Sword of Life by Craig Russell
Another fun rules light game.
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Characteristics in SOL are: EGPT (sometimes pronounced as "Egypt".)
E - Edge - The cut of physical action, conflict and combat.
G - Grip - One's hold on life and the ability to survive physical injury.
P - Point - The thrust of intellectual, investigative, and scientific thought and repartee.
T - Temper - The strength and flexibility of the spiritual and emotional self. One's ability to deal with mental distress, the shock of the alien, and resistance to horror and psionic influences. Temper is essential in understanding and interpreting the alien. Normal humans are totally at sea when it comes to dealing with aliens.
All of the above characteristics normally range from 1 to 8. Characters have 20 points to spend on characteristics. (Purchased on a 1 for 1 basis. i.e. an Edge of 6 costs 6 points)
Examples of EGPT Characteristics for a science fiction setting.
Edge1 Seriously crippled person
2 Child
3 Average untrained human
4 Human with basic training in some kind of fighting (boxing, judo, Kendo)
5 Well trained Soldier / Peace Officer
6 Starship security officer
7 Special Ops personnel
8 Heavily Cyborged / Bio-warped fighting machine
Grip1 Baby
2 Child
3 Average untrained human
4 Policeman, Soldier
5 Trained exploration starship crewman
6 Starship senior officer or captain
7 Top athlete
8 Heavily armoured and enhanced Cyborg or Bio-warped individual
Point1 Pre-verbal
2 Child-like
3 Average untrained human (highschool equivalency)
4 University Scholar / Average research scientist, police detective, politician
5 Average Starship officer
6 Rhodes Scholar - "Sherlock"
7 Nobel Laureate
8 Heavily Cyborged / Bio-warped Mentat
Temper1 Fragile basket-case
2 Backward, Superstitious human
3 Average untrained human
4 Average Starship personnel or a civilian Xeno-phile
5 Trained First-Contact Specialist
6 Empath
7 Natural Telepath
8 Heavily Cyborged / Bio-warped Telepath
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Each character must choose a career.
All skills appropriate to that career are treated as having a rating equal to the applicable characteristic. For example, a police detective with a Point characteristic of 4 has a skill of 4 in dealing with all police related problems.
Example Careers
Police, Military, Science, Criminal, Trading, Academic, Medical, Legal, Spy.
Many of these can be broken down more precisely: i.e. Military could be
broken down into, Foot Soldier, Armored Vehicles, Fighter Pilot, Space
Fighter Pilot, Starship Marine, etc.
Each character can also choose one Specialty skill for each characteristic. Specialties are treated as having a rating of 1 higher than the applicable characteristic. For example, our police detective with a Point characteristic of 4 takes a specialty in "interviewing witnesses". This means that he has an effective skill of 5 when interviewing witnesses.
Normal skills which do not relate to the character's chosen career are dealt with at an effective skill of one less than the applicable characteristic. For example, our police detective with a Point characteristic of 4 does not deal with architecture as part of his career and therefore his effective skill is 3 when thinking about or discussing architecture.
Specialties that do not relate to the PC's career have a net effect of Zero (+1 for Specialty and -1 Normal skills) Example, a police detective who has a specialty of ancient history uses that skill at his Point characteristic rating.
Note: Many highly specialized skills (i.e. particle physics, opera singing, starship navigation, fighter pilot, etc.) cannot even be attempted by unskilled persons. The GM rules on these issues.Possible Specialties
Edge - unarmed combat, acrobatics, melee weapon, direct fire weapon, non-lethal weapon, space fighter pilot,
Grip - tough to kill, resistant to: injury, or chemicals.
Point - politics, military strategy, economics, criminal investigation, starship navigation, scientific research
Temper - strong spirit, emotionally tough, alien understanding, strong
identity, resistant to: mental distress, shock of the alien, horror, or psionic
influences.
Sword of Life Conflict Resolution System
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Use an ordinary deck of cards (red = success, black = failure)
To resolve conflicts or problems (combat, arguments, repairs, investigations, research, etc.) the player draws a number of cards equal to the character's applicable statistic (plus or minus any adjustments as noted below).
Edge - for physical action and combat.
Grip - to resist radiation, deadly gases, falls, and other injuries.
Point - for intellectual, investigative, and scientific thought and repartee.
Temper - to deal with mental distress, the shock of the alien, and resistance to horror and psionic influences, understanding and interpreting the alien.
The cards are laid face down on the table in front of the player. The GM draws a number of cards equal to the opponent's applicable statistic or to the difficulty number he has assigned to the problem.The player turns over each of his cards. Each good card counts toward success and the failure cards are ignored.
The opponent or problem cards are then turned over and the number of
successes are compared with the number of successes of the player.
(Visual Tip: push successes toward the opponent and pull failures back
toward you.)
Example 1: Combat
In combat [Edge vs. Edge] the player characters Edge is 5 and the opponent's Edge is 4. The player draws 5 cards and the game master draws
4 cards for the opponent. The player turns over all 5 cards and then the GM turns over the opponent's 4 cards. They compare the number of successes to determine who is winning.
An equal number of successes = both are engaged but no one is injured (yet).
One or more additional successes = the opponent takes one [or more] wounds. This reduces his Grip score by one for each success.
If a character's Grip score is reduced to 0 he falls unconscious.
Example 2: Persuasion
In conversation [Point vs. Point] the player character is attempting to persuade a difficult NPC to give up some important information
The player character's Point score is 5. The difficult NPC's Point score is 6.
