First Dredd Character Creation ..and RPG Noob need some help

[vonshavingcream]

I am slowing working my way through the dredd core rules. I am confused on one thing, and it is probably a total noob question so please be gentle.


During creation it says I something like I must roll a str8+.

I dunno exactly what that means. Does that mean if my strength is 5 with a mod of 0 I need to roll a 3 or higher?

or does it mean I have a 5 which is lower than 8 so I fail?

or does it mean something else entirely.

Thanks for the help.

C

 

[AndrewW]

I am slowing working my way through the dredd core rules. I am confused on one thing, and it is probably a total noob question so please be gentle.


During creation it says I something like I must roll a str8+.

I dunno exactly what that means. Does that mean if my strength is 5 with a mod of 0 I need to roll a 3 or higher?

or does it mean I have a 5 which is lower than 8 so I fail?

or does it mean something else entirely.

Thanks for the help.

C

Make a 2d6 roll and add the modifier to your strength score to the result. If your strength is say 10 this would be a +1 modifier, you roll an 8 this gives you a result of 9 passing the 8+ check (Need an 8 or higher).

If your strengh was say 2 on the other hand you'de have a -2 to the roll resulting in 7 and failing the roll.

 

[vonshavingcream]

thank you very much.

 

[AndrewW]

thank you very much.

You are welcome.

 

[IanBruntlett]

I am slowing working my way through the dredd core rules. I am confused on one thing, and it is probably a total noob question so please be gentle.

Just a few thoughts on things you need to know...
1. The core Traveller rule book
2. Your universe book (in this case Judge Dredd)
3. The adventure you're just about to run

For 1 and 2, you don't have to know *everything*, just enough to get by

It might be worth knowing that Mongoose are going to launch a new version of their web site and that (I hope) there will be space there for Traveller referees/players to make their own gaming material available. Things like combat charts and other tools to make the game easier to run/play.

 

[vonshavingcream]

would be totally cool if there was some kind of GM/Referee Section of the Forums. Not hidden or anything just some place to go for reference material or ideas.

I am really excited about running the Dredd campaigns .. it was all slowing coming together and then I found the sample advneture in issue #77 of of S&P and it all just clicked.

Cheers.
C

 

[Ravelli]

would be totally cool if there was some kind of GM/Referee Section of the Forums. Not hidden or anything just some place to go for reference material or ideas.

I am really excited about running the Dredd campaigns .. it was all slowing coming together and then I found the sample advneture in issue #77 of of S&P and it all just clicked.

Cheers.
C

I've got a few suggestions for resources that might help a little. Bear with me, you may already be across a lot of this.

The MGT-Aids Yahoo Group is an awesome resource. As it says on the tin: "This is a place for GMs and players to upload, download, and discuss aids for playing and running the Mongoose Publishing version of Traveller."

I don't think there's anything Dredd specific there (yet) but it does host many files that make getting to grips with the underlying Traveller system a little easier. I've used the various cheat sheets, rules summaries and custom GM screen stuff when I've run JD and SD. In particular the "Mongoose Traveller Combat Flowchart" is pure gold and helped simplify the Trav combat rules in play.

You do have to sign up and get approved to access the group but it's a formality that shouldn't take too long. However, feel free to PM me if you want a copy of that combat flowchart sooner.

There are also a couple of terrific Dredd character sheets created by fellow forumites: Charliebanana's pdf sheets and Dreamingbadger's excel sheet.

Not much else out there's been created specifically for MGT Dredd as yet, apart from what's in Signs and Portents 73 and 75-77. However, if you're looking for adventure content and inspiration you could try tracking down material written for the two previous Judge Dredd rpgs and adapting it.

Mongoose's d20 Dredd line included some top notch adventures and sourcebooks while there were a number of articles in earlier issues of Signs and Portents. Games Workshop's Dredd rpg also featured some great adventures as well as lots of really useful colour floorplans and cardboard standup figures. They published quite a few articles in White Dwarf magazine too, including some highly regarded adventures.

All of this material can still be found in hardcopy on ebay and elsewhere and the White Dwarf articles are available in electronic form on the Judge Dredd RPG Mailing List. Their files section also has scans of some of the floorplans and cardboard cutouts from the GW line.

The absolute best resources I know of, however, are John Caliber's free Drokk City RPG sourcebooks. These are incredibly well researched, in-depth guides to the Dredd-verse written by a fella with a near encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject. He wrote a bunch of the d20 Dredd books for Mongoose back in the day before becoming disenchanted with that version and storming off to write his own (free) rules system and sourcebooks. There's lots of great stuff on his site, which is well worth a trawl.

Oh, and here's a Glossary of Mega City Slang just for the hell of it.

 

[vonshavingcream]

Thanks a million. I already signed up for that group. I am sure it will help boat loads.

Now that I have totally hi-jacked my own post....
We are really excited to start the dredd RPG. We started with 6 people in the group, and after giving people an opportunity to check out the rules and system specifics, we have another 8 that want to play already.

I am thinking about writing an adventure that allows some PC's to stay at the Sector house and assist from there, kind of like an R&D group or Forensics.

And then, at the final climax, maybe they get called in for backup or something..

Thanks,
C

 

[IanBruntlett]

We started with 6 people in the group, and after giving people an opportunity to check out the rules and system specifics, we have another 8 that want to play already.

Actually, if you want to run a game on a regular basis (e.g once a week), you may find that 6+8 people are too many for one referee to handle without succumbing to exhausting/burn-out.

It might be a good idea to tell your players that one (or two) of them might need to volunteer to run games as well.

 

[havercake lad]

We started with 6 people in the group, and after giving people an opportunity to check out the rules and system specifics, we have another 8 that want to play already.

Actually, if you want to run a game on a regular basis (e.g once a week), you may find that 6+8 people are too many for one referee to handle without succumbing to exhausting/burn-out.

It might be a good idea to tell your players that one (or two) of them might need to volunteer to run games as well.

Ambitious .. but one way to deal with this is split into two groups each with a GM.. GMs can plan a master campaign to run concurrently with odd bits of cross-over between groups.

 

[vonshavingcream]

both great ideas. I also am assuming that not everyone will show every week so that will help as well.

As for now, we are going to do a trial story with the main 6 players (Perfect Woman, from issue #77 of S&P) to give everyone a taste of it.

After that, we'll see how it goes