UPDATE: New sheet in the comments, with lots of improvements

UPDATE: New sheet in the comments, with lots of improvements

UPDATE: New sheet in the comments, with lots of improvements

Hi Hackers in the Dark 😀

This is Zona Zero One a (in my opinion) complete gameable hack of Blades in the Dark on one sheet of paper. Ok its font size 7pt but well still readable 😛

It was created during my flight back from Gen Con, during ~4 hours of writing/editing/layouting. It is heavily inspired by the format which is used by Grant Howitt. I realy like his one page format RPGs.

I would be happy about a bit of feedback.

Cheers,

Vandel

#Zona #ForgedintheDark

27 thoughts on “UPDATE: New sheet in the comments, with lots of improvements”

  1. Love it! The Escalations part is a little vague, as to how it is meant to work. The character building stuff is nice and flavorful. Having Heal Harm under Physical:Force is a little un-intuitive for me. Overall, very good!

  2. Ah and I forgot to mention that you level up with 8 XP.

    „When you reach 8 XP or more, return to the Zona to train. You gain + 1Action Dot or mark 1 Ability or unlock another Role (without marking a new Ability yet).“

  3. Aaron Frost this is still unedited and supposed to be printed on one sheet. But I would be interested about your opinion about the content. Is it gameable in your eyes?

  4. I am considering doing an „Extended Edition“ with a backside to the sheet. That will include:

    Zona Downtime Actions:

    Deescalating a Faction Conflict

    Going on Patrol

    Tending the Community Gardens

    Work on a Project

    Join the maintenance crew

    Heal wounds

    NPC Tables

    Creature Tables

    Relict Tables

    Rumors Tables

  5. Seems like theres a layout glitch on the mental/physical action lists. Mental is one line lower.

    Removing position is a bold choice because I think that is maybe the most critical piece of the games mechanics. Its what makes us talk about how much you risk to do a thing. Effect helps us talk about what you can actually expect to happen. For instance, hitting a dragon with a sword. Are you underneath it? Does it know your there? Do you need to close the distance? All of these can affect postion. Can your sword even do anything to it? Is it a magic dragon killing sword? these things can help us understand what can actually happen. Neither of these things is “difficulty.”

    I can tell you during the playtests Positon and Effect were colapsed into one concept It looked something like this:

    Controlled:

    6: You get what you want and more

    4-5: You get what you want

    1-3: You get what you want at cost

    Risky:

    6: You get what you want.

    4-5: you get what you want at cost

    1-3: you don’t get what you want and you pay the price

    Desperate

    6:You get what you want at cost

    4-5: you don’t get what you want and you pay the price

    1-3: It goes the worst way possible.

    I’m often tempted to return to this model, because it is simpler. But I think the full game’s system is more robust.

    Other than that I think this is a nice trimmed down version of the rules. I want to do something like this for Blades Against Darkness for quick play and I just may steal a bunch of your ideas… 😉

  6. Dylan Green do that plenty 😀

    Hummmm, i know what you mean. But honestly, position is something I normally introduce after a first try of the rule sets of blades. Maybe I should change that. Positioning isn’t my best GM skill, but lately it worked better.

    I gave the players 3 cards:

    Blue Controlled

    Yellow Risky

    Red Desperate.

    That did visualized it greatly.

    Ok guys, I will edit positioning back into it.

  7. Go full on Maze Rats and have the rules on one page and all the random generators on the following page(s).

    Also are you accepting feed back on grammatical and spelling errors?

  8. Nice! Cleaner, the base mechanics are more clear for someone who is not familiar with BITD. Hard to say as I have read BITD prior to seeing your excellent game.

  9. Vandel J. Arden

    A couple of questions and comments:

    “Player may roll towards these results instead of a difficulty” = (I’m actually just confused by this sentence)

    “roll an amount of dice equal to the first action dots of your physical or mental Actions” = (are we taking about Attributes instead of actions here? Anyway I don’t think a “new to Blades” person will understand how many dice they should be rolling from this explanation)

    “it goes out of action and receive a Trauma” = (maybe clarify that the character is out of the current scene/situation only and returns in the next scene/situation with the Trauma)

    What is the fictional difference between Perception and Intuition? Those words are synonyms of each other so it’s hard for me to imagine the intent here.

  10. Vandel J. Arden

    And a wall of text for the spelling and grammatical corrections:

    increase Effect, raise the Postion = increases Effect, raises the Position

    result from 6. This is the Stress = result from 6; that is the stress

    If a character gain 8 or more Stress, it goes out = If a character gains 8 or more Stress, they go

    If it receive a 4th Trauma, it is utterly broken and you will no longer be able to play this character. = If a character receives their 4th Trauma, they are utterly broken and will no longer be able to be played

    When you succeed a mission = When you succeed on a mission

    You were successfull on = You were successful on

    each of this conditions = each of these conditions

    and take the highes result = and take the highest result

    a character spend time in = a character spends time in

    Aquiere Assets = Acquire Assets

    When Gathering Informations = When gathering information,

    You can sustain by eating vermins = You can sustain by eating vermin

    Artifacter = Artificer

    A rival interferes into = A rival interferes with

    players added 2 = players add 2

    Than take turns = Then take turns

    When a faction receives the 6th point of Escalation, than = When a faction receives their 6th point of Escalation, then

  11. Omari Brooks oh great! Thanks, I will update this ASAP.

    Difficulties are like Clocks, connected to challenges & obstacles. But instead, characters could roll actions to try improving their position.

    Roll Dice, hummm, I will try to rephrase it

    Ya, Trauma needs to o be clearer too

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