An RPG system I've been working on
Oct. 23rd, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasOkay, so I've been vaguely hacking out a gaming system for tabletop RPGs. Why? Aren't there enough RPG systems in the world? What do I expect my system to do better?
Um. Nothing particularly. It's just fun to work out.
But I'm now getting to the point that I need to start bouncing ideas off of people. I mean, for one thing, it's no fun to write a system by yourself -- you have to show it to people eventually. And, anyway, I'm now getting to the point that I really need people to tell me what sucks about this.
OVERVIEW:
This is a roleplaying game system. I want it to be realistic enough to not break suspension of disbelief, but other than that, realism isn't overly important. I want it to be simple to use, with dice mechanics that are easy to learn and remember.
It's a "points-build" system, where there is no randomness in character generation. Like many points-build systems, characters will have "Statistics," "Skills", "Advantages", and "Disadvantages". Each "Skill" may also have a couple sub-skills associated with it, called "Tricks" or "Specialties", which will be little things about the skill that the character is particularly adept at.
Average people will typically be built on about 100 points; player characters will typically be built on more; 150 seems like a good number for starting characters.
STATISTICS:
There are nine Stats, in three categories of three stats each. The three categories are Body, Mind, and Spirit. In each category, there is Force, Resistance, and Agility.
Stats go from 1 to 9, but are scaled (like in FUDGE). Each scale factor up is a factor of 10. So a 2 on the next scale up from "human", would be similar to a 20 on a human scale. It costs 3 character points for a Stat point.
The average Stat is a "3" or "4". A 1 is pathetic, 2 is notably bad. 3 and 4 are average, but you'd be able to tell, among people you knew well, which ones were 3s and which were 4s. Someone with a 5 or 6 would be well-known and recognized for their ability, while a 7 or 8 would allow someone to be truly remarkable. A 9 would be the peak of human ability, someone who, if given a chance to developed his or her talents, would go down in history.
BODY
Strength (Force of Body)
Health (Resistance of Body)
Dexterity (Agility of Body)
MIND
Reason (Force of Mind)
Will (Resistance of Mind)
Wit (Agility of Mind)
SPIRIT
Passion (Force of Spirit)
Fortitude (Resistance of Spirit)
Creativity (Agility of Spirit)
"Strength" covers what you think it would: how much physical force your body can generate. "Health" covers how often you get sick, your endurance, and general physical well-being -- it therefore has some amount of effect on your appearance. "Dexterity" is how adept and accurate your body is -- your grace, accuracy of movement, and so forth.
Your "Reason" is the raw calculating power of your mind -- it covers how "smart" you are in an academic sense, how logical you are, and your ability to understand complex concepts. "Will" is your ability to resist distractions, force your mind to do things that you don't want to, resist fear. It's your general mental stability, and controls how calm you remain under stress. "Wit" is how fast your mind is -- it helps you with thinking on your feet, being clever, coming up with puns, and general mental razzle-dazzle.
Your force of personality is your "Passion". It includes things like the strength of your enthusiasms, and your drive. "Fortitude" forms a pool of calm, and can help with your mental stability, the way "Will" can. "Fortitude", however, is more closely related to faith -- not necessarily faith in any particular deity, but a sense of placing your actions in a wider context, giving your actions a sense of meaning. The more Fortitude you have, the more you can endure, because you feel that it's for a reason. "Creativity" covers several things. It is your artistic sense, your "muse", your font of ideas. It also covers how well you understand other people.
There are also a few "derived stats." Reaction speed is the AVERAGE of all Agility stats (Dexterity, Wit, Creativity). Wound Resistance is the average of all Resistance stats (Health, Will, Fortitude). Presence is average of Health, Wit, and Passion. In all cases, you round to the nearest whole number.
SKILLS
Skills are based on a stat, or an average of two or three stats (round nearest). For instance, "Swordsmanship" might be based on Dexterity, while "Oratory" might be based on an average of "Reason", "Creativity", and "Passion".
1 point gets you the Skill at the Stat level, every additional +1 costs an additional +1. Also, for every +1, you get a Trick or Technique -- some specialty you have with the skill.
A single skill will generally be something like "Athletics", "Swordsmanship", "Military Science", "Oratory", or "Conversation." I've not come up with a complete skill list yet, and wouldn't mind help doing so.
Perhaps an example will help: let's say that Oratory is based on Reason, Creativity, and Passion. Bartholomew has Reason 4, Creativity 6, and Passion 6. (4+6+6)/3, rounded to the nearest is 5, so his base skill with Oratory is 5. For 1 point, that's the skill level he gets it at. However, he spends 3 points on it -- base, and then +2, so his Oratory is 7.
He also gets two Tricks or Specialties with it. He talks it over with the GM, and decide that he has Good Projection -- he can be heard in noisy environments, even without a microphone, and Rabble-Rousing -- he gets a +1 if he's trying to incite a riot. Tricks and Specialties ALWAYS must be discussed with the GM, and just because one GM said it's okay doesn't mean you can just take the same Specialties to another GM. . .
TASK RESOLUTION
Task resolution: every task has an Active number and a Passive number. Active and Passive both roll 2d6 and add to their base; if the Active is higher than the Passive, the roll is a success. Ties generally go to the Passive.
The Active number is usually a skill or a stat. The Passive number may be a skill or stat, or may simply be a "task difficulty" number.
When rolling 2d6, a 2 always fails, even if the number would have otherwise been higher than the Passive. If the Active and Passive BOTH roll a 2, Something Interesting And Generally Bad happens. The GM gets to be creative, and choose some appropriate negative consequence that impacts both parties.
If a 12 is rolled, the party who rolled the 12 -- player or GM -- may choose to roll again and add the result on, in an open-ended manner. However, if any of those rolls is a 2, it's a failure, so you may choose to stop rolling even if you could otherwise go on.
If the Active number is higher than the Passive, that is a Success. If the Active is higher than TWICE the Passive, that is TWO successes, three times, three successes, and so forth. Some long tasks may take multiple successes to achieve, which would normally mean taking several turns and several attempts. In other cases, multiple successes may just mean a really impressive success, or a success so great that it has other beneficial side effects.
Multiple successes on a single roll will generally be rare -- except for Damage Calculations.
DAMAGE CALCULATION
There are three forms of Damage -- Physical, Mental, and Spiritual/Social, although it is quite likely that all three will not be used in all games.
The most common will likely be Physical Damage.
Every weapon or attack will have a Damage Factor. The Damage Factor is used as an Active number, while the Wound Resistance is a Passive number -- Damage Factor+2d6 is compared to Wound Resistance+2d6. Every success the Damage Factor scores moves the victim one line down on the Physical Injury table.
To calculate Physical Damage, you use the attack's damage+2d6 as the Active roll, and the target's Wound Resistance+2d6 as the Passive. If the Attack Damage roll is a 2, the target got lucky -- the bullet was stopped by her lucky medallion, the pistol misfired, or something like that, and there is no damage. If the Injury Resistance roll is a 2, the target got unlucky -- it's some sort of Critical Damage thingy. The GM should roll 2d6, and, the higher the roll (open-ended), the more serious it should be. As a rule of thumb -- if it's over 7, it should probably end the fight, and if it's over 12, it should probably have lasting damage. Something over 24 is a career-ender -- limb loss, brain damage . . . the character is still a character, but is significantly less competent in combat.
Attack Damage for weapons can be very high -- 20 or more for some weapons, so multiple successes will be common. Each success increases the injury level on the injury table by 1. So four successes would Seriously Injure someone, while eight will kill them.
Physical Injury table:
0 Healthy
1 Scratched
2 Flesh wound
3 Hurt
4 Seriously Injured
5 Crippled
6 Incapacitated
7 Critical
N/A Dead
The number next to the description -- from 0 to 7 -- is the minus they have to every physical action they take from then on. I haven't decided if Wound Resistance is included in that -- if so, it would make the "Death Spiral" (once you start losing, you lose faster and faster) even worse, but, since it WOULD reduce your ability to attack back, the "Death Spiral" is already there. . .
Mental Injury and Social Injury will work in a similar way, although I've not worked out details. The Mental Injury table will probably be used for dealing with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, and the Social Injury table for games in which jockeying for social position is vital. The minuses would be for mental or social actions, instead of physical actions, and I've not decided how you'd calculate Mental and Social Injury Resistance.
Mental Injury Table
0 Stable
1 Puzzled
2 Confused
3 Baffled
4 Dazed
5 Lost
6 Incoherent
7 Unhinged
N/A Catatonic
Social Injury Table
0 Accepted
1 Discomfited
2 Chagrined
3 Embarrassed
4 Humiliated
5 Shamed
6 Hated
7 Pariah
N/A Outcast
-0 / -1 / -2 = Mild
-3 / -4 / -5 = Serious
-6 / -7 / N/A = Catastrophic
Um. Nothing particularly. It's just fun to work out.
But I'm now getting to the point that I need to start bouncing ideas off of people. I mean, for one thing, it's no fun to write a system by yourself -- you have to show it to people eventually. And, anyway, I'm now getting to the point that I really need people to tell me what sucks about this.
OVERVIEW:
This is a roleplaying game system. I want it to be realistic enough to not break suspension of disbelief, but other than that, realism isn't overly important. I want it to be simple to use, with dice mechanics that are easy to learn and remember.
It's a "points-build" system, where there is no randomness in character generation. Like many points-build systems, characters will have "Statistics," "Skills", "Advantages", and "Disadvantages". Each "Skill" may also have a couple sub-skills associated with it, called "Tricks" or "Specialties", which will be little things about the skill that the character is particularly adept at.
Average people will typically be built on about 100 points; player characters will typically be built on more; 150 seems like a good number for starting characters.
STATISTICS:
There are nine Stats, in three categories of three stats each. The three categories are Body, Mind, and Spirit. In each category, there is Force, Resistance, and Agility.
Stats go from 1 to 9, but are scaled (like in FUDGE). Each scale factor up is a factor of 10. So a 2 on the next scale up from "human", would be similar to a 20 on a human scale. It costs 3 character points for a Stat point.
The average Stat is a "3" or "4". A 1 is pathetic, 2 is notably bad. 3 and 4 are average, but you'd be able to tell, among people you knew well, which ones were 3s and which were 4s. Someone with a 5 or 6 would be well-known and recognized for their ability, while a 7 or 8 would allow someone to be truly remarkable. A 9 would be the peak of human ability, someone who, if given a chance to developed his or her talents, would go down in history.
BODY
Strength (Force of Body)
Health (Resistance of Body)
Dexterity (Agility of Body)
MIND
Reason (Force of Mind)
Will (Resistance of Mind)
Wit (Agility of Mind)
SPIRIT
Passion (Force of Spirit)
Fortitude (Resistance of Spirit)
Creativity (Agility of Spirit)
"Strength" covers what you think it would: how much physical force your body can generate. "Health" covers how often you get sick, your endurance, and general physical well-being -- it therefore has some amount of effect on your appearance. "Dexterity" is how adept and accurate your body is -- your grace, accuracy of movement, and so forth.
Your "Reason" is the raw calculating power of your mind -- it covers how "smart" you are in an academic sense, how logical you are, and your ability to understand complex concepts. "Will" is your ability to resist distractions, force your mind to do things that you don't want to, resist fear. It's your general mental stability, and controls how calm you remain under stress. "Wit" is how fast your mind is -- it helps you with thinking on your feet, being clever, coming up with puns, and general mental razzle-dazzle.
Your force of personality is your "Passion". It includes things like the strength of your enthusiasms, and your drive. "Fortitude" forms a pool of calm, and can help with your mental stability, the way "Will" can. "Fortitude", however, is more closely related to faith -- not necessarily faith in any particular deity, but a sense of placing your actions in a wider context, giving your actions a sense of meaning. The more Fortitude you have, the more you can endure, because you feel that it's for a reason. "Creativity" covers several things. It is your artistic sense, your "muse", your font of ideas. It also covers how well you understand other people.
There are also a few "derived stats." Reaction speed is the AVERAGE of all Agility stats (Dexterity, Wit, Creativity). Wound Resistance is the average of all Resistance stats (Health, Will, Fortitude). Presence is average of Health, Wit, and Passion. In all cases, you round to the nearest whole number.
SKILLS
Skills are based on a stat, or an average of two or three stats (round nearest). For instance, "Swordsmanship" might be based on Dexterity, while "Oratory" might be based on an average of "Reason", "Creativity", and "Passion".
1 point gets you the Skill at the Stat level, every additional +1 costs an additional +1. Also, for every +1, you get a Trick or Technique -- some specialty you have with the skill.
A single skill will generally be something like "Athletics", "Swordsmanship", "Military Science", "Oratory", or "Conversation." I've not come up with a complete skill list yet, and wouldn't mind help doing so.
Perhaps an example will help: let's say that Oratory is based on Reason, Creativity, and Passion. Bartholomew has Reason 4, Creativity 6, and Passion 6. (4+6+6)/3, rounded to the nearest is 5, so his base skill with Oratory is 5. For 1 point, that's the skill level he gets it at. However, he spends 3 points on it -- base, and then +2, so his Oratory is 7.
He also gets two Tricks or Specialties with it. He talks it over with the GM, and decide that he has Good Projection -- he can be heard in noisy environments, even without a microphone, and Rabble-Rousing -- he gets a +1 if he's trying to incite a riot. Tricks and Specialties ALWAYS must be discussed with the GM, and just because one GM said it's okay doesn't mean you can just take the same Specialties to another GM. . .
TASK RESOLUTION
Task resolution: every task has an Active number and a Passive number. Active and Passive both roll 2d6 and add to their base; if the Active is higher than the Passive, the roll is a success. Ties generally go to the Passive.
The Active number is usually a skill or a stat. The Passive number may be a skill or stat, or may simply be a "task difficulty" number.
When rolling 2d6, a 2 always fails, even if the number would have otherwise been higher than the Passive. If the Active and Passive BOTH roll a 2, Something Interesting And Generally Bad happens. The GM gets to be creative, and choose some appropriate negative consequence that impacts both parties.
If a 12 is rolled, the party who rolled the 12 -- player or GM -- may choose to roll again and add the result on, in an open-ended manner. However, if any of those rolls is a 2, it's a failure, so you may choose to stop rolling even if you could otherwise go on.
If the Active number is higher than the Passive, that is a Success. If the Active is higher than TWICE the Passive, that is TWO successes, three times, three successes, and so forth. Some long tasks may take multiple successes to achieve, which would normally mean taking several turns and several attempts. In other cases, multiple successes may just mean a really impressive success, or a success so great that it has other beneficial side effects.
Multiple successes on a single roll will generally be rare -- except for Damage Calculations.
DAMAGE CALCULATION
There are three forms of Damage -- Physical, Mental, and Spiritual/Social, although it is quite likely that all three will not be used in all games.
The most common will likely be Physical Damage.
Every weapon or attack will have a Damage Factor. The Damage Factor is used as an Active number, while the Wound Resistance is a Passive number -- Damage Factor+2d6 is compared to Wound Resistance+2d6. Every success the Damage Factor scores moves the victim one line down on the Physical Injury table.
To calculate Physical Damage, you use the attack's damage+2d6 as the Active roll, and the target's Wound Resistance+2d6 as the Passive. If the Attack Damage roll is a 2, the target got lucky -- the bullet was stopped by her lucky medallion, the pistol misfired, or something like that, and there is no damage. If the Injury Resistance roll is a 2, the target got unlucky -- it's some sort of Critical Damage thingy. The GM should roll 2d6, and, the higher the roll (open-ended), the more serious it should be. As a rule of thumb -- if it's over 7, it should probably end the fight, and if it's over 12, it should probably have lasting damage. Something over 24 is a career-ender -- limb loss, brain damage . . . the character is still a character, but is significantly less competent in combat.
Attack Damage for weapons can be very high -- 20 or more for some weapons, so multiple successes will be common. Each success increases the injury level on the injury table by 1. So four successes would Seriously Injure someone, while eight will kill them.
Physical Injury table:
0 Healthy
1 Scratched
2 Flesh wound
3 Hurt
4 Seriously Injured
5 Crippled
6 Incapacitated
7 Critical
N/A Dead
The number next to the description -- from 0 to 7 -- is the minus they have to every physical action they take from then on. I haven't decided if Wound Resistance is included in that -- if so, it would make the "Death Spiral" (once you start losing, you lose faster and faster) even worse, but, since it WOULD reduce your ability to attack back, the "Death Spiral" is already there. . .
Mental Injury and Social Injury will work in a similar way, although I've not worked out details. The Mental Injury table will probably be used for dealing with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, and the Social Injury table for games in which jockeying for social position is vital. The minuses would be for mental or social actions, instead of physical actions, and I've not decided how you'd calculate Mental and Social Injury Resistance.
Mental Injury Table
0 Stable
1 Puzzled
2 Confused
3 Baffled
4 Dazed
5 Lost
6 Incoherent
7 Unhinged
N/A Catatonic
Social Injury Table
0 Accepted
1 Discomfited
2 Chagrined
3 Embarrassed
4 Humiliated
5 Shamed
6 Hated
7 Pariah
N/A Outcast
-0 / -1 / -2 = Mild
-3 / -4 / -5 = Serious
-6 / -7 / N/A = Catastrophic