The Inside Scoop on Gaming

TWERPS is one of the cutest little games I've ever come across. For the cost of a Big Mac, you get a neat, though minimalist little RPG complete with dice (or die, as it seems)

The rule book is divided up into 5 major sections: Introduction, Character Generation, Combat, How to Do Everthing, Adventures.

Characters in TWERPS are very basic. They only have one stat: Strength which acts as their stats, the combat ability hit points, ...pretty much everything.

Combat uses a simple duel roll with players rolling a d10 each and adding their strength. In fact, "doing everything" works in this same manner, with the GM rolling and adding a difficulty rating for the desired action.

This system I've found to be similar to R.Talsorian Games's Interlock system. Specifically Mekton II, Mekton Z. The difference being, of course, Interlock has a few more stats.

The neat thing is you get everything you need for under $10 and you can read & run within a half hour.

The bad thing is TWERPS is simplistic to a fault. One major problem is that if you have a low Stength score, you're bad at EVERYTHING. You can't have "the strong guy" (not so fast, not so smart) or "the fast guy" (neither strong nor smart) or "the smart guy" (yet physically inferior) in TWERPS. It's all or nothing.

The other problem is the TWERPS 8-page paphlet is so basic, it's downright colorless. Fortunately there are many campaign books which help provide a bit more flavor. I think the Basic Rules is supposed to be fantasy, the "default" for RPGs, I guess. But you'll need TWERPS Magic and How to Do Everything Better before you have enought information to really run.

The suppliments do add a remedy for the one stat problem with either a class or skill, which gives a bonus to Strength in certain situations.

The Adventures section gives brief description for Adventures that are approprtiate to the various campaign setting. They're more like adventure "seeds" than pre-planned adventures since the GM has to fill in a lot of blanks, but I personally prefer this sort of thing to pre-published modules anyway.

On the whole, TWERPS can be fun. It's certainly fun to read. The artwork of the current TWERPS artist/writer guy, Niels Erckson is very pretty and appropriately cartoon. The various campaign books give great set-ups of their genre setting. I personally recommend TWERPS Twek (Sar Trek) and Super Dudes (Comic Book Heroes).

Looking past what's written, a more concrete system can be seen. One that maintains the initial simplicity of the original concept but offers a more solid rules system without the flaws of the original or resorting to more stats or a big honking list of skills.

But alas, I doubt anyone, including the publisher, takes TWERPS seriously enough to try to find this "better" game. Pity, but heck, the game is fun as-is.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

TWERPS
Author: Jeff & Amanda Dee Category: game Company/Publisher: Reindeer games Line: TWERPS Cost: about 5 bucks Page count: 8 SKU: GS 10455 Capsule Review by Dungeon Curmudgeon on 10/30/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Historical Horror Far_Future Space Comedy Anime Espionage Conspiracy Post-apocalypse Old_West Vampire Gothic Asian/Far_East Superhero Generic	TWERPS is one of the cutest little games I've ever come across. For the cost of a Big Mac, you get a neat, though minimalist little RPG complete with dice (or die, as it seems) The rule book is divided up into 5 major sections: Introduction, Character Generation, Combat, How to Do Everthing, Adventures. Characters in TWERPS are very basic. They only have one stat: Strength which acts as their stats, the combat ability hit points, ...pretty much everything. Combat uses a simple duel roll with players rolling a d10 each and adding their strength. In fact, "doing everything" works in this same manner, with the GM rolling and adding a difficulty rating for the desired action. This system I've found to be similar to R.Talsorian Games's Interlock system. Specifically Mekton II, Mekton Z. The difference being, of course, Interlock has a few more stats. The neat thing is you get everything you need for under $10 and you can read & run within a half hour. The bad thing is TWERPS is simplistic to a fault. One major problem is that if you have a low Stength score, you're bad at EVERYTHING. You can't have "the strong guy" (not so fast, not so smart) or "the fast guy" (neither strong nor smart) or "the smart guy" (yet physically inferior) in TWERPS. It's all or nothing. The other problem is the TWERPS 8-page paphlet is so basic, it's downright colorless. Fortunately there are many campaign books which help provide a bit more flavor. I think the Basic Rules is supposed to be fantasy, the "default" for RPGs, I guess. But you'll need TWERPS Magic and How to Do Everything Better before you have enought information to really run. The suppliments do add a remedy for the one stat problem with either a class or skill, which gives a bonus to Strength in certain situations. The Adventures section gives brief description for Adventures that are approprtiate to the various campaign setting. They're more like adventure "seeds" than pre-planned adventures since the GM has to fill in a lot of blanks, but I personally prefer this sort of thing to pre-published modules anyway. On the whole, TWERPS can be fun. It's certainly fun to read. The artwork of the current TWERPS artist/writer guy, Niels Erckson is very pretty and appropriately cartoon. The various campaign books give great set-ups of their genre setting. I personally recommend TWERPS Twek (Sar Trek) and Super Dudes (Comic Book Heroes). Looking past what's written, a more concrete system can be seen. One that maintains the initial simplicity of the original concept but offers a more solid rules system without the flaws of the original or resorting to more stats or a big honking list of skills. But alas, I doubt anyone, including the publisher, takes TWERPS seriously enough to try to find this "better" game. Pity, but heck, the game is fun as-is. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)