InstaRPG Kernel 2.1

Ξ July 7th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Original Content |

InstaRPG Rules 2.1 are out! This patch contains a few clarifications, simplifications and examples.

InstaRPG Kernel 2.1 (PDF)

And here is the full text. Please download the PDF for much nicer formatting.

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InstaRPG Kernel 2.1

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Which means you can do pretty much anything with it as long as you keep a reference to the original author, Udo Schroeter (udo.schroeter@gmail.com).

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5

You are free:

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work

• to make derivative works

Under the following conditions:

	Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
	Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
	Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.

• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

• Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

You can access the full text at:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

How To Get Started

This is a set of rules designed for a so-called “pen and paper” roleplaying game, which is – in short – a form of social entertainment where a group of players experiences through the actions of fictional characters an interactive story being told by another person, also called the game master (GM). Since this is a barebones rulebook we’ll assume that you are familiar with the concept of roleplaying games. Yet if you are not, Google is your friend!

InstaRPG is supposed to be a very bare-bones and simple rulebook for (almost) any kind of roleplaying scenario. While simple in nature, it is also designed to allow the GM and players enough freedom of expression to play a rich and nuanced game.

Let’s get started then!

Terminology

Character / Player Character / PC: a fictional person, controlled by a player.
Non-Player Character / NPC: a fictional person, controlled by the GM
Game Master / GM: the coordinator and storyteller of an roleplaying game session

Dice Rolls

Determining success and failure

One of the fundamental principles of this set of rules is the die roll with a d10 (ten-sided die), to perform an action which is called a Check. Checks are done in order to determine the success or failure of an action a character is performing. Checks are performed “against” a Rating. The Rating is a value that describes how good a character is at doing something (the higher the better). How high this Rating is for various Checks will be described later. The d10 result rolled plus the character’s Rating determines the result of the Check. A dice roll result of 1 is always considered a failure.

Comparative checks

When several characters or NPCs interact, often two or more rolls need to be compared against each other to determine a winner. In this case, the roll with the highest end result wins.

Difficulties

Actions have varying degrees of difficulties. To reflect that, the GM announces the minimum result a player must roll to succeed beforehand. You can use the following table as a reference when it comes to determine the difficulty of a Check:

Easy task: 6
Normal task: 10
Difficult task: 14
Very difficult: 18+

Attributes

What are Attributes?

Each character has a simple set of properties that describe her on a basic level: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), and Intelligence (INT). The higher the score of an attribute, the better developed it is. Attributes start at a rating of 1 point each at the time a character is created.

For example, a character called Elvira the Ranger has the follwing attributes:
Strength: 2, Dexterity: 4, Constitution: 3, Intelligence: 2
those can also be written in short format:
STR 2, DEX 4, CON 3, INT 2
These values mean that Elvira is first and foremost a very dextrous character. She typically excels at tasks that build on this attribute, such as shooting ranged weapons, climbing, dodging, and everything else where good coordination is of advantage.

Rolling checks against a single attribute

Attributes describe the basic characteristics of a person or entity. They are represented by a numerical Rating starting from 1. To check whether a specific action that depends on an attribute succeeds or fails, roll a d10 and add the Attribute.

Checks against two or more attributes

There are times when two or more attribute ratings need to be considered for an action. In this case just add the values of the attributes together. The GM decides what difficulty rating will apply to the check (see Difficulties).

For example, Simon the Soldier has a DEX attribute of 3 and an INT attribute of 2. To check against those two attributes, Simon’s player rolls a D10 and adds 5 to the result.

The GM has decided that Simon’s task has a difficulty of 10, so he will be successful as long as his D10 roll comes to 5 or more.

Attribute Descriptions

Strength (STR)

This attribute represents the physical strength of a charater, it applies to lifting weight, dealing damage in hand-to-hand combat and other muscle-related tasks.

Dexterity (DEX)

Dexterity encompasses the characters nimbleness and general control over his/her body, like balance and gracefulness.

Constitution (CON)

This attribute quantifies the physical toughness of a character, relating to how sensitive he/she is to receiving damage, how easily he/she tires and how well the resistance to sickness is developed.

Intelligence (INT)

The Intelligence attribute describes how good a character’s mental capabilities are, for example how fast they learn and how good they are at tasks that require intelligence to perform.

Character Health Status

What are the Status Scores?

