TTU RPG Mechanics
Tone/Theme
"Heroic" doesn't quite fit the mood of TTU; but if not a traditional Heroic Urban Fantasy RPG, then what? What will be players' challenges? How will this intersect with their abilities?
Brainstorm:
- traditional HUF with the Shadow War, helping out gods
- ** Fight in Shadowlands, mundane challenges in world?
- Mystery - chars are investigators
- Magic short-circuits a lot of mystery ...
- "Where were you during ...?" flashback sequences?
- Some sort of narrativist mechanic re the tension between magical life and mundane life
- A game of resource management: You only have a certain amount of Magical Mojo, and using it to fix mundane problems reduces effectiveness on your magical tasks
- "Magitech! (The Musical): The Game" - Characters are wage mages.
- Ooh. R&D doesn't necessarily mean sitting in an office tinkering with toys ...
- Perhaps characters collectively choose a Patron. Could be a magitech firm or a deity or ... will influence flavor of campaign.
- The PCs are not the hero; the PCs are not saving the world. They are side characters in a larger quest ...
- "There is no international crisis so major that it can't be interrupted by a small, stupid crisis close to home." (*)
- Tarot cards?
Where will it fit in GNS theory?
Setting
Game should prob. be larger than TTU, offering it as a setting.
Riffing off of that:
"Collective choice" - if players are setting Patron, why not set Theme too?
- This could be overall campaign tone (compromise among players), and/or focus of individual adventures (bid process between players?)
- Adventure bids = "I will take x Bad Things to advance my storyline." mumble mumble or "I will provide x intriguing developments for other people"? (woo lots of fail possible there)
- That first would require a personal Goal (in the style of "Sorceror")
Complexity
General game design note to self: Be wary of complexifizicabilitization. Even elegant systems are scary to the uninitiated (cf. Fireborn), and new complex systems can be almost unplayable (cf. Fireborn combat). Minimize the number of unique factors players have to know; a unified mechanic throughout the game is preferable to one with lots of outgrowths, even if slightly deficient from a simulationist perspective. (Also, examples are VERY good things.)Characters
Point-buy, definitely. (i.e. choose an overall power level for all players, then do what you want within it)
Attributes
The standbys:
- Attributes add dice to your pool
- Attributes add bonuses to your rolls
- Attributes provide intangible benefits (rerolls, etc)
- Rerolls: Atts can't let you do things beyond your training, but do make you better within it. (YES. -b)
- No set attributes: buy traits or advantages/disadvantages
- PAIRS of traits maybe? e.g.: Int vs Drive: Being smart (cheaper advancement) makes you lazy (fewer RRs)?
- Attributes are really skills: "Roll vs. Strength" the same way you roll vs. Knowledge or Drive
- Or attributes are superskills: "Strength" is an automatic 1st level bought in Melee, Climb, Swim, etc. So you skip over the basic training.
LIFE POINTS: 2d10? (i.e., two dice with four "steps" apiece: d10>d8>d6>d4>0). Maybe 3d10? Maybe add bonuses based on race?
- When taking damage, step down your dice once per point. Once you pick a die to step down, all further damage from the SAME HIT must go to that die first.
- When reduced to a single die, character bleeding and in danger of death.
- Also: Any hit that removes a die from the life pool = (automatic? Save-vs?) Unconsciousness. (Save-vs 4? Harder to save if you've been ablating further damage.)
- (So dropping your next-to-last die is like hitting 0 HP in D&D?)
- Save-vs the highest die of what hit you. Undirected environmental factors = generally 4.
For tracking purposes (people without buckets o' dice), might want to have life points and magic points be numeric (i.e. 4d10 = 4 x 10 = 40), have things do damage in multiples of 2? (Actually 10/10/10/10.)
- Do NOT track damage on character sheet (why does everyone do this?), use CS to track maximums only.
Balance Issues
Theris? Mages? Avatars? vs. normal humans. Point-buy takes some of the slack, but ... theri/mage synergy, etc.
How much of the game will focus on magic? Traditional combat pales before it - a mage is worth (2^lvl) nonmages ...
I suspect this is a natural law of gaming: Any RPG containing a fully developed magic system is necessarily about that magic system.
(Where "fully developed" means "not limited by ridiculous arbitrary Vancianism to balance mages against everyone else")
(Where "fully developed" means "not limited by ridiculous arbitrary Vancianism to balance mages against everyone else")
Then this game needs to be about its magic system. Perhaps even including a way to balance non-mages, which would be a first. :-p
Rolls
Savage Worlds/Ironclaw-style? (roll multiple dice of different sizes, your result = highest individual number out of that dice pool) That seems fairly balanced for magic ... needs a bit more oomph on the high ends though ...?
Difficulties:
2 - Anything but a botch. Trivial tasks. i.e., "don't bother rolling" except when a failure has big consequences.
3 - (50% @ 1d4, 66% @ 1d6, 96% @ 2d10)
4 - (25% @ 1d4, 50% @ 1d6, 91% @ 2d10) - Limit of untrained rolls; general SW target number
5 - (-- @ 1d4, 33% @ 1d6, 84% @ 2d10) - Requires training
6 - (-- @ 1d4, 16% @ 1d6, 75% @ 2d10)
Complex rolls: Multiple successes? E.g. difficulty of (4, 2). Compare Risk-like: Match numbers in HTL order.
- Each would represent "partial" success/failure: largest target# is most important. Drive (4,2) = You're headed at a light pole. 4-Pass: Avoid the pole. 4-P 2-P: ... And maintain control. 4-Fail 2-P: Hit, but at a glancing angle. 4-F 2-F: Head-on collision.
