions you can take:
Move (varies)—Move a short distance as a Minor Action, or a much larger distance as a Major Action.
Overcome (Major)—To directly overcome the challenge (or a specific foe), make an appropriate Check and deal one damage per success. In a direct confrontation this is probably Physical or Mental damage to a single foe, but it could also represent your lead in a race, leads gathered through research, progress made towards repairs, or similar such measures.
Complicate (Major)—To hinder an enemy in specific tasks, make an appropriate Check to impose a Complication on another character, giving you a Bonus on relevant Checks against them for one turn per success.
Aid (Major)—To help an ally with a specific tasks, make an appropriate Check make give an ally a Bonus for a limited time—one Check per success. You can sometimes Aid yourself, depending on what you’re trying to do.
When it’s not your turn, you need to make checks to defend yourself.
Against Attacks—When attacked, roll an appropriate Ability check and take one damage per failure.
Against Complications—When an enemy attempts a Complicate action against you, make an appropriate Ability check. If you fail, you’re affected by a Complication, imposing a Penalty on relevant checks for one turn per failure. You or an ally can attempt to remove Complications early with a relevant Ability Check.
Health
You have a set amount of Mental and Physical Grace, equal to the relevant Ability score. (Will for Mental and Physique for Physical). Grace represents your plot armor, in a sense—how many blows narrowly miss you or clang off your shield, how many insults you can swallow, how many bruises you can take before something really hurts. Damage is subtracted from your Grace. If you’d be reduced to zero or less Grace, you’re Taken Out, and the attacker can choose your fate. Alternately, you may choose to suffer an Injury, a sort of long-term Complication which makes relevant Checks harder until it heals. If you suffer an Injury, your Grace is instantly refilled. However, you may only ever have three Injuries at a time.
All Grace is recovered after a minute or so of calm. Injuries require appropriate treatment. After they’re treated, you may recover from one Injury every time the group reaches a Minor Milestone. (see below).
Character Creation
In addition to their Abilities, characters are defined by their Traits—special skills, powers, equipment, and so on. Characters begin with a score of 5 in each Ability. They then receive 6 Experience Points (XP), 3 of which must be spent on Abilities and 3 of which must be spent on Traits. When spending XP on Abilities, XP and ability ranks essentially interchangeable—you can spend an XP to raise an Ability by one, or lower an Ability to gain one XP. Different Traits have different XP costs.
Armor reduces the damage of a specific type you take by 2, and cost 1 XP per rank.
Companions give you the services of a non-sentient vehicle (for 1 XP) or a sentient ally (for 3 XP). Both have half as many XP as you, and you can spend more on their behalf.
Powers add completely new abilities to your character. A Minor Power gives you a single narrow feature for 1 XP, a Moderate Power offers a versatile or broadly-applicable ability for 3 XP, and a Major Power grants an exceptionally far-reaching power for 6 XP.
Quirks cost 1 XP and let you use one Ability in place of another for certain Checks.
Skills make one type of Check easier, and cost 1 XP
Weapons let you deal an extra 2 damage of a given type, and cost 1 XP per rank.
Additionally, your Traits themselves may have flaws, known as Discounts, which reduce their effectiveness by about half. Each Discount reduces the Trait’s cost by one XP, to a minimum of one. You'll want to add up the total cost of the Trait before applying the Discount.
Character Advancement
Character improvement is tied to Milestones. You hit a Minor Milestone at the end of each session, letting you recover from an Injury and re-assign a Trait Point. Major Milestones come every few sessions, after achieving a major goal, and grant you a new XP Point.
Co-Stars
Because Stars roll all the dice, the characters they interact with don't require their own stats. They have Grace, Powers, Armor, and Weapons, as normal (though you don't need to worry about XP costs), but instead of Abilities and Skills they impose Modifiers on any actions a Star attempts against them. This can be either a blanket "all actions against them take a Penalty" rule, or you can break things down into Challenge Groups with different Modifiers than the rest, such as an ogre who imposes a Penalty on attempts to out-muscle it but grants a Bonus on attempts to outwit it.