UDOM is the presumptive name of my 'small press' RPG. UDOM stands for 'Unnamed Dungeons of Mystery", which is a bit of joke for a draft system by friend Jake and I were working on, but could not be bothered to name.
UDOM uses the Middie System. Middie can be thought an an ancestor to Mayhem (Midnight Campaign), and is the game Mayhem is descended from. It is far less cool than Mayhem. It was originally designed by a math major (Jake) as an alternate to D20. You can think of UDOM as a cousin to Mayhem, as they both share roots in Middie. But...then it gets a bits incestuous, as it would be prevarication to say UDOM isn't influenced by Mayhem (since I worked on both). UDOM is less pretty than Mayhem, because, well, no art and no graphic design. It is also cheaper (free).
Two big differences: There is no skillcap in UDOM. Gaining ranks works differently. And uh, a bunch of other stuff.
SETTING
UDOM is a game about dungeons. The most fun parts of any adventure take place in the dungeon, and so the whole world is basically made up of dungeons. In UDOM, pretty much everyone lives in a cave of some sort. Caves are plentiful. And not living in a cave is dangerous. UDOM is set in a World of Goo. It's so called, because, well, it tends to 'rain' goo. Intermittantly large gobs of goo fall from the sky. The goo is alive, and it feeds on any organic matter it touches. It's mobile, voracious, and grows as it eats. Goo would probably take over the whole planet, except for that it dessicates pretty quickly. The heat of a summers day is typically fatal. But it does making living (unprotected) on the surface crazily dangerous. Anything made of organic matter tends to get eaten--only wood and stone are immune.
Goo both flammable and exothermic. Once you start it burning, it releases heat. The dryer the goo, the faster it burns. Dried goo has a consistency something like cooked chicken. Some regions specialize harvesting goo: Using large sheets of slate-like materials, goo is collected, let dry in the sun, tinned and shipped. Suitable processed, it provides a gel not unlike petroleum.
Travel accross the surface is very dangerous. Anyplace water collects, or which doesn't get regularly dried out may hold lurking goo. Habitually damp places (swamps, wetlands, tidal areas, river banks) are especially dangerous. There are different kinds of goo in different places, in different conditions. Skyfall goo is similar, but not the same; it varies in color and sizes.
While a full suit of plate might protect from the effects of a direct hit of goo, the resulting splatter would climb up and over edges, and inside the suit. Slowly, but surely. Goo doesn't move particularly fast on the ground (meters per minute, not meters per second), but being struck by a falling gob tends to be harmful. Most surface life is adapted to either avoiding the goo or surviving it. Trees have dry thick bark, or fronds that break. Most animals are small, and burrow. Larger animals take shelter in caves. And so does all of civilization. All structures are mix of excavation and stone construction. Any structure of organic material tends to get eaten by goo.
GAME
UDOM is mostly played in dungeons. The world is full of cave systems of various sizes. Many of them have been excavated and expanded over time. Most of them aren't connected to one another, and so the only way to go from cave to cave is over-ground, which is dangerous. There are five types of challenges a player can be expected to face: Social, Combat, Stealth, Chase, and Hardship. UDOM is not all about stabbing people.
GAME
Core Mechanic
The Middie roll is the core mechanic. Anytime you need to make a check, you roll three dice, and choose the middle (not the high, not the low, but the middle die), and compare it to an opposed middie role. You will never roll more than 3 dice (although you may roll less). Sometimes, you will have a fixed number, rather than a die. Treat that number as if it was the die result. What determines which dice you use will vary. Typically, die will be determined by attributes, skills, gear or magic.
Primary Attributes
UDOM has 8 primary attributes: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Willpower, Intelligence, Intuition, Cunning and Charisma. All 8 attributes will sum to be about 40. (Will talk more about in Character Generation).
Derived Attributes
UDOM has five derived attributes: These are your default saving throws, when you lack the relevant skill. There is one for each of the challenge types (Social, Combat, Stealth, Chase, Hardship). Each of the derived attributes uses 3 dice, one each from 3 different attributes).
They are:
*Social: First Impression
*Combat: Defense
*Stealth: Awareness
*Chase: Athletics
*Hardship: Toughness
Skills
Rather than your character leveling up, your skills level up. Your skills level up when you use them; specifically, when you fail a skill check, you get a skill point. You can use skillpoints to buy ranks in a skill. Each rank costs as many skillpoints as that rank: getting a second rank costs 2 points, getting a third rank costs 3 points, getting a 7th rank cost 7 points, etc. (Keep an account of your used/remaining SP). Double the ranks in a skill to get the die used for middie rolls. A rank 6 would use a d12, for example, while a rank 2 would use a d4. (At rank 7+, either roll a d20 or buy some special dice).
Abilities
You don't have to spent skillpoints to buy ranks. You can use them to buy abilities. (An ability lets you do something you couldn't otherwise do).
Weapons
Middie has a weapons list, but that's not really where the action is. The action is in the fighting styles, which provide a list of abilies you can use in combination with a specific weapon. Each fighting style is a distinct skill. They include things like sword and shield combos, pole-arms, 2 handed swords, and kusurigama and chain. Every weapon has a bonus to hit, a critical number, and a damage die. When comparing middie, if the difference is larger than the margin, you get an additional die of damage. This can happen multiple times; a difference of 6 with a critical number of 3 would result in two extra damage dice. Weapons also have a 'guard' number, which is the amount of defense they provide.
Armor
Armor does two things in UDOM: It acts as bonus HP, and it prevents critical hits.
