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The following write up was written for posting on my game groups forum. Thought I would post it here as well.

I thought I would take some time to write up reviews of some of the non-d20/D&D RPG’s I have in my collection. We seem to have a pretty steady focus on D&D, and it is really just the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to RPG’s. I wanted to start off with a review of the genreDiversion i game system from Precis Intermedia Gaming (formerly Politically Incorrect Games).

The most important thing to remember with genreDiversion is that it is a complete game system. This system is designed to be a rules light, generic, and dynamic system adaptable to almost any genre. I will write some separate reviews for some of the genre specific settings that are available, and will instead focus on some of the core mechanics here. The genreDiversion i rules are an updated rule set from the original genreDiversion rules.

The system utilizes 2d6 for task resolution and, besides the included character sheet and a writing utensil, that is really all you need to play. You can pick up a copy of the rules from the pigames.net website for the low price of 5.00 (actually on sale for 3.00 right now) in PDF format. You get a nice PDF document, 34 pages long, with all the needed rules and character sheets.

The PDF is divided into 4 chapters. The first chapter covers what you need to know to create characters. A character in this system is certainly not going to be a multi-page d20 behemoth, you won’t need a program or excel spreadsheet to help you create or maintain the character. Characters are created by assigning abilities, skills, backgrounds and gimmicks. There is also an easy table to keep track of the health of your character. Health is measured with two values, fatigue and injury, and each has an affect on your characters ability to perform actions. Characters have five abilities: fitness, awareness, creativity, reasoning, and influence. You get a certain number of points to assign to these abilities during the character generation process. Abilities can have a rank between 1 and 5. Skills are similar to abilities, except there are a lot more, and you can assign a value from 1 to 8. One big difference is that while you can have a 0 score for skills, each ability must have a minimum value of 1. Skills are generic in nature, and are assigned a time period value so that you can quickly determine if a particular skill is something that could be learned in the time period of the game you are playing. The computers skill is not usable earlier than the modern period for example. Backgrounds and gimmicks are there to flesh out your character, and provide a bit of depth and, well, character to your character. Technically you could play the game without either of these, but they are nice to have. Characters get a single background, but could have more than one gimmick. In this generic version of the rules the GM would help characters to come up with a list of gear.

Chapter Two covers vehicles. The rules are similar to creating characters. Rules here are very general to allow for a great amount of flexibility.

Chapter Three deals with basic task resolution. Resolution is insanely simple. Tasks are generally related to a skill and an ability. So in a fist fight characters would use the fitness ability and the brawling skill. To resolve the task, you add the values of the ability and skill, roll 2d6 and try to roll less than or equal to that number. So if you have a fitness of 4 and a brawling of 3 you need to roll less than or equal to 7 on 2d6. The GM can modify the needed value depending on circumstances. When you are fighting you compare the differences in your rolls with the character with the largest difference winning. In the case of combat tasks, various attacks do different amounts of either fatigue or injury damage. Armor has the chance to negate various amounts of damage. The basic task resolution is certainly very basic, but it is also very fast, and I think helps the story to drive the action instead of the dice. This chapter also covers the rules for vehicle combat.

Chapter Three also has a B section which covers the advanced task resolution rules. In the advanced rules you still compare your skill/ability number to a dice roll. In the advanced rules though you compare the result of that result to an assigned difficulty for the task. The difficulty number can range from -2 for trivial tasks to 7 for impossible tasks. The number you get when you subtract the die roll from you skill number is called your margin. You want your margin to be equal or greater than your difficulty. The more you are above them better still you have done at the task. The chapter continues to talk more about specific types of tasks people might undertake, like opposed tasks. Combat is enhanced with rules to determine the order in which characters act, called reaction, and enhanced rules for the actions you can take on your turn. Vehicle rules are also expanded in this chapter. The way tasks are resolved with the advanced rules play very much like the basic rules, but you can feel the increased detail in how things play out.

Chapter Four covers everything else you need to know. It includes information on advancement, equipment, setting difficulty levels. It also covers how to convert characters for genreDiversion to either the Active Exploits Diceless or Impresa rule sets also from PIGames. The chapter ends with sheets for both characters and vehicles.

So what do I think of the system? I have only played the game twice, both times online, but I think I have a good feel for how things run. This system is very light weight, and nearly universal. I think that, using this system, you could sit down and play a game in any setting in only a few minutes. Once you have a feel for the rules, and how characters work, you can pretty much make this system do whatever you need. In my opinion this is a set of rules that everyone should read through and play with once. It just lays such a great foundation for fast RPG gaming on a whim…no planning required. The whole system though increases in value when you look at the settings that are available for it. I plan to review the Coyote Trail western setting, Hard Nova II science fiction setting, and Earth AD II post-apocalypse setting in the near future.

Links to genreDiversion resources can be found on my genreDiversion link group.