----------------------------------------------------------------------- P L U S PLayerŐs Utility System Frequently Asked Questions Version 2.0 September 30, 1996 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: Q 1. WHAT IS THE CURRENT VERSION OF PLUS? Q 2. WHAT IS PLUS? Q 3. WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE OF PLUS? Q 4. WHAT GENRES WORK WITH PLUS? Q 5. WHERE CAN I GET PLUS? Q 6. WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE FTP CAPABILITY? Q 7. CAN I CREATE PLUS-BASED ARTICLES AND POST OR OTHERWISE PUBLISH THEM? Q8. ARE THERE ANY PLUS ERRATA? Q 9 WHERE CAN I DISCUSS PLUS? Q10. WHO DO I CONTACT ABOUT PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Q1. WHAT IS THE CURRENT VERSION OF PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A1. September, 1996, Also called "Fifth Edition" or "Version 5.0". PLUS was created to allow my own groups to play in a published game world with a very faulty system. We applied the system to our own worlds and other published worlds before issuing the original (severely flawed) drafts to the AOL Game Designers board and the Internet. Shortly after the release of 2nd Edition to AOL several valuable contributions were made to accellerate the development of PLUS to the current form. The current version is available in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document format), .ps (Postscript), .and .txt (plain ascii text). Q2. WHAT IS PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A2. PLUS is role-playing game (face-to-face table gaming, that is - not a computer game or Live Role-playing Game). It is just a gaming system, primarily designed for advanced gamers to use in worlds published with unplayable systems. A certain amount of customization work is necessary in order to use PLUS, and many things are left unstated: the Gamemaster and the players will have to work together to create cooperative storytelling. PLUS 1.0 was released in the Winter of 1994/95, was the first role playing game released to the net in portable document format (.pdf) for use on Mac, DOS, Windows and UNIX systems. Previous games for cards and board structures had been released by Bone Games in the .pdf format, but those were not role playing games for dice, pencil and paper. Through the feedback of gamemasters on the net, and through playtesters at conventions and in local groups, PLUS 2 (March 1995) and PLUS 3 (July 1995) were released with corrections, revisions and expansions. PLUS is based on 'pools' of dice in seven characteristics, five perceptions, an open number of athletics, occupations, specialties and weapons. An average person, with average education and average physical skills, is considered to have two dice (2d6) to roll in an ability or a skill that is commonly available in a culture. For example, unless you decide to create a Specialty to drive a car, you would have 2d6 to roll to succeed. In PLUS you show higher levels of skills with additional dice. The number of additional dice is determined by the game level and identified in the Plus 4th Edition Basic Rules. When playing PLUS you want to roll high on two or more six sided dice. A suggested target number scale is provided in the 4th Edition Revised Basic Rules, but the targets may be modified by the Gamemaster to suit a specific gaming situation. A series of possible dice roll results make it possible for the player to re-roll duplicate numbers (Fate Dice), discard die rolls resulting in "1" (Trash Dice), and modifiers to the ease or difficulty of the moment, supplied by the GM (Gamemaster's Dice). If using the Fate Dice rule a player re-rolls duplicate dice and all "1"s are the result, the roll has become Toxic and there is a negative effect to the roll, determined by the Gamemaster. PLUS was written by, and is copyright by, Joseph Steven Coleman. Much valuable aid was received from many people on rec.games.design, most of whom are credited in the actual PLUS Basic Rules. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: We are looking for a new name for this system because of trouble with the trademark registration. You may earn a permanent part of the royalties if you make a suggestion we can actually use. Write for more information. Q3. WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE OF PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A3. PLUS is designed for new players to learn as a beginning dice- moderated role playing game system, and for advanced players who can work cooperatively with the Gamemaster for an enjoyable gaming session. Q4. WHAT GENRES WORK WITH PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A4. To date PLUS has been played with a variety of settings and several designers, publishers and groups have expressed interest in releasing a net version of their games using PLUS. (*) indicates that this setting is planned for release. PLUS has been run successfully with contemporary, super hero, western, traditional "magic", and science fiction settings. Three design teams are working on new worlds for PLUS and licenses have been granted or obtained for PLUS versions of several games published by other RPG houses. PLUS: 1889 ---------- This was the first .pdf conversion, by the kind permission of GDW, which owns all of the copyrights and trademarks to the SPACE:1889 world. You must sill have the SPACE:1889 game book and may want to also have some of the supplements for game play. PLUS:1889 is a simplified gaming system for playing in the GDW setting of Ether Romance. PLUS: TAINT ----------- TAINT is a super-hero setting for several game systems, but was written to be run in PLUS as its basic system. Online