Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 10: OneDice Pulp

My first repeat system.  It won't be my last.  Today I will make a character for OneDice Pulp.  This maybe my favorite version of OneDice.  In the world of pulp the character are larger than life and more capable than the average person but not superhuman.

 

I didn't mention it when I created the character for OneDice WWI but each of the books come with several "skins".  These are different versions of the main theme.  OneDice Pulp is based on the pulp magazines that carried a wide variety of stories and were particularly popular between the 1920s and 1950s.  Although the pulps carried many types of stories, they became associated with adventure stories, science fiction and fantasy stories, horror and weird stories.  And that's what OneDice Pulp focuses on.  The skins reflect this.

 

There are three skins presented.  The first is Horror.  The horrific and macabre.  This includes Lovecraftian  Horror and introduces a sanity mechanic.

 

The second is Science Fiction.  Not your cerebral science fiction though.  The pulp style science fiction where you have planets with a single climate (hello, jungle planet), intelligent tiger or eagle people and physics is only given a nod.  You know, space travel is at the speed of plot.

 

The third skin is Swords & Sorcery.  Need I say more?

 

Each skin has the lightest sketch of a background and some threats.  They also include a brief adventure for each.

 

OneDice Pulp also makes some minor changes to character creation.  You have 7 points to distribute between the characters 3 abilities instead of 6. Their is also an optional 4th ability, Weird.  Weird is for those characters who can work magic or has mind powers.  You need points in weird to, well, perform these weird things.  Not every character has Weird and not every setting uses it.

 

Also, each character start with a Talent.  A Talent is a special knack, ability or training that your hero has that sets them apart.  They include things like being a barnstormer, a gadgeteer, being stronger than others or having dark vision.  My character has body of bronze, which increases his defense by 2.

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 6: OneDice WWI

Today's entry in the Character Creation Challenge is for OneDice WWI.  As I've written before, I really

like the simplicity and versatility of the OneDice system.  I know some do not like a game that relies on a single die (or calls itself "OneDice") but I happen to.

 

The character is an experienced British soldier in August of 1914.  The British Expeditionary Force has just landed in France.  They have not experienced any major fighting yet.

 

 

OneDice
Name:	William "Angie" Anguiah
Social Status:	Working Class	Level:	1
Profession:	Prof. Infantry	Exp:	0
Rank:	Sergeant	Stunt Points:	6
Strong:	2	Health:	6
Clever:	2	Defence:	6
Quick:	2	Armor:
		Move:	20
Skills	Weapon	Dam	Rng
Intimidate-1	Rifle	4	400 (400+ -2)
Shooting-1	Revolver	4	40
Bruiser-1	Bayonet	2
Perception-1	Dagger	2
Craft-1
Blades-1

 

Equipment
Military Equipment Kit pack

 

William "Angie" Anguish is a 20 year veteran of the British Army.  However, unlike when he was a recruit, only his closest friends call him by the forced nickname Angie anymore.  And only then if you are at least a sergeant.  It is early August, 1914 and Sgt. Anguish is part of the 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, 9th Brigade of the BEF, newly landed in France.  Anguish is not as enthusiastic about the war as everybody else seems to be.  And he's certain it won't be "Over by Christmas!"  He believes everyone - civilians, politicians, his fellow soldiers, particularly the brass- are underestimating the coming fight.  Mechanization has increased the killing power of Man.  Anguish had been at Omdurman as a private.  He had seen the charnel carnage the Maxims had caused.  The coming war was going to be for worse.  With the Maxims, the modern artillery, the large armies.  Death was afoot.  But he couldn't complain.  Not where the officers or men could hear.  All he could do is prepare his men as well as possible.

Quickstarts I Like: OneDice Quickstart

Quickstart or jumpstart, call it what you like.  These truncated rule-sets serve the purpose of introducing players to a game, usually for free or at a minimal cost.  Some do this more effectively than others.  I want to do a couple of posts about quickstarts that I like and the reasons I like them.  Ones that I liked so much that I acquired the full game as a result.

I'll start with OneDice Quickstart.  I have written about the OneDice system before but I'll do a brief recap.  It's a simple system that  uses 1d6.  Yes, it still bugs me a bit that they call it OneDICE.  But, oh well.

Characters have three abilities, Strong, Clever and Quick.  Three derived stats, Health, Defense and Move.  And then you have some skills.  Pretty quick and easy.

The basic system is ability + skill + die roll vs. target number.

The book itself is 42 pages overall with 27 of them being character creation and rules and the rest divided between two adventures.  The first is a GM run fantasy adventure and the second is a programmed SF adventure for a single character.

So, why do I like this quickstart?  There are a couple of reasons.

The quickstart has the complete character creation system.  It only leaves out rules for character advancement.  There are a lot of quickstarts that come with pregens and that's it.  I think that getting a taste of the character generation process is an important way to get to know the game.

The two adventures really give you a chance to see how the game plays.  The solo adventure allows you to do this even if you can't round anyone else up to play.  It also shows how it can work with different genres.  The adventures do highlight different aspects of the game.  Playing through the solo adventure, for example, taught me that combat can be deadly.

And I did pick up the full game, OneDice Universal, after reading the quickstart.  I've also picked up several of the genre books also, including Pulp, Science Fiction, Steam Punk and several more. What's beautiful about the genre books is that each includes the full rules suitably modified for the genre.  If you are only interested in OneDice Fantasy, for example, that is the only book you would ever have to buy.

