[Factor12] High Fantasy RPG Playtest

[DMReckless]

Factor12 is homebrew high fantasy RPG currently in the playtest phase. Set in the world of Aerde, where an omnipresent energy source called the Nexus flows, Factor12 brings new twists to the fantasy genre of games.

Some of the game’s highlights:

1) Competency & Competency Dice: Most actions in Factor12 are resolved by a Skill Roll utilizing one of twelve Skills. Each Skill is assigned a Competency, which gives a static bonus as well as assigning a Competency Die. Whenever you roll a Skill Roll in Factor12, you roll 2d12 plus your Skill Total against a Difficulty Rating (DR). Competency Dice some in under four circumstances: (a) the acting creature spends a Nexus Point to roll it, (b) the acting creature has an ability to roll it without spending a Nexus Point under the circumstances of the Skill Roll, (c) in the case of a possible Deuce (fumble), or (d) when scoring an Ace (2 12’s on the 2d12). In the case of (a) or (b), the Competency Die may be substituted for one of the 2d12; the roller takes the highest two dice. In the case of a potential Deuce, the roller rolls the Competency Die and only fumbles if the die also rolls a 1. In the final case, an Ace, the Competency Die is added to the 24 and Skill Total. The result is that a creature with a higher Competency in a Skill fumbles less, gets better criticals, and can keep his dice rolls more consistent when it matters most.

2) Choices: Just in building a PC, players choose Species, Culture, Traits, Archetypes, Talents, Competencies, Skill Ranks, Signs, and Loci. With millions of possible combinations, building a character that piques your interests and is different from others you’ve played is easy and fun. More than that, however, the game attempt to avoid trap choices by making Talents and Loci scale up with your character; there are no “trees” of choices pigeonholing your choices. Factor12 wants players to make choices after the characters are created too, offering a variety of tactical options that matter.

3) Modularity: In making the choices during character creation, you are able to pull together a number of different resources in building your character without sacrificing usefulness in a variety of roles. Anyone can be the group’s healer, regardless of Archetype choice, for example. Any PC can be decent at fighting, talking, exploring, or using Nexus for magic. What if I want to suck at something? Yeah, that concept is possible too, even at high levels. Advancements also take place modularly, with new abilities coming in bite sized pieces and Levels coming every few Advancements. Adding a new Locus or Talent brings that ability in at a Level-appropriate version that allows you to be awesome at what you want to be awesome doing. Loci scale in cost with power level and Talents which allow you to make Loci more useful or powerful scale both in cost and power level with the character’s growth.

4) Universality and Consistency: Nexus Points universally power abilities requiring tracking. They’re designed to recover at a decent enough rate to avoid the 10 minute workday but limited enough to avoid the Nova every fight syndrome. Competencies, Talents, Skills, and Loci are designed to scale at appropriate times during character progression on a consistent and balanced basis. Attack and Defense scale with Skill level, and Damage never gets too far out of hand.

5) Taking the magic out of shops and putting it back into the hands of the adventurers. With the Nexus prevailing in different ways in different creatures, skilled adventurers are able to recover components of the creatures they face to create their own unique magic items. Gold, gems, and other treasures are there to hire your followers, invest in new gear, spread your fame, and build your strongholds.

Link to playtest version 1.1

[Foxwarrior]

Okay, it's been almost a week, it's probably more helpful than annoying for me to explain why your pitch didn't catch me at this point.

First skim: all of this is rules stuff, none of it is novel setting conceits (an omnipresent energy source doesn't count, magic that isn't omnipresent would be more notable). Thus, if I bothered to read the game, and found it wasn't great enough to actually play, there's little hint that I'd have at least gleaned some new amusing settings ideas to steal. After all, if I want people to give me new mechanics ideas on a convenient silver platter, there's In My Humble Opinion.... Secondly:

Competency and Competency Dice: The very first section leads in with a dice mechanic that doesn't seem particularly good. Like, your critical successes happen 1/7th as often (maybe 1/4th after confirmation) as D&D critical successes, but only add a (presumably smallish) number instead of being automatic success? Your fumbles happen on the order of 0.1% of the time? Something that rare would probably be better if it was taken out of the game to stop wasting the player's mental effort.

So if your first thing leads with mechanics that seem a bit overwrought, and then you follow with a list like "Species, Culture, Traits, Archetypes, Talents, Competencies, Skill Ranks, Signs, and Loci", my impression is that this isn't going to be a game that's efficient with the reader's time, and reading TTRPGs is a pretty big time investment. (Actually, this list gives that impression, but it's only a slightly longer list than D&D's or mine, it's just presented in an intimidating way so I didn't notice until writing this section)

The remaining stuff sounds more good than bad, but not in an attention-grabbing way.

[Mord]

This document offends my eyes. There is no reason to have this many colors, this much clip art, and this much general fucking bullshit going on in your page frame. Random blocks of color around words in the text body are giving me an epileptic fit. The text wrapping on art is inconsistent; sometimes detect edges and sometimes square frame. The text layout is weird as shit, with lots of random extra long spaces and tabs everywhere. I'm enraged to note that in the rules chapter your dropcaps stick out above the top of the paragraph text. In various places, such as page 103, the font size changes mid-sentence.

You refer to rolling 12 on each of 2 d12s as an "ace" but you use the term "deuce" in reference to any time you roll the same number on each of the 2 d12. That is not what those words mean! Moreover the Deuce tables for Athletics and Combat include entries for "12," which should be an Ace, not a Deuce, so either it's missing the instruction to roll another d12 or poor editing strikes again.

The example of play on .pdf page 202 is flat out not fucking there. I had to hunt around for over 10 minutes to figure out how to adjudicate a basic attack roll, because it's actually listed under the combat skill, and the damage is only addressed in the weapons table in chapter 5, and then soak is elsewhere as well. This is just all over the place.

Your document is ugly and your text is long-winded. Fix your shit.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Well, I will say there are a couple things I like that were your goals stated in the introduction, but I have to agree that the document is a mess, and I would guess that the mechanics are as well. But I will never be able to tell with it in this format.

[DMReckless]

Thanks for the replies.

In regards to formatting, one could just say, fuck it, it's a playtest document in progress, remove all the art and stick with a basic black and white color scheme, but then people would probably bitch about that too. Doesn't mean your complaints about too much is invalid of course, so thank you for that feedback. Additionally, feedback on formatting seems to be the most prevelant of feedback I'm getting from various sources, so it is definitely something I need to revisit (again).


Actually, Deuce refers to rolling two 1s on the 2d12 and then roll a 1 on the Competency Die. I see where clarifying that the Player rolls a new 1d12 to consult the given charts for Deuce results would be useful. (Edited for accuracy.)

As to ace and deuce not being what those words mean, game terms often don't mean what they mean in common parlance. Ace is "best result" deuce is "worst result", as an ace is the highest card in poker and a two (or "deuce") is the lowest. Not like I'm the first person to use the terms to respresent good or bad things in the history of forever.


EDIT: and also, rereading my "pitch" above, I note that I did not "advertise" this to be a work in progress, for which I apologize. I appreciate you guys giving it at least a basic glance and will be taking your feedback into efforts to improve the game's presentation.

[DMReckless]

Spoiler.

I knew that coming in. I also knew that no one here is afraid to post honest negative feedback. To me, that is an invaluable tool.

[DMReckless]

Based on feedback received, here is Chapter one with new ascetics/formatting.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cw1dhhyd5l1az ... t.pdf?dl=0

hopefully easier to read and more ascetically pleasing to the eye.