Monster Mess – A One-Shot Party Adventure

Find the character sheets and rules at: One-Shot.JenEric-Designs.ca

Description

You are a teen who needs to do community service and have been placed on super-cleanup duty. Westmeath has had a rash of monster attacks and although they don’t leave any biological matter (thankfully) they do make a mess of the city. You are assigned to deal with a mess in the downtown core after a group of flying monkeys attack.

The adventure should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on the Party.

Setting

Westmeath, Canada’s fourth largest city, is the tech hub of North America. It’s also one of the most crime-ridden cities, fueled by prominent gangs and corporate espionage. It is also a place where magic, aliens, and technology meet. 

It’s June 2003 and the party is assigned to clean up the Hedy Lamarr Memorial Park in downtown after a group of flying monkeys destroyed the advanced WiFi transmitter installed in the park.

Suggested Backgrounds

The players can be anything they want, but here are some fun choices for their background: 

Aetherborn: Beings created with magic and the human imagination. They are copies of sentient people from mythology or pop culture. 

Alien: From all over the galaxy, Aliens have innate powers; mostly combat, but a few royals can heal.

Human: Humans are the most adaptable and scariest creatures in the universe.

Suggested Reasons for Community Service

Petty Crime: You did it and you got caught but let’s be fair it’s not that bad.

Parental Privilege: You did something bad but because of your last name or family fortune you got off easy.

University Admission: You really want to get into that university program and the best way is to have way too many extra credit activities along with your high grades.

High School Credit: It was this or parenting and there was no way you were going to carry a bag of flour around like it was a baby.

Fought Back: They started it, you ended it but you were the one who got in trouble.

Mistaken Identity: It wasn’t you but no one believes it.

Story

Part 1: Cleaning the park

The officer who’s in charge of the group gives them their cleaning tools and then tells them to clean up the park. He then leaves to find “decent coffee”.

The park is set between three large buildings and is a perfect square. The walls of the building have been painted in murals dedicated to women scientists. In the center of the park is a four-metre tall statue of Hedy Lamarr. There is a swing set, several trees, a slide, and a destroyed plot that must have been a flower garden.

The park is filthy, covered in shards of glass, metal, and more garbage than the players have ever seen.

Let the players talk amongst themselves. With a Luck or Mind check of 3, they find pieces of the WiFi transmitter with DoorTech logos on it. With a Mind of 4 they recognize the tech as not being human design.

Have the players all do a Mind check and have the highest remember that the statue used to be a hologram and not a large brass statue.

Part 2: Gang encounter

As they are cleaning, a group of men in purple jackets come by and start heckling them. They are a local gang called the Blue Bloods. If one of the players has done something criminally impressive, they try to recruit them. There are the same amount of gang members as players.

The gang members are aggressive in their taunts and recruitment. Either way they are looking for a fight. The players can avoid a fight by bluffing that they’ll join, intimidating, or outsmarting them. Have the players role against the gang members’ Luck.

Part 3: Strange noises and a big red button

After the gang members leave, their chaperone comes back and berates them for how little they’ve done before leaving for more coffee.

A Luck, Body, or Mind of 2 will have them finding a large button hiding in the mural of Hedy Lamarr. There are weird squeaks and chirps coming from behind the mural. If they press it, it opens a large door that leads to a staircase going down.

Part 4: Monkeys in the secret room

If the players choose not to go into the secret area or even hit the button, have 3-5 Flying Monkeys come out of the door as they go back to cleaning.

If they decided to explore, they will find a secret surveillance lab. A Mind or Luck 2 will have them realize that Door Tech has found a way to use WiFi to map and surveil areas, which was why they’d installed the large WiFi transmitter.

There is a door at the other side of the lab that seems to be a weapons cache.

As they decide to leave the room, 3-5 flying monkeys fly in from outside and attack.

Part 5: Statue

Once the players have fought the monkeys, have the police officer return and offer them a donut. It will heal 2 health.

If they tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe them, if they don’t, he sits on a swing and starts to eat a donut.

Just as the players are finishing up the park cleaning, they find an inscription at the base of the statue that says, “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” It’s attributed to Hedy Lamarr and once they’ve read it, the statue comes to life and tries to kill them. The police officer faints.

The statue disappears after it’s defeated.

