Everyone Is John
Everyone Is John is one of the quickest, simplest RPG's out there, created by Michael B. Sullivan The main concept is that every player but one plays a voice in "John's" head. All of these voices are trying to get John to do something that they like. The funniest thing about this game is your voice can make him want to do ANYTHING. (I mean ANYTHING) The remaining player plays as John. It is advised that this player is the usual GM/ST or at least the best at telling a story. The game has recently been expanded and released as a book by Gamer Nation Studios, with several "adventure seeds" to begin your story.
Materials
You need:
- 3-6 Players
- One Notepad for each player
- At least one D6
- Some kind of marker in abundance (Poker Chips work well [Cat food is also fine])
The Pregame
First, you pick a name for your voice. Everyone playing as a voice chooses what they will try to make John do. This is called their Obsession. When they successfully make John do these things they earn points. These are divided into three categories, Leveled from one to three.
- Level One: Simple, one-step things like eating candy, yelling in public, basically anything that only requires one roll.
- Level Two: Slightly more complicated or dangerous tasks, things like collecting and throwing baseballs, running a mile in a new/stolen pair of shoes, or "dining and dashing". These typically require slight planning, or at least 2 rolls.
- Level Three: Okay, now we are getting serious. This is reserved for extremely difficult actions to pull off without serious planning involved or without someone taking note. Blowing up buildings, swimming in excrement, robbing a bank, etc.
You keep your Obsession hidden from your opponents for more shock value.
Now you choose your two Skills. John is an overall very unskilled person; never been really good at anything, unless a voice tells him to do it. Any roll you are not skilled in requires a 6 on a D6 die. Actions you have skill in only require a 3+. You can choose 2 Skills, or 3 with a penalty for the game. These skills should be at least slightly specific, things like "Everything forever" are not acceptable. Example skills would be:
- Talking to Adults
- Talking to children
- Driving
- Flying
- Shooting
- Eating in Excess
- Assembling/Detonating Bombs
- Sneaking
- Lock Picking
- Performing (Dance, Singing, Instrument)
Then, you show your Name, Obsession, and Skills to "John"
Everyone then receives 10 Willpower tokens (7 If you took 3 skills)
Game Begins!
"John" sets the opening scene by telling the players where they are, this can be anywhere. A hardware store, a zoo, a school, an airplane over the Pacific Ocean. Players now "Ante up" some of their tokens, whoever offers the most loses the tokens offered (Other players keep their tokens), then gets control of John until they either earn points or fail a roll. Now you get out there and earn points, everyone gets back one willpower token when control is about to switch. Keep in mind that even while you are not in control, you can talk to John for bantz and all that stuff. Willpower can also be used to improve your rolls, each willpower spent increases the roll by one. so a normally 3+ roll becomes a 2+ with 1 token. It IS possible to make a roll automatically succeed this way. Again, everyone receives a token when control switches, up to their starting number.
The game ends when John dies or all Voices run out of willpower.