Gumslingers was a simple Western TTRPG system. Now it's Orbit: a generic, modular system. The current components are:
- the resolution system (under
resolution) - the magic system (under
magic) - the wound system (under
wounds) - the initiative system (under
initiative) - the resting subsystem (under
resting) - the western example system (under
western-system)
Orbit needs tailoring. That means it takes a little bit of effort. It also means that there's no excess cloth. Unlike other generic systems like GURPS (which I adore, to be clear, no shade), the tailoring aims to still be founded on minimalism. This should result in a fast building experience for the GM, and a simple, but expressive system for the players.
The core (or the star, if you will) of Orbit is the resolution system. It links with the other systems through the metacurrency, which you are free to name for your setting. Different subsystems use different names for it and you're free to use them or take them as inspiration.
It's very easy to design a subsystem, or hack away at one to get something more to your liking, and in fact I'd encourage it!
First, take the resolution system.
Now, you can think about what you need: do you need magic? Guns? Horse-riding? Latch onto the system the magic subsystem, the guns subsystem, the horse-riding subsystem. Not there? Invent one. The simplest subsystem might just be a skill. Let me explain.
Take for example horse-riding. We can choose to make it a very complicated subsystem, with three custom skills, one for caring, one for taming wild horses, and one for riding. Or we can choose to keep it simple, as I did in the example Western system, and just have riding be a Ride ability.
There's a few systems you probably need to add:
- a damage / hp system (player characters will get hurt eventually, even in a game with no combat)
- a basic skill system
Why not add them by default? I hear you ask?
Well, a damage / hp system can be more or less lethal. It can rely on hp or wounds. A skill system can be granular or paint in broad strokes. I'll provide modules, but it's up to you whether your game needs the one or the other.
The system is written in typst. You can pretty much just concatenate the contents of the files (ie: copy paste the texts) and it all should pretty much work, to be honest. I'll work to try to make it as seamless as possible. Contributions are welcome. Or you can just take the pdfs of different submodules and use those separately. There's also the main.typ/pdf file. That pretty much just squashes the module files together. Good starting point.