200-word RPG Challenge submission: Freaks

So this thing is happening:

The 200 Word RPG Challenge puts your writing and editing skills to the test!
What can you do with only 200 words?

I’m studiously ignoring the line: “the game doesn’t necessarily have to be fun”, for reasons that should be obvious, and decided to submit a thing.

Here is that thing.


freaks

doom patrol mignolaWe’re playing heroes mighty, but maligned; devoted, but shunned. Feared by the same people they protect…

Freaks.

Start

Think up a character. Golem. Vampire. Angel. Vampire angel? Go nuts.

Pick a Specialty:

  • Sneak
  • Fight
  • Manipulate
  • Use Powers
  • Investigate

Define Your Power

  • List Blessings. Think “thematically related; but incomplete.”
  • List Banes. Why are you a freak?

These can color scenes. If they’d affect a Conflict, say how.

Play

Establish character(s), setting, situation.

Each scene, everyone wants stuff. Play your guy and push for it; you’ll hit a Conflict.

Grab one FUDGE die for your GOAL and one for the RISK. (No risk? No roll.)

ADD A DIE IF…
… there’s another Risk.
… Banes have effect (stop here).
… Blessings have effect.
… your Specialty matters.
… you’re prepared.

Roll.

  1. If Banes apply, discard the best die.
  2. If Blessings/Specialty/Preparation apply, discard a bad die for each.
  3. Assign dice to Goal and Risks.

Goal Die:
+ Goal achieved.
0 Mixed success.
– Opportunity lost (for now).

Risk Die:
+ Risk defeated
0 Danger Remains
– Injury, Loss, Goal interference

If Danger/Injury Remains, it becomes an Added Risk whenever, until you fix it.

Thanks: Otherkind, Ghost/Echo, Trollbabe

One comment

  1. And here’s a character, using more words than the rules themselves:

    “Joe” is the product of experiments in the reanimation of human flesh by a contemporary of da Vinci. (He was recently released from a state of suspended animation by another Freak in Bureau Five.) Joe is a horrifying amalgam of once-dead flesh and arcane mechanical devices. His specialty is Fighting.

    He has poorly cut, salt-and-pepper hair and discolored, scarred flesh. He wears baggy clothing, a hooded raincoat (which conceals the patchwork nature of his body), and size 19 army boots. He carries no weapons as a general rule, though he does still have an ornate scalpel that was found in the same lab in which he was discovered (the object holds a strange fascination for him), and can usually be found with a book in hand or on his person.

    His Power is the inhuman strength and stamina of his reanimated flesh. The Power’s Blessings are Inhuman Strength, a remarkable resistance to physical harm and discomfort, and immunity to electricity. His Banes include being uncoordinated (with a tendency to fall off of or into troublesome things), his Inhuman Appearance, an aversion to mirrors, and a need to conduct periodic maintenance on his mechanical components (an activity he loathes).

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