Four Cannon: Supremely Simple System RPG

8/11/2019 Four Cannon: Supremely Simple System RPG

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FOUR CANNON

SSS RPG RULES


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Basics

So were playing a PnP. What is a PnP? PnP stands for Pen

and Paper, but you wont be needing those things really. Basically, you

have a character that is part of a group (Or party) and this party goes

to solve some problem/explore an area or whatever. This is determinedmostly by a special player called the GM(The Game Master). This

player thinks of the scenario and describes as things happens. He/she

also plays all the NPCs.(Non-player characters, as opposed to the

PCs, the Player Characters) Normal gaming runs as follows: The GM

describes a scene and the PCs then react to that scene in some way,

such as looking through a door, attacking a monster or whatever else

is appropriate. Whenever you try something that is not trivially simple,you must roll for success, which is described further down. Combat

has special rules that will be explained below.

Rolling for Success

Whenever your character attempts something non-trivial, such

as spotting a hidden monster, kicking down a door or anything else,you must roll for success. This means you must roll a die, mostly a

d20(a 20 sided die), by typing !roll 1d20. To this, you or the GM adds

any appropriate modifiers, for example, you might get a penalty to fly-

ing during a windstorm, or a bonus to knocking down a door if the door

is very old. Generally, with modifier you need to get 11 or better to suc-

ceed (Rolling to get an 11 or higher is also called a standard roll), but

this can vary wildly and the GM will not tell you what you need to roll,

but he might drop hints by saying things such as the door is very oldand seems somewhat damaged.

Do not roll for success unless your GM tells you to, as it can clutter

up the chat. Describe what you want to do and then wait for the GM to

tell you to roll. He will then describe what happens determined by your

roll. There are two special rolls: A natural 1 and a natural 20. These

simply mean your die turned up 1 or 20. Whenever you roll a 1 some-thing extraordinarily stupid happens. You trip and hit your head or drop

your weapon or similar. Whenever you roll a 20, something extraordi-

narily good happens, such as casting a spell to perfection or scoring a

critical hit. Generally, when you roll a 1 you automatically fail and when

you roll a 20 you automatically succeed at whatever youre doing.


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You, the Character

Everyone plays their Four Cannon character. The only really

relevant aspect combat wise is your race. Everyone has 10 base hit

points (HP) and 10 armor class (AC), except Pegasi who have 11 AC,

and can fly. Earth ponies have a +1 to-hit with an unarmed attack, and

also +1 for attacking with an all-out attack with any weapon. Unicorns

can cast magic spells, including utility spells such as light, but these

require rolls too. If you ever reach below 0 HP, you have a chance of

falling unconscious and need medical attention. If you somehow drop

directly to a negative amount equalling your HP, you die immediately.

You recover 1 HP every 12 hours naturally. For advanced healingrules, see the ESSS and SLSS documents. Sleeping the night re-

stores 1d6 HP under SSS, but the rule is not active in the current Four

Cannon game. Be warned that their are few other ways to recover

health and the nights can be dangerous, so set up sentries!

Equipment

Other than weapons, there also is armor, which increases AC,

and a huge multitude of other things players may find and use. When-

ever you use a weapon of sub-par quality, such as an ancient rusty

sword, you must roll d20. If your roll is 5 or less, it breaks and becomes

useless. Same for armor. For weapons,size affects both the initiative

and to-hit rolls. For initiative, unarmed attacks are at +2, light weapons

(1d6 and under) are at +1, and medium weapons (1d8) add nothing(0). Subtract 2 if the weapon is large (1d10 or above). Weapon size

also affects your to-hit roll. Light weapons give you a -1. Medium weap-

ons give you a -2. Large weapons give you a -4 or worse.

For armor, subtract from the initiative roll an amount equal to the

armor. So a leather armor set of 1 AC subtracts 1 from the roll.

Equipment HP

To make things simple, weapons have HP equal to their max damage,

and armor equal to 10 x AC.


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Combat

Combat is more regulated than normal playing. Combat is split

into rounds and turns. A round is a roughly 6 second time increment

in which characters act. Each character has a turn during this round, all

turns together make up a round.

Round Order

1. Initiative

2. Action

3. Damage

4. Next character

Initiative

To determine the order of turns, at the beginning of each round,

everyone rolls a d20(To roll for initiative) and then they are sorted by

what they rolled, noting any modifiers. Some monsters have a bonus to

this roll. The GM then calls whoevers turn it is first. This character can

then act, such as attacking a monster, casting a spell or running away.

Then the next player in line is called and so forth until the round is over.Then the whole initiative process is repeated. A nat 20 gives you +1

to both your to-hit and damage rolls, and the ability to act at any point

during the round, including interrupting others rolls. You dont have to

be the first to attack if you dont want to. Combat magic is rolled regu-

larly for initiative (+0).

A natural 1 rolled means your character will go last in the round,even if others had a modified roll of 1 or less.

Ties

Due to kek, it is possible for rolls to tie. A nat 20 always beats

any modified scores, and a nat 1 always goes last. When characters

tie, their actions occur at the same time. Have the GM determine who

declares action first with a dice roll if players cannot agree, or the orderin which they rolled. Its up to the GM.


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Action

There are a few actions players may take in the round. A player

may go prone, attempt to help a prone character up or recover from

going prone themselves, draw their weapon, drop a weapon and draw

a new weapon, pick up a weapon from off the ground, break an item,disarm a target, attack, defend, attempt to fly, or attempt to cast a spell.

Or light a torch, remove light armor, etc.

Prone characters are easier to hit with melee, but harder to hit

with ranged attacks. Enemies attacking a prone character receive

+4 for a melee attack, and -2 for a ranged attack. A prone character

receives +2 on their to-hit rolls with ranged attacks, but -2 on melee

attacks. The basic unicorn magic attack, and TK do not get bonuses or

penalties due to the prone position.

These are not the only actions that can be performed in combat, but

are the most common.

Attacking

Whenever you attack, you roll 1d20. This must be higher than

the targets armor class(or AC). This is your to-hit roll. If you roll higher,

you have hit the monster. You then roll damage. An unarmed attack is

1d4, a light weapon such as a knife is 1d6, a normal weapon such as

a sword deals 1d8 and a large weapon such as a greataxe deals 1d12

damage. This is then subtracted from the monsters Hit Points(or HP).

All-out

You may perform an all out melee attack, with a -4 to-hit modi-

fier, and you receive -2 AC until your next turn. Magic attacks also re-

ceive a +2 bonus to their rolls to hit you as well. An all out attack gives

you the ability to try and attack twice in the same round. Apply -4 to

both 1d20 rolls. Because of their innate abilities, unarmed earth ponies

get their rolls at -2, from the +1 for an unarmed attack, and the +1 forall outs. These last until the character takes their next turn.


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Nonlethal attack

You may also attempt a nonlethal attack. This damage can drop

a person to their negative max HP plus one(i.e. -9 if your max HP is

10), and no further. Any additional lethal damage they take forces

them to make a death check, covered in the ESSS rules. Some weap-ons, such as swords, are hard to use as nonlethal weapons, and so

receive a -2 on the to-hit rolls.

If you roll a natural 1 on the d20, you have performed a critical

failure. GMs, it is your duty to be creative. Examples of what can hap-

pen include tripping and taking 1 damage while going prone, acciden-

tally stabbing yourself with your own weapon, your target getting an

immediate free attack against you, or hitting an ally in close quarters.

Defending

Instead of attacking, you may defend. Theres two options for

defending. Defending yourself completely, where you get +4 AC, and

your turn ends. The other option is defending someone else. You

select 1 enemy to defend against and one character that youre de-fending. You or your protectee receive +3 AC this turn, or you both

receive +1 AC. Choose this when you declare defense. Defenders or

those whom they are protecting that have received a natural 20 during

the initiative phase get this AC bonus doubled. If someone decides

to interrupt with a defending action due to rolling a natural 20 from the

initiative , treat as if the to-hit roll was applied with a standard defend-

ing bonus, instead of doubled.

GMs are encouraged to flip a coin (roll 1d2), but have the player call it

before hand to determine whom unintellegent enemies attack.

Damaging Equipment and Disarming

A player may attempt to damage weapons or armor instead,

or disarm a weapon or a shield. Attacking a small weapon is at -5, amedium, -4, and a large weapon, -3. Attacking armor is at the same AC

as the character wearing it, but the armor takes half damage from the

attack (rounded down), and the wearer takes 1 point of damage. A bro-

ken weapon or piece of armor is considered useless. A character may

still attack with it, but at a -2 to-hit penalty, and it deals 1d2 damage.


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Broken armor negates any AC bonus it gave, and may actually give a

penalty to AC for its wearer. It still gives the initiative penalty while still

being worn.

A strike to disarm is an attempt to twist away an enemys weap-

on without harming it or its wielder. You can only disarm with a weaponyou could realistically parry with, such as unarmed, most melee weap-

ons and some thrown weapons. You have an additional -2 to hit un-

less you use a fencing weapons (main-gauche, rapier, saber or small

sword). If you strike, you and your enemy roll contesting attack rolls.

You gain +2 if you are using a weapon useful in disarming (Jitte or

similar). Earth pony bonuses apply. If you win, your opponents weapon

flies one yard in a random direction, if you lose or tie, he keeps his

weapon. On a nat 1, you are disarmed!

You cannot disarm hooves. Those attacks are named Called

Shots and described in the ESSS.

Casting a Spell

If you are a unicorn, you may attempt to cast a combat spell.This is something along the lines of throwing a small rock at an en-

emy or zapping them with a small discharge (Note this is why some

were confused as to either the magical attack being a magic missile

or if unicorns could use telekinesis and throw objects instead.). When

attempted, you roll d20 and must get a 14 or higher to succeed. If you

roll between 6 and 13, your magic fizzles and cannot be used for 1d4

rounds. If you roll between a 2 and 5, you hurt yourself for 1 point of

damage and your magic fizzles for 1d4 rounds. If you roll a 1, a magi-

cal catastrophe occurs! You either fry yourself for 1d8 damage or you

and all your allies take 1 point of damage. Just to make this perfectly

clear: When you attempt to cast a spell. You have a 35% of the spell

working, a 40% chance of your magic being gone for effectively the

rest of the encounter and a 25% chance you will hurt yourself and/or

your allies. And even if it works, it only does as much damage as an

unarmed attack. So, all in all, it is only ever worth using when you des-perately need a ranged and/or magic attack for a certain situation.

You may attempt to cast a Telekinesis (or TK) spell instead, roll

d20. If you roll 14 or higher, the spell succeeds and the subject of the

spell gets +4 to their next roll, or +2 AC if the target is defending. If you


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roll a nat 20, you immediately free your companion from his precari-

ous situation, or +8 to their next roll, double their defending AC bonus,

or treat as if they had rolled a natural 20. If you roll between 6 and

13, your magic fizzles for 1d4 rounds. If you roll lower though, your

magic has a detrimental effect! Your companion rolls with a -4 penalty,

or -4AC if they are defending! If you roll a nat 1, well, there goes yourfriend, treat it as if he had rolled the nat 1, AC bonuses from defending

are now gone and is now prone if target is defending. You can also use

these effects on your enemies, switching the effects.

Note that unicorns can only cast one spell at a time. If a unicorn

was the sole source of light in a cave, and decides to attack with their

magic, the party just lost their means of seeing until next round, where

the unicorn can use their turn to recast light.

For characters past six months, i.e. the current game state, the target

number is 12 instead of 14. Magic fizzles between 6 - 11 instead of the

6 - 13.

Flying

If you were blessed with some wings on your back, you can at-

tempt to use them to get an edge in combat. To do this, announce you

want to attempt to fly and roll 1d20. If you roll a 14 or higher, you are

airborne for this round. This means you can maneuver into any position

you could realistically reach within 6 seconds of flight. You can always

use your aerial superiority to attack. If you do, you can choose one of

two options. You can attack this round with +1 to-hit with a melee at-

tack and +1 ACuntil your next turn or recieve +2 AC and +2 to initia-

tive until your next turn. Flying (or levitating!) and aiming a ranged

weapon in combat is hard, so you receive a -2 on your attack rolls with

ranged. If you roll a nat 20 on your flight roll, you automatically score a

critical hit if you hit with your next attack. If you roll between 6 and 13,

you stumble and cant take off, your turn is over. If you roll between 2

and 5, you land on your face for 1 damage. If you roll a nat 1, you take

off at full speed and crash spectacularly into something for 1d8(!) dam-age.

Again, characters past the six month succeed on 12+ for flying, just like

unicorns with their magic attack.


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During the next round, you may attempt to stay airborne on a

12+ (or 10+ for characters past the six month limit). Roll for this before

you take your normal action for the turn. There is no roll needed if you

wish to land, consider it an automatic success. If you were in one flight

mode, you may switch it at this time. This is different from flying out-

side of combat, because of the sudden sharp turns needed to fly backaround for another pass in close quarters.

Damage

The damage from the attack is resolved at this point. This step is

needed because of ties. If a character goes prone.

Optional: PCs at 4 HP or less receive a -2 for all attack and magic rolls.


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HP and Dying

When your characterreaches 0 HP, he becomes unable to

fight. He can still stagger away from combat or drink a health potion.

You can attack, defend, fly or cast a spell, but if you attempt such

strenuous activity, you must roll a standard roll or take 1 point of dam-

age. If you everdrop to -1 HP or lower, you must roll a standard roll

each round to stay conscious. If you fail, you fall unconscious (ESSS:

You are in a coma) and need medical attention, you do not recover on

your own. If you succeed, you may act on this round such as crawl-

ing away from combat or similar. You may also fly, run, cast a spell or

attack, but your roll to avoid 1 point of damage is at -4. Wheneverat

0 HPor lower, you are effectively stunned and are at -4 to all combatrolls, pegasi lose their bonus as well. If no other PC is within reach,

a monster can attempt to coup de grace a dying player. The monster

rolls attack, if he hits, damage is calculated normally but the player

must make an additional standard roll at a penalty equal to the damage

just sustained or immediately fall to your max negative HP times 5. For

terms of SSS, if you reach your max HP as a negative (-10 HP stan-

dard), you are dead. ESSS has rules to keep you alive.

Spells outside of combat

Outside of combat, unicorns can attempt to cast 2 kinds of useful

spells: Telekinesis and Light.

Telekinesis can be used to give a situational +4 bonus on a roll,

such as by helping someone climb a ledge. This is purely up to the

GM, ask him if a Telekinesis spell would help. To cast a Telekinesis (or

TK) spell, roll d20. If you roll 14 or higher, the spell succeeds and the

subject of the spell gets an immediate re-roll with a +4 bonus. If you

roll a nat 20, you immediately free your companion from his precarious

situation. If you roll between 6 and 13, your magic fizzles for 1d4 min-utes. If you roll lower though, your magic has a detrimental effect! Your

companion immediately rolls with a -4 penalty! If you roll a nat 1, well,

there goes your friend, treat it as if he had rolled the natural 1. You can

also use these effects on your enemies, switching the effects.


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Light is the easiest spell for a unicorn to cast, seeing as her

horn lights up anyways and even Snail could get it to work. To make is

smooth, GMs should just allow any light spells to automatically work,

illuminating a 15 ft area brightly and another 15 ft in shadowy light,

roughly as much as a torch would.

For balancing reasons, all fizzled magic resets at the beginning of

combat.

---All in all---

If ever in doubt, the GMs word is law. Be reasonable, respect

other players and give your GM time to react to you and the party. Heis also just a human, he can make mistakes too. If there are any ques-

tions during gaming, your GM will probably happily answer them and if

you have criticism or suggestions for this system, please relay them in

the thread.

So, have fun! Its a wild world out there.


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Special thanks to Lucyne for the initial creation of the

system, everyone who has made comments on it , and those

who have contributed to improving the future systems that

Four Cannon will use. Without the players and the game

masters, 4C would have just been another rolling threadquickly forgotten on the board.

We hope that whatever you do and wherever you go in

the future, that you will look back with fond memories of all

the friends you met and the good times you had playing the

game.


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Four Cannon: Supremely Simple System RPG

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