The SBRPG Restoration Project, Part 2

Work begins...

Not an easy box to type, believe me. But a new beginning.

Those are my InDesign layout guides there to keep me honest and to prove work has begun. I can copy and paste from the 1.53c PDF, and that is how I am doing the work, page by page. The tables will be an absolute nightmare to rebuild, and we have a few of them in here.

It is way too early to think about licenses; the original had none and was closed-source. Post-OGL, we are in a better world, and I have a few to choose from. The best model is the one used by Kevin Crawford, who wrote the book, sold and copyrighted it, and then made the game's SRD public domain, free to use for humanity's benefit. I will think about that, but no promises. This is one of those instances where I need to consider what George would have wanted.

SBRPG was created in response to the original OGL, and we felt that the entire license was flawed and an attempt to exploit content. It turns out we were right, they tried to "steal" 20 years of OGL content and invalidate the license of every competing game and fantasy system, or force everyone to pay. We had a few words to say about the OGL in early drafts, but those were cut. We were right.

Remember, there were not that many "open systems" back in 2005 when we wrote this, and this is a unique, open, clean-room game with no prior art. SBRPG is an exceptional outlier in the gaming industry.

Looking at the PDF, I can cut this up as follows:

• Book One
• Characters, Race & Class Design, Skills & Special Moves, Powers and Power Design
• Book Two
• Tasks, Movement, Travel, Hazard, Combat, Damage, Vehicle Rules, NPCs, Game Worlds, The Referee, Referee Bonus Web Content
• Book Three
• Equipment, Vehicles,  Player Bonus Web Content

Each of these will be approximately 200 pages, which will divide the book nicely. Will it be terribly user-friendly? I have no idea. Notably, Book One will focus on characters, Book Two is the core rules, and Book Three contains all the extra content in the game. It seems user-friendly; the players can pass books one and three around, and the referee has book two. The BWC will be shifted around to the book it needs to go into.

Equipment could move into Book One, and the second book remains more rules- and referee-focused. Two books are an easier sell than three.

The game's target number is likely changing to 11, out of the One Roll BWC. I have a few ideas on streamlining the entire system. This will work for both combat and non-combat rolls. The math will be drastically reduced, and the system will be blazingly fast to play.

The ability scores are changing to: Strength, Brainpower, Reflex, Personality, and Grit (SBRPG). Grit is the new Endurance. AA is being replaced by Action Points, based on Reflex. Oh yes, this is cheesy, but creating a character sheet will be as easy as writing down the name of the game you are playing. Be thankful I am not changing the secondaries to ROCKS. Yes, this will change the entire text of the book.

A result of 10 will be a special result. Failures, rolls below 10, will also change.

It sounds like a new edition, but given the ideas we were working on in the BWC books, these improvements need to be folded into the core rules. One Roll and Character Traits will likely move into Core, and those BWCs will be depreciated. The Character Traits BWC is awesome. I just read that today, and it is still way ahead of its time.

I may rewrite everything and streamline the entire system to focus on the core rules, and then ship separate books for fantasy, modern, and science fiction.

I need to get deeper into this and see how it goes.