Podcast Complete. Game Complete. Art In Progress. Platform Change once agian.

Well, I finished the podcast. While I got a few listens, the amount of effort required to produce did not equate to either enjoyment or increasing exposure of the HiBRiD game paradigm. As a result, I have moved to Discord for younger players and Facebook for older players. That being said, I will be posting a link to this blog on both platforms for those interested in the history of HiBRiD. 

 In other news, THE PLAYER"S SPIELBOOK LAYOUT IS FINISHED! The final book is 222 pages, color, and has seven chapters containing the following topics: 

• Chapter 1: An introduction to roleplaying: A lot of people think this is unnecessary, but I am not targeting those people and could care less; if they don't like, they don't have to read it.. I am targeting open-minded players and players that have newly heard of tabletop roleplaying games and want to learn how to play them bye demonstrating their basic concepts in fully a playable game system.

• Chapter 2: An introduction to the 5 Game engines. There are really only five major tactical engines that drive the whole game; everything else is game flow that is managed by the Director. This simplifies the game when rules lookups are required.

• Chapter 3: Game Flow: This describes how the game will progress by defining the game flow in terms of scenes, like a movie. It also discusses the order for operations of both types of scenes and how to use the game engines in action scenes to resolve combat quickly and cinematically.

• Chapter 4: Character Creation: These are the 6 steps to character creations. These steps as presented will work for most genres but are designed to be customized for each genre or game setting.

• Chapter 5: Skills: This chapter is designed to describe the 6 common skills possessed by all characters as well as a number of concept skills common to many character concepts, classes, archetypes et cetera. It also includes a section on how to design custom concept skills if you the one you are looking for is not described herein.

• Chapter 6: Aspects: This chapter describes a number of the common supernatural or cinematic abilities character may have that are not necessarily rotted in the real world, including psionics, magic, cybernetics, or mutations. The chapter also describes how the various aspects are reflected in the core engines and describes how magic fits in with those systems. Of note is that this chapter purposefully stays away from designating a default magic system for the game since the game is intended to by multi-genre and supports the idea that magic will be described in game setting sourcebooks created by authors or the Director.

• Chapter 7: Director's Guide: This chapter explicitly provides a default manual for how to direct games until Director have gotten their feet wet. One of the most common complaints I see and hear is "I don't know how to direct a game". I endeavor to solve this by providing specific methods for using the 5 core engines, general tenets to guide any judgements that fall outside the core engine, and specific examples for awarding flair bonuses, since tactical bonuses are explicitly NOT defined for any of the core engines.

It will be made available as a PDF on DriveThru RPG for $6.41 or as hard copies from me directly when I go to conventions that will cost the price of printing plus $6.41.

A New Venture: The HiBRiD Theory Podcast

Well, I have decided to move on from writing this blog to podcasting for a while. There are a couple reasons for this.

Reasons

First, I need to modernize. I have been told by a number of my players that people don't read blogs too often any more. I thought about it and realized that I am one of those people. I watch Youtube videos and it is much easier to pull out my phone while I am on line somewhere and can entertain myself with 10 to 20 minute videos. 

Second, I would like to become more focused when I present ideas. As I have a tendency to get complex when I write, the new format of expression will force me to focus on topics and distill the primary points out form the flowery text that I have always tended toward. 

Third, I need to promote my projects more. In thinking of my late friend Flippy, I remember he wanted me to do a podcast with him for this reason and now it is too late, so I like to think he would be happy in that I am doing this and will start promoting my projects, as I have not particularly done so in the past. I also once was told by one of my favorite supervisors at work that I "don't exactly promote myself" during an interview. I remember telling her, "I like my work to speak for itself". While I still believe that, it actually harms the game, as fewer players will be exposed to the game if I am not out there advocating for it.

Finally, I want to get the game finished now. I am currently laying it out and spend a significant amount of time at my computer doing so. When I sit down to write, I want to focus on getting the game published, not on writing the blog, as I have only so many hours a day.

