From: [00 mlschmalz] at [bsu-ucs.uucp] Newsgroups: rec.games.frp Subject: New Game! COMBAT MONSTER! Date: 31 Jul 92 17:38:46 GMT [Note: I am posting this on behalf of a friend with no net access. All responses will be relayed to him. This has also been posted to the "Vampire: the Masquerade" mailing list....] Greetings to Kindred and Kine: I developed this idea with a friend of mine some time back, and we found it entirely fitting to some of the munchkins we've played with over the years. It's a very simple "game system" idea that... well, you'll see. COMBAT MONSTER Combat Monster is the game of "Trash-and-Bash" battles in which character concept plays a vastly important role and monkeys may fly out of your butt. The whole point of Combat Monster is to design an unstoppable, unbeatable, unlikely character to roll dice for. (Or, see the alternate "Coin-Toss" system, below.) Actually, character may be too strong a word, considering that the player isn't required to actually develop a personality for the thing -- in fact, he'll get more points if he doesn't. Instead, we'll just call it a Combat Monster (hence the name) or CM for short. CMs possess several basic abilities which the player must pay development points for. They are: Hit Real Hard Pick Things Up Shoot Real Straight Throw Real Good Move Real Fast Move Real Quiet Notice Things Happening Think Things Out Interact With Others Take It Like a Man These fairly self-explanatory abilities determine what a CM can do in a given situation. Players divide 500 development points among all ten attributes. (But clever players will swiftly notice that, because this is a combat game, there is no point in putting points into Interact With Others, or even Think Things Out. Even Notice Things Happening can be pretty pointless, if one then buys up Take It Like a Man.) The Players can then also buy Positive Points and Negative Points. Positive Points are special abilities that ordinary folk don't have, such as Shoot While Blind, Run Without Legs, Fight After Death, or Impervious to Everything. (See Appendix A: Things You Want.) Negative Points are those irritating hurdles that everyone has to overcome -- even such larger-than-life figures such as CMs -- that make playing any character -- sorry, "CM" -- really interesting. These include: Hot-Headed (character must always engage in combat at the least provocation), Aversion to Thinking (player cannot spend any points on Think Things Out, Interact With Others, or Notice Things Happening), Severed Nerves (adds to Take It Like a Man), Hyperactive (adds to Move Real Fast), Overactive Glands (CM must always use full rating in Hit Real Hard or Pick Things Up), and Legally Dead (CM must take Positive Point of Fight After Death). (See Appendix B: Other Things You Want.) A proper balance of Abilities, Positive Points, and Negative Points can yield a thoroughly-enjoyable angst-ridden, violent, abusive, self-centered, misanthropic cripple who can level a major metropolis in just under five combat turns and not break a sweat (if he remembers to take the Negative Point "No Sweat Glands" -- halves score in Interact With Others). This ability to overcome any threat, danger, or obstacle to complete success allows the player to concentrate on the roleplaying aspect of his CM -- that is, remembering to grunt once in a while (if you took the Negative Point "Laconic"), or attacking anyone who startles you (if you took the Negative Point "Coffee Drinker"), or constantly complaining about your inability to fell an opponent with one punch (if you took the Negative Point "Whiner"). I can't seem to think of any Positive Points that require a modicum of roleplaying... Referees of Combat Monster (aka "The Something-for-Nothing Roleplaying Game") can develop all sorts of interesting scenarios, such as pulverizing an enemy, pulverizing two enemies, pulverizing multiple enemies, pulverizing a building, pulverizing a city, or pulverizing a civilization. The referee can dream up all sorts of interesting opponents who will prove both challenging and interesting -- e.g., villains who have all their base development points in one ability, and bought all of the others with Negative Points; or exact duplicates of the PCMs (player combat monsters) -- fiendishly difficult to defeat and may actually fall under the first category; or even the MegaMonster (basically full scores in all abilities, and all the Positive Points, balanced with all the Negative Points -- just hold up the rules and say "This is MegaMonster"; this may fall under the second category). Even novice referees will have little difficulty in dreaming up complex and exciting campaign ideas, such as defeating everybody, one by one; or taking over everything; or enslaving everybody; or killing everybody; or any combination of these ideas. Really clever referees can set adventures in all sorts of exotic locales, where the PCMs can meet all sorts of interesting and carefully-constructed NPCMs (non-player combat monsters) with fascinating histories and well-developed personalities, which the PCMs will then get to pound to a messy pulp.* (* Note: Really clever referees are trying WAY too hard.) Some playtest scenarios: Blorf is walking down the street and gets into a fight with a passerby. Captain Awesome takes revenge on ___________. (Fill in the blank.) Rambo kills all non-Americans. Wolversnikt kills anyone who looks at him funny. Ambidextrous-Man defeats Godzilla with one hand tied behind his back (Ambidextrous-Man has the the Negative Point "Fights With One Hand Tied Behind His Back") The playtester's reactions: "Cool! I win!" - Johnny Bates "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" - Kip Robisch "Cool! I win again!" - Johnny Bates "Let's play again." - name withheld by request "DESTROY!!!" - Tim Reynolds "Finally -- a game system that complements my gaming style!" - Ted Combat Monster (aka "The Adolescent Power-Fantasy Roleplaying Game") will appeal mostly to new gamers, but many veteran gamers may find it rewarding as well, especially with the unique Combat Monster Full Experience System (if you win, you double in power; if you lose, you get called a sissy). Players who enjoy roleplaying will find it the most challenging game they've ever encountered, while players who hunger for combat will find it even easier! The really great thing about Combat Monster is that it's designed to be a complementary system: you can play Combat Monster in any other game system you want to! It's so generic that it doesn't matter whether you play it in a fantasy game, a science-fiction game, a western game, a historical game, a superhero game, a dark-future game, or what-have-you! You may be playing it already! EXTRA BONUS! The Alternate Coin-Toss System Players who can't think of a good game system to use Combat Monster with may want to use it as a completely separate system. For those brave souls, we present the Combat Monster Munchkin Roleplaying Game Alternate Coin-Toss System of Action-Success Determination, or Flip-a-Coin for short. Flip-a-Coin is a dynamic randomization system that was originally pioneered by the ancient Rigectians (who forgot to differentiate the opposite sides of the coin, which led to many arguments) and which has proven exceedingly popular, even in these somewhat more sophisticated modern times. The designers of Combat Monster have adopted and adapted this system for the players of Combat Monster in order to help allay the high cost of buying dice, which are so popular with more traditional gaming systems. Hey, why spend $.75 on a fancy polyhedron which will only confuse you with all those different numbers anyway? So how do YOU use the Flip-a-Coin system, you ask? Simple. Go smash your younger siblings' piggy-banks to shards and bring back all the change you can carry. Different denominations of coins won't matter, and neither will country-of-origin. Even paper money will work in a pinch. Okay, so now you're rich. You've taken your first step toward learning the Flip-a-Coin system -- and incidentally, the same first step that leads you to prison or political office. You're ready to play. Look down at your Combat Monster Data Sheet. Check your rating in, oh, say, Hit Real Hard. Now, count out enough change to equal that rating. That is, if you have a 107 in Hit Real Hard, count out $1.07. It doesn't matter what combination of coins you use, just so they equal one dollar and seven cents. You may need a calculator. Now: clear a spot on the tabletop where you can unceremoniously hurl your change. Toss 'em. When all the coins stop moving, pick out any that came up tails (you may need to have the referee make a few judgement calls) and put them aside. Now, count up all the coins that you have left (those that came up heads). This is your Head Count. Your Head Count determines how well you used your ability. Since we were using Hit Real Hard in this example, this is how hard you hit something/someone, and thus how much damage they took. Now let's say that someone has already tossed their Hit Real Hard, and you were the victim. They tossed 257 heads ($2.57) for their Head Count, which means you're going to take 257 points of damage. Ouch. But, you've got a rating of 344 in Take It Like a Man. Quickly assemble $3.44 in change, and toss it. Say your Head Count comes to 170 ($1.70). That means that you can safely ignore 170 of the other guy's heads, leaving -- here's where that calculator comes in handy -- 87 heads. This is the total amount of damage you take, which comes directly off of your Take It Like a Man score (it's hard to be macho when someone's pummelling the crap out of you). The next time you roll your Take It Like a Man, you'll have only -- where's my calculator? -- 257. (Just a coincidence, I assure you.) Got it yet? Okay, but what about those other abilities, like Move Real Fast, Shoot Real Straight, or Think Things Out? Well, if it applies directly to combat, it works just like Hit Real Hard: gather the appropriate number of coins and toss them. Move Real Fast is basically the same as Take It Like a Man, so you can use it to avoid taking damage. Move Real Quiet works against Notice Things Happening, in much the same way. As for Pick Things Up, assume that for every point you have in the rating, you can lift ten pounds. And as for Think Things Out and Interact, well, we really didn't think anyone was going to put any development points into those, so we didn't come up with any rules for them. If you took them -- what are you, some kind of pansy? There you have it -- the Combat Monster Roleplaying System and the Coin-Toss method. We'll be coming up with more supplements for Combat Monster in the future, such as the CM Data Sheets mentioned above, and the CM Scenario Pack (just loaded with all sorts of things to beat on), and the Combat Monster CM Development Worksheet for the Hard-of-Thinking, and the Combat Monster Development Tips-'n'-Tricks Book for the Comprehension-Impaired. That's all for now! Good luck and good gaming! Jeff Wiker Oh! I almost forgot my nifty weapons chart for Combat Monster! Oh, well, just assume that a weapon costs five development points and doubles your damage. Have fun! -- Marc Schmalz, a.k.a. Sparky!!