The Two Steps

I was playing with my nephews this weekend and I realized there are two steps to becoming a decent HiBRiD player.

Step 1: Learn what your character can do

It goes without saying, a player needs to learn the rules of the game. But there are only really three rules to learn, and I have found myself able to explain them in 10 minutes:

1. Learn how to make a task roll
2. Learn how to use Ite’
3. Learn how to determine damage

Once the players are briefed, I have noticed new players are usually filled with a sense of wonder and freedom. What happens next usually depends on the player’s gaming experience.

Players used to 3E, 4E, 5E, Pathfinder, and other rule-heavy or crunchy rulesets sometimes find the game uncomfortable to play, obviously discomforted by the lack of rules limiting their characters’ actions. Some of these players walk away from the table shaking their heads. Some just play half-heartedly until their characters die, then walk away from the table completely missing the point of the game. Those who stay, however, have a chance at making the jump from tyranny to freedom. Often, it takes more than a few sessions of them asking, “Can I do X” or “Can I do Y?” before they get used to the freedom. Players used to rules-light systems or altogether new to roleplaying seem to get the hang quickly and seem to jump right into the HiBRiD frame of mind. Regardless of whether they are experienced or novice roleplayers, once they are in the fold, seem to enjoy themselves there.

Step 2: Learn what your character can not do

Once they have accepted that their character can attempt anything they can imagine with no rules to stop them, they have to learn that while their characters are not limited by rules, they do need to appreciate the genre of the game and the abilities they have chosen to define when they build their characters. Often, this will result in one or more character deaths. It is in this way players learn the difference between heroic and foolhardy. They learn the limits of Ite’ and the joy of their character experiencing heroic achievement or dying while daring greatly. Those with closed minds walk, while those open to the HiBRiD aesthetic make another character and dive right back into the action.

And as I have reiterated elsewhere or demonstrated at the table, when a player walks, I have no problems with it. At all. HiBRiD is the way I want to play. While I enjoy sharing it with those willing to go along on the journey. I don’t have to answer to shareholders. I don’t have to sell my ideas to others with overpriced art. I don’t need to make them feel better or worry about their feelings. I just need to play, to teach, and to have fun.

Clarification of Purpose

I have been not promoting or posting much on social media over the past few weeks, as I have been experiencing some sort of intense desire to get the game done. It is surely a good thing, as I finally have the rough drafts for 3 of the 6 chapters complete. In the process, I have consolidated and eliminated 5 file folders of ideas and two 3-inch binders of paper cluttering my life.

In this same spirit, I wanted to kind of do a kind of consolidation of my purposes for writing the game. As of late, I have been fatigued by the onslaught of a-dozen-a-day new RPG Kickstarter projects crowding the net. It has soured me to the thought of crowdsourcing and made me review my focus and purpose for continuing this project. As I reviewed my various blog entries, I noticed that I have peppered my points with bits and pieces of my intents, desires, and reasons for continuing to write the HiBRiD™ game rules. As I am currently consolidating the rules themselves, I thought it would be a great time to take a minute to reflect and also consolidate and clarify my own (selfish) purposes for writing the game. This might provide insight for any of you who recently started reading my blog but have no desire to dig for the answers to the unstated and overarching question of “Why create HiBRiD™?”

At First…

I’m not writing the game to take over the market, make money, or even to be the next best thing since sliced bread. I have said this much before.

At the lowest level, I want to directly demonstrate to players the level of simplicity I like and the very core mechanic I prefer to use when I play a roleplaying game. I want to share my preference for the d20, a simplified mechanic to cover all situations, the separation of skills from attributes, and the simplification of supernatural abilities into a single system.

At the next level, I want to show my aesthetics of what I like to reflect in a roleplaying system. For example, I love the metric system and the integration of the trades, the arts, and the natural sciences into the skill system. I love defining a character’s attributes in a way that allows them to be used as easy uniform handles for the game mechanics to reflect BOTH physical and metaphysical abilities.

But Then…

As the years have gone on and I have brought others into the HiBRiD fold, I noticed something else. Players get an intuitive feel for how the game works, even without ever having ever seen a ruleset! Those who come back to the game, whether at my house or at the various conventions again and again intuitively have a feel for how I like to play the game and we share that aesthetic sense. The rules, regardless of the level of crunch, have always come second to the tasks they want their characters to accomplish. This style of gameplay, as I have observed its development over the years, in combination with this sense of urgency I have recently begun feeling has led me to a higher goal of bringing players to intuitively understand the specific style of play I just mentioned.

Finally...

Intuition, however, is difficult to teach. With this in mind, I want to, at the most basic level, codify the situations in which I use a rule and those when I choose not to use a rule. This will enable experienced players coming from mechanics-heavy games to begin the process of weaning themselves from the fears, uncertainties, and doubts of not having a crunchy mechanic for every situation. It will also provide a simple structure for using the Ité Gaming Engine in a balanced way to prevent those coming from more freeform games from feeling inhibited. For beginning players, I want to bring them into the fold into this style of play as soon as they sit down to play.

Ultimately (and ideally), as players continue to play the game, they will begin to develop the intuitive sense of how I play the game and carry that sense to their own games.

Character Sheet Organization

Well, with the text complete, I have started creating the character sheets for the Essential version of the HiBRiD™ rules. For HiBRiD™ Esssential, players will pick one of six templates, (Thinker, Adept, Fighter, Survivor, Profiler, or Tradesman). Each template:

1.       Ranks 6 general skills 0-5, (5 is the one at which the character is best).

2.       Specifies 3 template skills and ranks them

3.       Aspects essential to the template

Players mark these down on their character sheet, then allocate their character’s Attributes, and finally, go through the character sheet and fill in all the values based on these numbers. Each blank on the character sheet gives a hint on how to calculate each value. The ultimate goal is to allow character creation in less than 5 minutes.

In order for this approach to work, the character sheet must be designed to fit in with this method, I am in the process of finalizing the character sheet layout (I’ll tackle typesetting afterwards). I have narrowed it down to between two layouts at this time and will be posting them here for everyone to see. The first one presented here was done in Microsoft Publisher; my next entry will be one done in Scribus, and I will point out the differences that I am concerned with between the two. (As always, your input will be appreciated.). And without further adieu….

Features:

• Title in banner across the entire top header
• Light pattern background
• Dark fields
• White text
• Vitals in 2 separate fields
• Large long Boxes for Attributes
• Ite' management is vertical with no place for maximum Floating Ite'

Here is the Scribus sheet (not complete but has all the defining features; the last two boxes will be the same except for the color scheme.):

Features:

• Title centered in top header
• Dark pattern background
• Lighter, colored fields
• White text
• Vitals in 1 separate field
• Smaller boxes for attributes
• Ite' management is horizontal with a place for maximum Floating Ite'

The color schemes are open to suggestion; I like the idea of creating pads of paper with multiple colors; Some people just want a pink character sheet, you know? Well, looking forward to input on legibility. I will playtest them with the character creation rules with the kids once the text is flowed and keep you all posted...

Enjoy.

HiBRiD Grappling- An Alternative Point of View

Introduction

Anyone still chewing on my previous post? Did it seem to simple? Too complicated? Not "dice-ish" enough? Perhaps 3 steps was 2 steps too many? Perhaps, you don't play or watch tennis and the scoring is just too "European"...too erudite....or for rich snobby people? (Let me guess, you hate the metric system too...)


Perhaps you felt there weren't enough game-slowing tables, flow charts, and pages of conditions to memorize so that you can feel like you're better than anyone who doesn't play your system. Your system is the best anyway, right? And any who don't play your system or might question it or wish to raise it as a topic for discussion are just a bunch of (insert plural expletive here).


Well, I have been thinking about it with a HiBRiD^TM eye for a long time and as I thought about it again after writing my previous post, it strengthened my belief and reinforced the question I have had answered in my own mind for quite a while now: "Why does there need to even BE a "grappling system", anyway?

Before you go off, let's think about it for a second.

Let me start with the fact that in HiBRiD^TM1.0, I fell victim to the "need for grappling rules" myth. For all unarmed combat, characters had a %KO stat that different moves increased by different amounts, modified by the degree of success. When the opponent hit 100%, it was knocked out, given a broken arm, et cetera.  It was fun, but slow as all get out.

When I sat down to write v2.0, the %KO rule was one of the last rules I shredded. But why did I get rid of it? It came down to a fundamental HiBRiD^TMconcept that I wanted to capture in the ruleset: Players want to do stuff, and make things happen. This is mitigated significantly in a hit-point-based system (HPBS), which requires round after round of whittling down an opponent to 0 hit points. When a weapon is used in an HPBS, the opponent is whittled down to 0, killing them or at the least making them no longer a threat. The ultimate goal, then, whether it is to put an opponent down temporarily or kill the opponent, is simply remove that opponent as an obstacle. (Though some storylines require the killing of a monster as a central goal, of course)

In a HBPS (or any simulationist) system, what do hit points represent? They represent heroism. They represent a knowledge of how to avoid taking damage due to experience gained. They do not represent, however, actual physical damage. Unless you overlay a system of critical-hits or some other determinant for specifying damage locations, things such as lacerations, broken bones, bruises, sprains, et cetera are all abstracted into hit-points. If they weren’t, you would be playing something else (Rolemaster, Blue Planet v1.0, Morrow Project, et cetera) or have added an elaborate set of rules (which begs the question of why aren’t you playing something else?).

The Essence of Grappling

In the HiBRiD^TM way of thinking, grappling is just the same thing as fighting with a weapon just restated. If you are using an HBPS, you have made the conscious choice to have things such as broken bones, joint locks, and internal injuries abstracted away into the loss of hit points. The ultimate goal is to hold or delay an opponent, throw an opponent, control an opponent, or break an appendage. All of these things can be handled in an HPBS without the need for special rules. So, looking at it this way, a grab is just a simple roll to hit. The defender’s hit points represent all of the opponent’s resources toward avoiding the desired goal of the grapple. Hit points administered by a grapple represent the attacking character’s efforts to actually overcome the opponent’s physical and experiential resources. Once the opponent is reduced to 0 hit points, the ultimate goal of the grapple is obtained.

Why a Separate Grappling System?

If a player wants something quicker, then the group can simply agree to a house rule saying a critical success doesn’t do damage-it simply means the goal is obtained immediately. Or the group could tack on the Ité Gaming Engine. Or that player could quit whining and find a group playing something else. I would put forth that many players that want a system for grappling just want a quick workaround the hit point abstraction for their strategic advantage; players truly wanting more realism or quicker resolution would be playing something else. A director can test this easily by having a number of grappling enemies breaking a few of that player’s character’s arms, legs, and necks and gauging the player’s response.

Conclusion

Adding an additional system is inefficient, repugnant, and totally not HiBRiD^TMish . A HiBRiD^TMish system is one where one system is applied equally to all situations, with few if any special cases; there is no need for a separate grappling system and players should be subject to the same effects when opponents grapple them. In HiBRiD^TM, a modified HPBS, any character goal is represented by depleting the opponent’s hit points, regardless of whether it is a grapple, an unarmed strike, or an armed attack. And for those who have played, it is easy to see why the Ité gaming engine fits in so neatly with heroic combat; it allows the players a clean and integrated mechanic to  allow them to “make things happen”!

An Addendum:

If players want grappling to be crippling and instantly drop opponents, all they really need to do is agree to a house rule to jack up the number of hit points inflicted by a successful attack. Maybe a 1d6+STR per character level or monster hit die. That will make it ridiculously unbalanced and ridiculously quick in a snap...and gauge the same tactics to the monster power level. I would recommend the characters meet up with grapplers as skilled as themselves just to make sure they get a taste of it on the receiving end as well!

E Z Grappling

Grappling can be conducted as an opposed task roll and resolved like a tennis match using a deuce-advantage-game scale. Players start at a score of deuce before engaging. An attacker must first obtain a success to upgrade the deuce to advantage, then a second success to convert the advantage to game. Critical results move the score two steps along the scale.

A character with game can either control, damage, or throw an opponent, depending on the player's goal description for his turn. Game is automatically maintained by an attacker until the defender can restore deuce through two consecutive opposed task rolls, the first to drive the condition back to advantage then the second to once again bring the condition back to deuce. Until deuce is obtained by the defender, attacker automatically applies damage or maintains control.

Control can be a pin, joint lock, or any other tactical immobilization. Control is subject to other mass, strength, and scale rules.

Damage inflicted is 2d6 (6) per round.  Throw damage is also 2d6 (6), but if the opponent is moving quickly, this number is multiplied by the number of action moves made in the previous round. When total damage applied exceeds the PHYS of the opponent, the limb is incapacitated, 2x the PHYS means the limb is broken, 3x means the limb is irreparably damaged.  Naturally, these same rules apply to an opponent's head as well. 

Average characters have 10 points of PHYS. Firing at grappling opponents is handled the same as firing into melee.There are no other penalties applied. Until game is obtained, all actions are standard actions. After game is obtained, all actions between grapplers are involved actions. 

Done.

HiBRiD Rule: Opposed Task Rolls

In HiBRiD, an opposed task roll reflects dynamic action and an assertion of a character’s desire to make something happen. In situations where an opposed task roll results in a tie, the initiator of an action always wins, never the defender or preventer of the action. If the described goal of a turn is simply to cancel or prevent an opponent’s action, that character will also lose in the event of a tie.

In a situation where two characters act during the same initiative count, both characters are considered initiators of an action. As a result, a tie means both characters succeed in their actions and effects are applied at the same time. In the event of completely contradictory actions, the director will determine how the two actions interact.

In some cases, this may seem complicated, such as in the case where a character in a faster initiative phase of the round holds initiative to interact with a character in a slower phase or two characters are grappling. In these situations, the faster character will get to act first and if successful, may interrupt the character’s turn description, but the slower character’s turn is not eliminated. Instead, the slower character will just need to change the description and goal of his turn to reflect the faster character’s success. The director may then apply any penalties she thinks might have resulted from the interruption.

Sees pretty clean to me. I just eliminated the need for pages of grappling rules and tables or die mechanics to tell me what to do. Wow! 

RPG Review: Tiny Horsies The Role Paying Game - Part 4: Magic

What You Get

Tiny Horsies is not a game of battle mages, dark magic, or defilers of the land. It is, instead, a game of creatures using magic to solve problems, and sometimes, to kick a little butt. 

The magic abilities open to a character are determined by the type of tiny horsie (see Part 2 to learn more about horsie types). Unicorn and Pegacorn horsie PCs (I like to think of them as “magical horsies”) possess Magical Attributes and are able to use them as if they were just another attribute, or may purchase levels in the Magical Object attribute to be able to create magic objects. Terra and Pegasus horsie PCs (or, in other words, might I say “nonmagical horsies”) cannot possess Magical Attributes, however, they can still obtain access to magical effects by purchasing the Magical Object Attribute and putting points into it as magical horsies can.

