May 20, 2024 7:36 pm
For those who have not played KoB or KoB 2E, I will post a summary of the rules of KoB 2E here.
Any rules questions go here as well. KoB is more about story than about complicated rules.
For those who know KoB 1E will find a lot similar in KoB 2E.
1.5E would be a more appropiate name.
Character Creation
You can create a character based on picking a Trope (see below) or by creating one yourself.
Tropes are "blue prints" for character ideas. You are free to mix stats around in a Trope and you don't have to stick to them.
You can also create a Trope yourself, from scratch or be recreating the very popular "Loner Weirdo" from 1E which somehow vanished in 2E.
Each character has 6 Stats.
Each Stat is assigned one dice of:
1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1d20
The bigger the dice assigned, the better you are at it.
Which stat applies to which action depends on the situation.
Johnny is running...
... away from a scary monster? > Probably Flight.
... to try and tackle the bad guy? > Probably Fight.
... in a 100 meter foot race? > Probably Brawn.
... the New York marathon? > Probably Grit.
Select your character's age and then allocate it to one of the three age groups below.
As Kids on Bikes is based on a certain trope of TV/movies/books itself, middle school ages would work best, plus it works best if all characters are roughly the same age.
There are no hard lines in which group you are. Some people mature faster and some never do. Pick what makes sense for your character.
The age groups are:
Child/kid: Children are small, quicky and cute. They get +1 Flight and +1 Charm. They also get Quick Healing.
Teen: Teens are at their pugnacious and in their prime. They get +1 Fight and +1 Brawn. They also get Rebellious.
Adult: Adults have a lot of life experience. They get +1 Brains and +1 Grit. They also get Skilled at ____.
Pick 2 strenghts for your character, in top of the 1 free strenght you get from your age group.
Mark 3 AT when creating your character.
AT can be used to:
- Increase your own checks;
- Help others to increase their checks;
- Power up some strenghts.
You gain AT when you fail a check.
Pick 1 flaw. If you fail a check and you can narrate the failure to be caused by your flaw, then you earn 1 extra AT.
Suggested Flaws are.
Absent-minded
Blunt
Boastful
Callous
Capricious
Clumsy
Cowardly
Deceitful
Demanding
Dogmatic
Envious
Flippant
Gluttonous
Greedy
Gullible
Hot-tempered
Ignorant
Impatient
Insecure
Lazy
Messy
Nosey
Oversensitive
Paranoid
Patronizing
Petty
Picky
Prejudiced
Rambunctious
Reckless
Resentful
Restless
Rude
Self-centered
Self-pitying
Spoiled
Superstitious
Vain
Vindictive
Weak-willed
You might agree with another player to have a Bonded Action. Each character can be part of only one Bond and can take the Bonded Action only together with their partner.
Bonded actions are:
Pick a fear.
Name something your character fears (heights, spiders, the dark, social anxiety, losing my job etc.)
When facing your fear:
- You cannot take planned actions or take knacks
- You cannot spend adversity tokens to help others (you can spend them for yourself, and other can help you)
- You suffer a -1 to -3 penalty to any role, depending on the threat of the fear. If you have Heroic, you can spend 1 Adversity Token to negate this penalty completely. The threat of the fear could scale from: A snake in a closed terrarium (-1), a snake slithering freely in the room (-2) or a snake slithering around your neck (-3).
Pick a knack. A knack is something your character is good at.
It should be decribed strict, but used creatively.
For example: Playing Soccer (instead of Sports in general).
You can use the knack not only in a soccer game, but for example also while kicking away things in general, or running the length of a soccer field.
You can use your Knack once per session to take a 10 on any check.
Pick a bike. Each bike has a color and an upgrade.
You can benefit from these whenever you are riding your bike.
What does your character carry around?
Physically : A walkman? Bubble gum? Lipstick?
But also, figuratively : A tree house? A father who is a cop? A big brother? A bad reputation at school?
There are no strict inventory and money rules in KoB. This is no financial micro-management game.
Spending money is based on common sense within your age group. You can take the Wealthy Strenght and spend more money.
These are for RP purposes.
What drives your characer?
And what obligations might they have?
These are for RP purposes.
