The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Simply Roleplaying! is a genre independent, RPG core rules system. What does that mean exactly? The rules and mechanics are provided to resolve interaction within a roleplaying game setting, without tying actions to a specific genre.

While buckets full of free RPGs have been available on the web for years, Microtactix is the first (AFAIK) to sell a commerical quality RPG solely on the internet in electronic form. That's right, Simply Roleplaying! is only available in electronic format (Adobe PDF) from Microtactix's website (www.microtactix.com). It requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher to read, which is free from the Adobe website.

This is what you get in the commercial version: * An interactive character sheet. Fields are editable, and the document is printable, but the character sheet can't be saved to be updated later. * A color cover (presumably so you can print it if you have access to a color printer). * Printable item cards for 32 weapons. * An 18-page "rules lite" version of the core rules system. While it doesn't have an index or table of contents, it's small enough to quickly look up frequently referenced rules. * A 132-page printable version of the core rules system. * A 238-page monitor-friendly version of the core rules system.

That's a good deal of stuff. However, my first reaction was, "Where's the computer-based character generator?" It seems like a natural progression to have a character generator when distributing an electronic-only game. Perhaps a Java-based character generator will make its way to the Microtactix website in the future.

It's very useful having an electronic version, as you can quickly search (and find) whatever you're looking for. However, unless you roleplay with a computer in front of you, you'll need to make a hard copy. And wouldn't you know it? The printable version doesn't have an index.

Microtactix claims that revisions will be made available to registered users, but it's not clear if updates will be free.

This review is based on the monitor-friendly version of the rules designated "Core Rules Screen Edition V1.0"

The introduction to the game states some pretty lofty goals:

"Many games these days are huge, rule-bound, unwieldy affairs that take weeks to prepare and move like elderly elephants with arthritis. We believe a game should be easy and fast, without endless looking-up, figuring-out or rolling dice, so we set about to create one...Though no game system can be everything to everyone, PL is designed to adapt well to a broad range of styles of play - realistic to cinematic, dark and brooding to light-hearted, detailed to breezy."

That's certainly a lot to live up to. The authors even boast easy conversion to other game formats (miniatures and board games), though this conversion information is not available in this product. According to the website, it looks like the future products of Compact Combat and Budget Battlefield will contain those rules. Let's see how well they can pull it off...

Since this game is independent of a setting, the authors waste no time jumping into character creation. Each character is defined by four Statistics (Stats) which represent raw ability. Strength, Coordination, Intellect and Health are expressed by numbers, generally between 1 and 10. The rules use a human as the default example, which has a base Stats of 3 and are modified by 1d10+5 additional points. The age of a character also modifies the number of points available for Stats. The older the character, the more attribute points must be subtracted, but only from Strength, Coordination and Health. I suppose the designers don't believe people get more feebleminded (affecting Intellect) as they get older.

In addition to the four Stats, there are five Secondary Stats: Luck, Hit Points, Fatigue Points, Speed and Armor.

Luck (which starts at 5 for new characters) is a character award given by the GM, similar in idea to Fate Chips in Deadlands. Luck can be used to reduce damage or alter a Test or Contest. However, unlike Fate Chips, Luck cannot be shared amongst the players. Also, a player has to declare using Luck before an action is made. Even if the action succeeds, at least 5 Luck must be used. It seems a little less cinematic to have to declare Luck before the action takes place.

Hit Points are probably what you guessed - how much damage a character can absorb before they fall over. Hit Points are determined by (Strength * Multiplier) + Health, where Multiplier is between 2.5 and 4.0 depending on Strength). The problem I see here is when the character's Strength is modified "on the fly" during game play. A simple body augmentation spell (an expected effect in epic fantasy) that modifies Strength causes the player to stop, look up the Multiplier Table and recalculate Hit Points.

Fatigue Points are simple to figure out (and recompute if needed). Just add the character's Strength and Health together.

Speed is the distance in yards that a character can move during one combat action. The default for a human is 3.

Armor is a negative value that represents protective equipment the character is wearing. Armor subtracts its value from the amount of damage inflicted. With a 0 or less, the character is unarmed.

Once Stats are determined, it's on to Abilities and Disabilities. This will continue to look familiar to anyone who has played GURPS. Abilities are the "good stuff" that your character has, like wealth or ambidexterity. Disabilities are the "not-so-good stuff" your character deals with like phobias and insanity.

Skills represent the trained ability that a character has. Instead of representing the skill numerically, skills have four Skill Levels: familiar, capable, professional and expert. Each Skill Level provides a Skill Bonus to the skill. Skill Bonuses are a near-linear progression of +1 (familiar), +4 (capable), +8 (professional) and +12 (expert). The Stat associated with the skill is added to the Skill Bonus to get a Skill Rating.

Skills are purchased using skill points. The cost for each Skill Level is an exponential progression starting with 2^0 (familiar), working its way to 2^3 (expert). The number of skill points alloted to a new character is based on the age of the character. The number of skill points are then modified by the character's Intellect - more points if higher than 5, fewer points if less than 5. However, the maximum number of skills, as well as the maximum skill level possible is also based on age. I can't believe they really think you have to be 61 years old before you can become an "expert" in a skill. Also, there does not appear to be a relationship between the number of Stats lost and the number of skill points gained (as one grows older).

Skills are in one of three different groups: Personal (which are associated with different Stats), Physical (associated with Coordination), and Mental (associated with Intellect). Looking over the skills presented, there are no skills based on Health. Compared to Intellect and Coordination skills, there are very few skills based on Strength. It appears that Simply Roleplaying! has the same problems with Stat balance that GURPS has.

The section goes on to describe how to choose starting money and equipment. However, no equipment lists (other than a smattering of weapons) is presented here. Some armor is provided in the Combat section though. The Money and Equipment section also discusses the resolution of tasks before ever explaining how to resolve a task. Definately something to clean-up in a future release.

At this point, character creation is complete.

The Rewards section explains how new skills are learned and existing skills are improved. The designers suggest that one skill point be awarded to characters per month of game time passed. While I support the idea of "role-playing" over "roll-playing", this suggested amount doesn't seem like much of a reward. You can't help but get the feeling that one point isn't going to go very far. That's especially true when you discover the cost of skill improvement.

Learning personal and physical skills is just like purchasing them during character creation. That's pretty simply and consistant. But it doesn't stay that way for mental skills unless you have a teacher. If a character doesn't have a teacher, then the skill cost is doubled. If no reference materials are available, then the skill cost is tripled. I'm not sure what the prejudice is against mental skills, but it continues into improving skills as well.

Personal and physical skills can actually be improved at the end of a play session. If the skill was used during play, roll 2d10. If the result if higher than the Skill Rating, then the skill is improved by +.2 (the fractional values are dropped during play). While it's a neat idea, it complicates bookkeeping. Not only does the Skill Level have to be listed for each skill, but the Skill Rating has to be listed as well. The designers fail to achieve the goal to have players remain in character by referencing skill proficiency with words (Skill Levels) instead of numbers (Skill Bonus/Rating).

Unlike personal and physical skills, mental skills cannot be improved if they were used during play. Improving mental skills has the same staggered skill costs as learning.

Blatantly missing from the character development section is any discussion of improving Stats. I presume that the only way the designers want players to permanenty modify Stats is by having the character age (thereby reducing Stats).

With character creation and development covered, the next part of the book focuses on how to be a gamemaster. While the information presented on how to create a setting and adventures are necessary for an inexperienced GM, it seems out of place when reading the book as a player. IMHO, game master guidelines deserve their own book so they don't clutter the "core rules" of the system.

Now that you've got a character, you probably want to know how effective he's going to be compared to other characters. When a character is his own worst enemy, he performs a Test to see if he's successful in an action. Resolving a Test is very much like the d20 system used by Fading Suns (except 2d10 is used instead of 1d20). The Skill Rating and the appropriate Stat are added together with a task modifier assigned by the GM to produce a Target Number (TN). If the value rolled on 2d10 is less than or equal to the TN, then the task is a success. A roll of "2" is an Automatic Success, while a roll of "20" is an Automatic Failure. While Automatic Success and Automatic Failure tease at being "critical" results (above and beyond normal results), it isn't actually the case. Nothing special happens on an Automatic Failure.

When a skill isn't appropriate, double the applicable Stat and apply the task difficulty. If it's a Test of Speed, then the Speed value is tripled (instead of doubled). If a character doesn't know a skill, it's a whole different ballgame. Since it's assumed anyone can perform personal skills, the Skill Bonus is treated as 0. If it's a physical skill, the Skill Bonus is -2. But, if it's a mental skill, you're SOL: Tests of mental skills cannot be done unless they are learned.

A good part of the book goes on to discuss the various mini-rules systems used for poisons, drugs, item breakage, fire, collisions, and falls. Some sample information is also given for mundane creatures (like dogs) as well as fantasy creatures (like a gryphon).

RPG rules system live and die by their combat rules, since inevitably the players want to make someone take a dirt nap. Combat rounds are five seconds, which in this system translates to two Actions. Like you would expect, Initiative starts a round of combat. 1d10 is added to a character's Combat Awareness skill, but the Skill Bonus is +1/+2/+3/+4 instead of +1/+4/+8/+12 progression. Another strike against consistancy.

There are three basic Actions a character can take: Move, Attack and Defend. Move includes running around, jumping up from a prone position, loading a crossbow, aiming and other miscellaenous actions. Attack is what you expect; specify a weapon, brawling, or grappling. Defending is just that; instead of attacking, a character actively moves out of the way of the Sword of Cleaving. If you choose to defend though, you're stuck defending for the rest of the round (if it was your first action, Defend must be your second action as well). This puts more of an emphasis on getting a high Initiative number if a character wants to act aggressively.

Unless a Called Shot is specified, the defender is treated as one big target. Inflicted damage is subtracted from the pool of Hit Points. Called Shots allow a combatant to hit an arm, leg, tire, headlight and so on. These types of attacks are made two difficulty levels higher than normal. So, arm and leg shots are -2. Head shots are -4. The results of a Called Shot can disable a limb, or knock the target unconscious (if hit in the head).

So once you figure out if you hit your target, you roll damage. Like most every other resolution, the player rolls 2d10. The result is then looked up on the damage chart for the type of weapon used. This is wear those weapon cards come in handy that the authors were keen on including. Each weapon card has it's own weapon damage table. While it's simple to lookup the 2d10 result, the possible damage results are a bit hokey. A character is as likely to do minimum damage with a weapon as they are to do maximum damage with a weapon. That means it's just as possible to do 1 point of damage as to do 20 points of damage with a weapons that has a 1-20 range. Or, to take the extreme example, you're as likely to do 5 points of damage as 100 points of damage with a weapon damage range of 5-100. That resolution method is just too loose for me. There's no consistancy of damage based on weapon skill.

Once you get over that bit of disbelief, you hope you remembered to buy some armor. Armor simply subtracts its rating from the damage done. If the result is 0 or less, then the defender is unharmed by the attack. Armor protects different against different types of attack. For example, a kevlar vest is rating -14 vs. bullets, but only rating -4 vs. melee weapons. Again, consistancy is lacking here. Instead of dealing with positive numbers, the designers felt it was better to express Armor as a negative number. So, in most instances, it's better to have a higher positive number, but in other cases, it's better to have a higher negative number. Simplicity will go a long way.

The rest of the combat section contains information for dealing with automatic weapon burst fire, explosions and car crashes.

I started out with the best of hopes for the Simply Roleplaying! core rules system. I think the designers are headed in the right direction, but they've fallen short of their destination. I think the focus on the (new to the industry) distribution method of the game might has clouded their objectivity.

The authors talk about how the adventure is more important than the rules. That's absolutely true. But where are the inspirational illustrations hiding to get you pumped? You know, the one were the paladin is fighting his way through Hell. A ship escaping an exploding sun.. The Men in Black getting jiggy with it? Illustrations are more than eye candy -- they're inspiration.