The individual Magical Attributes have consistent effects that are described in the book and may be enhanced by spending points on them, just like any other attribute. The Magical Objects Attributes can be used to create items that manifest identical effects to those manifested by Magical Attributes or a number of additional effects that are listed in the book.

Spending points on the Create Magic Objects Attribute increases the number of types of items, the number of types of abilities, or the level of power of the items a horsie may create. Magical objects have an Attribute Level just like any of the horsie’s other Attributes, enabling them to be used in an exact manner during character action resolution. For the most part, magic items described in the book are one-shot disposable items with their own Magical Attributes.

My Take

The system appears on the surface to be an apparent dichotomy of two magic systems that in theory seem different, as one is a skill-based system used by only the “magical horsies”, and one is akin to a Vancian System with physical components for both magical and nonmagical horsies. The neat thing is that the mechanics of the two systems are identical, so they flow together seamlessly during play.

There are some other features worthy of note.

First, there are only 18 magical effects described in detail in the book. Specifically, the magical horsie abilities and scrolls make the following effects available to horsies:

• Telekinesis
• Order
• Cancel Magic
• Energy Ray
• Transformation
• Healing
• Teleportation

Potions enable horsies to create objects with the following effects:

• Aversion
• Healing
• Underwater Breathing
• Charisma
• Invisibility
• Illness
• Curing Diseases
• Cure Magical Conditions
• Truth
• Rest
• Sleep

It would seem there are more magical effects for potions when compared to scrolls or magical horsies at first glance. Like everything else in the game, however, the rules say that these are common, not absolute, and that horsies may find other magical items and effects over the course of their adventures. And of course, horsies and Game Masters can always develop and playtest their own. For our home campaign, we say all effects are available to all items or magical horsies. If a Unicorn wants to be able to Breath Underwater, then we follow the rules for that potion ability and the horsie may have it as a magical attribute instead. If a Terra wants to make a potion of teleportation, have at it!

Upon reading the effect descriptions, only one is really able to inflict damage, the Energy Rays. There are no fireballs, lightning bolts, or life draining touches, although a Naughty Horsie might have these…hmm, that is an idea for a game…I have to go write that down…back in a minute…

...O. K., I’m back

Energy rays in Tiny Horsies are unique from normal damage-causing spells in other games,  because,  in addition to their ability to inflict damage, they also have a secondary effect as well. When a character chooses to purchase an energy ray for a character, a specific ray type must be declared, which also determines the special ability the ray provides. A darkness ray, for instance, may be used by the horsie firing it to see in the dark. It also specifically cancels out a light ray if it is fired at the horsie. In our home campaign, we use the rules for damage and side effects of energy rays, but allow the players to define how they manifest. Our resident flying manatee manifests the fire energy ray as a large cloud of gas that comes out of her butt, and our little wolfie likes to manifest his fire energy ray as fireballs that spring from his paws.

One final note: As I previously pointed out, of the 18 magical effects described in the text, only one has a real potential to do damage to other creatures. Even that effect has side abilities associated with it to make it more useful as a tool rather than a weapon. This keeps the magic system in alignment with my original point in my other chapters of this review: that Tiny Horsies treats combat as just one way to solve a problem, not the end-all-be-all of character action.

Conclusion

The Tiny Horsies magic system is functional , easy to use, and consistent with the mechanics used for the rest of the game. While only an eyelash shy of a score of effects are described, they are functional and will cover routine situations horsies will come across.

For mechanic-loving, simulationist gamers who want to lay waste to legions of evildoers, look elsewhere.

For role players, people who want to manifest combat with flair and pizzazz, problem-solving players looking for unique ways to solve problems, and creative types that want a system that allows for easy creation and testing of unique spells or magical effects, the magic system is easy to learn, quick to resolve, and fun to tinker with.  

What is HiBRiD about this?

As the 3 of you that have read the blog regularly know, HiBRiD has no magic system per se, though I have created a wrapper to convert D&D (and its derivatives' ) spells into skills (only requiring a task roll when characters are allowed a saving throw). This allows spells to fit within the framework of the HiBRiD system, making the development of further magical spells easy by offloading it onto other systems and enabling players to use the books they have already bought without having to feel like they wasted their money) and ensures the focus remains on heroic action rather than the spellcasting itself.

The 18 defined spell descriptions provided in Tiny Horsies provide just enough diversity and clarity to give free-form gaming groups the fundamental guidelines needed for designing their own spells and magical effects to fit within their own games. This is in alignment with HiBRiD, as they lie in a zone where they are not so crunchy as to prevent the unpredictable yet entertaining effects from Game Master interpretations (as 3E and beyond spells are) while still having just enough structure to keep the core effects well-defined so as not to take away from the story (unlike Storyteller systems, where the spells often can take spotlight away from the heroes).

A 2-Page Character Sheet for Tiny Horsies: The Role Playing Game

As promised in my review, here is the 2 page version of the Tiny Horsies Character Sheet we use in our home games. I made it using Scribus and LibreOffice. It is in .tiff format. If you would like a PDF version, please email me and I will do my best to accommodate you. Until then, please enjoy!

RPG Review: Tiny Horsies The Role Playing Game - Part 3: Mechanik

And now, for the piece those who have waited to see and probably are really wanting to read, my review of the mechanics of the game.

