Introduction & Starter Rules

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.

No that's been done. SSKiller takes place in a world far different from our own. First and most important, Magic, the world of SSKiller is seeping with magic, as you will read if you get that far.

The game gets it’s name from one of the races that inhabits the SSKiller world, the SSKiller Penguins, if you check the bestiary at this point you’ll notice they look like German WWII Soldiers, well penguins in German WWII soldiers uniforms at least. They are one of the more avoided races as they kill most other races on sight and most other races return the favor.

Magic is the life’s blood of the SSKiller world, It is a force that surrounds us, it binds us, it holds the game together, Oh dear there I go again. The Ground has it the trees have it and all but a very few of the races have it in one form or another.

As you might have noticed ‘Tis a Silly Game’. The whole point of SSKiller is to have fun, to have a laugh, there are no hard fixed in stone rules, there are a few rules, but none of them are unbendable. If arguments start as they sometimes do the DM, GM, Referee (whatever you prefer to call him) makes a decision, based on or against the rules depending on the situation, don’t get into a prolonged argument as this spoils the game for everyone!!

What you’ll need, a pen or pencil, some jot paper, three six sided die, some copies of an SSKiller character sheet and a sick sense of humor.

A Roll in SSKiller Terms is rolling 3D or three six sided dice, on occasion you will be asked to roll different number of six sided dice this will be represented as a number plus D so 4D is four six sided dice.

Players Vs Non Players, a Player character (PC) is a character who is controlled by a player of the game, while a non player character (NPC) is controlled by the GM and may be a shop keeper, bartender, a monster, or other character taking part in the story.

A Skill Roll in SSKiller is 3D compared to the relevant skill if the roll is the same or less a success accurse if the roll is greater a failure accurse, so an attack roll may be 3D compared to your Swords skill, in some situations you may be called for a half skill roll, such as fighting with one hand hanging from a rope suspended over a pool of lava, these are a roll of 3D compared to your Sword skill divided by 2, Eg. A roll of three dice, equaling 8 compared to your sword skill of 3. having a sword skill of 6 divided by two 6/2 = 3. Or a Fail. If you had rolled a three 3D all equal to 1 then not only would a success have accrued but an exceptional success would have accrued see below, a roll of natural 3 ie. 1 + 1 + 1 on 3D6 is always a sucess however low your skill gets, so a person sword fighting against a fire demon, balancing on a greased rope over a pit of angry wolves while trying to juggle a red hot key you need to open the door to escape that you just managed to snatch from the Fire demon you are fighting, with his helmet down over his eyes (because hes a Gnome and hes waring a Man sized helmet because its better than his blue pointy hat for defence, unfortunately its too big an keeps slipping over his head, untill he can get to town and have it adjusted) the GM looks at the situation, thinks poor gnome, looks like its a 1/8th skill chance to manage to stay on the rope while backing away to the other side.. our heroic gnome friend has a Balance/Acrobatics of 5, 5/8 = less than 3 so the only hope the poor gnome has of not becoming a tasty snack for the wolfs is a roll of 3..

A Skill Roll Failure doesn't necessarily mean the attempt has failed, for some tasks multiple attempts may be made, the attempts may only be made a number of times based on the attempted skills skill base (What? ok I'll explain, your trying to pick a lock, you have a Dex of 4, so you can attempt to pick the lock 4 times before you are so frustrated with the lock you have no chance of picking it at all) unless the GM deems the task to be important enough (that same lock is the way on in the dungeon, everyone has tried and failed to pick it, at this point the GM may have a goblin open the door to see what all that strange scratching sounds are coming from the other side of the door, or may give everyone some more chances, then have the same goblin try beat the first one threw the doors head in)

Exceptional Success or Failure rolls. An exceptional success accurse when all the dice rolled roll a 1, the results of this vary but should always be good for the roller as when all dice roll a 6 the results should be bad for the roller, Eg. In the attack skill roll above you roll a 3, 3 ones in your attack roll, an exceptional success in an attacking roll as you will see when you read the fights section, means the attack has bypassed the opponents armour and the damage is rolled on the unmodified weapons attack column. If an 18 was rolled, or all the die rolled 6’s then an exceptional failure accurse, in this example there is no fixed event for a weapons exceptional failure, so usually the GM makes a ruling, the attacker hits himself, drops his sword into the lava, cuts the rope in half, come on GM’s surely you can think of something. Oh by the way don’t feel sorry for the player unless he or she is having a really bad time of it and is down to there last life or spent there last gold on the sword, in that case you could rule they throw there sword onto a small stone out in the lava (retrievable maybe with some difficulty.)

