I want to start an RPG in my collage dorm, but have no idea where to begin. Is there a web site that any one can recomend...seeing as im a poor collage student, I would prefer advice that is...uhhh cheap...or even better.....free.

Horror : Call of Cthulhu (percentile system). A big manual of rules and source information like legendary texts, NPCs that appeared in Mythos stories, an awesome monster section especially if you're a fan of the books, and a simple skill based system.

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as others have been saying it depends a lot on what you want from it. I like Dungeons and Dragons, which is a classic system in the high fantasy style and has plenty of customer support. Its not particularly cheap though.

Call of Cthulu is a very particular style isn't it? (I have only watched games of it, not participated) As in, its obligatory for the 'heroes' to go insane/die horribly...

Of course, if you like that sort of thing it can be good fun, but I thought we might as well warn him.

What Wushu Does

At first, Wushu looks deceptively simple, like another rules-light game. But after a bit of playing and thinking, it becomes clear that Wushu provides a surprisingly sophisticated engine for facilitating a fast-paced, collaborative game of narration and genre-emulation. But how does it do that?

Wushu is built on the basis of a few opposing forces that drive play while at the same time providing checks and balances against possible abuse. One of those is the tension between complete creative freedom, as expressed in "Everything is a detail" and the PoNT, and the necessity for collaboration and consensus-finding, as expression the Coupe de Grace and Veto rules. Let's look at these two opposing forces in a bit more detail:

On one hand, Wushu gives each player great incentive to become creative and narrate Details. Players are rewarded for narration not only by getting dice (and thus a higher chance to mechanical success), but also by the fact that their narration happens exactly as they described it. This way, the system promotes a game of free narration and improvisation, as players can narrate their characters actions (and how they resolve in game) without fearing negative consequences for them.

A powerful tool, but one that can be abused. Thus, Wushu offers an opposing force to keep the creative energy in check and on track, to facilitate a positive game experience not only for the person narrating but for everybody. This force comes from the Veto and to a lesser extent the Coup de Grace rules. The Veto rules help prevent one of the common problems with complete freedom, namely that of conflicting creative visions. It's easy for a group of friends to have different ideas of what constitutes "fun" or which tropes are appropriate to a given genre, and in a free creative environment, these difference can lead to a loss of focus or, in the worst case, to arguments and bad feelings between the players. The Veto rules mean that only appropriate narrations and Details, as decided by group consensus, are incorporated into the game. This way, players are given the power to Veto narrations that would ruin their fun or run counter to the expected genre.

Together, these two opposing forces hold the game in balance, as players are given the freedom to narrate, are even rewarded for narration, but are also forced to communicate with their fellow players about what is and isn't appropriate and thus build a group consensus. This increases the chances of productive, focused play without removing the aspect of fast and free narration that is the whole point of Wushu.

What Wushu Does Not Do

Wushu does not provide "hard" genre emulation through mechanics which help you enforce what works and what does not. The group is the only means by which this is possible, so if your group is unable to reach a consensus, a game will be fraught with difficulty.

In addition, the mechanics alone will not judge what is a "right" and "wrong" course of action. The GM doesn't have modifiers that can be applied to a scene to reflect the appropriateness of the player's chosen course of action. All they have are the same powers of Veto with reference to genre as everyone else.

Lastly, Wushu does not bring the cool all by itself - it relies on the players to do that. There are no mechanics which will help you build up an exciting string of actions to work into your descriptions, no lists of powers or maneuvers to spur your creativity (though you can steal those from other sources at will). If you want a mechanical underpinning to aid your creativity, Wushu is not for you. All it does is act as a catalyst for that which everyone brings to the table themselves, by not getting in the way of that creativity.

Core Mechanics

Now to the meat of how this all works. The mechanics of Wushu are all about regulating conflict. As before, it doesn't actually matter what the nature of the conflict is, whether combat, physical, social, mental, or any other kind. All that matters is that the outcome of something is important enough for us to focus on.

Wushu breaks conflicts up into a number of rounds, which could represent any length of time interval in the game reality, depending on the nature of the conflict. A round in a firefight may be a few seconds. A round in an election campaign may comprise months of canvassing, pressing of flesh and making speeches. A round in a trial might be weeks of research and info-gathering interspersed with hours of cross-examination and trial process. There's no hard and fast rule on this, indeed each round isn't even necessarily the same length as the one before, or the one after.

Each round is broken up into two phases which are completed at the same time. First, the group describes the scene; this is the important part because their narration determines what actually happens in the game world. Then, they resolve their dice rolls to see how this round progressed the scene towards an end.