Pumpkin Town 101

Character Creation

PERPS Rules

Pumpkin Magic

Places to Go...

...People to Eat

Credits

Perps Basic Rules

If you want to see the real deal go to Adept Games and download the PERPS basic rules. They're free and they're very playable. If you don't feel like doing that, hey.. just read on. I have it all here too.

Random Rolls in PERPS boil down to a basic formulae. It goes like this:

d10 + Traits + Skill = Result

Thats all there is to it! This type of roll is called a 'test'.

The Golden Rule of Skills

Note that the above formulae says 'Trait(s)' as in you may use more than one trait to modify a dice roll. However you only use 1 skills bonus number, no matter what you are trying to do.

Example: Slippertongue the Goblin has both the 'pick locks' skill and the 'trapsetting/disarming' skill. He's trying to open the Mausoleum basement door which he knows is trapped. He should first make a test against the trap, and then make a seperate test against the lock to open it up. His traits of Nimble (+2) and Perceptive (+1) could be added to both tests.. but he can only work one skill at a time.

Tests actually come in two flavors: Opposed and Unopposed.

Opposed Tests are when you are matching your skills and actions against an opponents- like say in a chainsaw duel, or playing skulls and bones.. or playing freeze-tag. You roll your test- your opponent rolls her test and the high roll wins. Simple!

Unopposed Tests are when a character matches his skills against a non-sentient obstacle: Opening up that stubborn can of grapefruit juice, setting a malaysian tiger-trap in your sister's bedroom, finding your way blindfolded through a cemetery just using your sense of smell. You know, the stuff you do every weekend. In this case- the GM assigns a target number that the player must beat. If the players beats the target number he succeeds. Oh no, another table..!

Target Number Description

1-3 Very simple task. Really you should just let the player succeed automatically if the diff is that low. But thats just logic and years of experience speaking.

4-6 Average difficulty. This is the difficulty that normal folks can succeed at most of the time.

7-10 Hard to very tough difficulty. Only a trained or talented character should succed at this level of competition. Unskilled characters might have to rely on blind luck.

11+ Oh, whats the point? Okay difficulty numbers could go up from here if they had to but this isnt likely to be neccesary. Assign whatever you feel works.

Closed Tests are a subset of unopposed tests. In a closed test a character cannot even attempt to succeed unless she has the right tools or the right skill or the proper training. Closed skills are usually marked with a C and a bit explaining about what you need to succeed.

Example: Mulligatawny Cat's lair is protected by an Alarm Hex. This Hex requires a rank-5(C:Perception or magic related skill) test to detect and a rank-7(C:Magic related skill) to dispel.

Perps Basic Combat Rules

If you want to see the real deal go to Adept Games and download the PERPS basic rules (free, baby, yeah..). The Combat Rules are included in the Basic Rules There. I've broken these up into two sections here for ease of use and findability.

First of all, I want to stress once again that this shouldnt be a game about combat. Its more about.. whimsy, self-discovery, irony, cynicism, and parody. But Pumpkin Town (especially during the Night Shift) can admittedly be a violent place and once in a while you just can't resist opening up a six-pack of whupass on someone. I respect that. Really.

The Basic Combat Formula between two combatants is simply an opposed test (see PERPS Basic Rules). The difference between the two rolls is the number of hit points the loser takes in damage (plus any bonuses for weapons being used).

Note that there are very few rules for combat, no modifiers for lighting conditions, no hit location charts, not even a set time for the length of a combat round. "Just long enough" you should say if anyone asks.

Weaponry Natural and otherwise. At some point make a decision about whether the weapon is small, medium or large. In general small weapons are +1, medium weapons are +2 and large weapons are +3 to damage. The table below is by no means inclusive.

The naked fist, tentacle or pseudopod does no extra damage. +0 Damage

Claws, Bite, Daggers, Knives, Meatcleavers, Frying pans, Baseball bats, flaming torches +1 Damage

Axes, Red-Hot Pokers, Pitchforks, Most Spells, Sugar-Mining Pick, Alligator-sized or larger bite +2 Damage

Chainsaw, Shovel, Scythe, massive attacks. +3 Damage

Parrying Sometimes a character may decide to take a purely defensive stance and try to parry*. If this happens the only difference is that if the Parrier wins the combat round, he does no damage. If the Attacker wins, the Parrier is allowed to subtract his weapons damage bonus + his weapons skill bonus + any appropiate traits from any damage that he should have taken.

*- a character that wants to parry usually needs something to parry with; A broken chair leg or something. You can't parry with your fists unless the attacker is also using no weapons.

Ganging Up The Outnumbered character takes a -1 penalty for each opponent he is fighting at once. So a character beseiged by 3 attackers takes a -3 penalty to each roll. This also goes for GM characters: It is likely that the players will gang up on any enemies you have in their way, so pay attention to this rule. These are called the 'Moderately Cinematic Rules'. The PERPS rules available at Adept Games describe a few other options you could also use.

Missile Combat

Missile Combat is slightly different. First, only the defender can take damage. Second, the defender does not use his weapon skill to make the test. Instead he uses any Dodgerelated skills and physical traits, plus any modifers for cover (see below). The rest is like melee: if the attacker rolls high, resolve damage the same as you would for melee. Missile weapons are divided into small, medium and large damage classes just as melee weapons.

Dart, thrown dagger, thrown rock, rotten egg, rotten tomato +1 Damage

Most Spells, short bow, thrown pitchfork +2 Damage

Crossbow, long bow, Blunderbuss +3 Damage

Cover

Light Cover: This is any cover that cannot actually stop the projectile. The defender depends on the cover to obscure his location, not stop projectiles. The attacker takes a -1 penalty if the defender is half covered, or a -2 penalty if the defender is fully covered. Of course, a character can only target a defender in 100% cover if he knows theres something there.

Hard Cover: This is any cover that can stop a projectile, rendering it harmless. The attacker takes a -1 penalty for each quarter of the target that is behind hard cover. Obviously you cannot even target a character that is 100% behind hard cover.

Hit Points and Death When a character reaches 0 hit points, he immediately falls unconscious. He will then lose 1d6 hit points per minute until he reaches -20 hit points at which point the character discorporates and reforms in the Pumpkin Town Hell. The character will then have to make an arduous journey back up through the Creepy Catacombs, to the graveyard and dig their way out of their own grave from below. Ahh, Pumpkin Town. Dying isnt so bad but it does take you out of the action for a while.

Characters in Pumpkin Town Heal 1d6 hit points every Dusk Shift. When the Pumpkinus Magnificatus reaches the base of the tower all of the residents of Pumpkin Town are automatically healed to their full life force.