MB6 Plots! © AND Drops! © Role Playing Game.
MB6 Plots! © game system is easily read, played, and gets you into a game- fast.
The main rule book is 36 pages long. When we say page, we mean an 8.5″ by 5.5″ page. That’s it. And it contains examples. It’s for players and game masters, both.
So if you want to game and it’s three A.M., old-school pencil and paper are there for you, even when your friends can’t be or your roommate doesn’t want the noise of a video game waking them up.
Yeah, but what is it?
Plots! © is a 2d6 point-based system that encourages players to take some of the burden off a GM. You don’t even need one! Modules can be played by yourself, with other players, and with or without a GM. Just let the module books be your guide.
The game can be played with or without a GM (Game Master). (Or if you’re that GM that never gets to play, this is for you.) That’s right. If you’re stuck not being able to find a group, you can play Plots! on your own with multiple characters, complete with mapping and combat scenarios.
PLOTS! © is for “long” story arcs. DROPS! © are small scenes that can be “dropped” into another story line. Pretty simple, right?
Plots! © can also be used as the base for that fun module you have floating around that you either can’t find the original rulebook or you don’t happen to enjoy using. Plots! is multi-genre and the Activities © descriptions (skills) are written to handle just about anything from “Greco-Roman” to “Fantasy Feudal” to “Victorian/Steam and Gear” to “Film Noire Detective” to “Space Cowpokes.”
Most modules are written for multi-use. You can play them over again and get a different result, learn new skills, or discover a different Easter Egg.
Plots! © was designed specifically to be not only light but randomizable and customizable. You can play a module in full, then set it aside, and only use sections of it if you want to live in a specific city or use one of the waystations in Velod’s Caravan as your hideout. Or you can replay it.
Another cool feature is that the hard copy books are designed to be carried in a purse, small satchel, or stuffed in that front pocket of a backpack. Gaming on the go! With a pencil, some extra paper, and a handful of small dice, you can start and stop Plots! © modules easily at a restaurant while waiting for your meal or that hour or so between classes or on a lunch break.
Character sheets are one sided. The layout helps explain how each number is used and what to DO with it. Each game book has a secondary play sheet to help keep the story on track. This can be used by a GM directly or assigned to one of the players.
Plots! has been released in digital format at Smashwords.com and Amazon.com. You can carry it in your phone.
Skills are set into trees. If you have no level in a specific skill, in most cases, you can still try to use that skill. You can also, in some cases, use your skill to add as a bonus to another role.
Spells are completely customizable. If you want to do that cool, over the top thing at a really high difficulty, you can. Or if you want to have psionics. Or be able to affect dozens of little things all day long.
The Plots! © system has random map generation rules. You can use any grid or hex based floor map you may already have, or you can make maps as you need them. This can drastically change the outcome of combat and give you a different feel completely. Some combats with decent terrain layout can be cakewalk. Others? Not so easy to run away from that alligator if you have too many trees on the map edge!
The math during character set up is a little heavy. But once it’s done, it’s basically done. Level ups follow a pattern and you get to decide where those points get spent. You aren’t stuck on a specific path.
The main game (Module 1) is called Velod’s Caravan, set in Feudal Fantasy. It’s a “week long” trek in between two major cities. It’s completely random! You can play over and over and over and come out with a different result. All that travel in between place A and place B? Well, you can play Velod’s Caravan with the caravan, riding your own mounts, walking on your own without the caravan, and so on. There’s item generation, combat, hunting, weather. Lots of fun. You can design your own “stops” and use the playbook to get there. You have complete control over world building, if you want, but Book of Nemesis © came out in 2024.
Most of the modules have information to help a GM or the GM’less group to have the flexibility of how their story goes, between modules. You can travel from Serschack to Hitchcull repeatedly, any way you want, in any season you want and add in stores and locations from For the Love of Goats, Maybe? without playing the actual story line.
You can add even more flavor by saying, in my world, Kahl Ess is beyond Serschack in the mountains and it takes an addition four days to get there. You can use Velod’s Caravan, without Velod, to travel. The Book of Nemesis helps you design your own version of Fantasy Feudal, quick and fast, so you never run out of places to go. And it can be your own flavor. The Book of Nemesis helps you pick out cultures and technology levels.
It’s up to you.
From the Game Designer:
I really hope you enjoy the game. Modules will come out sporadically, in between my novels. But I have a couple dozen I’ve been working on for a while, so don’t think Velod’s Caravan will be the only one out there. All will be available for digital download.
If you happen to catch me at a live event in New York State, I will most likely have the pocket size hard copy available. (Of course, if you are a game store, you can write to Murder By Six, Inc. to order for your location, as long as you have a sales tax exempt form that is acceptable in your state as well as New York.)