Plan

I started out with no plan at all. As I have recorded episodes, I have finally settled down into a roughly 10 minute format and settling on a single topic or HiBRiD theory. I am now more tan 10 episodes in and am finally starting to find my stride. I invite everyone to listen, and let me know what you think....

A Friend Lost

My friend and fellow game designer Flippy passed last year. He created the Tiny Horses RPG and I am happy and grateful to have met him and worked with him on his second edition. Flippy inspired me in so many ways. I only knew him for a few years, but those few years were pretty special despite being geographially separated. I was going to stop working on HiBRiD as I hit my 50th birthday and realized, 'What is the point?'  But now I realize, I need to finish it for him...

HiBRiD vs The Ite' Gaming Engine

Well, it came to my attention that at times I refer to the game I write as "HiBRiD", other times I refer to it as the "Ite' Gaming Engine", and the Ite' Coin Prototypes say "HiBRiD, Featuring the Ite' Gaming Engine"! 

For anyone reading this, I just wanted to clarify what I am talking about.

HiBRiD:

HiBRiD originally stood for "Highly Bastardized RPG in Development". Its original conception was that of taking all of the house rules I wrote for various other game systems I had been running and unify them into one single game mechanic. HiBRiD v1.0 was based on rolling percentiles (d100) and HiBRiD v2.0 was based on the current use of a single 20 sided die (d20) system.

The Ite' Gaming Engine:

The Ite' gaming engine is a generic system that can be used for any RPG that uses a randomizing system to allow for over the top actions and to add a highly cinematic feel to any genre or RPG and promote cooperative play. 

By default, the HiBRiD game system uses the Ite' Gaming Engine. When I publish a game setting on this blog, it is assumed that this system is used, and that the users will use some version of HiBRiD with it. For your convenience, I include the Ite' Gaming Engine here for use in your own games. If you want to read HiBRiD, hit me up and I will send you a copy of the manuscript. Yeah, for free. 'Cause that is just the way I roll. Have Fun!

T

Your character is not just one of those individuals who goes through life always playing it safe, doing the bare minimum to get by, and accepting what the world throws at him with or without complaint (although he may have been one of those people before the call for greatness was thrust upon him). Your character is a force to be reckoned with; an arbiter of his own fate; an adventurer; a hero. To reflect this, all player characters in the game, including yours, possess an unconscious ability to control their fate to a certain extent by way of a force referred to as Ité (pronounced ee TAY’).

What is Ité? 

Philosophically, Ité represents a power that suffuses all planes of existence and binds the mind, body, and spirit of a true hero with reality, fate, and time. Mechanistically, Ité represents a pool of points that enables your character to cheat the cruel fate that the dice can sometimes dole out over the course of the game, even when you thought you did everything right and covered all the bases.

When you play the game, you will spend points of Ité any time you need to give your character a fighting chance at success when all luck fails or to create opportunities at times when no such opportunities present themselves.

Ité and Genre

Ité points are designed to make the improbable probable in a manner consistent with the genre of the game. Since Big Showdown in Little Canyonside takes place in a setting where neither magic nor psychic abilities are not possessed by characters, Ité points cannot be used to create these types of effects. Ité points can, however, can be used to have a gas can explode mysteriously if an open flame somehow appears within a few meters of it, for example.

Types of Ité

Ité is classified as one of three types, each of which is obtained and tracked in slightly different way.

Lifetime Ité

When you create your character, you will be given a specific number of points of Ité referred to as your character’s Lifetime Ité. Lifetime Ité represent the total amount of Ité your character is born with. As you spend these points of Ité, you will cross them off your character sheet. Lifetime Ité is never replenished; once a point has been used, it is gone. In effect, running out of Lifetime Ité represents when your character’s luck has finally “run out”.

Floating Ité

In addition to Lifetime Ité, you may be awarded additional points of Ité that you may use in specific circumstances over the course of a single game session. Such points of Ité are referred to as Floating Ité. If not used, these Ité points do not accumulate or remain with your character, but instead simply “float away” at the end of the game session.

If an aspect description provides a point of Floating Ité, when that point is used, a point of Floating Ité is crossed off your character sheet. At the start of the next game session, however, any points of Floating Ité that have been crossed off your character sheet are added back to your character sheet as they “float back” to your character for use again. 

