Scratch:Basic Rules

The Scratch RPS provides simple rules for role-playing games (RPGs.) In an RPG, each player takes on the role of a character in a story or simulation. People play RPGs to have fun and socialize, but they can also be a fun way to practice basic math and problem-solving skills. A Scratch RPS character looks something like this:

Zimzambamalam (1 stamina, 10 agility, 10 intelligence, 10 strength): a master of magic

8 shooting: destroys enemies with bolts of lightning from his fingertips

2 toughness: relies on the awesome power of his magic alone

Each character has some abilities, and each of those abilities has a level. If a character does not have at least one level of an ability, the character does not have that ability and cannot use that ability.

Rolls

Some actions, like a character attacking another character, have a chance of success and a chance of failure. To determine whether the action succeeds, roll a twenty-sided die. (If you do not have a twenty-sided die, see "Twenty-Sided Die Alternatives" below.) Modifiers, such as ability levels, are then added to certain types of rolls. If the total is greater than or equal to the difficulty of the action, then the action succeeds. If the die roll is 20 before adding an ability level or other modifiers, then the action is automatically successful. If the die roll is not 20 and the total is less than the difficulty, the action fails.

Rolls may allow a character to use specific ability levels as a modifier. "Make a command roll (difficulty 25)" or "beat a command roll of 25" means a player can roll a twenty-sided die. If he has at least one level of command ability, then he can add his command ability level to the roll. The character is only successful if the total is equal to or greater than 25, or the player rolls a 20 before adding his character's command ability. As another example, suppose a character with 3 levels of craftsmanship ability has to make a craftsmanship roll of 15. He rolls 12, and 12 plus 3 is equal to the difficulty 15, so he is barely successful.

Some rolls require specific abilities. "Make a healing roll (difficulty 11, requires healing ability)" or "Make a healing roll of 11 (requires healing)" means a character can only attempt the action if they have at least one level of healing ability. If they do have at least one level of healing ability, they can add their healing ability to a twenty-sided die roll, and the action is successful if the roll is 11 or greater.

Turns

In combat characters take turns performing actions. At the beginning of combat, roll a twenty-sided die for each character to determine the order of their turns. This is the character's initiative roll. Characters take turns in order from the highest initiative to the lowest. If two characters have the same initiative, break the tie by rolling another die for both characters until one of them rolls higher. That character goes before the other.

Regular actions require a character's full attention, so characters can only perform one regular action per turn. Most actions are regular actions. Bonus actions do not require a character's full attention, so characters can perform one bonus action in addition to their regular action each turn. Bonus actions include opening a door, pushing a button or handing an item to another character.

Hit Points

Characters have hit points which determine whether they are healthy, injured or incapacitated. Characters usually start combat with their maximum hit points. A character's toughness ability level is his maximum hit points. Stamina is half of a character's toughness, rounded down. A healthy character has more hit points than his stamina. An injured character has at least one hit point but no more hit points than his stamina. Characters can never have less than zero hit points. A character with zero hit points is incapacitated and cannot perform actions.

For example, if a character has 7 toughness, his stamina would be 3, so he would be healthy when his hit points are 4, 5, 6 or 7, injured when his hit points 1, 2 or 3, and incapacitated when his hit points are 0.

Some attacks cause damage when they are successful. Each point of damage reduces the target's hit points by 1. When an attack that causes damage is automatically successful, it causes 1 extra point of damage. An attack that normally causes 3 damage will do 4 damage when it is automatically successful. An attack that delays an opponent without causing damage still does no damage when it is automatically successful.

Defenses

Agility is 10 plus the character's stealth, acrobatics, quickness or flying ability level, whichever is greater. Agility is the difficulty of normal attacks which should be physically avoided or blocked. If a character has 2 levels of acrobatics and 3 levels of quickness, then his agility is 13. If he is targeted by a normal attack and the attacker's roll is 13 or more, then attack is successful. (If the roll is 12 or less the attack fails fails.)

Intelligence is 10 plus the character's command, healing or craftsmanship ability level, whichever is greater. Intelligence is the difficulty of actions like deception, persuasion, intimidation, mind reading and mind control. These are called psychic attacks regardless of whether their power is psychological or supernatural.

Strength is 10 plus the character's toughness or wrestling ability, whichever is greater. This is the difficulty of force attacks that should be resisted physically, but not by moving out of the way or parrying the attack.

Basic Actions

Every character can do some basic combat actions. (A character can also do nothing instead of an action.)

