Stuart Lloyd’s quick and dirty d100 RPG system

or: Stuart Lloyd’s RPG with a lack of snappy title.

Introduction

This is my simple RPG system which leaves a lot of room for the referee to

do as they please. For ideas of setting, skills, magic level and tech level,

there are plenty of free RPG systems to draw inspiration of such as d20

SRD, the d6 system, OSRIC or any number of free RPGs. You can find

another list of free RPGs here.

Setting

The setting can be anything you like. High fantasy, historical, low fantasy,

scifi, hard scifi, modern.

Skills

Every adventurer starts the adventure with 10 skills (but they may have

more or fewer depending on the length of the adventure). Skills can be

determined by the referee who needs to take into account the setting and

the situations that will occur in the quest. Skill is a broad term that could

cover something that the player could train in or it could cover a physical or

mental attribute.

Some historical/fantasy skills: heal, hunting, appraise, craft, profession,

climb, swim, acrobatics, unarmed combat, sword fighting, strength, great

memory, magic (or different schools of magic).

Some scifi skills: Psychic ability, shooting, piloting, unarmed combat, great

memory, programming, engineering.

Magic, psychic powers and tech level

You need to determine the capabilities of the technology in your world. In a

fantasy setting, has gunpowder been invented? In a futuristic setting, is

teleportation and faster than light travel prevalent?

For the magic level or psychic powers level, you need to think about what

magic uses are capable of and how difficult the effects are. Is it easy for

magic users to fly and cast fireball or are they only capable of magical

effects that are unseen

Ability points

Heroes start a quest with 100 ability points (although it could be any value

depending on the difficulty and length of a quest) which they can use to

help them with difficulty checks.

Difficulty Checks

The referee sets the difficulty of a task and the hero can see if they achieve

the task by rolling d100 and getting a value higher than the difficulty. The

difficulty is usually 0-99, but it can be negative or above 99 for very easy or

very difficult tasks. Heroes can assign any number of ability points to add

to their die roll for a task but only if they have a skill that would help them

with that task.

Combat

Combat is basically a difficulty test. If a hero has a combat ability, they can

use them in the normal way. They may also gain bonuses from using

weapons and armour. Both combatants need to decide on their strategy –

defensive, neutral and offensive. Heroes who choose a defensive strategy,

get a bonus to their roll (around 10 but it’s up to the referee). Heroes who

choose a neutral strategy get no bonus to their roll. Heroes who choose an

offensive strategy get a penalty to their roll (around -10 but it’s up to the

referee). The same applies to the hero’s opponent(s). If they decide to be

defensive, then the difficulty of the combat will be higher by 10 and if they

are offensive, then the difficulty of the combat will be lower by 10. Neutral

strategies give no modifier.

Wounds status for heros and opponents in combat

Opponent's strategy → Defensive Neutral Offensive

Hero's strategy ↓

Offensive Opponent wounded/Hero OK

Opponent killed/Hero wounded Opponent killed/Hero killed

Neutral Opponent OK/Hero OK Opponent wounded/Hero wounded

Opponent wounded/Hero killed

Defensive Opponent OK/Hero OK Opponent OK/Hero OK Opponent OK/Hero wounded

The green letters are for when heroes win the combat. The red letters are

for when they lose. Although heroes and opponents may be OK if they

lose a combat, they will have still clearly lost the combat and this may have

implications in the case of competition or losing face.

Wounded status

The heroes’ statuses could be unwounded, wounded and dead. Wounded

heroes need at least a week to recover which involves doing nothing other

than light tasks. It will take half the time of complete bed rest.

Sanity status

It may be appropriate in some settings to measure heroes’ sanity. In this

case, you can measure it as sane, shaken and insane. Shaken heroes

have some kind of mental affliction such as obsessive compulsive disorder

or paranoia which will give them penalties to certain tests. Shaken heroes

can recover given lots of time and help. Insane heroes need some serious

help or magic to cure them.

Fate points

A hero can spend a fate point to give themselves a bonus to a roll (around

+10 but it’s up to the referee) or be given a chance to escape a difficult

situation. They can spend a fate point if they would be killed in combat to

turn it into a wounded result. Fate points should only be awarded in very

rare situations.

Rewards for completing quests

After a quest, a hero can receive rewards in the form of treasure, powerful

equipment, a fate point, more ability points per quest or a new skill. The

size of the reward depends on the difficulty of the quest, the hero’s

involvement and roleplaying and how successful they were.

Conclusion

So that’s my system. If you have any comments, please email me at

sl1605@gmail.com or visit my gamebook blog at

http://virtualfantasies.blogspot.com/.