From: mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar)
Subject: OPIGS [was Re: Homemade Systems]
Organization: School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 05:14:22 GMT

In article <sponge> ericg@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (E. Chris Garrison) writes:
>No game master???  How does that work?

Ah well, that will explain itself...

>I'd be very interested to see it.  I did some work on my one pager
>this weekend, and it is just about complete. [...]
>The beta version should be ready to post later this week.

Excellent, I'd like to see it.

And, in response to your request, and some in e-mail, I am now posting my
version of a gaming system which has rules printable on a single sheet of
paper. I should repeat my previous warning: this game is very TOON-like, in
that it encourages silly style role-playing. You need to be in the right
frame of mind for it. I wrote this five years ago, and present it here
verbatim, without further ado.
***************************************************************************

One Page GamIng System - OPIGS                 Copyright David Mar 1987

Character Generation:
Roll d20+d8 for each of the five attributes - Beef, Brains, Hammer, Coruba
and Luck. Refer to table below for penalties and bonuses due to low and
high scores.

      |  BEEF  |         BRAINS       | HAMMER |  CORUBA        |   LUCK
      | Damage | Languages | Use Roll | To Hit | Bonus Hit      | Chance to
Score | Bonus  |   Usable  |   Bonus  |  Bonus | Points per Die | Be Lucky
2     |   -4   |     1     |    -4    |   -4   |      -4        |   10%
3,4   |   -3   |     2     |    -3    |   -3   |      -3        |   20%
5-7   |   -2   |     3     |    -2    |   -2   |      -2        |   30%
8-12  |   -1   |     4     |    -1    |   -1   |      -1        |   40%
13-17 |    0   |     5     |     0    |    0   |       0        |   50%
18-22 |   +1   |     6     |    +1    |   +1   |      +1        |   60%
23-25 |   +2   |     7     |    +2    |   +2   |      +2        |   70%
26,27 |   +3   |     8     |    +3    |   +3   |      +3        |   80%
28    |   +4   |     9     |    +4    |   +4   |      +4        |   90%

Hit Points:
Roll a d6 and refer to the table to determine        d6   |  Hit Dice
starting hit points. Extra hit points are gained      1   |    1d20
in the same way for each experience level             2   |    2d12
gained. If reduced to 0 hit points a character        3   |    3d10
is dead, unless a Luck roll is successfully           4   |    4d8
made. Damage can be healed by resting; a full         5   |    5d6
night's sleep restoring up to Coruba hit points.      6   |    6d4
Be sure to add the Coruba hit point per hit die
bonus to each die rolled for hit points.

Equipment:
Character starting money is $100. Weapons are available as follows:

Weapon   |  Cost  |  Example         |  Damage Bonus
 Wimpy   |   $50  |  Knife           |     +1
 Normal  |  $150  |  Sword           |     +2
 Beefy   |  $500  |  Gun             |     +3
 Mega    | $1500  |  Attack Chopper  |     +4

Miscellaneous equipment is available at $10 each. This includes all
non-weapons. If wielded as a weapon, miscellaneous equipment gives no
damage bonus.

Experience:
1 experience point (XP) is gained for each thing killed, puzzle solved or
$1000 gained. Only the person inflicting the killing blow on a thing gets
the XP. Each square number of XP gained (ie 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ...) is an
experience level and gives extra hit points.

Combat:
The enemy will have a number of hit points either chosen by its creator
or rolled randomly as above for characters, and will be unarmed or equipped
with some type of weapon. Anyone can attack first, depending on the
circumstances, and attacks then go in a cyclic order until combat is over.
To attack, roll a d12 To Hit and add the Hammer To Hit Bonus. Refer to
this number to see the attack result. The damage listed as dice is rolled
for unarmed combat, modified by Beef Damage Bonus - and also weapon
damage bonus if a weapon is used.

Combat Table:

Adjusted d12 |   Result          |  Damage
     12+     | Instant Kill      |  Kill
     11      | Critical Hit      |  2d10
     10      | Excellent Hit     |  2d8
      9      | Good Hit          |  2d6
      8      | Hit               |  2d4
      7      | Scratch           |   d4
      6      | Near Miss         | Opponent -1 next To Hit roll
      5      | Miss              |  Nil
      4      | Bad Miss          | Opponent +1 next To Hit roll
      3      | Self Hit          | 2d4 to self
      2      | Critical Jam      | Weapon useless
      1-     | Critical Backfire | Kill self

Equipment Use:
To use a piece of equipment or do anything tricky, like climb a wall or
pick a lock, a d12 Use Roll is made, modified by Brains Use Bonus and
referred to on the Use Table. This applies to spells and psionics.

Use Table:

Adjusted d12 |   Result          |  Effect
     12+     | Critical Success  | Patent idea, get $1000
     11      | Amazing Success   | Double effect
     10      | Excellent Success | +2 next Use roll
      9      | Good Success      | +1 next Use roll
      8      | Success           |
      7      | Borderline Success| May roll again for better result
      6      | Borderline Failure| May roll again for better result
      5      | Failure           |
      4      | Bad Failure       | -1 next Use roll
      3      | Severe Failure    | 2d4 damage to self
      2      | Massive Failure   | Equipment destroyed
      1-     | Critical Failure  | Kill self

Game Play:
No gamesmaster is required. Each player creates a character after agreeing
on a game setting (eg fantasy, space, espionage, etc). Choose equipment
and languages, ensuring at least one common language between the characters.
Take turns, starting with whoever wants to go first, of five to ten minutes
of adventure creating. Throw in anything you want: encounters, fights,
puzzles, tricks, traps, treasures, explorations, etc. If something you
don't like happens - especially your own death - roll on your Luck chance
to see if you are lucky enough for something else to happen instead. Only
one such Luck roll per thing happening is allowed, though everyone can roll
one after the other.

Look for OPIGS modules - out soon.
Any questions on this game will gladly be answered if sent to me.
Also look for game accessories, novels and game world and universe settings.

David Mar.                              mar@astrop.physics.su.OZ.AU
Astrophysics Department, University of Sydney  NSW  2006, Australia.