So I'm attempting to make a full RPG for my local group to play, and anyone else on the interbutts who would find the genre and style to their liking. If anyone is interested, or would just like to leave some feedback in general, or would like to comment on the design for the sake of discussing design, this is the thread.
So, what is this RPG about?
Earth Defense Society is about a secret society of superhumans protecting modern day Earth from otherworldly threats, in an anime kung-fu style. The "martial arts" presented will be crazy stuff and will bear little resemblance to real world physics, with magic and psychic powers also present. You should be able to model basically any anime hero you want by creating your own Style to emulate them, or just create your own original character do not steal.
What are the mechanical basics?
A d6 dicepool system, where 4-6 count as a hit and 1-3 count as a miss. Most rolls will be an Attribute plus a Skill, with possible additions or subtractions based on equipment, environmental factors, preparation and any magic flying around. Each character will have a number of actions they can perform on their turn, with a limited ability to perform actions on other characters' turns.
What are the setting basics?
There are two worlds in this game. The first is the Real World- exactly our modern day Earth, except with a masquerade in place to protect the population from all the supernatural stuff. The second world is the Dream World, a chaotic place that follows la-la logic instead of real physics, where magic and psychic powers are as normal as having arms and legs. Most player characters will belong to an organization called the Earth Defense Society- a global, but quite unorganized, group that protects the Earth from any monsters or harmful natural phenomenon that leaks in from the Dream World. A group of characters is called a chapter, due to being a chapter of the Earth Defense Society and having basic authority over the supernatural stuff in their territory.
Can you give me a good reason why there is a masquerade at all?
Yes. The barrier between the Real World and the Dream World has a difficulty to cross based on how powerful you are- very powerful things cannot cross at all, and normal humans are so weak they can cross over accidentally. The only thing keeping all of humanity from frequently crossing over into a world that would kill them is their ignorance of such a place- in effect, if humankind learned of the Dream World, the human race would end in weeks. A more detailed explanation will get its own section later.
And what will a game session look like?
Characters will generally start in the Real World before the inciting incident happens. A monster from the Dream World might cross over and start smashing things, or perhaps one of the more subtle monsters come and start doing something nefarious. Either way, the players should defeat the monster, investigate how the monster got into Earth, and probably travel to the Dream World to either exterminate the nest of monsters causing trouble or seal the way into Earth. So combat->investigation->exploration->more combat/problem solving. That's a "generic" adventure for this setting.
You got any numbers yet?
Sure do! Let's run down various Target Numbers, starting with the Base Difficulty Chart, and then get into character creation and the numbers characters are allocated for doing things.
Base Difficulty Chart
TN 0: No challenge. This includes stuff like breathing, keeping your balance on a wide road, and recalling your own name. Note that you can actually fail one of these checks due to penalties.
TN 1: Easy. Stuff you can do every day without even thinking about it. Navigating traffic, taking care of your pet, cooking a meal.
TN 2: Normal. Things you have to dedicate effort to but any reasonable adult can be expected to succeed. Rearing a puppy, changing your tires, writing a paper, running an average mile.
TN 3: Hard. The kind of thing that takes real effort for most people and can still end in failure. Writing a graduate thesis, climbing an unsecured cliff, racing a motorcycle, living in the wilderness.
TN 4: Professional. Where real experts do their work, and amateurs usually fail. This is where a CEO would broker a successful merger, a spy would sneak onto an active military base, or a pop star would put on a great concert.
TN 5: Human maximum. The greatest feats a bog standard human can reach. Performing a push up/handstand with two fingers, docking with a space station, solving legendary math problems. Humans without powers literally cap out here- even if they roll higher, their result is treated as a 5, and they cannot make any TN higher than this without outside assistance.
TN 6: Superhuman. Beyond the reach of mortals. Performing a push up with the power of your brain, stealing someone's pants off their butt without them noticing, reattaching a lost limb by sowing it on.
TN 7: Difficult superhuman. Most adult superhumans find they do not advance beyond this point, as it takes someone truly tremendous to advance further. Noticing a fly on the top of the Empire State building while standing at the bottom, leaping across the English channel, brainwashing a whole crowd in the span of singing one song.
TN 8: Powerful superhuman. The best, leading experts in their field. A pilot who can squeeze a fighter jet through a living room door at top speed, cross breeding animals to create true-breeding new species, convincing your worst enemy that they are madly in love with you and getting a marriage proposal from them.
TN 9: Legendary. Feats so amazing that they are recorded in history. Splitting a mountain in half with the air pressure from a swing of your sword, picking up and moving a river with your strength alone, singing a song that raises an island from the sea. Any characters who are not actual gods are capped at this result.
TN 10+: Godlike. Literally redefining what physics will allow. Ripping all the electrons out of all atoms in the world with your brain in an instant, Shattering the concept of time by hating it hard enough, punching someone so hard they go through puberty backwards. Only very special people in exceptional circumstances can achieve these results. Any result above 10 is superfluous unless directly competing with another godlike entity in a contest- a result of 10 does basically anything you want it to.
