How To Play TSRPG Travel Sized Role Playing Game
How to play Travel Sized Role Playing Game (TSRPG)
Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Travel Sized Role Playing Game, abbreviated TSRPG. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Travel Sized Role Playing Game.
I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.
1. Game category
2. Combat rules
3. Equipment
4. Annoyed, wounded, disabled, killed
5. Building an example character
Game category. TSRPG is designed to be, well, travel sized. You can teach others how to play and build a character with them in under ten minutes. TSRPG can be played using any setting, anywhere, anytime. You can play it without dice, for example on a long ride, or sitting around a campfire.
Combat rules. Combats in travel sized role playing game are a series of challenges. A player can attempt a challenge to harm an opponent or to defend against an incoming attack. To resolve the challenge, the storyteller either rolls a number or picks one to themself quietly, and says the difficulty range out loud. The player picks a number. If the player’s number either matches or is within their stat number’s range of the storyteller’s number, then the player succeeds at the challenge. If the player’s pick for a number is further away from the storyteller’s number than even adding or subtracting their stat doesn’t get them there, then the player failed the challenge.
Here is an example of a challenge. A player says their character Ruben swings a sword at the dragon. The storyteller picks the number 2 and says out loud that this is a strength challenge with a range of 1 to 10. Ruben’s player guesses a number within the range. If they guess 2, they succeed. They also succeed if the number they guess is within their strength stat distance away from the storyteller’s number. If Ruben’s strength stat is 1, then guessing a 1, a 2, and a three will all succeed, and Ruben’s sword will strike the dragon. If Ruben’s strength stat is 4, then guessing 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 6 will succeed, because a guess of 6 minus the strength stat of 4 equals the storyteller’s number of 2.
Let’s do a second example challenge. Caitlin is a halfling barbarian. She’s being attacked by a charm spell from a monster, who is singing, trying to lure Caitlin to put down her battleaxe. Defending against this attack is a challenge. The storyteller thinks of the number 5 and tells Caitlin’s player that it’s a mental challenge with a range of 10. Caitlin has a mental stat of 2, so her player thinks strategically. If they answer a 1 or a 9, they won’t be taking full advantage of their range of two. A 3 should be their lowest guess because it will cover 3, 2, and 1. An 8 should be their highest guess because that will cover 8, 9 and 10. Caitlin’s player guesses 8. The range of storyteller numbers they would have passed the challenge on is 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6. Unfortunately, the storyteller thought of a 5, so, Caitlin the halfling barbarian puts down her battleaxe and falls for the monster’s charm.
Non player characters can assist on a challenge to give a +1 bonus, but they suffer from the same consequences a player character would face if they fail.
Equipment. Equipment in TSRPG is either durable, and gives a +1 bonus to appropriate challenges it’s used for, or consumable, which provides a +2 bonus on two challenges and is then consumed. Masterwork items double the numbers from mundane equipment, and magical items triple the numbers compared to mundane equipment.