So, if you have any interest in the OneDice system at all, pick up the free quickstart.

Character Creation Challenge - Day 2 OneDice Space

 My second character for the challenger will be for OneDice Space. The book comes with a

broad sample setting which I am going to use for this character.  The action will be set during the Federation era and the Character will be the captain of a UnitedSpaceOrg Deep Survey Ship.

Captain Carlos Ding

Human

Abilities

ST 2  CL 2 QK 2

HT 6 DF 6 Move 20

Stunt Points 6

Skills

Command 1

Negotiate 1

Pilot 1

Shooting 1

Computers 1

Artwork by David Okum

Bruiser 1

Uniform, Laser Pistol, Communicator

OneDice Space

I have some great friends. How great? Well my friend T surprised me today by buying me a PDF copy of OneDice Space as an early Christmas present! She and I have been playing the one-on-one Swords & Wizardry White Box game at work during our lunch break every couple of weeks. We've been talking about giving OneDice a try as a change of pace and decided to try the Space skin in Universal. Well, I told her Space had come out and I was going to get it for myself sooner or later. Well, surprise! Now I don't have to and we can use it for our game! Thank you T!

OneDice Fantasy Ranger

I recently purchased OneDice Fantasy and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  One of the beauteous things about OneDice is that it is easy to mold into what you want.  That is what the author did with Fantasy.  The character creation process is similar to all OneDice tomes that I have read with the exception of what the book calls "Professions".  Professions are essentially templates that represent one of the classic fantasy RPG archetypes and give you two preset skills.  So you have Cleric, Fighter, Sorcerer, etc.  You then can spend the rest of your skill points as you choose.

My friend and I briefly talked about using OneDice as the rules-set for the 1-on-1 campaign we are planning.  We ended up going with something else but it got me thinking.  She will be playing a ranger and Fantasy doesn't include ranger as one of the professions.  So, I decided to make one.  Here is my version of the OneDice Fantasy Ranger Profession.

Ranger:

A woodsman at one with the natural world.

Track 2,  Survival 1 or Archery 1

Animal Empathy You have spent so much time roaming the outdoors and interacting with nature that animals view you as one of them.  Regular animals will not attack you without provocation or being controlled by an outside force.

A Few Brief Thoughts on the OneDice System

I titled this post A Few Brief Thoughts on the OneDice System and then went blahhhhh all over the page.  So here are my few brief thoughts.  If you are interested in the blahhhhh you can read that afterwards.

1. I really like the OneDice system.  Simple and effective even if it's not innovative.
2. In addition OneDice Universal there are many setting/genre books.  Including a very complete quickstart.  (Everything but the magic.)
3. You don't need any of the setting books if you are creative and have time but if you are lazy like I am they are wonderful.
4. Each setting/genre book has the complete OneDice rules modified to fit the setting.  I think this is a very astute choice.  Others may be interested in only one setting and thus only need to buy one book.  I like the various setting and will buy more when they come out.  (I'm looking at you Space!)

Quit reading now if you don't want the blahhhhhh.

My love of rules-lite games continues.  I really like the OneDice system put out by Cakebread & Walton.  (I also like the name Cakebread, but that's a different story.)

The system is really simple.  Character creation is point buy, three stats, a couple of derived stats and skills.  Roll over a target number using one six-sided die (hence, OneDice) + stat + skill.  It isn't new or groundbreaking but it is simple and functional.  Advancement is a level system with fixed bonuses at each level or an optional free-form system where you trade your garnered experience points for higher stats or skills.

They system was first presented in OneDice Universal.  One of the nice things is that at the end of  each book (at least of those I have) the author presents several "skins".  Skins are a brief overview of how to use the rules for a certain genre.  OneDice Universal, for example, includes three skins, Fantasy, Supers and Space.  All in 15 pages.  These aren't full settings but contain enough to get you going.

C&W have also come out with several OneDice books devoted to specific settings/genres.  I have the PDFs for OneDice Universal, Pulp, Steampunk and WWI.  I plan to acquire Supers, WWII, Fantasy, Space (when it comes out) and Robin Hood (just published today.)  In addition to these C&W currently offers Cyberpunk, Raptors, Cold War, B Movies, Martinis and Masterminds, Cold War, Hauntaway, Twisted Tomorrow, Urban Fantasy and Pirates and Dragons as well as two licensed settings, Abney Park's Airship Pirates and Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World RPG.  So the really cool thing about all of these is that they are all self-contained.  Each volume contains the complete OneDice rules suitably modified for the genre.  No need to juggle various books to look up a particular rule.

It is this last point that actually got me started on this paean of a post.  C&W has many genre books for the system and more planned.  Thinking about it though, a person doesn't need any of these genre books.  All they need is Universal and some imagination and inventiveness.  You can take the simple basics and twist them into whatever shape you want.  You just need the time and energy.  But I think C&W have come up with a winning strategy for those who lack time and imagination or for those who are lazy (like me).  And by including the full rules in each volume you only need to buy the one you are interested in.

If you are interested they also have the OneDice Quickstart our for free.  Although they call it a quickstart it contains pretty much the full rules.  You can find it here.