The Real World

The Real World is a roleplaying system designed exclusivly for this encyclopedia by David Donachie. In the modern day world we think that we are alone on the earth, but in fact we share it with tiny sentient hamsters. In The Real World you can play those hamsters, and see our world from a very different viewpoint...

Background

History

Humans think that they are the only sentient race on earth, but they are wrong. Forget aliens, forget yeti, it us, the hamsters, who really know whats going on. Once humans knew about us, and thought that we were fairies, goblins or devils, but now we have to hide ourselves from hummanity, lest they kill us all. Now the past is gone, now its war.

All through history we have been there, and as hummanity developed its technology we copied it, and as we did so we grew stronger. But always hummanity outgrew us, spreading to places where once we hid, breaking soil and sky to thie will. We are only 3cm high, what are we meant to do? We did as we must, we hid, we lived in the shadows, we survived on the rubbish that hummanity had thrown in our way.

Even then things might have been all right. With our cunning and our Pasa'Chiks we could easily hide from hummanity, and our remperor ruled over all. Then the Emperor was killed, and the Hamster people disintegrated into a hundred warring factions all seeking the throne. The hundred became the 15, the 15 became the 10, and now the ten clans never cease to fight. Who could risk even one human throwing his weight behind one side or the other, behind the Blacks or the Reds? No one could, and so we hide.

The Real World

The Real World Hamsters are smaller than their normal cousins, for they stand but 3cm tall. They are tawny brown with large eyes and dexterous hands. Their technology is similar to ours, they have guns and machines, but they have never mastered the details of electronics or medicine, they rely on psychic powers and herbalism instead.

The Hamsters live on the dregs of the human world, for they are not numerous in number. They are inveterate tinkerers, and can make weapons from discarded wire, clothing from tissues, and houses from cardboard and loose wall materials. Many live within houses themselves, inside the walls and between the floors, where no one notices them, avoiding cat, rat, and human alike.

Since the death of their Emperor at the hands of assassins 20 years ago the world of the hamsters has been one of war. Split up into ten clans, who give their general allegience to two false emperors, the Black and the Red, almost every Hamster is now a soldier, defending their little patch of ground from the others, while at the same time trying to get on with their lives.

The Rules

A Real World character is made by spending 20 points on Characteristics, Skills, Psychic powers and optional Character Tags. See Generating a Character.

The Characteristics
The Real World uses 4 characteristics:

STAMINA
DEXTERITY
INELLECT
WILLPOWER

Each of these ranges from 1-9, with 4 being average for a hamster. All characteristic checks are made by rolling a D12, and attempting to get equal to or less than the characteristic. The meaning of the characteristics are as follows:

Stamina

Hit Points

Dexterity
Dexterity measures the character's agility and ability to manipulate objects. Most physical actions are resolved by rolls against Dexterity.

Intellect
Intellect measures the character's intelligence, knowledge and wits. Rolls to detect or understand things are made on Intellect.

Willpower
Willpower measures the character's personality and resolve, his bravery or charisma. It is also the stat which is used for psychic powers.

Skills
The Characteristics are supplemented by a number of skills, each based on a different characteristic. All attempts to use a skill are resolved by a roll of D12, the object being to get equal to or less than the skill plus the relevant characteristic.

The Skills of the basic game are as follows:

SKILL	STAT	DEFAULT
Bravery	WILPOWER	0
Hamsters are easily scared, its a big dangerous world, and must make a Bravery roll to not flee strangeness (+0), rats (-1), cats (-3), dogs (-5) or humans (-3).
Climbing	DEXTERITY	2
The hamster should roll this to climb a vertical or steep surface unaided. Climbing gear (thread, needles etc.) adds +2, while a fixed rope adds +4. A fall does 1 damage per metre fallen (Hamsters are light).
Command	WILPOWER	0
A roll of this allows the Hamster to order others around (either legitimatly or not), even to overcome fear (+2 on Bravery rolls).
Dodging	DEXTERITY	0
A Hamster may elect to dodge when being shot at or in HTH combat. A succesful dodge subtracts 2 from the chance of being hit. A Hamster may not dodge and shoot, but may dodge in HTH. However a failed dodge in HTH results in them being hit automatically.
Engineering	INTELLECT	0
A roll of this skill allows the Hamster to work out what an object does, and how to make it work as intended.
Fighting	DEXTERITY	2
See Combat.
Herbalism	INTELLECT	0
A Hamster with the appropriate herbs may roll Herbalism to restore 1 point of Stamina to a wounded comrade. They amy repeat this as many times as the Hamster was wounded. Special herbs allow 2 points. If used for first aid it restores 3 Stamina once.
Listening	INTELLCT	2
The Hamster should roll this to detect a faint (+0), very quiet (-2) or extremly quiet (-4) sound.
Push & Pull	STAMINA	0
Roll this skill whenever the Hamster tries to make some extreme muscular exertion, modifed by the sze of the object to be moved, small (+2), Hamster sized (+0), large (-2), or very large (-4).
Running	STAMINA	1
Hamsters have to run a lot! When running after, or away from, something, both parties make run rolls, the one who succeeds by most catches, escapes from, the other.
Scouting	WILPOWER	0
With this skill a specialist scout can assess a place for danger, and remain unnoticed. This skill allows the Hamster to guess whether there is danger, and to remain unseen. The level of the skill is the modifer to the Listen/Seeing/Smelling rolls of sentries.
Seeing	INTELLECT	2
Roll this to spot something.
Shooting	DEXTERITY	0
See Combat.
Smelling	INTELLECT	2
Roll this to smell something.
Speak Hamster	INTELLECT	4
This skill allows hamsters to speak their own language. Extra languages (such as battle codes) can be bought at 1 point per point.
Speak Human	INTELLECT	0
With this skill a Hamster can roll to atempt to understand the distant booming speech of Humans.
Tinkering	INTELLECT	1
With this skill a Hamster can devise ways to put the detritus of the Human world to interesting uses, such as making vehicles from cotton reels and crossbows from paperclips. Roll to devise something (modifiers from -1 to -5) or to spot something to fill a specified role.

See: