Tri-Stat is a wonderful system: it’s versatile, simple to grasp for the beginner, and complex enough to handle many genres and styles of play easily. It’s my game of choice for mystery and role-playing intensive stories, as well as for superheroes.

One of the greatest things about Tri-Stat is that it’s available online for free. You can download it from here. Unfortunately, Guardians of Order has closed its doors, but Tri-Stat dX (and its descendent, BESM 3rd Edition) are still available, thanks to White Wolf’s ArtHaus imprint.

Reference Documents

·       Character Sheet: My own Tri-Stat character sheet, in PDF format.

·       Wound Threshold Sheet: My character sheet, modified for the Wound Threshold rules.

Rules Modifications

As good as the rules are, there are areas where they can stand a little polishing up. Also, sometimes the rules don’t work for a particular setting or style. Here’s a compilation of the homebrew rules I use on a regular basis.

·       Chase Rules -  One of the things that Tri-Stat lacks is a solid set of abstract chase rules. These have worked well for me. Also includes a new Attribute, Driving Technique, to complement them.

·       Own a Big Mecha - Not mine. David L. Pulver’s modification of the OBM Attribute, bringing it back in line with its origins as a “build your own” Attribute.

·       Personality Traits - A series of Features designed to give a little more definition to your character’s personality and abilities.

·       Wound Threshold - An alternate damage system that replaces Health with a series of Wound Levels based off Shock Value. This system goes a long way to increasing the dynamic feel of play in action-intensive games.

Tri-Stat Live-Action

Given Tri-Stat’s versatility, it’s a natural fit with Live Action Roleplaying. Here are my rules for LARP play with Tri-Stat. This is only a rules addendum for live-action, and does require a copy of the Tri-Stat dX rules for play.

·        Tri-Stat Live-Action Rules

·        Live-Action Character Sheet

Settings

A pair of settings for use with Tri-Stat dX. Click on the title to download a PDF document.

·       The Matrix Iterations - A full conversion of the Matrix movies into a role-playing setting. Includes rules for playing “pure humans”, Matrix-born humans, programs and machines, and full stats for both the servants of the Machine, and the exile gangsters of the Merovingian.

·       Matrix Iterations Character Sheet

·       Hovercraft Data Sheet

·       GM’s Screen Panels, suitable for use with the Savage Worlds Customizable GM’s Screen.