The current status of a character is represented by the status scores: Hit Points, Endurance Points, and Mental Stability Points. Each of the three describes a certain aspect of the character’s current health. Status Scores start at a rating of 3 points each at the time of character creation.

Hit Points

A character’s physical health is determined by the number of hit points (HP) he/she has. Any injury a character sustains is represented by a number of damage points. The number of damage points is reduced by the CON attribute, any amount of damage points left is then subtracted from the current HP score of the character.

If the number of HP reaches zero, the character loses consciousness and is incapacitated.

For each negative HP beyond -9, a CON check with a difficulty equal to the number of negative HP has to be performed. If the CON check is unsuccessful, the character dies. As long a the character stays below -9 HP, he/she also has to pass a CON check every 8 hours or die.

Endurance Points

To signify the level of alertness and energy a character currently has, endurance points (EP) are employed to keep track of the character’s fatigue. Depending on the level of activity, the GM can subtract points from this score over time. If a character rests, points are restored again. Usually, each hour of rest restores 1 EP.

For each point below 0, the character sustains a penalty of 1 on all checks that require physical or mental alertness.

Mental Stability Points

This stat is kept to represent the character’s overall mental stability. While a low MS score does not mean the character is mentally ill, it does indicate a tendency to “snap” or otherwise deteriorate under pressure. In mentally challenging situations, the GM can order a check roll on MS to determine whether the character can keep his/her cool in a stressful situation. Psychological trauma can reduce MS temporarily or permanently.

> Summary

The Character Health Scores are: Hit Points (HP), Endurance Points (EP), and Mental Stability Points (MP). Each starts at a rating of 3. While any of those health scores can be reduced temporarily during the course of an adventure, more serious trauma can also result in permanent loss.

Skills

What are Skills?

Like Attributes, Skills describe the character’s capabilities. While there are only four Attributes to signify the character’s basic properties, Skills can vary widely in number and ratings to represent the learned or innate special abilities of a person. Every character knows at least the Standard Skills. Then, further Skills can be acquired both at the time of character creation and later in the game. Every skill starts with a rating of 1.

Rolling Skill Checks

Making skill checks is similar to checking against attributes.

Skills usually correspond to an attribute, indicating that this attribute boosts the performance of that particular skill. The corresponding attribute to each skill is given in parentheses, like this:

Some Cool Skill [INT]

To roll a skill check, add the skill’s rating to the corresponding attribute rating, then roll a d10 and add this, too. The sum of these points is the result of the skill check. The GM will tell a player what minimum result is needed for the action to succeed.

For example, Elvira the Ranger wants to sneak into an enemy outpost. She has the Move Silently [DEX] skill at 3 points and a DEX attribute of 3 points. The GM decides the difficulty for this task will be 14. Her player rolls the D10 and gets a 5.

Adding the D10’s result of 5 to the skill’s rating of 3 and the DEX attribute of three, Elvira only manages an 11.

The task is not successful and Elvira is detected by her adversaries as she tries to enter the compound undetectedly.

Skill Tags

Skill description headers may contain other tags besides the skills corresponding attribute in parentheses. Those tags help you identify specific properties of the skill at one glance. Here is a list of possible tags:

[untrained]

Skills tagged “untrained” can be performed even by characters who do not possess the skill at all. For the purpose of the individual skill check against such a skill, it is assumed that the character has a rating of zero. However, the corresponding attribute still counts when the check is made.

[fatigue]

Some skills are exhausting for the character to use. Unless otherwise stated, successfully performing a skill marked “fatigue” causes the character to lose 1 EP.

[limited]

The “limited” tag means that the skill rating cannot exceed a certain number of points. The exact properties of this limit are given in the skill’s description text.

Skill List

The GM is free to invent lots of additional skills as appropriate, so the following list is just an obvious preselection. Check rolls against the special skills are made at the discretion of the GM.

Acrobatics [DEX]

Allows the character to perform gymnastics and advanced movement maneuvers. A successful Acrobatics check can also reduce falling damage by half.

Biology [INT]

With this skill, the character can analyze and classify organisms, evaluate the behavior and physiology of organisms, perform and understand biological experiments.

Chemistry [INT]

The chemistry skill provides the character with theoretical and practical knowledge of chemical processes. She can also perform and understand chemical experiments and evaluations.

Defend [DEX]

If the character is Defending, a successful check against this skill must be performed at the beginning of each combat round. If successful, the character’s Cover Rating for that round is raised by the amount of the character’s Defend rating (or less if explicitly chosen).

