Simple20: Anyone using it?
- Thread starter Urizen
- Start date
What, No Love?
Maybe you guys and gals out there haven't seen it.
http://miscellaneousdebris.sitesled.com/jimwiki.html
I think it's a really neat system. Very streamlined, great rules that focus on knowledge of how to do something rather than simply having feats (which, btw aren't even a factor in the game).
I can't say enough cool things about it.
Maybe you guys and gals out there haven't seen it.
http://miscellaneousdebris.sitesled.com/jimwiki.html
I think it's a really neat system. Very streamlined, great rules that focus on knowledge of how to do something rather than simply having feats (which, btw aren't even a factor in the game).
I can't say enough cool things about it.
nobodez
Explorer
Well, two things.
First, it was difficult to even find the rules, since there's an error in the link ("/" instead of "."). Secondly, it seems to have gone too far away from the OGL core for my tastes, if only because they renamed too many things (your attributes are just like your skills, and health points are a bit like wound points). I'm sure the first is easy to fix, but the second may take a decision. Does the designer want the system to be obviously different and although no longer confuse people with different rules for the same named object, or to be obviously the same and explain that some things, while named the same, act a bit differently.
Oh, and another things, I don't know where the wound tracks came from (probably True20), but I think they're a great idea.
First, it was difficult to even find the rules, since there's an error in the link ("/" instead of "."). Secondly, it seems to have gone too far away from the OGL core for my tastes, if only because they renamed too many things (your attributes are just like your skills, and health points are a bit like wound points). I'm sure the first is easy to fix, but the second may take a decision. Does the designer want the system to be obviously different and although no longer confuse people with different rules for the same named object, or to be obviously the same and explain that some things, while named the same, act a bit differently.
Oh, and another things, I don't know where the wound tracks came from (probably True20), but I think they're a great idea.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
I fixed the broken link today (I'd already fixed it once, but when I had to reload the site after some server downtime, I found that I'd forgotten to update the master files). Totally my bad.
As for the complaints, attributes are not just like skills (I'm not quite sure where you get that idea) -- they represent features that all sentient creatures are presumed to have, whereas aptitudes are learned skills that you only have if you sink points into them (much as people in real life only know how to do X if they take the time to learn how to do X).
Where straying from the OGL is concerned, this is intentional, although it seems to be a recurring point of confusion. Simple 20 isn't simply another way to play standard d20 (which is, argubaly what all other d20 variants offer, including my own Core Elements), but a low-powered game system of its own based on the d20 System (it uses the d20 System's default resolution method, as well as most of its skill system).
As far as I know, it's unique it this regard (i.e., focusing on skill-based, low-powered, roleplay). Iron Heroes, for example, probably comes the closest to doing what Simple 20 does by design, but even IH is only low magic, not low power -- its PCs are still extremely competent when lined up next to Average Citizen X. Simple20, conversely, isn't low magic by design, simply low power -- PCs are, by default, mundane folks*.
Simple 20 is aimed specifically at a certain target audience -- those gamers who favor verisimilitude in character development and, in general, "street level" heroes who may evolve into heroes of legend, rather than beginning their journey arraigned in such garb. If you aren't one of those gamers, then yeah -- Simple20 probably won't appeal much to you
Where terminology is concerned, those things named differently in Simple 20, work differently in Simple 20 than they do in standard d20 (those things with the same names work the same, or nearly the same). I think that there would be much more confusion if they were named the same and worked differently (which seems to be what you're suggesting).
Oh... the wound tracks... the psychological wound track was of my own design, although something similar has since appeared in True20 Worlds of Adventure, while the physical wound track came from the Toolbox Edition of Core Elements by Butch Curry (although, I think that he might have been inspired by True20 in that regard).
[*If you subscribe to the theory of the Hero's Journey, consider PCs in Simple 20 to be at the beginning of that epic cycle, whereas most standard d20 PCs begin somewhere near its apex.]
As for the complaints, attributes are not just like skills (I'm not quite sure where you get that idea) -- they represent features that all sentient creatures are presumed to have, whereas aptitudes are learned skills that you only have if you sink points into them (much as people in real life only know how to do X if they take the time to learn how to do X).
Where straying from the OGL is concerned, this is intentional, although it seems to be a recurring point of confusion. Simple 20 isn't simply another way to play standard d20 (which is, argubaly what all other d20 variants offer, including my own Core Elements), but a low-powered game system of its own based on the d20 System (it uses the d20 System's default resolution method, as well as most of its skill system).
As far as I know, it's unique it this regard (i.e., focusing on skill-based, low-powered, roleplay). Iron Heroes, for example, probably comes the closest to doing what Simple 20 does by design, but even IH is only low magic, not low power -- its PCs are still extremely competent when lined up next to Average Citizen X. Simple20, conversely, isn't low magic by design, simply low power -- PCs are, by default, mundane folks*.
Simple 20 is aimed specifically at a certain target audience -- those gamers who favor verisimilitude in character development and, in general, "street level" heroes who may evolve into heroes of legend, rather than beginning their journey arraigned in such garb. If you aren't one of those gamers, then yeah -- Simple20 probably won't appeal much to you
Where terminology is concerned, those things named differently in Simple 20, work differently in Simple 20 than they do in standard d20 (those things with the same names work the same, or nearly the same). I think that there would be much more confusion if they were named the same and worked differently (which seems to be what you're suggesting).
Oh... the wound tracks... the psychological wound track was of my own design, although something similar has since appeared in True20 Worlds of Adventure, while the physical wound track came from the Toolbox Edition of Core Elements by Butch Curry (although, I think that he might have been inspired by True20 in that regard).
[*If you subscribe to the theory of the Hero's Journey, consider PCs in Simple 20 to be at the beginning of that epic cycle, whereas most standard d20 PCs begin somewhere near its apex.]
Last edited:
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Urizen said:
Thanks for the kind words. Simple 20 has only been out for about a month -- however, in that month, one free-press Fantasy Grounds publisher has contacted me about working on a Simple 20 conversion for that medium, and an imprint of RPG Objects has contacted me about publishing a fully-devloped magic system for use with Simple 20. So, much to my surprise, in a month it has garnered quite a bit of love
Last edited:
ZombieButch
First Post
jdrakeh said:
You know, I honestly wasn't even thinking about True20 when I added that in there. IIRC, I was shooting for a WoD-style wound track when I came up with it; I've used the same sort of wound track for Fudge pretty much since I started Fudging. (That was a year ago, though, and I've slept a couple of times since then!)
I do remember being surprised that I'd never seen anything like it for d20 before, though, since it was so easy to put together.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
palehorse said:
And now I know. Anyhow, thanks for the wound tracks, Butch
That's kind of what I thought when I put together the psychological trauma track in the Simple 20 appendices. Then I found out that a similar wound track came out in True20 Worlds of Adventure (although I haven't seen that yet, so I'm not sure exactly how similar they are).
Yeah, Simple20 is awesome.
I think it would be cool to release small adventures costing maybe 1 or 2 dollars tops, even a few free ones to show off the great utility of the system.
I'm interested if magical items work any differently, and hazards. Maybe I missed that part in the rules?
I think it would be cool to release small adventures costing maybe 1 or 2 dollars tops, even a few free ones to show off the great utility of the system.
I'm interested if magical items work any differently, and hazards. Maybe I missed that part in the rules?
Similar Threads