Negative Ité

While friendly to heroes, Ité is very fickle, and it resists being spent more than one point at a time by a single hero. If your character really needs a stroke of luck, you may tempt fate and spend two points of Ité simultaneously on one action or event. Doing this, however, alters fate so drastically that instability occurs in the fabric of reality, resulting in a condition referred to as being out of balance. Any time you force your character out of balance, he incurs a point of Negative Ité which you will need to indicate on your character sheet by writing a “-1” in the appropriate space on your character sheet.

Each point of Negative Ité your character accumulates grants your Director a point of Ité that she may use at any time to arbitrarily decide that some totally bizarre, detrimental, or even perilous phenomenon affects your character, which you as a player cannot control or influence with further points of Ité.

Negative Ité points do not go away at the end of a game session and can accumulate. Each time your Director declares she is using one your character’s points of Negative Ité, she will inform you that you may erase or cross off one point of Negative Ité off your character sheet. Once all your character’s Negative Ité is gone, he is considered to be “back in balance”.

The Uses of Ité

You may use Ité in one of three ways

The first way you may use Ité is referred to as Cut-Scene Healing. Any time your character would be reduced to 0 points of STUN or less, you may spend a point of Ité to bring his STUN up to its full value the next round, when your character is on-screen. Cut scene healing can also be used to prevent a condition from affecting your character or to remove a condition from your character. Note that if your character takes damage from an attack or insult that both reduces your character to 0 points and inflicts another condition on your character, a single point of Ité’ may only be used to heal one of these two conditions; two points of Ité would be required to heal them both.

The second way you may use Ité is referred to as Kicking It Up (or Down) A Notch. Any time you make a task roll, after you have determined its result, you may spend a point of Ité to increase the level of success of the task roll by one level on the Action Results scale, turning a critical failure into a failure, a failure into a success, or a success into a critical success. Conversely, you may spend a point of Ité to decrease the level of success of any task roll made against your character by one level, converting a critical success to a success and so forth.

The third way you may use Ité is to Make It Happen. Any time during the game, you may spend a point of Ité to create the occurrence of a specific unlikely event or bring forth a fortuitous event or coincidence that might aid your character in some way. You cannot use a point of Ité to directly prevent an event your Director describes; however, you can use a point to create an event that interferes with it. You can also use Make It Happen to pull an unforeseen object from seemingly nowhere, so long as it is plausible, fits the genre of the game, and you can explain it quickly and extemporaneously. Whenever you Make it Happen, just as when you gain a critical success on a task roll, you are temporarily entitled to take over your Director’s role in describing the result of the event. The Director will step in to assume control of the narrative again once she determines the level of effect of the result has been reached.

Example:  Making It Happen

Sarah, the Director, is describing an action scene to Ogun, who is playing a character named Johnny. Sarah opens the scene by telling Ogun, “The crazed worker from Canyonside Cable stumbles into his van and slams his foot on the accelerator. He is barreling toward Johnny at 100 kilometers an hour down a dead-end alley. Johnny is boxed in with nowhere left to run and little time to react! What do you want him to do?” 

Ogun smiles, throws one of the poker chips representing his character's Ité into the center of the table, and retorts back, "I realize that the crazed zombie cable guy is about to run Johnny down and pin him against the alley wall or worse, but this point Ité says that a garbage truck that somehow got missed in the shot by the cameraman just happens to pull out from an off-screen side alleyway, right between Johnny and the van. Johnny is going then vault over the hood of the crashed van and bail out of the alley!” 

Sarah tells Ogun, “The cable van slams into the garbage truck, halting them both as bits of crumpled metal and glass fly everywhere. As Johnny parkours his way over the wreckage of the crashed vehicles and pauses after bolting out of the alleyway, he sees a dozen or so ninjas back-flipping toward him from across the street”.

