Scott
DORA
(Scott)
*Sigh*
Posts: 1,919
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Post by Scott on Jan 15, 2019 21:29:58 GMT
Parry/Block notes: If the thing fighting you is man sized or less (assuming you are as well) you can attempt to parry their attack. If you are fighting a giant or some sort of large creature, you can’t really parry them. Imagine trying to parry a mountain lion. Mountain lions/cougars are actually more or less human-sized. They average about 50kg and 1.5m long (not counting the tail). Shorter and lighter than me.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 15, 2019 21:38:40 GMT
Yep. But humans don't parry them with swords - shields, certainly. There is some reason for that. But yes, I need to make a bigger creature in the example.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 15, 2019 22:59:46 GMT
Learning
The first time you use a brand new skill where Learning is the base is successfully rolled, you get a check in that stat.
To pick up a skill, the character needs to see something that deals specifically with that skill. In other words, to know how to fly a helicopter, they need to see the helicopter - not just be asked about the helicopter.
Hence, not every skill is always readily available.
Sanity
Sanity is gained at the end of an adventure for doing things that - in the GM's estimation - are good and mentally rewarding.
How do evil and self serving characters gain back sanity?
If someone is running say a whore house (self serving) but defeating enemy monsters or whatever they can still gain back sanity.
But people who don't care about other people, the world, etc - they do not regain sanity as they are doing nothing 'sanity reward worthy'. Hence, eventually they will go insane and die.
This is not a good campaign for evil people.
Note - if sanity losses cause a character to hit 0, that character then becomes a (usually naughty) NPC. If the cyberware a character is recklessly installing cause sanity to hit zero, that character becomes an NPC and hits 'cyber psychosis' - usually a 'let's kill everyone' thing.
Stat loses
Because of various things (death, drugs, limb loss, etc) both skills and statistics may be 'permanently' lost.
For example: Someone has an 14 in learning. Some bastard cuts out part of their brain. The GM gives the character a -2 permanent to learning.
This does not mean that the character's learning is now limited to 12. They can build it back up. Hopefully, they will get some sort of high tech cyber brain and then slowly learn to use it. Or they might hop their way to victory. On their new brain.
Note, due to 'rule 1' there are no temporary stat or skill negatives.
Stat rolls
The GM may call for a roll for one of the two rollable stats - Willpower and Essence.
There are two types of rolls - ones where the GM gives a target multiplier and ones where he does not. TARGET MULTIPLIER EXAMPLE (for these, the player has a 15 in the stat being asked for) GM: "Give me a willpower x3." Since the player has a 15 in willpower, that means that - for this roll - their skill is '45'. Hence, a critical would be a 4 or less, a fumble 94 or higher. Success 05-45 and failure 46-93. If the target number was x3 or less of the stat, and you succeed, you get a check in the stat.
LOWER IS BETTER EXAMPLE GM: "Give me a willpower roll." Since the player has a 15 in willpower that means that - for this roll - if they roll a 01-15 they would say 'willpower x1'. A 16-30 is 'willpower x2', 31-45 is 'willpower x3', 46-60 is 'willpower x4', 61-75 is 'willpower x5'. A 76-96 would be a 'fail' and - since at willpower x5 (=75) a fumble would be 97-00. If you get x3 or less in the stat on your roll, check with the GM to see if you get a check in the stat. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on how the GM is feeling about the task.
HOW DO WE GET CHECKS IN LEARNING? If the player has found something that seems appropriate to try out a new skill with (example: A banjo and they are in the bayou and want to pick out the first few notes of the butt rape song) if they try a learning x1 (for their new 'banjo' skill) and succeed, they get a check in learning.
HOW DO WE GET CHECKS IN SANITY? You don't. Sanity generally goes down for seeing scary stuff. Sanity goes up for doing 'good' things. If you enjoy going on killing sprees of the innocent and happily wipe out say a town of them, this won't get you sanity even though you'd accomplished your goal. If you save a town of innocents from some horrible monster, you might gain sanity.
HOW DO WE GET CHECKS IN WILLPOWER AND ESSENCE?