Nest post- character creation basics.
Earth Defense Society (discussion of basic design)
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spongeknight
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Earth Defense Society (discussion of basic design)
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
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spongeknight
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Attributes
Attributes are the basics of the basics- they define the physical, mental and social aspects of your character. The attributes are, in fact, divided into those three categories.
Physical Attributes are your Might, Agility, and Precision. Taken together they represent the sum total of what you can do with your body. In combat, your physical attack accuracy is based on your Precision, your defense is based on Agility, and both your damage and soak are based on Might.
Your Might is your strength, toughness, and basic physical power to exert force on things. You would use your Might to smash objects, deal damage with physical weapons, absorb damage done to you by physical weapons, hold your breath underwater, keep a plank going, and so forth.
Your Agility accounts for reflexes, flexibility, and speed. Your agility determines how good you are at dodging incoming objects, squeezing through tight spaces, dancing, racing and so on.
Your Precision is how accurately you can move your body and hand-eye coordination. It determines how well you shoot a basket, build a ship in a bottle, and your aim.
Mental Attributes show how well you think and, in the case of those with the potential, how strong your magic powers are. Your three Mental Attributes are Intelligence, Wits and Awareness. In combat, your magical attack accuracy is based on your Awareness, your defense is based on your Wits, and both your damage and soak are based on Intelligence.
Intelligence is a measure of your memory, logic, and knowledge. It is what you would access to recall on obscure fact you once studied, solve a puzzle or pit your mind against another. Magically, you would also use Intelligence to craft a magic circle, study and understand an ancient tome and so forth.
Wits is your intuition, ability to think on your feat and leap to the correct conclusions. You'd use your Wits to whip together a makeshift tool with the items on hand, instantly come up with a cover story, or tell instantly when something is fishy. Magically, your Wits would help you identify another spell or intuitively move to defend against something hostile.
Your Awareness is your perception, understanding, and wide view of the world. While your Wits may cause you to leap to a conclusion, the use of Awareness is a slow, deliberate process of piecing all the information together to come up with a much more detailed picture. You would use Awareness to spot hidden objects, aim correctly, and spot inconsistencies or illusions.
Social Attributes are all about interacting with others. The three Social Attributes are Charisma, Willpower and Friendship. In combat, your psychic attack is based on Friendship, your defense is based on Willpower, and both your damage and soak are based on Charisma.
Charisma is the strength of your personality and how well you are able to influence others. Convincing someone to do what you want, charming them, or influencing a crowd are all aspects of Charisma. Psychically, Charisma determines how strong your psychic powers are and how much blunt force they can exert.
Willpower is all about resistance. In order to resist temptation, the sweet words of others, or just following through with something unpleasant, Willpower has it covered. In terms of psychic powers Willpower is your first defensive wall.
Friendship is how well you understand others, empathize, and see patterns in relationships. You would use Friendship to read the mood of a crowd, understand what someone is thinking, and determine what someone wants. Using psychic powers, Friendship determines how well you can slide around someone's defenses and use their own desires against them.
These nine Attributes make up the basic person. A normal adult human being has an average of 2 in each of these stats. A teenager or child has an average of 1, and babies or the infirm have an average of 0. Human maximum is 4. During character creation, all of these start at 1 and can be bought up. A standard starting character would prioritize his Attributes- choosing his Physical, Mental and Social to be Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. They would then receive 8 points for their Primary, 6 points for their Secondary and 4 points for their Tertiary. None of their Attributes can be raised above 5. All points are added linearly.
An example starting character might have their basic Attributes look like this:
Might 4
Agility 4
Precision 3
Intelligence 2
Wits 3
Awareness 2
Charisma 3
Willpower 4
Friendship 2
Next up, skills
Attributes are the basics of the basics- they define the physical, mental and social aspects of your character. The attributes are, in fact, divided into those three categories.
Physical Attributes are your Might, Agility, and Precision. Taken together they represent the sum total of what you can do with your body. In combat, your physical attack accuracy is based on your Precision, your defense is based on Agility, and both your damage and soak are based on Might.
Your Might is your strength, toughness, and basic physical power to exert force on things. You would use your Might to smash objects, deal damage with physical weapons, absorb damage done to you by physical weapons, hold your breath underwater, keep a plank going, and so forth.
Your Agility accounts for reflexes, flexibility, and speed. Your agility determines how good you are at dodging incoming objects, squeezing through tight spaces, dancing, racing and so on.
Your Precision is how accurately you can move your body and hand-eye coordination. It determines how well you shoot a basket, build a ship in a bottle, and your aim.
Mental Attributes show how well you think and, in the case of those with the potential, how strong your magic powers are. Your three Mental Attributes are Intelligence, Wits and Awareness. In combat, your magical attack accuracy is based on your Awareness, your defense is based on your Wits, and both your damage and soak are based on Intelligence.
Intelligence is a measure of your memory, logic, and knowledge. It is what you would access to recall on obscure fact you once studied, solve a puzzle or pit your mind against another. Magically, you would also use Intelligence to craft a magic circle, study and understand an ancient tome and so forth.
Wits is your intuition, ability to think on your feat and leap to the correct conclusions. You'd use your Wits to whip together a makeshift tool with the items on hand, instantly come up with a cover story, or tell instantly when something is fishy. Magically, your Wits would help you identify another spell or intuitively move to defend against something hostile.
Your Awareness is your perception, understanding, and wide view of the world. While your Wits may cause you to leap to a conclusion, the use of Awareness is a slow, deliberate process of piecing all the information together to come up with a much more detailed picture. You would use Awareness to spot hidden objects, aim correctly, and spot inconsistencies or illusions.
Social Attributes are all about interacting with others. The three Social Attributes are Charisma, Willpower and Friendship. In combat, your psychic attack is based on Friendship, your defense is based on Willpower, and both your damage and soak are based on Charisma.
Charisma is the strength of your personality and how well you are able to influence others. Convincing someone to do what you want, charming them, or influencing a crowd are all aspects of Charisma. Psychically, Charisma determines how strong your psychic powers are and how much blunt force they can exert.
Willpower is all about resistance. In order to resist temptation, the sweet words of others, or just following through with something unpleasant, Willpower has it covered. In terms of psychic powers Willpower is your first defensive wall.
Friendship is how well you understand others, empathize, and see patterns in relationships. You would use Friendship to read the mood of a crowd, understand what someone is thinking, and determine what someone wants. Using psychic powers, Friendship determines how well you can slide around someone's defenses and use their own desires against them.
These nine Attributes make up the basic person. A normal adult human being has an average of 2 in each of these stats. A teenager or child has an average of 1, and babies or the infirm have an average of 0. Human maximum is 4. During character creation, all of these start at 1 and can be bought up. A standard starting character would prioritize his Attributes- choosing his Physical, Mental and Social to be Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. They would then receive 8 points for their Primary, 6 points for their Secondary and 4 points for their Tertiary. None of their Attributes can be raised above 5. All points are added linearly.
An example starting character might have their basic Attributes look like this:
Might 4
Agility 4
Precision 3
Intelligence 2
Wits 3
Awareness 2
Charisma 3
Willpower 4
Friendship 2
Next up, skills
Last edited by spongeknight on Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
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spongeknight
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Okay, typing up all the skills is a huge pain in the ass, and you all know what skills basically do, some I'm going to skip a bunch of stuff here. The basics are simple. A normal human adult has 2 in any skill they do in their daily life, a skill of 1~3 in any hobby they might have, and maximum for a human is 4 points in any skill. Combined with the info in the Attributes section, we can see that an average adult has a dicepool of 4 for tasks they will use in everyday life.
Skill list: Athletics, Acrobatics, Combat, Pilot, Thievery, Perception, Stealth, Survival, Empathy, Creation, Intimidation, Persuasion, Teamwork, Heal, Knowledge, Rigging, Beast Handling, Magic, Psychic Phenomenon, Ki Mastery, Dream World Expertise
Skills each have their own, much more detailed TN chart for tasks, but typing that will take approximately forever and is only half-completed in any case so we'll get back to it later.
New characters get 40 points for skills at character creation, and no skill can go over 5. Skills start at 0.
A starting hero can therefor toss down 10 dice if they ultra-specialize in doing something. More commonly, characters will have around 7-8 dice in things they care about doing, landing them in the "close to human limits" part of the TN chart. Fairly quickly they should earn some XP and get solidly into the "superhuman" part.
Power Level
People are expressed in terms of Power Level, a measure of their overall ability, experience and supernatural power. Someone who is Power Level 1 (PL1) is a beginner, while a PL5 is amazingly powerful. The whole chart is:
PL0: Civilians, human beings who have not awakened powers. They have a maximum of Attributes and Skills of 4 and cannot do anything supernatural.
PL1: Beginning heroes, standard Dream World citizens. Maximum of 6 in Attributes/Skills, open chakra, can learn supernatural fighting styles
PL2: Cool, experienced heroes. Maximums of 8, can learn Master styles
PL3: Awesome heroes. Max of 9, can learn a Grandmaster style
PL4: Legendary heroes. Max of 10, unlimited Grandmaster styles
PL5: Highest order of beings- no maximum stats. Often only have one weakness and invincible to most things.
Conversely, now I can toss up the World Travel Difficulty chart for travel between worlds. Your dicepool for the check to cross worlds is just the inverse of your Power Level. In other words, someone at PL4 would have 1 die in their pool, while someone at PL2 would have 3 dice.
World Travel Difficulty
TN0: Someone or something has crossed the two worlds; no barrier for entry
TN1: The Dream World is bleeding heavily into the Real World: easy entry
TN2: Standard existence, just a little overlap
TN3: weak connection
TN4: Almost completely blocked
All supernatural characters have martial arts that they use to fight. Whether those styles are grounded in the physical, using ki to power themselves far beyond normal physical limits, magic, using the power of the mind and the formulae of the universe to accomplish impossible tasks, or psychic powers, exploiting the connection of the soul that all being possess, all styles function in similar ways. They are organized by Style, and use either the Physical, Mental or Social stats to determine their effectiveness.
Styles
Each style is organized into four levels of mastery- Apprentice, Practitioner, Master and Grand Master. Each level gives you five maneuvers, which are recorded on cards.
The Deck
Your deck holds 20 cards. At the start of combat, you draw a hand of 5 cards and can play those each once until the end of your turn, where you shuffle your hand back into the deck and immediately draw 5 new cards. Repeat this every round until the combat ends. You can switch out any number of cards from your Deck with a full night’s sleep, or 1 solid hour of rest and meditation. Your Deck can be made up of maneuvers from any number of styles.
Attack Maneuvers
Your attacks are in one of three major categories- Quick, Balanced, or Strong. Normally you may only play one attack maneuver on your turn, unless you perform a combo.
C-C-C-Combo!
You can combo a Quick attack into a Balanced or a Balanced into a Strong. If you have all three types, you may play one of each type. You must start with the Quick, then play the Balanced, and then the Strong. These do not all have to be the same target- indeed, some of these attacks may well be area attacks or throws or something- but each attack is defended against separately.
Defense Maneuvers
There are three major categories of defensive maneuvers- Dodge, Block, and Counter. A Dodge increases the likelihood of completely negating an attack, a Block increases your damage resistance against a single attack, and a Counter doesn’t boost your defenses but allows you to strike back against your attacker. You may play any number of defensive maneuvers on your turn, but only one per attack.
Out of Combat
When not threatened by an enemy or in a hurry, you can use any maneuver in your Deck, including combos, freely. With five minutes of meditation you can use any maneuver you know that is not in your Deck, including combos, once.
Skill list: Athletics, Acrobatics, Combat, Pilot, Thievery, Perception, Stealth, Survival, Empathy, Creation, Intimidation, Persuasion, Teamwork, Heal, Knowledge, Rigging, Beast Handling, Magic, Psychic Phenomenon, Ki Mastery, Dream World Expertise
Skills each have their own, much more detailed TN chart for tasks, but typing that will take approximately forever and is only half-completed in any case so we'll get back to it later.
New characters get 40 points for skills at character creation, and no skill can go over 5. Skills start at 0.
A starting hero can therefor toss down 10 dice if they ultra-specialize in doing something. More commonly, characters will have around 7-8 dice in things they care about doing, landing them in the "close to human limits" part of the TN chart. Fairly quickly they should earn some XP and get solidly into the "superhuman" part.
Power Level
People are expressed in terms of Power Level, a measure of their overall ability, experience and supernatural power. Someone who is Power Level 1 (PL1) is a beginner, while a PL5 is amazingly powerful. The whole chart is:
PL0: Civilians, human beings who have not awakened powers. They have a maximum of Attributes and Skills of 4 and cannot do anything supernatural.
PL1: Beginning heroes, standard Dream World citizens. Maximum of 6 in Attributes/Skills, open chakra, can learn supernatural fighting styles
PL2: Cool, experienced heroes. Maximums of 8, can learn Master styles
PL3: Awesome heroes. Max of 9, can learn a Grandmaster style
PL4: Legendary heroes. Max of 10, unlimited Grandmaster styles
PL5: Highest order of beings- no maximum stats. Often only have one weakness and invincible to most things.
Conversely, now I can toss up the World Travel Difficulty chart for travel between worlds. Your dicepool for the check to cross worlds is just the inverse of your Power Level. In other words, someone at PL4 would have 1 die in their pool, while someone at PL2 would have 3 dice.
World Travel Difficulty
TN0: Someone or something has crossed the two worlds; no barrier for entry
TN1: The Dream World is bleeding heavily into the Real World: easy entry
TN2: Standard existence, just a little overlap
TN3: weak connection
TN4: Almost completely blocked
All supernatural characters have martial arts that they use to fight. Whether those styles are grounded in the physical, using ki to power themselves far beyond normal physical limits, magic, using the power of the mind and the formulae of the universe to accomplish impossible tasks, or psychic powers, exploiting the connection of the soul that all being possess, all styles function in similar ways. They are organized by Style, and use either the Physical, Mental or Social stats to determine their effectiveness.
Styles
Each style is organized into four levels of mastery- Apprentice, Practitioner, Master and Grand Master. Each level gives you five maneuvers, which are recorded on cards.
The Deck
Your deck holds 20 cards. At the start of combat, you draw a hand of 5 cards and can play those each once until the end of your turn, where you shuffle your hand back into the deck and immediately draw 5 new cards. Repeat this every round until the combat ends. You can switch out any number of cards from your Deck with a full night’s sleep, or 1 solid hour of rest and meditation. Your Deck can be made up of maneuvers from any number of styles.
Attack Maneuvers
Your attacks are in one of three major categories- Quick, Balanced, or Strong. Normally you may only play one attack maneuver on your turn, unless you perform a combo.
C-C-C-Combo!
You can combo a Quick attack into a Balanced or a Balanced into a Strong. If you have all three types, you may play one of each type. You must start with the Quick, then play the Balanced, and then the Strong. These do not all have to be the same target- indeed, some of these attacks may well be area attacks or throws or something- but each attack is defended against separately.
Defense Maneuvers
There are three major categories of defensive maneuvers- Dodge, Block, and Counter. A Dodge increases the likelihood of completely negating an attack, a Block increases your damage resistance against a single attack, and a Counter doesn’t boost your defenses but allows you to strike back against your attacker. You may play any number of defensive maneuvers on your turn, but only one per attack.
Out of Combat
When not threatened by an enemy or in a hurry, you can use any maneuver in your Deck, including combos, freely. With five minutes of meditation you can use any maneuver you know that is not in your Deck, including combos, once.
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
I'd look at Koumei's Bakuhatsu High for inspiration and ability ideas, for starters.
FrankTrollman wrote: Halfling women, as I'm sure you are aware, combine all the "fun" parts of pedophilia without any of the disturbing, illegal, or immoral parts.
K wrote:That being said, the usefulness of airships for society is still transporting cargo because it's an option that doesn't require a powerful wizard to show up for work on time instead of blowing the day in his harem of extraplanar sex demons/angels.
Chamomile wrote: See, it's because K's belief in leaving generation of individual monsters to GMs makes him Chaotic, whereas Frank's belief in the easier usability of monsters pre-generated by game designers makes him Lawful, and clearly these philosophies are so irreconcilable as to be best represented as fundamentally opposed metaphysical forces.
Whipstitch wrote:You're on a mad quest, dude. I'd sooner bet on Zeus getting bored and letting Sisyphus put down the fucking rock.
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OgreBattle
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Doesn't TN usually refer to what number you have to hit or roll over? I'm used to reading "how many hits you need to succeed" as 'Theshold of success' instead.
The card system looks interesting. Are cards repeated? Having a deck of 20 and drawing 5 cards that are shuffled back into the deck every turn does seem like a lot though, how long is a combat expected to last?
I don't know anything about the deck system yet but I'd consider cards having a dual function so "Intercepting Fist" can either be a quick attack or used as a counter. I just have the feeling that drawing a hand of only dodges and blocks is going to feel bad so it'd be best to design in a way where it doesn't happen. Another consideration is to have combat cards which have both an attack and defense characteristic and you match them against enemy maneuvers, kind of like MTG creature power/toughness.
I'm assuming these cards use the combat skill for combat, but will there also be cards that use other skills in combat, like a stealth sneak attack?
Do you plan on non-combat stuff also using a deck, like social situations or sneaking?
The card system looks interesting. Are cards repeated? Having a deck of 20 and drawing 5 cards that are shuffled back into the deck every turn does seem like a lot though, how long is a combat expected to last?
I don't know anything about the deck system yet but I'd consider cards having a dual function so "Intercepting Fist" can either be a quick attack or used as a counter. I just have the feeling that drawing a hand of only dodges and blocks is going to feel bad so it'd be best to design in a way where it doesn't happen. Another consideration is to have combat cards which have both an attack and defense characteristic and you match them against enemy maneuvers, kind of like MTG creature power/toughness.
I'm assuming these cards use the combat skill for combat, but will there also be cards that use other skills in combat, like a stealth sneak attack?
Do you plan on non-combat stuff also using a deck, like social situations or sneaking?
Last edited by OgreBattle on Fri Jul 08, 2016 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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spongeknight
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Already have. My group played a few very enjoyable sessions of that game, but the combat was too limited for us to keep with it for very long. I certainly am stealing a few good bits from it though.Mask_De_H wrote:I'd look at Koumei's Bakuhatsu High for inspiration and ability ideas, for starters.
Housecats would have a 0 in Mgt like babies- they can't accomplish anything at TN1 in terms of strength. But yes, that's something I'm worried about. I just really want to get to the awesome phenomenal cosmic powers without throwing thousands of dice around, so I have the results start ramping up really quickly. I think they're okay for the most part but I'm definitely still working on them.pragma wrote:The range on your attributes is pretty small. There's not a lot of room to stat up a housecat that can't outwrestle a teenager (both would have average stats of 1, I presume). Might consider upping the average dice pool a bit and scalling TN accordingly.
OgreBattle wrote:Doesn't TN usually refer to what number you have to hit or roll over? I'm used to reading "how many hits you need to succeed" as 'Theshold of success' instead.
Yes, but Target Number is such a good term for the number of hits you need to get.
OgreBattle wrote:The card system looks interesting. Are cards repeated? Having a deck of 20 and drawing 5 cards that are shuffled back into the deck every turn does seem like a lot though, how long is a combat expected to last?
You shuffle cards in and draw them after your turn, which is on someone else's turn, so it doesn't actually take any game time. I don't think the wording on that was clear, I'll fix that. Combat should be a few rounds. I'll hopefully put all the rest of the info up today since I have the day off work.
In a Style you'll have 3 attack cards in your Apprentice level and 2 in your Practitioner, so it will be extremely rare to not draw any attack cards as your starting Deck will have 10/20 cards be attack cards. You can indeed start swapping cards out as you get more Styles with XP, but if you take out attack cards and complain that you don't draw attack cards frequently enough...OgreBattle wrote:I don't know anything about the deck system yet but I'd consider cards having a dual function so "Intercepting Fist" can either be a quick attack or used as a counter. I just have the feeling that drawing a hand of only dodges and blocks is going to feel bad so it'd be best to design in a way where it doesn't happen.
As I have heard frequently here, use your actual functional minigame to represent as much of your playspace as possible, so yes. There will be 3 things you can do outside of combat with combat mechanics. Contests, Debates, and Befriendings. The short version is that there will be Styles like "Rational Empowerment" or "Innocence of Youth" and whatnot that, when used while talking to someone instead of trying to kill them, end with the states of "convinced barkeep to give you a round on credit" or "persuaded defeated minion to give up info on his boss."OgreBattle wrote:I'm assuming these cards use the combat skill for combat, but will there also be cards that use other skills in combat, like a stealth sneak attack? Do you plan on non-combat stuff also using a deck, like social situations or sneaking?
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
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spongeknight
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Combat basics
Health Points
You have a number of Health Points (HP) equal to your Power Level times 10, minimum of 1. So a PL0 nobody has 1 hp and a starting hero has 10. When your hp reaches 0 you are unconscious. An NPC who is brought down to 0 hp is either dying, if dealt lethal damage, or just unconscious if dealt stun damage. A dying character will die if they receive more lethal damage, more than ten minutes pass without receiving medical care, or if they have a Condition like bleed, burn, poison, weakened, etc. for two rounds while dying.
For player characters even if lethal damage brings your total hp to 0, you do not die from this damage. After all, anime protagonists don't die even if you kill them. Instead, any damage that would be dealt to you while unconscious is treated as a Wound, which heals very slowly. Once you have as many Wounds as hp, you die. An opponent of equal or greater PL can also use the execute action if you are unconscious withing their reach, killing you. So I guess you do die when you are killed.
Attacking
When trying to hit someone in combat, you take a major action to roll a skill check of combat+your relevant Attribute. This will be Precision for a physical/ki attack, Awareness for a mental/magical attack, or Friendship for a social/psychic attack. If you meet or exceed their relevant defense, you hit them.
Defending
Your defense value is your combat skill plus your Attribute, divided by two (round down). Agility is physical/ki defense, Wits is mental/magical, Willpower is social/psychic. A character with 3 Agility and 4 combat, for example, has a Physical Defense of 3.
Dealing damage
Your damage is your Attribute plus your weapon. You do not roll anything. Might is physical/ki damage, Intelligence is mental/magic damage, and Charisma is social/psychic damage.
Soaking damage
When a character receives damage, they attempt to soak that damage automatically. Your Attribute plus your armor is your dicepool for soaking incoming damage. Each hit soaks 1 damage, and any remainder is taken away from your current HP.
Conditions and saving
Sometimes in place of or in addition to damage you will want to place a Condition on an enemy. A Condition has a Target Number to resist equal to your Attribute plus your weapon damage. To resist, the target rolls their soak like normal. If they reach the Target Number with their soak, they suffer no effects. If they fail, they are affected by the Condition. If they fail by the same amount or more than their current hp, they suffer the second effect of that Condition which is usually some form of complete defeat. If an attack both deals damage and inflicts a Condition, the target uses one soak roll for both effects with each success counting towards both taking less damage and resisting the Condition.
Health Points
You have a number of Health Points (HP) equal to your Power Level times 10, minimum of 1. So a PL0 nobody has 1 hp and a starting hero has 10. When your hp reaches 0 you are unconscious. An NPC who is brought down to 0 hp is either dying, if dealt lethal damage, or just unconscious if dealt stun damage. A dying character will die if they receive more lethal damage, more than ten minutes pass without receiving medical care, or if they have a Condition like bleed, burn, poison, weakened, etc. for two rounds while dying.
For player characters even if lethal damage brings your total hp to 0, you do not die from this damage. After all, anime protagonists don't die even if you kill them. Instead, any damage that would be dealt to you while unconscious is treated as a Wound, which heals very slowly. Once you have as many Wounds as hp, you die. An opponent of equal or greater PL can also use the execute action if you are unconscious withing their reach, killing you. So I guess you do die when you are killed.
Attacking
When trying to hit someone in combat, you take a major action to roll a skill check of combat+your relevant Attribute. This will be Precision for a physical/ki attack, Awareness for a mental/magical attack, or Friendship for a social/psychic attack. If you meet or exceed their relevant defense, you hit them.
Defending
Your defense value is your combat skill plus your Attribute, divided by two (round down). Agility is physical/ki defense, Wits is mental/magical, Willpower is social/psychic. A character with 3 Agility and 4 combat, for example, has a Physical Defense of 3.
Dealing damage
Your damage is your Attribute plus your weapon. You do not roll anything. Might is physical/ki damage, Intelligence is mental/magic damage, and Charisma is social/psychic damage.
Soaking damage
When a character receives damage, they attempt to soak that damage automatically. Your Attribute plus your armor is your dicepool for soaking incoming damage. Each hit soaks 1 damage, and any remainder is taken away from your current HP.
Conditions and saving
Sometimes in place of or in addition to damage you will want to place a Condition on an enemy. A Condition has a Target Number to resist equal to your Attribute plus your weapon damage. To resist, the target rolls their soak like normal. If they reach the Target Number with their soak, they suffer no effects. If they fail, they are affected by the Condition. If they fail by the same amount or more than their current hp, they suffer the second effect of that Condition which is usually some form of complete defeat. If an attack both deals damage and inflicts a Condition, the target uses one soak roll for both effects with each success counting towards both taking less damage and resisting the Condition.
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
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spongeknight
- Master
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Chakra
All living things have various nodes throughout their body called chakras, points where the physical and spiritual energies of a living thing mix and then spread throughout the body. It is at these chakras that powerful, binding effects can be tied to the body, making them function for the individual.
Chakra binding
All cognizant species in both the Real World and the Dream World have 7 ckaras- the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown chakras, forming a rough line up the body. Each one of these can bind a permanent spell, a magic item, or the special powers that a powerful species can manifest. However, each bound chakra is taxing on the spirit of the user. Not just anyone can bind seven chakra and run around like normal. At Power Level 1, up to two chakra can be bound. This increases to four at PL2, six at PL3, and all seven at PL4.
Equipment
There are many pieces of equipment that don't need to be bound to your chakra, or merely have greater effect when bound but can be used unbound. These are called equipment.
Weapons
The most obvious form of equipment, weapons help you kill things better (or just knock them unconscious). They are divided into light, balanced, and heavy classifications. Each has a value that add to your Physical, Mental and Psychic damage. A light weapon is wielded in one hand, a heavy weapon requires two hands, and a balanced weapon can be wielded with either one or two hands.
Single wielding
If you wield only a single balanced weapon with nothing in your second hand, you receive a +2 bonus to initiative. If before initiative starts you switch to a two-handed grip, you instead receive +1 to damage.
Dual wielding
If you have a light weapon in your second hand and either a balanced or light weapon in your main hand, you receive a +2 to accuracy. You may attack with either weapon freely.
Weapon and shield
If your second hand is occupied by a shield, you gain the defense bonus of the shield as a bonus to your defenses (before dividing).
Heavy weapon
Wielding a heavy weapon does not grant you any special bonuses, but they have the highest damage of weapon types.
In general, a light weapon will have stats that hover around +2/+1/+0. That is, it adds 2 damage to one type (Physical, Mental or Psychic), +1 to another type, and +0 to the third. Balanced weapons will mostly look like a +3/+2/+1 spread, while heavy is +4/+4/+3. Some weapons will be much more specialized, and stuff made of better material and whatever will be stronger, but that's the general gist of it.
Armor
Unsurprisingly, armor also comes in three varieties: light, balanced and heavy. Slightly more surprisingly, armor is made of different material depending on what type of damage it is designed to protect against. Woven cloth is effective at disrupting magic, iron is strong against ki, and leather (or other things that were or are living) is effective at blocking psychics. Perhaps even more strangely, artful designs and "impractical" cuts are actually more effective at protecting against damage effects than just encasing yourself entirely in functional armor. Weird, right?
Light armor doesn't actually offer less protection that heavy armor, it just does so for different attacks. As mostly woven cloth, light armor is designed to protect against magic. In general it has a +6 soak bonus against magic, and +4 against either psychic or physical, depending on what it is trimmed with- heavy iron buckles, leather, or some other material. The last category has a +2 soak.
Balanced armor is generally made of leather, wood, or some other living or previously alive material. It is most effective against psychic attacks, having a +6 soak against them. It has a +4 soak against physical or magical attacks, depending on how it is constructed, and a +2 soak against the third attack type.
Heavy armor is, you guessed it, effective against physical attacks. It is generally either made of iron, steel, or something very heavy reinforced with steel rivets. It has +6 soak against physical, +4 against its secondary type and +2 against the tertiary.
All living things have various nodes throughout their body called chakras, points where the physical and spiritual energies of a living thing mix and then spread throughout the body. It is at these chakras that powerful, binding effects can be tied to the body, making them function for the individual.
Chakra binding
All cognizant species in both the Real World and the Dream World have 7 ckaras- the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown chakras, forming a rough line up the body. Each one of these can bind a permanent spell, a magic item, or the special powers that a powerful species can manifest. However, each bound chakra is taxing on the spirit of the user. Not just anyone can bind seven chakra and run around like normal. At Power Level 1, up to two chakra can be bound. This increases to four at PL2, six at PL3, and all seven at PL4.
Equipment
There are many pieces of equipment that don't need to be bound to your chakra, or merely have greater effect when bound but can be used unbound. These are called equipment.
Weapons
The most obvious form of equipment, weapons help you kill things better (or just knock them unconscious). They are divided into light, balanced, and heavy classifications. Each has a value that add to your Physical, Mental and Psychic damage. A light weapon is wielded in one hand, a heavy weapon requires two hands, and a balanced weapon can be wielded with either one or two hands.
Single wielding
If you wield only a single balanced weapon with nothing in your second hand, you receive a +2 bonus to initiative. If before initiative starts you switch to a two-handed grip, you instead receive +1 to damage.
Dual wielding
If you have a light weapon in your second hand and either a balanced or light weapon in your main hand, you receive a +2 to accuracy. You may attack with either weapon freely.
Weapon and shield
If your second hand is occupied by a shield, you gain the defense bonus of the shield as a bonus to your defenses (before dividing).
Heavy weapon
Wielding a heavy weapon does not grant you any special bonuses, but they have the highest damage of weapon types.
In general, a light weapon will have stats that hover around +2/+1/+0. That is, it adds 2 damage to one type (Physical, Mental or Psychic), +1 to another type, and +0 to the third. Balanced weapons will mostly look like a +3/+2/+1 spread, while heavy is +4/+4/+3. Some weapons will be much more specialized, and stuff made of better material and whatever will be stronger, but that's the general gist of it.
Armor
Unsurprisingly, armor also comes in three varieties: light, balanced and heavy. Slightly more surprisingly, armor is made of different material depending on what type of damage it is designed to protect against. Woven cloth is effective at disrupting magic, iron is strong against ki, and leather (or other things that were or are living) is effective at blocking psychics. Perhaps even more strangely, artful designs and "impractical" cuts are actually more effective at protecting against damage effects than just encasing yourself entirely in functional armor. Weird, right?
Light armor doesn't actually offer less protection that heavy armor, it just does so for different attacks. As mostly woven cloth, light armor is designed to protect against magic. In general it has a +6 soak bonus against magic, and +4 against either psychic or physical, depending on what it is trimmed with- heavy iron buckles, leather, or some other material. The last category has a +2 soak.
Balanced armor is generally made of leather, wood, or some other living or previously alive material. It is most effective against psychic attacks, having a +6 soak against them. It has a +4 soak against physical or magical attacks, depending on how it is constructed, and a +2 soak against the third attack type.
Heavy armor is, you guessed it, effective against physical attacks. It is generally either made of iron, steel, or something very heavy reinforced with steel rivets. It has +6 soak against physical, +4 against its secondary type and +2 against the tertiary.
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
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Judging__Eagle
- Prince
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- Location: Lake Ontario is in my backyard; Canada
You could also call it "HN", for Hits Number. The use of TN in both the Dice roll; and the counting of successful dice rolls is a tad confusing.spongeknight wrote:OgreBattle wrote:Doesn't TN usually refer to what number you have to hit or roll over? I'm used to reading "how many hits you need to succeed" as 'Theshold of success' instead.
Yes, but Target Number is such a good term for the number of hits you need to get.
There's a lot of stuff to digest here, but it's got some things that I'd find useful in my own Sci-Fant Kitchensink HB based off of a modded After Sundown engine; and some things that went in a different direction from where you have gone.
The Gaming Den; where Mathematics are rigorously applied to Mythology.
While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
While everyone's Philosophy is not in accord, that doesn't mean we're not on board.
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spongeknight
- Master
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- Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 11:48 am
You know, that's good. I think I will do that.Judging__Eagle wrote:You could also call it "HN", for Hits Number. The use of TN in both the Dice roll; and the counting of successful dice rolls is a tad confusing.spongeknight wrote:OgreBattle wrote:Doesn't TN usually refer to what number you have to hit or roll over? I'm used to reading "how many hits you need to succeed" as 'Theshold of success' instead.
Yes, but Target Number is such a good term for the number of hits you need to get.
A Man In Black wrote:I do not want people to feel like they can never get rid of their Guisarme or else they can't cast Evard's Swarm Of Black Tentacleguisarmes.
Voss wrote:Which is pretty classic WW bullshit, really. Suck people in and then announce that everyone was a dogfucker all along.
In most hits based combat systems I've seen (Shadowrun, After Sundown) the net hits on the "to-hit" roll have translated into additional damage. I notice you're omitting that here. That means that a super skilled person who is weak or unarmed can't necessarily translate that high skill into a killing blow. Don't know if that's a bug or a feature: it excludes some anime concepts (wisened master), but allowing net hits to become damage can become super lethal on a lucky roll.