Ring of Nine Lives
All player characters have a ring, a ring of nine lives, when the players start the ring only has 6 lives charged into it, more lives may be charged into the ring at a cost of 1,000 Gold pieces per life. The ring cannot be removed, even cutting the arm of the character doesn’t remove the ring. When a character is killed, quite a common occurrence in SSKiller, the ring leaps away from the point of death, the body and possessions go with the ring, although you only see the ring. The ring finds the nearest point of safety and regenerates the character there. This is usually accompanied by a sound, the sound is formed by saying ‘Wing’, but prolonging the ‘i’ so to write it looks something like Whiing. A point of safety means somewhere the character is not in immediate danger.
Eg. Gomez the Failed Barbarian after fighting his way through a number of Goblins finds himself trapped in the loft of there lair. Slamming the trapdoor and placing an old chest on it, he then lights a torch to see what he’s doing, holding the torch up so he can see better he accidentally thrusts the lit torch into the thatch of the roof, as Goblins aren’t that tall you see.
“Oh No”. He tries desperately to put the flames out by throwing the contents of a bottle he grabs from the floor at the flames. (Dwarven Gut buster Brandy) with a large Bang the roof of the lair blows off, killing Gomez and badly burning the Goblins below.
His ring jumps away from the burning building and the group of Goblins outside the lair and up into one of the close by trees, with a Whiing the ring regenerates. Now Gomez is safe, sort of safe anyway, up a tree outside a burning building surrounded by angry Goblins.
He’s out of immediate danger, and if he waits till the Goblins go away, and the fire doesn’t spread to the trees he should be OK.
A characters corpse disapears when the character dies, there is no possessions to salvage they all go with the ring to the point of safety and are regenerated with the character.

Shops
are first of all not places to steal or even attempt to. They are protected by the shopkeepers union, one of the advantages of this union is the Shop Keepers Demon, these demons are not to be trifled with, even by powerful characters. Shop keepers will not waver on the price they offer goods to be sold at, however you may be able to bargain for a better deal for them to buy your goods at, if they want them. By all means try robbing them, I'm sure the GM will have a good laugh. unless of course you can think of a realy devious plan to do so and not be noticed by the ever watchfull ever present demon..

High Power Magic Users
Usually found in magic shops, but sometimes they pitch tents at the side of the road, wear rags, adventure with adventure parties or any other thing that takes there fancy. These individuals are by definition not all there, to be precise there only about a third remaining in this dimension, and as a result are at best mystical, at worst a pain in the proverbial. If you want to get into a fight with them, be prepared for a nasty surprise. Eg.
Mark the Troll Barbarian has taken an active dislike to Elves, “Bloody Dandelion eaters, always sticking there noses in where there not wanted!”, So he upon seeing an Elf riding toward town decides to jump the pointy eared freak and rob it. During previous adventures he has obtained quite a few magic devices so he is sure he can take this one Elf on without trouble.
He sets an ambush for the Elf. (At this point the GM rolls 3D and gets 18, 3 sixes, an outstanding failure, Oh No Poor Mark, He He He!) Mark jumps out on the Elf, wielding his Super Swishem Swashem Hackem Slashem, and with a blood curdling cry of “Die Dandelion Eater”, charges the Elf. The Elf is a Hero, High Power Magic User, “Oh No not another stupid Troll” thinks the Elf as he waves his hand and freezes the Troll into a block of Ice, the Elf then uses his magic to find out what the attack was about, none to pleased with the answer, he casts another spell, If the Troll tries to attack another Elf an Earth Elemental will be summoned to stop Mark from harming them. He then cancels the Ice spell and carries on into town. Mark outraged at this charges the Elf. The ground opens up in front of him and he falls down a deep hole, the hole appears to dig itsself out as he falls into it. Mark activates a ring he has to stop his fall. He looks up just in time to see the Earth elemental close the hole above him. Oh dear, I wonder how long it will take Mark to dig himself back to the surface. Without help, a day or two at the quickest.
That was just one example, because of the nature of magic in SSKiller, Its not a good idea to cross high power magic users, as some are as powerful as Gods. Well some of them are...

Experience is gained during SSKiller if you do something very funny and at the end of a session, at the end of a session all players and the GM write down who they think was the funniest player during the session these are then given to the GM who will add them up and choose who has got the most votes, he will then give that person an extra 2 experience point, and the next highest person or all if there isn't one an extra 1 point. players should get about 4 experience points per session unless it's a very long or short session then the experience points should be reduced or increased accordingly, but never less than 1 or greater then 6, 6 shouldn't be given every session but only on occasion, the bonus points do not count toward this 6. Bonus points may also be awarded during play, so If something extremely funny occures, even if the character didn't start it but made it all the funnier by there reactions or from what they said or did. these points should only be given out if they make you openly laugh or most or all of the players laugh, then 1 point may be awarded as a spot bonus. mark this down however as no more than one spot bonus shuld be given per hour or so, also laughing again over the same thing shuld not count towards another bonus, use your descretion here.

Spending Experience, you may spend experience in SSKiller to increase your skills, this is done on a skill point cost bases, so if your Swords Skill is at 5 it will cost you 5 points to raise it to 6, all your skills are automatically at there skill bases, so if a player with STR Base or 4 has spent no experience on his Sword Skill it will cost him 4 points to raise it to 5. you may spend your points at any time or save them to spend later, sometimes even spend them before a roll (but never after to make it a sucess)

Creatures, characters, monsters etc. a creature is a creature usually of the creatures lists, usually not meaning the PC's harm, but sometimes inadvertently causing such. Ie. a Rabbit.. A character is any PC or NPC that is taking an active part in the adventure Ie. Fluffy, Malick the troubadores talking bunny, a monster is anything like a creature but is most usually used for a creature wishing to do the players harm Ie. Jathro, Demon Prince of Bunnies.