The only way to get a check in Willpower or Essence is when the GM calls for - and the player makes - a check in either at a x3 difficulty or lower.
Example: GM says “Give me an Essence x2 or better roll” and you make it, you get a check in Essence.
You do not get a check if the difficulty asked for is easier than x3 but you make it at x3 or less.
Example: GM says “Give me a Willpower x4 or better roll” and you roll an 01, you still don’t get a check in Willpower.
STAT INCREASES
If you get a check in your stat, roll 2d6.
If you roll a 2 (snake eyes) the stat decreases by one.
If you roll a 7, the stat may increase.
If you have rolled a 7, attempt to fail your STAT x5 - if you do, congratulations, your stat increases by one point.
Note this excludes SANITY. Though it is technically a statistic, it only increases through ‘san (sanity) awards’ at the end of sessions/game for doing ‘good guy stuff’. It decreases through seeing anything ‘troubling’.
Hero Points (and any remaining cards from the session) may be used to influence these rolls but generally it is a poor use of HERO Points - unless you rolled ‘snake eyes’.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 9:47:18 GMT
Added crits = (skill/10)rounddown, fumble = 90+(skill/10)rounddown to crits/fumbles section.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 9:50:18 GMT
Holy crap, the word count for the rules is over 16K.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 11:07:42 GMT
Tried to 'tighten up' the writing on a large section of stuff. Nothing new here, just tried to make it more concise.
Introduction to roleplay
If you don’t know what it is, your chances of picking this book up are almost nill. Since this is covered in literally every other rule book, I’m skipping it. If you picked up these rules by chance and have no idea what it is all about, good luck. And thanks for the money if we’re selling this.
ADVANCED ROLEPLAY
Be in character - always.
Bad: “My character does…”, “He heads out to the park.”, “I tell Bert’s character…”, “Look at that great roll!” Good: “I shoot!”, “I head out to the park.”, “Hey, Ronnie -…”, “You are kicking ass!”
METAGAMING
Don’t metagame. Metagaming is acting on knowledge your character doesn’t have.
Fred: “Do I know astrologically what the Maya think about this?” GM: “Roll your astrology.” Jim: (Rolling his astrology) GM: “Jim, WTF are you doing? Just because Fred looks thoughtful doesn’t mean you suddenly get to roll your astrology skill.”
Metagamey: “I have a low sanity - let’s do some good guy shit so I can gain some sanity.” Better RP: “I’ve been having second thoughts about some of my life choices. Who can we help today?”
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
HOW THIS GAME IS DIFFERENT FROM D&D
Why is this section in here? Because most people who have done table top roleplaying games have done D&D. In fact it seems that there is a significant percentage of players who seem unaware that other games even exist. Hence, this section.
D&D is an adolescent power fantasy in which ‘killing solves everything’. If you still have a problem after killing, it is because you haven’t done enough killing. Your character becomes stronger and stronger from fighting.
In this game, enough fighting will drain your Hero Points (see below), leaving you weaker for future fights. Do this often enough and you will be totally drained and probably die in the next fight.
Also, many people play what I call ‘chess D&D’, moving minis around a grid and taking on ‘level appropriate’ opponents. Though I’ve heard many GM’s say they ‘don’t always run level appropriate encounters’ in my experience this is usually a defensive lie. Within most D&D, your character is meant to have the ‘strength of arms’ (or magic, whatever) to be able to power their way through a dungeon of monsters.
In this game, the characters are much much weaker. They cannot withstand prolonged combat. It will kill them. With a maximum hit points of twenty and a pistol able to do half of that on a hit, simple math should tell you that compared to many games.
Going at problems ‘head on’ is not desirable. Finding ways around combat helps players survive.
Generally, people seem poor at planning beyond ‘kick in door, kill everything’. Even those that make a better plan seem stumped when their plan falls apart. To paraphrase Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Even fewer groups have a simple back up plan like “This is our fall back point.”
This game will help educate people to develop those skills.
GM’s who attempt to run this like a D&D campaign will probably find the characters dead, players frustrated and campaign in a shambles.
THE STATISTICS
WHAT THEY REPRESENT
Willpower is how much strength of will or resolution you have. It also is used to determine the character’s ‘hit points’ or ‘how much damage the character can take before going unconscious or dying’.
