I Smell Burning

I've toyed with RPGs most of my life, and I really enjoy them.

I'm talking old fashioned pen & paper games played with dice, as opposed to the console or computer variety. (Which I also have enjoyed.)

I started with the classic "1st Edition D&D" like many of you, and tired of the mind-numbingly long combats that we'd get into. Don't get me wrong, I loved D&D, but it just seemed a bit clunky and broken. We didn't have too many homebrew rules... nothing beyond luckpoints that you'd get for rolling natural 20s, I think.

A few years later we discovered RuneQuest, which had a bit more simplicity (one dice mechanic for everything), some logic, and and endless skills system that appealed to us 18 year olds.

We played this for at least a decade more, and eventually I devised a "skills chart" that would quantify your success level. For instance, if you rolled 37% for your leap skill, a leaper of 38% just barely made it, while a leaper of 97% just did it with ease. Unfortunately, RuneQuest treated these the same, and it irked me. My chart, while cumbersome, tried to address the situation at least.

Still later I discovered FUDGE, a game engine rather than a game itself, that basically had my action chart all built in. Whatever you rolled, you knew you did it Good/Poor/Terrible/Great or whatever. It was fantastic for me, because I'd always wanted to say things like "to get across the chasm, it will take a GREAT leap." (Which meant entirely different things to the Elf and the Dwarf.)

I tried to make an Agyris version of FUDGE, but failed in the exercise mostly due to inexperience, exhaustion and eventually a lack of interest. It's a tough job writing an RPG, and while I really wanted to get it done, my lack of discipline eventually won out.

So here I sit, wanting to make a roleplaying game system for Monster Commute.

No, I've not really started working on it... just fantasizing a little about it, and what I want it to be. I don't really see much time when I could work on it, but I'm thinking about it anyway.

Here are some of my initial thoughts:

1. I want to base it on FUDGE, because I love the core dice mechanic and the attribute levels.


2. I want it to be very simple and easy to play. Fun, but structured.


3. I want it to reflect the character of MONSTRU.


4. I want MonsterCommute.com to be the source material; that won't be included in the rules.


5. I'd like to make an interesting "build your character" system.


6. I'm excited to create some more player character races. (I need far more.)


7. I'd have to include some car rules. Combat. Auto Dungeoneering. etc.


8. I'd love to get this ruleset onto just a few pages, 10 pages max. (5 pages? 1 page?)


9. I'd like to make it free, though it could be cool to make a bigger deluxe book with more art.

Again, I'm probably a long way from having any time to dedicate to this, but I've really wanted to do some gaming in MONSTRU. I should try to get a game rolling this winter.

- Daniel