Bigfoot Players Reference SRD

This is the Players Reference SRD for the Bigfoot (and anything else that you can imagine) RPG. Bigfoot is a traditional RPG meant to be played by one Game Master and from 2-6 Players.

This Players Reference SRD contains rules for character creation, basic action resolution, and character advancement. All text is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-4.0 by Jeff Moore. All art is copyright 2023 by Kaylee Moore, all rights reserved.

Social Sasquatch © 2023 by Kaylee Moore

Character Creation

All players (except the GM) will need to create a character. Character creation is performed in five steps:

[1] Character Concept 

Write a two part character concept composed of a descriptor and a noun.

Examples:

• Descriptor: Dwarf
• Noun: Axe Thrasher
• Descriptor: Social
• Noun: Sasquatch

[2] Define Strengths 

For each of the two parts of your concept define two Strengths. Strengths are beneficial qualities that help your character to get things done.

Examples:

• Dwarf: Incredible Eyesight In Darkness And Light
• Dwarf: Tough Hide
• Axe Thrasher: My Lute Is My Axe!
   (I'm good at playing the lute.)
• Axe Thrasher: My Battleaxe Is My Axe!
   (I'm good at fighting with a battleaxe.)
  
• Social: Lovable Fuzzball
• Social: Dancing Machine
• Sasquatch: Strong as a Bear
• Sasquatch: Massive Stride

[3] Define a Struggle 

Define one "Struggle" -- like a Strength, but more difficult for your character to do than normal.

Examples:

• Dwarf Axe Thrasher: Grace is a Struggle. (They tend to be both physically clumsy as well as socially blunt.) 
• Social Sasquatch: Skepticism is a Struggle. (They tend to be gullible.) 

[4] Record Values

• Give each of your four Strengths a value of 5.
• Give your Struggle a value of 1.

[5] Define a Trick

Define one Trick. A trick is something special that you can use once per scene to give yourself an advantage. It can be a piece of equipment, a resource or contact, or an actual supernatural ability or super power. Each Trick is tied to a specific Strength and each Strength can only have one Trick assigned to it.

Examples:

• Weapon: Battleaxe (Tricks Up: My Battleaxe Is My Axe)
• Supernatural Ability: Inhumanly Strong (Tricks Up: Strong as a Bear)

Dwarf Axe Thrasher © 2023 by Kaylee Moore

Action Resolution

Decide which Strength (or Struggle) applies to the action. If none apply then the Strength is Undefined. Undefined Strengths have a value of 3.

Roll two (six-sided) dice and check for special rolls.

Special Rolls

• Doubles (both dice are the same) -- Good Outcome
• Single Six (one die is a six, the other is not) -- Fair Outcome

Standard Rolls

If no Special Roll, multiply the dice and compare that Result to your Strength (or Struggle) value. 

• Result is Equal To or Lesser Than your Strength -- Great Outcome 
• Result is Greater Than your Strength -- Troubled Outcome 

Outcomes

• Troubled Outcome - you may or may not have achieved what you wanted. This result carries with it some kind of negative consequence or setback. 
• Fair Outcome - you achieved what you wanted with minimal results. 
• Good Outcome - a solid success. 
• Great Outcome - best possible outcome under normal circumstances.

Stress

If the GM decides that the consequences of a Troubled Outcome is that your character suffers "stress" - you must choose one of your Strengths (not your Struggle) and mark it as Stressed. A Stressed Strength has a value of 1 (Like your Struggle.) 

If all your Strengths are Stressed, then your character is Stressed Out and must drop out of the scene. 

(Following a scene where a character is stressed out, it is suggested that the next scene be a healing scene. A healing scene is a scene that allows the players the opportunity to remove all stress from their characters.) 

Adjusting Strength Values

The GM might adjust Strength values to reflect extremes in difficulty or a dramatic or environmental influence on an action. Strengths range in value from 1 to 15 and are always odd numbers. 

 1 = Your Struggle or a Stressed Strength
 3 = All Undefined Strengths
 5 = Initial Strengths
 7 = An Improved Strength
 9 = A Greatly Improved Strength
11 = A Master Strength
13 = A Grand Master Strength
15 = Your Maximum Strength

Strengths can be adjusted up or down in increments of 2. The GM should adjust Strengths sparingly. (+2 to make something easier. -2 to make something harder.) No Strength can be adjusted to a value higher than 15 or lower than 1.