The player draws 5 cards and the game master draws 6 cards for the difficult NPC.
The player turns over all 5 cards and then the GM turns over the opponent's 6 cards. They compare the number of successes to determine who is winning.
An equal number of successes = both are engaged in debate but no one has
been in persuaded yet. One or more additional successes = the opponent is being persuaded [note: he reduces his Point score by one for each additional success] This is not a permanent reduction but only applies to the current
conversation.
If a character or NPC's Point score is reduced to 0 he loses the argument and is persuaded. Someone else may attempt to persuade the NPC or the character may attempt again when he has new information.
Example 3:Starship Engine Repairs
The GM says that the engine repair is a 4 card problem and that each attempt will take one half-hour.
The character has a Point score of 4.
On the first attempt the player character gets 3 successes and the problem gets 2 successes. This means that the player has 1 extra success. [The GM may say something like "the character has properly aligned the warped coils".] As a result the problem is reduced to a 3 card problem, but the character still needs 3 more points of success to complete the job.
The character tries again [taking another ½ hour]. This time the character draws 1 success and the problem draws 2 successes. As a result the character's Point score is reduced by one [from 4 to 3] for solving this problem next turn.
This means that the problem is causing the character some serious difficulty. A few more rounds like this and the character will be unable to proceed at all!
The character tries again [taking another ½ hour]. This time the character draws 3 cards and has 2 successes. The problem again draws 3 cards and this time has 0 successes. As a result the problem is reduced by 2 to a 1 card problem. The character still needs 1 more point of success to complete the job. Next turn he is almost certain of success!
If the character's score is ever reduced to 0 he has encountered a insurmountable problem and cannot proceed. [If later he obtains new tools and/or supplies he may be able to re-attempt to solve the problem, with appropriate modifiers as the GM may decide.]
Penalties and Bonuses
The GM can of course give bonus cards to players for good role playing or good ideas. Conversely he can penalize players for poor role playing or bad ideas by reducing the number of cards they would normally receive.
Weapons Equipment and Preparation Time
Special weapons and equipment can allow extra cards to be drawn as well. For example a heavy blaster rifle might give a character plus 1 card in a firefight. Or a computer expert system research assistant might give a character plus 1 card on a scientific research problem.Preparation time can also help player characters. For example if they give themselves time to think through what they're going to say before they talk to the ship's Captain, they might have a better chance of persuading him they are right.
Ordinary Actions
Of course many actions do not require conflict resolution. If an action would normally be within the ordinary scope of the character's abilities the game master should not require the player to draw cards.
During an adventure, the game master may require the player characters to deal with many 1, 2 or 3 card problems. For example, weaving through city traffic during the rush-hour while in shadowing an alien might be a 2 card problem.Serious crisis points may require a 4, 5 or even 6 card problem. For example, weaving through an asteroid field at top speed him while pursued by enemy fighters might be a 6 card problem!
Multiple Opponents or Problems
Realistic methodDraw your normal number of cards but split them between the opponents as
you choose. For example, a starship security officer with an Edge of 6 is fighting against 2 normal humans [Edge of 3 each]. The security officer could choose to split his cards equally against the opponents [3 each]. Or he can choose to apply 5 against 1 opponent and 1 card against the remaining opponent.
Less Realistic MethodDraw your normal number of cards. Apply them against first one opponent
[or problem] until you have the results you wish, and then apply the remaining cards against the other opponent [or problem], until your cards run out.For example, a fighter pilot with the age Edge of 5 is attempting to fly through a hail of defensive fire before firing his for torpedo at the engines of the enemy starship.
The GM states that the defensive fire is a 1 card problem while targeting of the starship engines as a 2 card problem.
The fighter pilot draws 5 cards. The GM draws 1 card for the defensive fire, and then 2 cards for the targeting problem.
The fighter pilot turns over his five cards.
The cards are: success, failure, failure, success, success.
The defense fire's 1 card is a failure, so the pilot's first success card deals with that 1 card problem.
The targeting problem's 2 cards are also both failures and so the pilot's next 2 success cards overcome that 2 card problem and he scores a direct hit on the engines.
If the engine targeting problem's two cards had both been successes, the
shot would have been a complete miss.If the targeting problem's had drawn one success and one failure, the shot might have hit the enemy ship but would have missed the vital engines.
Cinematic MethodFor a more cinematic feel to the game players can draw a full set of cards against each opponent [or problem]. This will allow player characters with high statistics to walk over mere mortals (most of the time).
Essence and Antithesis
Alternate rules.Rule 1.
If you draw a Red Ace it counts as 2 successes.
If you draw a Black Duce, it cancels 2 successes.Or
Rule 2.
If you draw a Red Ace you succeed no matter what other cards you draw.
If you draw a Black Duce you fail no matter what other cards you draw.
(Exception - Red Ace always overcomes a Black Duce)
Optional Rules - Saving Unflipped Cards
In some cases the GM may allow the player to save unflipped cards from one turn to the next.
Example 1 - If the player wants to aim, the GM could allow the player to save up one unflipped card for up to 2 turns. In this case all of that PC's other cards are discarded as the PC is just aiming.
Example 2 - If the player wants to plan his work on the engine repairs the GM could allow the player to save up one unflipped card for up to 2 turns. In this case all of that PC's other cards are discarded as the PC is just planning.
This page last modified June 22, 2000. This page copyright Craig Russell. It appears here though his kind permission.
Email me at bernuetz@mymts.net