I stumbled upon an old rule book I didn't even know I had (can't remember when I purchased) - West End Games Master Book.

It looks like a cross between GURPS and d20 before the latter existed and sprinkles of others. No hit points per se, gradations of success, but a simple basic mechanic of 2d10 roll over Target Number. Advantages and disadvantages handled with a strange column system (columns I - IV, why Roman Numerals I'm not sure, impact and cost both growing as column number increase) and a very specific set of possibilities (Contacts would be one for example). Skills more like GURPS than d20, explicitly unifying combat skills with the rest of the skills under the same mechanic. And there's an optional card add-on I have delved into yet...

Is anyone familiar with this system? Is that a good general read of the material? How does it play?

I vaguely remember when it came out. I never explored it though, since it seemed to be used mainly for second-rate movie tie-ins and original settings which failed to grab my interest.

Master Book was the generic version of their Torg RPG. They had several settings built off of it: Indiana Jones, Shatterzone, etc.  The cards were part of the Torg set. IIRC, it actually used a d20, referencing a chart that gave a success level based on the character's ability.

The main feature of the game was a logarithmic scale for all characters, creatures, and vehicles. Thus, in theory, you could have men, dragons, tanks, and stardestroyers using the same rules, with consistent to hit and damage results between them. Torg was a genre mash, with multiple realities breaking through into our world, so they needed a ruleset that could handle almost anything.

Never played it. Tinkered with it, and put it away. I might still have the book, though. If I find it, I'll post more.

Quote from: James J SkachIs anyone familiar with this system? Is that a good general read of the material? How does it play?

We played Bloodshadows with it about four years ago. Loved the atmosphere of the setting, doubt we'll ever play the system again.

Seanchai

Found it! You're right, it uses 2D10. Torg used D20.

Human stats ranged from 5 to 13. Skills added beyond that. To do anything, you rolled the dice, and referenced a chart printed at the bottom of the character sheet. This gave you a bonus that you added to your skill to determine success.

An example out of the book: A character has a Dexterity of 8 and one add in fire combat, to give him a fire combat of 9. The player rolls the dice and gets an 8 and 5, for a total of 13. That gives him a bonus number of 2, which is added to his fire combat of 9, for a skill total of 11.

Usually, the roll was against the target's skill level in something like dodge. Since a roll of 9-10 gave a bonus of 0, and a roll of 11-12 gave a bonus of 1, the average roll would hit an evenly matched character about half the time. The amount the result beat the target by was called result points. This was used with the damage value of the attack vs. the target's toughness rating to determine damage on another table.

From the example above: Let's say the target had a dodge of 9. The result points would be 11-9=2. If the shooter's gun did 14 damage, the modified damage would be 14+2=16. If the target's toughness was 9, the damage result would be 16-9=7 result points. Going to the chart gives: Knockdown, KO, 4 shock. So the target is knocked down (duh), knocked out, and takes 4 shock points as well. Enough shock would take a character out, too.

The logarithmic value scale started at 0= 1 kilogram. Each 5 levels multiplied the value by 10. Thus, value 5= 10 kilos, value 10= 100 kilos, etc. They had similar charts for time and distance. So a ten ton truck would have a base toughness of 20.

Quote from: SeanchaiWe played Bloodshadows with it about four years ago. Loved the atmosphere of the setting, doubt we'll ever play the system again.

Seanchai

Same here.  But more like ten years ago for me.