previews are available through the PLUS home page. PLUS:ENDWORLD ------------- This is a science fiction/fantasy world of Earth's far future. Magic, Monsters and classic role playing campaing setting. Online previews are available through the PLUS home page. PLUS:A NEW AMERICA ------------------ What would our world be back if World War II had not happened? A NEW AMERICA is a setting where the world still uses vacuum t ubes and radio is still the most popular mass entertainment. Pulp style intrigues and adventure on the dark side of a 40 year world depression. Online previews are available through the PLUS home page. ADDITIONAL GAME WORLDS IN DEVELFOPMENT FOR USE WITH PLUS -------------------------------------------------------- PLUS: BELGIAN FLATS - Adventures in the not-so-wild west in Victorian America. PLUS: FLICKER - Science fiction game playing at the dawn of the First Galactic Emprire. PLUS: HIDDEN INVASION - Special conversions for using plus with Nightshift Games setting of paranoid conspiricies and alien realities. Q5. WHERE CAN I GET A COPY OF PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A5. PLUS is available via anonymous ftp from: * Site: catalina.opt-sci.arizona.edu/pub/PLUS * Site: users.aol.com/talewind/PLUS PLUS game documents are availabing in four formats: .pdf Portable Document format with full graphics layout. This is the preferred file to download. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader(tm) to view and print this document. .txt Plain Text Format for Mac, IBM or UNIX. Separate archives of the text version are availabe as .sit (for Macintosh) and .zip (for IBM and UNIX). Ask your sys admin if you don't know how to ftp or unzip files. .ps Postscript files, offering full graphics layout for output to Adobe Postscript printers. (.ps files are only available through the AOL ftp site and Monmouth.) These are the documents. The ".x" indicates one of the formats above when you go to download. P5_Basic.x Character Generation, Glossary, Dice rules, Wounds and Recovery, basic weapons. Character sheets are included: Standard PLUS box form for low level games Worksheets for Character Development ZIP and Creature sheet Print out the one's you need and photocopy as needed for your game. P5_Comp.x Companion with optional rules, Armor, Character improvement, etc. Advanced PLUS box form for high level games Worksheets for Character Development ZIP and Creature sheet. Print out the one's you need and photocopy as needed for your game. P5_GM.x GameMaster's tools and information for running PLUS games. Additional documents will be released in the next few weeks. These include: P5-World.x Guidelines for creating worlds, campaigns, plots and stories for PLUS and other gaming systems. P5_Chars.x A series of pre-generated player characters, partially generated charcters for players to finalize, and ZIPS. (For release in November 1996). P5_Magic.x A magic system, setting and sample campaign for one of the most popular special effect in gaming. Additional supplements are in various stages of development, including tools, special effects and GameWorlds. Keep checking back with the web site, or check the regular gaming newsgroups for announcements. Q6. WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE FTP CAPABILITY? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A6. You have two choices. 1) You can get PLUS by e-mail. Write to: games-request@monosys.com Simply send a blank message with a subject of HELP - you will get an answer on how to get PLUS (and many other games). 2) You can buy a copy from me. The complete set in both .pdf and .txt formats is available on disk. Write: Talewind Print & Production P O Box 12631 Berkeley, CA 94712-2631 This will include a hardcopy and a disk with both .pdf, and .txt formats. (Sorry, .ps files are too large to offer on floppies.) Q7. CAN I CREATE PLUS-BASED ARTICLES AND POST OR OTHERWISE PUBLISH THEM? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A7. We encourage the development but before you post the document the net for free distribution, contact us for a license - it's quick, it's easy and for free web distribution, it is free. If you plan to publish a game based on these rules you must first have a license and a royalty agreement in place. Write: talewind@aol.com Q8. ARE THERE ANY PLUS ERRATA? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A8. There are no errata at this time, but that may change. . Q9 WHERE CAN I DISCUSS PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A9. Usenet discussion should be on rec.games.frp.misc - PLUS is a genuine RPG, and deserves to be discussed there. Simply put the the word PLUS in the subject line and have fun! If you really want to do a major redesign of some section of PLUS, you might try posting to rec.games.design. There is also no PLUS mailing list at this time. Q10. WHO DO I CONTACT ABOUT PLUS? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A10. The author can be reached through radiojoe5@aol.com All business correspondence should be addressed to talewind@aol.com. The PLUS Home Page is located at: http://users.aol.com/talewind/plus.html ======================================================================= P L U S - PLayerŐs Utility System FAQ Version 2.0 9/30/96 BASIC GAME DESIGN: Joseph Steven Coleman SPECIAL EDITING ASSISTANCE: Thomas Biskup ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Andrew Leker Christopher Pound Harold Ogle Lloyd Wiebe Paul Arden Lidberg Richard Lee Eide Nadine Miller PLAYTESTERS: Harold Ogle Lloyd Wiebe Michael Hole Michael Kinney Nadine Miller Richard Lee Eide Shawn Smith (c) 1996 Joseph Steven Coleman All Rights Reserved