No Thank You, Evil!

Characters in No Thank You, Evil! have four statistics: Tough, Smart, Fast, and Awesome.  The first three work pretty much as you'd expect, being used when performing the appropriate kind of activity.  The "Awesome" stat on the other hand is used to help: a player can spend their Awesome points to assist another player in a roll.

Just as in Cypher system, to create a No Thank You, Evil! character you write a single sentence.  For younger children this can be as simple as "I'm a Wizard", while older children will want to add an adjective and a descriptive verb phrase (eg. "I'm a Kind Wizard who Eats Ice Cream").

The game offers a variety of nouns, adjectives, and verb phrases to choose from.  Characters can be robots, spies, princes/princes, creatures, astronauts, and so on.  Each noun provides the character's starting stats (eg. an Astronaut 's highest stat is Smart, while a Fighter's is Tough).  Nouns also provide the character with a form of defense, as well as a unique ability (eg. Astronauts can automatically succeed on jump checks, while Fighters get a "knockout" power).

Adjectives essentially boil down to +1 bonuses to a stat, and since there are only four stats that means that mechanically there are really only four options (although there are more options; for instance, being either "Powerful" or "Super Strong" both result in a +1 to Tough.

Finally, the verb phrase provides the character with a unique ability.  A character who "Experiments with Science" can throw an exploding creation in the air, while one who "Eats Ice Cream" carries around an endless supply of ice cream which they can eat to give an enemy brain freeze (ie. stun them).

To accomplish an action in No Thank You, Evil! the Guide (ie. GM) assigns a difficulty number, from one to eight (with 1 being easy and 8 impossible).  The player then rolls a d6, and tries to equal or beat that number.  A roll of 1 is an automatic success, while a roll of 6 is a Wild Success

A player can lower the difficulty number of the roll  by one (once), by spending a point from the appropriate stat pool.  Other players can also spend (one) point from their Awesome pool to assist.

Each player also has a fifth "Fun" stat with three points (although there is an optional rule to play with only a single Fun point for greater challenge).  A player can spend a Fun point as they are making a roll and describe something fun their character does.

Doing this resets all of the character's other stat pools to full, and in a sense Fun points are similar to Heroic Surges in Dungeons and Dragons.  If a character runs out of their regular stats and Fun points they are Conked Out until they can recover.

No Thank You, Evil! does have combat rules, but as with the rest of the game they are extremely simple.  For instance, there is no initiative, as the players simply choose their order (and always go before the enemy).

To make an attack the player chooses the type and corresponding stat (magic and psychic powers always use Smart, while melee attacks can be Fast or Tough).  they then make a roll, trying to beat their enemy's level (enemies are reduced to a single number for their "stats").  If the roll succeeds, the enemy takes two damage (regardless of the attack type), and most enemies have as many health points as their level.

If an enemy attacks back the player again makes a roll against the enemy's level, using any stat.  If they fail, they lose 2-4 points (depending on the enemy) from their Tough pool first, followed by their Fast, Smart, and Awesome pools.  If all of those pools are exhausted the player will have to spend a Fun point (or become Conked Out if they are out of Fun).