While the project closest to my heart is my MMORPG Engine, I still find time to work on my intimate little pen-and-paper RPG’s. I started writing them in the army, while I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca. The goal was to create a small-scale RPG that could be played from beginning, middle, to end in a single sitting (if that’s what was desired). The rules had to be simple enough so that all the players needed were pencils and paper and all the GM needed was the rulebook, which served as more of a supplemental than anything else.

I hadn’t even seen the words Gamist, Narrativist, or Simulationist, (and now that I have, I’m positive I’m still missing something that’s obvious to smarter people) but I knew I wanted my games to take on a storytelling feel without getting bogged down in charts and graphs.

So, here’s a game I’m submitting for review. It’s just the basic rules, the theme, and a few monsters and such to get you started if you decide to play it a little to take it around the block. I’m not sure how to submit a game for review, but from what I’ve seen, this seems as good a format as any.

OUTATOWNERS

Introduction


Gas Food Lodging
Next Exit

A dirty yellow fan of light stretches out in front of my battered old ford. The old girl is a lot like me. She’s been all over this country, selling everything from vacuum-cleaners to encyclopedias. I treat her good, but she’d getting on in years and it’s about time she retired from the traveling sales business.

Yeah, she’s a lot like me

I pull into the next exit and the old girl seems to pick up a little juice. Maybe she’s telling me “We can make it a little farther hoss.” Maybe she’s just ready to call it a night. Either way, we pull into the first hotel we see. Not bad for a small town. The lobby is empty but well lit, and the use of neon in the sign is kept to a respectable minimum.

I don’t notice how quiet it is until I get to the desk and ring the bell. The sound seems to go on forever, bouncing off the walls and coming back to my ears over and over again like a chant. When the bell’s single note finally dies in the rafters of this old building, the silence that replaces it seems to settle, like dirt around a coffin.

Something is very strange here…

"Death tugs at my ear and says live...I am coming."


Oliver Wendel Holmes

For this game, players will need:

2 six-sided die of opposing colors.
Pencil and paper
Rules
Imagination
Friends

Outatowners is an RPG set in the small town of Obero. It’s a quaint little place where
life is slow and visitors are rare.

This is where you come in. Players take on the role of travelers who have stopped in the small town for the night. The GM plays the role of the town itself, enacting it’s many charms, quirks, and phenomena. Players may roleplay their characters in whatever way they wish. They may want to find out what is causing these paranormal disturbances or they may just want to get out alive. The GM can limit the setting to a single haunted building, or an ancient entity that holds the entire town in its power. The game is scaled to be as large or as small as you like. The dice system is simple and allows for fast-paced play, or a more leisurely group storytelling experience. Together, the GM and the players come together to delve into the dark corners of this quiet little town.

You see, in every city, and in every town, there are certain places you just don’t visit after dark. No one speaks about it, but everyone knows where they are and why you don’t go there. In Obero, there are lots of those places and unfortunately, you don’t know where they are or why you shouldn’t go there…

…because you’re an outatowner.



Character Generation


The Dew Drop Inn
Guest Register

The hotel is quiet. The silence is so disturbing that it takes me nearly a full minute to realize that there’s no clerk on duty. I laugh at myself for my fear. Just old travelin’ salesman jitters. There used to be this guy I worked with all through Georgia back in the sixties when travelin’ past the Mason/Dixie wasn’t safe for hardly anyone. He used to tell me all sortsa tales and yarns about haunted cotton mills, old confederate graveyards, and ghosts all through the south.

He’d have loved this place.

Looking next to the bell, I see a guestbook. It’s turned towards me as if I’m supposed to write in it. There’s a simple roster of rooms available for rent, and those what’re filled have signatures next to ‘em. In an old shoebox are keys and there’s a note on the side of the box.

“Checkout at 10:00am. If we don’t have our key by then, you owe us for another day.”

Well I’ll be damned. Looks like this place still goes by the honor system.

Grabbin’ a key and writing my name next to the room number in the guestbook, I wonder how many hotels in the country are like this one.

As it turned out, this one was one-of-a-kind.

"Blood is the ink of our life's story."


Jason Mechalek

Creating a character is pretty easy. You’re just an average person. No special abilities, no arcane powers, just your basic skills and no more than your average knowledge.

