USR 15th Anniversary Edition
USR (Unbelievably Simple Role-playing) was first published early January 2012 on 1km1kt and DriveThru RPG by Scott Malthouse of Trollish Delver Games
Scott has now released a 15th Anniversary Edition on both Itch and DriveThru RPG for the reasonable price of £1.67/£1.88 respectively. There have been various editions over the years, third edition changed some of the mechanics quite substantially, this edition harks back to the original first edition. New material includes foe archetypes and guidelines to create your own enemies; with new optional rules.
Character Creation
Each character has 3 attributes:
- ACTION: physical ability
- WITS: mental ability
- EGO: social ability
- Share a D6, D8 and D10 between the three attributes, so each has a different die type.
- Determine your hits which is the maximum possible roll on your Action and Wits die (minimum will 14, maximum will be 18 depending on how you allocate them).
- Choose 3 specialisms, these are specific skills and each is tied to one of the three attributes: example: accounting (Wits), Persuasion (Ego), Piloting (Action). There is a list of examples, but players can come up with any they so wish. Each specialism adds +2 to a dice roll when it applies.
- Write a short bio that includes look, demeanour, background, career.
Playing the Game
Whenever a character does something that is risky, has a chance of failure they make a roll using the appropriate attribute adding any specialisms to the roll. There are two types of rolls:
- Contested: the player and their opponent both roll the appropriate dice and the higher total is the winner.
- Uncontested: the GM sets the difficulty based on the circumstance and they have to meet or beat the difficulty. If the total roll is higher or lower than the difficulty the GM can can add a benefit or complication.
If the total of specialisms meets or exceeds the difficulty it is considered an automatic success, and no roll is needed.
| Difficulty | Target |
|---|---|
| Easy | 2 |
| Medium | 4 |
| Hard | 7 |
| Severe | 10 |
| Godlike | 14 |
Combat
Combat is a contested roll and players can either use ICRPG style turn order (around the table in player seating positions) or by rolling Action and Wits, then taking in turns from highest to lowest.
During an action a character may move and take one action. Movement is kept simple inline with the rest of the rules (roughly 30 feet).
Attackers and defender rolls, if the attacker rolls equal or less than the defender, the attack misses. If the attacker rolls higher the attack hits and the damage caused is the difference between the two rolls. The defender subtracts their armour from the damage and applies any remaining damage. At zero hits the target is either unconscious or dead depending on the style of game played.
Weapons and Armour
Weapons are split into three categories that add to the attack roll:
- Light +1
- Medium +2
- Heavy +3
Armour likewise is split into Light, Medium, Heavy and reduces damage by 1, 2 or 3.
It is also suggested that weapons and armour be limited to the Action die type, so if a D8 is allocated only light and medium weapons and armour may be used.
Optional Rules
There are four optional rules:
- Advancement: at the end of a scenario players are awarded Advancement Points and spend them to add new specialisms or increase current ones
- Narrator points: like bennies or Karma they can be earnt and spent through play to : turn success into failure or vice versa, heal, gain a benefit or access to items
- Injuries: if receiving more than 5 points of damage an character becomes injured and suffers a -2 penalty to Action rolls
- Resource Tracking: the usage dice from the Black Hack, a consumable item is allocated a D6, after each use it is rolled, on a “1” it is expended.
Foes
There follows a list of 8 Foe archetypes which you can use instead of designing your own foes or if you want a quick foe without too much thought. The final page of the PDF explains how to create a Foe from scratch.
Conclusion
The rules are worth the price, they are clearly written and give a very good simple game, characters can be created very fast. They are simple and quick flowing, the specialisms chosen differentiate the characters. The biggest omission are rules for magic, but you could just add them as a specialism. These rules are a good alternative to other light games such as Tricube Tales or Freeform Universal.
The rules are released under the Creative Commons share-alike licence so it is easy for others to write adventures or variants. Over the years one of the most prolific writers for USR has been Andrew Domino and his work is still freely available:
- USR (Domino Writing Style) which includes a character sheet, superhero rules and a system in just two pages.
- USR Wednesday the name of Andrew Domninoes old blog, where he regularly offered new rules and game ideas for USR. This PDF collects all his USR posts unedited.
In addition the original USR rules are still available for Pay What You Want: