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Not everyone reading this document will have experience with roleplaying. If this is not your first RPG, please feel free to skip to the next chapter, as the basics change little from system to system. However, even if you have experience, this chapter lays out an overview of how the system works.
VERS is a table-top roleplaying game that has OSR (Old School Renaissance) bones with a lot of modern elements to round it off. It is not, like many OSR games, a retread of an older existing game, but instead a new game that adheres to a lot of what makes OSR work. This version of the game is the bare bones, system resource document style version of the game. It is 100% the exact same game as the full version, but without all of the explanations and examples. In other words, it assumes that you have played and run a roleplaying game before.


== What is Roleplaying ==
VERS is free-form, in that it does not have classes or levels. Instead, it allows you to build whatever you want, in whatever genre you want. Yes, there are a lot of other games out there like this, but the vast majority of them are huge, bullet-proof tomes, with reams of rules for every situation. VERS is different. It started with the idea of taking those gameplay ideas and stripping them down to the simplest form possible. Then those building blocks were unified to use as few different mechanics as possible and as few dice rolls as possible.


Roleplay is the act of playing out a part (or role) within a scenario. Typically roleplaying of any kind involves at least one participant who sets the scenario and at least one participant who reacts to the scenario. In a roleplaying game these roles go by many names, but in VERS these roles are player and gamemaster (GM for short). A group of players is called a troop.
The result, I hope, is a game that is easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to customize to whatever setting or genre you can imagine. And because it is completely open source, you can feel free to modify it, reuse it, and share it with all of your players without worry. And yes, print shop guy or gal, that means they have permission to print it if they want. Just don’t try to sell it, please, although you can definitely sell anything you derive from it, like settings or supplements. Just link back here, and drop my name in the credits. You don’t even have to ask.


Roleplaying games are different from acting in that an actor knows his lines beforehand, as well as what stimuli his character will be facing. Roleplaying games are also similar to writing, however an author typically works alone when creating their story, or at least has final say on its content. With a roleplaying game only the GM has any idea what is coming, and even the GM does not know what the players will do once the session has started and each player works together to create a story. The GM sets up the scenario, then the players have a chance to react to the initial scenario. The GM then reacts to the player’s actions, tweaking the scenario to reflect the effects of these actions and thus setting up a new situation that the players have to react to. Each player has to make up their part as the game progresses in a constant give and take with the GM.
So, grab some dice, some friends, and some paper, and see what you can make. And if you break it, let me know, so I can patch it up. It is completely impossible to guarantee no bugs in a game this wide open, but I have done what I can. Enjoy.
 
The most basic element in any roleplaying game is how the characters, both those played by the players (PCs) and those played by the GM (NPCs) interact. Without a framework to work this out the whole exercise devolves into multiple narratives which do not affect each other, or in which endless arguments are had over how the characters actions affect each other. If you ever played an imagination game as a child where you and your friends were superheroes or something like that, you probably have experienced this. An endless litany of "No way! That is not how those powers work!" or "That can't happen to him! Nothing ever hurts him!" and so forth.
 
To get around that, we use a rules system that is basically just an agreed on contract that we all we will do things in a certain way so that things are fair and we can create together and all be on the same page. The core of that is the way characters interact. What can they do? How often? What challenges are there to it? That is what a rules system, like the one you are reading, is for.
 
== Characters ==
 
So, roleplaying games are a method to create stories in a collaborative environment. What is the most important thing in a story, at least to most people? Characters! To help facilitate this ever changing story, each character has a  description (usually referred to as a “Character Sheet”) that features both numeric measurements and other details relating who a character is and what they are capable of. This character sheet forms the framework by which the GM and players build the narrative and make decisions for that character.
 
To read more information, [[Characters|check out the details]].
 
== Time ==
 
VERS divides time into two equally important types: conflict driven time and dramatic time. The biggest thing to know about each type of time frame is that they encompass different types of narrative. Dramatic time is for exposition, travel, and player interactions and it measures time in scenes similarly to a play or television show. Conflict driven time, on the other hand, is for action like combat or chases and it measures time in turns and actions which have discrete lengths.
 
For more information about keeping time in the game, [[Time|go to the detailed description]]
 
== Dice ==
 
Finally, there are the dice. In real life there are lots of complex interactions between physics, psychology, and sociology that go into every single event that happens across the planet, with many of those interactions unknown to the people participating in them. The rules system cannot recreate all those interactions without becoming as complex and labyrinthine as reality itself. Instead, the rules deal with the largest, most obvious components to interaction, and dice rolls fill in the blanks. Why did your carrot cake not turn out as well this time as it did last time? Maybe you can pick out the exact deviation, but more likely you have no idea. It was random chance as far as we can tell.
 
That is where the roll of the dice comes in, generating a slight randomness that not only helps model the tiny fluctuations in real life that determine why things happen in different ways, but it is also a tool of balance and fairness, so that no character is always right, successful, or important while others are not.
 
For more information, please see the more detailed description of how dice are used [[Dice and Rolling|here]].






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Revision as of 17:11, 1 July 2020

VERS -> Book I - Player Rules -> VERS:Basics

VERS is a table-top roleplaying game that has OSR (Old School Renaissance) bones with a lot of modern elements to round it off. It is not, like many OSR games, a retread of an older existing game, but instead a new game that adheres to a lot of what makes OSR work. This version of the game is the bare bones, system resource document style version of the game. It is 100% the exact same game as the full version, but without all of the explanations and examples. In other words, it assumes that you have played and run a roleplaying game before.

VERS is free-form, in that it does not have classes or levels. Instead, it allows you to build whatever you want, in whatever genre you want. Yes, there are a lot of other games out there like this, but the vast majority of them are huge, bullet-proof tomes, with reams of rules for every situation. VERS is different. It started with the idea of taking those gameplay ideas and stripping them down to the simplest form possible. Then those building blocks were unified to use as few different mechanics as possible and as few dice rolls as possible.

The result, I hope, is a game that is easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to customize to whatever setting or genre you can imagine. And because it is completely open source, you can feel free to modify it, reuse it, and share it with all of your players without worry. And yes, print shop guy or gal, that means they have permission to print it if they want. Just don’t try to sell it, please, although you can definitely sell anything you derive from it, like settings or supplements. Just link back here, and drop my name in the credits. You don’t even have to ask.

So, grab some dice, some friends, and some paper, and see what you can make. And if you break it, let me know, so I can patch it up. It is completely impossible to guarantee no bugs in a game this wide open, but I have done what I can. Enjoy.


VERSIcon.png VERS Playtest v20.7 - Online Rule Reference
General Rules Basics
Making a Character Character Profile - Mechanical Aspects (Attributes - Skills - Abilities - Gear)
Gameplay Mental Conflict - Physical Conflict - Social Conflict - Stunts
GM Info NPCs
Optional Rules Not Yet Complete
Gamemastering Not Yet Complete
Storytelling and Drama Not Yet Complete
Advanced Techniques Not Yet Complete
Appendices Example Abilities Fantasy - Psionics - Superheroes
Example Gear Prehistoric to Dark Ages - Medieval to Renaissance - Modern - Sci-Fi
Example NPCs Animals - People - Fantasy - Horror - Sci-Fi
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