Fudge (role-playing game)

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For other possible meanings, see Fudge (disambiguation)

Fudge

Designer(s)	Steffan O'Sullivan
Publisher(s)	Grey Ghost Press
Publication date	1992
Genre(s)	Universal
System	Custom

Fudge is a generic role-playing game system for use in freeform role-playing games. The name "FUDGE" was once an acronym for Freeform Universal Donated (later, Do-it-yourself) Gaming Engine and, though the acronym has since been dropped, that phrase remains a good summation of the game's design goals.

Rather than being a rigidly pre-defined set of rules like d20 System or GURPS, Fudge offers a customizable toolkit for building the users' own specialized role-playing game system. Such things as what attributes and skills will define characters are left to be determined by the Game Master and players, and several different optional systems for resolving actions and conflicts are offered. Fudge is not tied to any particular genre or setting and world builders are encouraged to invent appropriate attributes and rules tailored to the campaign.

The project that would lead to Fudge was first proposed by Steffan O'Sullivan on 17 November 1992 on the rec.games.design newsgroup^[1], and over the following months that online community would contribute to the directed project^[2]. One of the earliest stipulations of O'Sullivan was that the basic system would always remain free to the public over the internet, and the PDF of the 1995 version still is^[3]. Grey Ghost Press, with the endorsement of Steffan O'Sullivan, publishes an expanded form of the Fudge system. There have been three Grey Ghost editions, the most current being the Fudge 10th Anniversary Edition, which includes several suggested rules systems for common RPG elements and an example basic fantasy "build" of the game.

1 The Fudge name
2 Fudge mechanics
3 Fudge resources
4 References
5 External links

[edit] The Fudge name

At the time Fudge was conceived, it was stylish to give role-playing games acronyms for names (for instance, "GURPS", "TWERPS", "QAGS") and originally the usenet design project referred to the game as SLUG, for "Simple Laid-back Universal Game"^[3]. However, this was soon changed to "FUDGE" for "Free-form Universal Donated Gaming Engine", but also because the word invoked connotations of an easy to make source of fun. This again was changed when Grey Ghost Press released their 1995 hardcopy version of the game, to "Free-form Universal Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine". With the publication of the Expanded Edition in 2000, the fad for acronym-based names had long since faded, and the writer and the publisher both felt that the forced acronym had become irrelevant. The game has been referred to officially as just "Fudge" ever since, though fans often still refer to it in the old manner as "FUDGE".

[edit] Fudge mechanics

In Fudge character Traits, which consist of Attributes, and Skills, are rated on an ascending verbal scale: Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Superb, and Legendary. Each step on the scale is associated with a particular numerical rating, from -3 to +4. Fudge characters can also have gifts and faults, which are positive and negative traits that do not fit into the adjective scale. Fudge uses customized six-sided "Fudge dice" on which the traditional pips or numbers have been replaced by two plus signs (representing "+1"), two minus signs (representing "-1") and two blank sides (representing "0"). A number of these dice are rolled and the results added together, usually four at a time ("4dF" in Fudge dice notation) to produce a result from -4 through +4. This result is then added to the appropriate Trait with the goal of matching or surpassing the Difficulty Level of the test. Thus, a Good (+1) Attribute combined with total roll of +1 would achieve a Great (+2) outcome. There are also several alternative dice systems available that use regular six-sided dice or ten-sided dice.

[edit] Fudge resources

The rules of Fudge are highly simplified, and the main Fudge documents encourage players to "Just Fudge It"; that is, to focus on the story being created rather than on the game rules. It encourages players to first write prose descriptions of their characters then translate those into Fudge Traits.

One of the keys to the success of Fudge is that the author released it under a license that made it essentially "open" for non-commercial use. In March 2004, Grey Ghost acquired the copyright of Fudge, and in April 6, 2005, they released a version of Fudge under Open Gaming License. The OGL license has allowed the FATE role-playing game to use Fudge as its underlying mechanic.