Five by Five 2.5

8/6/2019 Five by Five 2.5

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Role-playing

The radio analogy is a good one when trying toconceptualize a role-playing game. Role-playing is a lot like the old time radioadventure serials that people listened to in thedays before television. In a radio drama, all theaction was spoken or described and thevisualization of the action took place in the

imaginations of the actors and the audience.

In a role-playing game, the players are bothactors and audience. The acting isimprovisational, a player doesn't know whatthey are going to say or do before it happens.

One special player called the Game Manager(or GM) helps to control the flow of theimprovisations by providing impetus andsituations for the other players. By reacting to

the situations presented by the GM, theplayers and the GM work together to forge anadventure story.

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Character Creation

Each player (who is not the GM) will need tocreate a character to represent their role inthe adventure story. This character is anadventure hero appropriate to the setting andthe type of adventure story that your gaminggroup wishes to experience.

Making a character is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1) Discuss the setting and the story back-dropwith the GM as well as the kind of charactersthat might live in such a world.

2) Decide what sort of character you want toportray in this setting and define five thingsabout the character. These five things arecalled Descriptors.

Descriptors are things like skills and talentsthat detail what the character is good at doingand help to define the character's role in theupcoming adventure.

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Ordinary things average skills that yourcharacter does just as well as the next guy,have no place on a Five by Five charactersheet. Everything average and ordinary isgiven a default value of 0 (untrained) anddoesn't need to be further defined. It's onlythe exceptional and important things that wecare about here.

In addition to the five descriptors that theychoose for their characters, every character isassigned one additional descriptor: HitPoints (HP).

HP is the amount of damage or life loss that acharacter can suffer before being in danger ofdying.

3) Arrange your six Descriptors (including HP)from the most important to the least

important for your character.

The Descriptor that you decide is mostimportant for your character has a value of 6.

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The next two Descriptors have a value of 4.

The next two Descriptors have a value of 2.

Your final Descriptor has a value of 5.

For your HP, add 10 to the value listed above.

(Setting HP as your least important descriptor

will give you only 5 HP and produce a veryfragile character.)

Completing Character Creation

Following the steps above you can create anycharacter for any adventure game setting inminutes.

All that remains is to give your new character aname, and outfit them with some starting

equipment and you are ready for adventure!

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Task Resolution

Task resolution is done by rolling dice andcomparing the result to the value of adescriptor that is most relevant to the task.

Roll 2 six sided dice. Multiply the two dicetogether. Example: a roll of [2] and [5] on twodice will produce a result of 10.

If this result is equal to or less than the valueof the descriptor related to the task, the taskis completed successfully.

Six is Trump!

6's (sixes) are trump! They override the valueof your roll and always indicate success! As youroll 2 dice to attempt an action, if either one ofthe dice rolled show a [6], don't bother to

multiply the dice together. The result of theroll is trumped by the [6] and the action beingattempted is automatically successful.

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Example:

Larry is rolling to impress his date with hiscooking. He rolls against his Amateur Chefdescriptor which has a value of 4. Rolling hegets a [2] and [6] which when multipliedtogether equals 12.

12 is higher than Larry's descriptor value of 4

which would normally indicate a failed actioncheck, however, because one of the two dicerolled shows a [6] the result of the roll istrumped. This means that the result of the rollis ignored and the action automaticallysucceeds.

The 5x5 Roll

Hereafter task rolls are referred to as 5x5(Five-by-five) rolls because the highest value

that you can roll (discounting trumps) is 5x5.

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Special Values

Five by Five Descriptors reference a fewspecial values. These values are significantbecause it is not possible to produce theirvalue or less with a 5x5 task roll. The valuesare 0 (untrained) and 5 (poor).

0 (untrained)

Anything that a character wants to do thatdoes not relate back to a descriptor on thecharacter's record sheet is considereduntrained and average. Every undefined taskis tested against a value of 0 (untrained).

It is not possible to roll 0 or less on a 5x5 taskroll. However, because of the trump rule,success is still possible. To succeed at anuntrained task the player makes a 5x5 task roll

and must roll a [6] (trump) on at least one ofthe dice.

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5 (poor)

One of the character's descriptors has a valueof 5 (poor). A character's poor descriptor ishalf as likely as an untrained task to succeed.

When considering the 5 value in relation tothe 5x5 dice roll, read it as, roll one less 5.That is, roll one less die.

To test an action with a 5 (poor) descriptor,roll on only 1d6.

For the task to succeed, this die must come uptrump [6].

Descriptor Values

Descriptor values are 5, 0, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12 and16. Starting characters will not have any value

higher than 6. But, values can be improvedthough the course of play. Below is a closerlook at the chance of successfully performinga task using a descriptor of a given value.

