Now for a bit of a challenge - an RPG that is voluminous, uses a rule system so far unknown to me, and might be on the crunchy side (I think) - BYTE RPG.
BYTE is a generic system using its own rules, based solely on D8. As such it has my interest. Sadly, the PDF has been gathering dust on my hard drive, time to pick it up. I will not have the time to read the whole thing, so I am sure I will make some mistakes. Still, maybe I can try to make a character in it - blue-collar SciFi seems easy enough. BYTE comes with a number of tech levels to settle on, ten to be precise. Then it suggests names for seven settings in different tech levels, which I assume serve as examples of how to differentiate for example a zombie apocalypse setting and a fantasy cold war one when both have tech level 7. Our choice would fit Tech Level 9 - “the far-away era of space-faring civilizations”.
Before I do anything else I should look at the basic rolls to get an idea of how the system works. As I said, I do not have the time to read all 440 pages of the PDF, but the basic roll should be a good start. Dice pools of D8s, counting as 0 to 7, maximum of five dice in a pool, any bonus can be divided among dice as the player sees fit (exceptions exist). That last bit is interesting. Attribute rolls use a number of dice equal to the attribute (maximum of five dice, though attributes can be higher in rare cases), and the lowest die must be below or equal to the attribute. A 0 always succeeds, two or more 0s are a critical success, and only sevens means a critical failure. The GM can declare such tests hard tests, then only a 0 counts as a success.
Skill tests work similarly, with the number of dice equal to an attribute, but the target number the skill value. Ok, all of that is easy enough.
On to make a character. First I am supposed to choose Ancestry; for this type of setting, I think assuming humans-only fits best. I did note some extra rule about human-only settings - leaving off ancestry requirements on some later steps - but I am sure I will see that once there. Yanson Briggs will be human. Now a few general characteristics: Yanson is 41, below average height, stocky, shave bald, with a thin red beard. Round head and strong hands, with a few small scars - Yanson is a starship mechanic, and that work can lead to minor injuries. Major ones if one is careless and unlucky at once. He is an agnostic and works on the freighters of Kirkland Industries Unlimited. He has a friend called Antonia Meiners, a fellow mechanic whom he has known for nearly a decade. Antonia is a few years older than him, and actually has a knack for showing him a new trick or two from time to time. On his current crew, there is one person he deeply dislikes - Christian Grittner, the first mate and a major pain in the ass. Finally, Yanson has a secret - he has sabotaged the ship on their last journey out to force a longer stop in the docks. He just needed some reprieve from the job, some time longer on ol’ mother Earth. It did work, but his bad conscience has been plaguing him the whole first part of the trip.
Humans start with 8 Character Points, a native language (let’s call it Standard), and one bonus Background Point. They can also spend a Background Point to get a single Advantage, but only if they have no Attributes above 2. Next to choose which of four Weaknesses apply, and I get points to spend for each one. Yanson is vindictive (Wrath), stubborn (Pride), and selfish (Greed). Not bad. That gives me four Character Points and one Background Point. Weaknesses are roleplaying hints, but the GM can ask for tests related to them. Then on to Attributes, which start at 1. There are four, and they can be increased for Character Points, with increasing costs for higher ratings. Let’s see… twelve points means Yanson can get Vigor 3, Dexterity 2, Wits 3, and Presence 2. He might be a bit of an ass, but he is also pretty competent. For the two Attributes he has at three, he also gets Advantages. He has Resilient for Vigor and Inventive for Wits. These Advantages are roleplay-related, but might also be ‘rules-related’, I assume how will become clear later. No Attributes at 1 means no Disadvantages.
Now on to Skills, and here the selection is limited by the tech level. Skills might be limited further by setting-specific concerns. The skills are all grouped by associated Attribute, and each Attribute score provides a number of skill points to divide among skills in the respective group. Skill points can be shifted to other groups but at a 2:1 rate. Yanson also gets 1 bonus skill point due to his Weaknesses, his choice of where. Up to a rank of three, skills are raised 1:1 up to 3 by investing, above that it becomes 2:1. This is also where I think I will make a lot of mistakes from a gaming perspective - skill points also give Abilities later. Huh. Let’s ignore that for now, and distribute points. Four each in the Dexterity and Presence groups, and Five in each of the other two. In Vigor, he has Athletics 1, Craft 2, Martial Arts (think punching, not art) 1, and Melee Weapons 1. In Dexterity, he gets Dodge 2, Driving 1, and Piloting 1. The Wits Group has Engineering 3, Perception 1, and Technology 2. Finally, Presence connects to Charm 1, Deception 1, Intimidation 1, and Leadership 1.
And now we come to the ominous Abilities. Apparently, all skills have them, and if a character fulfills the respective conditions, he can get the Ability. Conditions can be Ancestry or having a specific Advantage. Each skill point unlocks one Ability of choice. I will not go through the whole list here, but I will note that I like that the Abilities are very suitable for characterization. For example, Yanson has Nimble under Athletics, which fits his need to often climb into small areas at weird angles. For the most part, the Abilities provide rolls for specific situations. There also seem to be a lot of special rules - to give an example, Engineering is always rolled as a hard test, except if the PC has an Engineering Advantage fitting whatever is being worked in. It seems rather complicated, more so than I usually like.
On to the finishing touches - we need to choose a culture, which we would have to create for our setting. Each culture would come with four skills, one in each group. Of these, we’d choose one, and if that skill is at rank 2 it gets the Ability Cultural Specialization, meaning the player can discard a die that shows a result other than a 7 to lower another die by one when rolling the skill. Let’s assume we have an Earth culture, and Earthers are known for their Technology Skill. Done. Oh, and Settings can forgo culture as a thing, then a PC can just choose any skill with a rating of two to have this ability. Yanson gets Standard as the base language but can start with up to three additional ones due to his Wits. How about English, Japanese, and Yoruba? Then we get to spend our 2 Background Points and learn that for the most part, those are heavily setting dependent. We can in theory get a second Culture Skill, or add one Advantage to one Attribute of score 2, but everything else we’d need to make up. Let me glance at the section on settings.
Background Points are used for things like Superpowers, Mutations, Spells, Divine Favours, getting more money, and so on and so forth. Huh. You know what, I will say he spends one point on Dexterity -> Agile, and the other to make Craft a Cultural Specialization. Starting Money is rolled, again with heavy dependency on the setting. Honestly, for the kind of campaign, I have in mind it doesn’t matter that much. Let’s take the suggested standard (1d6 x 1000 USD), but rename it to credits and divide it by 10 - 300 credits, works for me. Each Background Point spent would multiply by 10, by the way. And yes, the game offers guidance on settings needing money or not, at first glance.
And that is it! Find the sheet here.
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