
Originally Posted by
Harwel
...Anyone care to sell me on Unisystem? Where does it have an advantage over anything else out there? So far I've heard "it's fast" but so is a lot of other stuff these days.
Unisystem's greatest "selling point" and probably its greatest strength is that is has a very "unified" set of mechanics and unlike some other such games that boast this, it keeps it all pretty simple.
Basically, in Unisystem characters have attributes, skills, advantages and disadvantages. Whenever you attempt any attribute or skill test you roll 1d10 and add the appropriate Attribute and Skill levels. The target number is always a "9".
Example: Your character is firing a handgun. He has a Dexterity of 3 and a Pistols skill of 2. You roll 1d10 and add 5 (3 + 2) to the total. If your total is 9 or more, your character hits whatever he was aiming at.
It does get a little more detailed. If something is particularly difficult, the GM might assign a penalty to your roll. Also, during opposed actions between characters, the higher roller wins. So in the previous example, if you were shooting at an enemy and the enemy made a "Dodge" roll greater than your "Shooting" roll, he would avoid your attack.
Also, kind of like the "success" system in World of Darkness, the higher you roll above the target number of "9" the better your attempt was which can be advantageous for your character.
The d10 roll is open-ended...both ways. If you roll a "10" on the die, you get to roll again for a chance to increase the roll even more. However, if you roll a "1" on the die, you make a second roll to see if your roll goes even lower. It's a very simple mechanic that also livens up the dice rolling by keeping things from being predictable.
Character "health" is measured with a simple "Life Point" system which are basically Hit Points but with a few other quirks. If you are reduced to a low number of Life Points, your character is badly wounded and takes penalties to his actions. Your character dies when they reach a certain negative threshold.
It's all very simple and works fluidly and quickly in play. A lot of the different Unisystem games offer interesting twists to change up the way the game is played. One of my favorites is taken from the Buffy/Angel/Army of Darkness versions. This is a (completely optional) change where the GM doesn't have to roll any dice. Basically, all NPC stats are created in terms of "difficulty numbers" which the PCs have to beat in order to "best" the NPC in a particular field.
Example: Vampire thug #3 has a "Dodge" skill total of 12. This means that a PC must roll a 12 or better to hit him so long as he can "dodge" the attack. Vamp thug #3 also has a "Brawling" skill total of 13. When he attacks a PC, the PC has to roll higher than a 13 if he wants to avoid a fist to the head.
It's a good system if you want something a little lighter than d20. It's still one of my favorite RPG systems out there today.
Last edited by Webhead; 06-12-2009 at 11:48 PM.
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