GLOSS

This is a playtest version. I'm grateful to anyone who picks this up and runs it at their table. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

In the beginning, I needed a condensed yet flexible game system to GM spontaneous sessions without (much) preparation. At the (provisional) end stands GLOSS — a lightweight TTRPG system designed primarily for fast character creation and play in one-shot contexts. As such, it does away with skills in favor of character-defining Statements as well as so-called Composite Attributes (combining two of the six basic attributes to fit the situation at hand). Weapons, distances and health are all conceptualized in categories, ranges and stages, providing the flexibility to tell stories of every genre.

GLOSS also features a full second part of optional rules: 14 modular additions covering well-known circumstances in genres from fantasy and sci-fi to noir, horror, cyberpunk and beyond. A genre matrix helps GMs pick the set of rules fitting for the genre, their story and their table. Whether you need heritages for your elves, hacking rules for your cyberpunk dystopia, sanity mechanics for cosmic horror, or vehicle chases across the wasteland: there is a rule for that. Please mix and match. And if there isn't, some closing remarks on hacking the system aim to help you build your own. The core and optional rules, an actual play example, separately downloadable Character and Cheat Sheet, and a GLOSSary of game terms aim to let you jump right in.

AI was used in balancing and verifying dice probabilities and number ranges as well as in optimizing readability.