With a strong note of confidence in his voice, Ogun once again smiles and flips another Ité chip across the table and explains, "Darn it, the bad guys just keep coming...oh, look, a point of Ité says that some guy left his car here on the street running while he went back into the Moondoe’s Exorbitantly-Priced Koffee Haus to get his wallet that he left on the espresso machine. I think Johnny will just borrow it for a while…”

Cooperative Ité

Ité is the force of heroes. It refuses to allow itself to be used to exert negative effects on other heroes, but readily yields to heroes who use it help one another. Due to this heroic nature, you may never use a point of Ité to harm another player character or decrease the effects of another player character's actions. You may, however, spend a point of Ité to help another player character. Any time you choose to use a point of Ité to help another character (player or non-player), it is referred to as using cooperative Ité.

Using cooperative Ité enables you and the other players to not only save one another when one of you runs out of Ité points, but also to spend multiple points on a single event without having to incur a point of Negative Ité. Additionally, multiple players may spend a point of Ité cooperatively on a single action or series of events, which will allow the effects to be escalated to heroic proportions beyond that normally possible by the Action Results Scale.

For example, spending multiple points on one instance of Making it Happen can increase the level of power and unlikeliness of an object or random event or extend the effects of an event to the immediate surroundings, while the effect of a task roll by Kicking It Up a Notch can be used to extend the effects of a critical success to multiple opponents simultaneously.

The limits of the effects of cooperatively using Ité are left up to your Director to decide to ensure they stay within the genre of the game. Also, keep in mind that although cooperatively using Ité can raise the level of heroism to world-shattering and epic scales, the number of players at the game table will always remain the ultimate limit of how many points may be spent on a single action or event, as even when using Ité cooperatively, players may only spend one point on any event without taking on a point of Negative Ité.

Hujraad’s Hacks: An Example of Play Using Cooperative Ité

In order to see how cooperative Ité works, take a minute and read the following example of how multiple players can use individual and cooperative Ité in various ways to get out of a sticky situation:

Director (Sarah): You are all in the middle of the desert. You see at least ten thousand platinum-cyber-limbed, hyper-reflexed zombies running at you over the dunes barely 2 kilometers away, as indicated through your laser-range-finding binoculars. They seem to be skimming over the dunes at a pretty good clip. What do you do?

Player 1 (Xiaohui): Guys! Those zombies are out of control and are gonna be on us in seconds! We don’t have enough bullets, even with our aspects! Aagh! What do we do? 

Player 2 (Mark): I spend a point of Ité to create a Mother of All Bombs.

Director (Sarah): Yeeeeaaaahhhhhh…no, it is too early in the movie, so that’s out of genre. They are getting closer. Whatdya want to do?

Player 3 (Peter): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) I seem to remember that in 1969, there was some sort of Black Ops mission that went awry in this desert. The extraction team was never found…not even their helicopter…

Director (Sarah): That was on the far western reaches of the desert, some 500 kilometers from here…

Player 4 (Ben): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) I seem to remember a typhoon had blown that helicopter off course to about here, which was what they attributed to the failed recovery of the team…

Director (Sarah): Come to think of it, I seem to remember that as well…but it’s probably buried under a lot of sand, maybe even several metric tons of sand…

Player 5 (Dave): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) Actually, global warming has led to a larger number of windstorms the past 40 years or so. I’ll bet if we dig, we have a good chance of finding that helicopter…

Director (Sarah): As you start to dig, you hear a metal “clang” and seem to have hit the roof of a large metal object.

Player 2 (Mark): Sweet! If only we had enough time to dig that thing out…

Director (Sarah): The cyberzombies are 500 meters away…and closing fast...

Player 6 (Ogun): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) Wow! Time sure flies when you are getting hunted down by zombies! I wish my character was dancing at The Club!

Director (Sarah): Indeed, it does! It would seem that the sand you have displaced with your frantic and desperate digging has redistributed it such that it falls into a small cavity under what looks to be the burnt-out husk of a Bell UH-1H helicopter with rusted and burnt out equipment and weapons! Within it you can see the mummified and scalded remains of the two pilots and 8 special forces fighters, wearing the remnants of burnt and blood-stained uniform.

Player 2 (Mark): I throw the pilot’s corpse out of its seat. I have a piloting VTOL skill, so I can get this bird running with panache!

Director (Sarah): You sure could…if the battery wasn’t dead, the wires weren’t fused together, and the... 

Player 1 (Xiaohui): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table). Actually, the battery isn’t dead.

Player 3 (Peter): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) And, actually, the wires are in better shape than we thought.

Director (Sarah): Wow, you’re right. Too bad the fuel burnt…

Player 4 (Ben): ...excuse me… (Flips a Floating Ité chip onto the table) …actually, I’m a half-full kind of guy…and so is the fuel tank! Looks like it landed without exploding…That should still be enough to get us out of here!

Director (Sarah): The zombies are 200 meters away and will be on you in ten seconds…you only have enough time to leap in and they will be on you…

All the players: “We LEAP IN!!!!”

Player 6 (Ogun): Wow they’re fast! This is crazy!

Player 2 (Mark): I fire this bird up…

Director (Sarah): It is going to take you at least 2 minutes to get this thing warmed up enough for takeoff…

Player 5 (Dave): Quick, I look for something to hold off those zombies!

Player 2 (Mark): I wish we had that MOAB…

Player 6 (Ogun): If only we had a bit more time… (Flips a Ité chip onto the table) …now we do!

Director (Sarah): Wow! I must have underestimated how far away those zombies are...it would seem you each have time for one more action before the zombies reach you and the chopper is warmed up…

Player 3 (Peter): Great! I’ll bet the M60 on the side of the chopper is still functional (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) …

Player 4 (Ben): and, of course, it’s already loaded and ready to rock (Flips an Ité chip onto the table) ... I open a large swath of fire on the zombies, hopefully mowing them down long enough to for us to make our escape…

Director (Sarah): The line of zombies hits your suppressive fire, and though you easily mow through the first rank, the rest of them launch themselves over the bodies as the skids of the helicopter leave the sandy ground…

Player 3 (Peter): (Rolling a successful task roll) I parkour my butt into the copilot seat, yank on the stick and roll the chopper over so the blade is between us and the zombie horde (Rolling a Critical Failure) ...AAGGHHH!!!!

Director (Sarah): The helicopter blade is shredded on the ground as the side of the chopper rolls over…

Player 2 (Mark): No worries… (finally flips an Ité chip onto the table) …I take back control of the stick and prevent the destruction of the blade, but we still fail…

Player 3 (Peter): (Flips an Ité chip onto the table)..or do we? That must’ve made it a success…get us outta here Johnny!!!...

Director (Sarah): The rotor blades, now at full speed, shred the zombies as they hit, grinding them to bits…now what Johnny?

Player 2 (Mark): The chopper pushes sideways creating a 10-meter-wide path through the horde like a suburban lawn edger…then I pull the stick back, and it’s off and back home to Canyonside…

HiBRiD/Ite Gaming Etiquette Rules

I was recently listening to a new podcast, Dungeon Master's Dojo,  when they began to discuss etiquette in roleplaying. I found it interesting because I actually wrote a baseline set of rules of etiquette into the game book. I present them here for your own enjoyment:

ETIQUETTE RULES

 

For the game to flow easily and naturally, there is one requirement when playing demanded of all the players and Directors:

 Be courteous!

 While it may seem simple as a concept, defining exactly what it means to be courteous can be surprisingly difficult. Many people from many different cultures often gather at the gaming table, and it's almost certain that many if not all players will have different ideas of what being courteous and respectful entails. To help bring all players on the same page, there are four minimal expectations of etiquette defined herein that are essential in an improvisational game such as this one to ensure action stays organized and everyone can enjoy the game.

 

Expectation 1: Pay Attention

 

When playing the game, you will need to pay close attention to what is being said and described by your Director and the other players at the table when they take their turn  and your character is “off-screen”. This will enable you to base your character’s actions on those of others and changes in the environment so that you can take the best possible advantage of the situation, create excitement, and obtain flair bonuses. This will also prevent you from asking, “What happened again?” when it is your character’s turn to be “on-screen”, which would slow down the action and detract from other players’ enjoyment. Paying attention also helps maintain the excitement and pace of the game as well as creates fun for the other players who are excited to share their character’s antics with you.

