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
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!
Um I see, the actual escalation part is missing, lol
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).“
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?
It’s rather neater than Grant’s one-pagers. 😉
Benjamin Davis my handwriting is unreadable… 😀 and well I got a more complex system than he usually uses. So it’s harder to compress
I’m certainly not complaining. 😀
Like it and I like the idea of a Blades hack on one page. Well done.
The Roll 1-3 and fail hard rule, but get XP rule is a bit inspired by Dungeon World. This will speed up level ups a lot.
It’s not always a desperate roll.
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
“multible” “oppertunity”. PS nice work.
About your last post: please, do it. Expand it.
About the Difficulty, I suppose this is a Clock-like thing, but it’s not stated that you can succeed with multiple rolls (and /or multiple people working on it).
You think that needs to be added? Hummmm ok
Well, actually, in a BitD community, probably not. However, if you give that doc outside of here, you probably should add that.
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… 😉
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.
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?
Omari Brooks sure. But let me edit it before you send your feedback. I will post a new update posting soon
Hi everyone here is the new and improved Zona Sheet, with most of your suggestions and a bit more clean up.
Gerald Rose Benjamin Davis Stefan Struck Andrea Parducci Dylan Green Omari Brooks
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cCum2dczoB-8W5sLW-plG2Btdz0S4yfQjJk6PvoG1IiWTQTa7ebLPlpLOWn5oefqsWQZtkQKd1P2xbmA-jUK9P3gTHestRkKPs58=s0
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.
I think, if I were to take out the rule parts only, than I now have a stable framework for mini Hacks.
Lets call this minimalist Rules „Microblades“ !
This is really slick. It is perfect for 1 page of rules and 1 page setting would be awesome.
Eric Brunsell this gives enough to form a bone & skin set up.
The backside will provide the meat & blood.
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.
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
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