A 1-Page Cheat Sheet for OVA

Father of Dragons · Post by **Father of Dragons** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:26 am

I've been working on a one-shot OVA game, possibly to run at convention. One thing I'd like to have is a 1-page cheat sheet to remind the players of the rules (I'll give them a quick verbal once-over first). I have a first draft that I'd like feedback on. It's a bit wordy, but it does barely fit on a single page in MSWord (if I adjust the margins).

OVA Cheat Sheet

Die Rolling

Base Roll is 2 dice plus 1 more die per point of applicable advantage, minus 1 die per point of applicable disadvantage, plus any situation modifiers specified by the GM.
Roll your dice, and add up any duplicates (other than 1's) and choose the highest die or duplicate total; all 1's always fails. A three die check rolling 1,3,6 would be a roll of 6, a three die check rolling 4,4,5 would 8, a three die check rolling 1,1,1 would be 1 and fail.
0 dice means roll 2 dice and choose the worst die, -1 dice means 3 dice and choose the worst die (no adding).

Roll either against an opponent's roll (opposed roll) or against standard difficulty:

Code: Select all

Easy	                  2
Moderate	              4
Challenging	           6
Difficult	             8
Very Difficult	        10
Extremely Difficult	   12
Nigh Impossible	       15

If you miss a roll, you can use Drama dice (you get 1 free for every point of Lucky per adventure, otherwise they cost 5 Endurance), these are extra dice that work as usual.
Once per scene you can spend 30 Endurance for a Miracle, which makes a single action, no matter how difficult, succeed without needing a roll.

Combat

Start by rolling initiative (2 dice + Quick - Slow); execute actions in initiative order. You may keep your value or reroll at the at the start of each round.
Normally one action per round: Attack, Kamikaze Strike (attack with no defense), Mark (no damage, embarrassing attack), Don't Hurt Me! (all defense), Protect, Run for Cover.
Multiple actions can be performed in a round by taking a penalty of –number of actions from all actions: do three attacks, and all are at -3 dice.
When attacked, you may defend or counter (unless Kamikazi Striking); defend, roll defense dice vs attack; counter roll attack vs attack, highest wins, compared to 0!
Damage is equal to the amount attack beats defense, + multipliers for Martial Arts, Weapon and Strong (an attack that beats defense by 3, with Martial Arts 2 and Strong 2 would do 12 points of damage (3 x (2+2)).
When all Health or Endurance is gone, all actions are at -1; when all of both are gone, you fall unconscious. Endurance (except that used to pay for Drama dice and Miracles) comes back at the end of a battle.

Eisenmann · Post by **Eisenmann** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:50 am

Looks nice and concise to me.

Post by **Clay** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:53 pm

Looks great for passing out to players for an impromptu introduction to the game. Thanks! Including the difficulty chart is a nice touch, since it's used, in some form or another, so often.

Father of Dragons · Post by **Father of Dragons** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:23 pm

Clay wrote:Including the difficulty chart is a nice touch, since it's used, in some form or another, so often.

I thought it necessary to give the players a way to get a feel for what their chance of succeeding at various tasks might be. Hopefully, it could give them more ideas of things they might want to try to do.

Eisenmann · Post by **Eisenmann** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:45 pm

I've printed this out for my game tomorrow.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:27 pm

I made my own cheat sheet, but I am not sure what happened to it

.

JuddG · Post by **JuddG** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:29 pm

Cloud wrote:I made my own cheat sheet, but I am not sure what happened to it .

Did you already try looking at the last place you had it (or the last folder you saved it)?

And, on the subject of lost and found:

TRUE STORY

I spent most of today with an itch in the small of my back and at lunch I discovered that it was caused by a sock that had clung to my shirt in the laundry. Now, here is the spooky thing - IT'S NOT MY SOCK!!!!!

Since I live alone, I wonder how this got in a dryer I have owned for years...

