P.L.U.S PlayerÕs Labor-Saving Utility System Fifth Edition ¥ September 1996 PLUS COMPANION Optional Rules and Variants Game design: Joseph Steven Coleman Key Contributors: Andrew Leker Christopher Pound Thomas Biskup Harold Ogle Lloyd Wiebe Paul Arden Lidberg Nadine Miller Shawn Smith Richard Lee Eide Playtesters: Harold Ogle Lloyd Wiebe Michael Hole Michael Kinney Nadine Miller Richard Lee Eide Shawn Smith P.L.U.S (PlayerÕs Labor-saving Utility System) Version Five, copyright 1996 by Talewind Print & Production, P O Box 12631, Berkeley, CA 94712-2631, all rights reserved. e-mail through talewind@aol.com. Permission is granted for free duplication for personal use only. No license for any use requiring a charge to the end user is granted or implied. No other right to reproduce this material is granted or implied. To include PLUS or its supplements at another ftp site or bbs or in any other medium requires express written permission of Talewind. ALTERNATIVE AGE GENERATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This method is recommended for role players with a significant amount of experience playing characters outside the normal role playing optimum. You choose an age between to the age of 65. You begin 1d6 for each Characteristic and add 1d6 to your Characteristics distribution pool for every ten years of age, 2d6 for SPECIALTIES for every eight years of age, and 2d6 per career for every twelve years of age. Maximum dice for the game begins at 1, with 1d6 added to the Maximum allowance for every twelve years of age. Use the following chart for the effects of age, after your dice have been distributed into : AGE EFFECT (applied after generation) Under 9 -2d3 BODY, -2d6 REASON, -2d6 STRENGTH, -2d6 EDUCATION, -1d6 WILL, +1d6 AGILITY, +1d3 LUCK 9-15 -1d3 BODY, -1d6 REASON, -1d6 STRENGTH, -1d6 EDUCATION, +1d6 INTUITION, +1d2 LUCK 16-29 No Effect. 30-34 -1d3 BODY, +1d6 INTUITION, +1d6 to STARTING MONEY 35-44 -1d6 STRENGTH, +1d6 REASON, +2d6 to STARTING MONEY 45-54 -1d6 AGILITY, +1d6 EDUCATION, +3d6 to STARTING MONEY 55-65 -2d3 BODY, -1d6 LUCK, +1d6 SPECIAL EFFECT (if any) or +1d6 WILL NOTE: A Ò1d3Ó or Ò1d2Ó modification means to roll the indicated dice (see Glossary), then add or subtract that number of d6 from the pool for the indication Characteristic. If your game requires higher ages, you can apply the following modifications: For every decade or portion of a decade over 65, -1d3 dice to Characteristics (you choose which dice to remove), -1d3 dice from Athletics and 1d3 dice from Senses. You choose which dice to remove from that group. If your WILL falls below 3, you must make a WILL roll before performing actions or performing tasks. Table 1 - Age Key To Distribution Dice HIGHER LEVEL gAMEs CHARACTER. SPEC CAREERS MONEY AGE - GIVEN* - 1 2 3 4 5 6 MAX X 2d6 16 2 +5 5 2 - - - - - 3 $ 25 x Mod 17 2 +5 5 3 - - - - - 3 50 x Mod 18 2 +6 5 3 2 - - - - 3 75 x Mod 19 3 +6 5 3 3 - - - - 3 100 x Mod 20 3 +7 5 3 3 - - - - 3 100 x Mod 21 3 +7 5 3 3 2 - - - 3 100 x Mod 22 3 +8 6 3 3 3 - - - 3 100 x Mod 23 4 +8 6 3 3 3 - - - 4 150 x Mod 24 4 +9 6 3 3 3 2 - - 4 150 x Mod 25 4 +9 6 4 3 3 3 - - 4 150 x Mod 26 4 +10 6 4 3 3 3 - - 4 150 x Mod 27 4 +10 6 4 4 3 3 2 - 4 200 x Mod 28 5 +11 7 4 4 3 3 3 - 4 200 x Mod 29 5 +11 7 4 4 4 3 3 - 4 200 x Mod 30 5 +12 7 4 4 4 3 3 2 4 200 x Mod 31 5 +12 7 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 200 x Mod 32 5 +13 7 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 200 x Mod * Total of STRENGTH, REFLEXES, EDUCATION and WILL, plus the number of dice indicated, to distribute as Given Skill Dice. Table 2 - Higher Game Levels And Bonuses ** Professional Adventurer Hero Super-Hero Mythic-Hero Characteristics +2 +4 +6 +9 +12 Given +3 +6 +9 +12 +18 Specialties +4 +8 +12 +16 +20 Each Career +1 +2 +3 +5 +7 Maximum Dice 4 5 5 6 n/a ** If your total dice exceed the allowed maximum dice limit, the excess dice may be used in several ways. 1) you have a total number of Benefits equal to the original number of dice allowed. FOR EXAMPLE: If you have 8 dice, but have a 5 dice limit to your character, you may have 8 benefits to the career at 5 dice, and 3 dice which may be used as ÒBonus DiceÓ for rolls on that career or benefit, or you may apply a +1 to other skills that have not reached the limit, even if they are not related to the source of the extra dice. SAVINGS AND/OR POSSESSIONS FROM PREVIOUS CAREERS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- You gain financially from your age. When you have more than one career, you may have managed to save up to 50% of the income from the earlier career(s) to improve your position as the game begins. You roll on each year prior to your current age and roll on the table. A limit is set on the cash and a separate account is created for mandatory possessions for use by your character (weapons, vehicles, devices, real estate, memberships, etc.). ROLL RESULT 2- 7 No savings from previous careers 8- 9 10% additional in savings, 50% of that amount in purchases. 