Everyone Is John - A Schizophrenic & Competitive Roleplaying Game

Following my local gamers chat group I learned of a short one-shot RPG that is more than a little different called “Everyone is John”, so I tracked down more information.

Intro:

Everyone is John is a humorous, competitive roleplaying game (3 or more people) about playing the various personalities of John, an insane man from Minneapolis. One participant is the GM, or, in Everyone is John lingo, “Everyone Else.” All of the other players are Voices in John’s head.

Here’s a high level summary of the rules:

He is controlled by the Voices in his head — one at a time, of course.

John is not terribly competent; he has difficulty with a lot of things that you and I might take for granted. Whenever John attempts anything that an ordinary person might have any chance of failure at, he needs to roll for success.

The Voice who is currently in control of John does the rolling. If that Voice has a skill that covers the challenge, the Voice needs to roll a 3 or higher on the single d6. If it doesn’t have a skill, it needs to roll a 6. However, before the roll, the Voice can spend any number of Willpower points to get a +1 per point spent on the die roll. This can make success automatic.

Becoming the active Voice is a bit of a challenge, though. Whenever John wakes up or gets hurt, a test for control of John happens. Also, whenever the currently active Voice fails a roll or completes its obsession, a test for control of John happens.

Link to the complete rules, enjoy. It’s a free game from Sandor at the Zoo where you can find much more.