Sherpa (1997)

Sherpa is a role-playing game to play while hiking in the mountains, strolling in a park or along the beach, sitting by a pool or lake, rafting lazily down a river, waiting in a long line, as a passenger in a car, on a space station, etc. In other words, you can play Sherpa in situations in which another RPG would be awkward to run.

In Sherpa the GM uses a digital stopwatch instead of dice, and a character sheet fits on the back a business card.

Sherpa is a freeform game for experienced RPG gamemasters only. (Novice players are fine.)

Sherpa is complete in a 24 p. booklet, 8.5" by 5.5" (22x14 cm). It is intended for any genre and comes with 22 sample characters (including a complete ready-to-run fantasy party) and over 35 sample Professions - many more are possible.

The first edition of Sherpa was actually called "PHASER". Alert readers may notice the titles are anagrams of each other. That's because there are six traits in the game: Profession, Experience, Reason, Agility, Strength, and Health. That's the preferred order, but PERASH makes a lousy game name.

At any rate, the first edition had a very limited print run and more than a few problems.