With generous help from Wikipedia;
The World's Easiest Role Playing System was originally created, written and illustrated in its distinctive style by "Jeff & 'Manda Dee". Jeff Dee being a noted game illustrator and co-writer of Villains and Vigilantes. It was created for Reindeer Games (whose sole product was the TWERPS line) and distributed by Gamescience (now known for its dice). Presented as a parody of the complicated RPG systems which were prevalent at the time while still being a playable game in its own right, it's simple structure and humorous nature gave it unexpected popularity. The rules system is extremely simple. All characters have one Stat, Strength (STR) and they roll their STR plus 1d10 to make all checks, or to defeat an enemy. When playing with miniatures (the game came with paper counters and usually a paper map or hex board), STR also indicated how far the character can travel in a round. Get wounded, and your STR goes down which makes all further rolls more difficult. This makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it, try stabbing yourself in leg with a fork then trying to drive a car.
That is TWERPS.
Reindeer Games produced two editions and a total of thirteen supplements covering everything from standard fantasy, to Mad Max style post apocalypse, to Star Trek and the X-Files, all of which were completely inter-connectable. Over the years, I've managed to collect all the supplements except the 'How to Do Everything Better', which was an expansion on the basic rules.
Lately I've been going over my old TWERPS books and while I adore the basic conceit of the game, I am rules tinkerer at heart so there are a few things I would like to change …
What I hope to do with here is twofold. The first is to bring the game back a little into the spotlight a little, or at least have it pop up on Google Search. At the same time, I will be going through each of the books, looking for things that might require a bit of tweaking that I will compile into a file I plan on calling "Son of TWERPS."
Lately I've been going over my old TWERPS books and while I adore the basic conceit of the game, I am rules tinkerer at heart so there are a few things I would like to change …
What I hope to do with here is twofold. The first is to bring the game back a little into the spotlight a little, or at least have it pop up on Google Search. At the same time, I will be going through each of the books, looking for things that might require a bit of tweaking that I will compile into a file I plan on calling "Son of TWERPS."
Not much of a hobby I'll admit, but it keeps me off the streets.
TWERPS LINKS
Pineapple: Most comprehensive site I could find, but WARNING- its an angelfire site so be prepared to fight pop-ups.
TWERPS Twaveller: A nice and quick PDF for using TWERPS in Traveller
Hyperia: A setting for Cyber TWERPS
Another World: A Fantasy TWERPS rules-set that would fit well with an Anime Style Game
How to Do Everything... the TWERPS Yahoo Group (still going strong-ish!)
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