'TSRPG (Travel-Sized RPG) Frequently-Asked Questions

Q: Just a quick question for what would be the 'standard' way of handling guesses near the edges. When there's a number from 1-10, the player has a range of +/- 2 and guesses a 2, for example.

What of those is the 'standard':
- Okay, you guess a 1, so you wasted part of your range. You succeed on 1-3.
- Since you didn't took your full range, it'll be automatically expanded towards the middle. You succeed on 1-5.
- Since you go down to -1, those two spots below 1 roll over to the other side. You succeed on 1-3 and 9-10.`
- You have to take a number between 3 and 8!

To me the third makes most sense, because the others have different drawbacks, but it's possible the most complicated. What is the default way for handling this?

A: The storyteller has a lot of leeway for handling situations like this and could choose any of the possibilities you describe, but our preferred option would be the third one (i.e., to allow the guess to wrap around to the other side of the number range). That's a little bit more complicated than some of the other options, but it is also the only way for a player to cover both ends of the number range!

Q: How do you decide how difficult to make a challenge?

A: There are a couple of things to consider. First, take a look at what kind of number ranges the characters are likely to be able to come up with if they really try. You never want to make things too easy.

You also need to look at what they are trying to accomplish with the challenge, and whether or not there will be other ways for them to achieve the same thing. You want to avoid a situation where there is a crucial mental or a physical challenge that is preventing the game from moving forward because everyone failed the challenge.

Challenges required to move forward in the scenario should be easy to moderate (10 and 15 point challenges), especially in the early part of the game. They need to be difficult enough to keep it interesting, but achievable, especially if players team up and help one another. Challenges later in the game can and should be more difficult (20 and 25 point challenges). Additional or optional Challenges (e.g., for an interesting item that isn’t essential to the plot) can be as difficult as you like, but you need to be prepared to live with the results if a character succeeds.

Q: What kinds of things require a challenge?

Put the challenges in places where the characters need to get certain information, or perform certain physical challenges in order to move forward in the scenario, or where they are opposed by a physical object or by adversaries.

Also consider adding challenges if a character wants to do something unexpected and possibly not in your prepared scenario. TSRPG works well for this. For example, if the characters try to open a locked door and fail, a player might suggest climbing the side of the building to try to get in through a window. It’s not hard to come up with a Challenge to allow them to try this.

Avoid having too many challenges for the same thing, e.g., if a character has succeeded in a 20-point Physical Challenge to successfully create an improvised weapon, don’t make the character do the same challenge again. If you want to limit the number of such improvised weapons, limit the resources available for creating this type of improvised weapon. Or if there are a lot of locked doors, provide a way for the characters to find a key that will unlock them instead of making them try to pick the lock on each one.

Q: What if the players fail a challenge that they need to achieve in order to move forward?

Always have a backup plan for the players to achieve the same thing. If there are key pieces of information that they must have, make those pieces of information available from more than one source and in more than one way.

Also, you can vary the consequences of failing a challenge, for example, a character who fails a Physical Challenge against a foe may be knocked down but not killed.

Q: How does combat work?

It’s typically going to be a Physical Challenge against a target number. The trick is to engage players in the narrative. Will one challenge win the fight, or will there be an exchange of shots? Also consider the consequences of a failure – will the character be out of the fight? Or simply knocked down, possibly injured, but able to get up and still try to fight. The same goes for a success against a foe

While it may be possible to deal with this narratively/descriptively, you may want to establish ‘house rules’ for your group.