All stats are rolled with a single six-sided die. Whatever you roll, that is your stat. No stat can be higher than your stamina, however. When, during the course of the game, your stamina drops, then any stat higher than stamina must drop as well. When stamina is recovered, other stats may increase up to the point of their original value. Here are the stats you roll:

Name: Okay, you don’t have to roll this one but put something here. It’s annoying to call your character “My Guy”

Power: This is basically how hard you hit and how much you can lift all rolled into one. This will decrease as you become injured, however.

Speed: This determines how quickly you move. This will also decrease with injury.

Nerve: This determines how well you handle mentally stressful events. Like Power and Speed, Nerve also decreases with injury but can also be decreased through “Fear”.

Stamina: This determines how much abuse you can take before you become a ghost yourself.

Talent: These are abilities that allow for players to perform uniquely in stressful situations. Each character has only one talent. Talents are determined with a 2d6 roll.

2. Brawler: +1 to all attacks
3. Survivor: -1 to all damage
4. Strong: roll 2d6 on Power checks, taking your choice of die
5. Fast: roll 2d6 on Speed checks, taking your choice of die
6. Calm: roll 2d6 on Nerve checks, taking your choice of die
7. Endurance: Power never drops due to loss of stamina
8. Second Wind: Speed never drops due to loss of stamina
9. Fearless: Nerve never drops due to loss of stamina
10. Lucky: Reroll failed checks, taking a critical loss on the second failure
11. Medic: Once per character, restore 1d6 of Nerve and Stamina
12. Health-Nut: roll an additional 1d6 to establish starting Stamina

Extra Talent: GM’s may, for whatever reason, wish to award an extra talent for exceptional roleplay, or for accomplishing some difficult puzzle. These extra talents give players an advantage in extended play sessions.

“I see dead people.”: The sudden appearance of ghosts and monsters does not frighten you.

“It’s in here, I can feel it”: The GM rolls a Nerve check if you enter a room with hidden items. If it succeeds, you find the item immediately.

“Help, they’re after me!”: You cannot be ambushed, you’re too nervous.

“Don’t you die on me!”: You can use the “Medic” skill on fallen characters and there’s no limit to how many times you can use it on wounded characters.

“Lemme catch my breath.”: You can replenish your own Stamina by rolling 1d6 over your current level.

“Go on without me.”: You suffer no penalties for being alone.

“I don’t believe in ghosts.”: You don’t need to make Nerve Checks when fighting fearsome creatures.

“I see the light.”: You do not need to make Nerve Checks when fighting or performing actions in the dark or where you cannot see well (underwater, in close quarters, etc.)

“One Shot, One Kill.”: You can hit an enemy with a successful Power Check rather than taking a Duel Roll when using firearms.

“Hold on, I’m coming!”: Allied characters have Nerve points equal to your own when you are nearby.





Performing Actions


It was a nice room, I’ll give it that much. The bed was soft and the quilts looked hand-made. You don’t see that sort of thing in hotels--leastways, not any I been in. I was just getting myself ready for forty winks when I hear this little girl cryin’ out in the hallway. She’s cryin’ hard like someone’s been at her or somethin’ so I head out there all in a rush.

I should have been less concerned about that little girl, and more concerned about me.

"Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around you in awareness."


Ross Hersey

When performing actions in Outatowners, players have to successfully win “checks” if the action performed is in any way difficult. The difficulty of actions is anywhere between 1 and 6. If an action carries a difficulty that is equal to, or higher than the player’s level in the applicable stat, then a check must be made. If the action carries a difficulty that is lower than an applicable stat, no check need be made at all. If the action is of a lower difficulty, but is being performed in less than normal circumstances (loading a weapon vs. loading a weapon in the dark), then a check can be made at the GM’s discretion.

Power Checks – occur when the character is attempting something that requires the expenditure of strength. Any action that is continuous, even if it is of a lower difficulty than required, must be rolled repeatedly (holding a door back against a vicious beast). The GM will decide if penalties are to be applied for continuous rolls (just because you’re strong enough to hold the door shut doesn’t mean you can do it for hours).

Speed Checks - occur when the character is attempting something that requires bursts of, or a continuous show of, dexterity (avoiding a trap). Any action that is continuous, even if it is of a lower difficulty than required, must be rolled repeatedly. The GM will decide if penalties are to be applied for continuous rolls.

Nerve Checks - occur when the character is attempting something that requires concentration. Any action that is continuous, even if it is of a lower difficulty than required, must be rolled repeatedly. The GM will decide if penalties are to be applied for continuous rolls. Failing a Nerve check may result in the loss of a Nerve Point, causing the character to move closer to panic.

Fear Checks – occur when the character is subjected to “frightening” events. The appearance of ghosts (even benign ones) will cause a Fear Check. Some entities will also attack with Fear, focusing the emotion on characters to cripple them with terror. Failing fear checks causes the character to lose a Nerve point.



Combat


I’d been in dirt-poor sleazy little hotels like this before and the possibilities surrounding a little girl crying in the night were all bad. Expecting to have to persuade some drunken slob that he’d be finding his jollies elsewhere tonight, I grabbed up my revolver. It was an old Saturday night special that was more for show than anything else. Still, it had put the fear of God in plenty of young bucks and hadn’t failed me in all my years on the road.

In the hallway, I ran right into what had the little girl crying. I didn’t even have time to realize that it weren’t no horny young buck before something leapt at me out of the shadows. It was oily-black with a bullet-shaped head that looked to be all teeth. I pretty much fell out of its way, coming down hard on my funnybone and dropping the pistol. Rolling onto my back, I snatched the gun in my left hand and pointed it at the thing. I pulled the trigger.

*snap*

Twice more.

*snap, snap*

I never seen anything like that in my life and I prayed God I’d never see anything like it again. It was made up of some runny black stuff what looked like tar but what smelled like somma the awfulest stank ever come off a swamp. There was all sorter teeth in the black stuff too, but most of ‘em was lined up all neat in the front of it like a mouth. I had the gun pointed right at what woulda been it’s head, but both of us knew it wasn’t gonna shoot.

I swear the goddam thing smiled at me

"Your attack has been rendered harmless. It is, however, quite pretty."


Magic, The Gathering

Combat in Outatowners is handled simply. It is handled in terms of Duel Rolls. When attacking an enemy, characters have to come within range of the enemy’s sharp claws, flailing tentacles or ghostly hands. Duel Rolls are performed anytime players engage a monster in combat. These rolls determine who, when both monster and character are attempting a hit, hits whom.

The attacker claims his attack.

The defender claims whether he will be defending, or counterattacking.

Both players roll 1d6 simultaneously.

Defense rolls must be within the “Damage Value” of the attack roll. Therefore, an attack roll of five will be completely blocked by a defensive roll of five, but will inflict a single point of damage is the defensive roll is four. If there is extra damage, it is applied to any successful hit as long as it equals the original damage. So an attack of 3 +2 will take 2 points of damage if the defensive roll is one less than the attack roll (1 +1).

Counterattack rolls must be higher than the attack roll to be considered successful. If a counterattack fails, the initial attack takes an extra point of damage. If a counterattack succeeds, the defender’s attack takes full damage on the attacker and the defender becomes the attacker.

The duel continues until the attacking character halts the attack or one of the combatants loses all of their stamina points. A character without stamina points is considered unconscious, but will mysteriously disappear if left by themselves, leaving nothing but bloodstains. Monsters or ghosts that are defeated in combat may evaporate, melt, or collapse to the ground, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are dead.

Characters can also be incapacitated with fear. Failing Nerve checks against fearsome creatures results in one of three things: 1.) The loss of one or more Nerve points. 2.) Temporary immobilization through debilitating fear or “Panic”. 3.) The loss of one or more Nerve Points and “Panic”.

Characters are considered “Panicked” if they lose all Nerve Points. They must be “Calmed” by someone who has the skill, or by any player with all of their “Nerve” points, in a non-stressful situation (not in the dark, not during combat, not during a “haunting” etc.).



The GM’s Appendix:

"True friends stab you in the front."


Oscar Wilde

As the GM, your job is to moderate the game. You decide what is in the upper room of the hotel. You decide what needs to be done to get out of the room…out of the building…out of the town. The complete version of this game comes with maps of the town and ten of the buildings in it, a bestiary with a hundred and one monsters, and a long list of items, weapons, and their possible uses in the game.

For this shortened version, I have a few resources for a GM to create their own campaign. It’s not much, but it should give you a glimpse of how the game works and what the completed version offers.

GM Notes: Weapons & Items

Players will come across items and weapons everywhere. For the purpose of this game, just about anything can be a weapon. Pocketfuls of rocks, lighters mixed with bug spray, pipes, two by fours, and kitchen knives.

Weapons come in one of three weights…Light, Medium, and Heavy. And in one of three damage classes: Light, Medium, and Heavy. The damage type of a weapon may vary, which is why it is good to carry many different weapons. Monsters may be resistant to some forms of damage.

