musi supa pona v1.0.0
Manual for Players and Game Masters
Table of Contents
1 Preamble
musi supa pona (toki pona for "simple table game") is a simplistic tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) inspired by 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. The game aims to abstract much of the features of a TTRPG in order to give more power to the game master and their storytelling as opposed to complex game mechanics as seen in other entertaining, but difficult to pick up, tabletop games. The side effect of the game's simplicity is that game masters have a lot more work to do in creating content for their players - this is intentional, and if that doesn't sound like your thing then musi supa pona is not the game for you.
This manual serves as a guide for both players and game masters alike; due to the game's relative simplicity it is possible to contain all information about the game into one document. Additional information and resources can be found at https://mounderfod.online/msp.
2 Characters
One of the key aspects of musi supa pona, as with many TTRPGs, is the character. The game character is the way in which the real world player interacts with the internal world of the game, and as such, great importance is put into the character in musi supa pona.
2.1 Character Stats
The most important part of a character is their in-game stats. These are used to determine various parts of the game using dice rolls. Each statistic is a positive or negative number which represents how a d201's output will be modified (similar to DnD). The statistics are as follows:
- Strength: A character's physical capabilites.
- Intelligence: A character's ability to be observant of the world around them and interpret and work with complex ideas.
- Speed: A character's agility of movement.
- Defence: A character's ability to deal with injury.
- Charisma: A character's ability to manipulate or otherwise convince those around them.
2.1.1 Calculating Stats
Each statistic is calculated by rolling a d20 and 2d6. The sum of the 2d6 is subtracted from the d20, allowing for a maximum stat of +18 and a minimum of -11.
This should be calculated before a session begins, when the character is created. It may only be done once in the creation of a character, and you cannot reroll unless given permission by the game master.
2.2 Other Character Information
2.2.1 Name
The character's name. Make this anything you like.
2.2.2 Background
The character's race, character class, alignment2, and occupation. By default this has noeffect on gameplay, but at the game master's discretion, the character class may influence a character's e.g. equipment, and similarly a player may choose to make decisions that are influenced by the character's background.
2.2.3 Inventory
The items that the character is carrying with them. Every item has a weight in grams, and the maximum quantity that a character can carry in their inventory is determined by the formula:
\[ w = (20 + s) * 1.5 * 500 \]
with \(s\) representing the character's Strength statistic.
For more information about the contents of an Inventory, see Items.
2.2.4 Health Points and Disaster Rolls
A character has a set number of health points, which is equal to 20 plus the character's Defence statistic.
If the character's health reaches 0 as a result of damage, the player must roll 3d20 as disaster rolls. If the sum of the rolls is more than 30, the character's health is increased to 1 and the character is unable to attack or defend themselves unless their health increases (if the character's health is 1 for other reasons, this rule does not apply). If the sum is less than 30, the character dies and can no longer be used in the current session (the game master can decide how to proceed in future sessions).
2.2.5 Experience
A character has experience points corresponding to experience levels. Experience points may be granted at the game master's discretion. To level up, the player must accumulate:
- Level 1: 10 points total
- Level 2: 100 points total
- Level 3: 1000 points total
etc.
2.2.6 Notes
A blank space for lore or any other information relevant to the character.
2.3 The Character Sheet
The character sheet is used to contain all of the details regarding a musi supa pona character. A blank one may be seen at https://mounderfod.online/msp/character_sheet, and players or game masters may create their own based on this template.
3 Items
Generally, items and their properties are determined by the game master, but there are some special cases:
3.0.1 Equipment
Equipment refers to any item that is actively used by a character to perform an action. A character should have starting equipment, though what this is should be decided between the player and the game master, taking into account the player's background, etc.
3.0.2 Food
Food items heal a set number of health points for a character. Some food items can be consumed only once, while others can be eaten in multiple pieces. This is decided by the game master.
3.0.3 Currency
musi supa pona has its own custom currency system. In short, it works as follows:
- The base unit is copper
- 1 silver = 10 copper
- 1 gold = 50 silver = 500 copper
- 1 platinum = 100 gold = 5000 silver = 50000 copper
Every character starts with a currency bag (50g empty), and can store up to 15 of each type of coin (8g each) - a full currency bag weighs 480g.
4 The Structure of Play
The game loop of musi supa pona is simple, and largely the same as Dungeons and Dragons.
- The game master describes the scenario in which the characters are found.
- The game master will ask one player (by convention, the one to their left, but it doesn't matter) what they are going to do. If the player desires to perform an action, the dice are rolled, and the game master describes the result of the action.
- The game master repeats this for every player at the table, then repeats the whole thing again.
4.1 Actions
Actions are any thing that a character can do that involves one of their statistics. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons, musi supa pona does not feature sub-statistics in the form of skills3 and only the base ones are used. For each action, the game master will declare which skill is involved and a d20 is rolled, adding the modifier listed on the character sheet to the result. Without telling the player, the game master will determine the minimum (or maximum) result needed for the action to be successful.
4.2 Battle
A core part of gameplay is battle, when the characters are confronted with enemies to defeat. Battle works as follows:
- Every character's player rolls a d6, and the game master rolls a d6 for every NPC involved. This determines the turn order (from lowest to highest). If two participants roll the same number, the one with the greatest Speed statistic goes first (NPCs have no speed statistic and so for this purpose it is 0).
- On their turn, each player (or NPC, controlled by the game master) picks which enemy their character is going to attack. Their turn can alternatively be used to perform a non-battle action (such as using an item to heal a friend).
- If attacking, both the character's player and the enemy's controller (i.e. the game master) roll a d6 dice. The attack is successful if the attacker's result is greater than the defender's result. If the defender's result is exactly twice that of the attacker, then the defender gets an extra turn just after the attacker's turn.
- This repeats for every player and NPC until either there are no more enemies or all the player characters have died.
The effect of the attack is determined by the equipment the character has (and ultimately, the game master).
4.3 Movement
It is assumed that all characters will move between actions at the same speed, for simplicity and to reduce the amount of calculation required from the game master. If the game master wishes to implement a more specific movement system, they are welcome to do so.
4.4 Resting
At any point, characters may choose to rest:
- Short Rest: The player does not get a turn in the next round of actions. Instead, the player will regain 5 health points.
- Long Rest: The player does not get a turn in the next three rounds of actions. Instead, the player will regain all of their health points.
The way in which the passage of time is handled and how it interacts with rest is up to the game master; they may choose to have a day/night cycle with characters resting at night or to just have a constant linear session, with characters resting during gameplay as described above.
5 Postamble
5.1 Next Steps for Players
Find a game master and other players to have a session with, create a character and have fun!
5.2 Next Steps for Game Masters
You should create some content for your next session or campaign. It may be useful to include:
- Details about places in the in-game world (e.g. towns, villages, forests)
- A preset list of common items in the in-game world (weapons, armor, etc.)
- A preset list of common creatures, their actions, their attacks and their health points
- Some prepared dungeons, quests and adventures
If you don't want to come up with all of this yourself, you can borrow content and ideas from other musi supa pona game masters or other TTRPGs. Alternatively, you may want to consider playing a less abstract TTRPG.
5.3 Credits
This TTRPG is heavily inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974.
5.4 Sharing this Document
This document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY). You may do whatever you wish with this document, as long as you give proper attribution to its source (i.e. us).