You can mark if it's okay for other characters, in the same age range, to:
have a crush on your character, date your character or be partners.
Checks
When you do something that requires a Check, the GM will call for the Stat and the difficulty level.
Checks can be Snap Decisions, Planned Actions or Tier Checks. Doing Harm is closely related to checks.
The GM will call for a check, like:
"Roll a Snap Decision, Flight, Difficulty 8".
Remember:
With any check you can use your Knack once per session.
The monster is chasing me, and I need to climb that fence right now to escape it!
Snap Decisions are checks made under pressure where failure or success are uncertain.
They are also the most "basic rules" for a check.
You roll the die allocated to your Stat and add any bonusses/penalties.
If you roll the biggest number on the die, roll again and add it. This is called a lucky break. Lucky breaks can cause new lucky breaks.
(GP should be set in this game to automatically "reroll aces" to do this).
Once you have rolled you may add any number of Adversity Tokens. You get +1 for each AT spend.
Other characters can narrate how they help you, and also spend AT to give you a +1 for each AT spend (this is explicitly different in 2E compared to 1E when it comes to Snap Desicions).
If you beat the difficulty, you succeed.
If you fail the check, something will happen, just not what you intended to do. It is probably bad, but interesting for the story.
If you fail a check you gain 1 AT.
However, this is not a binary - The bigger the success or failure of the roll, the bigger the success or failure in the story.
I need to climb over that fence, to sneak into school at night. No one can see me here, I have all the time I need.
Planned actions are checks that are not made in a hurry. You can overthink your actions.
Planned Actions differ from Snap Decisions:
- Instead of rolling the dice, you may take half the maximum number of the dice (10 on 1d20, 6 on 1d12 etc.)
- Instead of taking half the number, you may also roll the dice, in which the Planned Action is treated the same as a Snap Decision.
Coach will grade my gym score based on how well I can climb a rope.
Tiered Checks can not succeed or fail. There is always some success, which is based on the roll.
Tiered Checks differ from Snap Decisions:
- The check is completely safe for your character.
- You can not fail, so you can not gain AT.
Doing harm is closely related to checks. This is basically KoB's fighting rules. This is probably the biggest change in 2E from 1E.
At the start of each "Doing harm" there is an official "Pressure check" with all players (are you OK with this?).
For the sake of PBP I'd deal with this in Session 0 and of course the Backpedal (stop and go somewhere else) is always available.
KoB is not combat oriented, there are no rounds or initiative. There are no ACs and HPs.
When a player (or GM if it is an NPC) chooses to do harm they decribe their intention and the Stat they plan to use.
In a traditional fist-fight, this would be Fight.
A popular cheerleader insulting an unpopular girl? Could be Charm.
A mathlethe trying to make a total fool of they competition? Could be Brains.
Then the instigating player declares:
- What they hope to win.
- What they fear to lose.
The defending player (or GM if it is an NPC) declares how the defender will defend and what stat they will use.
In a traditional fist-fight, this could be Flight to dodge, Brawn to just take the hit and laught at it, or Fight to hit back harder.
The unpopular girl could roll grit to withstand the insults proudly, or flight to hide from the cheerleader.
The competing mathlethe can roll Brains to pinpoint a flaw.
Then the targetted player declares:
- What they hope to win.
- What they fear to lose.
The GM may tell the players to "Peddle harder" : to increase the stakes.
The wins and losses should not be each other's opposites (I hope to hit, I fear to miss).
Both players roll as if the rolls are Snap Decisions.
Lucky breaks happen as normal and Adversity Tokens can be spend and gained as normal.
The player with the higher roll takes the narrative. They can pick any number of players who get a win (0, 1, 2) and they can pick any number (except 0) of players who get a loss (1 ,2). They can even choose for their own character to lose and their opponent to win. Or for no one to win. But when harm is done, there will always be a loser. The losing side can give input and reactions to the outcome.
For the sake of speed in PBP, ties are not rerolled but go to the targetted player.
Example.
On the school grounds, Johnny walks up to Mike with the intention to punch him in the face. He plans to use Fight, which makes sense.
Johnny declares (OOC):
- I hope to show my dominance over Mike by hurting him.
