Cinematic Unisystem
This page collects my work (houserules, conversions) for Cinematic Unisystem, the system behind the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game.
Cinematic Unisystem: Pirates!
Born out of a love for the genre, here is partial conversion to be able to play in the Golden Age of Piracy. Yay! Includes some new skills (like Flintlock Fu and Getting Nautical) and a bunch of Qualities.
Latest version: 0.5b, March 5, 2005.
Alternative Diceless System for Cinematic Unisystem
This little tidbit is an effort to make Cinematic Unisystem completely diceless. It can be used in table-top play, or in play-by-post campaigns. It's at least partially inspired by the "Using cards instead of dice" option in CJ Carella's Witchcraft, page 155.
At the start of the campaign every player gets a pool of numbers for each of his characters: two sets of every integer from 1 up till and including 10. This, of course, are the results of rolling a hypothetical 1d10 20 times. Instead of rolling dice for an action, a player spends a number which is then removed from that character's number-pool.
After some time, a character's pool is down to, say, 3 numbers. At that point, a character gets a new set of 2 × {1,...,10} which is added to the exisiting pool of 3 numbers. This results in a pool of 23 numbers. When this pool is down to three numbers, add another set of 20 numbers, etc.
The idea is that this way, players get a greater sense of control over their character. They have to decide when to use which number. It adds a bit of strategy and resource management to the game. The 3-number buffer was added to prevent players being 'forced' to spend a number when they don't absolutely want to. The buffer isn't bigger because otherwise it could result in a it being a 'dumping ground' of low rolls.
One thing to note is that characters will probably be a bit more competent when you're using this system. Players can now try to choose a number 'just high enough'.
The system probably won't work for one-shots as I know few one-shots that ask for more than 20 rolls, thus making it very easy for the players to choose only the better numbers.