All Hail Discordia! FKR game

All Hail Discordia! is my FKR game in the wild, true/untrue world/unworld of Discordianism (with ideas stolen from JohnWick’s game).

You find it on Chartopia: https://chartopia.d12dev.com/chart/43436/

OR read on:

You are a Discordian Double Agent.

1d100 (86+ roll again)Background (roll several times to get ideas)
1Abductor
2Agent
3Alien
4Assurance
5Baseball
6Poker
7Bear
8Bounty
9Commercial
10Breakfast
11Century
12Cereal
13Champions
14Character
15CIA
16College
17Company
18Computer
19Con
20Criminal
21Customs
22Djinn
23Dog
24Insect
25Editor
26Elder
27Estate
28Executive
29False
30FBI
31Figure
32God
33Gymnast
34Hermetic
35Hero
36High
37Historical
38Hitman
39Hot
40Hunter
41Kabbalic
42Literary
43Mafia
44Magician
45Man
46Mason
47Mastermind
48Demon
49Messiah
50Mogul
51Mythical
52Nineteenth
53Past
54Penguin
55Physics
56Playboy
57Player
58Pro
59Proctologist
60Professor
61Program
62Programmer
63Quality
64Quantum
65Ranger
66Rasputin
67Real
68Record
69Redneck
70Rock n roll
71School
72Science
73Sentient
74Dumb
75Sitcom
76Stage
77Street
78Teacher
79Tester
80Time
81Traveler
82Trekhead
83True
84TV
85Wrestler
d8You are a secret member of… (roll once; 8 roll again)
1Bavarian Illuminati (spend 1 Dogma and the subject must obey your command. The command can only include a number of actions equal to your Dogma)
2Hashashin (spend 1 Dogma and say “I will not…”. Whatever you say is true, but only for that round. If you wish to continue the effect, spend another Dogma point.)
3Rosicrucians (spend 1 Dogma to transform one element into another, or to turn a base element into a pure one; you have to be able to carry what you transform)
4Knights Templar (spend one Dogma to lend any Advantage or background you have to any other character)
5Aliens (spend 1 Dogma to summon the darkest fear of a human, paralyzing him for as many rounds as you have Dogma)
6Priests of the Secret Sign (spend 1 Dogma to inflict Primal Madness)
7Temple of Covid (spend 1 Dogma to put someone in an illusory cage)

Save the World
Everything is true. Everything is, therefore, false. Fight the Curse of Grayface. Undermine hardened assumptions. Free the world.
“Just because two things oppose each other does not mean one is false. Theology is nothing more than a debate over whom we should blame for reality.” (John Wick)

Catma/Dogma
Catma is the refusal to believe in anything.
Dogma is blind belief.
Start with 3 Catma points and 3 Dogma points.
Spend Catma to double the dice you roll (and pick the best two), but you have to use one of your backgrounds to explain HOW you do it.
Spend Dogma to create effects in accordance with your Conspiracy.
At the end of each session, add 1 Dogma point to your initial Dogma score. Then, roll 1d6+Dogma vs. 1d6+Catma. If Catma loses, you lose 1 Catma point.

Roll dice only when you take risks
Roll 2d6 vs. the referee’s 2d6. Add +1 for each advantage you have. Higher roll determines what happens.

FKR: Of course you can have stats (or: FKR Rifts)

…thing is, you don’t really need them. BUT if you grew up with them, then by all means include them in your FKR game. Like this, for instance:

Let’s say we want to play a crazy game of Rifts. Okay, that’s a tautology, but still. The challenge is: None of us has ever played or read any Rifts material. It doesn’t matter.

One of the rulings I come up with is this: Each player creates attributes/stats for his character. Any stat. If you try to fuck with me and write down a stat that’s obviously designed to “win”, that stat is gone, and you don’t get a replacement. So… “Win Everything” is funny, kinda, but also lost.

Because most of us are used to six stats, let’s say we’re using that number.

For inspiration, you flip through some Rifts books and online galleries, and you discover this:

This is supposed to be a Techno-Wizard. Supposed to be. You don’t care because a) It’s Rifts, and b) It’s RIFTS, man. That guy is an Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune. Now we’re cooking with gas.
So, now you’re making up stats for him:

Dumb Luck
Coolness under Fire
Real-world Strength
Agility
Street Smarts
Self-Esteem

Then, you’re rolling a d6 for each stat AND ONLY WRITE IT DOWN IF IT’S 1 or 6:

Dumb Luck: 5
Coolness under Fire: 6
Real-world Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Street Smarts: 3
Self-Esteem: 3

Hoo boy. So your Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune has three noteworthy stats:

Coolness under Fire: 6
Real-world Strength: 1
Agility: 1

Let’s say we decide to use opposed rolls as our go-to mechanism in the game: Weak skills or stats are d4, really powerful skills or stats are d20. Let’s say a player character can’t start with a d4 or a d20. We then arrive at:

Cool under Fire d12
Really weak: d6
Really clumsy: d6

Next: Skills.

My Landshut rules tell you to pick 5 or 10 skills from a rulebook when you are playing a published setting. Of course, this doesn’t have to be a rulebook. Make up your own! And that’s exactly what you do. Each skill starts as d10.

Skysurfing
Shoot pistols
Power Punches
Jury-rig tech
Violent Meditation
Falling from heights

These are the six skills you come up with for now. You can add the rest later.

Whenever you use a skill AND you have a stat that might apply (like, for instance, “Falling from heights” and “Really clumsy”), the refree will tell you to adjust the die size before you roll. Let’s stay with the example above: “Falling from heights” is a skill you have, but you’re also “Really clumsy”. As a referee, I’d say that you roll a d8 for “Falling from Heights”. If you somehow, sometime, manage to become less clumsy, you’ll be able to use the d10.

Also, in our example, skysurfing is compromised, and shoot pistols. Power Punches are weaker, too.

Next: Equipment

The Landshut rules tell you to pick 2d6 items from a book (any book, really), write them down, and then lose 1d6 of them. I’m firing up Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.de/search/pins/?q=rifts%20palladium%20rpg&rs=typed&term_meta[]=rifts%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=palladium%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=rpg%7Ctyped

…and now, you pick (roll 2d6) 11 items you see on the page:

lasersword
shoulder-mounted plasma gun
light power armor
flying carpet
9mm pistol
skull sensors
first-aid kit
breathing apparatus for space
war ax
cowboy hat
mirrorshades

…now, you lose 1d6 of them: 3

I roll a d12 three times (rerolling 12, obviously):

lasersword
shoulder-mounted plasma gun
light power armor
flying carpet
9mm pistol
skull sensors
first-aid kit
breathing apparatus for space
war ax
cowboy hat
mirrorshades

And finally, you pick or create two Powers: special equipment, spells, skills, special abilities, connections, special backgrounds, whatever makes your class special.

You’re playing an Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune, so spells and PSI doesn’t fit… you come up with these two:

Arcanowave Disruptor gun (foul magic-biotech weapon plugged into your spine, disintegrates the target’s soul, opening them up for demonic possession)
Smell Fear

Yep! That’s your character:

Shiv Coleman, Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune
Cool under Fire d12, Really weak d6, Really clumsy d6

Powers: Arcanowave Disruptor gun (foul magic-biotech weapon plugged into your spine, disintegrates the target’s soul, opening them up for demonic possession), Smell Fear

Skills: Skysurfing (d8), Shoot pistols (d8), Power Punches (d8), Jury-rig tech, Violent Meditation (d20), Falling from heights (d8)

Gear: lasersword, shoulder-mounted plasma gun, 9mm pistol, skull sensors, first-aid kit, war ax, cowboy hat, mirrorshades


And, for players who prefer rolling just one type of die, let’s say a d20: “Disadvantage” means roll 2d20 and take the lower result, “Advantage” means roll 2d20 and take the higher result. Opposed rolls.


Shiv Coleman, Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune
Cool under Fire (avdantage), Really weak (disadvantage), Really clumsy (disadvantage)

Powers: Arcanowave Disruptor gun (foul magic-biotech weapon plugged into your spine, disintegrates the target’s soul, opening them up for demonic possession), Smell Fear

Skills: Skysurfing (disadvantage), Shoot pistols (disadvantage), Power Punches (disadvantage), Jury-rig tech, Violent Meditation (advantage), Falling from heights (disadvantage)

Gear: lasersword, shoulder-mounted plasma gun, 9mm pistol, skull sensors, first-aid kit, war ax, cowboy hat, mirrorshades


And, last but not least, for groups who like using opposed 2d6 rolls (that’s our preference): simply add +3 to your rolls for advantageous abilities, and subtract 3 from your rolls for disadvantageous abilities.


Shiv Coleman, Arcanowave Underworld Soldier of Fortune
Cool under Fire, Really weak, Really clumsy

Powers: Arcanowave Disruptor gun (foul magic-biotech weapon plugged into your spine, disintegrates the target’s soul, opening them up for demonic possession), Smell Fear

Skills: Skysurfing, Shoot pistols, Power Punches, Jury-rig tech, Violent Meditation, Falling from heights

Gear: lasersword, shoulder-mounted plasma gun, 9mm pistol, skull sensors, first-aid kit, war ax, cowboy hat, mirrorshades

Make your game great. Use clichés.

To be honest, I could stop this post right there. “Use clichés” might be the single best advice for any referee, for any genre. About the same time last year, I write about how powerful and universal clichés are.

Let’s use this knowledge and apply it to the post I wrote two days ago: FKR The Expanse, my FKR game for hard-ish science fiction.

As a group, you start with a spaceship. And you are in crippling debt.
Each player rolls 1d20 to determine the enhancements of the ship.

1. Your ship has a brig and oft-occupied cells.
2. Your ship’s navigation systems are top of the line.
3. The crew quarters are lavish.
4. The ship’s armory is pretty decent, although it’s mostly small arms, grenades and melee weapons.
5. The ship’s armory’s operational.
6. The ship has a well-supplied medical bay.
7. The ship’s engines are high-quality.
8. The ship is equipped with an extra heavy turret and a military-grade laser cutter.
9. The ship has extra hiding spots.
10. The ship has a laboratory for analysis.
11-20. none

Character Creation

Name your character. You can get hit about 4 times. The referee determines the gravity of a hit.  Guns reduce your hits by at least 2 points. Your referee may decide to keep your exact number of hits to themselves, so you don’t get distracted by numbers on your sheet.

Attributes

Roll 1d6 twice. Effects are cumulative.

  1. You are strong.
  2. You are dextrous. 
  3. You are tough. 
  4. You are smart. 
  5. You are educated. 
  6. Pick one of the above.

Service

Roll 1d6:

  1. Navy
  2. Marines
  3. Army
  4. Scouts
  5. Merchants
  6. Others

Rank

Roll 1d6:

  1. Navy:
    Roll a d6
    1: Ensign.
    2: Lieutenant.
    3: Lt Cmdr.
    4: Commander.
    5: Captain.
    6: Admiral
  2. Marines:
    Roll a d6
    1: Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Force Cmdr.
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: Brigadier
  3. Army:
    Roll a d6:
    1: Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Major .
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: General
  4. Scouts
  5. Merchants 
    Roll a d6:
    1-2: 4th Officer.
    3: 3rd Officer.
    4: 2nd Officer.
    5: 1st Officer.
    6: Captain 
  6. Others
    Create something new and exciting!

Retirement Pay

(Your Rank times 10) + 20 is the chance you get a yearly retirement pay. Scouts and Others roll 1d6 to determine rank. Pay is 1d10*1000 credits. 

Skills

If you’re using clichés in your game, you don’t need skills. A cliché includes all skills you usually associate with it. So, a Scout will have all skills commonly associated with that profession: Observation, Strategy, Aerial Reconnaissance, and certainly a few combative skills. So, in this game, there are no skills.

Weapons and other tools of the trade

The same rule applies here: Clichés always come with the appropriate tools of the trade. For soldiers, those are a weapon or two, as well as (probably) connections and gear.

How to use all of that

Your main cliché is the career you just rolled. Add two more clichés that cover (preferably) other areas, like mental and social capabilities.

RULES

Love the characters. Respect the genre. Trust your gut feeling. Try to resolve every action by using common sense. Clarify your players’ intentions, then make a judgment.  Feel free to knock out or injure a character if the narration and common sense warrant it. If in doubt, go with the first idea that comes to your mind. If you want to roll dice, referee rolls 2d6 vs. the player’s 2d6.

Sample character

Santosh Kamal
Tough-as-nails Army 1st Lieutenant
Capable chess player
Elephant in the china store at high society events

Let’s improve this and describe what people can see first (what Over The Edge calls “signs”):

Santosh Kamal
long black beard, turban, deep green uniform
Tough-as-nails Army 1st Lieutenant (several scars in his face, slim, dense muscles)
Capable chess player (wears glasses)
Elephant in the china store at high society events (blushes easily)

FKR The Expanse

So I’ve been mulling over my FKR Trav game and how to adapt it to The Expanse. This post is the result. Kudos to Tan over at Underground Adventures for the brilliant idea to combine ship improvements with character class.

As a group, you start with a spaceship. And you are in crippling debt.
Each player rolls 1d20 to determine the enhancements of the ship.

1. Your ship has a brig and oft-occupied cells.
2. Your ship’s navigation systems are top of the line.
3. The crew quarters are lavish.
4. The ship’s armory is pretty decent, although it’s mostly small arms, grenades and melee weapons.
5. The ship’s armory’s operational.
6. The ship has a well-supplied medical bay.
7. The ship’s engines are high-quality.
8. The ship is equipped with an extra heavy turret and a military-grade laser cutter.
9. The ship has extra hiding spots.
10. The ship has a laboratory for analysis.
11-20. none

Character Creation

Name your character. You can get hit about 4 times. The referee determines the gravity of a hit.  Guns reduce your hits by at least 2 points. Your referee may decide to keep your exact number of hits to themselves, so you don’t get distracted by numbers on your sheet.

Attributes

Roll 1d6 twice. Effects are cumulative.

  1. You are strong.
  2. You are dextrous. 
  3. You are tough. 
  4. You are smart. 
  5. You are educated. 
  6. Pick one of the above.

Service

Roll 1d6:

  1. Navy
  2. Marines
  3. Army
  4. Scouts
  5. Merchants
  6. Others

Rank + Ship Enhancements

Roll 1d6:

  1. Navy:
    Roll a d6
    1: Ensign.
    2: Lieutenant.
    3: Lt Cmdr.
    4: Commander.
    5: Captain.
    6: Admiral
  2. Marines:
    Roll a d6
    1: Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Force Cmdr.
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: Brigadier
  3. Army:
    Roll a d6:
    1: Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Major .
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: General
  4. Scouts
  5. Merchants 
    Roll a d6:
    1-2: 4th Officer.
    3: 3rd Officer.
    4: 2nd Officer.
    5: 1st Officer.
    6: Captain 
  6. Others
    Roll a d6 to determine rank

Retirement Pay

(Your Rank times 10) + 20 is the chance you get a yearly retirement pay. Scouts and Others roll 1d6 to determine rank. Pay is 1d10*1000 credits. 

Skills

Roll as many skills as you have Rank. You can pick the same skill multiple times – each time you choose it, you get a little bit better at at.

Navy

  1. Ship‘s boat
  2. Vacc Suit
  3. Fwd Obsvr
  4. Gunnery
  5. Blade Cbt,
  6. Gun Cbt
  7. Mechanical
  8. Electronic
  9. Engineering
  10. Medical 
  11. Navigation
  12. Computer
  13. Pilot
  14. Admin
  15. Strong
  16. Dextrous
  17. Tough
  18. Smart
  19. Educated
  20. roll again

Marines

  1. Vacc Suit
  2. Blade Cbt
  3. Gun Cbt
  4. Vehicle
  5. Mechnical
  6. Electronic
  7. Tactics
  8. Medical
  9. Computer
  10. Leader
  11. Admin
  12. Strong
  13. Dextrous
  14. Tough
  15. Gambling
  16. Brawling
  17. to 20. roll again

Army

  1. Vehicle
  2. Mechanical
  3. Electronics
  4. Tactics
  5. Blade Cbt
  6. Gun Cbt
  7. Medical
  8. Computer
  9. Leader
  10. Admin
  11. Strong
  12. Dextrous
  13. Tough
  14. Gambling
  15. Educated
  16. to 20. roll again

Scouts

  1. Vehicle
  2. Vacc Suit
  3. Mechanical
  4. Navigation
  5. Gun Cbt
  6. Electronics
  7. Gunnery
  8. Medical
  9. Navigation
  10. Engineering
  11. Computer
  12. Pilot
  13. Strong
  14. Dextrous
  15. Tough
  16. Smart
  17. Educated
  18. to 20. roll again

Merchants

  1. Vehicle
  2. Vacc Suit
  3. Steward
  4. Electronics
  5. Gun Cbt
  6. Streetwise
  7. Mechanical
  8. Navigation
  9. Gunnery
  10. Medical
  11. Engineering
  12. Computer
  13. Pilot
  14. Admin
  15. Strong
  16. Dextrous
  17. Tough
  18. Blade Cbt
  19. Bribery
  20. roll again

Others

  1. Vehicle
  2. Gambling
  3. Brawling
  4. Bribery
  5. Blade Cbt
  6. Gun Cbt
  7. Streetwise
  8. Mechanical
  9. Electronics
  10. Gambling
  11. Brawling
  12. Forgery
  13. Medical
  14. Computer
  15. Strong
  16. Dextrous
  17. Tough
  18. to 20. roll again

Possessions

Roll one melee and one firearm. 

Melee

  1. Dagger
  2. Foil 
  3. Sword
  4. Cutlass
  5. Broadsword
  6. Bayonet
  7. Spear
  8. Halberd
  9. Pike
  10. Cudgel

Firearm

  1. Carbine
  2. Rifle
  3. Auto Rifle
  4. Shotgun
  5. SMG
  6. Revolver
  7. Pistol
  8. pick one

Armor

Roll 1d6+Rank. If you roll 7 or more, you also start with armor. This can be a kevlar vest, hardshell armor or similar sci-fi stuff.  

RULES

Love the characters. Respect the genre. Trust your gut feeling. Try to resolve every action by using common sense. Clarify your players’ intentions, then make a judgment.  Feel free to knock out or injure a character if the narration and common sense warrant it. If in doubt, go with the first idea that comes to your mind. If you want to roll dice, referee rolls 2d6 vs. the player’s 2d6.

United We Stand: a contemporary (military) FKR campaign

Twilight 2000…. The Regiment…. these games DO fascinate me, even though I can’t explain the reason. Regardless. I’m using my FKR Trav rules as base and go from there.

The Situation

Something happened. Nuclear war. Or another catastrophic event that destroyed society, governments and the world as we know them. You are a group of former military and/or civilians trying to get by… or to get home.

Character Creation

Name your character. You can get hit about 4 times. The referee determines the gravity of a hit.  Guns reduce your hits by at least 2 points. Your referee may decide to keep your exact number of hits to themselves.

Attributes

Roll 1d6 twice. Effects are cumulative.

  1. You are strong.
  2. You are dextrous. 
  3. You are tough. 
  4. You are smart. 
  5. You are educated. 
  6. Pick one of the above.

Service

Roll 1d8:

  1. Navy
  2. Marines
  3. Army
  4. Air Force
  5. Civilian
  6. Civilian
  7. Civilian
  8. Civilian

Rank

Roll 1d6:

  1. Navy:
    Roll a d6
    1: Ensign.
    2: Lieutenant.
    3: Lt Cmdr.
    4: Commander.
    5: Captain.
    6: Admiral.
  2. Marines:
    Roll a d6
    1: Second Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Major.
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: General.
  3. Army:
    Roll a d6:
    1: Second Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Major .
    4: Lt Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: General
  4. Air Force:
    Roll a d6:
    1: Second Lieutenant.
    2: Captain.
    3: Major.
    4: Lieutenant Colonel.
    5: Colonel.
    6: General.
  5. – 8. Others
    Roll 1d6 for “rank”. This will be used to determine your skills.

Skills

Roll as many skills as you have Rank. You can pick the same skill multiple times – each time you choose it, you get a little bit better at it.

Navy

  1. Ship‘s boat
  2. Fwd Obsvr
  3. Gunnery
  4. Blade Cbt
  5. Gun Cbt
  6. Mechanical
  7. Electronic
  8. Engineering
  9. Medical 
  10. Navigation
  11. Computer
  12. Pilot
  13. Admin
  14. Strong
  15. Dextrous
  16. Tough
  17. Smart
  18. Educate
  19. to 20. roll again

Marines

  1. Blade Cbt
  2. Gun Cbt
  3. Vehicle
  4. Mechanical
  5. Electronic
  6. Tactics
  7. Medical
  8. Computer
  9. Leader
  10. Admin
  11. Strong
  12. Dextrous
  13. Tough
  14. Gambling
  15. Brawling
  16. to 20. roll again

Army

  1. Vehicle
  2. Mechanical
  3. Electronics
  4. Tactics
  5. Blade Cbt
  6. Gun Cbt
  7. Medical
  8. Computer
  9. Leader
  10. Admin
  11. Strong
  12. Dextrous
  13. Tough
  14. Gambling
  15. Educated
  16. to 20. roll again

Air Force

  1. Pilot
  2. Fwd Obsvr
  3. Gunnery
  4. Blade Cbt
  5. Gun Cbt
  6. Mechanical
  7. Electronic
  8. Engineering
  9. Medical 
  10. Navigation
  11. Computer
  12. Pilot
  13. Admin
  14. Strong
  15. Dextrous
  16. Tough
  17. Smart
  18. Educate
  19. to 20. roll again

Civilians

  1. Vehicle
  2. Gambling
  3. Brawling
  4. Bribery
  5. Blade Cbt
  6. Gun Cbt
  7. Streetwise
  8. Mechanical
  9. Electronics
  10. Gambling
  11. Brawling
  12. Forgery
  13. Medical
  14. Computer
  15. Strong
  16. Dextrous
  17. Tough
  18. to 20. roll again

Possessions

Roll one melee and one firearm. 

Melee

  1. Dagger
  2. Knife 
  3. Machete
  4. Club
  5. Stick
  6. Hammer
  7. Ax
  8. Baseball bat

Firearm

  1. Carbine
  2. Rifle
  3. Auto Rifle
  4. Shotgun
  5. SMG
  6. Revolver
  7. Pistol
  8. pick one

Armor

Roll 1d6+Rank. If you roll 7 or more, you also start with armor. This can be a kevlar vest, or ceramic body armor.  

As a group, you get a vehicle.

Roll 1 d12:

  1. Bicycles
  2. Motorbikes
  3. Horses
  4. Hum-Vee
  5. UAZ-469 (Eastern Bloc jeep)
  6. 3/4-ton pickup Truck
  7. 2.5 Ton Truck
  8. 5-ton Truck
  9. Civilian Car
  10. Hovercraft
  11. to 12. no vehicle

Where do you come from?
Flip a coin (heads=1, tails=2) and roll a d12

1-1. Albania
1-2 Belgium
1-3 Bulgaria
1-4 Canada
1-5 Czech Republic
1-6 Denmark
1-7 Finland
1-8 France
1-9 Germany
1-10 Greece
1-11 Hungary
1-12 pick one
2-1 Italy
2-2 Ex-Yogoslavia
2-3 Lithuania
2-4 The Netherlands
2-5 Norway
2-6 Poland
2-7 Romania
2-8 (Former) Soviet Union
2-9 Turkey
2-10 United Kingdom
2-11 United States of America
2-12 pick one



RULES

Love the characters. Respect the genre. Trust your gut feeling. Try to resolve every action by using common sense. Clarify your players’ intentions, then make a judgment.  Feel free to knock out or injure a character if the narration and common sense warrant it. If in doubt, go with the first idea that comes to your mind. If you want to roll dice, ref rolls 2d6 vs. the player’s 2d6.

Using random words to create characters

We here in the FKR sphere have a tendency to reduce game mechanics to the bare minimum. Usually, this starts with getting rid of hit points at character creation. Then, stats are dropped. Then, skills and abilities are condensed, shortened, till only their names remain, without rules attached to them. This continues, and often, what remains is just one roll to determine what type of character is played, like: “2: Pilot”, or “15: Bodyguard”.

Equipment and skills can be easily determined once we know what “class” we play.

I’d like to take one step further and get rid of predetermined lists of “allowed” character classes. I fondly remember the first edition of Over The Edge, a game where you can play every type of character you can imagine. One of the suggestions (either in the book, or on the old homepage) was to pick random words for inspiration for your character.