What You Get

The Basic Mechanic

The heart of the Tiny Horsies system revolves around a “dice roll”, modified by character Attributes (See Part 2: Character Creation for more on Attributes). Dice rolls are only used whenever a character attempts to perform a task for which the result might be in question or opposed by another character. There is no mechanism for critical success or failures in most cases, though there is an exception for rolling a 12 on a physical attack or magic energy ray attack roll.

To make a dice roll, the player rolls two six-sided dice (2d6), and the result must equal or overcome a target number determined by the type of task the character is attempting.

For most rolls, Attribute Points may be spent to modify the roll, except for Empathy-Sentient Beings, which only has an Attribute Level that is added to the roll every time it is made and never changes. Players attempting a task may spend relevant Attribute points related to the task to increase the result by one for each point spent.

There are not opposing task rolls, however players opposing the completion of a task may spend their character's attribute points to decrease the result of the same roll being made to affect them. To resolve the action, the player whose character is attempting the task must declare first how many points will be spent to increase the task roll. The defender or opposing character then declares how many points will be spent to decrease the task roll. Finally, the dice are rolled, the modifications to the roll as a result of all the attribute points being spend are applied, and all points are spent regardless of results.

Conflict Resolution

There are three primary methods of conflict resolution that use the basic mechanic.

In physical combat, the Attack Roll result must be 8 or higher. If attempting to blast an opponent with an energy ray, the Energy Ray Roll result must be 7 or higher. To affect a sentient being, the Empathy Roll result must be 10 or higher. Animals can be befriended simply by spending Empathy-Animals points, with more points increasing either the size or number of animals affected.

In physical combat, a few additional rules are used. During an action scene, characters roll 1d6, with the highest rollers going first and ties indicating simultaneous action. Strength points are used by the attacker to increase the chance of a kick attack or the damage inflicted by a kick. Evasion points may be used by the defender to reduce the chance of a successful attack against a horsie. Damage inflicted is equal to one point plus a number of points equal to the remaining number of Strength Points. This total is then subtracted from the target's Life points. If a little horsie falls to half of its Life Points, all combat rolls are penalized by one until the horsie is healed. Finally, there are no rules for armor and character death is an optional rule.

In energy ray combat, a Magic Energy Ray point must be spent just to make the attack, but additional Magic Energy Ray points are used to affect the attack roll as in physical combat. Other than that, combat is conducted as physical combat, including the use of Evasion points to defend against the attack. Damage inflicted by an energy ray is one point plus one point for each of the remaining number of Magic Energy Ray points remaining.

Characters can also try to use their social skills, charisma, presence and whatever else is represented by their Empathy Attributes in a slightly different way. For animals, it just happens, with no die roll, assuming the player has the points to spend. For sentient beings, to get a sentient being to like them, the character adds the Empathy-Sentient Beings Attribute Level to the task roll, as a character has no Empathy-Sentient Beings Attribute points. The rules explicitly state that the action must be role-played by the player, or the game master will not allow the roll.

My Take

There are couple of idiosyncracies that make the Tiny Horsies  game more than just the basic rule mechanic.

Theme

First, looking at the number of pages dedicated to describing and explaining the workings of the character attributes and combat rules reveals the following distribution of pages:

• Strength: 5 Pages
• Flight: 3 Pages
• Evasion: 1 Page
• Life: 1 Page
• Empathy: 10 pages
• Random: 4 Pages
• Physical Combat: 2
• Energy Ray Combat: 6

From this page distribution, you can easily tell that Tiny Horsies is definitely not designed to be a violent war game, though the potential for kicking some horsie butt is definitely there. There are more pages of rules for handling making friends than physical combat. There are three times the number of pages for energy ray combat than physical combat. Further making the point is the fact that horsie death is an OPTIONAL RULE! How awesome is that? If you want to get more serious, the rules are there, but if you are playing this game with your kids, you probably will want to leave things at the status quo. I love a game where you can kick butt and yet killing an opponent is not the default setting! It is refreshing to see a game that both enables and embraces simulative roleplaying fully without being overly narrative or annoyingly LARPish (Come to think of it, that would probably be an oxymoron because ALL LARPS are annoying!)

Dice Aesthetic

Second, as many of you know, I am generally NOT a fan of any multiple-dice mechanics that utilize the standard distribution curve. Using 2d6, however, is a smart move for several reasons in this particular instance. The game is very much targeted at (and definitely playable by) families and players new to roleplaying. Throwing two 6-sided dice is a mechanic familiar to many common board games (backgammon, Monopoly, et cetera) and using such a familiar mechanic makes it easier when attempting teach something unfamiliar, such as the concept of a role-playing game. Also, the number spread is small enough to make it easier for younger children to add and still large enough to create the excitement a random dice roll should incite.

Crunch

Third, though the basic mechanic is simple, there is a small amount of crunchy rule variability beyond the basic mechanic. There are 5 pages describing how much a horsie can carry and how fast a horsie can travel on land and aloft with various loads. There are three different target numbers for dice rolls, depending on what type of task a character is attempting. There are tables to be consulted for several different types of actions, each of which has different target values. Luckily, each specific case for the various rules is fairly intuitive. The (fantastic) index will help minimize some of this the first time a group plays. Players who continue to play will have most likely have them memorized fairly quickly after two or three sessions.