Conclusion

After they’ve defeated the statue, three military vehicles with the DoorTech logo show up and interrogate the players. A luck or mind 3 will be enough to bluff that they haven’t seen anything. The police officer wakes up and helps the players get away from the DoorTech security teams.

If the players go to the police about the underground they are dismissed as making stuff up. If they go back, the button is gone. Have the players be visited, together or separately, by either the Blue Bloods or DoorTech with offers of scholarships, recruitment, internships, or something else the player(s) would want.

If the players have cruised through the adventure, you can have them visited by the local superhero team of the Phantom and the Wraith. The heroes believe them and want to know more. They promise to get to the bottom of it.

Opponents 

Blue BloodsFlying MonkeyStatue
Health526
Defence556
Body304
Mind030
Luck334
AbilitiesBrass Knuckles 2
Stun Gun 2
Bite 2
Scratch 1
Giant fist 2
Explode Electronic 2

Read More about Westmeath in Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

The week before Kennedy and Jason’s wedding is busy. There are cake tastings, dress fittings, a formal ball, and, as their superhero personas the Phantom and the Wraith, fighting monsters.

These behemoths are destructive, smell like snack food, and are only after one thing: Door Tech Industries technology.

Adding to the chaos are their friends and families; Jason’s grandmother has returned after having been missing for half a century, Kennedy’s mom is dead-set on keeping things traditional, and Jason’s best friend is kidnapped before the rehearsal.

Kennedy and Jason just want to get married, preferably before the next monster attack.

The second book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.

49th Shelf Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Westmeath Heist – A One-Shot Party Adventure

Find the character sheets and rules at: One-Shot.JenEric-Designs.ca

Description

You are a rag-tag group of thieves, mercenaries, and cut-throats, and Buddy, Westmeath’s most prominent information dealer, has a job for you. You’ll have to avoid superheroes, monsters, gangs, and angry targets if you’re going to pull off the heist of the millennium.

The adventure should take approximately 1-3 hours, depending on the Party.

Setting

Westmeath, Canada’s fourth largest city, is the tech hub of North America. It’s also one of the most crime-ridden cities, fueled by three prominent gangs and corporate espionage. It is also a place where magic, aliens, and technology meet. 

It’s July 2002 and the Party has had a few successful jobs, but now you’re ready for something bigger. 

Suggested Backgrounds

The players can be anything they want, but here are some fun choices for their background: 

Aetherborn: Beings created with magic and the human imagination. They are copies of sentient people from mythology or pop culture. 

Aether Hero: Touched by the forces of entropy, chaos, and magic, the Aether Hero must take an extra point in Luck as one of their special abilities. 

Alien: From all over the galaxy, Aliens have innate powers; mostly combat, but a few royals can heal.

Human: Humans are the most adaptable and scary creatures in the universe.

Wizard: Phenomenal cosmic power is at their fingertips, but for some reason it doesn’t work as well in Westmeath. 

Starting: The Rivers and Songs Club

Buddy, a twitchy, nondescript man, sits at a table on the third level of the club. He has a job for the group; a client wants a rare art piece being held in an old single-storey house near the river in Oldtown, Westmeath’s oldest neighbourhood. It’s being protected by members of the Andromeda Syndicate gang. The painting is rumoured to be a lost Group of Seven masterpiece.

There are further details. Payment is 1 million. If the Party negotiates, they can double the money. Buddy has a Mind of 3.

The Party must bring the art to a contact, Jenny, who works at Discreet Frills in the Central Westmeath Mall after closing in three days.

If a Party member is an Aetherborn or Wizard, they can be told that Oldtown is a Community of Aetherborn and is extremely tight knit.

If a Party member is an Alien, they can be told that the Andromeda Syndicate gang is an intergalactic crime syndicate that deals in everything stolen, including people. 

Preparations 

The Party needs to prepare for the heist. They can plan and have access to any tools that were common in 2002. Here are some options for them to get more information.

Hack the house

If one of them is a hacker or computer expert, they can try to hack into the house’s security. The security almost seems sentient. The house has a Mind of 3 to defend itself. 

If the Party succeeds by 4 or higher, they can see that someone else has already hacked the system.

Surveillance

The Party can attempt to watch the house for a day and find out what the guard’s rotations are and what sort of security system is at the house.

They must succeed in a check versus the Andromeda Syndicate soldier, or they’ll be seen. If they are seen, they are attacked, and security is doubled.

Divination

Using magic, the Party can surveil without being caught. They must succeed with a 3 or higher and they can get the plans, guards, and security details.

Contacts

The Party can ask their contacts in the military, police, gangs, Aetherborn Community, or others that could be helpful. They need to succeed on a Mind or Luck check of 4 or higher to get any information.

Research

The library, city hall, and other places could have information. The Party can get information through these means with a Mind or Luck check of 4 or higher.

The House

The house is a simple two-bedroom bungalow with a basement. There is a front and a back door. Each door is monitored by a camera, as is the driveway and the woods behind. Only the water and the air aren’t being monitored.

Outside walking the perimeter are 4 AS soldiers.

Living Room

Opponents: 2 AS soldiers (noise will attract reinforcements from the other rooms) 

The front door opens into the living room. It’s small with two beat-up couches and only one exit to the kitchen / dining room.

Kitchen / Dining Room

Opponents: 1 AS soldier and a man in black tied to a chair.

The back door opens to the Kitchen / Dining room. It has a second door that leads to the basement, an archway that leads to the living room and a hallway that leads to the rest of the rooms. 

If they save the man in black, he introduces himself as the Phantom of Westmeath (a superhero who can control and travel by shadows) and says that he’ll take over from here. He thinks this is a safehouse for the AS and doesn’t know about the painting. A Mind check of 3 will convince him to help you. A failure will cause him to go out and fight the soldiers there.

Bathroom

Opponents: Alien Goo

The first door on the left is a simple bathroom with toilet, sink, and bathtub. The tub is filled with white goo that smells vaguely earthy. 

The Goo will not attack unless someone touches it. If it is hurt, it will call telepathically to the AS soldiers.

Bedroom 1

Opponents: None

The first door on the right is a small room with nothing in it. A Mind or Luck check of 4 will let them find a hidden panel in the wall that appears to be a control mechanism for a self-destruct. 

Bedroom 2

Opponents: 1 AS soldier

The second door on the right is a larger bedroom filled with surveillance equipment and a few alien stun guns. From this room, the AS soldier can view all the cameras and security features. No cameras in the vault.

Basement

Opponents: 2 AS soldiers walking around the vault. 

The basement is one large unfinished room with a metal vault in the middle. The vault takes almost the entire footprint. 

The door to the vault is locked with a pictogram-based keypad. A Luck or Mind check of 4 or higher will unlock it. A Body of 4 will allow them to force it. 

The Vault

Opponents: Containment Trap and calls all soldiers still alive

The painting is in a rolled tube set on a crystal pedestal in the centre of the vault. The floor is chequered with white and black tiles. 

The vault is triple trapped. 

Trap 1 is triggered when they step on the black tiles. A check of 4 to identify, check of 2 to avoid once identified. The tiles shock anyone who steps on them and triggers an alarm. Damage is 2 and goes through rubber soles.

Trap 2 is triggered if the party members touch the pedestal. It releases a fireball that fills the vault and triggers an alarm. Check of 4 to identify and disable.

Trap 3 is triggered when the painting is taken off the pedestal. It slams the door shut, removes the air from the vault, and triggers an alarm. Check of 5 to identify and disable.

If not, they must do a Body 6 to keep from being knocked out. The remaining soldiers arrive to stop them after. 

Leaving 

The Phantom requests that the Party let him take a picture of the painting and then disappears.

The painting 

If the Party chooses to look at the painting, they see that it’s an obvious fake. There are ones and zeros around the edge of the painting and more hidden inside the painting itself. Decoding them will show a list of locations. 

Researching the locations with a Mind check of 4 will indicate they are archeological digs and possible locations of interest. An alien will recognize that they are crashed ships, a wizard will recognize locations with magical artifacts.

Discreet Frills

The Party must bring the painting to Discreet Frills after the store is closed. Jenny, a tall brunette with a serious face, meets them and trades it for a briefcase of cash. Jenny runs the moment she has the painting. 

A Mind or Luck check of 4 will let the Party find the small explosive in the briefcase. If they don’t find it, the explosion only destroys the money.

If they disable the briefcase and there’s time in the session, they could be attacked by AS soldiers as a final fight.

The End?

The Phantom stops them and congratulates them on a job well done and/or gives his condolences on the loss of their pay. He tells them that he might have work for them in the future.

