Contact Information:

jay@vanishingtowerpress.com

Wednesday, February 18

Seduction, Wagering and Drinking: more than reaction rolls

The following are suggest steps for resolving all three of the different game activities with the USR game system, it should point the CK in the right direction for adventure excitement.


The character makes a contested attribute roll against the people involved.

Relevant situational modifiers and specialism bonuses are factored. Critical success and fumbles are in effect.

The CK adjudicates what a win and a loss looks like.

The CK decides how many checks should be made but the idea is to focus on describing the results of a die roll, not to roll many dice.

Usually no more than two or three attempts at an individual contest can be attempted.

Seduction Example;

The seducer and the victim roll a contested attribute roll against Ego to find out if the victim resists the seduction. The unwilling victim and the seducer can modify their roll with apt Specialism, such as Diplomacy, Seduction, Charm, Court Etiquette, etc. If the victim fails to beat the seducer’s roll, the seducer is doing well and may continue. Otherwise, the victim realizes what’s going on.  Willing participants need not make checks to resist a seduction attempt, but simply give in to their aggressor's advances.

If the victim’s roll succeeds, it means that they realizes what is going on and lose interest, become angry, find amusement in the seducer’s efforts, etc.

The seducer can try again, but must subtract 2 from their roll each time the victim beats their roll. 

This penalty is cumulative, with a duration of 24 hours.                

Sunday, February 15

USR Gunslinger Character Sheet

I've gone and made up a character sheet for USR Gunslinger with the idea of writing up a rules hack of TSR's Boot Hill. I've posted it to my Summonings page here at The Vanishing Tower.

So this means I will actually have to write up these rules some time soon or I'll just have characters running around with no rules to govern their behavior. Now that sounds like the Wild West...

Tuesday, February 3

USR Sword & Sorcery Play Aids

The Summonings page now has links to download your USR Sword & Sorcery Character Sheet, and USR Sword & Sorcery Campaign Notepad pages... sweet!

Friday, January 30

First Strike explained...

At least as it applies to my USR Sword & Sorcery campaign. The Equipment List includes some weapons, such as the flail, which come with a "first strike" attribute.

First strike weapons allow a character to make an initial melee attack without their opponent being able to inflict any damage against them, even if they win the contested attribute roll. This initial attack roll is made in conjunction with the character's regular Action roll for the combat round, in effect, giving the first strike weapon two attack rolls versus your opponents one.

Once engaged in melee a character cannot make a first strike attack. If two or more characters are attacking each other with first strike weapons, no one can make a first strike attack.

First strike does not apply to ranged weapon attacks.