Five by Five (fv-b-fv) adj. 1.

In radio communication on a scale of 1 to 5 measuring signal strength and clarity, "Five by Five" indicates the best possible strength and clarity of signal. 2. Condition or state of being the best it can be; perfect. (slang) 3. An original game system and RPG Toolkit by Jeff Moore. 1

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Table of Contents
Role-playing......................................................................3 Character Creation..........................................................4 Task Resolution................................................................7 Six is Trump!......................................................................7 The 5x5 Roll......................................................................8 Special Values (0 and 5)................................................9 Descriptor Values..........................................................10 Rank Shifts......................................................................12 Rolling Doubles..............................................................12 Experience and Advancement.....................................13 XP Awards.......................................................................14 Combat............................................................................15 Turn Order......................................................................15 Stealing Initiative...........................................................16 Making an Attack...........................................................16 Dodging an Attack.........................................................17 Taking Damage...............................................................17 Trump Damage..............................................................18 Healing.............................................................................18 Harming (failed heal checks)........................................19 Weapons and Armor.....................................................20 Exclusive Actions............................................................22 Running the Game.........................................................25 Optional Rule: Advanced Descriptors........................26 Rank Shift Table (Complete)........................................27 Magic Spells and Super Powers...................................28 Optional Rule: Aspects.................................................29
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Role-playing The radio analogy is a good one when trying to conceptualize a role-playing game. Roleplaying is a lot like the old time radio adventure serials that people listened to in the days before television. In a radio drama, all the action was spoken or described and the visualization of the action took place in the imaginations of the actors and the audience. In a role-playing game, the players are both actors and audience. The acting is improvisational, a player doesn't know what they are going to say or do before it happens. One special player called the Game Manager (or GM) helps to control the flow of the improvisations by providing impetus and situations for the other players. By reacting to the situations presented by the GM, the players and the GM work together to forge an adventure story. 3

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Character Creation Each player (who is not the GM) will need to create a character to represent their role in the adventure story. This character is an adventure hero appropriate to the setting and the type of adventure story that your gaming group wishes to experience. Making a character is as easy as 1, 2, 3. 1) Discuss the setting and the story back-drop with the GM as well as the kind of characters that might live in such a world. 2) Decide what sort of character you want to portray in this setting and define five things about the character. These five things are called Descriptors. Descriptors are things like skills and talents that detail what the character is good at doing and help to define the character's role in the upcoming adventure.
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Ordinary things average skills that your character does just as well as the next guy, have no place on a Five by Five character sheet. Everything average and ordinary is given a default value of 0 (untrained) and doesn't need to be further defined. It's only the exceptional and important things that we care about here. In addition to the five descriptors that they choose for their characters, every character is assigned one additional descriptor: Hit Points (HP). HP is the amount of damage or life loss that a character can suffer before being in danger of dying. 3) Arrange your six Descriptors (including HP) from the most important to the least important for your character. The Descriptor that you decide is most important for your character has a value of 6.
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The next two Descriptors have a value of 4. The next two Descriptors have a value of 2. Your final Descriptor has a value of 5. For your HP, add 10 to the value listed above. (Setting HP as your least important descriptor will give you only 5 HP and produce a very fragile character.) Completing Character Creation Following the steps above you can create any character for any adventure game setting in minutes. All that remains is to give your new character a name, and outfit them with some starting equipment and you are ready for adventure!

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Task Resolution Task resolution is done by rolling dice and comparing the result to the value of a descriptor that is most relevant to the task. Roll 2 six sided dice. Multiply the two dice together. Example: a roll of [2] and [5] on two dice will produce a result of 10. If this result is equal to or less than the value of the descriptor related to the task, the task is completed successfully. Six is Trump! 6's (sixes) are trump! They override the value of your roll and always indicate success! As you roll 2 dice to attempt an action, if either one of the dice rolled show a [6], don't bother to multiply the dice together. The result of the roll is trumped by the [6] and the action being attempted is automatically successful. 7

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Example: Larry is rolling to impress his date with his cooking. He rolls against his Amateur Chef descriptor which has a value of 4. Rolling he gets a [2] and [6] which when multiplied together equals 12. 12 is higher than Larry's descriptor value of 4 which would normally indicate a failed action check, however, because one of the two dice rolled shows a [6] the result of the roll is trumped. This means that the result of the roll is ignored and the action automatically succeeds. The 5x5 Roll Hereafter task rolls are referred to as 5x5 (Five-by-five) rolls because the highest value that you can roll (discounting trumps) is 5x5.

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Special Values Five by Five Descriptors reference a few special values. These values are significant because it is not possible to produce their value or less with a 5x5 task roll. The values are 0 (untrained) and 5 (poor). 0 (untrained) Anything that a character wants to do that does not relate back to a descriptor on the character's record sheet is considered untrained and average. Every undefined task is tested against a value of 0 (untrained). It is not possible to roll 0 or less on a 5x5 task roll. However, because of the trump rule, success is still possible. To succeed at an untrained task the player makes a 5x5 task roll and must roll a [6] (trump) on at least one of the dice.

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5 (poor) One of the character's descriptors has a value of 5 (poor). A character's poor descriptor is half as likely as an untrained task to succeed. When considering the 5 value in relation to the 5x5 dice roll, read it as, roll one less 5. That is, roll one less die. To test an action with a 5 (poor) descriptor, roll on only 1d6. For the task to succeed, this die must come up trump [6]. Descriptor Values Descriptor values are 5, 0, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12 and 16. Starting characters will not have any value higher than 6. But, values can be improved though the course of play. Below is a closer look at the chance of successfully performing a task using a descriptor of a given value.
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5 (poor) roll a 6 on one die 1 in 6 chance 15% (16.67 actual) 0 (untrained) roll a 6 on either of two dice 11 in 36 chance 30% (30.56 actual) 2 (novice) roll a 2 or less (or trump) on 5x5 14 in 36 chance 40% (38.89 actual) 4 (competent) a 4 or less (or trump) on 5x5 19 in 36 chance 50% (52.78 actual) 6 (skilled) a 6 or less (or trump) on 5x5 23 in 36 chance 60% (63.89 actual) 9 (expert) a 9 or less (or trump) on 5x5 26 in 36 chance 70% (72.22 actual) 12 (master) a 12 or less (or trump) on 5x5 30 in 36 chance 80% (83.33 actual) 16 (legendary) a 16 or less (or trump) on 5x5 33 in 36 chance 90% (91.67 actual) 11

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Rank Shifts The GM should feel free to give a character a temporary boost in a descriptor's value before they attempt a task that's particularly easy, or to penalize a character with a temporary reduction of a descriptor's value for a task that's especially difficult. Improvements or reductions of this nature are called Rank Shifts. The amount of each shift needs to match the Descriptor value ranges of: 5, 0, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 16. Rolling Doubles
Anyone who rolls doubles during a 5x5 check receives a Doubles Token. (Use a coin or similar small object). Before attempting any roll for which the trump rule can be applied (5x5, damage or healing) the doubles token can be exchanged to give that roll a double chance at trump! This roll now receives the trump benefit on both [5] and [6]! Each player (including the GM) can possess no more than one Doubles token at a time.

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Experience and Advancement As players portray the same characters from game session to game session, the GM awards the players with Experience Points (XP). Players use XP like money to purchase improvements for their characters. To improve a Descriptor from its current value to the value of the next higher rank costs a number of XP equal to the value of the new rank. For example: to add a new Descriptor with a value of 2 costs 2 XP; to improve a Descriptor with a value of 2 to a value of 4 costs an additional 4 XP; etc. Master and legendary Descriptor ranks (12 and 16) should be rare. A character cannot have more than 2 Descriptors with a value of 12 and may have only 1 Descriptor with a value of 16.

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Players cannot improve their poor (5) Descriptor, but they can remove a poor Descriptor from their character sheet by trading it for a different poor Descriptor. Role play should be involved in overcoming one weakness and in gaining a new one. Such an exchange needs to be approved by the GM and costs 5 XP. When improving HP remember that HP = Descriptor value + 10, so reduce HP by 10 before determining the cost to improve it. XP Awards Each game session that a player attends and plays their character is worth 1 XP for their character. Optionally the GM may award players an additional XP for a particularly difficult game session or for reaching the end of a long story arch that spanned several game sessions.
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Combat Participants in a combat are divided into sides. All GM controlled characters comprise one side, while the individual characters controlled by the players comprise the other side. Turn Order Normally the players take their turns after all characters on the GM's side have taken action. Standard Turn Order is: GM controlled characters go first. Player Characters go second. However, particularly skilled or lucky characters can sometimes slip in front of the GM and take their turn first. This is called stealing initiative.

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Stealing Initiative At the beginning of combat before the GM's side takes a turn, each player rolls to steal initiative. This is a5x5 task roll and its success or failure is determined like any other test. A player who successfully steals initiative acts before the GM takes a turn. The combat sequence becomes: Player Characters that steal initiative go first. GM controlled characters go second. Remaining Player Characters go third. Making an Attack Attacking requires a roll to Hit the target. This is a 5x5 task roll. If successful, the target is hit, but may have the opportunity to Dodge.

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Dodging an Attack Once per round a character can make a skill test to try to Dodge a successful attack against them. As this can only be tried once each round of combat, a character who is outnumbered will be at a great disadvantage. If the Dodge test is successful the attack is negated, otherwise, the target of the attack suffers damage. Taking Damage When hit by a successful attack, the target suffers base damage of 1d6. Weapons have a Damage Bonus (DB) that can increase base damage and adds to the 1d6 die roll, while armor has an Armor Value (AV) which will reduce the total damage dealt. Damage = 1d6 + DB of Attacking Weapon AV of Defending Armor. 17

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Damage and Trump If the damage die comes up trump [6], roll the die again and increase the damage bonus by +5. Consecutive trump rolls are cumulative. So, if the second roll is also trump, roll again, this time adding +10 to the final roll result, etc. Healing A Wounded character can benefit from healing skill checks. As many healing skill checks can be made to restore a character to health as needed, but each failed check reduces a character's HP further. On a successful Healing skill check the object of the check recovers 1d6 lost HP. This roll is subject to the trump rule like a Damage roll so, if you roll trump [6] on the healing die, roll again and add +5, etc. All characters regain 1 HP a day through natural recovery.
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Harming Failed Healing Checks If a Healing check fails, the target is harmed instead, and looses 1d2 HP. (roll 1d6 : 1-3 = 1, and 4-6 = 2.) Harming is also subject to trump. If you roll a [6] you must roll again. However, only increase your result by +2 for each trump rolled rather than the normal +5. At 0 HP a character is unconscious but stable. At -1 to -9 HP the character is dying. A dying character looses 1 HP every (10 + current HP) in minutes until they die or receive healing. Example: A character with -1 HP will be at -2 HP in 9 minutes. At -9 HP the character has only 1 minute left to live. At -10 HP a character is dead.
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Weapons Apply a Weapon's Damage Bonus (DB) each time you inflict damage with the weapon. DB 0 No Weapon (untrained fist) DB 1 Improvised Weapons (bottle, barstool, rock) DB 2 Light Weapons (knife, black jack, small hand gun, trained fist) DB 3 Medium Weapons (short-sword, mace, medium hand gun, light rifle) DB 4 Large Weapons (bastard sword, war hammer, large hand gun, medium rifle) DB 5 Massive Weapons (claymore, battle axe, heavy rifle)

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Armor Armor reduces the DAMAGE from attacks by its Armor Value (AV). AV 0 Scant or no clothes (boxers, lingerie) AV -1 Light Clothes (short sleeved shirt and slacks, a summer dress) AV -2 Medium clothes (3 piece suit, autumn wear with light jacket) AV -3 Heavy clothes (winter wear with heavy coat, soft leather) AV -4 Light Armor (studded or hard leather armor) AV -5 Medium Armor (chain or light plate) AV -6 Heavy Armor (heavy plate)

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Shields and off-hand daggers don't improve a character's AV, but grant the character one additional Dodge attempt each round. This allows the character to Dodge up to two attacks per round instead of the usual one. Exclusive Actions Some Descriptors improve the chance of success when dealing with game system specific tasks. These tasks generally focus on combat and are considered: Exclusive Actions. A Descriptor cannot be defined that improves the ability of more than one Exclusive Action. For example, Uncanny Reflexes could arguably be used to improve a character's attack, their dodge, and their steal initiative. That makes Uncanny Reflexes too powerful. The GM should require the player to narrow the Descriptor by specifically defining which exclusive action Uncanny Reflexes is meant
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to improve. The player might then decide that his Uncanny Reflexes ability specifically improves his ability to Dodge. Uncanny Reflexes can still be applied to a great many non-exclusive tasks (tasks outside of combat), but in combat, it is used to Dodge. Exclusive Action List Attack: This is the action a player declares to have their character hit an enemy in combat. Descriptors to improve a character's attack action could include: Brawler, Hand Gun, etc. Dodge: This is the action a player declares after being the successful target of an attack to eliminate the attack and avoid taking the damage.

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Descriptors to improve a character's dodge action could include: Danger Sense, Uncanny Reflexes, etc. Healing: This action is used to help a character to recover lost health. Descriptors to improve a character's healing action could include: First Aid, Paramedic, etc. Steal Initiative: This action is used to steal initiative during combat enabling characters to act before their enemies. Descriptors to improve a character's steal initiative action could include: Alertness, Combat Tactics, etc.