Example:

Bigfoot has an Enormous Stride with a value of 5. They want to jump across a chasm to the other side, a distance of 100 feet. The GM and the player agree that even for Bigfoot, a 100 foot jump is really far. The GM applies a -2 adjustment to Bigfoot's Enormous Stride, changing its value from 5 to 3 for this action. 

Tricks

Tricks can be used once in a scene after the dice are rolled to improve the outcome by one step.

• Troubled becomes Fair
• Fair becomes Good
• Good becomes Great
• Great becomes Super

A Super Outcome is one that exceeds the normal limits of human ability and pushes into the realm of the super human. 

Example:

Bigfoot uses Strength Of A Bear [5] to break down a door and surprise some bad guys on the other side. They roll a [1] and a [4] on the dice. The special roll of Doubles and Single Six don't apply. So, they multiply the dice to get a result of 4. 4 is equal to or lesser than their Strength Of A Bear value of 5. This means that they got a Great Success! The GM declares that not only has Bigfoot busted in the door, but the bad guys on the other side are so surprised that everyone gets a free turn to do something before the bad guys can respond. 

If Bigfoot uses their Inhumanly Strong Trick on this action, the outcome would improve from Great to Super. The player asks the GM what a Super Outcome might look like. The GM says that the door would splinter into a million pieces and the bad guys would be so afraid that they would immediately surrender without a fight. This sounds awesome to Bigfoot who uses their Inhumanly Strong Trick to change this action's Outcome from Great to Super.

Pushing

Pushing allows a player to "Trick Up" an Outcome without the use of a Trick. To do so, the Strength being used for the action cannot be Stressed. After the Outcome of the action is resolved using the Trick Up benefit, the Strength used to resolve the action becomes Stressed. 

Example:

Bigfoot's player rolls the dice in an attempt to jump across the 100 foot chasm. They roll a [2] and a [5]. That's not Doubles and neither of the dice is a [6]. So, they multiply the dice to arrive at a result of 10. That's greater than Bigfoot's adjusted Enormous Stride of 3. The Outcome is Troubled. 

Bigfoot has missed the jump and is about to fall into the chasm. Bigfoot's Inhumanly Strong Trick doesn't apply because it Tricks Up: Strength of a Bear, and this action is using Enormous Stride. Bigfoot's player declares that they are "Pushing" Enormous Stride. This Tricks Up the Outcome from Troubled to Fair. 

Bigfoot gets a minimal success, grabbing onto the ledge on the far side of the chasm. They are dangling precariously, but they made it! Bigfoot's player Stresses Bigfoot's Enormous Stride changing it's effective value to 1. (The Stressed status will last until the player participates in a healing scene, restoring Enormous Stride to its original value of 5.)

Treasures

The GM may award special types of Tricks as treasures. Most commonly these are one shot items that are discarded permanently as soon as they are used. 

Some special treasures might be kept as permanent tricks to be used every scene just like any other trick. (The GM should award these kinds of permanent treasures very rarely.) 

Treasures are associated with an action or type of action, not tied to a specific character's Strength. As such, Treasures are not subject to the "One Trick Per Strength" rule. 

Leveling Up

After each game session players will have a chance to improve Strengths or even to add new ones. At the end of each game session, answer these questions to find out if your character has Leveled Up!

Answer each of the following in order:

Did one of your Strengths become Stressed during the session?

•  Yes. (Continue to the next question.)
•  No. (Stop here. You don’t Level Up.)

Did you use a Trick during the session?

•  Yes. (Continue to the next question.)
•  No. (Stop here. You don’t Level Up.)

Did you roll for an Outcome using your Struggle during the session?

•  Yes. (Congrats! You Level Up!!)
•  No. (Stop here. You don’t Level Up.)

Each time your character levels up, you get to make one change on your character sheet.

When Leveling Up, make one of these changes:

• Add +2 to the value of any Strength*
• Trade out your Struggle for a different Struggle**
• Gain a new Strength with a value of 5***
• Gain a new Trick****

* You cannot increase any Strength to a value greater than 15, and you can only ever have one Strength with a value of 15.

** This applies to a Struggle that is overcome as you play out the story of your character. If you ever have a Strength, Struggle or Trick that’s just not working out or isn’t fun, talk to the GM about changing it. That sort of thing doesn’t count as Leveling Up.

*** New Strengths added after character creation do not need to tie directly to your character concept. Try to match the growth of your character to the events experienced during the game.

**** A Trick must enhance an existing Strength. Each Strength can only have one Trick assigned to it.

Character Sheet

Get a form-fillable version of the character sheet here. Note: you will need to save the character sheet locally before you can edit it.

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