Basic attack is a close range normal attack which causes 1 damage if it is successful. (Because it is a normal attack, this attack requires a successful roll against the target's agility to succeed.) Basic attacks are usually weapon strikes or unarmed strikes.

Hold is a close range force attack which delays the target until the end of the target's next turn if the attack is successful. (Because it is a force attack, a hold requires a successful roll against the target's strength to succeed.)

Throw object is a long range normal attack which causes 1 damage. A character can only use this attack if a dangerous throwable object like a rock or chair is available. (Because it is a normal attack, this attack requires a successful roll against the target's agility to succeed.)

Evade is a regular action which allows the evading character to add his acrobatics, quickness or flying ability level to his agility until his next turn. A character without one of those abilities can also evade, but his agility does not change.

Catch is a close range attack which can be used against an evading character. The difficulty of this action is 10 plus the whichever ability level the character added to his agility when evading. The catching character can add his detection, acrobatics, quickness or flying ability level to his catch roll. If the roll is successful, the evading character's agility returns to normal.

Escape is a regular action which allows a character to leave combat. A character can escape the battle if he evaded on his last turn and has not been caught or hit since that turn. The character cannot perform actions or be attacked for the rest of the fight.

Engage is a bonus action which an attacker can use before a close range attack. The attacker adds 2 to his close range attack rolls until the end of his current turn, but the attacker's defense is reduced by 2 until the beginning of his next turn. Lowering the attacker's defense may encourage enemies to target the attacker instead of his allies.

Take cover is a bonus action which an attacker can use before a long range attack. A character can only use this action if there is some kind of cover, like a hill, a wall or a large box to hide behind. The attacker subtracts 2 from his long range attack rolls until the end of his current turn, but the attacker's defense is increased by 2 until the beginning of his next turn.

Abilities

Characters typically have between three and six abilities. All characters have toughness, most have at least one attack ability, and many have a defensive ability.

Characters may be created by distributing character points (CP) between 1 or more abilities. Each CP gives the character one ability level of that ability. No ability can receive more levels than a certain maximum level. The characters in the combat example which follows the list of abilities below were created with 10 CP and a maximum level of 4. These are good limits for making characters that are like average people. Chokestar was created by distributing 2 CP to piloting ability, 2 CP to toughness ability, 3 CP to wrestling ability and 3 CP to stalking ability, for a total of 10 ability levels, and no more than 4 levels of any single ability.

Maximum level limit requires a character to divide his ability levels between a variety of abilities instead of putting all of his levels into a single ability. For example, in a game where characters are slightly more powerful than the average person, they might start with 12 CP and a maximum level limit of 5. Characters in this game would have to divide their CP between at least three abilities.

Appropriate abilities, CP and maximum levels for new characters depend on the setting and type of character being created. Scratch RPS abilities can be loosely interpreted or adapted to a wide variety of settings and types of characters. For example, shooting could be used with guns, bows, other ranged weapons or magic powers. See Scratch:Example Characters for more examples.

Toughness

Toughness ability level is a character's maximum hit points, and represents armor, size or other damage-resisting traits. Characters who are big, physically fit, armored or highly motivated usually have 4 or more toughness. A cop who stays in shape and wears light body armor would have at least 4 toughness while a large, highly trained, veteran medieval warrior in heavy body armor could have 8 toughness. A child or elderly person may have only 2 toughness. The average horse might have 6 toughness. A war elephant with light body armor would have at least 10 toughness. Some characters might have only 1 toughness because they are particularly fragile or because they are unmotivated and give up as soon as they are injured. Characters without toughness may not perform actions in combat rounds.

Attack Abilities

Shooting is used to perform a powerful long range attack against one character. If the attack is successful, it causes 2 damage. If the attack is automatically successful it causes 5 damage instead of 3 damage. When an injured character uses this ability he delays himself until the end of his next turn.

Blasting is used to attack multiple opponents simultaneously with a single long range attack. Using blasting allows an attacker to attack three separate targets in one turn, but he cannot attack any single target more than once on that turn. Each successful attack causes 1 damage. When an injured character uses this ability he delays himself until the end of his next turn.

Knockout is used to perform an extremely devastating knockout attack. This is a close range normal attack against a single target. If the attacker is healthy, the attack causes 4 damage. If the attacker is injured, it causes 2 damage. When a character does a knockout attack he delays himself until the end of his next turn. Knockout ability level can also be added to basic attack rolls if no other abilities have been added to them.

Fighting ability level can be added to basic attack rolls if no other abilities have been added to them. If the attacker is healthy he can do two basic attacks as a single action, adding his fighting ability level to both rolls.

