Easy as

Written by John Flood (Darkmalice) of Mystecore Games

https://www.mystecore.games
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866,
Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
 Easy as RPG
What is a Roleplaying Game?
Think of it this way; it is a story you and your
player(s) are telling together. You set the scene,
ask the them questions, and their answers drive
the story. Sometimes they roll dice.
The Game Master
You are the Game Master (GM). Your job is to
keep the story rolling along; to make it
interesting by offering choices to the players,
and to make sure everyone is having fun. Any
rules written here are just guidelines, feel free
to bend, twist or break them as you see fit: just
try and keep it consistent so you don’t confuse
your players.
The Game System
When a character tries to do something risky,
the player should roll some dice.
They’ll be rolling six-sided dice (d6) and using
only the highest result.
Whenever a roll is called;
- the player has 1 die (1d6) to begin with.
- if the task is something the character is good
at, they have another 1d6 to roll with.
- if the roll is related to the thing they are best
at, give them another 1d6.
- if the character has a friend helping them, has
the upper hand in the situation, or a useful
item, add another 1d6.
Once the dice are rolled look at the results.
If any of the dice are 4 or higher then it’s a
success! You might like to let the player
describe what happens when they succeed, or
you may decide to describe it to them.
Character Creation
This is where it gets fun for your players.
Ask them what their characters are, no
limitations: ANYTHING goes.
Once they settle on one character idea, have
them name their character and ask them to
draw them on the character sheet.*
*Alternatively, they can paint, sculpt, grab a
favourite toy, make a funny face, whatever you
can think of, but let them create or possess
something tangible as an avatar for their
imagination.
So they have a character and a name, but what
does this character do? Do they have magic
powers? Maybe they are really friendly and
everyone likes helping them? Maybe they are
really strong or fast or pretty? Maybe they have
a shotgun that fires bananas or makes monsters
explode! Maybe they are just really clever.
There are no wrong answers.
You want no more then three things that the
character can do well.
Now you want to ask, what of these things are
they best at? Put an asterisk next to that one.
Lastly, if they have not already described so, the
character needs a tool, gimmick or weapon that
allows them to progress in the story. This could
be a sword, a guitar, a magic lamp or something
they do to cast magic like a dance or waving
their arms around. Bonus points here if you can
give the player something tangible like a toy
version of their item, or get them to perform
the physical action when they want it to
happen.
 Easy as RPG
The Setting dinosaur out to eat all the troublesome little
So now let’s set the scene. Ask your players cavemen (mwahahaha).
where the story takes place; maybe it’s an When your player does something to injure or
enchanted forest, a dark cave, an alien planet or scare away the enemy and succeeds, that’s it.
a supermarket. Keep it simple, and use their No health points or anything for baddies, they
ideas to gauge what kind of world this story is go down in one.
set in.
Get Playing
Next, get out the paper and pencils and let Now all you have to do is kick things off.
them draw a map. Start with a cross to mark Describe the scene to your players and ask
where they start, and ask them about where them what is happening. Describe it a little
they are and how they got there. more for them and ask what are they going to
Now draw two or three circles on the map and do? If they need to roll for their intended
ask them what is there. Have them draw in the action, then that’s what you have them do. Act
circle to show what’s there and make a note, on the result or let them dictate what happens.
you can fill in the details if/when they get there. Any time they look to you for guidance, to know
If your players want to add more places at this what happens, you tell them and again end
point, let them go nuts. with asking them “what do you do now?”
The Baddies And that’s it. Just let the ideas flow between
If it isn’t clear by now who or what the enemy you. Their imagination is limitless, so make use
or challenge is for this story, now is the time to of it by asking questions. Try and keep a goal or
ask. It could be zombies, monsters, ghosts, al- ‘win condition’ in mind, somewhere to end the
iens, extreme weather, whatever. Take the an- story in a victory or satisfying way for the player.
swers from the players and run with it, letting Keep it simple and don’t push it on them, just
your own imagination go wild. Just make sure let them drive things forward while you enable
that the baddies/challenges are always some- their actions, sometimes upping the tension or
thing the players recognise and throwing in a surprise.
understand. Some things are just instantly Remember, your player has things they are
recognisable as scary or ‘evil’, like; good at. Let them do those things to overcome
* things with big eyes and sharp teeth challenge, even when it sometimes might seem
* giant insects silly. Silly is fun.
* big slimy things Finally, don’t forget to have really cool items
Mix and match these traits with any kind of ad- and treasures appear as rewards for doing
versary and you have yourself some antagonists awesome things and defeating down baddies.
to defeat. Of course your players might love Don’t worry about monetary values for
monsters more than heroes, so switch things up treasure, just make them shiny and attractive or
as you see fit; nothing quite like being a giant useful.
 Easy as RPG
Advanced Rules
This section is entirely optional and aimed at
slightly older players, or those playing more
combat-based games.
Health
If you choose, players start with six health,
represented by hearts. If they fail a roll against
an enemy, they might have to cross out a a
heart! Don’t worry though, they can erase that
cross by eating something healthy (or tasty), or
even using some bandages or magic to heal.
Experience and Levelling
When they do fail a roll, or maybe when they
do something really awesome, have your player the GM describes a twist or complication to
add +1XP. Once they have 5XP they increase
their level (start at 0, so the first advancement player themselves describes what happens.
is to level 1). They should reset their XP to 0 and Player Death
either tell you something new that they are
good at, or that they are now even better at
something they already were good at (giving
them an extra 1d6 for those rolls).
Each time they level up they also get a new
heart added to their existing hearts. They
should draw this on the sheet.
Money
You can also add in treasure with a value in gold
coins. Now they can indulge in every gamers
favourite pastime: shopping! I’ll leave you to
create store lists, because I know you love doing
that stuff.
Negative Traits
Ask players during creation for one thing they
are really scared of or allergic to, maybe
something the character hates doing. This can
provide another level of challenge, another
obstacle to overcome, increasing the drama.
Negatives like this should be used creatively,
not to deny the player’s progress, but to make
the challenge or the story more interesting and
wins satisfying. Negatives can also be used to
narrow the focus of a character or help you
build the story to avoid including them at all.
Enemy Health
If you want to increase the challenge of
enemies, give them 2 or 3 hearts instead of
going down to one successful hit.
Tiers of Success
You can add an extra dimension to rolls by
making a 4 or 5 result a partial success, where
what happens, and a 6 a full success where the
Well, ending a story because you rolled some
bad dice isn’t fun. Usually. If the dice are going
badly, think about letting your player just
succeed at something, or maybe let them
control another character for a moment to help
their own character. Maybe when they lose all
their hearts an angel drops in to help, or they
turn into a ghost with some cool new powers.
Your baddy doesn't have to always inflict
damage either, it might just knock the character
down, cover them in gross slime or steal
something shiny.
You should always look to increase the drama,
to keep things interesting and fun. Splatting
your player’s character with a boulder isn’t fun.
Okay maybe sometimes.
 Easy as RPG

What’s your name? Draw what you look like here

What are you?

What can you do? (3 things)

What do you have?

Advanced

Level:

Life:

XP (draw a circle): 0 1 2 3 4 5

Treasure: