Monday, March 12, 2018

Welcome to the home of the GUTS+ System, a role-playing game system for everyone! The system itself is still in development, but I believe it is far enough along to actually begin using for your gameplay.

As you have probably read on the home page, the basics of how to play are available for free, but the gist of the system is this: your characters themselves define what they are able to do. That is, your character’s background and personality influences what stats they have, and each character has special stats beyond the base 4 stats that enable them to do even more in the game. Playing the game is as simple as explaining what your character is trying to do and rolling a 6-sided die to determine how successfully they were able to perform the task.

Character stats are the only numbers in the game—rather than hit points and magic points or what have you, you have injury markers and strain. When a part of your character’s body is injured, they may not be able to do certain things as well as they might if it were not injured. So while combat is an option that is available, it is highly encouraged to try to find non-violent ways of handling situations to avoid any unnecessary injuries that would inhibit your progress.

The system itself also encourages a high level of Game Master (GM) freedom and flexibility. Rather than being (just) an antagonistic controller of enemies, the GM is encouraged to root for their players and help them when they get stuck. Die rolls are subjective and the GM is in full control of the outcome unless the player rolls high enough! If a player rolls the highest value, they are able to temporarily command the flow of the story and determine the outcome. In this way, the game becomes a bit of a give and take between the players and the GM, allowing for a more interesting flow.

If you have any suggestions for improving systems, please let me know! I’m always interested in any ideas that you might have that could make the game better.