15 June 2012

Oni Puncher: The One Page RPG

I was sitting one day, fighting off a headache that even aspirin and a really crappy smoothie I'd made myself couldn't fight off, when an idea forced itself through my brain. It latched on to the part of my brain that loved samurai, and found a fertile nesting ground.

My fingers raced across the keyboard, at lightning speed. Sparks flew from my fingernails. Steam bellowed from my brain! My computer screamed for release from the terrible torment I was putting it through, begging me to slow down my superhuman feats of speed and typing accuracy, pleading from release from the suffering!

I didn't listen. I had a game to write. So I wrote it.

Oni Puncher is nothing like what I thought it was going to be when I first talked about it what, a year ago? Or longer? But the basics I talked about (not so much what inspired Oni Puncher or what my initial ideas were, or even what insanely creative and totally awesome resolution mechanics I wanted to use) are nowhere to be seen. They all ended up in Rodiel after having been mixed around in my brain with all of the Terry Pratchett, ancient Middle Eastern mythology, and druidic symbolism.

In the very basic vein of Aim For The Head (the one page zombie roleplaying game based heavily off Dead Meat), comes ONI PUNCHER, a game about oriental styled warriors (or otherwise, if you choose) who gather together to punch demons. It's a very simple, player-oriented game that supports players doing pretty much whatever they really want to do. The mechanics are simple, and totally unsuited for the basic D&D-like type of play of run around, kill things, take their stuff, repeat. Instead, it's built around a nearly Chainmail-like level of play, a pseudo-oD&D sort of level-less system. You get no mechanical advantage for magical items, and nobody cares about what sort of battlemat or grid you've set up to put minis on. It's totally abstract, and totally awesome. It's a really fun beer and pretzels game, and I'll release it either tonight or tomorrow RIGHT HERE for your perusal and enjoyment.

It just needs some last minute editing of the PDF and then that's that!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Looking Back

They say that if you don't look back at who who were from a year ago and cringe that you haven't grown enough. What if I look back f...