Table of Contents
Do I need to pay for this?
No, the whole system is free, but if you are using our system, however customized, we just ask that you tell people where you got it, and link back to The Official DURPS discord server.
Is it easy to implement?
Yes! We have sections ready to copy and paste into your server! We have each section formatted to fit under the 2000 character limit present on most servers.
After each section, we have a page dedicated to copy and pasting the rules into your discord chat. That way your users don’t need to browse to a google doc, or outside website for the rules, and you can customize them to fit your setting.
We recommend creating a new category, called “DURPS Combat System”. Each section of rules and any supplements should each have their own chat room. Splitting them up like this makes them easier to read, and easier for players to find what they are looking for. You will want to make sure everyone has permissions to read it, but not to post.
Is this GURPS?
No. While DURPS does draw its naming convention from GURPS, it is not derived from or affiliated with GURPS or Steve Jackson Games.
Things you will need.
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The desire for role playing.
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Your own Discord Server.
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Dice-rolling bots installed on your discord server.
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Basic understanding of Discord User Roles, or familiarity with RPbot.
Why use DURPS?
We’ve been to a lot of role playing discord servers, and we hear a lot of the same complaints. DURPS is designed to solve these issues.
DURPS is easy to learn for your players. The core system fits onto three small pages.
Broken combos, intentional or otherwise, are impossible with DURPS with its opposing roll system.
The entire system is already built. You don’t need to crunch numbers, or stress over statistics, or write rules. It’s all here, free to use, and easily modified to fit your setting.
DURPS is easily customized to match your RP server’s setting. Skills can be created, or renamed. The system is designed for thematics, to be interpreted by your Players imaginations.
There are already plenty of supplements available on The official DURPS discord server.
Who is this for?
This is for Discord role play communities where players and GM(s) are comfortable handing some control over to dice rolls, with aspects of player progression bettering your player’s odds.
It is more than capable of supporting communities where GM involvement isn’t always guaranteed to look over PVP situations.
As a GM or Moderator, you can rest easy knowing that these ironclad rules wont spark arguments while you are AFK.
Our Goals
We want DURPS to become the standard across as many role play servers as possible.
We want a future where a player joining a server can simply glance at the combat rules, see that they are running DURPS, and feel confident that they are already familiar with the system. In this future, they can just focus on building a fantastic story with other like minded people.
We also want to help you get your story off the ground. All of what we said about players above is also true for your server. If you use DURPS you don’t need to build an entire combat system. You just need to make a few small decisions, and your done..
Are other systems bad?
No. Nope. Absolutely not.
Other combat systems are just fine. They have been built for a specific server in mind and that works great for them.
Despite the issues listed above, discord servers have used great combat systems for years and lasted a long time with them.
The reason we offer this as an alternative is to make your role playing easier.
Skill System
DURPS uses a simple Skill system that includes three Combat Skills, and a number of Utility Skills depending on your setting. Any actions your Character takes that aren't a guaranteed success, such as combat, are determined by a die rolls. Your chances of success are increased by your Skill ranks.
All Skills start at Rank 0, but can be increased up to a maximum of Rank 6. You can use a Skill even if it is 0, you simply don’t benefit from a bonus. Each Skill is abbreviated to three letters in parentheses.
Combat Skills
Mobility (MOB)
This represents your character’s ability to move across obstacles, or move quickly. It will allow your character to control the rules of engagement, and choose when they are in CQC or LRC, detailed in the Running Combat section.
Close Quarters Combat (CQC)
This represents your character’s ability to fight up close and personal. This could be with melee weapons, or with ranged weapons fired at point blank range. It is also their ability to block, deflect, and avoid attacks at this range.
Long Ranged Combat (LRC)
This represents your character’s ability to fight at a distance. It could represent their keen aim, or their weapons explosive capabilities. It is also their ability to take cover and avoid ranged weapons.
Utility Skills
Utility Skills will vary based on setting. We recommend picking at least 3 Skills from this list to use in your server, but recommend avoiding more than 5 to keep your server streamlined.
You can also create your Utility Skills to better suit the setting of your server, but again we recommend having no more than 5, for simplicity's sake. It is better to have 5 broad Skills, than 10 very specific ones.
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Arcana (ARC)
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Driving (DRV)
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Engineering (ENG)
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Investigation (INV)
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Medicine (MED)
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Perception (PER)
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Persuasion (PRS)
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Psychic (PSY)
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Riding (RDE)
Skill Tests
Some non-combat situations might have a chance of failure. In these cases a difficulty is determined by the GM(s) or agreed upon by Players if no GM is available..
The player making the Skill test rolls a d6 and adding your appropriate Skill’s Rank. When rolling, you are either rolling against a preset difficulty set by a GM, or against an opposing roll.
There are three possible results to a Skill test.
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Getting a result greater than the opposing roll or difficulty is a success.
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Ties with the opposing roll or difficulty is a success, with consequences.
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Getting a lower result is a failure.
The details of a failure are to be determined by the GM(s) or agreed upon by Players if no GM is available.
Reroll/Replacing Abilities
Some abilities or situations dictated by GM(s) or settings will allow or force you to reroll or swap a die. You can only reroll or swap die once, regardless of how many effects say you can. You must take the new result, no take-backs.
Skill System Copypasta
Copy these blocks as individual messages into a chat room called “skill-system” under the “DURPS COMBAT SYSTEM” category in your server. Remember to allow reading permissions for all users, but do not allow sending permissions.
Remember to remove, add, or edit Utility Skills you have changed in Message 2.
Message 1
Message 2
Message 3
Character Creation
Starting Skills
When creating a character, choose one of these three Utility Skills and one of the Combat Skills. Your character starts rank 2 in these Skills.
When onboarding a new Player who is not familiar with DURPS its best to approach them with a simple question to determine their starting Combat Skills; “When fighting, does your character prefer to fight up close and personal, at a distance, or do they seek to exploit their enemies weaknesses.”
A similar question can be proposed for the Utility Skills chosen for your setting.
Vitality
Each Player Character has a Vitality value of 3. This value represents how many wounds that Character can take before being defeated. See Running Combat and Character Defeat for more details.
Vitality doesn’t increase as a character progresses. You will need to rely on thier CQC and LRC to protect you.
Motivation and History
The most important thing for a character is making the motivations and history to drive them to interact more. While you may make an elaborate backstory, a player character will want to be able to summarize it in a sentence or two for others to understand easier and interact with the player easier.
Players should be willing to change details as needed to help their character interact more. Proactivity is best.
Progression
GM(s) should have clear criteria to progress a character mechanically. All progression requires is increasing the Rank on any Skill the player has by 1.
For balance, it is suggested that the GM(s) specify if they need to select a Combat Skill or Utility Skill each level up, alternating back and forth between them as that player progresses.
Below are a few suggested reasons to use;
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Your character has completed some important story beat or mission. (Successfully or otherwise)
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Great roleplay or writing.
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Positive Behaviour out of character.
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Inviting new members to the server.
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Providing useful, non-condescending roleplay advice to a new player.
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Successfully completing combat with minimal hand holding.
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Teaching a new player how to use the combat system.
We also recommend using a bot to monitor player activity, and occasionally reward members.
Character Defeat
Whenever a character is defeated, provided they are appropriate to the situation, choose one of the following options. It’s usually a good idea to either let the defeated player choose, or roll a d6 to keep things unbiased.
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(1) The character dies.
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(2-4) The character falls unconscious and will be taken hostage or rescued by the winning faction of combat.
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(5-6) The character falls unconscious down a chute, hill, into a stream and wakes up later alone to their own devices.
Character Creation Copypasta
Copy these blocks as individual messages into a chat room called “character-creation” under the “DURPS COMBAT SYSTEM” category in your server. Remember to allow reading permissions for all users, but do not allow sending permissions.
Remember to remove, add, or edit Progression Reasons and Character Defeat section in Message 2.
Message 1
Message 2
Combat
The following rules are provided for person to person combat, different situations and more specific rules take precedence as determined by the GM(s), or setting specific supplements.
Each combat round consists of two phases, the Mobility Phase and Combat Phase. Once you have completed both Phase, you start another round.
Mobility Phase
Each combatant rolls a MOB Skill check and compares the results. Starting with the highest result, moving to the lowest result, each combatant takes a turn declaring who they are attacking, and whether they are attacking in Close Quarters, or at Long Range.
If two combatants have a tied result have the two of them roll a separate MOB Skill check
If a combatant is already being attacked, their mobility phase is skipped and cannot be the target of another attack.
If no combatants are available to attack, a combatant must must use an alternate Combat Phase or skip their turn.
Combat Phase
Once everyone has finished their Mobility Phase, the Combat Phase begins.
Each pair of combatants rolls a d6 and adds CQC if they are fighting in Close Quarters or LRC if they are fighting at Long Range. Whichever combatant rolls lower, takes a damage. On ties, both combatants are damaged.
Alternate Combat Phases
Instead of declaring an attack during the Mobility Phase, a combatant may declare any of these.
Support
Choose an ally that is either attacking or already attacked. You roll a d6. Your ally may replace their combat roll with yours. They still apply their skill bonuses to the roll and do not apply yours.
Flee
You attempt to run away. If a combatant tries attacking you, roll a MOB Skill check opposed by their LRC Skill check. If your result is greater than your attacker, or if no one attacks you, you successfully flee combat. Otherwise you are damaged and remain in combat.
Recovery
Once combat is over and characters have had ample time to rest, all damage is removed.
Interpretation!
DURPS is left intentionally vague, as RP should be all about the creative writing.
Players are encouraged to describe how their character closes the distance to get into melee, or how they were hit by the barrage of ranged fire. A great opportunity is describing ties as both characters, at least for that moment, are equals.
Use your descriptions to build or show off your character. Close Quarters combat might look different for two characters with equal CQC Ranks. One might be a brute, the other might be nimble and precise.
Combat Copypasta
Copy these blocks as individual messages into a chat room called “combat” under the “DURPS COMBAT SYSTEM” category in your server. Remember to allow reading permissions for all users, but do not allow sending permissions.
Message 1
Message 2
