Green GRAPEs.
Copyright 1998 By Scott Gray.
Green GRAPEs is a supplement for GRAPE: Generic Roleplaying All Purpose Engine. Please see the main page, to learn the basic rules. This supplement, like GRAPE, is distributed free of charge. You may give out copies, so long as the text is not modified and no fees are charged for the copies distributed.
Sample character creation: April, August, and May are players. June is GM.
June: I was thinking we'd set the game in feudal Japan, with the players taking the roles of peasants. The genre is like The Seven Samurai, with some Yojinbo influences.
May: Oh, cool! I'll play the old woman whose son was killed by brigands! We'll write up details as we go, okay?
August: I'll use FUDGE stats. I'd like to play a young tough from the village, named Taro-kun... He's got a Great strength, Poor wits, and Good spirit. He's a Good farmer, Mediocre warrior, and Fair horseman, with an alcohol addiction.
(April hands June a picture of an elderly shinto priest, clearly impoverished, with a pet hawk on his shoulder. At the top of the page, the name Kamatke Jiro is written. The picture has several traits listed on it, with arrows pointing to parts of the picture. The eyes are marked eagle perception. The left leg is marked lame.)
Sample game play: Peter and Mary are players. Paul is GM. The genre is American Wild West. Peter is playing Sheriff Daryl Cooper, and Mary is playing Morris Montgomery, an agent from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Peter's ten year old daughter, Maggie, is watching.
Paul: Daryl hears a click. Like a gun being cocked under the table.
Peter: OK, Daryl doesn't want to be shot over a $2 poker game. He draws his gun under the table, stands and flips the table into Black Bort.
Mary: At the sudden movement, Morris jumps back from the table.
Paul: OK, 5 cards for a poker hand. Since Peter is playing an experienced gunslinger, he can draw 7 and discard two. Mary can discard two and redraw. Red is good for offense, black for defense.
(Peter has, after discarding, a full house QC QS QD 4C 4S. Mary has, after discarding and redrawing, three of a kind 6S 6C 6H. Paul has, after drawing a whole bunch of cards and discarding a whole bunch, three of a kind 8C 8D 8H.)
Paul: Daryl surprises Bort, whose Colt 45 is knocked from his hand and fires at the ceiling. Morris rolls to relative safety. Bort's pal Mickey is bewildered and a little bruised by the corner of the table, and is starting to draw. The patrons are starting to scream, and duck; the barkeep simply says "not again" and starts moving the bottles below the bar. You have the initiative. Now what?
Mary: Since I'm on the ground, I'll try to pull Mickey's chair out, so he lands on his back.
Peter: I draw my pistol, cock it, and aim at Bort's head, with a look that says "the undertaker costs more than a $2 debt."
(Paul turns to Maggie for advice. Maggie shakes her head, and says "soak em!".)
Paul: Bort doesn't buckle easily. Making like he's about to throw his pistol to the ground, he tosses it to Mickey, while dropping behind the upright table and drawing his other pistol. Declare your actions, and draw more cards.
Sample game play: Bart and Maggie are players. Lisa is GM. The genre is dark alien science fiction, in which the players are part of an alien species that has a very strict hierarchy similar to that of social insects, in which the workers are expendable; but the characters have developed a sense of self and seek independence (or even to overthrow the queen). Bart is playing Scout-Q7-14B and Maggie is playing Lifter-Q7-9F.
Lisa: You see two warriors standing on either side of the portal. Each is emblazoned with the symbols for Warriors from section B5. They greet you. "Relay your message and return to section Q7 -- you have been errant in your reports to Manager-Q7-A5."
Bart: OK, Lisa. Scout-Q7-14B smiles and says, "You are ordered by Manager-L6-93 to inspect this," tossing the ultra-compact neutrino fuel compound that we took from the crashed alien spacecraft at them.
Lisa: They start sniffing the outside of the bottle. "Where did this come from?"
Maggie: "Manager-L6-93 said that Warriors-B5 would know the substance, and would know what to do with it."
Lisa: Both peer at the canister, and one of them starts unscrewing the top.
Bart and Maggie together: DUCK!
Lisa: Ka-boom and splatter. OK, your character's skill at jumping away from the plasma splatter will be represented by how accurately you can each calculate the area of a circle with a 14" diameter in 15 seconds. Go! (Maggie writes down "154 inches" and Bart just groans.)