Open Design

Fourth, the rules are pretty specific to conflict resolution but not much else. What if you want your horsie to sneak past a guard? Pick a lock? Jury-rig a helicopter? There are no specific attributes for many such actions unless they fall within your Hobby or Profession. The situations of fine motor coordination are probably the toughest thing for me to deal with, because I am not a Brony and I can't seem to get past the fact that HORSIES HAVE NO FINGERS! Luckily, while the rules do not cover every action, they very clearly address this by encouraging players to make rule changes or make up rules. Applying this to our problem, it is easy to come up with several solutions:

1. Just say these actions happen (A fast solution, but could result in a lost dramatic opportunity)
2. Only allow horsies with Magic-Telekinesis attribute or a relevant Hobby or Profession conduct these actions (encourages teamwork)
3. Create new attributes (This could lead to rule creep, but I think a Gadget or Mechanik (The K there is intentional) Attribute might do the trick, and stealth rolls can simply be covered by the Evasion Attribute.
4. Use Random points as a catchall for any situation not covered by the rules. The player simply needs to spend a Random point, roll the 2d6 with a target number of 8, and the game can proceed. Instantly, any inconsistency in the rules or problems inherent with playing an anthropomorphic tiny horsie can be instantly swept away. It is consistent with the basic mechanic and players can spend Random points to affect the total of the roll in a similar manner. Unfortunately, this will place a bit more emphasis on spending points on the Random Attribute during character creation, so the Game Master might just decide to give everyone a certain number of Random points each game session just to prevent this from occurring.

Conclusion

From a player's point of view, the mechanics are simple, easy to learn, and unified even with the crunchiness. Players and Game Masters who like to crush their enemies, see their enemies driven before them, and hear the lamentations of their women could do so in this game, but the game mechanics and overall rule emphasis really reflects a view that combat plays a role on an even footing with other methods of conflict resolution in the overall scheme of the Tiny Horsies game.

Gaming groups that favor mechanics could easily customize the tar out of this game, but should probably look for a game more suited to their temperament. Those who prefer to run more free-form games with a customizable level of crunch will love this game due to the ease of generalization of the basic mechanic and the ability to use it flexibly to improvise rulings on the fly!

Finally, the first 12 pages (Approximately 10% of the book) are dedicated to very clearly introducing the concept of role playing games and the nuts and bolts about how they work in a way that doesn't feel like it is just added to the game as an afterthought. It is a fantastic game for introducing role playing games to children in a way that skirts the traditional role that violence has played in the hobby as a result of its wargame origins. From a parent's point of view, it is a great way to start the conversations of violence and its role in the world and problem resolution.

For those without such lofty goals, you can make a character in 3 minutes and satisfyingly kick butt with magic energy rays and a couple good hoof kicks in no time flat!

What is HiBRiD^TM About This

The amount of crunch is not HiBRiD^TM per se. The ease with which the basic mechanic can be improvised to resolve tasks not covered by the rules, however, totally makes this game system HiBRiD^TM. We have already extended the use of the Evasion Attribute as a means for resolving stealth and hiding rolls in addition to its use in chase and combat scenes.

Further, the generality of the Attributes in the game is totally HiBRiD^TM. In fact, at this time, only one of my kids is playing a tiny horsie as a result of the abstract nature of the attributes. One is playing a wolfie and the other is playing a sentient telekinetic floating manatee. For the wolfie, we just use the Terra horsie type and indicate that he is a wolfie on the character sheet. For the floating manatee, we are using the pegacorn horsie type and treating the energy ray as a burp or flatulence attack resulting from its constant diet of sea grass. In both of these cases, the rules don't matter; it is simply an aesthetic choice that makes the characters more fun to play.

The use of pounds and miles in the game is definitely not HiBRiD^TM. At All. I have worked in the hard sciences and the medical profession for over 25 years. I have correspondence with people professionally and personally with people from all over the world. I am more comfortable with the metric system than the English system. I love it. It is like a fuzzy blanket that is warm and toasty in the winter and cool but still comfy in the summer. All the weights and distances in the game, however, are measured in miles and pounds. Most people, at least in the US, probably consider this a great thing and it will definitely make it easier for most Americans to play. But it isn't HiBRiD^TM.

I love the fact that the rules for tie dice rolls and target numbers are explicitly stated in the rules. This is TOTALLY HiBRiD^TM! If a game system really needs a specific roll or multistep mechanic to handle ties or force players to calculate a target number, there is pretty much a 99% chance I will not play that game. Seriously. You are the designer. It's your game. Make a decision and commit to it. Don't you DARE blow it off on your players or, Asgard forbid, leave it hanging.

