New rules thread

[logan9a]

New guys - does this make sense? Old guys - did I miss anything?

No sanity bonus (COC) for getting a skill high. You’ll just have to be content with your high skill and being crazy.



LOSING SANITY

There are bunches of ways to lose sanity. Doing horrific acts, witnessing scary monsters, going to war, etc all cause people to lose sanity.

Sometimes, people will lose sanity based on what their party members do - whether they witness or condone it or not.

“Well, I’m going to go out and gather firewood because I suspect you might torture this guy for information…”

Yeah - you’re losing sanity toward ‘torture’ either way. Ways of trying to get around it don’t work.

Although in this game, PVP is strongly discouraged, we don’t have any players who are completely selfish dicks. Those sort of people don’t tend to last. Hence, if you want to try to talk someone out of an action that causes sanity loss, you generally can do it.



GAINING SANITY

Generally, doing actual ‘good guy’ stuff will help the PC’s gain sanity. Also, things like defeating the kind of monsters that cause you to lose sanity will gain some sanity back. (Defeating a bear won’t gain you sanity but killing a ghoul will.)



GETTING USE TO IT

When someone takes sanity loss, they can record it on their character sheet. Once they hit the ‘max’ number, they no longer lose sanity toward that specific thing, though they may still toward other related things until they max that out as well.


Example: A certain young lady likes to torture victims. They just wish she’d ask questions. Eventually, she and her companions lose enough sanity (20) to max that out. Unfortunately, she is super messy with the victims as they are being tortured, hence, everyone gets to work on maxing out their ‘human gore’ (20), maybe ‘gross out’ (20) and because she doesn’t like to leave any witnesses, ‘cold blooded killing/guilt’ (60).



THE SPECIAL NUMBERS

40, 30, 20. Once your sanity gets down to - or below - any of those numbers, you pick up a new ‘permanent’ insanity. Some examples - won’t use firearms, won’t use currency, beat anyone who screams, etc.

For new players, it is vital to talk to the GM and other players and bounce ideas off of them about what is and is not a good insanity.

Remember, your insanity should - in some way - fuck you at least once per session. If it doesn’t, you will get assigned a new insanity. Your insanity should not fuck the other characters.

A good way of ‘testing’ out insanities before you are stuck with them is to give your character ‘quirks’. These are not mandatory and are much less severe than insanities. Examples - dislikes using guns, doesn’t like to buy anything unless they have to (or always ‘forgets’ wallet at home), screams at people who are screaming to ‘be quiet’. You can pick these up and drop them as desired.



CURING YOUR CRAZY

If your sanity had dipped down to 38 (gaining you the insanity at 40) then risen back up over 40, it is possible to get psychoanalysis (skill) to move the insanity down to a ‘strong quirk’. Not nearly as severe. If you dip down again, you can pick it back up as an insanity. If your sanity has gotten high enough you don’t think you will be in danger of getting the insanity back, you can get more psychoanalysis and move it to a mild quirk or even remove it altogether. Then, if your insanity goes back down, you can either pick back up the same thing (relapse) or go for a new insanity.



MAKING SANITY ROLLS

Sanity is a slippery slope. The more sanity you have, the slower you lose it. The less you have, the quicker it goes. All creatures/actions/things that make you crazy have two different numbers. The first is if you succeed in your sanity roll, the second if you fail your sanity roll.

Example: Fred is forced to kill a guard, not in the heat of combat. He was just standing there. The GM asks for a sanity roll, 1/d6. That means if Fred’s character makes his sanity roll, he loses one point (probably toward cold blooded killing - the GM will let you know) but if he fails his sanity (see stat - sanity) he loses d6 sanity. If Fred fails his sanity roll and loses five or more sanity at once (or in a short time), he may ‘lose his shit’.




LOSING YOUR SHIT

Sometimes, you lose a bunch of sanity at once. The GM will ask for some sort of willpower roll to avoid ‘going crazy’. Generally, willpower x3. If this is failed, roll d20. That’s how many rounds you are not in much control (if any) of your character. Then, roll a d4: fight, flight, freak, freeze.