Eisenmann · Post by **Eisenmann** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:57 am

JuddG wrote: TRUE STORY
I spent most of today with an itch in the small of my back and at lunch I discovered that it was caused by a sock that had clung to my shirt in the laundry. Now, here is the spooky thing - IT'S NOT MY SOCK!!!!!

Since I live alone, I wonder how this got in a dryer I have owned for years...

I can easily answer that question. Your dryer is the exit for the jump gate where socks go when they disappear in my and others' dryers.

Kotetsutheo · Post by **Kotetsutheo** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:32 am

Thanks for the sheet. I'm going to see if I can pdf it for the page if you and Sensei Clay have no objections.

I'm also cooking up an more detailed (read more lines for things) character sheet.
I'm ALSO looking to revise to rules based upon my experience in gaming in general and many hours grinding away at BESM 2ed/ 3ed.

Domo arigato gozaimasu every body.

Father of Dragons · Post by **Father of Dragons** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:41 am

Kotetsutheo wrote:Thanks for the sheet. I'm going to see if I can pdf it for the page if you and Sensei Clay have no objections.

I certainly have no objection!

Kotetsutheo wrote: I'm also cooking up an more detailed (read more lines for things) character sheet.

A fillable character sheet would be nice as if possible.

Kotetsutheo wrote:I'm ALSO looking to revise to rules based upon my experience in gaming in general and many hours grinding away at BESM 2ed/ 3ed.

I would find that very interesting. For my game, I've been borrowing a bit from Spirit of the Century/FATE 3.0 and some of the general principles I've seen discussed on www.story-games.com .

Post by **Clay** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:41 pm

Fret not. Anyone can create anything they want to for OVA. It'd be kind of silly to frown on that sort of thing. Even if it's an idea i disagree with, if you and other fans get enjoyment from it, what harm is done?

That said, what objection I could have to a new character sheet is beyond me. *laughs*

Kotetsutheo · Post by **Kotetsutheo** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:12 am

I'm also a fan of another system, that being Savage Worlds. It's a neat product, but I'm not hear to market it.
However, as a company, they accept support product submissions.. eg Savage Tales.
Would this be feasable from a Richochet System perspective?

The heavily obfuscated question is are you interested in producing joint party books for profit?

I love making money

Post by **Clay** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:32 pm

While it would be a bit short-sighted to reply with no, I am a bit possessive at times. I'm certainly open to any suggestions and proposals from OVA fans, but I don't have the budget to actually fund any such "fan-lines" of books. But if you can do it on your own, at the quality I require for OVA books, then maybe!

If you just want to use the Ricochet SYSTEM, I'm a bit more open. You should ignore the licensing guidelines though. They're utter poppycock I threw up there to have something. I should take it down.

I wouldn't mind putting together some kind of quarterly/bimonthly e-magazine of content, but getting content, and art so it looks nice, is easier said than done and has not been feasible so far.

Kotetsutheo · Post by **Kotetsutheo** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:00 pm

Wakarimasu.
You have every right to be posessive, it is your creation. I'm sure I could come up with pleanty of content, I just don't have any production capability (eg I can't do layout and design.)
Alt., I could just make it all fan-based and forego the $$ for now...
Hummm.... marketing vs. return... the eternal question.

FYI Have you ever considered running the convention circut?
I know of at least 3 localy, Orlando, where the art alone would probably sell the book.. spaced throughout the year no less. (Jacon, Megacon, Anime Festival of Orlando)
While I understand that you production costs prohibit any sort of "paid" convention staff, it's one of the easiest ways to spread your system around.

Post by **Clay** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:50 pm

Sorry, this post slipped through the cracks, somehow...

I've thought about it, of course. I really haven't had the time (or gumption) to make a round of local conventions though. OVA has appeared at a few cons through the efforts of others. Several great fans have run games at their favorite cons, and OVA has gotten a passing mention at RPGNow's table the past two years.

Maybe if I ever get this mecha book out...who knows? I'd really like to get OVA to the anime crowd, but so far it's always been RPG cons.