Miscellaneous Debris

Okay, I'll kick things off with a bit that I drummed up during lunch break the other day. . . I'm calling it "Blood of Kings". This set of rules came about because I wanted a low-magic, high lethality, campaign that still allowed for heroism in the vein of The 13th Warrior. I also wanted some rules that facilitated generational roleplay in the vein of the Poetic Eddas. Here's what I came up with after a half hour of fiddling:

6 Traits:

Assign one of the following dice to each trait (d4,d6,d8, d10, d12). Players begin with 1d8, 4d6, and 1d4 to allocate. Dice with more sides are BETTER.

Option #1: Players can 'bump up' the rating of any one trait by one die type if they 'knock down' the rating of another trait by one die type. That is, knocking a d6 trait down to d4 will allow the player to bump a d8 trait to d10, a d10 trait to d12, etc. Traits can NEVER be rated more than d12 or less than d4, lest using the FULL SPECTRUM caveat.

Option #2: FULL SPECTRUM -- a trait may be rated more than d12 (d16, d20, d30, d100, etc) to reflect supernatural ability.

Traits are (Health, Perception, Strength, Agility, Intellect, Presence)

[Notes: Okay, I'm not decided on the final set of six traits, yet. Consider those above to be placeholders. Also, Option #2 above isn't so much for Blood of Kings as it is for those who want to use the core system for other things.]

Equipment:

Equipment adds linear modifiers to certain action die rolls (e.g., fancy clothing adds a +3 bonus to seduction attempts, a disguise kit adds +5 to disguise attempts, etc). Weapons work like this as well, though as they aid in causing injury, their modifiers are added to a target's Injury roll (see below).

Low Impact/Lethality -- +1
Moderate Impact/Lethality -- +3
High Impact/Lethality -- +5

[Notes: This bit I am happy with, though I think that I may need to fiddle with the bonuses a bit.]

Rolling Dice to Do Things:

Roll appropriate trait rating die (e.g., Strength die to lift heavy objects) and try to score equal to or greater than Target DC (Standard is 4).

Roll Perception to hit things in ranged combat, Agility to hit things in melee combat. If you hit something, roll Agility versus standard DC of 4 to determine Damage Bonus in ranged combat and Strength to determine Damage Bonus in melee combat. Damage Bonus is equal to the difference between the number generated and the DC of 4.

Roll Presence to intimidate/persuade another individual. If you successfully influence somebody, roll Presence verus standard DC of 4 to determine Social Interaction Bonus.


[Notes: This is the most incomplete section of the rules. I'm happy with what is here, but need to list more common examples of things that PC might do during actual play.]

Injury:

Roll Health when possibly injured. Opponent's equipment adds to DC of 4, as does any Damage Bonus earned by attacker (see above). If failed, lower die rating of Health trait by one. If current rating is d4 and you fail an Injury roll, your character is dead.

[Notes: I like the general idea here, though I'm thinking of setting up a wound track that ultimately works the same way, as if we just step down Health one die at a time, the gae won't be as lethal as I'd like it to be.]

Madness:

Roll Perception when possibly traumatized. Add the Horror Factor of the maddening circumstance to DC of 4, as well as any Social Interaction Bonus earned by the creature (yes, snarling and barring one's teeth to intimidate is a social interaction, if a primative one). If failed, lower die rating of Perception trait by one. If current rating is d4 and you fail a Madness roll, your character is forever crazy.

[Notes: See the last set of notes. Same deal here.]

NPCs and Monsters:

All NPCs and monsters have a single die based on the challenge that they are meant to pose (e.g., a sewer rat would be a d4 creature, a godthing would be a d100 creature). When handling packs of creatures, roll XdY dice (where X equals the number of creatures, and Y equals the type of die that represents them), treating the swarm or pack as one whole.

[Notes: I'm pleased with this bit, as written.]

Neat. Some questions, though:

1. Aren't the extra rolls to determine damage bonus a bit fiddly? I mean, couldn't you fold that into the 'to hit' roll somehow?