- I fear that a teacher might see it and I get in trouble.
Then Mike declares he will try to dodge Johnny's attack and he will use Flight.
Mike declared (OOC):
- I hope to win sympathy from the crowd, by not fighting back.
- I fear some injuries to my face.
They roll.
Johnny rolls a 7, Mike rolls a 6.
Mike decides to invest 2 AT to increase his roll to an 8. Johnny is out of AT and keeps the 7.
Mike wins the roll. Johnny gets an AT.
Mike gets to narrate the outcome, with input from Johnny.
Mike narrates:
Johnny hits me square in the face, giving me a bloody nose. But the crowd at the school grounds starts to boo loudly at Johnny. This doesn't attract any teachers.
Johnny adds:
I try to walk away quickly, before people start to single me out.
Mike has chosen both the win and lose for his own character, and neither of them for Johnny.
Powered Characters
(To be added to post)
Any rules questions go here as well. KoB is more about story than about complicated rules.
For those who know KoB 1E will find a lot similar in KoB 2E.
1.5E would be a more appropiate name.
Character Creation
You can create a character based on picking a Trope (see below) or by creating one yourself.
Tropes are "blue prints" for character ideas. You are free to mix stats around in a Trope and you don't have to stick to them.
You can also create a Trope yourself, from scratch or be recreating the very popular "Loner Weirdo" from 1E which somehow vanished in 2E.
[ +- ] Stats
Each character has 6 Stats.
| Brains: | How smart your character is. (Calculate, learn, remember, solve, understand) |
| Brawn: | Your character's physical strenght. (Carry, swim, climb, lift, throw) |
| Fight: | How well your character is in a fight or other agressive actions. (Punch, wrestle, shoot, chase, threaten) |
| Flight: | How well your character is in avoiding problems, obligations, physically or otherwise. (Dodge, sneak, escape, snatch) |
| Charm: | How good is your character in talking? (Convince, lie, persuage, flatter, trick) |
| Grit: | How easy or hard is your character unsettled physically or emotionally? (Endure, resist, see through, brace, withstand) |
Each Stat is assigned one dice of:
1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1d20
The bigger the dice assigned, the better you are at it.
Which stat applies to which action depends on the situation.
Johnny is running...
... away from a scary monster? > Probably Flight.
... to try and tackle the bad guy? > Probably Fight.
... in a 100 meter foot race? > Probably Brawn.
... the New York marathon? > Probably Grit.
[ +- ] Age
Select your character's age and then allocate it to one of the three age groups below.
As Kids on Bikes is based on a certain trope of TV/movies/books itself, middle school ages would work best, plus it works best if all characters are roughly the same age.
There are no hard lines in which group you are. Some people mature faster and some never do. Pick what makes sense for your character.
The age groups are:
Child/kid: Children are small, quicky and cute. They get +1 Flight and +1 Charm. They also get Quick Healing.
Teen: Teens are at their pugnacious and in their prime. They get +1 Fight and +1 Brawn. They also get Rebellious.
Adult: Adults have a lot of life experience. They get +1 Brains and +1 Grit. They also get Skilled at ____.
[ +- ] Strenghts
Pick 2 strenghts for your character, in top of the 1 free strenght you get from your age group.