Opponents 

AS SoldierAlien GooThe Phantom
Health576
Defence536
Body354
Mind314
Luck002
AbilitiesStun gun 2
Teleport when killed
Bite 1Shadow weapon 1 Shadows Teleport

Read More about Westmeath in Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers

Kennedy Fairfield just graduated in the class of 2002, and is now trying to find her purpose in life, or at least a job in her field. When she saves Jason Johnson, the leader of a secret Community of supernatural people called Aetherborn, from an attempted assassination, they embark on a whirlwind epic romance and adventure.

For Kennedy and Jason to discover why people are disappearing in time to save her friends, they’ll have to face teleporting assassins, grumpy wizards, gossiping hags, mafia robots, and secret military groups, all in the city of Westmeath, Ontario, which has more secrets than residents.

49th Shelf Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Indigo Books Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Archambault Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Amazon Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Rakuten Kobo Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers
Apple Books Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers

Gaming with kids

Hello Parents and Educators,

We were asked about using tabletop RPG’s as an educational tool while integrating real life history and geography.

Baby Dragon with Cubie from Alina Pete and a glowing d20.

It’s a massive question and I could write an entire book about it, but here’s what I answered:

Hello,

This is the Eric half of JenEric, I write the RPG stuff and most of the stories. My wife is the one who did the homeschooling but she felt this was a bit beyond her.

Thank you so much for that question. That is a great question and will depend a lot on your kids and your preferred style of play.

First I’d (selfishly) recommend using Oneshot – The Simplest RPG. It’s just the rules, they are very simple and you’ll be able to use them for almost any scenario.

As for the educational part, I’d recommend you make a list of things you want the kids to learn about and build around those goals. If you’re planning on different historical locations, you should break them down. I find it helps to break down each location/time and then list the characters, places, important events, and reason for the characters to be there.

If you’re jumping around in history and geography, you need to either make a series of small adventures or try maybe make it time travel related. With the time travel, the kids can get attached to a character that they’ll see grow and experience,

Another good way to keep it fun and keep them interested is to have a fun villain. I’m a big fan of cartoonish villains for kids, but you know your kids best.

Hook them into a story and they won’t even notice they’re learning.

As much fun as movies, tv, and books are; be careful not to use them too much as research. A good place to start is WIkipedia, each article has sources and those sources usually have a lot more information and further reading.

I hope this helps,
Eric Desmarais

Anyone have further advice for gaming with children in an educational manner?

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

One-Shot Party Adventure – The Lost Clause

Don’t forget to vote on what you want to read in 2020’s serial story


Hello Holiday Friends and Gamers,

This is an adventure for One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG.

Have fun!

Description

The players are toys that wake up in an abandoned Santa’s workshop. It’s up to them to save Santa and the holiday season.

Starting – The shop

The Group starts in an old-fashioned woodworking workshop. There’s paint, tools, wood, and lots of cobwebs.

There’s also a large design table with a fresh pad of paper.

There are two doors. One leads to the outside and the other leads to a small bachelor’s apartment.

Anything they draw on the piece of paper becomes real.

There’s also a large filing cabinet that has letters from every child in the world along with a list.

There are tunnels that lead to all three buildings. Search of 8 to find them.

Bachelors Apartment

Enemies: None

This is a spartan apartment with cot against the wall and a small kitchen. The kitchen has a large pantry cabinet, a counter, and a wood stove. There are some pots and pans in the cabinet. There’s one set of plates and utensils.

Search 4: They find a hidden panel in the wall with a diary. The diary says: “We think we’ve figured it out. The clock is the key.” Followed by either gibberish or code. (Mind 9 to figure out it’s instructions for winding the clocktower.)

Outside

Enemies: Polar Bear

Outside the small building is a land of snow and ice bathed in complete darkness. The only light being the dim reflections of the Aurora on the snow.

There are two other buildings. A large Clocktower, and a Stable. There’s also a lake.

When the characters leave a building there’s a chance they are seen by a hungry polar bear. Unless they are actively sneaking, flip a coin to decide.

Stables

Enemies: Feral Reindeer

These stables are both well kept and well built. There are eight pens with 7 reindeer. They are well fed, clean, and very friendly. There’s also a large red sled that seems equally as well taken care of.

The empty pen shows signs of a struggle. Scratch marks and hoof prints.

The feral reindeer is hiding in a dark corner takes a flip of 5 to see them.

If they don’t see them, the reindeer attacks as they leave.