Finally, we have (of course) integrated the Ité Gaming Engine onto our home game very easily, making this game totally HiBRiD^TM. To use it, the Game Master determines how many hours the game is going to run, gives the players a number of floating points equal to this number and adds 1 to it. While the idea of the Random Attribute comes close to the idea of Ité (complete with its definition*), it still requires the characters to predefine what their Random Acts will be. By integrating the Ité Gaming Engine, we extend this ability but without requiring predetermined Random Acts. This is especially important, because our family tends to use the Ité Gaming Engine in almost every game we play.

*From the text: "Random represents the character's ability to do things out of the ordinary, to bend the laws of physics, and to know something that it would normally not be able to know. It represents the luck of the character”

RPG Review: Tiny Horsies: The Role Playing Game - Part 2: Character Creation

What You Get

Character Design

Tiny Horsies is a straight attribute-based system; there are no skills or classes in the game. Instead, all characters have the following non-magical Attributes, all of which start at a default Attribute Level of 0:

• Strength: Determines the strength of the character
• Flight: Determines how good the character is at flying
• Life: Determines how much damage the character can take
• Evasion: Determines how well the character avoids attacks, obstacles, or other threats
• Empathy: Determines how well others like the character
• Random: Determines the ability of a character to do things out of the ordinary, know a random thing, or break a random law of physics

Attribute Levels reflect the power of the attribute, and determines such things as how much weight a character can lift and carry, the number of target animals a character can befriend, or the number of attempts at affecting Sentient beings the character may make.

Attribute Points are derived from Attribute levels, and are spent to affect dice rolls and make activities more successful. Physical Attribute Points (Strength, Flight, Evasion, Life) can be regained by sleeping and resting. Mental Attribute Points (Empathy-Animals and Empathy-Sentient) are regained by sleeping, resting, and meditation. Random points are regenerated each gaming session.

Some of these attributes have special rules associated with them. Terras and Unicorns, for instance, will always have a Flight Attribute of 0, reflecting the fact that they are unable to fly. Another example, the Empathy Attribute, has two subtypes: one that applies to sentient creatures and one for animals.

Steps for Character Creation

The steps for character creation are not explicitly stated in the text, however, an example that walks the player through the process is included. From this "walkthrough example", I would summarize the process as follows:

The first step is to choose a type of horsie. The type of horsie selected gives a bonus to the non-magical Attribute Levels of the character, and determines if a character has any innate magical abilities. There are four types of horsies from which to choose:

• Terra: A standard horse with strong physical abilities
• Receives a +2 Level bonus in Strength
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in Life
• Unicorn: A one-horned horse with magical ability 
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in the Magic-Telekinesis Attribute
• Receives either:
• A +1 Level bonus in two Magic Attributes, OR
• A +2 Level bonus in 1 Magic Attribute
• Pegasus: A winged horse with the ability to fly and evade attacks
• Receives a +2 Level bonus in Flight
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in Evasion
• Pegacorn: A combination of a pegasus and a unicorn
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in Flight
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in the Magic-Telekinesis Attribute
• Receives a +1 Level bonus in one other Magic Attribut

The second step is to determine the character’s non-magical Attribute Levels for each Attribute and/or buy Magical Attributes. Attributes are determined by a point-buy system, whereby the player starts with 10 points which may be spent to either 1) increase non-magical Attribute Levels beyond those determined by their horsie type or 2) buy magical abilities.

Non-magical Attribute Levels start at a value of 0 plus the bonus determined by the horsie type.

You can also choose to buy one of seven magical abilities for your character. Each one is treated as Magic Attribute, and, like the other non-magical Attributes, has both an Attribute Level and a number of Attribute Points associated with it. Magic Attribute Levels that are purchased start at an Attribute Level of 1.

Whether magical or not, all costs to increase Attribute Levels are the same. To increase an Attribute Level from 0 to 1 costs one point. To increase an Attribute Level from 1 to 2 costs two points, from 2 to 3 costs three points and so forth. When increasing an Attribute Level, you may not skip levels; you must buy all the levels in between. As an example, increasing from 0 to 3 will cost 1+2+3, or 6 points. Points may be spent all at once or saved for later Attribute improvement when a character rises in level.

The third step is to choose a Profession and Hobby for the character. Each of these is treated like an Attribute Level during game play. The Profession starts at a Level of Two while a Hobby starts with a Level of 1. There is a list of common professions and hobbies in the book, but players are encouraged to come up with their own.

The fourth step is to determine Attribute Points. Attribute Points are spent during the course of game play to make things happen (See Part 3: Mechanics for further details). For the most part, they are equal to the Attribute Level for each attribute, except in the case of Life Points, where 5 is added to the Life Attribute Level to get the total.

The fifth and final step is to document character possessions on the character sheet. All characters receive the following:

• 20 gold coins
• A very small, simple house

The description of the character is left up to the player, but the mane and the fur are standard throughout the examples provided and spaces are on the character sheet for these two traits. Additionally, the game provides a 3-page character sheet, complete with large boxes for drawing both a picture of a character as well as the character’s home.

My Take

A Glitch

I am going to give you my take on characters and character creation, but first, let me start with a little story.

