Hey Gamer Nation,

A day early and a bit short since I'm probably going to be crazy busy for the next couple days getting stuff squared away for Gen Con, here's the revised combat cards.

First, the PDF : Unisystem Combat Card Blank mk2.pdf (8.25 KB)

Second, the blank card .pub file : Unisystem index Blank mk2.pub (144 KB)

And finally, the black border version I use myself : Unisystem index Fill mk2.pub (145 KB)

I may not see you this weekend or next weekend, since I'll be at Gen Con.  Usually, I do at least upload a few pictures.

First of all, a note: I've added a PDF to the Unisystem Chronicler's Screen.  I meant to upload the PDF the first time, but I'd saved it to the wrong folder and wasn't paying attention.

Now, on to business:

Here's another inovation I'm planning on using in my Unisystem game.  I like the simplified stats from Cinematic Unisystem.  I tried them out in an All Flesh game a couple years back, and ran into a problem.  Classic characters don't have Drama Points, and therefore don't do well against enemies who always roll a 6.

Another thing I've tried and liked recently was initiative cards for D&D.  They provide a place for every character in the initiative order, and a handy spot for marking down hit points and whatnot.  So I wanted to do something along those lines for my new game.  I'm terribly disorganized, so anything that can help me is worth looking at.

So I kind of combined those ideas.  I wanted to get a functional character sheet down to an index card.

This is the result.





They're not quite perfect yet.  I may muck around with the design a little to get Endurance on there, since it's not quite fair that the PCs need to keep track of it but the NPCs don't.  But I think it'll be okay.  Major NPCs still have a full character sheet, since I plan to only have to deal with one or two at a time.  Mooks will probably tend to die before Endurance could become an issue.

I use Hard to Kill as a way to beef up the opponents.  Mooks who are more set decoration than real threat have none.  Challenging guys who I don't want to see falling over immediately will have three levels.  Tough guys who are supposed to be able to challenge several PCs have all five (or more if they're supernatural beings).  I like to have most of my NPCs in a given fight with little or no HTK, but with a bunch of NPCs, so they start off dangerous, and become less so with every round or two.  Nerves of Steel, Situational Awareness, and especially Fast Reaction Time are judged the same way.  Most folks shouldn't have them, and if you give them to every opponent, that sucks for the PCs, so most guys don't have them.  Only opponents who are supposed to be really dangerous do.  And I only worry about Nerves of Steel if the PCs have powers that can generate Fear tests.

Attributes shouldn't be tough to figure out.  Simplified stats are pretty much like the ones in Cinematic Unisystem.  I actually considered splitting Brains into two stats: One for perception and willpower type stuff, and another one for knowledge skills.  But I decided to stick with the Unisystem standard for now.

Now, I have slightly different ideas about calculating Simplified stats than the official party line.  When I do my characters, I don't bother to calculate them exactly.  I first build characters so a lot of their key stats will be pretty easy to average, then I just rough it out.  The goons with Str 3, Dex 4, End 3, Int 2, Per 3, Will 2 who are supposed to be pretty good at fighting but not too amazingly bright probably have combat skills about 4, other physical skills about 3, and brainy type skills at 2.

Mostly, mooks who should be easy to take down have stats that will average less than or equal to the most of the PCs.  Challenging opponents will average a little higher.  Really tough guys will be four points or more higher, meaning the PCs need to be very careful even fighting one.

For a Classic game, I think you need to roll dice even for the mooks, so you calculate the simplified stats without adding 6.

So our mooks would have Combat 8, Muscles 6, Brains 4.

Down in the Notes field, I put the damage for a few common attacks and any Qualities besides Hard to Kill, Fast Reaction Time, Situational Awareness, and Nerves of Steel.  (Those go up at the top for easy reference during combat.)

For download, here's a PDF designed to print out three cards at a time on Avrey 5388 card pages:

Unisystem Combat Card.pdf (7.8 KB)

Here's a Publisher file of the same document:


Unisystem index Blank.pub (136 KB)

And here's a Publisher file of the spiffy ones I use in my own game, where the top stripe is black and the character's name or label appears in white:


Unisystem index Fill.pub (137 KB)

As I mentioned, I'm setting up a new Unisystem campaign about psychic teenagers defending the world from aliens and running from the government.  I'm using Classic Unisystem.  I have the WitchCraft Chronicler's Shield, but it's not really very good, IMO.  There's a good bit of wasted space, and there are tables that run across the creases.  It's okay if a table runs across a concave crease, but if it runs across a convex crease, you can't see both sides at the same time unless you can get your screen to sit really flat.

So I spent the afternoon laying out a new screen.  I have a generic GM Screen with four panels, so I did four pages.  Print them on both sides, and you and your players will have virtually every common table.  For my specific game, I wanted to fit on the Seer Power Art and Strength tables, but I didn't quite have room for that.  So I added the Explosives tables instead.

The end result is very utilitarian, but functional.  Enjoy.

Unisystem Screen.pub (205 KB)  The original Publisher file, which you can edit to your heart's content.


Unisystem Screen.pdf (44.75 KB)  A PDF, which I meant to upload in the first place.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Today, we introduce an exciting new feature: Software!

I'm trying to learn C#, and the best way to do that is to write programs, so I'm writing programs.  They're not, at this point, very GOOD programs, but there you go.

This one was written to fill the vital need for on-the-spot predictions of the future.  I call it the Amazing Desktop Oraculator.  Its results are absolutly guarenteed to be acurate.  Unfortunately, the nature of quantum uncertainty means they might not remain accurate in any specific timeline, but they're accurate in some reality.

Desktop Oraculator Mk1.application (5.28 KB)

You'll need to be running .NET 3.5 to make it work, but it's survived extensive testing.  (I tried it twice before I posted it)

The time has come.  I've waited on Eden for a long time, but they've had some severe logjam issues for the past year or so, and with the end of the Buffy/Angel license, it's unlikely that this will ever be published in its current form anyway.

(That said, if the Eden guys read it and they really like it, I'm totally open to publishing it or reworking the rules into another product)

I'm a big Ghostbusters fan.  I loved the first movie, really liked the second movie, and loved both iterations of the cartoon.  I played the hell out of the old WEG version of Ghostbusters and GBI.  I wore the pips off two ghost dice and repainted both of them, twice.

I'm also a big fan of the Cinematic Unisystem, which should be news to nobody.  And, while I liked the original Ghostbusters RPG, I don't think it's the only possible take on the material.  WEG Ghostbusters played up the slapstick elements of the setting for a game that's a really humorous romp.  But the movies, and particularly the cartoons, remind me more of the light-hearted side of Buffy and Angel.  Danger is a little more serioius, and the world is a little less comedic, while still being witty.

So, back in July of 2006, I wrote a conversion of Ghostbusters to Buffy/Angel.  "Spook Stopers Inc" is pretty much GBI, dropped into the Buffyverse, which isn't a perfect fit, but it gets by.  If I were really going to run a Spook Stoppers game, I'd probably remove all the Buffyverse-specific stuff and just use the rules for a more ghost-heavy, Champion-light setting.

I, not having Acrobat, had no easy way to set this up as a PDF, so my friend, Lisa Hartjes did the honors.  I actually DO have a way to do PDFs now, so I might do a slightly spiffier one with graphics and stuff somewhere down the line, but for now this one will get the point across.

spookstoppers.pdf (333.63 KB)

Hello everybody,

Some time ago, I decided it was time to learn to use Microsoft Excel, so I built a chart that calculates combat maneuvers for the Cinematic Unisystem, using all the ones included in Angel.  It's not very pretty as Excel worksheets go, but it does the job.

Unfortunately, then I accidentally deleted it.  But fortunately, before that I had uploaded it to a friend's website.  So now I have it again, and I'm posting it here.  That way, when I accidentally delete it again, it'll be easier to find.

EDIT:  Oops, forgot to actually upload the file.  Boy is my face red.

buffy angel cmt.xls (24.5 KB)