| Cool Under Pressure: | May spend 1 Adversity Token to take half of your die’s value instead of rolling on a Snap Decision. |
| Easygoing: | Gain 2 Adversity Tokens when you fail, instead of 1. |
| Gross: | You have some kind of gross bodily trick (loud, quiet, smelly... up to you) that you can do on command. |
| Heroic: | You do not need the GM’s permission to spend Adversity Tokens to ignore Fears. |
| Intuitive: | May spend 1 Adversity Token to ask the GM about your surroundings, an NPC, or the like. The GM must answer honestly. |
| Loyal: | Each of the Adversity Tokens you spend to help your friends gives them a +2 instead of a +1. |
| Lucky: | You may spend 2 Adversity Tokens to reroll a stat check. |
| Prepared: | May spend 2 Adversity Tokens to just happen to have one commonplace item with you (GM’s discretion). |
| Protective: | Add +3 to rolls when defending one of your friends. |
| Quick Healing: | (Free for kids; available to teens and adults) You recover from injuries more quickly, and don’t suffer lasting effects from most injuries. |
| Rebellious: | (Free for and available only to teens) Add +3 to rolls to persuade or resist persuasion from Kids. Add +3 to rolls to resist persuasion from Adults. |
| Skilled at ...: | (Free for Adults; available to teens and, at GM’s discretion, to kids) Choose a skill (GM’s discretion). You are assumed to succeed when making even moderately difficult checks involving this skill. If the GM determines that you do need to roll for a more difficult check, add up to +3 to your roll. |
| Tough: | If you lose a combat roll, add +3 to the negative number. You will still lose the roll no matter what but could reduce your loss to -1. |
| Treasure Hunter: | May spend 1 Adversity Token to find a useful item in your surroundings. |
| Unassuming: | May spend 2 Adversity Tokens to not be seen, within reason (GM’s discretion). |
| Wealthy: | May spend money as though you were in a higher age bracket. For example, a wealthy child is considered to have the disposable income of a typical teen, and a wealthy teen is considered to have the disposable income of a typical adult. A wealthy adult is considered to not have to worry too much about money—they would certainly be able to buy anything they need, and likely able to spend their way out of a lot of situations. |
[ +- ] Adversity Tokens (AT)
Mark 3 AT when creating your character.
AT can be used to:
- Increase your own checks;
- Help others to increase their checks;
- Power up some strenghts.
You gain AT when you fail a check.
[ +- ] Flaw
Pick 1 flaw. If you fail a check and you can narrate the failure to be caused by your flaw, then you earn 1 extra AT.
Suggested Flaws are.
Absent-minded
Blunt
Boastful
Callous
Capricious
Clumsy
Cowardly
Deceitful
Demanding
Dogmatic
Envious
Flippant
Gluttonous
Greedy
Gullible
Hot-tempered
Ignorant
Impatient
Insecure
Lazy
Messy
Nosey
Oversensitive
Paranoid
Patronizing
Petty
Picky
Prejudiced
Rambunctious
Reckless
Resentful
Restless
Rude
Self-centered
Self-pitying
Spoiled
Superstitious
Vain
Vindictive
Weak-willed
[ +- ] Bonded Action
You might agree with another player to have a Bonded Action. Each character can be part of only one Bond and can take the Bonded Action only together with their partner.
Bonded actions are:
| Best Frenemies: | After one of you succeeds on a roll and brag about their success, the other gets +3 on their next roll. If they succeed and brag, the first character gets +3 on their next roll, then the bonuses end. |
| Calming Presence: | When one of you is exposed to a Fear, the other can talk them down, allowing them to ignore any impacts of that Fear. |
| Deep Thinkers: | When making a relevant Brains check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
| Friends’ Cant: | As long as you and this character can communicate in writing or verbally, you can pass information to the other without anyone else understanding your meaning. |
| Heavy Lifters: | When making a relevant Brawn check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
| Helpful Mentorship: | When the mentee in the relationship fails a roll, the mentor can offer advice. If they do, both characters gain 2 AT. |
| Known Location: | Either character can intuit the location of the other, regardless of how improbable their location is and regardless of how little information the other has. |
| Mind Readers: | By making eye contact, both characters can, within reason, communicate what they’re thinking to each other. |
| No-Look Pass: | One character may throw the other player an object that both can easily lift, and the other character can catch it without looking and without making a check. |
| Relay Team: | When making a relevant Flight check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
| Standup Comedians: | The two characters can, within reason, keep the attention of a crowd by being incredibly funny together. |
| Sweet Talkers: | When making a relevant Charm check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
| Sworn Protector: | Either character can suffer the effects of the other character’s failed check to protect them. |
| Tag Team: | When making a relevant Fight check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
| Tough Cookies: | When making a relevant Grit check together, use either character’s roll, then add an additional +3 to that roll. |
[ +- ] Fear
Pick a fear.
Name something your character fears (heights, spiders, the dark, social anxiety, losing my job etc.)
