Yang-Yin 13

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Yang-Yin 13 was a generic role-playing game created in the mid to late 1990s. It is currently out of print.

[edit] System

Yang-Yin contains many elements of simulationist gaming. It attempts to combine real world measurements with the dramatic meta gaming style. Inspired by the Chinese Yin-Yang Symbol, Yang-Yin 13 breaks the rules section into two parts.

The first part of the system was created much like Traditional RPG’s (with well-defined terms, & logical-based rules), using real world measurements for attributes, and college curriculum for skills. This is the (stereotypical) ‘masculine’ approach to RPG’s, and corresponds to Yang.

The second part was created along the lines of the Narrative or Dramatic RPG’s, with more emphasis on the elements of story telling. It uses a combination of Cards and Yin Points (Drama Points) earned through good role-playing, which allow the Player to control the direction of the story. This is the (stereotypical) ‘feminine’ approach to RPG’s, and corresponds to Yin.

The random element is provided by using two twelve-sided dice (written as 2d12) added together, and the result is read on a table to provide a bonus or a penalty. The most common result would be 13. Also, the range of attributes for a human character is centered on 13 (with 5 points up and five points down, for a human range of 11). The name therefore came from the reversed layout of the book, and importance of the number 13 to the system.

The Yang System was designed to allow the Game Master (GM) to customize the amount of detail they wished for the characters. There were three levels of detail for Attributes. The first, and most simple, level had two attributes- Body and Mind. The second level divided the attributes into three more attributes for Body, and four more attributes for Mind. The third level of detail created a total of Eight Attributes for Body and Eight for Mind.

There was also three similar levels of detail for skills.

The Yang System used one Attribute plus one Skill plus the result of the Dice, and then this combined total was compared to the Difficulty (determined by the GM) to see if the character was able to succeed in their desired action.

The Yin System used randomly drawn cards, which allowed for the Player to insert story elements into the game. The GM would determine the cost of inserting that element into the game, and the Player would pay the cost from their pool of Yin Points. Yin Points were earned through good role-playing, such as witty lines, staying in character, and in general adding to the narrative of the game. The Story Elements included thirty cards which had both serious and whimsical titles, such as “Help Arrives”, “Escape Available”, “Re-roll Result”, “Cosmic Shakeup” (forced the GM to re-roll the result), & “New York Eyesight” (no one saw any part of what just happened).

Yang-Yin 13 was used for a few games at sci-fi and gaming conventions in the southern portion of the United States.