The first time I made characters with my three kids, it took us about 45 minutes to make a group of characters. (They did have a total of 3 years of experience making HiBRiD^TM , Gamma World, and Dungeons and Dragons characters, so they were not completely inexperienced.) It would have only taken about 30 minutes by my reckoning if we hadn’t hit a glitch.

The main snag that slowed character creation for my family was the fact that the steps to character creation are not explicitly listed in the book (My two oldest even asked me “Where is the list of steps dad?”). This forced us to read through the entire walkthrough example of character creation multiple times. This slowdown was then amplified by the fact that the Attribute descriptions appear after the character creation chapter. Specifically, the source of our delay stemmed from the description of how Life Points are determined as described in the walkthrough example. The text states that the character starts with “5 Life” and later in the process, the player making the character wants to “spend a point in Life to get 1 Level in it as well”. According to the rules as written in the text, my kids read it to mean that it should cost 6 points to increase Life from 5 (the amount all characters start out with) to 6. While clarified on the character sheet after the walkthrough example and in the section describing Life Points later in the book after the walkthrough example, had there been an explicit set of steps that included the description of how to calculate Life Points somewhere before the example, this might have been prevented.

Speed

With all of this being said, once you understand the relationship between Attribute Levels and Attribute Points, the process of character creation is awesomely quick and easy. In the process of writing an adventure for our next game, I have had to create 9 NPCs. The process is so simple, I now find myself able to pound out a fully designed and developed NPC in less than 3 minutes.  FanTAStic!

The Character Sheet

The game comes with a freely copied 3-page character sheet, that includes a special emphasis on drawing the character AND the character’s little house. This is awesome, but three pages makes a single character sheet into multiple character sheets. While simple, I found myself continuously wanting to create one myself, complete with some formatting changes to help players make their characters. For instance, for each attribute, there are three lines on the sheet. I would create one box for the Attribute Level, one box for the Maximum number of Attribute Points, then a long, skinny one next to these boxes to mark off points as I use them, kind of like hit points in so many other games. I would also add a +5 next to the Life Attribute Levels to really emphasize this part of the mechanic, as it is not quite so explicit in the book.

A Final Note

It seems every book I find has at least one grammatical error that drives me nuts or some nomenclature that I feel the need to comment on. In Tiny Horsies, there are both.

The one grammatical error that sticks in my craw every time I read it reads as follows:

“This is because it’s easier for the Game Master if the character doesn’t gaining new abilities in the middle of an action”

Ugh. I have decided to chalk the existence of this oversight up to proprietary software (whether used or not), as I refuse to believe any Open Source application would miss that!

(Update: I just found out that Neosoft was the app used. Darnit! I think that rather than blaming proprietary applications, I shall just use this as an opportunity to chastise them insteadJ )

On the subject of nomenclature, I want to take a minute to discuss the term “horsies”. Most people would agree that the singular diminutive form for a horse might normally be either “horsey” or “horsy”. In the case of this game, however, I feel spelling it “horsie” really gives it a feel that is congruent with the game, so I will be using it exclusively and specifically when I reference PCs and NPCs in the game going forward both in this review as well as in life.

Conclusion

Despite the "glitch, character creation for this game is a dream.

The lack of multiple types of character stats and the simplicity of the point-buy/horsie type Attribute determination system make character creation so fast it should be considered criminal. The integration of Magic Spells with Attributes enables players to create highly customized characters without sacrificing any of this speed.

The character sheets provided are a bit unwieldy, being three pages in length, though the room for drawing pictures makes them very novel. To help all of you, I will be including a link to a 2-sided character sheet you can use in the near future. The fact that I sat down and built it in Scribus over 3 hours should show how inspired I was by the game to create it after my third game session with my kids.It really is just a matter of taste anyway...

What is HiBRiD^TM about this?

Overall, the simplicity of the game, the de-emphasis on visceral combat, and the emphasis on interactions between PCs and NPCs really shines through when building a Tiny Horsies character.

I don’t want to spend a whole darn game session making characters. I am always working toward the ultimate goal of 5 minute character creation for HiBRiD^TM with this in mind. While the walkthrough example was great for players new to roleplaying games and HiBRiD^TM, it would be more efficient and even more HiBRiD^TM if there was also a list of creation steps that included a short summary of each step to allow more seasoned players to get up and running even more quickly. With its fast and expressive character creation system, Tiny Horsies has not only metaphorically nailed the horseshoes on the metaphorical character creation horsie, it has created streamlined, zero-G, frictionless horseshoes to boot!

The total control over character development with a crisp, unified, and simple mechanic and COMPLETE LACK OF RANDOM DICE ROLLS is totally HiBRiD^TM!  I love the fact that everything is an innate attribute, with no differences in terms of how the game is played. The necessity for such horribly unHiBRiD^TM paradigms as Charisma being an attribute, Perception being a skill, and any systemized feats or stunts is completely eliminated in Tiny Horsies! I have always struggled with this with almost any system I have ever played, seen, or designed, (including HiBRiD^TM). Games like Tiny Horsies (and the Zero roleplaying game by Steve Stone and Lester Smith) are shining examples of elegant character development systems and should be appreciated for the freedom they allow players while still instilling the excitement during action scenes! 

Next up...Mechanics...