When facing your fear:
- You cannot take planned actions or take knacks
- You cannot spend adversity tokens to help others (you can spend them for yourself, and other can help you)
- You suffer a -1 to -3 penalty to any role, depending on the threat of the fear. If you have Heroic, you can spend 1 Adversity Token to negate this penalty completely. The threat of the fear could scale from: A snake in a closed terrarium (-1), a snake slithering freely in the room (-2) or a snake slithering around your neck (-3).
[ +- ] Knack
Pick a knack. A knack is something your character is good at.
It should be decribed strict, but used creatively.
For example: Playing Soccer (instead of Sports in general).
You can use the knack not only in a soccer game, but for example also while kicking away things in general, or running the length of a soccer field.
You can use your Knack once per session to take a 10 on any check.
[ +- ] Bike
Pick a bike. Each bike has a color and an upgrade.
You can benefit from these whenever you are riding your bike.
| Color: | |
| Black: | You get +1 to Fight checks. |
| Blue: | You get +1 to Charm checks. |
| Gold: | If you perform a stunt, you get +3 to Charm checks against any characters who witness the stunt. |
| Gray: | If you know the area, you cannot get lost. |
| Green: | You get +1 to Brawn checks. |
| Neon: | Pink You get +1 to Flight checks. |
| Orange: | Each time you succeed at a check, an ally of your choice receives one Adversity Token. |
| Purple: | You may treat Snap Decisions as Planned Actions. |
| Red: | Each Adversity Token you spend during a check adds an additional +1 to your roll |
| Rusty: | You get +1 to Grit checks. |
| Silver: | You have the Protective strength. |
| White: | You get +1 to Brains checks |
| Upgrade: | |
| Banana Seat: | Your bike can carry a passenger. Once per day, if the Powered Character is your passenger, they regain up to 2 PT. (This cannot put them over their starting amount) |
| Basket: | Once per day, you may reach into the basket and come up with a commonplace item. |
| Bell: | If you can explain, in narrative terms, how ringing the bell helps an ally during their check, they get +1 to that check. |
| First-Aid Kit: | Once per day, you may use this first-aid kit to help an ally recover from an injury (at GM’s discretion). |
| Milk Crate: | Your bike can carry a single large item. You must explain, in narrative terms, why your bike is outfitted to carry this item. |
| Pegs: | Your bike can carry a passenger. If you have a passenger, they receive the benefits of your bike’s color as well. |
| Tassels: | You get +1 to all checks while being chased. |
| Ten Speeder: | You may shift into a lower gear and pedal hard to add d4 to your Flight checks, but you suffer -1 to all Brawn and Grit checks until you can fully catch your breath. |
| Trading Cards: | You get +1 to checks if you are attempting to distract others. |
| Pedal-Powered Lights: | You get +1 to all checks after dark. |
[ +- ] Backpack
What does your character carry around?
Physically : A walkman? Bubble gum? Lipstick?
But also, figuratively : A tree house? A father who is a cop? A big brother? A bad reputation at school?
There are no strict inventory and money rules in KoB. This is no financial micro-management game.
Spending money is based on common sense within your age group. You can take the Wealthy Strenght and spend more money.
[ +- ] Motivation & Obligation
These are for RP purposes.
What drives your characer?
And what obligations might they have?
[ +- ] Consent sheet
These are for RP purposes.
You can mark if it's okay for other characters, in the same age range, to:
have a crush on your character, date your character or be partners.
When you do something that requires a Check, the GM will call for the Stat and the difficulty level.
Checks can be Snap Decisions, Planned Actions or Tier Checks. Doing Harm is closely related to checks.
The GM will call for a check, like:
"Roll a Snap Decision, Flight, Difficulty 8".
Remember:
With any check you can use your Knack once per session.
[ +- ] Snap Decisions
The monster is chasing me, and I need to climb that fence right now to escape it!
Snap Decisions are checks made under pressure where failure or success are uncertain.
They are also the most "basic rules" for a check.
You roll the die allocated to your Stat and add any bonusses/penalties.
If you roll the biggest number on the die, roll again and add it. This is called a lucky break. Lucky breaks can cause new lucky breaks.
(GP should be set in this game to automatically "reroll aces" to do this).
Once you have rolled you may add any number of Adversity Tokens. You get +1 for each AT spend.