Frozen Lake

Enemies: The Kraken

The frozen lake has one lonely but devoted gardian. The Kraken is there to protect the pole and stop the toys from escaping.

It is quite gentle with them but firm.

Clocktower

Enemies: None

The clocktower radiates power. It has an ornate brass door with clocks and time imagery carved into it. The words, “You must stop to go” are carved in wood over the door.

The clock face seems to glow from the outside. It chimes every 15 minutes.

Inside there’s just a staircase going up nearly 100 metres or just over 300 feet.

At the top there is a room filled with gears but with a small platform. The platform has a couch and two large levers.

One lever Stops the clock and one will make it go forward or backward. (This actually stops time or moves it.)

Conclusion

Enemies: Anti-Clause

The entire area was built by Saint Nick an ancient wizard. It’s self sustaining. Before he could use it, however, he was attacked by Anti-Clause and his last action was to cast a spell that would animate a group of toys to finish his mission.

Polar Bear Feral Reindeer Kraken Anti-Clause
Health 7 4 5 6
Defence 2 5 5 6
Body 5 2 3 4
Mind 0 0 3 4
Luck 0 3 0 4
Abilities Bite 1 Gore 1 Squeeze 1 Laser Eyes 2

Happy Holidays!

Éric

One-Shot Party Adventure – Toys VS Aliens

Hello Friends and Gamers,

This is an adventure for One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG.

Have fun!

The flying saucer from Moonbeam Ontario

Description

The world is being invaded by aliens. They’ve used their U.F.O (Universal Freezing Organics) Ray to stop all living creatures from moving. As toys you are not affected and must find a way to save the world before the effects of the ray become permanent.

Starting

The group starts in a large cylindrical white room. There’s a large hatch and a note written in crayon.

I think you’ll do better. Good luck – Sally

There’s a panel next to the door and a small air grate near the ceiling.

Getting out of the room should be easy. Either ask the panel to get out, hotwire it, crawl through the vent or break down the door.

Either way it should all lead to the main control room.

Control Room

Inside the control room there are a lot of people and computer screens.

Just outside the door to the chamber is a little girl holding three heavily armed drones. She seems frozen in place.

There are several adults frozen in a run towards her. They look horrified.

The computer screens seem to indicate that they were experimenting to make sentient drones.

There’s a TV on and it looks like it’s paused but the clock is working normally. If they rewind or look online they’ll see that aliens were spotted entering the solar system a week ago. After several days of trying to contact them, the three motherships took positions around the earth and started their Freeze Ray. It look less than a day for the ray to freeze everyone on the planet. The Phlebotinum Institute accelerated their efforts to make drones sentient barely activating the device before being frozen.

Outside the Lab

Enemies: Aliens and Drones

The game will require the players to figure out where they are and what they want to do. The overall goal should be to turn off the ray, scare off the aliens, or just stop the invasion.

This can be done in a multitude of ways. Let your players be creative. If they need help here are a few options that you can hint at:

  • Gain access to the ships and shut off the ray in hopes humans can fight the aliens off.
  • Find a way to launch nuclear/secret/etc weapons against the aliens.
  • Negotiate with the aliens.
  • Upload virus / trick / etc

No matter what they choose there should be 3 phases to the adventure: Plan, execute plan, and final boss.

Plan

Enemies: Aliens or Drones

In this section they are getting what they need to do their plan. It could be communication equipment, missile codes, etc.

In most cases the Aliens are the villains and anything they plan should include a fight with a few of the aliens. They are small, green, and ride around in flying saucers.

If they need to get into a human facility or negotiate with the aliens, the rogue drones become the main villain. They don’t want to let humans come back. They should only fight 1 or 2 of these.

Execute the plan

Enemies: Aliens or Drones

In this section they have their equipment and must apply the plan. This should be a series of challenges and fights.

Try to throw skills challenges that have an average difficulty of 4 or 5

Final Boss

Enemies: General

The General or Generals (Adjust depending on strength and amount of characters.) and their army want to prevent the characters from succeeding. In this section they must fight their way to the final phase of their plan.

Enemies

Aliens Rogue Drones General
Health 3 66
Defence 536
Body 144
Mind 304
Luck 110
Abilities Lasers 1, Slam 1 Missiles 1, Slam 1 Death Ray 1+2 flip

Have fun!