Wrestling ability level can be added to basic attack and hold rolls if no other abilities have been added to them. If the attacker using wrestling ability is healthy, he can do one basic attack and one hold as a single action, adding his wrestling ability level to both rolls.

Defense and Movement Abilities

Stealth helps a character go first in combat by sneaking around. Add 10 times the character's stealth ability to initiative rolls. If a character has 3 levels of stealth ability and rolls 17 with his initiative die, then his initiative is 47 (17 plus 30.)

Detection helps a character go first in combat by detecting enemies who are sneaking around. Add 10 times the character's detection ability to initiative rolls. If a character has 5 levels of detection ability and rolls 8 with his initiative die, then his initiative is 58 (8 plus 50.)

Acrobatics is used to get up, across, or over three-dimensional structures and obstacles like ropes, nets, ledges, ladders, fences, trees and cliffs. Acrobatics can be used to catch characters who are trying to escape by using acrobatics, quickness and even flying when these three-dimensional structures are in the combat environment.

Quickness is used for movement on relatively level ground. Quickness is used to catch characters using quickness or no ability to escape, but it can also be used to catch characters escaping with acrobatics, swimming or flying when the environment does not allow them to get far from solid ground (short trees, shallow water or low ceiling for example.)

Flying is used to move through the air when there is room to fly. (There is usually room to fly outdoors but not indoors.) When a flying character evades or uses a long range attack, he cannot be attacked with a close range attack until his next turn, unless the attacker can also fly. Flying can be used to catch characters escaping by climbing unless obstacles like tree branches protect climbers from fliers, and it can be used to catch characters escaping by swimming if the water is shallow. A character with no flying ability cannot fly, and cannot get flying ability unless there is a good explanation for why then can fly now when they could not fly before.

Swimming is used to evade, escape and catch characters who are trying to escape in water. When a character is in water, add his swimming ability to his defense and close range attack rolls in addition to the ability levels normally added to defense and attack rolls. When there is deep water in the combat environment, characters escaping by swimming cannot be reached by characters who using flying, quickness or acrobatics. A character without this ability does not know how to swim. Most land-dwelling species can only develop one or two levels of swimming ability without special equipment.

Support Abilities

Healing allows a character to try to revive incapacitated characters and heal injured characters. A character cannot heal himself with this ability. The difficulty of reviving an incapacitated character is 10. The difficulty of healing an injured character is 10. After being successfully revived a character is still injured, and has only one hit point. After being successfully healed a character is barely healthy, with 1 hit point more than half of his maximum hit points (rounded down.)

Craftsmanship is an ability which allows a character to maintain and improve his allies' equipment. For each level of this ability, a character can give a traveling companion a temporary +1 bonus to an ability which is already at least level 1. He cannot give a second temporary bonus to an ability which has a temporary bonus from himself or someone else. The bonus lasts until he removes it or they are no longer traveling companions. He cannot remove or add bonuses in combat. He must make a success roll to add a temporary bonus in a hurry (usually difficulty 10.) If the roll fails he cannot use that temporary bonus until he is no longer in a hurry.

Command is an ability that provides a character with one or two minions whose total ability level is no greater than the character's command ability level. These followers cannot have command ability. A character 4 command could have 1 minion with 4 total ability levels, 2 minions with 2 total ability levels each, or a minion with 1 toughness and another minion with 3 total ability levels. For example:

The Boss (11 defense, 1 stamina): an enforcer in a white suit

2 shooting: submachine gun

1 stalking: street smart

4 command: accompanied by two thugs.

3 toughness

Thugs (11 defense, 1 stamina): concealing blunt weapons under their long overcoats

2 toughness: big, but not powerfully motivated.

Minions can continue fighting even after their leader has escaped or been incapacitated. Minions cannot be healed by using healing ability in combat.

Vehicle Operator Abilities

Vehicle abilities are used to operate vehicles. See the crew section of the vehicle rules for more information about how these abilities work.

Driving ability allows a character to operate a ground vehicle.

Navigation ability allows a character to operate a water vehicle.

Piloting ability allows a character to operate an air or space vehicle.

Combat Example

Breakhelm X-19 (13 defense, 3 stamina): notorious mutant-cyborg outlaw, wanted for piracy and industrial sabotage

4 shooting: cyborg targeting provides deadly accuracy with his sidearm and ship weapons.

