| Bad-Ash | Date: Sunday, 03 Mar 2013, 4:34 PM | Message # 1 |
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| What’s it about?
Judge Dredd is a science-fiction role-playing game with a futuristic nightmarish setting. Players take on the roles of Judges, policemen of the future who not only arrest criminals but sentence them on the spot (including executing them, if necessary). The setting is Mega-City 1, a huge city that spans the eastern seaboard of the US and has about 400 million citizens, most of them unemployed, a lot of them criminal, and nearly all of them bored and insane.
The game is basically an investigative game, in which the players discover crimes and try to solve mysteries. It’s based on a long-running and famous comic series from the UK, although it’s probably better known in the US for both of the dreadful movies based on the comic (the 1995 action movie with Sylvester Stallone and the 2012 violent movie with Karl Urban).
How does the system work?
It’s nearly all based on percentiles. Players have different stats (like combat, medicine, technology, driving, etc.) ranging from zero to a hundred, although usually starting between thirty and forty. When attempting something, players roll a d100 and try to get equal or under the relevant stat.
In addition, once a stat reaches 40, players can take special advantages with each ten points they gain in that stat (i.e. at 40, then at 50, then at 60, and so on) and choose to specialize in a particular career, such as Med-Judge, Psi-Judge, undercover, and so on.
What’s good about it?
The setting is epic, with more thanthirty-five years of comics as its background and with so much material to draw on. In addition, the game is about as simple as they come and so easy to run and play.
What’s bad about it?
While the system is simple and easy to learn, it can be considered way too simple by some. In addition, the actual character of Judges can be somewhat off-putting to some players – they are, after all, fascist thugs that keep the citizenry firmly under their heel in the name of the law, plus they are completely celibate and strict in all manner of ways. That can be overcome, of course, but creating more in-depth characters.
What do I need to play?
Nothing. The game is out of print and hasbeen replaced by several different versions, none of which are as good as the original unfortunately. However, cheap copies of the book are easily available online. Other than that, the usual variety of dice, pens and paper. A good working knowledge of the comic is essential, however.
Where can I learn more?
At the 2000AD online website (2000AD is the name of the comic the Judge Dredd stories appear in), that's a good place to start, but searching for
Judge Dredd in Wikipedia will also give you all the basic background to the comic, including the history of the world.
Message edited by Ash - Sunday, 03 Mar 2013, 4:35 PM |
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