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View Full Version : Simple system for a Groundhog Day style campaign?



Salivanth
2014-11-28, 08:41 AM
I'd like to run a short Groundhog Day style campaign, where a solo player has a finite number of attempts to complete a difficult task (either offensive or defensive) with an apocalyptic in-game time limit involved to prevent them from simply running away. What I'm looking for is a fairly simple system that offers the ability to improve skills in small amounts, similar to a d20 system.

I'd like to give the player a variable bonus to rolls on stuff they've succeeded at, depending on how dynamic the task is. (In a D20 system, it might be +1 or +2 for combat, because of how difficult it is to replicate perfectly, but +3-5 on a lockpicking task or to avoid an ambush, due to the fact that you can easily memorise the pattern after a couple of tries and render the task trivial) I'd like to keep it fairly simple, as I expect this campaign to be 3-4 sessions max.

I'm not sure where I will set it yet, but I'm leaning towards modern times. I'm thinking of an alien invasion (or perhaps just a scout force), and a few hours after they land, the government nukes the area. This interacts badly with something on the ship, and causes enough damage that the player can't survive just by driving as far away as they can until the time limit runs out. The player will have to convince the government not to send the nuke, convince the alien ship to leave, or forcibly remove the ship from the area. (Or any other solution that makes sense that they can come up with, of course.)

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.