I'm not sure about the designer's take on realism in the rules. In areas like skill learning and improvement, realism is obviously forefront. In other areas like weapon damage, it's on the back burner. Some concepts (like different creature sizes) seems to be ignored altogether -- there's always a David and Goliath.

When coming up with a rules system, consistancy is paramount to making it easy to learn. Are the special cases that break inconsistancy really worth the complications? IMHO, no. It just relays the message that the designers haven't taken the time (or are incapable of) creating a truly consistant and free-flowing system.

No magic system, psi or superpower system given (apparently these will be separate Expansion Packs with a price tag of their own). World Packs will build upon Expansion Packs, providing a specific setting. Not very useful as is - can't run fantasy, superheroes or futuristic. It's more of a game engine than an RPG.

"Simply Roleplaying! is a full-fledged role playing game system that takes full advantage of all the ease of play and expandability of the PlainLabel Game System." That's straight from the Microtactix website. While the Simply Roleplaying! product defines the core rules system, it's not enough to play a game without significant additional material. It's not a matter of not having a setting -- dozens of settings are readily available for use (commercial and fan based). It's the fact that the core system lacks the "magic", figuratively and literally speaking. There's nothing that motivates a person to play a specific kind of game. The core system is lacking rules for fantasy magic, psionics, and futuristic space/technology. The marketing guys at Microtactix need a reality check. Simply Roleplaying! is not a playable game as is. It's a good attempt at a core rules system, but it needs a lot more before players can start using it.

Microtactix also boasts "Simply Roleplaying! is the heart of the PlainLabel Game System, the only COMPLETE, full-function multigenre adventuring gaming environment!" Did something escape from Warehouse 23 and rewrite the history of SJGames? C'mon Microtactix, GURPS has been around for more than a decade. Are you in the same reality?

They must be, since they use the same four Stats, have abilities/disabilites and skill costs just like GURPS. Is this GURPS first edition, or what?

It's based on the freely available PlainLabel Game System. So why spend the $9 for this?

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Simply Roleplaying!
Author: Bob Portnell and Guy McLimore Category: game Company/Publisher: Microtactix Games Line: Simply Roleplaying! Cost: US$9 Capsule Review by Chris Carpinello on 06/09/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science fiction Modern day Historical Espionage Generic	Simply Roleplaying! is a genre independent, RPG core rules system. What does that mean exactly? The rules and mechanics are provided to resolve interaction within a roleplaying game setting, without tying actions to a specific genre. While buckets full of free RPGs have been available on the web for years, Microtactix is the first (AFAIK) to sell a commerical quality RPG solely on the internet in electronic form. That's right, Simply Roleplaying! is only available in electronic format (Adobe PDF) from Microtactix's website (www.microtactix.com). It requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher to read, which is free from the Adobe website. This is what you get in the commercial version: * An interactive character sheet. Fields are editable, and the document is printable, but the character sheet can't be saved to be updated later. * A color cover (presumably so you can print it if you have access to a color printer). * Printable item cards for 32 weapons. * An 18-page "rules lite" version of the core rules system. While it doesn't have an index or table of contents, it's small enough to quickly look up frequently referenced rules. * A 132-page printable version of the core rules system. * A 238-page monitor-friendly version of the core rules system. That's a good deal of stuff. However, my first reaction was, "Where's the computer-based character generator?" It seems like a natural progression to have a character generator when distributing an electronic-only game. Perhaps a Java-based character generator will make its way to the Microtactix website in the future. It's very useful having an electronic version, as you can quickly search (and find) whatever you're looking for. However, unless you roleplay with a computer in front of you, you'll need to make a hard copy. And wouldn't you know it? The printable version doesn't have an index. Microtactix claims that revisions will be made available to registered users, but it's not clear if updates will be free. This review is based on the monitor-friendly version of the rules designated "Core Rules Screen Edition V1.0" The introduction to the game states some pretty lofty goals: "Many games these days are huge, rule-bound, unwieldy affairs that take weeks to prepare and move like elderly elephants with arthritis. We believe a game should be easy and fast, without endless looking-up, figuring-out or rolling dice, so we set about to create one...Though no game system can be everything to everyone, PL is designed to adapt well to a broad range of styles of play - realistic to cinematic, dark and brooding to light-hearted, detailed to breezy." That's certainly a lot to live up to. The authors even boast easy conversion to other game formats (miniatures and board games), though this conversion information is not available in this product. According to the website, it looks like the future products of Compact Combat and Budget Battlefield will contain those rules. Let's see how well they can pull it off... Since this game is independent of a setting, the authors waste no time jumping into character creation. Each character is defined by four Statistics (Stats) which represent raw ability. Strength, Coordination, Intellect and Health are expressed by numbers, generally between 1 and 10. The rules use a human as the default example, which has a base Stats of 3 and are modified by 1d10+5 additional points. The age of a character also modifies the number of points available for Stats. The older the character, the more attribute points must be subtracted, but only from Strength, Coordination and Health. I suppose the designers don't believe people get more feebleminded (affecting Intellect) as they get older. In addition to the four Stats, there are five Secondary Stats: Luck, Hit Points, Fatigue Points, Speed and Armor. Luck (which starts at 5 for new characters) is a character award given by the GM, similar in idea to Fate Chips in Deadlands. Luck can be used to reduce damage or alter a Test or Contest. However, unlike Fate Chips, Luck cannot be shared amongst the players. Also, a player has to declare using Luck before an action is made. Even if the action succeeds, at least 5 Luck must be used. It seems a little less cinematic to have to declare Luck before the action takes place. Hit Points are probably what you guessed - how much damage a character can absorb before they fall over. Hit Points are determined by (Strength * Multiplier) + Health, where Multiplier is between 2.5 and 4.0 depending on Strength). The problem I see here is when the character's Strength is modified "on the fly" during game play. A simple body augmentation spell (an expected effect in epic fantasy) that modifies Strength causes the player to stop, look up the Multiplier Table and recalculate Hit Points. Fatigue Points are simple to figure out (and recompute if needed). Just add the character's Strength and Health together. Speed is the distance in yards that a character can move during one combat action. The default for a human is 3. Armor is a negative value that represents protective equipment the character is wearing. Armor subtracts its value from the amount of damage inflicted. With a 0 or less, the character is unarmed. Once Stats are determined, it's on to Abilities and Disabilities. This will continue to look familiar to anyone who has played GURPS. Abilities are the "good stuff" that your character has, like wealth or ambidexterity. Disabilities are the "not-so-good stuff" your character deals with like phobias and insanity. Skills represent the trained ability that a character has. Instead of representing the skill numerically, skills have four Skill Levels: familiar, capable, professional and expert. Each Skill Level provides a Skill Bonus to the skill. Skill Bonuses are a near-linear progression of +1 (familiar), +4 (capable), +8 (professional) and +12 (expert). The Stat associated with the skill is added to the Skill Bonus to get a Skill Rating. Skills are purchased using skill points. The cost for each Skill Level is an exponential progression starting with 2^0 (familiar), working its way to 2^3 (expert). The number of skill points alloted to a new character is based on the age of the character. The number of skill points are then modified by the character's Intellect - more points if higher than 5, fewer points if less than 5. However, the maximum number of skills, as well as the maximum skill level possible is also based on age. I can't believe they really think you have to be 61 years old before you can become an "expert" in a skill. Also, there does not appear to be a relationship between the number of Stats lost and the number of skill points gained (as one grows older). Skills are in one of three different groups: Personal (which are associated with different Stats), Physical (associated with Coordination), and Mental (associated with Intellect). Looking over the skills presented, there are no skills based on Health. Compared to Intellect and Coordination skills, there are very few skills based on Strength. It appears that Simply Roleplaying! has the same problems with Stat balance that GURPS has. The section goes on to describe how to choose starting money and equipment. However, no equipment lists (other than a smattering of weapons) is presented here. Some armor is provided in the Combat section though. The Money and Equipment section also discusses the resolution of tasks before ever explaining how to resolve a task. Definately something to clean-up in a future release. At this point, character creation is complete. The Rewards section explains how new skills are learned and existing skills are improved. The designers suggest that one skill point be awarded to characters per month of game time passed. While I support the idea of "role-playing" over "roll-playing", this suggested amount doesn't seem like much of a reward. You can't help but get the feeling that one point isn't going to go very far. That's especially true when you discover the cost of skill improvement. Learning personal and physical skills is just like purchasing them during character creation. That's pretty simply and consistant. But it doesn't stay that way for mental skills unless you have a teacher. If a character doesn't have a teacher, then the skill cost is doubled. If no reference materials are available, then the skill cost is tripled. I'm not sure what the prejudice is against mental skills, but it continues into improving skills as well. Personal and physical skills can actually be improved at the end of a play session. If the skill was used during play, roll 2d10. If the result if higher than the Skill Rating, then the skill is improved by +.2 (the fractional values are dropped during play). While it's a neat idea, it complicates bookkeeping. Not only does the Skill Level have to be listed for each skill, but the Skill Rating has to be listed as well. The designers fail to achieve the goal to have players remain in character by referencing skill proficiency with words (Skill Levels) instead of numbers (Skill Bonus/Rating). Unlike personal and physical skills, mental skills cannot be improved if they were used during play. Improving mental skills has the same staggered skill costs as learning. Blatantly missing from the character development section is any discussion of improving Stats. I presume that the only way the designers want players to permanenty modify Stats is by having the character age (thereby reducing Stats). With character creation and development covered, the next part of the book focuses on how to be a gamemaster. While the information presented on how to create a setting and adventures are necessary for an inexperienced GM, it seems out of place when reading the book as a player. IMHO, game master guidelines deserve their own book so they don't clutter the "core rules" of the system. Now that you've got a character, you probably want to know how effective he's going to be compared to other characters. When a character is his own worst enemy, he performs a Test to see if he's successful in an action. Resolving a Test is very much like the d20 system used by Fading Suns (except 2d10 is used instead of 1d20). The Skill Rating and the appropriate Stat are added together with a task modifier assigned by the GM to produce a Target Number (TN). If the value rolled on 2d10 is less than or equal to the TN, then the task is a success. A roll of "2" is an Automatic Success, while a roll of "20" is an Automatic Failure. While Automatic Success and Automatic Failure tease at being "critical" results (above and beyond normal results), it isn't actually the case. Nothing special happens on an Automatic Failure. When a skill isn't appropriate, double the applicable Stat and apply the task difficulty. If it's a Test of Speed, then the Speed value is tripled (instead of doubled). If a character doesn't know a skill, it's a whole different ballgame. Since it's assumed anyone can perform personal skills, the Skill Bonus is treated as 0. If it's a physical skill, the Skill Bonus is -2. But, if it's a mental skill, you're SOL: Tests of mental skills cannot be done unless they are learned. A good part of the book goes on to discuss the various mini-rules systems used for poisons, drugs, item breakage, fire, collisions, and falls. Some sample information is also given for mundane creatures (like dogs) as well as fantasy creatures (like a gryphon). RPG rules system live and die by their combat rules, since inevitably the players want to make someone take a dirt nap. Combat rounds are five seconds, which in this system translates to two Actions. Like you would expect, Initiative starts a round of combat. 1d10 is added to a character's Combat Awareness skill, but the Skill Bonus is +1/+2/+3/+4 instead of +1/+4/+8/+12 progression. Another strike against consistancy. There are three basic Actions a character can take: Move, Attack and Defend. Move includes running around, jumping up from a prone position, loading a crossbow, aiming and other miscellaenous actions. Attack is what you expect; specify a weapon, brawling, or grappling. Defending is just that; instead of attacking, a character actively moves out of the way of the Sword of Cleaving. If you choose to defend though, you're stuck defending for the rest of the round (if it was your first action, Defend must be your second action as well). This puts more of an emphasis on getting a high Initiative number if a character wants to act aggressively. Unless a Called Shot is specified, the defender is treated as one big target. Inflicted damage is subtracted from the pool of Hit Points. Called Shots allow a combatant to hit an arm, leg, tire, headlight and so on. These types of attacks are made two difficulty levels higher than normal. So, arm and leg shots are -2. Head shots are -4. The results of a Called Shot can disable a limb, or knock the target unconscious (if hit in the head). So once you figure out if you hit your target, you roll damage. Like most every other resolution, the player rolls 2d10. The result is then looked up on the damage chart for the type of weapon used. This is wear those weapon cards come in handy that the authors were keen on including. Each weapon card has it's own weapon damage table. While it's simple to lookup the 2d10 result, the possible damage results are a bit hokey. A character is as likely to do minimum damage with a weapon as they are to do maximum damage with a weapon. That means it's just as possible to do 1 point of damage as to do 20 points of damage with a weapons that has a 1-20 range. Or, to take the extreme example, you're as likely to do 5 points of damage as 100 points of damage with a weapon damage range of 5-100. That resolution method is just too loose for me. There's no consistancy of damage based on weapon skill. Once you get over that bit of disbelief, you hope you remembered to buy some armor. Armor simply subtracts its rating from the damage done. If the result is 0 or less, then the defender is unharmed by the attack. Armor protects different against different types of attack. For example, a kevlar vest is rating -14 vs. bullets, but only rating -4 vs. melee weapons. Again, consistancy is lacking here. Instead of dealing with positive numbers, the designers felt it was better to express Armor as a negative number. So, in most instances, it's better to have a higher positive number, but in other cases, it's better to have a higher negative number. Simplicity will go a long way. The rest of the combat section contains information for dealing with automatic weapon burst fire, explosions and car crashes. I started out with the best of hopes for the Simply Roleplaying! core rules system. I think the designers are headed in the right direction, but they've fallen short of their destination. I think the focus on the (new to the industry) distribution method of the game might has clouded their objectivity. The authors talk about how the adventure is more important than the rules. That's absolutely true. But where are the inspirational illustrations hiding to get you pumped? You know, the one were the paladin is fighting his way through Hell. A ship escaping an exploding sun.. The Men in Black getting jiggy with it? Illustrations are more than eye candy -- they're inspiration. I'm not sure about the designer's take on realism in the rules. In areas like skill learning and improvement, realism is obviously forefront. In other areas like weapon damage, it's on the back burner. Some concepts (like different creature sizes) seems to be ignored altogether -- there's always a David and Goliath. When coming up with a rules system, consistancy is paramount to making it easy to learn. Are the special cases that break inconsistancy really worth the complications? IMHO, no. It just relays the message that the designers haven't taken the time (or are incapable of) creating a truly consistant and free-flowing system. No magic system, psi or superpower system given (apparently these will be separate Expansion Packs with a price tag of their own). World Packs will build upon Expansion Packs, providing a specific setting. Not very useful as is - can't run fantasy, superheroes or futuristic. It's more of a game engine than an RPG. "Simply Roleplaying! is a full-fledged role playing game system that takes full advantage of all the ease of play and expandability of the PlainLabel Game System." That's straight from the Microtactix website. While the Simply Roleplaying! product defines the core rules system, it's not enough to play a game without significant additional material. It's not a matter of not having a setting -- dozens of settings are readily available for use (commercial and fan based). It's the fact that the core system lacks the "magic", figuratively and literally speaking. There's nothing that motivates a person to play a specific kind of game. The core system is lacking rules for fantasy magic, psionics, and futuristic space/technology. The marketing guys at Microtactix need a reality check. Simply Roleplaying! is not a playable game as is. It's a good attempt at a core rules system, but it needs a lot more before players can start using it. Microtactix also boasts "Simply Roleplaying! is the heart of the PlainLabel Game System, the only COMPLETE, full-function multigenre adventuring gaming environment!" Did something escape from Warehouse 23 and rewrite the history of SJGames? C'mon Microtactix, GURPS has been around for more than a decade. Are you in the same reality? They must be, since they use the same four Stats, have abilities/disabilites and skill costs just like GURPS. Is this GURPS first edition, or what? It's based on the freely available PlainLabel Game System. So why spend the $9 for this? Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)