Someone sent me a link to the Into The Odd SRD last week. I am well known for liking both Sci-Fi and rules-light. Into the Odd is just 58 pages tip to toe, and it has hints of science fiction, post-civilization, to the setting.
I was quite intrigued and read the book on Friday night.
At the same time I was starting to think about FUDGE and that 1950s system, Astonishing Heroics is my current working title.
To get a feel for Into The Odd I bashed up a simple solo system. If you know the game, you will be familiar with the Luck roll, and high being good and low being bad.
As soon as a game has that kind of mechanic you are already using a dice to control many aspects of the world, solo is not a big leap.
The cool thing about an SRD is that it is both tools and permission to create something substantially different, but that works the same way.
I have been playing with using Murder Hobos as the base for some rules-light games. Into The Odd may be a better candidate.
So what to make? How about Into the Gamma?
I played Gamma World once or twice while I was still in school. I think I enjoyed making Mutants more than I did playing the game. I was already moving away from D&D, so D&D with guns and different monsters was not hitting the right buttons.
There is an OGL variation published by Goblinoid Games called Mutant Future. That takes the details of Gamma World and layers them over Labyrinth Lord in an OGL document.
I think putting Mutant Future’s detail over the top of Into The Odd could produce a fun game.
I don’t want any of the implied setting from Mutant Future, I would much prefer an Oddpendium set of tables to create an almost limitlessly variable world.
If you are familiar with Into The Odd, the mutations would be selected using the highest ability + HP, the way that your characters loadout is selected now. That maintains the speed of character creation, with the fun of getting many strange mutations. The standard ‘one column to the left’ rule would stop you getting two identical mutants.
It certainly looks viable. It also looks like a lot of fun to write.
Hello Peter,
I’m working on a super-hero RPG, currently titled ‘The Hero Instant’, that i hope to self-publish later this year, but I am re-thinking that name. One of my new name ideas is ‘Astonishing Heroics’, and a search for that brought me here. Of course, I don’t want to step on a project you’re working on. Should I remove that title from contention?
BTW, I love knowing about this blog now!
Cheers!
Andy A
This is a project I never made any progress on, and I cannot see me ever getting around to it. Please feel free to use the name. I also wish you every success with it.