Learning represents the starting level of all new skills.
Essence shows the character’s aptitude toward magic and other mystical things. Essence is also the starting level of the very important ‘hero points’.
Sanity gives a measurement of how far your character is from ‘barking mad’. Should your character’s sanity ever reach zero, you lose your character.
All of the statistics are important, there are no ‘dump stats’.
GETTING CHECKS IN THE STATS AND WHAT THAT MEANS
If you ‘have a check in a stat’, that means you have rolled a test against that stat that was difficult and you did it successfully. That means at the end of the adventure the statistic may go up or down.
The GM may call for a roll for one of the two ‘rollable’ stats - Willpower and Essence.
There are two types of rolls - ones where the GM gives a target multiplier and ones where he does not.
TARGET MULTIPLIER EXAMPLE (for these, the player has a 15 in the stat being asked for) GM: "Give me a willpower x3." Since the player has a 15 in willpower, that means that - for this roll - their skill is '45'. Hence, a critical would be a 4 or less, a fumble 94 or higher. Success 05-45 and failure 46-93. If the target number was x3 or less of the stat, and you succeed, you get a check in the stat.
Example: GM says “Give me a Willpower x4 or better roll” and you roll an 01, you still don’t get a check in Willpower.
LOWER IS BETTER EXAMPLE GM: "Give me a willpower roll." Since the player has a 15 in willpower that means that - for this roll - if they roll a 01-15 they would say 'willpower x1'. A 16-30 is 'willpower x2', 31-45 is 'willpower x3', 46-60 is 'willpower x4', 61-75 is 'willpower x5'. A 76-96 would be a 'fail' and - since at willpower x5 (=75) a fumble would be 97-00. If you get x3 or less in the stat on your roll, check with the GM to see if you get a check in the stat. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on how the GM is feeling about the task.
THE OTHER TWO STATISTICS
HOW DO WE GET CHECKS IN LEARNING? If the player has found something that seems appropriate to try out a new skill with (example: A banjo and they are in the bayou and want to pick out the first few notes of the ‘creepy inbred song’) if they try and succeed in a learning roll, they get a check in learning as well as picking up the new ‘banjo’ skill.
To pick up a skill, the character needs to see something that deals specifically with that skill. In other words, to know how to fly a helicopter, they need to see the helicopter - not just be asked about the helicopter.
HOW DO WE GET CHECKS IN SANITY? You don't. Sanity generally goes down for seeing scary stuff or doing bad things. Sanity goes up for doing 'good' things. If you enjoy going on killing sprees of the innocent and happily wipe out say a town of them, this won't get you sanity even though you'd accomplished your goal. If you save a town of innocents from some horrible monster, you might gain sanity. It decreases through seeing anything ‘troubling’ or through doing things which the average mentally healthy person would consider ‘bad’ or ‘appalling’.
This is not a good campaign (or game system) for evil people. If the GM is purposefully making an ‘evil’ campaign, they may choose to give out less statistic points and just start everyone’s sanity at zero and ignore any sanity losses.
Note - if sanity losses cause a character to hit 0, that character then becomes a NPC. Usually, a very naughty one.
If the cyberware a character is recklessly installing cause sanity to hit zero, that character becomes an NPC and hits 'cyber psychosis' - usually a 'let's kill everyone' thing.
STAT DECREASES AND INCREASES
If you get a check in your stat, roll 2d6.
If you roll a 2 (snake eyes) the stat decreases by one. (Note, if someone uses a ‘hero point’ they can reroll this hence having statistics go down is actually quite rare. See the section on ‘hero points’ below.)
If you roll a 7, the stat may increase.
If you have rolled a 7, attempt to fail your STAT x5 - if you do, congratulations, your stat increases by one point.
Hero Points (and any remaining cards from the session) may be used to influence these rolls but generally it is a poor use of HERO Points - unless you rolled ‘snake eyes’.
STAT LOSSES
Because of various things (death, drugs, limb loss, etc) both skills and statistics may be 'permanently' lost.
