The Decagon tabletop Role Playing Game is a new user friendly kind of table top that allows players to play any kind of tabletop RPG they desire. Players can take a movie, video game, story book, or even another table top RPG (you name it) and adapt it to this intuitive, functional, and flexible pen and paper style game.

A Tabletop RPG is basically a video game played on paper. There is usually a single person in charge of the whole operation known as the Game Master. He runs the game creating a story with challenges for players to overcome. Each player, known as a Player Character or PC, has their own individual character—an avatar that exists within the story being played. Usually, the players do a little bit of acting to make their characters seem more realistic. That is why it is called a Role Playing Game, because the people fulfilling a role as if in a theatrical performance.

There are many types of tabletop RPGs and each one of them is different. Some tabletops are based on specific themes (such as Science Fiction, Medieval Fantasy, or Gothic), or a tabletop may be inspired by a book or a movie. For example, it is arguable to claim Dungeons and Dragons was originally inspired by the writings of J.R.R Tolkien’s, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and other table tops have been created as an afterthought to popular and well loved stories including a Star Wars RPG, or the Call of Cthulhu series.

But, from its conception Decagon was intended to function as a universal tabletop RPG. Its purpose was to provide a set of rules by which anything could be played in tabletop form. One crucial goal while constructing this game was to provide a foundation to let players invent their own original world, using rules that are easy to learn and understand. And this game system is simple and flexible enough allowing even other tabletops to be translated into the Decagon system. I highly encourage those who wish to play this game to purchase, or look at other tabletop RPGs as good resources.

Keep in mind, however, that it is usually the case that the rules for a tabletop RPG are tailored to fit a very specific game setting, but Decagon presents generic rules allowing for any type of game play. It is a blank slate adaptable to any style, any theme, or any setting. If there is a movie, comic book, TV show, or anything else that a group of friends enjoy and love, the Decagon system provides a set of rules to engage in a tabletop version of that thing. (Recently, internet role playing has become quite popular, and those who are interested in internet role playing should also find this gaming system perfectly suited for their needs.)

So, what is it like to play a table top RPG? When actually playing a tabletop the GM creates a campaign. This campaign tells a story which the players participate in and affect the final outcome.

The GM will always be describing the world events that are going on around the player, presenting challenges and obstacles to overcome as their characters mature and progress. In response to the challenges and changes in story, players make their character interact with the environment—having their character walk, talk, and have them do anything they want them to.

But, if the PC wants to do something important he rolls dice to determine if his character succeeds or fails in whatever is being attempted. For example, the player might want to enter a house, but the GM says the door is locked. So the player decides to break down the door. He looks up the rules that tell him how to roll the dice, and depending on what the player rolls something will happen, either resulting in success or failure. And as the players overcome obstacles and advance through the story, their characters become stronger and more experienced.

In traditional tabletop RPGs players are often asked to pick a very specific class or job to fulfill. One job might be a Warrior, another might be a Thief, or yet another might be something like a Wizard. Automatically, the player already knows the role he is going to play simply based upon the job he has chosen, and these pre-constructed character concepts offer some guidance about how the players will conduct themselves in game. There might be some options that allow players to control the evolution of their character as they get stronger, but generally speaking the game dictates how the character is going to change.

But, Decagon doesn’t focus on a premade list of jobs or classes. It is very open in the sense that players can be anything they want to be, or do anything they want to do. What really makes a character unique in the Decagon system are two things:

First, what the player does with the character. Much more responsibility is given to role play in order to add flesh to a PC, and role playing is heavily emphasized when playing in a Decagon game. Since job classes do not exist in Decagon (actually, they do but that will be discussed later) the player will have to invent an identity and personality for his character in order to make that character more interesting to play.

The second unique aspect about Decagon characters are things called Special Abilities. Special abilities are, as the name implies, unique powers, talents, and abilities that a character might posses. Most tabletops provide a list of prefabricated abilities for the player to choose from, but Decagon allows players to create their own abilities instead of being stuck only with what the book provides. It isn’t hard to invent new abilities, it just takes a little practice. And as a character grows in strength the player is allowed pick new abilities and powers for his character to learn. When creating or using special abilities there is also a strong role playing component to the process; it is possible to posses any kind of special ability, and players can use their abilities in many different ways which often translates into role-playing the character as well.

For now, players do not need to know about special abilities in any great detail, but since abilities play such an important role for Decagon I thought they merited mentioning here in the introduction. In order to make good and effective special abilities it is highly recommended for players to read all, or most of the book, because special abilities often change or alter how the rules of the game should be normally played. So, while new players read this book, they should keep this in mind.

However, it is the GM’s job to make sure players do not make special abilities too powerful or unbalanced, so he has the authority to set restrictions, or simply refuse a character to have an ability that is too powerful. Players and the GM will need to talk with each other and work out a deal, outlining what kind of powers and abilities a player could have for his character.

Last but not least, playing takes some practice, but after a few games most will find this tabletop easy to play. This book is only about the rules, nothing else. It is an instruction guide that gets straight to the point. Players don’t have to memorize all the rules, but can refer back to the book and look up particular pieces of information as they need it. The really important bits are easy to remember, but the obscure rules are not necessarily crucial to the function of the game as a whole.

There are (or will be) other supplements available for purchase, which provide unique campaign settings for any aspiring GM to use. Or for that matter, you could grab another table top RPG and use the setting it provides.

What you need to play

Every player needs a character sheet for his character (located in the very back of the book, which can be photocopied at the player’s convenience, or on the Steam Age Kings website), pencils, scrap paper, and ten sided dice. You can purchase dice off the internet or at a comic book store. Eight or ten dice per player is probably more than enough.

Common Role Playing Terms

Here are a number of common terms that readers might encounter while reading this book or even other tabletop RPGs. Don’t worry if you don’t know what they are, many things will be explained in greater detail later on.

GM- This stands for Game Master. The Game Master is the person running the game and acts as the referee.

PC- This stands for Player Character. This is a term used for both the player, and the character the player is controlling in the game.

NPC- The term NPC stands for “Non-Playable Character” they are characters or creatures that the GM controls, and who PCs interact with.

D10 Level- This game uses ten sided dice, and the d10 level is how many ten sided dice the player will role. (Sometimes some rules do not require dice to be rolled, but still use d10 levels.) If three ten sided dice needed to be rolled the book would write it as 3d10.

Difficulty Dice/Difficulty Level- The number of d10 the GM rolls against PCs in order to determine whether a PC succeeds or fails in an action the PC is trying to accomplish.

Target- Just as the name implies, this is the object, person, or thing which has been selected by someone to do something to. Such as attack, use a special ability on, or who/what a specific rule is being applied to.

Stacking- Stacking refers to a number of different bonuses that add together to grant a greater bonus to a character. When something does not stack, this means that the bonus a player receives is not cumulative with other bonuses he might otherwise receive.