10-11 25% additional in savings, 35% of that amount in purchases. 12 50% additional in savings, 25% of that amount in purchases CHARACTER IMPROVEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As your character proceeds to a variety of individual games and campaigns, he or she should improve on specific skills. There are three ways to improve skills in P.L.U.S. Unless otherwise determined by the GM prior to the start of the campaign, all three methods are available for players to use. METHOD ONE This method may be used to improve an existing skill of the player's choice, or to learn a new skill for the character. One hash mark is earned for each study period with a teacher. Find a teacher, pay for lessons or otherwise take the time and resources to study a skill and make it available to the character. The player will ask the GM for the difficulty of the skill to be learned. . One hash mark is earned for each study period with a teacher - keep track of these, you will need them to improve the skill. The cost of lessons, the reaction of the teacher and your success at learning the improvement or obtaining the first d6 in a new skill, should be role played between the player and GM, with Oracle rolls to determine the NPC teachers response to the student, rolls on WILL (for intellectual skills) or REFLEXES (for physical skills) to the students response to the teacher. For example, in game play Larry the Milkman wants to learn how to handle a sword to defend himself. He stops at Mr. LimbaughÕs Academy of Sharp, Pointy Things to study swordsmanship. His instructor, Big Louise, gives him a few bruises to point up what he needs to learn and tells him to practice every day. In game terms, if the player does not make time for Larry to practice every day, he will not learn quickly and Big Louise will have a bad reaction to him, making it more difficult to learn. If Larry practices every day (meaning the player says that is what Larry is doing at some point in the game), then Louise will be more favorably impressed, Larry will get more practice and he has a better chance of learning the necessary skills faster. Since the GM will play Big Louise, it becomes fairly simple to determine her reaction to Larry and his homework. At the end of study (not less than one month of game time as experienced by the characters) the player may roll on the appropriate difficulty of the skill to be learned. With a successful roll (a total less than the number of hash marks) the character will improve with 1d6. Once a skill has been learned to 1d6, it may be improved through further study, or may be improved with Method 2 or Method 3. METHOD TWO Determine whether your character learns by Success or Failure. For this game this will mean choosing either Complete Failures or Toxic Rolls to learn on failed actions, or Significant Successes and above for learning on successful actions. You will record the learning rolls with simple 'hash marks' next to the appropriate skill (one hash mark for Complete Failure or Toxic rolls, if that was your choice, or one has mark for Significant Success or above, if that was your choice). When you have accumulated a sufficient number of hash marks on any skill, you may improve that skill by rolling the applicable Characteristic dice to roll under the number of hash marks to improve. You can to roll to improve that skill at a time of your own choosing by rolling against your own Characteristic - at the end or beginning of any game session, but not during a game. For physical skills roll your REFLEXES dice under the number of hash marks you have obtained for the skill which you want to improve. For mental skills WILL dice to improve on the skill. When it is time to improve, you will roll on the applicable against the number of accumulated hash marks. Larry has 2d6 in REFLEXES, and rolls 4-4, resulting in 8, which is over his number of hash marks he had accumulated. His number of hash marks for that skill returns to zero and he must try again. BUT, Larry rolled