One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG

Hello My Imaginary Friends and Gamers,

Back in 2013 I went to an event and at that event I offered to run a One-Shot Party SRPG session. I had no rules and no ideas. They chose to play Cards Against Humanity instead and I spent the event dreaming up what I would call The Simplest Role Playing System.

It was okay and I used it for a few years before altering it and renaming it CoasteRPG I had grand plans to sell it as a coaster. The concept was cool but didn’t really work out. Apparently putting your drink on something you write on and then flipping the coaster didn’t work very well. I still plan on finding a way to sell this but I’m not sure how yet.

So here we are and I’ve modified the rules a little for balance. It still uses coasters, although you could use coins or even/odd dice rolls.

One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG

Simple Rules: Each player chooses Body, Mind, or Luck as their character’s specialty. They have 4 in that ability. (Ex. Fighters choose Body.) Their Health and Defence each equal 4.

Complex Rules: Each person has 4 points to place in Body, Mind, and Luck. No negatives. Their Health equals their Body plus 2. Their Defence equals Mind or Luck plus 2.

Resolution Mechanism: When a character needs to do something, the Storyteller decides if it’s easy (1), hard (2), ridiculous (4), or inconceivable (6). The character then subtracts their attribute from the difficulty.

If the attribute is higher than the difficulty they succeed. If not, they have to flip a coaster, coin, or die, 3 times and call it (if it’s a die have them call even or odd). Add every right guess to their attribute.

If the player gets 3 successes in a row they continue to flip until they fail.

Combat: Each character does 1 point of damage (unless specified in their abilities) if they hit something and takes the same if they are hit. Death occurs at 0 health.

Opposed rolls between characters are calculated by the most successes. (Eg. Player one needs to bluff. They have 3 Luck and fliped successfully twice for a total of 5 successes. Player 2 has a mind of 4 and flipped successufully twice for a total of 6. Player two sees through the bluff.)

Special Abilities: Choose 2 of; Hit (1 damage +1 flip), Heal (1 healing + 1 flip), Help (+1 success to any other characters test) Or choose a +1 to body, Mind, or Luck (this can only be picked once.)

Everything else: The storyteller makes up.

Adventures

Character Sheets

One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG – PDF Character Sheet (45KB)

One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG – Docx Character Sheet (16KB)


Thank you and Good Gaming!

Éric

CoasteRPG Oneshot Scenario – Lost Toys

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

On Tuesday I introduced you the the new and improved CoasteRPG; *Compatible with One-Shot Party: The Simplest RPG* now here for the first time is a oneshot scenario for the game. Depending on your players’ zeal and distraction level, it should take between 1-3 hours to play.

The players are all playing a toy that has just now gained sentience. Encourage your players to bring in the toy or at least bring a picture. Give each of them an attack and special ability based off their toy and its accessories.

The Room

They start out waking up in a kid’s room. Clean but filled with toys. Other than them, there are only 2 other toys that are moving.

There is a door and a window. They can see the night sky out the window. The door appears to be locked.

One of the toys with them is a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. He is quiet, says “bother” a lot, and sometimes mumbles.

The other is a Barbie who is missing her arms and legs. She shudders as she talks and manages to say, “Ship… Chip… RUN!” before becoming immobile.

Challenge

They need to escape the room. If they can pick the lock to the door they find what looks like a solid metal wall. It’s actually a sliding door (Spot 6)

There is a computer chip inside the Barbie’s torso (Search 4) that will open the sliding metal door.

The window is a porthole to the outside. They could open the window (Strength 5 or two at strength 3) but everything will be sucked into space. If this happens, they can use special abilities to get back to the hull of the ship.

The Hall

The door leads to a long narrow corridor that branches left or right. There are signs.

Challenge

There are 6 flying defence drones. They target any flying toys first or anyone who hurts them.

The left passage leads to the Teleporter, the right to the Extractor.

The Extractor

The Extractor is where the mad genius sucks the love out of a toy and turns it into energy. The planet’s energy reserves are completely dependent on this form of energy.

Challenge

Zombie Toys and Mad Genius

The Teleporter

The Teleporter is where new toys arrive from alternate dimensions.

Challenge

Getting home.

Activating the transporter (2) sends them somewhere randomly.

Activating it with coordinates (4) sends them home.

Ending

Hopefully they don’t die…

Options: They can send themselves home, destroy the Extractor permanently, take over the facility, or all of the above. Let them play with the idea.