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5 (poor) roll a 6 on one die1 in 6 chance 15% (16.67 actual)

0 (untrained) roll a 6 on either of two dice11 in 36 chance 30% (30.56 actual)

2 (novice) roll a 2 or less (or trump) on 5x514 in 36 chance 40% (38.89 actual)

4 (competent) a 4 or less (or trump) on 5x519 in 36 chance 50% (52.78 actual)

6 (skilled) a 6 or less (or trump) on 5x523 in 36 chance 60% (63.89 actual)

9 (expert) a 9 or less (or trump) on 5x526 in 36 chance 70% (72.22 actual)

12 (master) a 12 or less (or trump) on 5x530 in 36 chance 80% (83.33 actual)

16 (legendary) a 16 or less (or trump) on 5x533 in 36 chance 90% (91.67 actual)

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Rank Shifts

The GM should feel free to give a character atemporary boost in a descriptor's value beforethey attempt a task that's particularly easy, orto penalize a character with a temporaryreduction of a descriptor's value for a taskthat's especially difficult.

Improvements or reductions of this nature arecalled Rank Shifts. The amount of each shiftneeds to match the Descriptor value rangesof: 5, 0, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 16.

Rolling Doubles

Anyone who rolls doubles during a 5x5 check receives aDoubles Token. (Use a coin or similar small object).

Before attempting any roll for which the trump rule can beapplied (5x5, damage or healing) the doubles token can beexchanged to give that roll a doublechance at trump!

This roll now receives the trump benefit on both [5] and [6]!

Each player (including the GM) can possess no more than oneDoubles token at a time.

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Experience and Advancement

As players portray the same characters fromgame session to game session, the GM awardsthe players with Experience Points (XP).Players use XP like money to purchaseimprovements for their characters.

To improve a Descriptor from its current value

to the value of the next higher rank costs anumber of XP equal to the value of the newrank.

For example: to add a new Descriptor with avalue of 2 costs 2 XP; to improve a Descriptorwith a value of 2 to a value of 4 costs anadditional 4 XP; etc.

Master and legendary Descriptor ranks (12 and16) should be rare. A character cannot have

more than 2 Descriptors with a value of 12 andmay have only 1 Descriptor with a value of 16.

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Combat

Participants in a combat are divided into sides.All GM controlled characters comprise oneside, while the individual characters controlledby the players comprise the other side.

Turn Order

Normally the players take their turns after allcharacters on the GM's side have taken action.

Standard Turn Order is:

GM controlled characters go first.Player Characters go second.

However, particularly skilled or luckycharacters can sometimes slip in front of theGM and take their turn first. This is called

stealing initiative.

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Dodging an Attack

Once per round a character can make a skilltest to try to Dodge a successful attack againstthem. As this can only be tried once eachround of combat, a character who is out-numbered will be at a great disadvantage. Ifthe Dodge test is successful the attack isnegated, otherwise, the target of the attack

suffers damage.

Taking Damage

When hit by a successful attack, the targetsuffers base damage of 1d6.

Weapons have a Damage Bonus (DB) that canincrease base damage and adds to the 1d6 dieroll, while armor has an Armor Value (AV)which will reduce the total damage dealt.

Damage = 1d6 + DB of Attacking Weapon AV of Defending Armor.

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Damage and Trump

If the damage die comes up trump [6], roll thedie again and increase the damage bonus by+5. Consecutive trump rolls are cumulative. So,if the second roll is also trump, roll again, thistime adding +10 to the final roll result, etc.

Healing

A Wounded character can benefit fromhealing skill checks. As many healing skillchecks can be made to restore a character tohealth as needed, but each failed checkreduces a character's HP further.

On a successful Healing skill check the objectof the check recovers 1d6 lost HP. This roll issubject to the trump rule like a Damage roll so,if you roll trump [6] on the healing die, roll

again and add +5, etc.

All characters regain 1 HP a day through naturalrecovery.

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Harming

Failed Healing Checks

If a Healing check fails, the target is harmedinstead, and looses 1d2 HP. (roll 1d6 : 1-3 = 1,and 4-6 = 2.)

Harming is also subject to trump. If you roll a

[6] you must roll again. However, only increaseyour result by +2 for each trump rolled ratherthan the normal +5.

At 0 HP a character is unconscious but stable.

At -1 to -9 HP the character is dying. A dyingcharacter looses 1 HP every (10 + current HP)in minutes until they die or receive healing.

Example: A character with -1 HP will be at -2

HP in 9 minutes. At -9 HP the character hasonly 1 minute left to live.

At -10 HP a character is dead.

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Armor

Armor reduces the DAMAGE from attacks byits Armor Value (AV).

AV 0 Scant or no clothes (boxers, lingerie)

AV -1 Light Clothes (short sleeved shirt andslacks, a summer dress)

AV -2 Medium clothes (3 piece suit, autumnwear with light jacket)

AV -3 Heavy clothes (winter wear withheavy coat, soft leather)

AV -4 Light Armor (studded or hard leatherarmor)

AV -5 Medium Armor (chain or light plate)

AV -6 Heavy Armor (heavy plate)

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Shields and off-hand daggers don't improve acharacter's AV, but grant the character oneadditional Dodge attempt each round. Thisallows the character to Dodge up to twoattacks per round instead of the usual one.

Exclusive Actions

Some Descriptors improve the chance of

success when dealing with game systemspecific tasks. These tasks generally focus oncombat and are considered: Exclusive Actions.

A Descriptor cannot be defined that improvesthe ability of more than one ExclusiveAction. For example, Uncanny Reflexes couldarguably be used to improve a character'sattack, their dodge, and their steal initiative.

That makes Uncanny Reflexes too powerful.

The GM should require the player to narrowthe Descriptor by specifically defining whichexclusive action Uncanny Reflexes is meant

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to improve. The player might then decide thathis Uncanny Reflexes ability specificallyimproves his ability to Dodge.

Uncanny Reflexes can still be applied to agreat many non-exclusive tasks (tasks outsideof combat), but in combat, it is used to Dodge.

Exclusive Action List

Attack:

This is the action a player declares to havetheir character hit an enemy in combat.

Descriptors to improve a character's attackaction could include: Brawler, Hand Gun, etc.

Dodge:

This is the action a player declares after being

the successful target of an attack to eliminatethe attack and avoid taking the damage.

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Descriptors to improve a character's dodgeaction could include: Danger Sense, UncannyReflexes, etc.

Healing:

This action is used to help a character torecover lost health.

Descriptors to improve a character's healingaction could include: First Aid, Paramedic, etc.

Steal Initiative:

This action is used to steal initiative duringcombat enabling characters to act before theirenemies.

Descriptors to improve a character's stealinitiative action could include: Alertness,

Combat Tactics, etc.

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The point of this game is to facilitateeveryone's enjoyment, but not to make thingstoo easy. Part of being heroic and in tellingheroic stories is being able to solve problemsbigger than yourself.

Also, if a player has chosen a trait that is simplytoo specific, or never gets brought into play,allow them to exchange it for something that

they will be able to use more often.

Optional Rule: Advanced Descriptors

So far the Descriptors discussed in the rulesshould be considered Basic Descriptors. Therules specify that anything not defined on yourcharacter sheet has a value of 0 (untrained)and should be considered average. Average(untrained) things can be accomplished withabout the same degree of success for

everyone. Roll 2d6 and if you get a trump, yousucceed. This is used for everything fromclimbing a tree or driving a car to firing a gun.

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Even with a rank 25 in Brain Surgery, theplayer still rolls a 16 or less for success.Regardless of Descriptor Rank, any task forwhich the GM requests a 5x5 roll has amaximum chance of success of 16 or less.

Magic Spells and Super Powers

If the world setting and the GM allow them,

descriptors that define special abilities, likesuper powers or the ability to cast magicalspells, should be defined as AdvancedDescriptors. (Unless the world setting is suchthat everyone can cast spells or has superpowers).

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Optional Rule: ASPECTS

Aspects are Super Descriptors that effecteverything a character does. These are broadstrokes like how smart, strong or agile acharacter is. Aspects serve to complimentexisting descriptors as well as help to createdistinctions between untrained descriptors sothat every character won't approach every

untrained task in exactly the same way.

The four Aspects are:

AGILITYThe ability to control ones own body. Acharacter's manual dexterity, coordination,and grace are all defined by this aspect.

BRAWNThe ability to exert force on and impact

material things. A character's strength,muscle, and girth are all defined by this aspect.

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COGNITIONPerception and the ability to process thatwhich is perceived. A character's alertness,intelligence, and memory are all defined bythis aspect.

DETERMINATIONMental and emotional control. A character'swillpower, discipline, and confidence are all

defined by this aspect.

By default each of the four Aspects have arating of AVERAGE.

Like Untrained, an Aspect that is AVERAGEdefines something that is normal and has noimpact on game play.

If playing Five by Five without the Aspects

option, one could assume that all characterspossessed a rating of AVERAGE in all Aspects.

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Action resolution becomes:

Decide which Descriptor applies to the actionat hand.

Use this to determine the character's basechance of success.

Now decide which of the four Aspects the

action is based on.

If this Aspect has a rating of AVERAGE,complete the task normally.

If this Aspect has a rating of SUPERIOR, applya positive rank shift bonus to the Descriptorvalue before resolving the action.

If this Aspect has a rating of INFERIOR, apply anegative rank shift penalty to the Descriptor

value before resolving the action.

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Five by Five 2.5