All offensive actions the character performs that round get a penalty equal to the Defense rating points gained.

The Defend behavior must be announced at the beginning of the combat round. If the initial Defend skill check does not succeed, the character incurs a penalty of 2 on all Hand-to-Hand and Ranged Combat actions, but otherwise he can act normally during that round.

Diplomacy [INT]

Especially useful in crisis situations, this skill provides the basic framework for guided discussion, persuasion, and general politics.

Dual Weapons – Hand-to-hand [STR; limited; untrained]

With this skill it is possible to use two single-handed hand-to-hand weapons simultaneously during a single attack action. Of course, each weapon has to be small enough so it can be used with one hand only.

The attack with the main hand is a normal hand-to-hand attack roll with a penalty of 2. The second attack done by the character’s off-hand is done by rolling a check against the dual weapons skill, also with a penalty of 2.

The rating of this skill cannot be higher than the character’s normal hand-to-hand combat skill.

Dual Weapons - Ranged [DEX; limited; untrained]

With this skill it is possible to use two single-handed ranged weapons simultaneously during a single attack action. Of course, each weapon has to be small enough so it can be used with one hand only.

The attack with the main hand is a normal ranged attack roll with a penalty of 2. The second attack done by the character’s off-hand is done by rolling a check against the dual weapons skill, also with a penalty of 2.

The Rating of this skill cannot be higher than the character’s normal ranged combat skill.

Education [INT; untrained]

The education skill represents the character’s general education level. Check rolls against this skill can be used to determine whether a character possesses any general contemporary piece of knowledge, though – like any roll - this check might get assigned a modifier by the GM to indicate the difficulty level.

Electrical Engineering [INT]

With this skill, a character can operate, understand, control, repair, and modify electrical and electronic equipment.

Endurance [CON]

In a situation where the character might lose one or more endurance points, a check against the Endurance skill may be performed.

If successful the loss of EP is halved if the check succeeds, but at minimum one EP is drained in any case.

Etiquette [INT]

This skill indicates the knowledge of a character about how to follow certain social behavioral codes as well as her general inclination to do so.

First Aid/CPR [INT]

Every time a person needs to be treated for injuries or even needs to be resuscitated, a check against this skill is performed.

Hand-to-hand combat [STR; untrained]

This skill indicates the ability of the character to attack an opponent either with her bare hands or any hand-held direct-contact weapon. To successfully hit an opponent in battle, a check roll needs to be made against this skill. If it is successful, the opponent receives damage points according to the damage rating of the weapon used.

The Hand-to-hand combat skill can also be used to determine the outcome of other non-combat-related hand-to-hand coordination tasks.

Hide [DEX; untrained]

To hide herself, other people, or objects from unwanted discovery, checks against this skill are performed.

Information Systems [INT]

With this skill, a character can operate, understand, control, repair, and modify IT equipment such as computer hardware, software, network components, etc.

Initiative [DEX; untrained]

The initiative skill represents the character’s ability to react swiftly in challenging situations. During a fight, each participant has to roll a d10 and add their initiative rating in order to determine when they can perform an action relative to the other participants. Simple check rolls on initiative can be performed to indicate readiness or quickness of a character’s reaction in a crisis situation.

Language [INT]

This skill represents knowledge in a spoken language of choice.

Mechanics [INT]

With this skill, a character can operate, understand, control, repair, and modify mechanical equipment.

Medical Treatment [INT; requires: First Aid/CPR]

This skill allows for medical knowledge and treatment of any kind, it is equivalent with M.D. training.

Military Tactics [DEX]

This skill provides additional expertise for use in military combat situations, especially where team play is required.

Move Silently [DEX; untrained]

Checks against this skill can be performed to determine the outcome of the character’s attempt at silent movement.

Navigation [INT]

This skill indicates theoretical knowledge regarding the making and reading of cartographic material, as well as the handling of navigation equipment.

Occupational Skill [INT]

The Occupational Skill represents the character’s formal training in a certain area. A character can acquire multiple occupational skills, each has to be named specifically according to the work that is being performed. Examples for occupational skills are: construction worker, craftsman, office clerk etc.

Overpower [DEX; fatigue]

At the beginning of a round a check against this skill can be performed. The result is then compared to the opponent’s result. If the opponent does not have the Overpower skill, they can still roll a DEX check as if using a skill untrained.

The winner of this maneuver gets the Advantage for that round. Upon a successful Reflexes check, a character who uses Overpower loses one EP due to fatigue. A failed check results in a fatigue of 2 points.

Parry [DEX; untrained]

A successful check against this skill can be used to parry an incoming hand-to-hand attack once per combat round. For the parry attempt to be successful, the result has to be higher than the attack roll.

Parry Multiple [limited]

With this skill, the character gains the ability to Parry more than one attack per combat round. For every point of skill rating, one additional attack can be parried against.

The rating of this skill cannot exceed half of the character’s Parry skill rating.

Psychology [INT]

This skill indicates theoretical psychological knowledge.

Ranged combat [DEX; untrained]

With the ranged combat skill, a character can use any kind of firearm or ranged weapon. To successfully hit an opponent in battle, a check roll against this skill needs to be made. The ranged combat skill also be used to determine the outcome of other actions, such as catching a flying object in mid-air.

Reflexes [DEX; fatigue]

A check against the Reflexes skill may be performed at the beginning of a combat round. If successful, the character gains an additional action during that round.

Upon a successful Reflexes check, the character loses one EP due to fatigue. A failed check results in a fatigue of 2 points.

Religion [INT]

This skill indicates theoretical religious and cultural knowledge.

Search [INT]

Checks against this skill can be performed to search an area for certain items or characteristics.

Seduction [CON]

A character can use this skill to seduce someone.

Survival [DEX; untrained]

The Survival skill represents a character’s ability to survive independently in the wilderness.

Swim [CON]

Checks against this skill can be made to determine the outcome of swimming maneuvers.

Tracking [DEX; requires: Survival]

With this skill, a character can follow the trail of one or more creatures, provided they left minimal physical evidence.

Creating a Character

Creating a character for InstaRPG is very simple. First, write down the 4 attributes: STR, DEX, CON, and INT. All of those have a rating of one point.

Next, you probably want to decide what your character is supposed to be like. Decide on a job, or any stereotype you might want to realize here.

After this, you are ready to build up the ratings according to the character progression rules, thereby fleshing out the abilities of your fledgling character according to the image you have in mind.

At this point, you may also “purchase” additional skills, or augmented HP, EP, or MS. This purchasing is done with Experience Points (XP) that a character gets assigned by the GM.

While it is up to the GM to decide how many XP points you get to spend in order to create your character, the following table can serve as a guideline for the amount of XP available:

Base amount: 50 XP
Age-related:
+1 XP per 1 completed year of age
Education:
+10 for high school graduates (or equivalent)
+10 for college graduates (or equivalent)
+10 for professionals

Character Progression

Attributes, Health Status scores, and Skill ratings can be increased during the character’s lifetime. As it gets harder to progress further in an area, the more XP it costs to do so. This mechanism is based in squares of numbers, as you will see.

Raising Attributes

To raise an attribute by one point, take the new value of the Attribute, square it, then double it.

Thus, the following cost progression for raising Attribute ratings applies:

Rating	Spend	Total		Rating	Spend	Total
1	-	-		6	72	180
2	8	8		7	98	278
3	18	26		8	128	406
4	32	58		9	162	568
5	50	108		10	200	768

Acquiring a New Skill

Count the number of Skills the character currently has and square it, this will be the cost of acquiring a new Skill. The cost of getting a new skill cannot be lower than 4 XP, though.

Raising a Skill Rating

To raise a Skill rating by one point, take the new rating of the Skill and square it. Thus, the following cost progression for raising Skill ratings applies:

Rating	Spend	Total		Rating	Spend	Total
1	[number of skills]²			6	36	90
2	4	4		7	49	139
3	9	13		8	64	203
4	16	29		9	81	284
5	25	54		10	100	384

Raising HP, EP, MS

To raise a Health Status score by one point, take the new score and square it. Thus, the following cost progression for raising Health Status ratings applies:

Rating	Spend	Total		Rating	Spend	Total
1	-	-		6	36	77
2	-	-		7	49	126
3	-	-		8	64	190
4	16	16		9	81	271
5	25	41		10	100	371
				11+	100	…

Example for character creation

Initially, Bob has the following stats:

STR 1 DEX 1 CON 1 INT 1 HP 3 EP 3 MS 3
Ini 0 HandC 0 RangedC 0 Edu 0

Say, Bob is supposed to be an entry-level policeman, so Bob’s player now gets to spend 80 XP to raise Bob’s ratings (50 + 20 years of life + 10 for high school education).

He spends it as follows:

> raising DEX to 3: 26 XP
> raising STR to 2: 8 XP
> raising HP to 4: 16 XP
> raising Hand-to-Hand to 3: 13 XP
> raising Ranged Combat to 3: 13 XP
> acquiring the “Police Work” Occupational Skill at 1: 4 XP

In the end, Bob’s stats look like this:

    STR 2 DEX 3 CON 1 INT 1 HP 4 EP 3 MS 3
Ini 0 HandC 3 RangedC 3 Edu 1 Occ 1

Combat

Combat in InstaRPG can be played with varying levels of detail, as deemed necessary by the GM. While this set of rules contains instructions for play with a combat map to visualize the position of characters and their surroundings, it is not a required accessory for the execution of meaningful combat scenes.

When to Do Combat

The main usage of a combat system is certainly to provide a rule framework for any kind of conflict scenario where force is being used. But because of the combat system’s rules and mechanisms for tracking and handling spacial, temporal and physics-related game scenarios, it can also be appropriate for other situations that are not in the strictest sense combat-related. Ultimately, the GM decides whenever combat mode is to be used.

Preparations

Before a combat can be played out, the GM needs to know the relevant stats for all NPCs that are going to be involved in the situation. This may require a short period of preparation if those characters are being designed on demand. Preparing NPCs stats or even generic templates for entire categories of similar NPCs will alleviate this need.

Also, before combat starts, the topography and the relative position of all parties needs to be determined by the GM. To avoid confusion at this point, it can be helpful to always keep track of party formation during the normal course of play – so the positions of the player characters are clear once a combat breaks out.

If you are using a combat map, this is the time to place the units (characters, machines, opponents) on the map. For the purpose of this instruction we will assume a standard combat grid map where each square represents a 1.5m wide zone that can hold one normally sized being.

Starting a Combat Round

It is important to understand that much of the combat rules revolve either directly or indirectly around the concept of representing a causal progression of events in time. For this purpose, the defining unit of time measurement is the Combat Round. A Combat Round is a granular amount of time where actions can be performed by all combatants, it is the metric and the heartbeat of combat. In personal melee and ranged battles, a Combat Round correlates loosely to about 10 seconds of time. The GM may modify this amount in accordance to the specific needs of the situation (for example, sea battles with large vehicles should take a much larger amount of time per Combat Round). A battle or skirmish can last for any number of Combat Rounds. The GM determines when to start Combat Round mode and also when to drop out of it.

As the GM announces the start of a new Combat Round, the temporal order of actions is determined first. For this purpose, an Initiative roll is performed by all parties. The GM may decide to roll INI once for all NPCs, each group of NPCs, or even every NPC by herself. To determine Initiative, a d10 is rolled, and the skill rating of the Initiative skill is added. The entity with the highest result opens the round, after that, the character with the next lowest result can act, and so forth – until everyone has performed their actions. When a Combat Round is finished, the GM announces the next round.

For speedier gameplay, all characters involved in the last Combat Round should keep their rolled INI results and carry them over to subsequent rounds instead of re-rolling them every time.

Movement

Once per combat round, a character can move. There are different types of movement available:

Instantaneous: these moves do not require much time and can be executed instantly and at any time without having an effect on the other actions the character may perform during that round. Examples for instantaneous actions are: turning around, moving a single step (1 field on the map), looking around, dropping a weapon.

Standard Movement: a character can do a Standard Movement that does not take up all of her time and energy this round. When chosing this mode of movement, the character can still perform another action immediately either before or after moving. Standard movement involves: jumping over a medium-sized obstacle, moving up to 10 meters (6 fields on the map).

Some characters can move further or not as far as 10 meters during a Standard Movement. In such cases, this is explained in the rules that affect the particular character (for example, because of a special skill or physical quality).

Full Movement: when in full movement, the character cannot perform any other actions this round. During this mode, the character may move up to two times as far as her standard movement distance per round.

Performing Actions

As a basis, every combatant can perform one action per combat round. An action is any short activity that can be performed nearly instantly, such as:

• attacking an opponent

• using or manipulating an item or tool

• applying or drinking medicine or food / performing a skill action that can be completed within the combat round

Attack

The most common type of action during a combat round is the attack action. There are two different types of attack actions: hand-to-hand and ranged attacks.