Enemies

  Defence Drone Zombie Mad Genius
Health 6 1 5
Defence 3 4 6
Body 4 0 0
Mind 1 0 4
Luck 1 4 1
Special Abilities Lasers 1

Slam 1

Explode 3 flips

Fly

Bite 1

Squeeze 1

Drain 1+1flip

Grab and toss into extractor  6

Enjoy and good gaming,

Éric

CoasteRPG

Hello My Imaginary Friends and Gamers,

A few years ago I developed The Simplest Role Playing System after some play testing I updated it and created a character sheet.

Now I have made a few more changes and changed the name. I plan on getting it printed on actual coasters (Rules on one side, character sheet on the other).

Here are the rules:

CoasteRPG

Simple Rules: Each player chooses Body, Mind, or Luck as their character’s specialty. They have 4 in that ability. (Ex. Fighters choose Body.) Their Health and Defence each equal 4.

Complex Rules: Each person has 5 points to place in Body, Mind, and Luck. No negatives. Their Health equals their Body plus their Mind+1. Their Defence equals Mind plus Luck +1

Resolution Mechanism: When a character needs to do something, the Storyteller decides if it’s easy (1), hard (2), ridiculous (4), or inconceivable (6). The character then subtracts their attribute from the difficulty.

If the attribute is higher than the difficulty they succeed. If not, they have to flip the coaster 3 times and call it (if it’s a die have them call even or odd). Add every right guess to their attribute.

If the player gets 3 successes in a row they continue until the fail.

Combat: Each character does 1 point of damage (unless specified in their abilities) if they hit something and takes the same if they are hit. Death occurs at 0 health.

Special Abilities: Choose 2 of; Hit (1 damage +1 flip), Heal (1 healing + 1 flip), or Help (+1 success to any other characters test.)

Everything else: The storyteller makes up.

Character Sheet: Download PDF (43KB)

Good gaming!

Éric

*Edited July 20th, 2019 to add special abilities*

Blush Guest Post: Vicariously Male

For the next few weeks, both Blush posts and Fandom Travel posts will be guest posts. Thank you to the contributors! If anyone else is interesting in writing for either of these topics (and it can easily be kept anonymous!) please send me an email to jenericdesigns@gmail.com and we can discuss which topic you’d like to write about.

This week’s Blush guest post is written by Nathan Frechette, and you can follow him on Facebook here. Nathan is originally from Montreal, but has been living in the Ottawa/Gatineau region since 2004. He is a sequential artist and author. He has published several short stories, both sequential and traditional, as well as two graphic novels and six books. He was the editor and director for the French Canadian literary magazine Histoires à boire debout, and works at the Ottawa Public Library. He now is the editor and director for Renaissance Press. He has been teaching creative writing since 2005, and GMing various table-top RPGs for the past 19 years.


Genderfluid symbol courtesy of redbubble.
Genderfluid symbol courtesy of Reidtastic on redbubble.

I’ve always known I was different. Not just a little different, but completely apart from others, something else entirely. When I was a child, I used to think I must be an alien. Another species. Because there was no one like me.

Sure, I wore my hair short, I wore trunks to swim, and I sometimes pretended to be a boy when I was with kids I just met. I identified with men as the heroes of my stories. Often, I wished with all my heart that I was a boy.

Except I didn’t not want to be a girl. Not all the time, anyway.

Some of the days, I hated the body I was born into. Pudgy, awkward, too tall and too short at the same time, and female. Especially female. But sometimes, very few times, but still sometimes, I did enjoy being a woman. I tried growing my hair long and braided it in fancy ways, and I hated it as often as I loved it but most of the time it was OK.

I’m thankful there was such a thing as tabletop role-playing games. They allowed me something I never had the courage to do in real life: go by a male name, be referred to as “he”, and all in the comfortable illusion of fantasy, which was just pretend and could be over at any time, and didn’t commit me to any revelation about myself. The happiness of being able to explore the male aspect of my personality, which is the dominating side, made me quickly addicted to these games. I started playing them with my cousins when I was only twelve, and by the age of 17, I was spending all my time – and I mean, all of it, outside of work and school, I spent 2 hours sleeping every night and every other waking moment I was doing this – on a chat software called MIRC, role-playing with a group of people from all over the world, as several characters (all male, of course). Sure, I got teased a lot for playing almost only male characters, but that didn’t matter to me (beyond reinforcing the idea that I could never tell anyone what was going through my head, of course).

