Generic Game Engine - Impulse RPG

[Morrius]

Hi there.  I've been working on my own generic system for a while now, and I've managed to build it up into something fairly substantial.  On a whim, I made a prototype and had it printed, and I've gotten enthusiastic about trying to make a complete game and print it.

So, right now I need feedback and creative criticism to see if anything is unclear or poorly planned in my manuscript.  Once that's done, I'll be ready to move on to some serious playtesting.

My game, the Impulse RPG, is a generic game engine.  It uses a very rules-light system.  The characters have a handful of traits, each ranked from 1 to 10.  Skill checks are made by rolling 2d6 and adding the rank of the trait being used to give a total.  Not exactly the pinnacle of originality, I know, but I'm aiming for elegant simplicity here without over-reliance on gimmicks.  Beyond the basic rules, there are lots of extras that can be added to give flavor to a genre of game.  These can be added in as the group desires for more depth of play. 

Basically, what I've tried to do is find the concepts and theories that I think work best, and present them in a manner that is not intimidating or brow-beating.  It gives just enough rules to arbitrate actions, and leaves the rest to the group's creativity.

What do you think, sirs?

http://www.box.net/shared/g2ypfao7rh

[Ron Hammack]

I've only given it a cursory read-through so far, but it seems like a nice solid generic system.

A potential problem I can see is deciding on trait breadth. This looks like the kind of game I'd turn to for a quick "hey, guys, let's do something in a different genre for a change!" kind of game, but I can see getting slowed down by the process of deciding what traits are really important for the kind of game we're after. Something I'd like to see is a collection of trait lists, divided up by category and specificity. Something where I could say "OK, we want cinematic space opera with a bit of space combat but a lot of emphasis on sword fighting? Let's use the Specific Swordfighting list (feint, parry, riposte, disarm, quick draw) but just the General Piloting list (big ships, little ships, dogfighting)."

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Looks good. Couple  of comments:
1) Verbage is inconsistent. At times Traits are called skills or abilities.
2) The training time needs an example, the amount of weeks required is unclear to me...
3) Some of the power limiting verbage is worded pretty strongly. I can't imagine that with the rules as written, that there is a GM that would allow a campaign to start with a Trait above lvl 6. And that is fine for some genres, but not others. What would the Hulk be like if he had a SuperStrength Trait of 6? There are some powers that "can" be unbalancing in a RPG, but to say that the players should never have them is worded too strongly. There are some genres where disallowing the psychic powers you listed as no-nos essentially cuts off a whole branches of character archetypes. Remember a good story isn't about the character improving his stats, but about a character learning from the consequences of their actions...
4) This is just a pet peeve, but the fact that the randomizer goes to 12 and the abilities go to 10 means to me that luck is more important than player ability, is that your intention?

  There are a couple of typoes, but overall it is written very well, good luck man!

[Callan S.]

Hi Morrius,

Does the game have an ending built into it? Or if not an ending, working towards then enjoying a certain feel in the game?

[Morrius]

Hi Morrius,

Does the game have an ending built into it? Or if not an ending, working towards then enjoying a certain feel in the game?

I'm afraid I don't quite follow you here.  Can you explain what you mean by this?

[Callan S.]

Well, what comes to mind first, when you think about a roleplay game that has an ending? That's what I'm talking about. Does anything come to mind?

[Morrius]

I've given my game a touch up, added a few more things, made some clarifications, and added another chapter on playing the game.

http://www.box.net/shared/curwrik0sk

The formatting is all wrong, I know. I'm just getting ready to put on the final touches after I get a few playtests on board. Critiques are welcome.

[Necromagvs]

hi Morrius,

I was trying to check on the file, but the link took me to a page that said, "no file "

I am working also in a generic system, rules are a bit (just a bit) more complicated that the ones mentioned here, basically the system intends to be generic not only for rpg games but for another kind of games. One the issues that i found similar to your system is the Traits, which in our system are called Talents and represent all what is know in RPG jargon as skills and feats. What I did to avoid having a lot of Talents/Traits all around without any order was to create Schools, which are focused on a specific task. i.e. Acrobatics, holds any talent related to physical activity and acrobatics (from run, jump, tumble to juggling and trapeze). This way when you switch genre, it is easier to find the talents/traits that fits and if there is the need to add new ones for a specific genre you just add a new school or add them to the proper one.

if you can email me acopy of your system i will be more than glad to give it a look and send you some comments.