two fourÕs. There is more. Fate Dice MUST be rerolled during Character Improvement. If your re-rolls go Toxic, you much change your skill to improve for at least one week of game time. METHOD THREE Select a specific skills for improvement for one half the number of d6 you have distributed into REFLEXES (physical skills to improve) and one half the number of dice distributed WILL (for mental skills to improve). These are skills which your character has determined are important to learn, for whatever reason. When you have chosen specific skills to improve, they are where you attention is focused and you will receive a hash mark for either failures (Complete Failure and Toxic Rolls) and successes (Significant successes and above). Hash marks are recorded and rolls against the number of hash marks works exactly the same as in METHOD 2. HOW IMPROVEMENT WORKS FOR METHODS TWO AND THREE Once the roll is made, whether the roll succeeds or fails to improve the skill, all hash marks are erased and improvement will begin again. With a successful roll (a total less than the number of hash marks) the character will improve with 1d3 to be rolled with the regular dice. On the second successful improvement of a skill, the 1d3 becomes 1d6. Further improvement is on the same 1d3 and 1d6 additions. THE LIMITS OF IMPROVEMENT Characters may improve up to the dice limit of the game, but may continue to use the improvement system to add d3 and d6 Bonus dice to the skill to improve future rolls. The number of Bonus dice possible are equal to the maximum number of dice for the game's skill level. CHALLENGES ------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the creation of a character, it can be interesting to give them an obstacle. It may be a physical restriction, a confining idea, or something which causes other characters to respond negatively. You make take up to 6d6 in Challenges, provided the Gamemaster approves that the challenge is worth the number of dice and has the effect of giving the character a believable obstacle in role playing. The following are examples. Players are encouraged to work with their GM to create additional Challenges for game play. CHALLENGE EFFECT VALUE (d6) Missing Limb -2d6 from STRENGTH or +4 Cultural REFLEX per limb Skills. . +2 Specialty (no Athletics) May prevent some Specialties Reduced Sense (each) -1 to -2d6 to the sense +2-4 Specialty PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER Phobia 1-4d6 penalty in situations +2-8 Specialty Delusion 1-3d6 penalty in situations +2-6 Specialty Obsession 1-2d6 penalty in situation +2-4 Specialty FAME In the News 1d6 penalty in situation +2 Specialty Known by Face 2d6 penalty in situation +4 Specialty Wanted 3d6 penalty in situation +6 Specialty Subject to Hunt* 4d6 penalty in situation +8 Specialty * This can include roadblocks, broadcast or media warnings, National Guard, Police, Military,Êetc. SUPERVISED Restrictive Job 1d6 penalty in situation +2 Specialty Monitored off-job 2d6 penalty in situation +4 Specialty Police/Public Safety 3d6 penalty in situations +6 Specialty Electronic Surveillance 3d6 penalty in situations +6 Specialty MEDICAL RESTRICTION Medicated (Physical) 1d6 penalty in situations +2 Specialty Chronic condition 2-3d6 penalty in situations 4-6 Specialty QUALITY OF SUCCESS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- In combat, your roll is measured against your opponent. If your roll is sufficiently greater than your opponent, your damage will be modified by the degree of your success. With each level of success your damage is increased and becomes more lethal. QUALITY OF SUCCESS (Difference) 1-6 7-11 12-17 18-23 24-Up Damage Bonus 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 MARTIAL ARTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Various forms of martial arts have become very popular in gaming. For P.L.U.S, martial arts are considered either a personal choice or a benefit of a career. Martial art skills take up dice that could have otherwise go to other skills. Dice representing martial arts are put into an area of study. A player may use dice from any combination available dice pools from Starting, Specialty, Careers or Benefits. Martial art dice are added to the weapon (including fist and kick). For example: An average person may have 2d6 in Fist, 2d6 in Kick and a polearm as a weapon. with 2d6. He/she chooses to add 5d6 from martial art training, and divides it +2d6 to Fist (4d6), +2d6 to kick (4d6) and +1d6 to polearm (3d6).