Thanks, you guys! It's just a pen and paper system, in the literal sense; if you trusted each other enough to roll dice offscreen without cheating, you could certainly play it online. It's essentially a universal role-playing system, so it's meant to be used in a wide variety of situations. Players create their character with these three basic statistics:
Speed
Strength
Smarts
which are all self-explanatory. For short games like the one I played last night (about 30 minutes), this is usually enough, especially for players who are new to RPGs in general. If the group so chooses, they can add on three additional stats:
Social
Sharpshooter
Special
Adding that first stat creates a distinction between street smarts (Social) and book smarts (er, Smarts), while Sharpshooter determines accuracy for very precise actions. Special's a unique one, in that it's always your best stat, but it cannot have anything to do with combat. A player could choose something like Medicine, or Hacking, but it can also be something seemingly useless like Cooking or Whistling. Essentially, it's a
Chekov's Gun.
Combat and other conflicts are dealt with the Narrator (what Sandbox calls the DM) setting up the situation, providing any necessary statistics. Depending on the situation, either the enemy or the player will make the first move. The move is described in story terms, and a stat is chosen for the attacker. Let's say a player wanted to punch an orc in the face. Since he's using a primarily physical attack, the Narrator decides he'll use Strength, a 3 in this case. The orc is going to try and dodge the attack- movement, and thus he'll be using Speed, a measly 1.
Two dice are rolled (it doesn't matter what kind one for each side), with the total added to the proper stat.
Player- 3+5= 8
Orc- 1+3= 4
The player is the clear winner here- the difference is 4, so the orc loses 4 points of health. The Narrator can then add extra story details, such as the orc's tusk getting chipped or something, and the cycle repeats.
Like I said, I'm still working out the kinks to this, but if you all know people you'd like to play a game with, I'd love to hear how it goes!
Player
