Summer Fun

[ExGail]

This is a quick little set of rules that I made up for a little RPG for me and my friends to play. It's basically a Stranger Things / IT / Monster Squad kind of RPG, with a bunch of kids in a small town in the mid 90's fighting a monster.

Objective: Work together with a group of kids in a small town to find and defeat a monster(s).

Rules

Must use kids from 9-14 years of age.
PG! No kid sex. Don’t pull a Stephen King!
Rule of 10: A failure on a D20 is a 1-9, a success is an 11-20, reroll on a 10 until success or fail.
Dumb Luck: All players have 1 Dumb Luck per day, plus Dumb Luck gained from a Kid Cliché. If you have a Dumb Luck, you can roll again and take the higher of the two.
Bad Luck: You must roll your dice again, and take the lower of the two.


Character Stats
Smarts: 1d4 + Pool of 10 points

History
Science
Math
Government
Pop Culture

Imagination: 1d4 + Pool of 10 points

Critical Thinking (Wisdom)
Invent (Dexterity/Tinkering)
Instinct (Insight)

Toughness: 1d4 + Pool of 10 points

Intimidation
Street Smarts (Survival)
Grit (Constitution)

Fitness: 1d4 + Pool of 10 points

Upper body (Arms/Back Athletics)
Lower body (Legs/Abs Athletics)
Parcore (Acrobatics)
Hand-eye (Dexterity)
Sneak (Stealth)

Charm: 1d4 + Pool of 10 points

Convince (Persuation)
Flirt (Persuasion with romantic intent)
Bull****ting (Deception)



Character Design

Stamina (HP): Toughness + 5
Energy: 10 max energy, loss 1 for each full minute of activity, spend 1 energy per attack, 1 minute of rest to regain 1 energy
Resistance (AC): Fitness + 5
Speed: 10 (Chubby), 15 (Beefy), 20 (Skinny)


At the start of the game, each player selects a Kid Cliché and a sub Cliché
Loser – Max on Smarts. Select 1 book and 1 gadget

Nerd – Gain Dumb Luck on 2 (History, Science, Math, Government)
Gamer –Gain Dumb Luck on all pop culture checks and on hand-eye
Engineer – Once per week you can make 1 gadget, with Dumb Luck on Invent

Homebody – Gain a fanny pack that can hold up to 10 snacks, 1 snack = 1 Energy

Momma’s Boy/Daddy’s Girl – Dumb Luck on charm against adults
Hypochondriac – Gain a first aid kit, Dumb Luck on medical knowledge
Good Kid – Plus 1 to all stats

Cool Kid – Max on Charm

Athlete – Dumb Luck on 1 (Upper body, Lower body, Parcore)
Rich Kid – Gain an allowance of 50 dollars per week
Popular – Dumb Luck on charm against other kids

Outcast – Max on Toughness

Damaged – Dumb Luck on instinct
Delinquent – Dumb Luck on sneak
Weirdo – Gain a collection of miscellaneous items

Comic Relief – Can spend an action to tell a joke and either encourage a friend (+1d4) or distract an enemy (-1d4) once a day

Class Clown – Gain an additional joke to encourage
Pervert – Gain an additional joke to distract
Prankster – Gain Dumb Luck on Critical Thinking

Bully – Dumb Luck on Intimidation

Physical – Max on Fitness
Emotional – Taunt someone to have Bad Luck on their next attack
Passive Aggressive – Taunt someone, two turns later, they begin to doubt their self worth and will either try to flee or all attacks that round are at Dumb Luck.

[JeenLeen]

What do the "1d4 + Pool of 10 points" mean exactly and do?
Is this a pool of points you roll during character generation, meaning each stat has 11-14 points in it?
If yes, do you then divide those points into the subcategories (e.g., the 5 categories for Smarts, the 3 for Imagination)? (I'm gonna call those Skills for here on.)

If yes, that means one will on average have higher ranks for Imagination than Smarts 'skills', since the points are divided amongst fewer skills. Is this intentional?

Lastly, if these are rolled... that seems to put a limit on chargen. Maybe let each player choose a preferred stat and a weak stat, using 1d6 and 1d2 for those. That allows some blending of archetypes (e.g., a gamer who is really tough due to focusing on LARP and Renaissance fairs) while still rewarding playing to one's archetype (max on Smarts means more if it's 1d6 instead of 1d4). Likewise, taking a Loser with 1d2 Smarts could represent somebody who is really excited about school or myth or something, but just has trouble keeping up with it (passion, but no natural talent.)

However, if this is a Halloween one-shot, then it's probably fine with 1d4 across the board. Maybe just ask your players if they'd like more options... or even make it an optional rule. 1d4 is the default, but you can change to 1d6, 1d2, and the rest 1d4 if you wish to have a strength and weakness.
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What is the benefit of being Chubby or Beefy? Since they have lower speed, there should be some tradeoff.

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Also, distinguishing fitness into lower body & upper body seems like an unnecessary complexity. I can see it if you think it'll come up enough -- you are designing the campaign, too, after all -- but just seemed odd.

How do attack rolls work? Would it be arms-fitness for punching/melee weapon, legs-fitness for kicks, and hand-eye for ranged attacks?

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What happens when out of energy?
Can you still defend against attacks? Eat snacks? That is, is 0 zero essentially equivalent to "gonna die soon if allies don't defeat it or I eat a snack" when in combat.

While the snacks restore energy is a cool concept, it seems like it'd break verisimilitude to me--BUT I can work for a fun game if the players like it.
Since one archetype's power is having extra snacks, establish a limit on what other characters can carry. Make sure players are okay with that limit and won't try to justify having a dozen candy bars stuffed in their t-shirt. (Might not make sense IC at first, but once you see that fighting a monster makes you hungry, and without food you get unable to move... well, I'd pack all I can no matter how odd it looks.)

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The Bully's Passive-Aggressive power seems annoying to use in combat. Just keeping track of who is affected when sounds troublesome.
Also, would they be limited to Taunt or Attack, or can they do both in a single round?