Fight: If there are bad guys around, you will go after them whether you want to or not. No bad guys? Someone else. Maybe the GM will roll at random, maybe you will attack a bystander, someone’s horse (you always hated that horse) or another PC. You don’t have to spend any Hero Points during the combat but you will use (at minimum) whatever weapon is in hand. If you have a loaded pistol in hand, you are going to start shooting - not try to knock someone out with your fist because it’s a PC. You’ve gone berserk.

Flight: You run. So long as it is ‘away’ from whatever made you crazy, the GM usually lets you pick your route.

Freak: You don’t get to do anything useful. You are freaking out. You can go at walk speed where ever you want, usually ranting about how the ‘lib dems are responsible for the flat earth’ and so on.

Freeze: You’re just fucked. You will stand there like a statue until your d20 rounds are done. If you were hiding when you saw whatever made you crazy this is the best possible result. Otherwise, not so good.



RUNNING OUT OF SANITY

If your character ever reaches zero sanity, they instantly, immediately and irrevocably become an NPC. Make a new character.



SANITY THOUGHTS

It all depends on play style. Some people always seem to be between 90-99 sanity; others under 40. Figure out what is right for you.

[PotatoJedi]

New guys - does this make sense?

Makes sense to me.

[logan9a]

NO SAVING THROW

There are places that - if the PC's go - it is fully possible to die without taking damage, getting any sort of 'saving throw', etc. [Note - in general, this game does not have ‘saving throws’ - that’s some D&D shit there.]

It is the responsibility for all of these situations to have foreshadowing. If the PC's choose to ignore it, good for them. It shows they are brave and adventurous.

[logan9a]

LULL (combat)


In the movies, this is when the heroes have just gotten done smashing up some bad guys and are moving from here to there but the dramatic, tense music is still playing in the background.

If the GM hasn’t fucked up and not foreshadowed correctly, the players know they are going to be back in combat very soon. It comes as no surprise.


Example: The main bad guy has kidnapped a hostage and sends his mooks after the PC’s. The PC’s finish off all the mooks then turn to confront the bad guy who murders his hostage in rage then attacks the heroes. The time between the PC’s finishing off the mooks, heading over to the bad guy, listening to his monologue and entering combat with him is called the ‘lull’.

Often times this is not a big deal but some items and such are only able to be used once during a combat. A lull means that item (if used previously against the mooks) is not available.

A lull can be used by a GM to heighten suspense, mess with PC’s who have once per combat items/effects and so on.

At the end of the mook combat, the GM would simply announce “You’re in a combat lull.” Or “You’re in a lull.” Or “Lull”.

[PotatoJedi]

Have you considered eventually putting this into a PDF with bookmarked categories? I imagine the rules will grow quite a bit once you've finished writing them down. Having them be easily accessed and searched would help everyone, especially new players.

I can help with that if you want.

[logan9a]

Jan 1, 2019 19:37:43 GMT PotatoJedi said:

Have you considered eventually putting this into a PDF with bookmarked categories? I imagine the rules will grow quite a bit once you've finished writing them down. Having them be easily accessed and searched would help everyone, especially new players.

I can help with that if you want.

It's pretty much beyond my brain power and time constraints. I'm already putting in a lot of hours daily on the campaign.

I am thinking that it will probably be in the same category as a wiki for the game. Something 'if the players want, by gum they can feel free to make it'.

Currently, we don't have a big enough crowd (fans, supporters) that people are saying "Ah hell yes I want to run this system and need the rules."

So it's super duper low on my priority list.

I'm OK with the system we have now where I post any new shit on this thread and stick it up into the section I think it should go into.

If the rules ever actually get done, I expect and am hoping that the size of the rule book is really slim. My objective is to make a game that is generic and easy to use (well, mostly) as opposed to an organization like TSR (Wizards? Whoever) where their objective is to 'sell more books'. Hence, a thin bit of rules is OK with me.


If you feel strongly that the game needs to have all of the rules laid out, you are welcome to do so but if you're just looking for a project, I'd rather have either a game wiki or new spells set up. Either would be handy.

[logan9a]

LANGUAGES

For some campaigns, spoken and written are split up. For example, ‘Egyptian hieroglyphs’ would be ‘read Egyptian hieroglyphs’ because nobody knows how to speak Ancient Egyptian.