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Running the Game Descriptors are the bread and butter of this game system: decide what Descriptor is best suited to an action. Roll the value of that Descriptor or less to succeed. It's a simple system, but it's one that can be easily abused. Descriptors that are too general and might be applied to many types of tasks are to be discouraged. The GM should nix descriptors like: Jack of all trades, or Omniscient. If a player picks something like this, the GM should try to offer alternatives that narrow things down a bit ... perhaps Handy-man instead of Jack of all Trades, or Scholar in place of Omniscient. Feel free to experiment and don't be afraid to make mistakes. If you decide after play has commenced that a Trait is too powerful, talk it over as a group. 25

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The point of this game is to facilitate everyone's enjoyment, but not to make things too easy. Part of being heroic and in telling heroic stories is being able to solve problems bigger than yourself. Also, if a player has chosen a trait that is simply too specific, or never gets brought into play, allow them to exchange it for something that they will be able to use more often. Optional Rule: Advanced Descriptors So far the Descriptors discussed in the rules should be considered Basic Descriptors. The rules specify that anything not defined on your character sheet has a value of 0 (untrained) and should be considered average. Average (untrained) things can be accomplished with about the same degree of success for everyone. Roll 2d6 and if you get a trump, you succeed. This is used for everything from climbing a tree or driving a car to firing a gun. 26

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What about something that the average person has no chance to do successfully, such as brain surgery? Under these optional rules, brain surgeon would be an Advanced Descriptor. Advanced Descriptors have a mandatory 2 Rank shift applied to their use. Rank Shift Table (complete)
0%

5
15%

0
30%

2
40%

4
50%

6
60%

9
70%

12
80%

16
90%

20
95%

25
100%

A rank 2 (novice) brain surgeon would have to roll to successfully perform surgery as if he had the Descriptor at rank 5 poor. A rank 0 (untrained) average man off the street has no chance to perform brain surgery at all. Advanced Descriptors do not cap at rank 16 and can be advanced with XP up to rank 25.
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Even with a rank 25 in Brain Surgery, the player still rolls a 16 or less for success. Regardless of Descriptor Rank, any task for which the GM requests a 5x5 roll has a maximum chance of success of 16 or less. Magic Spells and Super Powers If the world setting and the GM allow them, descriptors that define special abilities, like super powers or the ability to cast magical spells, should be defined as Advanced Descriptors. (Unless the world setting is such that everyone can cast spells or has super powers).

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Optional Rule: ASPECTS Aspects are Super Descriptors that effect everything a character does. These are broad strokes like how smart, strong or agile a character is. Aspects serve to compliment existing descriptors as well as help to create distinctions between untrained descriptors so that every character won't approach every untrained task in exactly the same way. The four Aspects are: AGILITY The ability to control ones own body. A character's manual dexterity, coordination, and grace are all defined by this aspect. BRAWN The ability to exert force on and impact material things. A character's strength, muscle, and girth are all defined by this aspect.

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COGNITION Perception and the ability to process that which is perceived. A character's alertness, intelligence, and memory are all defined by this aspect. DETERMINATION Mental and emotional control. A character's willpower, discipline, and confidence are all defined by this aspect. By default each of the four Aspects have a rating of AVERAGE. Like Untrained, an Aspect that is AVERAGE defines something that is normal and has no impact on game play. If playing Five by Five without the Aspects option, one could assume that all characters possessed a rating of AVERAGE in all Aspects.

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At character creation, a player can choose to reduce the rating of one or more Aspects to improve the rating of another Aspect. Aspect Ratings are: INFERIOR (an AVERAGE Aspect reduced one step) AVERAGE (beginning value of all Aspects) SUPERIOR (an AVERAGE Aspect increased one step) a player must reduce the rating of one Aspect to INFERIOR in order to increase another Aspect to SUPERIOR. In addition to associating an action to a Descriptor, all actions will also be associated to one of the four Aspects.

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Action resolution becomes: Decide which Descriptor applies to the action at hand. Use this to determine the character's base chance of success. Now decide which of the four Aspects the action is based on. If this Aspect has a rating of AVERAGE, complete the task normally. If this Aspect has a rating of SUPERIOR, apply a positive rank shift bonus to the Descriptor value before resolving the action. If this Aspect has a rating of INFERIOR, apply a negative rank shift penalty to the Descriptor value before resolving the action.

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