Here is how weapons work for your characters

Weight – This determines whether or not your character can use the weapon. Any character can carry a weapon, but using it is different. It doesn’t take as much strength to carry an axe as it does to bury it in someone’s head.

Light = You must have a strength of at least 1 to use this.
Medium = You must have a strength of at least 3 to use this.
Heavy = You must have a strength of at least 5 to use this.

Damage – This determines how many Stamina points are taken from the target with a successful hit. This can be lessened through resistance or through defensive rolls.

Light = This will subtract 1 Stamina point.
Medium = This will subtract 2 Stamina points.
Heavy = This will subtract 3 Stamina points.

Type – This determines what types of injuries are inflicted. Some monsters are resistant to particular injuries. It is good to have a secondhand weapon available in case what you’re using isn’t working. Types of damage are varied and many are specific to certain monsters or monster types. You will have to decide what weapons are best against what monsters.

Here are a few weapons and items to use in the game…


Kitchen Knife
A simple weapon. Not terribly strong, but better than nothing.
Weight = Light, Damage = Light, Type = Slash & Stab

Wooden Baseball Bat
Lightweight and fairly strong. Just be careful what you hit.
Weight = Light, Damage = Medium, Type = Crush
Fragile: (Roll 1d6 when striking Solid target. A roll of 1 or 6 snaps the weapon.)

Club
This looks like it used to be a baseball bat…
Weight = Light, Damage = Light, Type = Crush

Sharp Stick
This looks like it used to be a baseball bat…
Weight = Light, Damage = medium, Type = Stab

Aluminum Baseball Bat
Lightweight and fairly strong. Just be careful what you hit.
Weight = Light, Damage = Medium, Type Crush
Loud: (Roll 1d6 when striking Solid target. Odd roll alerts nearby enemies.)

Lead Pipe
Does good damage for its weight.
Weight = Medium, Damage = Heavy, Type = Crush

Axe
Does good damage for its weight.
Weight = Medium, Damage = Heavy, Type = Crush & Slash

Sledgehammer
Does very heavy damage, but it’s very heavy.
Weight = Heavy, Damage = Heavy, Type = Smash (Crush + 1)

Pistol
Does decent damage for its weight.
Weight = Light, Damage = Medium, Type = Gun
Ranged (No counterattack)

Shotgun
Does decent damage for it’s weight.
Weight = Medium, Damage = Light & Heavy, Type = Gun
Ranged (No counterattack)
Spray (Attacker can target up to 3 enemies for Light Damage each)

Lighter
Keeps back the darkness.
Weak Light (Negates all Nerve Checks on actions taken in darkness)

Bug spray
Kills bugs…dead.
Stinging Mist (Can be used as a weapon to blind enemies)

Flamesprayer
Combine a lighter and bug spray.
Weight = Light, Damage = Medium, Type = Fire

Flashlight
Lights up a room.
Strong Light (Negates all Nerve Checks due on actions or combat in darkness)

Radio
Gives off static when monsters are near.
Erie Noise (Alerts characters to the presence of entities in adjacent rooms, shuts off if they’re either too close or too far)

Tape Recorder
Hear the voices of the dead.
Ghostly Murmur (Records the sounds of spiritual activity in a building or area, giving hints as to what entities are in the area and why)

First Aid Kit
Take a breather.
Medic (Allows one use of the Medic talent to recover Stamina.)

Smelling Salts
Get up!
Recover (Allows one use of the Medic talent on an unconscious character)

Cigarettes
Calm down.
Relax (Allows one use of the Medic talent to recover Nerve.)

Whiskey
Bottoms up!
Sedate (Allows one use of the Medic talent on a Panicked character)



GM Notes: Bestiary

What would any trip through the town of Obero be without meeting some of its more infamous residents. Included here are several causes of all the problems in the town. Stop with each one of them and introduce yourself. Have fun and tell me how it turns out because I’m not going any further. From here, gentle readers, you’re on your own.

Grinners
Comprised largely of a black ichor, Grinners stalk their prey by oozing through pipes, squeezing through cracks, and squirting through holes. Their gelatinous bodies are filled with teeth which they use to gnaw holes through barriers. No one knows where they come from or how they were created, but in Obero, children don’t stay awake to see the tooth fairy coming at night.