To perform an attack action, the appropriate Skill Check has to be successful. If it isn’t, it is assumed that the attack missed its target. All weapons have a size category of either S (small), M (medium), L (large), or XL (huge). The size category describes how easy it is to handle the weapon:

Size Modifier

size S: unmodified attack roll, Initiative
size M: -1 to attack roll, Initiative
size L: -2 to attack roll, Initiative
size XL: -4 to attack roll, Initiative

The attack skill check’s difficulty is calculated as follows:

> 10 + opponent’s Defense Rating +/- modifiers

A normal, unarmored, untrained opponent has a Defense Rating of 0.

Parry

If the attack is successful, the GM determines whether the opponent is eligible for a Parry attempt. To Parry, a character has to have an appropriate weapon ready – also, only one Parry attempt per combat round is permitted under normal circumstances. Parry is a skill that is linked to the DEX Attribute, so a character who does not have this skill can try to Parry by rolling a Check against his DEX rating.

A Parry attempt is a comparative check. If the parry check’s result is higher than the attack roll’s result, the attack did not go through.

Ranged attacks

Ranged attacks require an appropriate ranged weapon. A Check against the Ranged Combat skill is performed to determine whether the attack hits its target. When making a ranged attack roll, it is also important to know how far away the target is. Every ranged weapon has a designated range increment. Targets within that range can be attacked normally. If a target is beyond this range, special modifiers apply:

Range Modifier

more than 1x the range: -1 attack modifier
more than 2x the range: -2 attack modifier
more than 3x the range: -3 attack modifier
4x the range and beyond: -4 attack modifier

Some ranged weapons can fire multiple shots during one attack. In this case, those alternative firing modes and their damage codes are described in the appropriate weapons table in the “Equipment” section.

Defense Rating & Cover

In certain situations, a character may have the option of using her environment for cover against enemy attacks. In this case, the GM assigns a Cover Rating depending on the situation.

Additionally, the Defend Skill provides a defensive effect similar to a physical cover. If more than one cover effect is available, the one with the highest Cover Rating is used. The nature of the Cover Rating is such that only attack roll results higher than the Cover Rating signify a hit against the character who is covering.

In general, such modifiers are called the character’s Defense Rating. Armor, shields and other circumstances may also influence this rating.

Doing damage

Body zone

If an attack on a character is successful, a roll needs to be made to determine which part of her body was hit by the attack so the corresponding protective effect of any armor can be applied. In order to do this, a d10 is used:

01: head

02: left arm 04-07: torso 03: right arm

08: abdomen

09: left leg 10: right leg

The next thing we need to know is the damage caused by the attack. Every weapon has a damage code that tells us how to roll and calculate the damage points per attack.

Armor Rating

If the victim of the attack has any protection or armoring, the amount of damage is lessened by the Armor Rating of the respective body zone that was hit.

Constitution and damage effect

The amount of damage of an attack is first lowered by the rating of the CON Attribute, though it cannot be lowered to less than 1 point. The remaining damage value is subtracted from the character’s current Hit Points.

Blunt Damage

Some weapons deal blunt damage, as do opponents who are using their own fists and feet to attack. Because it is not as deadly as other forms of attack, half of the damage is subtracted from the EP of the victim, the other half effects the HP normally. In case of an uneven amount of damage, the extra damage point is subtracted from EP (so every point of damage is accounted for).

Critical Damage

If the character’s Hit Points fall below 0, a roll with a d10 on the Critical Damage table is performed to see what additional bad effects have been caused by the attack. This roll has to be repeated every time the character sustains any additional injury at this stage.

    01         badly hurt, but conscious and stable
02-06    unconscious, bleeding 1HP / minute
07-09    bleeding 1HP / minute;
make Constitution check or incur permanent damage at the GM’s discretion
    10         bleeding 1HP / minute;

During combat, a character may simultaneously perform another action during movement, such as attacking someone during or at the end of the moving action. Every skill or attack being performed while moving or in the same round, causes a -2 penalty to be applied to this skill check. However, small movements of about 1.5 m (3 feet) do not incur this penalty and may be performed in addition to any other actions.

Here are a few special rules regarding movement:

Fleeing From Combat [optional rule]
If a character runs away from one or more melee combatants with whom she is currently engaged in combat, every one of those opponents gets an immediate free action to attack the fleeing character.