 

Digital Devices

 

While digital devices are a fact of life and can add to the gaming experience, they can also be distracting to the game and deserve special mention. To prevent distractions at critical times, do not have your cell phone or digital device screen visibly active during an action scene if it is not necessary. The pace of the game can be slowed if you are staring at a digital device when your character is supposed to be on-screen and everyone is waiting for you to take your turn. If you have something on your device that you think might either add to the game or your device holds a resource specifically required by you or someone at the table, it should be prepared prior to the beginning of the scene or during your character’s off-screen time when possible. A digital device should never be a cause for a slowdown during an action scene or get in the way of paying attention. That is not courteous

 

Hujraad’s Hacks: The Lethality of Not Paying Attention

 

Be aware that if your group or Director determine that you are not paying attention on a regular basis, your Director may decide that since you were not paying attention, your character was not paying attention as well, which could result in loss of an action or even your character’s life.

 

Expectation 2: Limiting Table Small Talk

 

Try to limit your small talk not related to the current scene amongst yourself and other players during exposition scenes in which your character is not involved and eliminate it altogether during action scenes. Everyone at the table deserves a moment to be in the spotlight on-screen. It is rude and selfish to take that away from them, so don’t drown out their descriptions with your small talk.

 

Expectation 3: Practicing Dice Etiquette

 

Do not fiddle with your dice, clatter them, or roll them loudly on the table during an exposition or action scene when it is not your character’s turn to be on-screen. Doing so can drown out or distract from other players’ descriptions of their character’s’ actions. It can also make it confusing and difficult to know whose turn it is.

 

Also, do not roll any dice before your character’s action is acknowledged by your Director during an action scene. This can confuse the players and your Director, making it difficult to determine which die roll was legitimate and which die roll was just “fiddling around”. Also, rolling before the Director asks you to do so can steal the anticipation and excitement away from the other players who want to see how your character’s actions will affect the action scene.

 

Hujraad’s Hacks: The Lethality of Dice Discourtesy

 

Be aware that If you make a task roll before your Director acknowledges your character’s action, she may decide to make you reroll it if it was favorable or keep it if it was unfavorable at her whim, which could result in at best the failure of a task and at worst the loss of your character’s life.

 

Expectation 4: Know Your Character

 

You should know what your character’s concept skills reflect, how your character’s aspects work, and have all the calculations you need for the game completed before the gaming session. While it is certainly acceptable to have questions regarding your character’s abilities during play, completely stopping the game and changing an ability because you chose the incorrect ability during character creation or making everyone wait because you do not have a task roll modifier calculated on your character sheet is not courteous.

 

Singe Announcement: A Modern-Day Spy Setting

Singe Announcement: A Modern-Day Spy Setting

I was recently inspired by the television show Burn Notice where a disavowed spy becomes a modern-day Robin Hood using all he has learned to help those in need and seek revenge on those who wrong him and his family. The characters are fantastic, and after joining the Facebook Burn Notice Fan Club group, I felt inspired to write a real quick Genre Description for anyone wanting to make characters that might fit within the game and play it on the tabletop.

THE WORLD

The world of Singe Announcement is a basic, rules-light genre where players play highly competent, highly skilled characters living in the gray areas of the law in beautiful Miami, Florida. In a setting filled with spies, government agents, drug dealers, hackers, money launderers, ex-government operatives, sunny beaches filled with sexy coeds, you and your teammates fight for those the police can’t help. This is a low-heroic level setting featuring no supernatural abilities and the very real possibility of dying if you screw up.

So, don’t screw up

The game takes place in the city of Miami. Though beautiful, like every city, it has an unseemly underside. Criminals and rogue government agents are everywhere and ruining people’s lives either directly by terrorizing them or blackmailing them, or indirectly, when their operations cause collateral property damage and hurt the ones they love. It is up to you and your team with your special sets of skills to put the wrong things right and try to live normal lives.

THE HEROES

CHARACTER STATS

Characters have 6 attributes that default to the following values:

STR     0

WILL    0

RSIL    0

INTL    0

RFLX    0

PERC    0

TRAITS:

All characters are of Human Origin and have the following traits

HEIGHT= Player’s Choice (168 cm is average)

MASS= Player’s Choice (70kg is average)

STUN= (10 + RSIL) X 2

PHYS= 10 + STR

ARMV= 0 (Only increased if wearing body armor or kevlar vest)

Action Move   = 20 m/round

Action Load   = 10 + STR KG  

Action Range = 10 m + 1m/PERC

English language

Theater of Operation- This is knowledge of anything geographic-specific knowledge having to do with one area of the world. Player chooses a geographical region and the main language spoken in that region other than English.

 

SKILLS:

All characters possess the following six skills:

Civilian Stuff: Includes anything having to do with basic knowledge and education up to high school level, civilian contacts, leisure sports, vacationing, working. A specialty includes knowledge of one other specific field such as Money Laundering, Reporting, or a Specific Profession.

Military Stuff: Anything having to do with guns, armed and unarmed combat, contacts in the military, blowing stuff up, psychoactive drugs, or the military way of life. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Sniping, Strategy, Unarmed Combat, or Demolitions.

Criminal Stuff: Includes anything related to criminal contacts, breaking and entering, investigating, fencing stolen goods, illegal drugs, human trafficking and other bad things against the law. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Smuggling, Drug Doping, or Thieving.

Fieldwork: Anything having to do with noticing, interacting with, movement in, driving through, or surveilling the physical environment. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Booby traps, Camouflage, or Two forms of vehicles of the player’s choice.

Tech Stuff: Anything having to do with computers or electronics and what is the leading edge of technology. A Specialty includes knowledge of either Coding, Infiltration, or Electronic surveillance.

Streetwise: Anything having to do with knowing or being able to identify “who’s who” in the local area your character is currently in, identifying the social pecking order, and reading the social and body queues and motivations of people. A Specialty in this skill includes knowledge of two additional languages of the player’s choice common within the chosen Theater of Operation.  

CHARACTER CREATION

STEP ONE: ASSIGN Ité POINTS TO ATTRIBUTES

You have 10 Ité points to distribute between your character’s attributes. The maximum number of points you may spend on an attribute is 5.

STEP TWO: CALCULATE TRAITS

Calculate your character’s Traits using the equations and methods described in The Heroes q.v.

STEP 3: SELECT A HISTORIC THEATER OF OPERATION

Select one area of the world your character is comfortable in and one language from that region that your character is comfortable speaking in.

STEP 4: ASSIGN ITé POINTS TO SKILLS

You may assign Ité points to your character’s Skills. Start with what your character is the best at and assign it 5 points, then the next best thing, assign it 4 points and continue with 3 points to the next skill, 2 points to the next skill, and 1 point to the next skill.

 

STEP 5: SELECT TWO SPECIALTIES

For the skills you have assigned 4 point and 5 points you may choose a specialty listed in the skill’s description. Your character gets Advantage when making task roll using these Specialties

STEP 6: DETERMINE YOUR CHARACTER DETAILS

• Height, in cm
• Weight, in kg
• Appearance

STEP 7: DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S HOME AND VEHICLE

You must be able to rationalize these with your character's background

STEP 8: DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER'S RELATIONSHIPS

The following relationships must be defined so the Director can create a story;

• Relationship to the team members at the table
• Relationship to any living family members

MECHANICS

THE ITÉ GAMING ENGINE/MATHLESS HIBRIDTM:

To resolve actions that have a chance of failure or to resist an attack or condition, roll a twenty-sided die (hereafter referred to as  a d20). There are four possible outcome steps:

• Critical Failure: If the roll is a 1 in addition to failing, the Director decides a bad thing that happens to your character or team.
• Failure: A roll of 2-9 is a failure
• Success: A roll of 10-19 is a success

i.  The number of the ones digit determines the amount of damage if an opponent is attacked with a non-firearm weapon or object.

 

ii. Explosions or firearms deal damage by the weapon type.