2. How do you plan on handling the "heroic" aspect that you mention? I thnk that some kind of 'hero point' or tokens (ala Iron Heroes) might be something to look at.

3. Concerning your wound track proposal. . . perhaps it would just be easier to say that each die type is worth X points, with damage dealt in combat being equal to the amount by which a roll result fails to meet a DC (that is, DC - Result)? This damage could then be subtracted from the total Health value of a character and the die type staged down appropriately. What do you think?

Thorne wrote:1. Aren't the extra rolls to determine damage bonus a bit fiddly? I mean, couldn't you fold that into the 'to hit' roll somehow?

I could but people like to roll dice, IME (i.e., the "fiddly" that you mention is seen by many as mechanical richness).

2. How do you plan on handling the "heroic" aspect that you mention? I thnk that some kind of 'hero point' or tokens (ala Iron Heroes) might be something to look at.

I hadn't really given this much thought yet. Thank you for the suggestions.

3. Concerning your wound track proposal. . . perhaps it would just be easier to say that each die type is worth X points, with damage dealt in combat being equal to the amount by which a roll result fails to meet a DC (that is, DC - Result)? This damage could then be subtracted from the total Health value of a character and the die type staged down appropriately. What do you think?

I actually like this suggestion a lot, though it seems odd coming from somebody who thought that rolling for a Damage Bonus was "fiddly"

jdrakeh wrote:I could but people like to roll dice, IME (i.e., the "fiddly" that you mention is seen by many as mechanical richness).

Actually, I'm one of those people, typically I just didn't see the division of the damage roll from the 'to hit' roll serving any specific purpose here.

I actually like this suggestion a lot, though it seems odd coming from somebody who thought that rolling for a Damage Bonus was "fiddly"

Thanks. I'm all about simulation of genre/reality and, to me, this seemed to allow for the kind of lethality that you were looking for, as it allows for the possibility of one-hit kills. Keep in mind, though, that I came up with this entirely off the cuff.

jdrakeh wrote:Okay, I'll kick things off with a bit that I drummed up during lunch break the other day. . . I'm calling it "Blood of Kings". This set of rules came about because I wanted a low-magic, high lethality, campaign that still allowed for heroism in the vein of The 13th Warrior.

Couple of questions:

1. Why?

What does this game do that no other game out does? Just looking at it made me think Salvage Worlds, perhaps with a house rule or two. Why is that not the case?

2. You noted generational as a desired end, not sure what you're referencing with Poetic Eddas- the norse poems?.

What do you see as preventing that in existing games, and how does your system enable it.

James, your core mechanic mirrors Savage Worlds' exactly. Wasn't sure if you knew that or not, even the standard target number is the same.

gleichman wrote:1. Why?

What does this game do that no other game out does? Just looking at it made me think Salvage Worlds, perhaps with a house rule or two. Why is that not the case?

It's actually much more like The Window than Savage Worlds. That said, neither Savage Worlds or the Window are particularly "high lethality" by design (in fact, they're pretty far from it).

2. You noted generational as a desired end, not sure what you're referencing with Poetic Eddas- the norse poems?

Yes, the Norse poems that span multiple generations of heroes.

What do you see as preventing that in existing games, and how does your system enable it.

I know of no game system that provides concrete rules for generational roleplay and the things that generational epics entail (e.g., inherited supernatural traits, pre-ordained destiny, etc).

snikle wrote:James, your core mechanic mirrors Savage Worlds' exactly. Wasn't sure if you knew that or not, even the standard target number is the same.

I didn't know that I didn't even look at SW for a reference. All I did was flip the Window competency ladder and shorten the scale. I guess the PEG guys probably did the same thing (though I doubt they'd ever admit it).

True, SW is designed for pulp action, so player death will probably (I am still learning it myself) result in less player death, not that they will ming I am guessing. Course, that is part of what I like about it.

Well, over the space of a weekend, Blood of Kings has made the transition to Risus (and undergone a name change). I'll post a playtest draft on the Free Games page of the main site later this week

Risus? This I have to see.