Tales from the Floating Vagabond


Tales from the Floating Vagabond is a science-fiction role-playing game by Lee Garvin, published by Avalon Hill in 1991. It has the tagline "Ludicrous Adventure in a Universe Whose Natural Laws Are Out To Lunch".

Overview

The game takes a comedic approach to the genre, encouraging the gamemaster to begin each adventure in an outer space bar called The Floating Vagabond. Players choose from races such as humans, elves, Disgustingly Cute Furry Things, and Dogmen, learn skills like "Look Good at All Times" and "Projectile Vomiting", and consume dangerous beverages containing toxic substances such as a singularity. The flexibility of the rules system allows for making characters from any genre, epoch, or world, as well as creating new races and superheroes.
One of the more memorable aspects of the game is a system of shticks that players can choose from, including:
The second printing of this game included many strange typos, such as providing the incorrect formula strength+luck/2 for "Oops! Points," causing gamers to create characters that are weaker than standard NPC goons, when the correct formula is strength+luck+2d6.
Author Lee Garvin has released the original game in PDF, via OneBookShelf stores, and was working on a second edition. He died on June 28, 2019 before completion.

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