Some of you may be wondering how the “The Ready Rules of the Road” differ from the rules of my other game, “Ghastly Affair” – and why I’ve chosen to create a whole other game system at all. So, here are some explanations.
Some Comparisons Between the two Games
Both “Ghastly Affair” and “The Ready Rules of the Road” utilize the same basic dice system: roll a d20 under a target number equal to the rating of a relevant character Ability. In both cases, the rating may be temporarily modified up or down with a Bonus or Penalty to reflect the ease or difficulty of an action. One difference is that in “The Ready Rules”, a result equal to the modified Ability still succeeds – while under the current “Ghastly Affair” rules as written, it fails. (In the upcoming Second Edition of “Ghastly Affair” a roll equal to the modified Ability can also succeed, but at some kind of cost that makes it impossible to succeed again at that action for the remainder of the day).
“Ghastly Affair” utilizes the six “standard” Abilities of Old School rpgs (Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Strength, and Constitution) and adds a seventh characteristic, “Perversity”. In addition, “Ghastly Affair” Player Characters have five “Special Abilities” and two “Weaknesses”, which are determined by their Character Class. On the other hand, PCs in “The Ready Rules of the Road” have twenty Character Abilities – but no Special Abilities and Weaknesses. Characters in “The Ready Rules” instead begin the game with five “Strong” Abilities (with initial ratings of 12), and two “Weak” Abilities (with initial ratings of 6). The “Average” score in the current version of “Ghastly Affair” is 9, while in the “Ready Rules” it is 10. (Average is being raised to 10 in the Second Edition of “Ghastly Affair“, however.)
Both “Ghastly Affair” and “The Ready Rules” have Saving Throws that are rolled like Ability Checks. In “Ghastly Affair”, a Saving Throw might be made against any of the character’s Basic Abilities. In “The Ready Rules”, however, only “Fitness” and “Psychic Ability” are used for Saves.
Armor Class in “Ghastly Affair” is, by default, a point Penalty to the Ability Check made by an attacker. In the “The Ready Rules”, however, the point value of a defender’s Armor is subtracted from all damage taken by them. (The “Ghastly Affair Presenter’s Manual” does mention using Armor Class as damage reduction as an optional rule.)
In both “Ghastly Affair” and “The Ready Rules“, almost all attacks do base damage of 1d6, plus the attacker’s Damage Bonus. Both system utilize Hit Points to measure the survivability of characters and creatures.
“Ghastly Affair” characters have a Speed score, rated on a relative scale like other Abilities (from 1-20). “The Ready Rules” utilizes an absolute movement rate, instead, where human average is “Walking 50’, Running 200’”.
“Ghastly Affair” is a Class and Level system, while “The Ready Rules of the Road” has neither Classes nor Levels (although characters do advance in power as they accumulate XP). The experience system for both games is similar, however. A “Ready Rules” PC with 20 Experience Points is roughly equivalent in overall effectiveness to a “Ghastly Affair” PC with the same amount of XP.
The current version of “Ghastly Affair” includes over 270 Preternatural Effects. “The Ready Rules of the Road”, on the other hands, trims that list down to just 30 Paranormal Effects – although many of those effects can vary in power and scope according to the amount of Hit Points expended by their User.
Finally, “Ghastly Affair” creatures have more defined characteristics (and thus larger stat blocks) than those in “The Ready Rules“.
Why the Two Systems are Different
“The Ready Rules of the Road” are especially meant for the cross-genre “Uncanny Highway” setting. Originally, the” Uncanny Highway” was going to be a setting for “Groovy Ghastly Affair”. As the setting generators developed, however, it became obvious that I couldn’t stay “within the lines” of Gothic convention. So, I decided to create a streamlined game system especially for use on the Uncanny Highway – one which wouldn’t be so tied to the Gothic genre, and would facilitate casual pick-up games by allowing characters to be made even faster and more easily than is already the case for “Ghastly Affair“.
The rules of “Ghastly Affair” are specifically meant to replicate the events of Gothic fiction. The Special Abilities and Weaknesses of the Classes are designed so that characters effectively carry their stories with them. A True Innocent is always going to eventually blunder into some dangerous forbidden chamber, and will eventually faint at the sight of something horrible. The Mad Scientist will eventually face an Angry Mob, and the Bandit will wrestle with the consequences their Fame or Infamy. “The Ready Rules” are not tied to Gothic genre conventions, however. As befits characters on the American open road, Player Characters are completely in charge of their own fates – within the limits decreed by the Almighty Dice of course!
Some of the ideas explored in “The Ready Rules” are going to be incorporated in the Second Edition of “Ghastly Affair“, however – for example, setting the average score of Abilities at 10, and using Armor as damage reduction by default. The Second Edition of “Ghastly Affair” is going to include more random tables / selection lists for defining characters and their backgrounds, similar to those in “The Ready Rules” (but much more extensive).
For those of you awaiting the Second Edition of “Ghastly Affair”, do not fear – me and my editor Wendy are still working on it. For those of you who want to explore The Uncanny Highway without the Gothic baggage of “Ghastly Affair”, however, try “The Ready Rules of the Road”!