Well, like the header says, it's a free RPG engine that I've been bashing on for about the last year.

Why is it called ONE?

Because it's my first. Y'know it's funny, the design stuff fairly flew out of my head, but I just couldn't think up a decent title. Now I know how Steve Jackson feels.

The web's full of free RPGs. Why the heck are you posting another?

Okay, maybe it's a little egotistical, but I honestly think that people will want to use my system due to the design philosophy behind it.

And what design philosophy would that be?

Now we're getting somewhere. This RPG was partially inspired by Paranoia, one of the greatest games ever made, yet you won't find a trace of that engine here. Why? Because Paranoia, a game whose main tenets were "keep the action moving", "don't give them time to think", and "kill the bastards" had one of the most hideously complex engines I'd ever seen, especially in the first edition. Both the GM and the players had to know the rules cold before they could get into the freewheeling spirit that made the game so fun. Seeing this mismatch of superb setting with overwrought engine put the seed into my mind.

Then one day, I happened to be (re)reading a Calvin and Hobbes collection (got all of 'em, dontcha know) and I came across one where Calvin and Hobbes are playing cowboys and Indians, and Hobbes "deflects" all of Calvin's bullets simply by saying "My, what a lousy shot you are!"

It struck me. All an RPG engine is good for is to prevent the classic schoolyard "I shot you!" "No you didn't!" conflict - and a system that can do this in the simplest and most generic way possible might be pretty useful to today's GM.

So I began to think. Gosh, I thought. What's the simplest engine that I know of? Why, Traveller, of course! But Traveller has some problems with character creation and advancement. What RPG system do I know of that has good rules on custom characters and character advancement? Why, GURPS, of course!

An so it went. I found and analyzed the simplest RPG systems I could find - Traveller, Car Wars, Toon, Sorcery! - and also picked up some other good ideas from GURPS, Champions, and Star Fleet Battles. I finally boiled down what I personally was looking for into four basic tenets:

1. Fun always comes before anything else.
2. Playability always comes before realism.
3. Complex calculations should be made during character creation, not during play.
4. Use as few charts and lists during play as possible.

So what did I end up with? ONE is a very basic, simple system using only six-sided dice that GMs can use when they pick up a new game only to find that, like Paranoia, it's a great setting married to an unplayable engine.

Got a sample?

Want to just check out the system? Click here to jump to the HTML version of One-Page ONE or click here for to download a copy in Rich Text Format.

That's cool, where's the whole thing?

Click here to jump to the HTML version of ONE 1.0, or click here to download a copy in Rich Text Format.

Any word on version 2?

Here is an alpha version of ONE 2.0. I've expanded the range of the game so that stats and skills can be more spread out and I've also simplified task resolution (always a good thing). This version is feeling very good; once it's done I'm going to prettify it and convert it to PDF format. Comments welcome!

I'd love to make a comment...

And I'd love to hear it. No, really, I would. Mail all comments to me at badman@austin.rr.com.

This FreeRPG Webring site owned by Anthony Salter.