Rock, Paper, Scissors ... diceless RPG

...you have five more fingers. That said, you could use both fists at once. The right/dominate hand of the individual is the RPS, while the second hand is some other aspect for other use. (It could be another RPS - or you could include some sort of magical nature and make the signs water/wind/fire or Light/dark/void etc.) If there is a tie in the first hand, look at the second.

Delving into the even more esoteric, look at both signs. Then you can have 6 outcomes. (2 wins, 2 loses, 1 win 1 loss, 1 win 1 tie, 1 tie 1 loss, 2 tie) Play just goes in turns - I shoot, tally wins, you shoot tally wins - and work towards some set difficulty.

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

Yeah... the rules of Rock-Paper-Scissors isn't effected by anything in the game or on the character sheet... the mechanic is just the same... Rock-Paper-Scissors is just the randomizer. I have considered doing away with the grades ... (see my post below...) Do you think I should? Or is it better to keep them?

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

No reason to do away with grades. In fact, that's what should control - whether you call 'em skills, attributes, talents, whatever. Since the rock/paper/scissors is just the randomizer there's no reason to link attributes to these three. You'd just create a character by whatever game rules you use, and resolve contingencies by the system you're proposing: if the character is "lesser" than the opposition then you need to win more rounds of RPS.

I like the idea of not needing to write anything down... it might not be practical... I am trying to imagine in a game players holding out so many fingers for the duration of a combat (or longer?) ... I like the idea... but not sure about the implementation, yet.

It occurs to me that any single game of RPS has 3 outcomes not 2. It's not win/lose ... it's win/lose/draw. Given that 1 game should be sufficient for most tasks.

That makes it three levels in any challenge:

0) lose
1) tie
2) win

So, if your stat is lower than your opponent's (or difficulty) you need a win. If your stat is equal or higher than your opponent's (or the difficulty) you need a tie. And a lose is always a fail.

Maybe I should just simplify things even more.

We get rid of numbers and values all together and base characters on skills only.

Define your character with a short list of skills...

Jeff
----
Computer Programmer, RPG gamer, artist, geek.

Blundarr
--------
Swordsman, Hunter, Carouser, Muscle-man

If attempting something for which you have a skill you need a tie... otherwise you need a win!

(Now to think more about that damage mechanic...)

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

I like this setup better, it makes a lot of sense and saves time. If you have a skill, you have a 2 in 3 chance of succeeding, otherwise it is 1 in 3. I like those odds!

Combat and damage, hmmm. I would have to think about it, if only for the sake of what twist you can give the basic game.

http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm

Yeah, I like this setup better too... it's just so damn simple. At this point I am shooting for simple enough to play without paper and pencil (Something you could play in the car on a trip... that would be my ideal.) but involved enough to stay interesting and fun. Ideas for combat that would meet this requirement are welcome ... I am at a loss.

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

Is worth over-doing. RPS-25 is a variation on the game, that allows for 300 outcomes according to the website. (Of course, I'm not about to attempt to confirm that)

As to a more realistic expectation for the player than memorizing whether Nuke beats Alien according to the chart might be that all events have the three basic outcomes - pass/blocked/fail. No hit points etc. - either you defeat the nemesis, retreat, or get injured for as long as the story demands.

If you don't mind some book keeping - how about a slight revision of the ratings. Each skill/attribute has a number of losses assigned to it. Each failed challange counts against this, and when it runs out, the character can't use that ability again. (either for a set time, or for the rest of the game). So if I had Fencing 2 and Skateboard 1, I can afford lose one sword fight, and still try again, but wipe out in the skate challenge and there's no mulligan.

Or we could come up with some esoteric background setting with an explanation of why all combat is now based on RPS and no one actually gets hurt... (You're all stuck on a space station in zero g - guns would compromise the hull, and free fall negates martial arts?) I recall a 24 hour rpg (called Monitors I believe) that had a premise of violence being impossible due to some alien tech - perhaps a similar idea?

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

I know that I have martial arts on the brain, but this is a continuation of an idea I had for alternative actions for MACE. I couldn't get this to work for MACE, so maybe this idea might suit your game better.

RPS Combat
Instead of Rock-Paper-Scissors, players have FOUR (thats right) different Attacks. These are Jump Attack, High Attack, Mid Attack and Crouch Attack. These are represented by how many fingers are used, as below.

• Jump Attack: 1 Finger
• High Attack: 2 Fingers
• Mid Attack: 3 Fingers
• Crouch Attack: 4 Fingers

How does it work? High beats Jump, Jump beats Mid, Mid beats Crouch, Crouch beats High. Use the continuous flowchart below.

High -> Jump -> Mid -> Crouch -> High

If a player loses a matchup, they take 1 Damage. If players play exactly the same Attack, both players take 1 Damage. There are also special circumstances if players use certain matchups.

Jump vs Crouch
Neither player takes any Damage, both attacks miss each other.

Mid vs High
No Damage is dealt, but for the next play, all Damage is doubled. This is cumulative. This is to represent a furious trading of blows.

Combine the above with the Damage rules from my previous comment, which gives players five points of Damage (five fingers ^_^), I think it is a interesting twist to the standard Rock-Paper-Scissors. What do you think?

I really like this idea, so if you don't want to use it for your game, I might write it up seperately as a mini-game for 1km1kt.

http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm

There is a very similar game to this, called Bonsai Samurai.
http://freegamesdownload.wordpress.com/feed. It uses a spinner with the three different attacks on it, you place coins representing the players some distance and after each spin each player can pick the choice pointing to his coin or one to either side of it; damage is taken or not depending on the match-up of the choices just as you're describing. I like yours better.

Also, somewhere out there is a website which has Rock, Paper, Scissors cards. Instead of holding out fingers each player overturns a card. Reason for the additional prop is each card not only is labeled with one of the three designations but has a picture of a pretty girl in a pose representing that designation.

Aaron,
I've created some cards to use for your idea. Fingers would work just as well of course, just liked the idea of cards. Can't seem to post the cards here or at 1kmkt, the pictures don't go thru. Some way I can send them to you?

E-mail them to me at AJaW96@bigpond.com. I am glad that you like the idea, so send me the cards, I will convert them into a printable pdf format, then send it back to you (it might be my idea, but you should post it because of the effort you put in creating them).

If you really like it, maybe this could be somthing we could collaborate together on, just a fun simple game. I think you are right to think that this would work better with cards, as it would allow for some tense play.

Thanks for your interest.

http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm