BURPS

Bez's Universal Role Playing System

Games 4 Geeks

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 BURPS
Bez's Universal Role Playing System

Development
Bez Bezson

Editing
Clare Starkie

©2017 Bez Bezson & Games 4 Geeks

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Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................5
Character Creation...............................................................................9
Attributes...............................................................................10
Skills......................................................................................11
Umbrella Skills..........................................................11
Broad Skills...............................................................11
Specialised Skills.......................................................12
Skill Costs..................................................................13
Optional Traits.......................................................................14
Character Advancement........................................................15
Basic Tests.........................................................................................17
Rolling Dice for a Test...........................................................18
Standard Tests........................................................................20
Opposed Tests........................................................................21
Initiative and Actions.........................................................................23
Phases and Rounds................................................................24
Initiative Tests.......................................................................25
Actions...................................................................................27
Continuous Actions...............................................................28
Combat..............................................................................................29
Attack Tests...........................................................................30
Damage Tests.........................................................................31

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Wounds & Healing............................................................................32
Wound Penalties....................................................................33
Wound Degradation...............................................................34
Stabilising..............................................................................35
Heal Test................................................................................36
Games Mastering...............................................................................37
Task Difficulty & Modifiers..................................................38
Optional Variant: One Action per Round..............................41
Appendices........................................................................................42
Appendix A – Attributes........................................................43
Appendix B – Skills..............................................................47
Appendix C – Optional Traits...............................................49
Appendix D – Equipment......................................................52
Weapons....................................................................52
Melee Weapons..............................................55
Missile Weapons............................................56
Appendix E - Super-Human Abilities....................................57

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Introduction

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 BURPS, or Bez's Universal Role Playing System has been
designed as a reaction to the many systems out there where
high-level, competent characters routinely do things flat-out
impossible for ordinary people. Anyone can get lucky, and
anyone can be unlucky when under pressure.

BURPS solves this by constricting all results (at least those not
involving beyond-human abilities) to a range of results. No
matter how competent or useless a character is, and no matter
how easy or hard the task, they cannot get a result higher than
18 or a result less than 3. What does change is that competent
characters doing easy things will get more results near the top
end of that range, and that useless characters attempting
difficult tasks will mostly get results near the bottom of that
range.

The core of the system is rolling a number of six-sided dice,

and then totalling three of them. If a character will probably
succeed, they'll be totalling the highest three dice. If the
character will probably fail, they'll be totalling the lowest
three dice.

All dice used by BURPS are ordinary six-sided dice, or d6s.

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There are several chapters in the book:

First up is Character Creation, which shows you how to make

a character. All the Attributes, Skills, Optional Traits, etc. will
be tailored to the campaign anyway, this chapter just shows
you how to make a character without getting bogged down in
specifics. Several example lists of Attributes, Skills, etc. can be
found in the Appendices.

Next is a chapter of Basic Tests, which shows you how to

actually roll dice to see whether your character does what
they attempted.

This is followed by a chapter focussing on Initiative & Actions

Then another on Combat, for more specific uses of the rules.

Sooner or later characters will get hurt, so there’s a chapter

on Wounds & Healing, to show you how to deal with that.

Then, there’s a brief Games Mastering chapter with some

advice for running games of BURPS.

Finally there’s the Appendices, in which you’ll find examples

of Attributes, Skills, and the like for a variety of campaigns,
which should hopefully get your juices flowing for customising
these rules for whatever style of game you want to run.

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 Currently BURPS is a generic system, usable for whatever you
see fit to try it out for. If I get some good feedback on it, then
in the future I will probably use it as the system for actual
settings and provide customised versions of these rules for
those settings.

So, please let me know what you think about the system,
what you like and don't like, what you'd change, etc. You can
reach me at feedback@games4geeks.com with any
comments you have.

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Character Creation

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A character in BURPS, speaking from a mechanical
perspective, is made up of three things: Attributes, Skills, and
Optional Traits.

Attributes
Attributes are broad categories of ability. Everybody in a
game has the same Attributes.
The GM (potentially working with the players) should feel
free to create a list of Attributes that fits the sort of game that
they desire. Appendix A - Attributes has a selection suitable
for most 'typical' campaigns.
Attributes are rated on a scale of -2 to +2.
• A +1 costs ten Character Points
• A +2 costs an additional twenty Character Points
(that's thirty in total)
• A -1 gives ten Character Points to spend
• A -2 gives an additional ten Character Points
(that's twenty in total)
'Ordinary Joe' levels of character can be generated by giving
the players no Character Points other than those they get from
taking negative Attributes. Highly competent characters can
be generated by giving the players ten times as many
Character Points as there are Attributes. A good baseline
would be something like five Character Points per Attribute
used.

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If a player has leftover Character Points after buying
Attributes, they can be carried over to spend on Skills.

Skills
Skills are narrower categories of Ability. They come in three
kinds: Umbrella Skills, Broad Skills, and Specialised Skills.
Like Attributes, different campaigns may require different
Skill lists, and the one shown in Appendix B – Skills is
something of a 'generic' list. Unlike Attributes, it's not usually
a problem for a player to create a new Skill, so long as
everyone agrees it fits the campaign, and what kind of Skill it
should be.

Umbrella Skills
Umbrella Skills are not strictly speaking Skills themselves,
rather they are groups of similar Broad Skills that function in
a similar way. Crafting Skills would be an example, as it's far
easier to say that appropriate craft Skills exist, with some
examples, than to try and create an exhaustive list.

Broad Skills
Broad Skills are areas of expertise that are specific enough
that they can be covered as a single Skill, but general enough
that they don't fit under another Broad Skill.

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For example, unless you are creating a campaign where
differences in fighting styles are a focus, Unarmed Combat will
probably be a Broad Skill.
Broad Skills are rated on a scale of -1 to +1, with any Skills
that the character doesn't have noted on their character sheet
being treated as 0.

Specialised Skills
Specialised Skills are narrow areas of expertise, that are sub-
divisions of Broad Skills. Perhaps the campaign has a Science
Broad Skill, with Chemistry, Physics, Biology, etc. under it as
Specialised Skills.
Specialised Skills are rated on a scale of -2 to +2, but may
not be more than a single point different from the Broad Skill
they come under. So, to continue the example above, a
character with Science +1 would have to have a Physics Skill
between 0 and +2, and another character with Science 0
would have to have a Physics Skill between -1 and +1.
Any Specialised Skill that a character have on their character
sheet is treated as equal to the Broad Skill it comes under, or 0
if they don't have that either.

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Skill Costs
Broad Skills each cost five Character Points to be at +1, and
give two Character Points if at -1. Specialised Skills cost three
Character Points to be a one higher than the associated Broad
Skill, and give one Character Point if they are one lower than
the associated Broad Skill.
'Normal' characters of mundane ability might only come with
a few extra Character Points for Skills. Highly competent jack-
of-all-trades might have four or five per Skill on the 'default'
list you are using.

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 If a player has leftover Character Points after buying Skills,
they can use them on Optional Traits.

Optional Traits
These are any abilities not covered by Attributes and Skills.
One example would be an aptitude for certain situations, such
as a +1 when suffering a penalty due to alcohol. Another
would be things not generally covered by normal Tests, such
as being a billionaire. It can also cover special powers, such as
being immortal, or being able to levitate.
Optional Traits are often highly campaign-specific, and care
should be taken to ensure that they are costed fairly. Don't be
afraid to charge an extra Character Point or two later on (see
character advancement) if you think an Optional Trait is too
good for the cost, or refund a Character Point or two where
it's not as big a deal as you thought it would be.
Character Point costs for Optional Traits vary greatly, and are
specific to the individual trait.
Unless you want the player characters to be a rather unusual
bunch, you don't need to give any extra Character Points at
this stage.
If a player has leftover Character Points at this stage, they
may save them to spend later on in downtime.

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Character Advancement
Many campaigns expect that the player characters will
improve over time.
This may take the form of a 'zero to hero' arc, where the
player characters start as rather ordinary individuals, but end
up as some of the most elite figures in the world.
Alternatively, it can simply be that the rigours of what they
are up against, cause them to train harder. Either way, most
campaigns will expect the characters to improve mechanically.
For this to happen, the GM will award Character Points.
Not awarding any will lead to no mechanical growth,
although the GM should probably let a player reduce
characteristics that are hardly used by her character, to free up
points to spend elsewhere. This avoids the characters ever
becoming unbelievably powerful, and means players have to
carefully balance where they want their points.
Meanwhile, awarding points will lead to the characters
getting more and more powerful, but feels more like the
characters are growing, and feels more natural to a lot of
players.
One Character Point per session, with maybe an extra one for
completing a significant plot arc, is a good 'standard' to use.
This should be tailored for the speed of advancement that
suits the group.
These points can be used to improve any of a character's
characteristics, so it would cost ten Character Points to raise a
-2 Attribute to -1, or five to change a Broad Skill from 0 to +1.

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 Character Points should only ever be spent when the
characteristic improved can be justified; such as by training, or
repeated use in recent adventures. Typically this will mean
that Character Points are only spent between adventures, or
when there is a decent stretch of downtime for the character.

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Basic Tests

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BURPS has one method of rolling dice at it's core, which is
used by all of the rules below. Some sections of the rules
might interpret this roll slightly differently to others, but the
method of rolling is the same, no matter what.
Sooner or later, your character is going attempt something
where they're either not guaranteed to succeed, they're not
guaranteed to fail, or how well they do is important. To
determine what the outcome of this attempt is, you will need
to make a Test.

Rolling Dice for a Test

When you need to make a Test of any kind is called for, you
should first work out what your Pool for the Test is.
Ordinarily, your Pool will be the character's most relevant
Attribute rating, plus their most relevant Skill rating, plus
anything relevant Optional Traits give, plus any Modifiers that
apply due to the conditions on whatever the character is
attempting.
This will give you a number; this is your Pool for the Test,
which is typically somewhere in the range -5 to +5.
For example, a character with an Agility of +1 and a
Climbing Skill of +1 would have a Pool of +2 before
Modifiers to climb a cliff.
If the cliff had little in the way of hand-holds, no
obvious route up, a number of overhangs, and was
slippery due to rain, perhaps the GM might assign a -3
Modifier, taking the Pool down to -1.

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If your Pool is zero, then roll three dice and total the values
on all three to give you a result.
So, a roll of 3,4, & 5 would give a result of 12.

If your Pool is a negative number, such as -2, then you roll

that many additional dice, but total the three lowest scoring
dice to get your result.
A Pool of -2 would mean rolling five dice, with a roll of
1, 2, 4, 4, & 6 giving a result of 7.
In the above example, the Pool is two points away from zero,
so five dice (three base and an extra two) are rolled, and the
Pool is negative so it's the lowest three dice.

If your Pool is a positive number, then you roll that many

additional dice, and may total any three of those dice to get
your result.
So a Pool of +3 would let you roll six dice, meaning a
1,2,3,4,5, & 6 could give a result of up to 15.
In the above example, the Pool is three points away from zero,
so six dice (three base and an extra three) are rolled, and the
Pool is positive so it's the highest three dice.
Ordinarily you will want the three highest dice, but
occasionally you might want to deliberately do poorly. Maybe
you're trying to let someone win (but by as little as possible)
or you want to land what looks like a solid punch, but doesn't
actually hit that hard.

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Standard Tests
For most circumstances, you'll probably only need to make a
Standard Test. In fact, you could quite happily play BURPS
without using any other sort of Test.
Once you have your result, you simply look at the number.
If the result is 10 or less, your character has failed to do
whatever they were attempting.
The lower the result, the worse things went, the higher
the result the better things went.
Results of 3 are where things went about as badly as it's
possible for them to have gone.
Results of 10 are where you just missed your target, but
came about as close as possible.
The GM may wish to add extra complications for really low
results (mostly 3s), or tangential benefits despite failure for
high results (mostly 10s).

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If the result is 11 or more, your character has succeeded at
whatever they were attempting.
The lower the result, the worse things went, the higher
the result the better things went.
Results of 18 are where things went about as well as it's
possible for them to have gone.
Results of 11 are where you made it by the skin of your
teeth.
The GM may wish to add complications despite success for
really low results (mostly 11s), or extra benefits for high
results (mostly 18s).

Opposed Tests
Opposed Tests can be used where rather than one character
trying to do something, you have two characters acting
directly against each other.
Both parties should work out what their individual Pools
would be if they were making a Standard Test. The difference
between those should be used as the actual Pool of the
Opposed Test.

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 The result gives an outcome as shown below:
3-8 = victory for the character with the lower individual Pool.
3 is a decisive victory.
8 is by the barest of margins.
9 = no clear winner, roll again with an additional -1 Modifier.
10-11 = no clear winner, roll again.
12 = no clear winner, roll again with an additional +1
Modifier to the Pool.
13-18 = victory for the character with the higher individual
Pool.
13 is by a tiny margin.
18 is a decisive victory.

Any time an additional roll is called for, that represents the

situation continuing for longer than if the outcome was a
victory for one of the characters.
For an arm-wrestling contest, an extra roll might take a few
seconds, for a chess game it could be an extra hour.

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Initiative and Actions

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Phases and Rounds
For some circumstances, such as combat and action
sequences, it's often important to know who acts in what
order. When this happens it’s time to move to using Phases
and Rounds.
A Phase is a small slice of time, just enough for a single
Action.
A Round is a series of five Phases, starting with Phases 1 and
ending with Phase 5.
When things switch to using Phases and Rounds, everyone
makes an Initiative Test, to determine in what Phases they act.
The results of the Test apply until things drop out of the
structure of Phases and Rounds, or the character spends one
of their Actions to re-roll their Test.

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Initiative Tests
Characters make an Initiative Test and look up the result on
the table below:
3 = Caught by surprise, no Actions this Round, but re-roll
Initiative for next Round.
4-6 = Acts in one Phase per Round.
4 = Acts in Phase 4.
5 = Acts in Phase 3.
6 = Acts in Phase 2.
7-9 = Acts in two Phases per Round.
7 = Acts in Phases 3 & 5.
8 = Acts in Phases 2 & 4.
9 = Acts in Phases 1 & 3.
10-12 = Acts in three Phases per Round.
10 = Acts in Phases 2, 4, & 5.
11 = Acts in Phases 1, 3, & 5.
12 = Acts in Phases 1, 2, & 4.

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13-15 = Acts in four Phases per Round.
13 = Acts in Phases 1, 3, 4, & 5.
14 = Acts in Phases 1, 2, 4 & 5.
15 = Acts in Phases 1, 2, 3, & 5.
16-18 = Acts in all five Phases each Round.
Acts in Phases 1-5.

Or to put another way:

Phase 1 = Initiatives 9 & 11-18.
Phase 2 = Initiatives 6, 8, 10, 12, & 14-18.
Phase 3 = Initiatives 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, & 15-18.
Phase 4 = Initiatives 4, 8, 10, 12-14, & 16-18.
Phase 5 = Initiatives 7, 10, 11, & 13-18.

The easiest way to keep track of this is either for the GM to

write down which Phases each character acts in, or for each
player to write down which Phases they act in, after rolling.

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Actions
The Phases of a Round represent small slices of time, so all
Actions within a Phase happen simultaneously. It doesn't
matter what Actions you resolve first, their effects don't kick in
until the Phase has happened.
Say two characters are having an 'old-west' quick draw
contest, and they both act on Phase 2. If character A rolls first,
and shoots character B dead, character B will still get her shot
at character A, because they're both shooting at the same time.
If, on the other hand, character A acted on Phase 1, then she'd
shoot character B before character B got a chance to act in
Phase 2.
A character can walk about a meter, run about four meters,
throw a ball, swing a sword, or anything comparable as an
Action. A -1 penalty for doing something while walking, or -2
while running is generally appropriate.
A player who doesn't like the result of their Initiative Test,
can re-roll it as an Action. This new result takes effect from
the next Phase onwards.

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Continuous Actions
While characters only act in the Phases indicated by the
Initiative Table, they can still do things in the other Phases. A
character can only start doing something, or deliberately stop
doing something in Phases where they act, but they can keep
doing something that they started in the other Phases.
For example, a character could use her Action to start running
for a barn that's several Phases movement away. Because it's
going to take several Phases to get there, that's a Continuous
Action, and she'll keep running towards it in the Phases where
she doesn't act. When she next has a Phase where she acts, she
will have the choice of continuing to run, stopping where she
is, or doing something else.
Another example would be a character with a machine gun
could use it's Continuous Fire (see Appendix D) ability to
designate an area, or a group of targets, to spray with bullets.
She would then hold down the trigger and keep spraying the
target(s) with bullets each Phase until she has another Phase
where she acts, or the gun runs out of bullets.
Where a Continuous Action is totally disrupted by something,
the GM may allow some sort of reaction roll to stop doing it.
So, if a chasm opens up between the character and where
she's running to, she has a chance to stop before just running
off the edge.

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Combat

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 Sooner or later, players being players, they will either want
their character to hurt someone, or will make someone else
want to hurt their character.

Attack Tests
An Attack Test is used when a character wishes to attack
another character.
Check the result as follows:
3 = Botch.
Possible complication (off-balance, drop weapon, etc.)
4-6 = Miss.
Attack totally misses.
7-10 = Near miss.
Attack misses by a small margin.
11-12 = Glancing hit.
Hits but with a -1 Modifier on damage.
13-15 = Hit.
Hits for normal damage.
16-18 = Solid hit.
16-17 = Hits and give a +1 Modifier on damage.
18 = Hits and give a +2 Modifier on damage.

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Damage Tests
Whenever a character takes damage, a Damage Test should
be made. If the damage is from an attack, the attacker should
make the Test.

3 = no damage.
4-6 = a -1 Modifier on the victim's next Test.
5-9 = one Superficial Wound.
10-12 = one Minor Wound.
13-15 = one Major Wound.
16-18 = Critical damage.
16 = one Major Wound & one Minor Wound.
17 = two Major Wounds.
18 = death, the character dies instantly.

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Wounds & Healing

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Wounds come in three types: Superficial, Minor, and Major.
Superficial Wounds are small injuries, that don't really
provide any risk to the character’s health and are largely
cosmetic.
Minor Wounds are more serious injuries, but ones that are
still not life-threatening.
Major Wounds are very serious injuries.
All Wounds are Unstabilised (see Wound Penalties and
Stabilisation) when received.

Wound Penalties
Wounds inflict penalties to Tests made by characters who are
injured, this is based on the worst injury they have.
If the character's worst injury is an Unstabilised Major
Wound, the character has a -1 Modifier per Unstabilised Major
Wound to all physical actions, and a -1 Modifier to anything
else.
If the character's worst injury is a stabilized Major Wound or
an Unstabilised Minor Wound, the character has a -1 Modifier
to all physical actions.
If the character's worst injury is a Stabilized Minor Wound,
the character has no penalty unless they try something which
the GM rules as being enough of an exertion to warrant a -1
Modifier.

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 If the character's worst injury is a Superficial Wound, the
character has no ongoing Wound penalties.
The first Test a character makes after receiving any sort of
Wound will have a Wound penalty of a -1 Modifier if there
would be no other Wound penalty.
Wound penalties listed as affecting physical actions also apply
to Heal Checks made on the character and Degradation
Checks made by the character (see Wound Degradation and
Heal Checks sections).

Wound Degradation
A character with one or more Unstabilised Major Wounds
makes a Degradation Check once per 24 hours divided by the
number of Unstabilised Major Wounds. So, a character with
three of them would Test every eight hours. A failed Test
means that the character dies from her injuries.
A character with one or more Unstabilised Minor Wounds
makes a Degradation Check once per 7 days divided by the
number of Unstabilised Minor Wounds. So, a character with
two of them would Test every three and a half days. A failed
Test means that one of the Unstabilised Minor Wounds
worsens to become an Unstabilised Major Wound to represent
bleeding, infection, inflammation, etc.
Characters don't need to Test for Superficial Wounds unless
the GM rules that there's specific circumstances that make it
likely the Wound is infected, aggravated, or contaminated in
some way.

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Stabilising
Characters may be treated for injuries with a First Aid or
Medicine (or whatever the closest Skill your campaign has)
Test. This Test is penalised by the Wound penalty that the
patient would suffer to physical actions. A success means that
one Unstabilised Wound becomes Stabilised.
Stabilised Major Wounds become Unstabilised if the character
undertakes anything physical that the GM deems to be beyond
the level of rest and recuperation.
Stabilised Minor Wounds become Unstabilised if the character
undertakes actions that the GM deems to be strenuous, or
likely to cause strain on the injured body parts.
Stabilised Wounds don't Degrade, Unstabilised ones do.

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Heal Test
For each Major Wound a character has, the character makes a
Heal Test for that Wound one month after receiving it. If the
Check is a success, it improves to become a Minor Wound. If
the Test is a failure, the character may Test again for it in
another month.
For each Minor Wound a character has, the character makes a
Heal Test two weeks after receiving it. If the Check is a
success, it improves to become a Superficial Wound. If the
Check is failed, the character may Test again for it in another
two weeks.
For each Superficial Wound a character has, the character
makes a Heal Check for that Wound one week after receiving
it. If the Check is a success, it is removed as totally healed. If
the Check is failed, the character may Test again for it in
another week.
Heal Checks are unaffected by whether a Wound is Stabilised
or Unstabilised.

Should a Degradation Check cause a Wound to worsen, the

time to the next Heal Check for that Wound is calculated from
that point, not when it previously would have been. If a Heal
Check and Degradation Check are both due to happen at the
same time, make the Degradation Check first.
Wound Penalties to physical actions apply to Heal Checks.

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Games Mastering

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Task Difficulty & Modifiers
Don't be afraid to hand out Modifiers based on how difficult
the task a Player Character (PC) attempts, and the conditions
that the PC is attempting it in.

As a general rule of thumb:

A roll with a Pool of 0 has an equal chance of success or
failure.
A roll with a Pool of +1 is going to succeed about two
and a half times for every time it fails.
A roll with a Pool of +2 is going to succeed roughly six
times for every time it fails.
A roll with a Pool of +3 is going to succeed well over
nine times for every time it fails.

Rolls with negative Pools will probably fail, which is great for
showing that something is really difficult, or (in the case of big
negative Pools) not going to work.
Negative Pools are not so good for giving the impression that
the PCs are competent, so too many of them make the PCs
look useless. On the other hand, if something really is a stupid
idea, but not actually impossible, or really is something the PC
should only have a small chance of doing, then go for it.

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 Rolls with Pools bigger than +3 are pretty much foregone
conclusions as far as success/fail are concerned. You're pretty
much rolling for how well the character succeeds. Great for
showing how 'bad-ass' the PC is, but not good for actually
giving them a challenge.

Reward good ideas and careful planning with bonuses, for

sure, but also make sure that the things you are putting the
PCs up against are actually challenging. Keeping Pools mostly
in the 0 to +2 range, for things that matter, is a good way of
making sure the PCs generally succeed, but without looking
like they're breezing through everything.

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 Now, you may be thinking "what's the point of having a
character who's good at something, if the GM is just going to
adjust the difficulty?"
Firstly you're adjusting things to the characters who should be
doing it. Secondly the more competent the characters are, the
more impressive the things they're doing will be. So the
difficulty of scouting ahead without being spotted will be
appropriate to the party's stealthiest character, not the
clumsiest. The difficulty of talking Round the CEO will be
based on the party's best negotiator, not the character with no
social Skills.
Secondly, if the party is made up of peasant farmers, then
taking on a couple of orcs is a tough fight. If the party is made
up of veteran adventurers, then a tough fight would be more
like a dragon, or some massive demon. If the party has little in
the way of social Skills, then it's going to be tough to convince
someone to help them. For a party with high social Skills,
maybe some sort of elaborate con job, to convince someone to
do something they would never have agreed to, might be a
better challenge.

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Optional Variant: One Action per Round
I know that some people don't like systems where characters
can have different numbers of Actions in a Round. I would
very much recommend try the rules as shown, as Continuous
Actions can take a lot of the sting out of rolling badly, but if
it's not for you, here's an optional variant.
Everyone rolls their normal Pool for Initiative, and notes the
result. If the result sucks, characters can still spend an Action
to re-roll their Initiative as normal.
Each Round, characters act in order of the result of their
Initiative Test, with the highest going first, the lowest going
last, and characters who are tied acting simultaneously.
Anything that would normally last for a number of Phases
lasts for that many Rounds instead.
Anything that normally lasts for a number of Rounds lasts
three times as many Rounds instead.

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Appendices

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Appendix A – Attributes
The following are some example lists of Attributes for you to use.

Generic List
Agility – Physical speed, movement, and gross motor control.
Used for stealth, dodging, dancing, acrobatics, etc.
Dexterity – Hand-eye coordination and fine control. Used for
Attack Tests, calligraphy, lock-picking, etc.
Endurance – Physical resilience and stamina. Used for
Wound Degradation Checks, avoiding exhaustion, resisting
damage.
Strength – Physical power. Used for meleé and thrown
weapon damage, feats of strength, etc.
Charisma – Social ability, emotional intelligence, and charm.
Used for rolls to influence others, lie without getting caught,
make friends, bargain, etc.
Intellect – Raw intelligence. Used for theoretical knowledge,
ability to solve complex problems, and remember
academically learned facts.
Wisdom – Willpower, common sense, and knowledge gained
through experience. Ability to simplify things, go with your
gut, learn through doing not reading, and spot dumb ideas.
This list should work for most campaigns, and while relatively
unexciting, covers most bases.

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Simple List
Physical – Is it a physical action? If so, this covers it.
Social – Does it mostly involve personal interaction? If so this
covers it.
Mental – Does it mostly involve thinking or knowing? If so
this covers it.
This list allows differentiation between charmers, fighters,
and intellectuals, but keeps things as simple as possible.
However the trade-off for the simplicity is that it doesn't allow
you to show the difference between someone strong but
clumsy and someone agile but weak. Or someone with street-
smarts but no education from someone who is a brilliant
academic but has no common sense. That can always be
covered by Skills though.
With an Attribute list like this, your Skills will probably be a
bit broader than normal.

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'Lovecraftian' List
Alacrity – Physical speed and agility.
Influence – Ability to sway others.
Prowess – Physical strength and resilience.
Purity – Morals and strength of character.
Reason – Intelligence and knowledge
Sanity – Resilience to horrors, and grip on reality.
Willpower – Mental strength, and ability to fight off your
instincts.
Depending on what you have planned, this list could work
well for a horror-themed campaign.

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Near-Future List
Strength – Physical strength.
Dexterity – Physical speed, agility, hand-eye coordination.
Endurance – Physical toughness and stamina.
Flow – Ability to navigate networks, finding information, and
reacting to anti-intrusion programs.
Intelligence – Smarts and knowledge.
Perception – Ability to observe, and take in details.
Reputation – How willing people are to help you, or be
intimidated by you.
Technical – Ability to make and repair hardware.
Suitable list for cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk and some sci-fi
settings. Note the 'Flow' Attribute that wouldn't really fit a lot
of settings (but could easily be replaced with an 'Arcane'
Attribute for fantasy), and the 'Technical' Attribute, for
something that would normally be covered by Skills.

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Appendix B – Skills
When it comes to Skills, the sky really is the limit. If you were
to list every possible Skill, it would be a really long list. So, it’s
generally best to list all the Umbrella Skills and Broad Skills
that you think your players are likely to want, and tell them to
ask about anything not on the list.
As to what constitutes what sort of Skill, well that really
depends on the setting and genre your campaign will take
place in.

For some campaigns, ‘Academics’ might be a Broad Skill,

covering general ‘book-learning’, with ‘Science’ as a
Specialised Skill under it.
That’s signalling that this is something that might be useful,
but that ‘Science’ is something that’s not going to come up too
often.
In other campaigns, ‘Science’ might be a Broad Skill, with
‘Chemistry’, ‘Physics’, and the like as Specialised Skills under
it.
That’s signalling that ‘Science’ is something that will be of
use, but ‘Chemistry’ will only occasionally get used, unless you
go out of your way to use it.
Maybe you might have a campaign where it’s appropriate for
‘Science’ to be an Umbrella Skill, with ‘Chemistry’ as one of
the Broad Skills within it. That would suggest that ‘Chemistry’
will regularly be something that can be used.

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If combat is likely to be unimportant, make it a single Broad
Skill, with specialisations for close and ranged combat.
If combat is likely to be a regular feature of the campaign,
having ‘Brawl’, ‘Weaponry’, and ‘Marksmanship’ as Broad
Skills for unarmed, armed, and ranged combat gives your
players more room to differentiate their characters. It stops
that catch-all ‘Combat’ Skill from being way more use than
putting points in other Skills.

So, the advice here is to stop and look at what you see the
players doing, what they’re going to be making rolls on. If
something will almost never come up, that’s a Specialised Skill
at best. Meanwhile, something that comes up more than once
per session should probably be a Broad Skill or maybe even an
Umbrella Skill.

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Appendix C – Optional Traits
Optional Traits can do pretty much anything. As such, how
many Character Points they should cost is not something that's
easy to say without knowing what sort of campaign you're
running.
If in doubt, try asking to how useful they're likely to be (or
how much of a hindrance for ones that are bad) compared to
a point of Skill or Attribute.
Naturally Optional Traits that are of benefit will cost
Character Points, whereas those that are a disadvantage will
give you Character Points.

The following are just a smattering of what's possible, to give

you some ideas for your own campaign.

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 Wealth is one possible area that could apply to many settings.
Poor – Your character has very little but the clothes on their
back. She's either homeless, whether on the street or crashing
at a friend's, or lives in a tiny, run-down place in a bad
neighbourhood. As a general rule, your character isn't going to
have any cash to spare, will be wearing worn and faded
clothes, and is barely making ends meet.
Wealthy – Your character is rich. Things that an ordinary
person could realistically save up for are something your
character can buy on a whim. For a modern-day campaign,
this would come with a nice, big house or luxury apartment,
great clothes, at least one nice car, and the like.
Uber-Wealthy – Your character isn't just rich, she's super-rich.
This is the kind of level where private jets, multiple holiday
homes, and 'money is no object' kicks in. If it's going to cost
less than a few million, you don't even need to consider the
expense.
None of these have any game rules attached, and are more
guidelines for the character's lifestyle and financial means.
Generally if a campaign is set where there's a lot of people,
wealth is going to matter a lot more than if it's set in the
wilderness, far from civilisation.
If the PCs are basically never going to get much chance to
spend money, then none of those should cost or give Character
Points.
If the campaign is set in a bustling modern city, maybe Poor
gives ten and Wealthy/Uber-Wealthy costs ten/twenty.

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Another category of Optional Traits would be to cover
situations where the character does better or worse than
normal.
Guardian – The character gets a +1 Modifier to any action
that is directly to protect the person (or place, or ideal, etc.)
that they have sworn to protect.
Self-Concious – The character suffers a -1 penalty when other
people are watching. Perhaps there could be two amounts of
Cps you get from this, depending on whether the other PCs
count or not.
Night Vision – The character ignores one point of penalty due
to darkness.
These are relatively easy to judge:
If it's going to come up about as often as a Specialised
Skill, it costs three Character Points for a bonus, or gives
one for a penalty.
If it's going to come up about as often as a Broad Skill,
it costs five Character Points for a bonus, or gives three
Character Points for a penalty.
If it's going to come up about as often as an Attribute,
then costing around ten to twenty for a bonus, or giving
around ten for a penalty is about right.

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Appendix D – Equipment
Weapons
Weapons have a number of characteristics:

Accuracy, is the Modifier to Pools rolled on the Attack Table

when using the weapon.

Damage, is the Modifier to Pools rolled on the Damage Table

when using the weapon.

Range, shows the range bands the weapon works in, this
might be 'melee' for close combat weapons, or a number of
numbered bands. Where it's a number of range bands, they
are in meters, and there is an additional Modifier of -1 per
band beyond the first, with no attack possible beyond the last
band.
So '10/20/40/80' would mean no penalty at up to 10m,
-1 at 10m to 20m, -2 at 20m to 40m, -3 at 40m to 80m,
and no attacks at ranges further than 80m.

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 Rate of Fire (or RoF) will be 'n/a' (not applicable) for melee
weapons and thrown weapons. Other ranged weapons have
three numbers separated by slashes.
The first number will be a '0' if a single shot may be
fired using the normal rules, or a '-' if only Bursts or
Continuous Fire (see below) is permitted. Single shots
only attack one target.
The second will be a number (usually '1') if burst fire is
permitted, or a '-' if not. Burst Fire adds a bonus equal
to the RoF shown, to the Pool rolled on the Attack
Table. Burst Fire only attacks one target and may not be
used as a Continuous Action.
The last number will be a number if Continuous Fire is
permitted, or a '-' if not. Continuous Fire may attack
those within an area or multiple targets, and may be
used as a Continuous Action in Phases where the
character doesn't act. Continuous Fire must use the full
RoF available (whichever is smaller of the weapon's or
what the remaining ammo will allow). If Continuous
Fire is used, the attacker may add the RoF as a bonus to
rolls on the Attack Table (separate rolls per target), but
takes a penalty of -1 per target beyond the first. Areas of
space between actual targets also count as a 'target' for
these purposes at a rate of roughly one per meter. Use
of Continuous Fire cannot attack more targets,
including gaps, in a single Phase than the weapon's RoF
plus one. Continuous Fire may be used to attack more
targets and/or wider areas than this, but will attack
only that many targets per Phase (continuing from
where the last Phase left off).

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 Radius is for weapons that attack an area, the number is
metres from the point targeted. If multiple bands are given,
there's -1 Damage for each band beyond the first.

Ammo lists the number of shots the magazine/belt/power-

pack/etc. holds. If there is a second number in brackets, that's
how many shots each point of RoF used by burst fire or
Continuous Fire uses. Should there not be enough ammo for
the full RoF, then the effective RoF of the weapon will be
limited by the ammo remaining. Where RoF is temporarily
reduced by limited ammo, using a mode that would normally
have a higher RoF will use up all the ammo remaining.

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Melee Weapons

Weapon Accuracy Damage Range (m) Special

Unarmed 0 -1 n/a -

Knife 0 0 2/5/10* -

Sword 0 +1 n/a +1 parry

Spear 0 +1 5/10/20* Reach**

Staff 0 0 n/a Reach**

Chainsaw -1 +3 n/a -

* Thrown weapon, if there is a ‘Strength’ Attribute or similar,

modify range bands by this.
** Reach weapons give an additional +1 accuracy & parry
against opponents that have not successfully hit you since the
most recent out of:
a) the start of the fight,
b) you hitting them,
or c) you parrying them.

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Missile Weapons

Wpn Acc Dam Rng RoF Rad Ammo

Small
0 0 4/8/16/32 0/-/- n/a 9
Pistol

Large
0 +1 5/10/20/40 0/-/- n/a 6
Pistol

9mm
0 +1 10/20/40/80 -/1/2 n/a 30 (3)
SMG
Assault
0 +2 50/100/150/200 0/1/- n/a 30 (3)
Rifle
Sniper
+1 +4 100/200/400/800 0/-/- n/a 10
Rifle
Light MG 0 +2 100/200/400/600 -/1/2 n/a 200 (5)
Chaingun 0 +3 50/100/200/400 -/2/4 n/a 200 (5)
Light 150*/300/600/ 2/5/
-1 +6 0/-/- 1
Mortar 1200 10/15

* Light Mortar cannot shoot at targets less than 100m away.

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Appendix E - Super-Human Abilities
From time-to-time, a GM will need to represent characters,
monsters, animals, machines, etc. with abilities beyond those
of a human who is devoid of magic, super-powers, cyberware,
psionics, etc.
There are two ways of doing this.

The first, is to simply use Exceptional Abilities. That is to say,

abilities that work in the normal manner, but are not bound
by normal human limits.
For example, a superhero with Strength of +5 to
represent super-strength. The results will still be
between 3 and 18, but will tend to be higher than with
abilities constrained by normal limits.
This method is great for characters who are superhumanly
good at what they do, without actually getting results better
than a talented human could on a good day when the
conditions are right. Think Captain America, rather than
Superman.

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 The other way of doing it, is to use Fantastic Abilities. Each
level of Fantastic Ability allows either an extra point of Pool
or, if the Pool is positive and involves rolling enough dice,
counting an extra die as part of the result.
So, a character with three levels of Fantastic Ability
would make the following changes:
• Pool of -3 before = Pool of 0, counting three dice
(as normal).
• Pool of -2 before = Pool of +1, counting three dice.
• Pool of -1 before = Pool of +1, counting four dice.
• Pool of 0 before = Pool of +2, counting four dice.
• Pool of +1 before = Pool of +2, counting five dice.
• Pool of +2 before = Pool of +3, counting five dice.
• Pool of +3 before = Pool of +3, counting six dice.

Or to put another way, enough points will be used on

improving the Pool as are necessary to get it up to 0, then half
(rounding up) what's left will also go on improving Pool, and
the rest will go on counting extra dice.
Levels of Fantastic Abilities are the same as levels of
Exceptional Abilities when used with Pools that require the
levels to be used as extra Pool, but better than levels of
Exceptional Abilities when used with Pools that allow them to
be used as extra dice.

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 Where extra dice give results beyond 18, the level of success
goes beyond the resounding success that an 18 would be. Feel
free to add colourful descriptions.

If you are using the Initiative table, a character with a result

over 18 gets one Action per Phase (like they would for a 16-
18) plus a second Action in Phases indicated by their result
minus 16. So a 19 still gets one Action per Phase (don't re-roll
like you would for a 3), but a 24 would act a second time in
Phases 2 & 4 (the Phases where a result of 8 would give
Actions, as 24-16=8).

For results above 18 on the To-Hit table, every full three

points beyond 18 gives an extra +1 Modifier to the Damage
roll on top of the +2 that an 18 gives. So a 22 would be +3
damage, and a 27 would be +5.

If a character has powers that aren't adequately represented

by Exceptional or Fantastic abilities, like flight or x-ray vision,
then those should be created as Optional Traits that do
whatever the power does.

Exceptional Abilities cost twenty Character Points for

Attributes, ten for Broad Skills, and seven for Specialised
Skills.
Fantastic Abilities cost thirty Character Points for Attributes,
fifteen for Broad Skills, and ten for Specialised Skills.

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 BURPS
Bez's Universal Role Playing System

Look out for more games from

Bez Bezson and Games 4 Geeks
in the near future.

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