For example: Someone has an 14 in learning. Some bastard cuts out part of their brain. The GM gives the character a -2 permanent to learning.
This does not mean that the character's learning is now limited to 12. They can build it back up. Hopefully, they will get some sort of high tech cyber brain and then slowly learn to use it. Or they might hop their way to victory. On their new brain.
Note, due to 'Logan’s rule 1' there are no temporary stat or skill negatives.
Note - later I will copy paste this into the initial thread - still working on it at the moment while I wait for the computer repair guy to come with a new keyboard.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 11:50:26 GMT
Am correcting some of the stuff (I'll post it later) as I don't even remember the time long past when stun damage regenerated at 1/hour. To get back stun damage, have a good night of sleep and it's all back. We don't do the by the hour crunchy BS. Haven't for a decade or longer (super old notes).
However in the current campaign more than just the stun damage may be healed up.
Well - in the zones the PC's normally frequent anyway.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 12:40:11 GMT
I've rewritten so much (trying to make it better, tighter) that at this point when I get done I'm just going to post it up. I realize that's a pain in the ass for people trying to keep up. Means you have to skim it. Just imaging having to write all of this! But I'm working on it. Needed to take a bit of a break from plot stuff.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 12:55:34 GMT
For special consideration:
AREA EFFECT STUFF
Why you can’t ‘save for half’ from explosive damage? Because this is not fucking D&D. The best you can hope for in this system is (aside from not being where the bomb is) rolling low on your damage. If you don’t, Hero Points may help reduce the amount of damage you take. Bombs and such are lethal.
In some cases (such as someone tossing a grenade into the room you are in) you might be able to dodge behind something to try to absorb some of the shrapnel. Consult the GM. It should be noted that the ‘pick up the grenade and toss it back’ only works if the person throwing them doesn’t know what they are doing. (Explanation - professionals throw it in such a way it is bouncing around prior to going off to keep someone from tossing it back or - if they have big stones - they may ‘cook off’ the grenade. Pull the pin, wait a bit then throw.)
Generally speaking, it is not a brilliant idea to annoy people who carry grenades.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 14:55:22 GMT
Added to this section:
WHAT YOU CANNOT SPEND HERO POINTS ON
Any roll after you’ve already made a new roll, or after any significant time has elapsed.
Example: Fred misses his skill roll. He then rolls for something else. He cannot then go back and spend a Hero Point on the skill roll he earlier missed.
Example: Fred misses a skill roll. The GM then continues narrating the scene based on that. Fred feels he is missing out and wants to go back and spend a Hero Point on the missed roll. The GM tells him it is too late and he will have to suck it up.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 16:14:26 GMT
Massive rewrite. Document now up to 25k words. It's about half a book. You'll have to browse through it to find the large number of changes. It still needs a few things and probably more organizing.
If you see anything that is missing or unclear (those who are interested in looking at it) please let me know.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 16, 2019 19:47:21 GMT
I think this may have already been posted but here it is because it's going into the rules (above)
ACTIVATING MAGIC ITEMS
Unless otherwise stated, ‘activating’ a magical item (make rocket go now) costs 1 MP, usually doesn’t require a roll and takes one action (ie generally a round).
For some specific items, multiple MP, a roll may be required and it may take multiple rounds, minutes, hours, days, months, years or centuries.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 17, 2019 14:03:34 GMT
HELD ACTIONS
These do not come up often fortunately.
Instead of going on your round, you can hold your action till later. You don’t do anything in the meantime, you just wait.
Example: During a combat round, instead of going the person points their gun at the person and says ‘move and I shoot!’ (Speaking is the free action, they then hold their held action.)
This held action can take place within the same round or in a later round. Upon a simple contingent the person gets to go first.
Example: The hero had gone first and decided to say ‘move and I shoot’ and held action. On the villain’s turn, the villain decides to move - therefore the hero shoots first.
The held actions need to be super simple and able (of course) to be accomplished in one round. Some things don’t work well for a held action.
Example: “I shoot the first bad guy through the door” would not work as a held action because you have to first figure out if it is a bad guy coming through the door or not. That slows you down enough that the GM will rule you lose your held action and initiative is determined normally.