Other characters can narrate how they help you, and also spend AT to give you a +1 for each AT spend (this is explicitly different in 2E compared to 1E when it comes to Snap Desicions).
If you beat the difficulty, you succeed.
If you fail the check, something will happen, just not what you intended to do. It is probably bad, but interesting for the story.
If you fail a check you gain 1 AT.
However, this is not a binary - The bigger the success or failure of the roll, the bigger the success or failure in the story.
[ +- ] Planned action
I need to climb over that fence, to sneak into school at night. No one can see me here, I have all the time I need.
Planned actions are checks that are not made in a hurry. You can overthink your actions.
Planned Actions differ from Snap Decisions:
- Instead of rolling the dice, you may take half the maximum number of the dice (10 on 1d20, 6 on 1d12 etc.)
- Instead of taking half the number, you may also roll the dice, in which the Planned Action is treated the same as a Snap Decision.
[ +- ] Tiered Checks
Coach will grade my gym score based on how well I can climb a rope.
Tiered Checks can not succeed or fail. There is always some success, which is based on the roll.
Tiered Checks differ from Snap Decisions:
- The check is completely safe for your character.
- You can not fail, so you can not gain AT.
[ +- ] Doing harm / Fighting
Doing harm is closely related to checks. This is basically KoB's fighting rules. This is probably the biggest change in 2E from 1E.
At the start of each "Doing harm" there is an official "Pressure check" with all players (are you OK with this?).
For the sake of PBP I'd deal with this in Session 0 and of course the Backpedal (stop and go somewhere else) is always available.
KoB is not combat oriented, there are no rounds or initiative. There are no ACs and HPs.
When a player (or GM if it is an NPC) chooses to do harm they decribe their intention and the Stat they plan to use.
In a traditional fist-fight, this would be Fight.
A popular cheerleader insulting an unpopular girl? Could be Charm.
A mathlethe trying to make a total fool of they competition? Could be Brains.
Then the instigating player declares:
- What they hope to win.
- What they fear to lose.
The defending player (or GM if it is an NPC) declares how the defender will defend and what stat they will use.
In a traditional fist-fight, this could be Flight to dodge, Brawn to just take the hit and laught at it, or Fight to hit back harder.
The unpopular girl could roll grit to withstand the insults proudly, or flight to hide from the cheerleader.
The competing mathlethe can roll Brains to pinpoint a flaw.
Then the targetted player declares:
- What they hope to win.
- What they fear to lose.
The GM may tell the players to "Peddle harder" : to increase the stakes.
The wins and losses should not be each other's opposites (I hope to hit, I fear to miss).
Both players roll as if the rolls are Snap Decisions.
Lucky breaks happen as normal and Adversity Tokens can be spend and gained as normal.
The player with the higher roll takes the narrative. They can pick any number of players who get a win (0, 1, 2) and they can pick any number (except 0) of players who get a loss (1 ,2). They can even choose for their own character to lose and their opponent to win. Or for no one to win. But when harm is done, there will always be a loser. The losing side can give input and reactions to the outcome.
For the sake of speed in PBP, ties are not rerolled but go to the targetted player.
Example.
On the school grounds, Johnny walks up to Mike with the intention to punch him in the face. He plans to use Fight, which makes sense.
Johnny declares (OOC):
- I hope to show my dominance over Mike by hurting him.
- I fear that a teacher might see it and I get in trouble.
Then Mike declares he will try to dodge Johnny's attack and he will use Flight.
Mike declared (OOC):
- I hope to win sympathy from the crowd, by not fighting back.
- I fear some injuries to my face.
They roll.
Johnny rolls a 7, Mike rolls a 6.
Mike decides to invest 2 AT to increase his roll to an 8. Johnny is out of AT and keeps the 7.
Mike wins the roll. Johnny gets an AT.
Mike gets to narrate the outcome, with input from Johnny.
Mike narrates:
Johnny hits me square in the face, giving me a bloody nose. But the crowd at the school grounds starts to boo loudly at Johnny. This doesn't attract any teachers.
Johnny adds:
I try to walk away quickly, before people start to single me out.
Mike has chosen both the win and lose for his own character, and neither of them for Johnny.
(To be added to post)