 

iii. Body armor subtracts number of points of damage from wounds equal to the ARMV. For example, if your character is attacked for 5 points of damage and it is wearing armor with an ARMV of 2, only 3 points are subtracted from the victim's STUN.

• Critical Success: if the roll is a 20, in addition to succeeding, you may choose an additional benefit or effect that occurs

2.      You may spend one point of Ite’ from either a related skill or attribute to push the die roll one step in one direction, from a critical failure to a failure, a failure to a success, or a success to a critical success. When you spend a point of Ite’, it is gone until the beginning of the next game session, when it is replenished

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE:

If a task is especially hard, your Director will say your character is Disadvantaged on the task roll, and if your character has a specialty in a task or something is helping your character to perform the task, your character will say your character is Advantaged. In either case, you will roll 2d20 instead of 1d20.

• For a Disadvantaged roll, you will accept the lower of the two rolls
• For an Advantaged, you will take the higher of the two rolls
• A critical success or critical failure will always override a non-critical result between 2 and 19.
• A Critical Failure will cancel a Critical Success. This means that the rolls will be treated as a 1 and a 20, indicating the roll is a success.  

ACTION SEQUENCES:

When an action sequence begins, the Director will announce it and conduct the sequence as a series of action rounds, each of which represents roughly 10 seconds of game time. 

The order of actions is determined by all the players and the Director rolling a d20 for initiative. Characters with rolls higher than the Director’s go before the bad guys, then the bad guys go, then characters with rolls lower than the Director go after.

Every character gets 1 action per round and can move up to 20 meters with no penalty. Additional actions beyond this are treated with disadvantage on any task rolls.

An Example: Michael wants to run across the street 40 meters through busy traffic and chuck a grenade at a drug dealer’s car. Because he is moving more than 20 meters, this will be 2 actions and the grenade will count as a third action. He will be disadvantaged on his task roll to avoid the traffic and on the task roll to accurately chuck the grenade.

OPPOSING ACTIONS

Any opponent may oppose an action taken against them with a task roll unless surprised. the winner of the opposed actin is the one with the higher die roll

Ties go to attacker/initiator of an action with the higher attribute or skill being used.

DAMAGE AND HEALING

Damage from attacks is subtracted from STUN. When STUN=0 or less, creature is unconscious and begins to bleed to death, losing 1 point of PHYS/round until dead or first aid is applied.

If an unconscious character receives makeshift medical care, he loses 1 point of PHYS per day until dead or under hospital care.

PHYS only heals in a hospital or under a trained physician at 1/point per day.

Blurbs for Origins 2021

Here are the blurbs I will be using for the Origin game in 2021.

Long Description:

Come join the fun that veterans of GenCon since 2007 have been coming back again and again for year after every other year! Come play a game where over-the-top and vivid action descriptions override game rules, where cooperative play slaps die rolls into submission, and where the only thing holding you back is fear…oh, and the genre limits! Anyone with experience with FUDGE, FATE, OSR, d20, Dungeons and Dragons, d6, Savage Worlds, or pretty much any d20-based system will easily pick up the rules in 5 minutes, or as players like to think of it, by the end of the first action scene! So, come on, try something new, let your spirit fly, and let your love of action movies run rampant!!!

Short Description:

Play a favorite butt-kicker from some of the cheesiest 80s action movies! Lock & load your biga** guns, warm up your fists & feet of fury, & let's get Cinematic! Bring a d20 & a desire to get macho!

Event Info:

Rules Edition: 2nd
Minimum Players: 4
Maximum Players: 10
Age Required: Teen (13+)
Experience Required: None (You’ve never played before – rules will be taught)
Materials Provided: Yes
Start Date & Time: TBD
Duration: 4 Hours
End Date & Time: Thursday 08/01/2019 12:00 PM EDT
GM Names: Hujraad (hujraadjohaansen@gmail.com, Matthew Chimienti
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/The-Ite-Gaming-Engine/168416283203356?ref=hlCost $: 4.00

Table Description: 3–4 Requires 2 round tables that can hold 6 each or enough to hold 12 players