RELEASE: High Score Playtest

EDIT 4/11/2011: Thanks everybody for your support so far! I’ve taken your feedback into consideration and produced a revised document. You can also read an FAQ now.

High Score is something I’ve been working on for about two weeks now as part of Too Many Projects 2011. It is pretty much the first Too Many Projects 2011 release, although there’s like three more incoming, High Score is the one I’m most proud of, and also probably the most hit-or-miss, weird little one. I’ll let the introduction do the talking as I can’t really explain it any better than I have below. A friend of mine called it a “Universal Challenge System” and I can’t really say whether it is, though I like the sound of that.

If you don’t care and you just want to download it: here it is. It is 24 pages.

High Score is a roleplaying game. The gameʼs story and action are divided into numerous Events. Each event has a High Score, an amount of points that must be earned to complete the Event. Each action you take that advances the scene will earn you points toward the High Score and advancing to the next scene.

So for example, if you are fighting against a mob of monsters, the high score for the round might be 300, and each monster worth 30 points. So if you defeat 10 monsters, you win. The battle may hold other objectives – for example, you might need to rescue someone from the mob of monsters, and that will give you 150 points, putting you halfway to victory. You can choose to go for any objectives.

The High Score system works the same in any situation. It does not necessarily have to be a fight. You might become involved in a high stakes political negotiation. Each participant in the talks will be worth points that you score by trying to persuade him or her. The advisors might be worth few points, but be easy to persuade – you can go from one to the other with little risk and ultimately win. But if you go straight to the President, you could shoot for a big score.

Your actions are scored based on your character’s Skills, Assets and Perks. When you roll dice, the result of the dice earns you points. However, you can also lose points and there are ways for the enemy to reduce the points you’ve collected. In any task, there is an enemy high score as well that the Game Master keeps track of. If it fills then you fail. You advance, but in unfavorable conditions.

If you’re convinced now, here is that download link again. It is 24 pages.