Jazz 4e EN

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Arrow up 16x16.png Jazz

Jazz

What is Jazz?

Jazz is an attempt to create a roleplaying game system which is both flexible and easy to use. Jazz, like its namesake, is inspired by and incorporates concepts from many sources.

Jazz assumes a basic familiarity with the principles of role-playing. I haven't gone into great detail describing what a roleplaying game is, or defining what "Health" is, for example. These sparse spots may be filled in as time goes on, but feel free to use your best judgment if something doesn't make immediate sense to you. Jazz is intended for my personal use, but feedback and suggestions are welcome. If you think a section is unclear, or needs more elaborate explanation, do feel free to drop me an e-mail with your suggestion.

Significant portions of this version are based on ideas from Sean Weir, particularly the "trait pyramid".

The trait pyramid

Your character has six traits, arranged in a pyramid. You have three "good" traits, two "better" traits, and one "best" trait.

Trait Pyramid

The top trait of the pyramid is the character's best trait. They get a +3 bonus when doing something with their best trait.

The middle two traits are the character's better traits. They get a +2 bonus when doing something with one of their better traits.

The bottom three traits are the character's good traits. They get a +1 bonus when doing something with one of their good traits.

Each trait can be either a general area of competence or a narrowly-defined power. You should add a preferred focus in parentheses after the trait name. There is no direct in-game benefit to specifying a particular focus; it is mainly serves to help you and the rest of the game group to better envision the character.

Examples of areas of competence

  • Artificial intelligence (starship majordomo)
  • Expatriate nobility (ranger)
  • Gunslinger (pistols)
  • Handyman (plumber)
  • Martial artist (kung fu)
  • Pilot (helicopters)
  • Scholar (historian)
  • Scientist (physicist)
  • Smuggler (fast talk)

Examples of narrowly-defined powers

  • Bat-gadgets (batarangs)
  • Gamma ray monster (incredible strength)
  • Mjolnir ("if they be worthy" -- can only be lifted by, and returns to, Thor)
  • Pyrokinesis (fireballs)
  • Supersoldier (amazing toughness)
  • Telepathy (mental illusions)

Signature gear

You may also have signature gear. Signature gear helps you to do things, but it can also be taken away during an adventure. Fortunately, it is just as easy to replace after the adventure is over.

  • Each piece of gear can have a bonus of +1, +2 or +3.
  • The total of the bonuses of all gear must be +3 or less.
  • Gear bonus does not stack with a trait bonus: pick the better bonus.

Example gear

  • Adamantium claws (+2)
  • Adamantium shield (+3)
  • Adamantium skeleton (+1)
  • Armored costume (+2)
  • Custom pistol (+3)
  • Laser sword (+1)
  • Lockpick set (+1)
  • Magic-eating sword (+2)
  • Palmtop computer (+2)
  • Sniper rifle (+1)
  • Trick billy club (+1)

Doing things

Each round, the player characters take their turn in the order the GM asks them to. On their turn, each player character may move around and do something.

Example things to do

  • Analyze a clue
  • Answer a question
  • Build or create something
  • Deprive someone of a piece of gear
  • Deprive someone of their turn
  • Grant someone your turn
  • Heal someone
  • Harm someone
  • Modify or repair something
  • Move faster or farther than usual
  • Protect someone

Roll 2d6 and add a trait bonus or a gear bonus. If your character tries something beyond their competence (and the GM allows it), you roll 2d6, but do not add any bonuses.

  • Costly success (6) = bare minimum success, at a significant cost
  • Good success (9) = quid pro quo, the result matches the effort
  • Better success (12) = bigger, better, faster, more (pick 1)
  • Best success (15) = bigger, better, faster, more (pick 3)

Costly success

The character accomplishes the barest minimum that could technically be called "success". For example, if the character wanted the answer to a question, perhaps the answer is vague or cryptic. Similarly, if the character wanted to cause harm, the target suffers at most a single Health point of damage, no matter what the attacker and defender roll for damage and defense.

However, there is a meaningful cost. Perhaps a piece of the character's signature gear is destroyed, or perhaps the effort required caused a Health point of injury to the attacker. Perhaps they have put themselves at a disadvantage, and they will suffer a -1 penalty on all rolls until they are able to get a good night's rest. Perhaps a nervous ally chooses that moment to change sides.

Good success

The character accomplishes their goal in a satisfactory manner, commensurate with the amount of effort they put into it. For example, if the character spent one turn seeking the answer to a question, the answer is curt but accurate. If the character spent an hour or more researching the question, the answer is more nuanced and detailed.

Similarly, if the character uses their turn to deprive someone else of an action (pinning the opponent with a wrestling maneuver, for example), the character's opponent loses one turn. If the character wants to cause harm, they roll damage (see Damage and defense, below).

Better success

The character accomplishes their goal with aplomb, and their efforts are rewarded. The player may choose one of the following to apply to their action: bigger, better, faster, or more (see below).

Best success

The character accomplishes their goal with aplomb, and their efforts are rewarded. The player may choose three of the following to apply to their action: bigger, better, faster, or more (see below). Note that duplicates are allowed. For example, the player could choose "faster" three times, "bigger" twice and "better" once, and so on.

Bigger, better, faster, more

Bigger

The character's success affects a larger area or affects more targets. For example, if a character wants to turn an attacker into a pig (with a mutagenic gas, let's say), a good succes will result in the target being a normal size pig for one of the target's turns. Each level of "bigger" could allow the attacker to affect up to 10 additional nearby targets. Alternately, a level of "bigger" could allow the attacker to turn the target into a pig ten times its normal mass.

Better

The character's success has a result of exceptional quality. For example, if a character creates a wall of stone (with magic, let's say), the defense bonus of the wall would usually be equal to the character's trait bonus. Each level of "better" could increase that bonus by +1 (see Damage and defense, below).

Faster

The character successfully accomplishes in a short amount of time what would normally take a long time. For example, a full and complete search for an answer to a question might normally take hours. Each level of "faster" could reduce that time to 1/10 its normal duration.

More

Like usual, but more so. For example, a successful attack usually results in the attacker rolling 1d6 for damage. Each level of "more" adds +1d6 to the damage roll.

Damage and defense

If a character successfully uses their turn to heal or cause harm, they roll a d6 and add their trait or gear bonus. The target also rolls 1d6, and adds their trait or gear bonus. The target's roll is subtracted from the attacker's roll, and the remainder is subtracted from the target's Health.

Health may not be reduced below zero. A character with zero Health is unconscious, and they are probably out of the fight.

Rest and recovery

Normally, an injured character may recover half of their lost Health (round down, even if the fraction is more than one-half) by resting briefly (for about an hour). After that, a character may only recover additional Health by getting a good night's rest. Barring some gruesome disfigurement, a character's Health will be completely replenished after a good night's rest.

Some damage is temporary. This is often called "stress" or "stunning". Temporary damage is fully healed after the character has had a chance to rest briefly (for about an hour).

Plot points

(NOTE: This is a work in progress.)

Example uses of plot points

  • Improve a roll's level of success by one (good becomes better, better becomes best)
(NOTE: This is a work in progress.)

Copyright and license

Jazz 4e © 1997-2022 Brandon Blackmoor, Lloyd Montgomery, and Sean Weir. Reference to other copyrighted material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material.

The text of this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.