Unless you go there and learn it - which may be possible in some campaigns. That would then allow you to build the new skill ‘Speak Ancient Egyptian’.

Additionally, some GM’s might specify that for certain very complex languages which many people can speak but fewer can read (example Mandarin) that the player must buy spoken and written separately.

How languages work: First, you say what you are trying to say then you make your roll. This allows hilarity for the GM when you fail or fumble your roll.

If the player rolls a critical, the GM may not ask them to roll again for awhile.

For a success, the idea the player is attempting to communicate is passed.

Failure indicates they are either trying to make up words that nobody recognizes or garbling it so badly the listener cannot understand what they are saying.

Fumbles are hilarity for the GM. Maybe insulting the listener, maybe volunteering for something dangerous, whatever. Also, you are done attempting that language for the adventure or session - whichever ends first.


A special rule with languages is that once a player has a 60% or higher in a language, they need only succeed once per session to communicate for the entire session in that language. Conversely, if the roll is fumbled, you seem to have forgotten how to speak that language for the adventure or session - whichever ends first.

[logan9a]

MAGIC/TECH ITEMS

For some zones, magic (or tech) always works. In these zones those items can be used normally.

In other zones, a willpower roll is needed to try to get the magic item or tech item to work.

Making it work takes one round. Even for items which would be normally 'always on', in areas they don't work, you have to spend a round (and make the appropriate Willpower (stat) roll to 'make them work'. [The GM sets the difficulty at anything from 'make a crit' up to x5 depending on the zone.]

That makes some items pretty much useless. Example: A ring of feather fall. The average person (100kg) can fall a bit over 100m in five seconds. Hence, unless your fall is further than that, your ring of feather fall when not in a ‘high magic’ zone is simply jewelry.

[logan9a]

WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR CHARACTER

Make someone who is not only fun to play but someone who is fun to play ‘with’. Be generous to your fellow players.

[logan9a]

Added to Hero Points section:


ADVANCED USES FOR THE CURRENT CAMPAIGN

Once they finish a mission and are awarded HERO POINTS, anything over 20 gets sucked away and put into their bank.

'Siphoned HERO POINTS' is never 'spent' or 'deducted' - subtraction would only weaken your character. Instead, the players attempt to build up to higher levels.

Every 50 Hero Points in the bank the players have gives them a new ‘nifty power’ (GM has secret chart you can roll on).

It is important to note that if you are careful, horde your Hero Points and play regularly you can get approximately one new ‘nifty power’ per season. Or, you can burn through the Hero Points as you get them to try to get a more immediate pay off.

[logan9a]

SKILL PENALTIES

If the skill is pretty hard, -30% or half

If the skill is super hard, -60% or quarter

If the GM thinks the player is crazy for even trying but there is a slim chance, ‘crit only’ or something crazy like ‘roll me two 01’s in a row’.

If the GM doesn’t think the skill can succeed, no roll is permitted.


WHAT THIS MEANS AND EXAMPLES

The -30% or half, when called for means that the player can choose if they want to have their skill at -30% or cut it in half to make the roll.

Example: Nancy has a 70% in a skill. If she chooses to go at -30%, that means she needs a 40 or less. If she chooses to go at half, she needs a 35% or less. Being able to figure out simple math problems helps. Roll first then figure it out.

Example: Fred has a 60% in a skill and agonizes about which he should choose, to go at half or at -30% from his skill. Nancy hits Fred.


The -60% or quarter works the same way but mathematically is challenging for some. Roll first, figure it out later. Nothing irritates everyone more than someone trying to figure out what a quarter of 32% is then they end up rolling an 84 anyway. Roll first - always.

Example: Nancy has a 70% in her skill and needs to do it at -60%. She rolls hoping to get over a 20% so she doesn’t have to do math.

You can always choose which (the flat minus or the half/quarter you want. For those with a grasp of basic math it will be obvious, for the rest a constant source of mystery.


NOTE that the new skill you are at (when your skill is penalized) affects your critical and fumble numbers as well!

