Yet Another Role Playing System

by David Allan Finch, Version 1.1

Copyright 1994,2002 David Allan Finch, All Rights Reserved.

Bushido is Trademarked by FGU and used without permission.

1. Introduction

This is intend to be a simple roleplay system for use by Internet Roleplaying Gamers. This system can be used for any background, but the examples are all from a mythological japan.

2. Character Classes

YARPS has no concept of Character Classes but it is advisable to have some idea of what type of character you are building. Here are some examples using Bushido's character classes.

• Budoka, a man dedicated to Bugei skills (basically the Military Arts). Budoka are normally highly focused on unarmed skills and tend to be loners.

• Bushi, the classic Japanese warrior. The Bushi is really trained to fight as part of a group. Historical bushi were both Samurai and Peasants (who called Ashegaru)

• Shugenja, an oriental Wizard, litraly 'Fol- lower of Genja'. Shugenja are normally treated as outcasts and could be forced out of town if 'The Crops Fail'.

• Gakasho, a priest. There are two Japanese Religons, Shinto (the way of the Hundreds of Gods) and Budhist. Budhists tend to have two factions, the Wanderning Bonze and the Temple Clergy. The Shinto is a much lesser Religon with most shrines looked after by Lay People (well there are a lot of them).

• Yakuza, this class of individuals cover a large section of people. It includes every thing from Bandits through 'Robin Hoods' to Organised Hoods.

• Ninja, these are not player characters. No you can't have one, even if you say, "please"!

3. Character Attributes and Skills

YARPS uses a unified Skill and Attribute system which is very similar to the FudgeRPG?. All characters have 50 point to spend on their Attributes and Skills.

Attributes are defined as all those things a Character would have by default and only change from the 'norm' or average. For exampl, Strength, Alertness, Pain Threshold.

Skills are defined as things that you must learn and have no default value, ie Combat, Needlework, Engineering.

3.1. The Value System

All skills and attributes have a Value which is bought using the following table.

        Value Name   Attribute Cost 
 Skill Cost

        ............+................+............
        Terrible     -11 to -20     
  0

        Poor          -6 to -10     
  1

        Mediocre      -1 to  -5     
  2 to  3

        Fair           0            
  4 to  7

        Good           1 to   5     
  8 to 15

        Great          6 to  10     
 16 to 31

        Superb        11 to  20     
 32 to 64

If a character does not have an Attribute it is automaticaly at Value Fair and a skill is at Terrible.

3.2. Attributes

A character must have at least the following Attributes marked down even if no points are spent on them:

        Strength
        Speed
        Dexterity
        Intelligence
        Willpower
        Health
        Rank (Only in Backgrounds where relevant)
        Honour (Only in Backgrounds where relevant)

Other Attributes are at the player's and referee's discretion.

3.2.1. Rank

The Character Rank deturmines the level of society the character was born into. This maps in a Japanese Background to:

         Terrible    Eta, Yakuza, Ninja
         Poor        Peasant, Merchants
                     and Ordinary Artisans
         Mediocre    Ronin and Weapon Artisans
         Fair        Jizi-Samurai (Farming Samurai)
         Good        Samurai
         Great       High Status Samurai
         Superb      Noble and Daimyos

3.2.2. Honour

Honour is how the character thinks of themselves in relation to others in his 'group'. In any background like Historical Japan 'On' or 'Face' is probly the most important attribute. Starting with a low Honour is no problem, but any loss of Honour what ever the value is a great mental blow. In these backgrounds the Gaining of Honour is the main object of all characters. Note, that Honour should not be higher than Rank, if it is you will have to take every opertunity to increase your Rank.

3.3. Skills

Example skills from the Bushido System.

3.3.1. Bugei

Atemi-Waza (proto-karate), Bajutsu (horse), Bojutsu (Staff), Chikujo-Jutsu (fort and seige), Hayagekejutsu (force march), Hojojutsu (binding), Iaijutsu (fast draw), Jittlejutsu (iron truncheon), Jojutsu (baton), Jujutsu (proto-judo), Kamajutsu (small rice sickle), Karumjutsu (climbing leaping), Kenjutsu (swords), Kyujutsu (bow), Ni-To-Kenjustsu (two swords), Nunchaku-Te, Senjo- jutsu (battle), Shinobi-jutsu (stealth), Shuriken- jutsu, Sojutsu (spears), Sumai (proto-sumo), Tanto-jutsu (knife), Yadomejutsu (arrow cutting), Yari-Nage-jutsu (javelins)

3.3.2. Fine Arts

Acting, Armoury, Bowyer, Calligraphy, Classics, Dance, Divination, Go, Hawking, Heraldy, Medicine, Music, Meditation, Painting, Poetry, Rhetric, Tea Ceremony, Theology

3.3.3. Practical Arts

Commerce, Crafts, Fishing, Forgery, Gambling, Hunting, Lockpicking, Massage, Tracking

3.3.4. Mystical Arts

The schools of magic are only selectable by Shugenja and Yoga by Gakasho. Any character that has these will get spell or powers allocated in proportion to the Skill Level.

3.3.4.1. The Five Schools of Magic

        Hi-do       School of Fire
        Mizu-do     School of Water
        Hyashi-do   School of Wood
        Kane-do     School of Metal
        Tsuchi-do   School of Soil

3.3.4.2. The Five Yogas

        Karma-Yoga  Yoga of Will and Destiny
        Gnana-Yoga  Yoga of Knowledge
        Hatha-Yoga  Yoga og Body
        Prana-Yoga  Yoga of Breath and Purification
        Raja-Yoga   (Royal Yoga) Yoga of
                    Balance and Control

3.4. Attribute and Skill Improvement

All skills and some attributes can be improved (also, in some cases, reduced). To impove an attribute (at referees descression) requires one month with the correct facilities to gain one point. To impove a skill which matches a character's type and with a teacher will take one week to gain one point. In other words it will take 8 weeks to train a skill from Good to Great. If there is no teacher, no school or the skill is outside the character's type then the time take doubled for each hinderence.

Note, at character creation it is acceptable to spend points to be on the way to the next Value. This denotes that your character has had more training, but not enough to get the next level. This will be taken into account in comparing users of skills.

4. Action Resolution

There are two types of actions, those that are apposed by something else and those that aren't.

4.1. Unopposed Action

The character skill or attribute is cross referenced against the dificult of the action on the following table. This will produce a result. S = Automatic Sucess, CS = Critial Sucess, F = Automatic Failure, CF = Critical Failure.

Any number is the chance out of 10 that the action is a sucess and can be rolled for on a d10.

                  Terr Poor Med Fair Good Great Superb
  Trivial-2        S    S    S   CS   CS   CS    CS
  Trivial-1        7    S    S   S    CS   CS    CS
  Trivial          5    7    S   S    S    CS    CS
  Simple           3    5    7   S    S    S     CS
  Routine          F    3    5   7    S    S     S
  Difficult        F    F    3   5    7    S     S
  Hard             CF   F    F   3    5    7     S
  Very Hard        CF   CF   F   F    3    5     7
  Imposable        CF   CF   CF  F    F    3     5
  Imposable+1      CF   CF   CF  CF   F    F     3
  Imposable+2      CF   CF   CF  CF   CF   F     F

4.2. Apposed Actions

This uses the same table as above by the skill that is being used to opposed that action is mapped to the difficulty. Terrible = Trivial etc.

4.3. Modifiers for actions

Modifiers increase or reduce the effective difficulty. For example using climbing equipement will reduce a difficult climb to a routine climb and wearing Armour increases the difficult to hit.

4.4. Combat

4.4.1. Armour

Armour affects the defenders skill. An unarmoured person is -2, a light armour is -1, normal armour is 0, full armour is +1 and heavy armour is +2.

4.4.2. Weapons

Weapon affect the attackers skill. All unarmed attacks are at -1, small weapons at 0, swords are +1 and large spears are a +2.

4.4.3. Normal Combat Round

The first attacker is the one with the highest speed. If the attacker does not win, then the defender gets to attack and so on until one is wins.

4.4.4. Result

Unless a character is killed with a Critical Success then the character is not dead only 'out of combat'. If you are looked after by some one who applies first aid after the combat is finished then you make a Health at Routine check to see how badly you are affected.