I got a little bit more daring with chat groups; even during the times where we were, as we call it, OOC, or Out Of Character, I still pretended I was a boy – because doing it as a character in a fantasy game wasn’t enough anymore. I quickly got outed as “a girl” and I had a really hard time explaining to my friends why it was important to me that they see me as male, at least some of the time. In fact, I had a hard time explaining to anyone – even people in the queer support groups I visited as a teen – what was going on in my head, what I was going through with my gender identity. Non-binary identities weren’t that well-known in the early 90s, back when very few people even knew about the internet, let alone used it.

It was in high school that I first learned what transgender was and I kind of felt like it applied to me, because I did want to be a boy, but hesitated to use it to label myself, because I didn’t want to stop being a girl. Thinking about it, exploring it, I realized that I didn’t think I’d ever want surgery, because I wasn’t ready to lose my body, no matter how I felt about it. So even that didn’t fit me. I felt even more alone, because I thought I’d found something that defined who I was but it didn’t, really. Because I’d never fully transition. That much was always clear to me: I’d always have one foot left in womanhood. Being pregnant and having children made me even surer of this than I was before: no matter how triggering my period got, being a woman was wonderful at times.

My first inkling of my true gender identity came through a book, a science-fiction novel, actually (which seems very fitting, after thinking I must be a secret alien for so long). It was Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, a novel about a planet on which the inhabitants are not male or female, but rather exist as both and neither, in a state of neutrality most of the time except for a few days a month when they become fertile, and gain the physical attributes which most people associate with male or female, so they can reproduce. Not everyone gets the same sex every time; it can vary depending on the month, so that most people who have children are father to some, mother to others.

That book was a revelation. The concept of being one gender AND the other, depending on the day, was exactly what I had felt my whole life but couldn’t put words on. I still wasn’t able to put a word on it, and the irony that the characters were aliens was not lost on me, but still, it made me feel a little better, like there was someone else in the world that was thinking these things, since she was writing about them. I still felt like a freak, not one thing and not the other, but there was at least one other person in the world who had had these ideas.

I put it aside at the back of my head, and tried to move on with my life. I started writing more seriously, and as I started to examine what I was writing, I came to realize that most of my characters were male, so much so that some of my stories didn’t even pass the low bar of the Bechdel test. As a feminist, this bothered me a great deal, and I tried writing in more women, but I never felt as whole as I did when I wrote about male characters. They permitted me to express my stifled masculinity, to live through them the identity I wanted for myself.

It wasn’t until a good decade after that, when I started a relationship with my wife, that the last of the pieces of the puzzle that was my gender identity fell into place. Since she was a transgender woman just coming to terms with her identity and starting to transition, I started doing some research, and getting involved in online communities so I could support her to the best of my abilities. And this is how I found out about non-binary gender identities, and most important of all, the term “genderfluid.”

There are no words to describe the feeling of finding a word that fits exactly who you are, how you feel. At long last, you aren’t just a lonely freak, an alien, different from everyone else in the world; there are others like you, lots of others, enough of them that there is a widely-used word to define it. It’s suddenly belonging, finding your people, being understood. It’s your entire existence being validated; it’s such an emotional rush that defies description. There are those who sustain that “all these labels are divisive” or that they are “unnecessary”; but really, labels can be life-saving. They have the ability to unite you, make you feel part of a community; to make you feel like what you are going through is not only normal to some degree, but also that you are not alone.

I still write about men. Gay men, actually, a lot of the time, because this allows me to express my queerness (I’m also pansexual, which is a whole other thing to explain) as well as my masculinity, and I’m getting more and more comfortable with that; it’s a healthy way of exploring my masculine side in the safety of my own head, and it makes me feel balanced.

For now.

The Simplest Role Playing System – Part 2

Hello Friends,

Last weekend I ran the fourth playtest for The Simplest Role Playing System. It went great. I noticed a tiny issue with balance between defence and attack which I fixed. Other than that it’s a perfect rules light system for quick games.

I’ve also developed a Character sheet for the Advanced rules.

The Simplest Role Playing System-CharacterSheet

Here’s the PDF for download: The Simplest Role Playing System-CharacterSheet (111kb)

Have you tried the system? What did you think of it?

Éric