Open birl

Open Birl, or BIRL Planeta Monstro is a Brazilian made RPG system that started as a joke, based on a fucking meme (no, seriously) and the local jock/bodybuilder culture surrounding the meme; which boils down to muscle jocks yelling stupid shit like THE MONSTER'S GETTING OFF THE CAGE! (in Portuguese, obviously) while working out.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign (only not in Kickstarter, since they don't accept Brazilian money), an improved version was released. Below is some of its working mechanics.

The Setting

The game happens in Planet BIRL, a weird planet that is bathed by a pretty princess pink sun, that is home to the Frangoides (Chickenoids, if you will), a strange race of chicken-like creatures that abduct bodybuilders from around the universe to mutate and use for their nefarious universe conquering deeds.

The players are the Monstrões ("Big Monsters"), bodybuilders that have been abducted or exiled from their homes but are yet to be mutated by the strange world. It's their job to find a way out of the shithole they've been thrown in.

This game is supposed to be taken as seriously as the threat posed by an Imperial flashlight to a Greater Daemon: not at all. The system itself is rather simple and has been released under the Creative Commons license. The Game Master is named Mestre dos Monstros (Monster Master, and a play on the translation of the D&D Cartoon, where the Dungeon Master was called Mestre dos Magos, Mage Master)

Character Creation

Each player character has 4 Monstributes: Bomba, Instinto, Raiva and Lero (Steroids, Instinct, Rage and "Charisma", for lack of a better translation).

• Bomba is your usual strength attribute, used for combat and other related stuff.
• Instinto is what passes for intelligence and perception. Who need actual brains when you have TITANIUM MUSCLES!! ?
• Raiva measures the Monstrão's resistance, because Monsters don't get hurt, THEY JUST GET ANGRY!!
• Lero measures both the character's verbal ability and his starting material possessions, as well as a cap to the latter.
• The Raivometro (rage-o-meter), which is double the Raiva rating, and acts like HP.

To set those attributes, the player rolls 1D6 for each, accordingly (left is the result on the dice, right is the value):

• 1 = 1
• 2-4 = 2
• 5 = 3
• 6 = 4
• Dice falls off the table = 1, NO CRYING!

Besides the values, the players can also set warcries to each of the monstributes. These can be used to either get a +2 bonus to a roll or to reroll a shitty roll, which is done so by the player shouting it at the top of his/her lungs! The side effect is that it increases the raivometro by 1 point.

Dice Rolling

Whenever a roll is needed, the GM sets a difficulty for it, from 1-4. The player rolls as many D6 as he has in the respective monstribute (3 dice if the test calls for Bomba and the player has Bomba 3) and picks the largest result. The GM also rolls a number of dice equal to the difficulty and picks the largest result. Whoever gets the highest number wins. In case of a draw, the challenge/defender wins.

There are also some extra rules for when you win a roll with a 6 and for cases where you lose and also had two (or one, if your raivometro is over half) of the dice roll 1. In either case, you'll roll one dice:

• 1-2 = +1 / -1 on the next roll
• 3-4 = You can roll again if you fail / You'll have to roll twice and pick the worst result
• 5 = Automatic success/failure on the next test
• 6 = You get TUNADO / Your raivometro goes up by 2.
  • Tunado allows the player to add +1 to 2 monstributes of his choice. If they add to Raiva, it won't increase their raivometro. Also, only one player character can be tunado at any time, the newest one having the priority. This mechanic can also be used as a reward for good interpration or, as the writer puts it, "For the guy that pays for the food, but nobody let me put this as one of the rules".

During downtime scenes, players can reduce their raivometro by half, rounded down.

More importantly, there's an optional, HARDCORE MODE rule for deciding draws: arm wrestling! Seriously! In case of a draw, the GM and the player arm wrestle, the winner wins the roll. Simple as that. And what's stopping a group from deciding every roll on an arm wrestle instead? Neckbeards' natural repulse to physical exercises, that's what

Damage and Mutations

Damage is calculated by the rating/difficulty of rolls. For combat, attacker rolls Bomba and defender rolls Raiva. Here are two examples, one combat, one normal problem solving:

• With Bomba 2, Hulkster Hooligan attacks an enemy. Hulkster wins the roll, scoring a 5 against the enemy's 4, thus causing 2 points of damage (which go in the monster's raivometro). Next, the enemy attacks (with Bomba 4) and scores a 6 against Hulkster's 2. Since 6s also grant +1 to damage, Hulkster takes 5 damage!
• Serreh Conner needs to climb a wall that has a 2 difficulty to being overcome. She scores 3 against the GM's 4 and takes 2 points of damage (or she rages because she failed, which also makes sense).

As stated before, monsters don't get hurt, they just feel rage. However, if they ever go over their limit (exceeding their Raivometro), not only will they go wild for a while, they'll also receive a mutation! The character can have up to his Bomba rating of mutations. Anything above that and they'll lose their mind forever.

Once a character starts going mad, until the end of the current problem (treta), the GM will control the character and roll 2D6 to see how the PC will act:

• 2 = You spin around like Zangief
• 3 = You think you're a chicken for 10 minutes
• 4 = You feel a deep NEED to eat sand and run away to get some
• 5 = You start howling like an ashmatic wolf
• 6 = You start singing a terrible music's chorus
• 7 = You start dancing like you're owning it all
• 8 = You feel a motherfucking tummy ache and run away to the nearest bush
• 9 = You begin waltzing around with your imaginary girlfriend
• 10 = You think you'll fall upwards and grab the ground the best you can.
• 11 = You start seeing doubles. Of everything. Including yourself.
• 12 = You run around screaming "BIRL! BIRL!"

After the problem's been dealt with, the other players and the GM roll 1 dice. The highest result gets to pick WHAT the mutation is, and it has to be invented right then and there! It could be anything: a weird second head, butterfly wings, a third hand coming off their head, adamantium buck teeth, whatever!

Items

Any items that can actually be used to solve problems (tretas) are regarded for the maximum the character can carry (Lero rating), and it also has a limited number of uses, defined by rolling one D6 when the player (or enemy) first gets it. Using an item adds to the result of a dice. For instance, rolling 2, 2 and 4, you can spend 2 uses of an item and turn that 4 into a 6.

After all uses have been spent, the item becomes useless. Used items don't refill.

External Links

• The source book, in Brazilian Portuguese
• The Kickstarter-like page, also in Brazilian Portuguese
• Sample of the crazy bodybuilder nonsense that spawned the memes