GAMERS began as a retroclone of Classic Traveller, then morphed into a generic son of CT, with rules more streamlined. To my mind, the essential aspects were

• random character generation, including of profession/skills
• attributes on 2-12 scale, with some up to 15, written in a single six-digit number (the idea for a clone began as wanting a way to remember the attribute order)
• skills are not more than 50 or so in number, excluding hydra skills (eg the various Crafts) and rated in about five levels
• task resolution is 2d6 + skill + modifiers
• armour makes you more difficult to hit, rather than reducing damage
• injury is to attributes
• skill improvement during play is slow and rare
• character sheet can fit on an index card

And my own personal philosophy - "A thing is perfect not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" - meant that most attribute, skill, etc descriptions should be done in 25 words or less. Save the blather for setting descriptions and gaming advice.

I'm just finishing off HEROIC, the fantasy version (I hate writing magic rules). I've illustrated it with art which is in the public domain in Australia (anything produced before 1955). I'm torn between two covers, the black & white one is more old school, the colour one looks more professional.

Damn it. I love the black and white one. Its got a warrior girl who isn't half-naked.

Yeah, Kyle - the jabberwock rocks!

-clash

It's also apparently a young girl, 12-16. I'm thinking of audience appeal - kids playing games. She's a young adventurer with very promising beginnings, or perhaps about to have her career end early...

B&W gets my vote. It just looks more adventury. Plus it's got that failrytale-ish vibe going for it.

Regards,
David R

The black and white illustration rocks but the Heroic logo seems crammed in there. I think you placed it in the best possible spot but to me, this illustration with all its shading is not the best for a full cover. What you've written under Heroic is a little blurry. The color illustration is really not bad and it's just easier to put text in there.

BTW, do you have an estimate for the number of page the game will have when finished? I remember you being a fan of less is more back in the days.

If you ever write a sci-fi version, I think I would be all over that!

At the moment it's 16 pages, including cover page and illustrations. Double column, souvenir font. 6,000 words. I have a few blank columns which I expect to fill with the magic stuff. It's basically just a player's book. I suppose if I put setting and/or GM stuff in there I could get 32 pages out of it.

SPACER was already written, Consonant Dude, see below. However, that was written more than 3 years ago, and it's just character creation, no equipment or anything like that, 8 pages. The original GAMERS had 12 groups of 3 skills, or 36 in all. With that and other GAMERS versions in play we found that only around half the skills are relevant to any particular campaign, and 18 skills among 3-6 players is effectively character classes. A character class on its own is just a very broad skill, after all. So in the next draft, somewhere between SPACER and AGENTS, this was changed to 9 groups of 6 skills each, or 54 in all. Allowing for hydra skills, this felt about right.



I should also note that the game-name-as-abbreviation-of-attributes-order idea meant that each version of GAMERS would have a six-letter title and different names for attributes. Thus, HEROIC, AGENTS, WASTER, SPACER, FRIGHT, and so on. We decided that the quirky cuteness of this was outweighed by the trouble of remembering the different and sometimes odd attribute names.

Grit-Awareness-Mind-Endurance-Reflexes-Strength is okay, but
Agility-Grunt-Endurance-Nous-Tenacity-Schooling
Stamina-Physique-Agility-Cognisance-Education-Resolve
etc
got a bit confusing. Any wacky names you can imagine you can get used to, so long as you're not changing settings. So in the end we just went for the generic names, though the six-letter name for each setting remains.

I'm happy to send old versions out to people who are interested, just fire me an email (not PM) through the boards.

Man, I love compact games!

And thank you for your offer but I need a slightly more complete sci-fi package. I could fill the blanks of a fantasy game that offers chargen and resolution mechanics but when it comes to sci-fi, I am extremely stupid and need equipment, basic setting assumptions and stuff.

Jabberwock gets my vote as well!

Jabberwocky it is, then.

Actually in the poem it's a boy fighting the Jabberwocky, the illustration makes him look like a girl, though, but that's alright. If it's undertain that's the best.

I'm torn whether to include XP.