Survivors test

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SURVIVORS Roleplaying system
Part 1 of 7

The Book of Life

Introduction
Role-playing has no real objective but to enjoy an interactive adventure with some friends. There are no real winners in role-playing, only successful and less successful players. The only way to lose in role-playing is by having your player character die. This is because in the game, you will actually experience another ’ life ’ ; the life of your character. The fun of role-playing is seeing your character develop without any of the actual pain of real life, although you will find that live and death in a make-belief world still is no picnic.

What is role-playing then?
If you have never played role-playing games before, everything you have read up to this point probably did not make much sense to you. Let ’ s take it from the top, shall we?

For role-playing you need a group of players consisting of at least four players. One of these players will take on the role of Game Master. The Game Master, GM for short, leads the game. Other players create fictional characters according to the rules of the game. These characters live in the world controlled by the Game Master. The characters are placed in the world of the Game Master as a group, and from that point on it is their job to find things to do, and for the Game Master to provide them with opportunities for adventure, and give them feedback on their actions.

So what are the player characters going to do in the world of the Game Master? There are five types of careers possible: that of a warrior, a wizard, a thief, a priest or a hustler. Within these careers, the players decide for themselves where they want to go.

As the game progresses, the players and the game master are actually creating an action adventure story starring themselves. Or, according to some, it may be more serious than that: the players become heroes in an alternate universe in which the GM is God. Of course, we would never suggest such a blasphemous thing....

As you might understand, leading an alternate life in an alternate world is not something done in one afternoon. Role-playing games can last for years. Each time the players and GM come together is called a session. Each session starts off where the last one stopped. A series of sessions is called a role-playing campaign. In principle, campaigns never end. In practice, campaigns die when the players and/or Game Master lose interest in it. What happens then is usually the start of a new campaign with a new GM. Pointless, you say? Not at all! If nothing else, you get to vent your every day frustrations and be a hero in your own mind!

Starting out
For your first playing session, you will need paper for notes, some copies of the Survivor Character Information sheet, and one or two copies of the Game Master xp sheet. You will also need at least four 10-sided dice (of two different colors), one 4-sided die, one 8-sided die, one 12-sided die, one 20-sided die and three 6-sided dice. It is better to have even more dice of each type.

You can get those special dice at specialized games and role-playing stores, or book stores that sell role-playing games. At these places you can probably also get AD&D ’ s Monstrous Compendiumtm, which may be useful as an addition to this manual.

The dice will from now on be referred to in the form: (number)d(number). The first number in this formula is the number of dice, the second the number of sides. Thus 3d4 means 3 four-sided dice, 1d6 means 1 six-sided die etc. etc. Most ten-sided dice are numbered from zero up to nine. The number zero on such dice should be interpreted as the number ten.

The 1d100 dice is special. This is not one single die but a combination of 2 ten sided dice (d10). One die is the least significant decimal and one is the most significant. For convenience ’ s sake, we have decided to use the lightest colored die as the most significant always. This way, if the lighter die is 7 and the darker die is 3 the 1d100 score is 73. The combination of dice we ourselves prefer is yellow and blue. At some role-playing stores, you can also get special dice for 1d100 rolls, with multiples of ten on the most significant die. Occasionally, we have also seen hundred sided dice, but those are not at all practical in use.

The 1d100 dice roll is mainly used for rolls involving a percentage, and combat. A 1d100 dice roll of two zeros is interpreted as one hundred.

As a start, all players should read the chapters on The Player Character; Attitudes and Addictions; Stats, Classes and Skills; and Character Races. All other things can be discovered during play. When they have done this they are ready to create their character. The game can start when they are done creating their characters and the Game Master ’ s preparations are done too.

The Game Master (GM) needs to know all the rules before starting, as he is going to be the ’ world ’ of the players. He controls all the Non Player Characters (NPCs) and monsters the player characters encounter during their adventures. The GM must also know all relevant settings of a campaign sourcebook or has designed (part of) an imaginary world himself in which the campaign will be set.

Optionally, pawns or miniatures can be used to point out the positions of players during battles. You can use simple pawns or even coins, but also Legotm knights, or the miniatures you can find in role playing stores. However, pawns and/or miniatures are not strictly necessary.

An example of play
If you have never role-played before you probably still wonder what a gaming session is like. But even if you have you might find the following example of play interesting. It is a short role-playing adventure of one player, who was known as the priest Meznir. It shows that role-playing is not just about murdering your way through an imaginary world (although that can be gratifying too), but first and foremost about interaction.

This simple example includes one player and the Game Master, but you will probably play the game with several players, since that is the most fun. We have found that parties of three to six players (not counting the GM) have the best survival chances without the players shortening each other ’ s playing time too drastically when the party splits up.

The game & the rules
This manual is divided into several chapters. The chapters up to the chapter on Equipment are about putting your player character together. After the chapter on Weapons the chapters on actual playing begin. The names of these chapters all end with System or Rules. You will only need to consult these when facing the sort of situation that each of these chapters describe.

Apart from those rules there are none other. You can do anything that is within your power in this game. There are no rules for verbal interaction with and between other players and NPCs (unless you are trying to convince another character by using your charisma stat).

When in a chapter a Table is mentioned it usually can be found at the end of that chapter, unless specified otherwise. References to the names of other chapters are always printed in Italics.

After having played in a campaign world of a certain GM you will at some point reach an amount of experience points (xp) that entitles you to a new level, making you a little more powerful than before. The Level Advancement Table indicates when that point is reached. What exactly happens when advancing to a new level is explained in the next chapter, The Player Character.

The more you advance in level and xp, the more you will see your power and/or influence on the world grow. Player characters can have a major impact on the campaign world they are in, and the right combination of players within one party can have a sensational effect.

Every which way you look at it, all player characters are basically looking for fame and fortune, and that is one of the things that role-playing is about: being someone else with all the fun and none of the responsibility and pain. No longer bound by the prospect of living only once, your possibilities become unbound. After all, if you do something stupid and die, you can just create a new character and start all over again.