SQUIPS

posted on: 2026-03-27 in games

SQUIRPS or Super Quick Instant Role Play Sessions is an easy pen and paper system, that can be played vie the instant messenger.

Idea

Rarely a group of people has enough time to meet for an extensive round of pen and paper. To fill the waiting time to the next BIG PnP round, SQIRPS was invented: A simplified version of a usual role play game which can be played via the phone and IM and is started by a person declaring, that it is time to start another round of SQIRPS.

Ruleset and story are designed in a way that a quick game is possible. Players are put in a scenario that is described just as thoroughly as necessary, but well enough so all players have the information to directly start playing. Players can’t design characters beforehand, but can use the scenario to design and find out who they play. The rough background of the characters is described by the GM.

Rules

Setting

SQIRPS is supposed to be compatible with existing PnP worlds. But I tested it in a world I started to design specifically for this game. But for the same reason people don’t have enough time to play PnP sessions regularily, I didn’t continue designing it at one point.

Given the short rounds, sessions should take place in a limited area of the world, or long travels should only be narrated on specific points.

Abilities and opportunities of the characters needs to be made up during the session and need to take into account the (dis-)advantages of the characters. Single SQIRPS sessions don’t need to be connected chronologically or spacially.

SQIRPS sessions should be full of surprises and absurdities.

Rounds and Actions

At the begin of a SQIRPS round, the GM explains the setting and the background story of the current session and which characters are played by the players.

Since characters are not designed by the players, the GM has to assign them stats. Players can introduce story to their characters, if it’s not contradicting the setting.

The introduction of a SQIRPS round should end in a matter that it’s the players turn. Players then state their planned actions, which get tested, if needed and then the GM keeps on telling the story until the next move of the players is needed. After a few actions of the players, the SQIPRS round is supposed to be over. In test games there were between three and ten player actions.

Stats and Tests

Tests are rolled with two D6, that get added. Success and failure are read from the table below. Difficulty of the tests is dictated by background, class, experience of the character. Depending on how well they were defined at the beginning of the round, not all these points might be clear. Here the GM should in a fair way improvise the fitting difficulty. Fitting attributes lower the difficulty by one level and unfitting ones increase it.

A German print version can be downloaded here.