Retreat [optional rule]
Instead of fleeing from a hand-to-hand combat situation, a character may also retreat during movement. Retreat movement is limited to the range stated in the movement table above. Opponents do not get a free attack action when a character is retreating.

Charging [optional rule]
If the character wants to attack an opponent with a hand-to-hand combat action, and the opponent can be reached by a straight path of movement, the character may use the charging rule. A character who is charging gets a bonus of +2 on all hand-to-hand attack and damage rolls during that round, but enemies within range also get +1 on their attack and damage rolls against the character.

Generic Equipment

Hand-to-hand weapons

Weapon	Type	Size	Damage

Ranged weapons

The following weapons are generic ranged weapons without any specific model description. The GM is welcome to use this general table to design specific firearm models that match their historic counterparts more accurately. “Size” is the size category of the weapon, either small (S), medium (M), large (L) or huge (XL). Damage refers to the damage caused by a firing mode. If a weapon has more than one firing mode, the damage ratings are separated by commata. Range refers to the designated “close range” of the weapon (see also “range” under combat). Max is the maximum distance a shot can reasonably directed at a standard-sized target. “Rate” is the firing rate in rounds per attack. If a weapon has more than one firing mode, the different burst rates are separated by commata. “Clip” describes how many rounds a single clip can hold for this weapon, before it has to be reloaded.

Weapon	Size	Damage	Range	Max	Rate	Clip

* the damage code of the shotgun: “m” is the distance of the target in meters (=3 feet).

Armor

Armor is available for different body zones and has generally the following protective properties:

Armor	Armor Pts.	Defense
Sturdy clothes	1 / 1	0 / 0
Studded leather	2 / 2	1 / 1
Chain mail	3 / 2	3 / 1
Kevlar	3 / 5	1 / 3
Plate	8 / 3	5 / 2
Shield	5 / 5	5 / 3
Exoskeleton	20 / 20	5 / 5

The first values in a column denote the effectiveness of the armor against hand-to-hand attacks, the second value represents ranged attacks from projectiles.

Armor can also be stacked in layers in accordance to common-sense rules. Also note that shields have to be carried in one hand and they can additionally be used to parry attacks.

For example, Bob the policeman has to put on his riot gear for a special assignment:

Head:
Helmet (Plate) AP 3/5 Defense 5/2
All zones except head:
Sturdy clothes AP 1/1 Defense 0/0
Legs:
Boots (Leather) AP 2/2 Defense 1/1
Torso, Abdomen:
Kevlar Vest AP 3/2 Defense 1/3
Head, Torso, Abdomen, l. Arm, Head, l. Leg
Shield (large) AP 5/5 Defense 5/3

Bob feels reasonably safe now, but has a -2 penalty to attack and initiative rolls due to the large shield.

Rewarding XP

For mastering the challenges of an adventure (or an individual session), the GM may reward the player characters with experience points (XP) which they in turn can spend to make their characters better. How much is given usually varies on the kind of gameplay a GM wants for her campaign.

As a rule of thumb, the GM may choose to adapt a standardized XP table like this, where the XP reward is calculated at the end of each session by listing a number of accomplishments and adding the appropriate number of XP for each. After that, the sum of these items is given as an XP reward to each player character. As a rule, you should reward everyone in the group with the same amount of XP.

Accomplishment	XP Reward
Solving a riddle	1-3 per player
Bonus for good roleplaying	1-3 per player
Defeating an adversary	0-10 per player
Important discovery	5-10 per player
Storytelling award	1-10 per player

Final Thoughts

This InstaRPG Kernel should be enough of a basic rulebook to get some basic RPG action rolling. However, this is just the beginning! There are several accessories for you to play around with. The following accessories have been planned or are already available at RPGP’s site:

• InstaRPG Fantasy Module

• InstaRPG 20th Century Module

• InstaRPG Space Opera Module

• InstaRPG Character Generator

If you have a great idea or would like to port and publish your own accessory/adventure/campaign, please go ahead, we’d be thrilled if you did! You can access this core rulebook and accessories at RPG Rublishing’s website http://rpgp.org

This is the basic ruleset for instaRPG version 2.0 – please feel free to add or edit material as you see fit. Feel free to contact the author about anything, just write an email to: udo.schroeter@gmail.com. Please attribute accordingly.

Insta RPG Kernel 2.1 Page 17 of 17