4 fighting: retractable blades for industrial emergencies and self defense

1 piloting: targeting system also helps pilot spacecraft

6 toughness: armored cybernetic body

Chokestar (13 defense, 1 stamina): bounty hunter who wears dark-colored gear that conceals his identity; likes to take his targets quickly and by surprise

2 piloting: also a spacecraft pilot

2 wrestling: non-lethal weapons expert with stun gun

3 stalking: crafty stealth techniques to bring in live bounties

3 toughness

Flipfire (12 defense, 2 stamina): medic and commando turned mercenary

2 shooting: bayoneted assault rifle

1 healing: medic training

2 fighting: acrobatic fighting style

1 acrobatics: leaps between fallen comrades as she attempts to revive them

4 toughness: light body armor.

Chokestar and Flipfire have just stormed onto Breakhelm X-19's ship in an attempt to capture him. Each character has hit points equal to his or her toughness.

A twenty-sided die is rolled for each character to determine their initiative order. Chokestar's initiative roll is 4, but his 3 levels of stalking ability add 30 to that roll for a total of 34. Flipfire rolls 17 and Breakhelm X-19 rolls 14. So Chokestar goes first, followed by Flipfire and then Breakhelm X-19.

Chokestar can do two attacks with his wrestling ability: a damaging basic attack and a delaying hold. For his hold he attacks Breakhelm X-19 with a stun gun. A twenty-sided die roll is added to Chokestar's wrestling ability, for a total of 12, which is barely not enough to reach Breakhelm X-19's defense of 13 (10 plus his stamina.) Chokestar's basic attack is a combo of martial-arts strikes. A die roll is added to his wrestling for a total of 13, which is barely equal to Breakhelm X-19's defense, so Breakhelm X-19's hit points are lowered from 6 to 5.

Flipfire takes a shot at Breakhelm X-19 with her rifle. A die is added to her shooting for a total of 10, which is not high enough to reach Breakhelm X-19's defense, so her bullets fail to penetrate his armor. (This also causes one point of damage to Breakhelm X-19's ship according to the Vehicle Rules below.)

Breakhelm X-19's retractable blades come out, and he slices away at Chokestar. A die roll is added to Breakhelm X-19's fighting ability for a total of 18, which damages but does not yet injure Chokestar by lowering his hit points from 3 to 2, still above Chokestar's 1 stamina. Breakhelm X-19 can do a second fighting attack, so he tries to finish injuring Chokestar while he can. A die roll is added to Breakhelm X-19's fighting ability, for a total of 14, so Chokestar is now injured because his hit points are equal to his stamina.

Chokestar tries to grapple (hold) Breakhelm X-19. A die roll added to Chokestar's wrestling ability comes to a 7, which fails to get past Breakhealm X-19's defense.

Flipfire leaps to Chokestar's aid, injecting him with adrenaline. Flipfire's healing ability is added to a die roll for a total of 14, which is equal to or greater than the 10 difficulty of healing a character from injured to healthy. This restores Chokestar to 2 hit points, so he is health rather than injured.

Breakhelm X-19 takes careful aim at Flipfire and fires. A die roll is added to his shooting ability for a total of 11, which only grazes Flipfire causing her no damage because it does not quite reach her 12 defense (10 plus her acrobatics ability.)

Chokestar again tries to stun Breakhelm X-19. Chokestar's wrestling ability plus a die roll comes to 15, reaching and surpassing Breakhelm X-19's defense, so Breakhelm X-19 is delayed until the end of his next turn as he shakes off being stunned. Chokestar gets a second damaging attack from his wrestling because he is healthy, but a die roll plus his wrestling ability only comes to a 9, so Chokestar fails to also damage Breakhealm X-19.

Flipfire takes another shot at Breakhelm X-19. Her shooting ability plus a die roll comes to 19, lowering Breakhelm X-19's hit points to 3, and injuring him because his remaining hit points are not greater than his 3 stamina.

Breakhelm X-19 does nothing on his turn because he has been delayed by a hit from Chokestar's stun gun.

Chokestar attacks Breakhelm X-19 with a damaging strike. Chokestar's wrestling ability is added to a die roll for a total of 16, which is equal to or greater than Breakhelm X-19's defense, lowering his hit points to 2. Chokestar tries to follow up with another stun gun attack, but his wrestling ability plus a die roll only come to 11, failing to delay Breakhelm X-19.

Flipfire takes another shot at Breakhelm X-19. Her shooting ability plus a die roll reaches or exceeds Breakhelm X-19's defense, his hit points are lowered to 0 and he is incapacitated. The bounty hunters are victorious.