Let’s do this. You can either use an old dictionary or magazine or book, or you can go to the online Random Word Generator here: https://randomwordgenerator.com/

I use the latter and click on “Generate Words” to create a character for the The Expanse setting:

Alright.

Farewell: my character is new where he is right now. Or, no! Even better: My character had to flee from…
Hut: this reminds me, of course, of Jabba, the Hutt. So, my character did something to, or stole something from, a criminal. A crime boss, with a huge network and lots of connections.
Absence: Ah, it gets better! My character is an expert for absence, or in other words: he steals. Not the small stuff, but spaceships, cargo and the like.
Week: I turn that into “weak” – and I now I apply a tried-and-true technique: I imagine my character doing what he does best… so…

Zoom in: massive chest… right above the heart, a wound. Still hasn’t healed up. How did it happen? I see my character running, rifle in his hands, he’s running away from… five or six people, firing at him…leaping into the opened airlock of a small Terran spacecraft… bullets zipping past his head, the lock is slowly closing…he’s shouting, ‘go go go go go, damnit, GOOOOO’, the ship’s Epstein drive kicks in…BANG
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH, fuck fuck fuck
He’s been hit in the chest, blood is spraying, then
darkness
silence

That’s my character!

_________________________________________________________________
Tim Walsh
massive build, blond hair, beard
lingering injury above the heart
spaceship thief with a stolen lightweight spaceship ("Quickstep")
wanted for something he did to a crime lord
Gear: rifle, old military clothes
_________________________________________________________________

FKR posts on Darkworm Colt: orientation

Welcome, new readers!

Ben’s new video has prompted hundreds of players to become new members of our Free Kriegsspiel Revolution server on Discord – and I’m deeply grateful for that. The FKR discord started a little over a year ago, and I think we have every right to be proud of it.

By the way, this is the Discord chat between my friend Tan (of Underground Adventures) and I that started it all:

We had been exchanging FKR ideas for quite a while before that.

For those of y’all who are new to FKR and/or to my blog, I’d like to provide you with a few links to blog posts of mine that I think are helpful to understand what FKR is.

Play worlds, not rules is the five-part post series here on Darkworm Colt that describes my journey from diceless to freeform-with-fixed-rules to FKR. If there is something like “required reading” on my blog, then it’s that.

My friend Bob Meyer is one of the old-time players, a true grognard who witnessed and was part of the birth of roleplaying games in the modern sense of the word. He played with Dave Arneson in the original Blackmoor campaign, and he still is the guardian of Dave’s world. I conducted an interview with him where he told me extremely interesting things about how FKR gaming worked back in the pre-D&D days.

Bloodstone was one of my first games explicitly written with FKR in mind.

My Landshut rules show you how to play FKR in any genre, and how to convert every existing rpg to FKR.

Pardon my French, but… fuck rules, it’s all about immersion and diegetic gaming.

A full ten years ago, I created the page design for Professor MAR Barker’s Perfected FKR rules.

Of course, FKR can be diceless, just like back in the days when General Julius von Verdy du Vernois created the first Freies Kriegsspiel. Over on Tan’s blog, you’ll find a short example of diceless FKR, with Tan playing the character and me refereeing.

And this here is a post explaining how I referee diceless FKR games… and another one.

For those of you who want to emulate realistic gunfights in their FKR games.

Hit Points, shit points.

What the Ork gang HQ looks like

Interior

  1. Walls decorated with limbs of mannequins
  2. hundreds of pictures of Catholic saints
  3. padded walls and doors
  4. actual HQ is many floors below ground and cave-like
  5. walls painted black, with faces of dying people projected onto gold foil wallpaper, 70s glitz
  6. deep space murals
  7. photo wallpaper with underwater imagery
  8. contemporary Danish design, very clear and bright
  9. covered with graffiti showing the Dark Lord
  10. Lord of the Rings-style

Furniture

  1. old bar tables and stools
  2. cast from concrete
  3. soft & plushy
  4. stolen from old 1-2: horror; 3-4: scifi; 5-6: fantasy film set
  5. meditation cushions
  6. completely destroyed, what has happened here?
  7. iron cages, laid out with pillows
  8. sleek designer chairs and tables
  9. stolen from a police station, old and dingy
  10. nature themed