Red Dwarf the Roleplaying Game?

[Hugh Bliss]

Does anyone actually play this, or owns it, or has heard of it at all?

I've had the base game (without the other stuff you can buy for it) for a while but I never really got around to learning how to play it. I didn't know anyone who wanted to play as well though, either.

Anyway I've never played a roleplaying game and I'm having some confusion with one aspect of the character creation/skills system in it. I don't really want to explain what part's bothering me until I've found people who know the game and understand the system though. My questions tend to be needlessly long-winded so I don't want to waste effort trying to word my question properly to have no response :D

I'm also just interested to know if anyone's played it. It was based on a British scifi sitcom that ran from around the late 80s to the mid 90s, so it isn't really a popular game, as even people who know the sitcom tend not to know the game. So I'd be interested to see if anyone has it or plays it.

[The Necroswanso]

AAAAAAAAH! IT'S HUGH BLISS!!!!!!!!

Red Dwarf RP? Linky?

[Meat Shield]

I've never played it but love the show. Without taking one look at the books I am going to say that the game probably has a two drink minimum. And that it would be most fun to play Rimmer.

[Roog]

Does anyone actually play this, or owns it, or has heard of it at all?

Got the Book, never played it; what do you need to know?

[tyckspoon]

I've got the base book and the aliens/monsters/etc book. Never played with it, so I haven't had a reason to gain an intimate understanding of it, but I can look stuff up with the best of them.

Without taking one look at the books I am going to say that the game probably has a two drink minimum.

Reasonably accurate; it's a fairly light-hearted and simple system once you understand its basic resolution mechanics. Definitely not the kind of thing you want to try with people who treat RPGs as SRS BSNESS. I suppose I should just say that the books are written much in the tone of the show.

[Hugh Bliss]

AAAAAAAAH! IT'S HUGH BLISS!!!!!!!!

Hi, I'm Hugh Bliss!

I've never played it but love the show. Without taking one look at the books I am going to say that the game probably has a two drink minimum.

Shame I'm not old enough to drink yet... But the lightheartedness and silliness of it (and the fact that I love Red Dwarf) is what attracts me to the game. And not just the thought of using Morris Dancing to fight evil robots.

Anyway I'm glad I found a few Dwarfers at least... I never managed to find anyone online, I guess I looked in the wrong places.

The question I had (and I think I'm going to copy paste it from when I asked elsewhere, needless to say no response):

I understand if I say, gave my character say, 4 points in Agility and 4 points in Dance, then the target number for Dance related rolls is 8?

Am I right that I can change the Dance skill to Dance (Morris), and that would make the target number for Morris dance related rolls 9 and any other dance 7?

If I'm right then... I don't understand the way the example character sheets are written.

The example character (Monica) built in the book has an Active Games (Pool) skill of 2, so does that add 3 to the target number of Pool related skills and only one to every other Active Game?

SO IN SHORT... On the character sheet why is the Active Games skill written as 2 / 4? It seems to be the same on all the example character stats. I assume the 2 is the Active Games skill, so what's the 4?


I hope it makes sense, I suck at explaining. And forum posting makes me crazy anxious. Haha.

Anywho, I was starting to understand the game till this annoyed me, so I stopped reading any further, which I think is what stopped me in the first place.

The minor hinderance is I know no one who likes Red Dwarf and RPGs in my close proximity... But that doesn't stop me from enjoying making characters and stuff.

[tyckspoon]

Yeah, you've got it right. The example character just has the modification pre-figured. Her Active Games skill is 3; it's just written as 2/4 because taking a specialization means she'll never actually be using the 3. It'll either be 2 (Non-Pool games) or 4 (playing pool). The values that will be used in game are shown for quicker reference.

[Hugh Bliss]

Yeah, you've got it right. The example character just has the modification pre-figured. Her Active Games skill is 3; it's just written as 2/4 because taking a specialization means she'll never actually be using the 3. It'll either be 2 (Non-Pool games) or 4 (playing pool). The values that will be used in game are shown for quicker reference.

But I thought her active games skill was 2? The text said her skill playing pool would be 3 and her skill doing whatever else was 1...

Doesn't having an active games skill of 3 mean her total number of skill points spent is 31?

Is this where I'm missing something really badly? :P

[tyckspoon]

But I thought her active games skill was 2? The text said her skill playing pool would be 3 and her skill doing whatever else was 1...

Doesn't having an active games skill of 3 mean her total number of skill points spent is 31?

Is this where I'm missing something really badly? :P

It's in the next chapter over (uh..hopefully these page numbers are accurate, I don't know if there are multiple printings of the book.) Page 32 has the example section where the normal skill allotment is spent; at that point, she takes Active Games 2 (Pool), giving her effective ratings of Active Games 1/ Pool 3. Then she gets into Chapter 5: Personality and selects a few Liabilities and Behavior Tags, which grant bonus creation points. One of those bonus points was put into Active Games, so she ends up with Active Games 3 (Pool), or Active Games 2/Pool 4. The bar describing that bit is on pg. 35.

[Hugh Bliss]

It's in the next chapter over (uh..hopefully these page numbers are accurate, I don't know if there are multiple printings of the book.) Page 32 has the example section where the normal skill allotment is spent; at that point, she takes Active Games 2 (Pool), giving her effective ratings of Active Games 1/ Pool 3. Then she gets into Chapter 5: Personality and selects a few Liabilities and Behavior Tags, which grant bonus creation points. One of those bonus points was put into Active Games, so she ends up with Active Games 3 (Pool), or Active Games 2/Pool 4. The bar describing that bit is on pg. 35.

Damnit... How didn't I read that? I feel really stupid now. Anyway I should've known it was just a matter of asking someone to read the book for me and then pointing out which part I forgot to read :P

I obviously didn't read this chapter properly, I missed the part about Liabilities/tags being worth skills too...

Thanks a lot for pointing that out for me. I'm going to go hide in a box.

Now the only thing left is to find some friends...


EDIT:

So I feel triple stupid for not reading half the personality chapter and the character sheet properly. Counting her skill points to 31 was collasally stupid of me. I feel worse now.