Example: “I shoot the first person or whatever that comes through the door” would work and possibly lead to hilarity for the GM if it is a friendly party through the door.
Either way, however, your held action takes up your action for the round that it takes place in.
Example: PC’s were going last in the round and the PC does the ‘move and I shoot’ thing and ‘holds their action’. On the next round, the GM draws a card showing villains are first, heroes are second. The villain begins to move and bang - the PC shoots. The villain (assuming they survive) then gets their normal action. The PC has already taken their action as a held action from last round. If the initiative order was reversed (heroes first then villains) holding action didn’t really do the PC any good.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 17, 2019 14:46:47 GMT
Since some (3) PC's have died already in the campaign, I will reveal the 'death' rules for 'certain areas'. In 'other areas' when you die it is simply time to make a new character. If you die in 'certain areas' here are the 'death rules' I've been using. Figure I may as well post them up because they're going into the rules:
PC DEATH
There are three types of death within the current campaign:
Temporary Permanent (this isn’t detailed out, you simply die and need to make a new character) Soft
Which one you take depends upon where you are. Once the PC’s have figured out more about life, the universe and everything they can figure out which happens where. Or speculate now.
‘TEMPORARY DEATH’ RULES
STATS
-10 SAN (flat - note, you may pick up a normal insanity due to this but chances are very good you won't get a temporary insanity due to (special). Goes toward dying/death (self) maxes at 50. If this causes your sanity to reach zero, make a new character.
-2 from all the remaining stats. If any stat is zero, make a new character.
SKILLS
-10% from all skills above 80%. If they have only three skills above 80% they are the only ones affected. Should the character have no skills above 80%, they lose no skill points from that death. [If the skill is exactly 80% you dodged a fucking bullet there.]
GEAR
Assume it’s all gone. The GM might allow the player to choose three pieces of gear and do a willpower x3 for each to see if it is retained. If not then like all other gear on the PC at the time of their death it is gone forever. [Note that in some cases if the other PC’s are near the corpse of the PC before it goes to where ever corpses of PC’s go they may be able to save some or all of the gear if they immediately loot the corpse.] Note - if the PC is permanently dead you might have more time to loot their corpse.
RESPAWN
The GM will let you know where and when you respawn. Due to Rule #2, it should be close and soon but subject to the needs of plot. (See Logan’s Rules, Rule #2). Note that the respawn point will be ‘as safe as Logan can get it’ given where ever you are. Figure if you just died, you’re probably already having a rough day. The GM should attempt to get the PC back into play as soon as possible. It is also recommended the players assist the GM by going to somewhere safe and such. This is a bit ‘metagamey’ but if we can prevent a player from sitting around waiting to play it is worth it.
Also, you respawn at ‘residual self image’. All of the stuff the PC’s had before (servitor of AI, cyberware, etc) - gone. The AI may (or may not) choose to again make the PC a servitor (if the PC seeks them out) but if they do not, the power(s) gained should be removed from the PC sheet. If the PC ever again gets into service with that same AI (assuming the AI has undergone no drastic changes), they pick up the exact same power as before, no rerolling.
STARTING HERO POINTS AFTER DEATH
Half remaining Essence (after deduction).
SOFT DEATH
This can only happen in zones where the day is reset over and over. Even if you ‘die’ you simply wake up the next day, like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’.
Every time you die, take SAN d6/d10, max 50
In the ‘soft death’ places you don’t lose stats and skills though gear loss is as per temporary death above.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 17, 2019 15:17:57 GMT
SKILL MODIFIERS
If the GM thinks that whatever the players are doing is harder than normal, they can slap whatever skill negative they want onto them.
-30% or half (players choice): What you’re doing is pretty hard. -60% or quarter (players choice): What you’re doing is crazy hard. Give me a crit buddy: What you’re doing is not going to work. Roll me an 01 (or several 01 in a row): No.
If the GM thinks whatever the players are doing is easier than normal, they can give bonuses. Note that the bonuses are intentionally smaller than the negatives.
+5%: Someone is helping you! (Also see ‘supporters’). +10%: Pretty easy. +20%: Super easy. +30%: If you can’t make this, you suck.
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