Spindlemen
Victims of fire, spindlemen are long and lanky parodies of human beings. Their arms and legs are so long that they have to scuttle, spider like, down hallways and into rooms. Their approach is presaged by the smell of charcoal and warm breezes coming from nowhere.

Shamblers
The lonely dead. Shamblers are the rotting corpses of the homeless and the forgotten. They walk among the living, trying to be recognized as human, but they can only be seen for what they truly are after dark. Shamblers cannot see the living and are lost among them, but they will attack anyone who they can see, and who can see them.

Moaning Men
Obero is a fishing city and the waters off Obero bay have taken many a husband and son to the deep. Moaning men are the spirits of these men, drowning on dry land. They drift a few feet off the ground, struggling for a breath that will never come. If they see you, they will cling to you for dear life, drowning you with them.

Wind Widows
Many a sailors’ wife has gone to the bosom of the sea to be reunited with her lost love in death. It’s a story as old as the sea itself and Wind Widows are the result. Their torn clothing being whipped by storm winds that cannot be felt, Wind Widows attack anyone they see, clawing at them with bony fingers. Wind Widows move with the speed of the wind and make no sound, even when tearing through living flesh.


Smee
Some years ago, the 3rd grade class of Obero Elementary went on a trip to the junkyard to learn about recycling. Timothy Winters and some of his friends decided to play hide-and-seek. Timothy lived next door to the junkyard so he knew all the best hiding places. After hours of searching he could not be found and his teacher assumed he’d simply gone home (Tim was not a model student). It was nearly midnight when a search party opened the door to the abandoned refrigerator where he’d suffocated. He’d cried for help for hours before the air ran out.

Now, Smee lurks in dark places. He does not actively hunt the living, but if they open any closed compartment where his spirit might be resting, he will follow them, strangling them in the darkness. If his victim is with a companion and the companion asks who’s there in the darkness, he will answer in his victim’s voice…

“It’s me”

The Dancing Man
Obero County has not always been the upstanding community it is now. Small towns like Obero tend to be well behind the rest of the country in terms of social change. Once, lynch mobs roamed the streets of he city, maintaining their own version of “order”.

No one knows who the dancing man was, but no one travels into the thick woods around the city after dark. His silhouette can be seen in the tree line at sunset, when the entire forest seems washed with blood. He is still hanging, even in death, his legs jerking spasmodically in a macabre dance. The sound of his feet beating out a jerky tattoo against the trees can be heard even during the day.

Hanging from the very rope that killed him, the dancing man drops down on the unsuspecting. He never appears for long though, just long enough to get a good grip on his victim before rising back into the treetops with them.

The Dancing Man’s victims are never found.

Beth-in-flames and the Dew Drop Inn
Bethany Miller was a fascinating little child, remarkably smart and beautiful despite her upbringing (or lack thereof). Her mother was known as Knockaround Kate, the boisterous and somewhat morally compromised barmaid of the Dew Drop Inn, a hotel that charged rooms by the hour and asked no questions. Bethany would stay at the hotel, the family’s actual home being a run-down shack that hadn’t seen Kate cook a meal in it since before Beth was born.

One night, a rowdy longshoreman put Kate’s nickname to the test and began bludgeoning her with a rum bottle before making use of her services (free of charge as Kate was too busy bleeding to death to haggle) and passing out with a cigar in his mouth. The ensuing blaze was tremendous, the heat from the Inn causing the cars in the parking lot to explode. With all of the commotion, most of the Inns customers and employees looked to their own safety and Bethany was forgotten, along with her mother.

They were found huddled together the next morning, Bethany and her mother both dead but untouched by the flames. Kate’s death was attributed to blood loss and head trauma. Beth’s death was attributed to unknown causes.

The Dew Drop Inn will occasionally reappear, taking up the vacant lot near the highway where it once sat. Beth can be seen walking its halls and looking out its windows. Her body is surrounded in a bluish flame that doesn’t burn her. She does not attack intruders and seems to be afraid of the other entities in the building, crying when they come near and even calling out for help.

However, nothing burns when Beth is walking. Car engines will not work, candles will simply snuff themselves, and guns will misfire. Beth can be laid to rest for the night by telling her that her mother is waiting for her. Beware, because any other reference to her mother in her presence will cause Beth to burn the Dew Drop Inn down again. A few drunken teenagers found that out the hard way on the anniversary of Beth’s death. They were found charred to the bone, but not even the grass beneath their bodies was singed.

Have a good time in Obero.