Example:

Nancy is looking for clues. The bad guys have hidden them well, giving her a -30% (or half) to her skill. She normally has an 80% in ‘spot hidden’ so takes the -30%. At a 50% in spot hidden, her critical chance is reduced to needing a 5% or less on a roll and her fumble chance goes up to 95% or higher.

[logan9a]

RANGES OF FIREARMS

These are simplified rules to avoid 'gun porn' that so many rule books fall into. Also, if you have someone claim that 'a pistol range is much further', that is technically true but also shows that person hasn't spent much time at the gun range or in combat. These ranges are the 'normal effective ranges'. Just because some guy does a 1000m shot with a pistol does not mean your character can ever hope to do that.

Bow range - 30m
Pistol range - 10m
Rifle range - 100m
Shotgun range - 40m

After consulting with a lieutenant on the police force (I figure he should know) about fire arm ranges for someone 'with less than 10 hours of training', 'able to hit a man sized target half the time', he said these ranges (aside from bow, which he didn't know but I Googled) were on the money.

Don't fucking talk to me about scopes on a pistol - it's mostly a gimmick that people use or Hollywood to make the gun look bigger - plus it can't be holstered.

If you go beyond those ranges, your skill drops by half. Beyond double and you're at half again. Shotguns won't do much beyond 40m with bird-shot (personal experience here - do not try this at home kids!) and slugs suffer from lack of rifling hence accuracy. Pretty much don't bother with a shotgun beyond that range.

Also, it is possible that different weapons have different ranges but it is completely unimportant and slips into ‘gun porn’ territory. If you want to spend hours coming up with extra rules that will destroy your pacing and give a table to consult during combat, have at it. I don’t. 10 and 100 (pistol, rifle) are easy to remember and people who are into shotguns and bows can remember 30/40.




LONG RANGE SHOOTING (assumes scope, much slower rate of fire, professional spotter, high caliber sniper rifle). All snipers know that the spotter (buy skill ‘sniper spotter’ (write in) is essential. In fact, on sniper teams the senior sniper (the better guy) generally fills this spot.

These ranges are when you have to start taking into account things like the Coriolis effect, air pressure, wind, etc.

Assuming you have all of the things listed above, your damage (assuming you have high dex) will probably be about 2d10. Everyone is surprised when a bullet from this far away strikes them on the first shot. Subsequent shots, much less effective as they know a sniper is out there. You cannot effectively silence that large of caliber.

You will get one shot every three rounds in the perfect world with a scoped weapon. (Steady from recoil, reacquire target, fire). One shot every four rounds if the rifle is a bolt action - most sniper rifles are in ‘modern’ - if futuristic you might find one that isn’t. This isn’t a good ‘get lots of bullets’ weapon. More of a ‘surprise, mutherfucker’ weapon.


600m to 1000m long range -30% to hit

1000m to 1600m extreme long range -60% to hit

Above this is possible in real life (up to 2400m world record) but is beyond the scope of this game.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_shooting Actual serving police officers and military service.

[logan9a]

OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY

Allows the PC to operate many large types of equipment such as a crane or excavator. Unless the type of equipment is judged to require some sort of specialized knowledge (nuclear power factory) this skill allows it’s operation.

If the thing being operated does require specialized knowledge (such as the nuclear power factory) the GM may allow the character to use this as a ‘supporting skill’.

[logan9a]

Cryptography: This is for breaking codes that the PC’s cannot be expected to break. Quite often this skill can be ‘supported’ with ‘advanced mathematics’. It often requires large computers. Note that from time to time the GM may choose to (sparingly) throw in easy codes - letter replacement, word jumble, etc. These the players have to work out for themselves. Note for GM’s - it is best to keep the use of things like codes very sparing because they may destroy the pacing of your game while the PC’s take minutes or hours trying to figure them out. In general, if a teenager can’t do it use cryptography skill instead.

[logan9a]

(Added to advanced roleplay section)

WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR CHARACTER

Make someone who is not only fun to play but someone who is fun to play ‘with’. Be generous to your fellow players.

An article I read had an excellent comment: “Very quick rule of thumb: If a player has to utter the phrase "but it's what my character would do" more than once the PC (and quite likely the player) is probably an asshole.”

Here’s a rather long article on the subject if additional clarification is needed: tinyurl.com/ybj8e3bv