Something here seems to lend itself to a "Rule of Four": For non-trivial unopposed tasks, roll vs. 4. (As with SW, but that's because that's where the die balance lies.)
(Also: There are four main die sizes; your default untrained rolls will be 1d4; mages get 4 dice in their pools ...)
- Perhaps crits are beating your target number by at least 4?
Magic
Something to reflect the exponential nature of the power levels.
[1pt] Insignificant -- d2? d3? (for primary school only?)
[2pt] Basic -- d4?
[4pt] Competent -- d6?
[8pt] Strong -- d8?
[16pt] Exceptional -- d10?
[---] (Unearthly) -- d20?
- ... Buy EACH SCHOOL separately? Get 2x your primary school dice and 1x your secondaries? Max. 2-lvl difference between schools?
- Basic Volitionist: 2 pts, 2d4
- Basic Pragmatist: 6 (2+2+2) pts, 4d4
- Competent V: 6 (4+1+1) pts, 2d6
- Competent P: 12 (4+4+4) pts, 4d6
- Strong V: 12 (8+2+2) pts, 2d8 + 2d4
- Strong P: 24 (8+8+8) pts, 4d8
- Excep. V: 24 (16+4+4) pts, 2d10 + 2d6
- Excep. P: 48 (16+16+16) pts, 4d10
Power Levels Compared
V vs. V Face-off, w/ secondary dice:
STATS ON CONTESTED ROLLS | B | C | S | E | U (4d20) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B (2d4) | 33 (33) | 15 (15) | 4 (10) | 1 (3) | - |
| C (2d6) | 70 (15) | 39 (22) | 20 (13) | 8 (9) | - |
| S (2d8+2d4) | 86 (10) | 67 (13) | 41 (18) | 23 (12) | - |
| E (2d10+2d6) | 96 (3) | 83 (9) | 65 (12) | 42 (16) | 1.6 (1.0) |
V vs. V Face-off, NO secondary dice:
| B | C | S | E | U | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B (2d4) | 33 (33) | 15 (15) | 9 (8) | 6 (5) | - |
| C (2d6) | 70 (15) | 39 (22) | 22 (12) | 14 (8) | - |
| S (2d8) | 83 (8) | 65 (12) | 42 (16) | 28 (10) | - |
| E (2d10) | 89 (5) | 78 (8) | 62 (10) | 43 (14) | - |
http://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/troll.msp is awesome
V vs. P - CROSS-SCHOOL
(Along top is 2d4, 2d6, 2d8+2d4, 2d10+2d6 as above)
(Along top is 2d4, 2d6, 2d8+2d4, 2d10+2d6 as above)
| B | C | S | E | U (4d20) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B.P (2d4+2d4) | 45 (39) | 20 (17) | 6 (13) | 1.6 (4) | - |
| C.P (4d6) | 89 (8) | 52 (27) | 28 (16) | 11 (14) | - |
| S.P (4d8) | 97 (2) | 85 (8) | 56 (20) | 33 (14) | - |
| E.P (4d10) | 98.6 (1) | 94 (3) | 90 (5) | 57 (17) | 2.4 (1.4) |
Components of Magical Duels
DIRECT - Head-to-head power battle.ENVIRONMENTAL - Indirect manipulation: creating physical hazards or distractions.
- Represented by a die or dice added to Direct pool, of a size known before bid; but rolled AFTER bid.
- Huge wild-card factor, needs balancing! Maybe a SINGLE die of size (your highest +2 steps)? Or step upgrade determined by size of investment?
- Perhaps "all invested dice are +1 step, BUT - all dice above (opponent's investment +1) are totally wasted." (Or perhaps that's D. and E. is the normal one.)
- Perhaps a set die pool upon which both mages bid auction-style. Or bid dice, then roll off.
PERCEPTUAL - "Roll for initiative." Loser must declare D/E split first, winner can react afterward? n.b. this could be OP if E. is big.
-or-
Power/Finesse/Environment/Speed. Assign d4/d6/d8/d10 in some order, roll to get values for that duel. Full round of defense = allows you to reroll one (style tweak) or reassign and reroll all (style shift).
Being ahead in one is an Edge, ahead 4+ is an Advantage. "Sacrifice your X" = move down your die so you're now tied.
Power:
Edge: You win tied rolls.
Advantage: You win tied rolls. You may sacrifice your Advantage to add 2 to a single combat result (!) (?).
Finesse:Advantage: You win tied rolls. You may sacrifice your Advantage to add 2 to a single combat result (!) (?).
Edge: ??
Advantage: ??
Environment:Advantage: ??
Edge: ??
Advantage: ??
Speed:Advantage: ??
Edge: You move first.
Advantage: You move first. You may sacrifice your Advantage to take an action AND a full defense in combat (but no style tweak/shifting).
Advantage: You move first. You may sacrifice your Advantage to take an action AND a full defense in combat (but no style tweak/shifting).
Bad Things
FATIGUE: Any roll with two matching numbers - degrade 1 die by 1 step, starting w/ smallest die. (This will reduce dice pool down to 1 over the course of a scene)BOTCHES: All 1's. (This makes botches more likely as fatigue degrades dice) At the least, roll = 0 and autofail (also any fatigue from matching 1's!); probably worse things as well
Overchanneling
aka Chaos Magic?When you HAVE to punch above your weight class ... Super risky move.
Roll ONLY 2dX (primary spheres)
- or perhaps primary spheres stepped down 1? (No, then there's literally no point at lower levels)
2d4: ~66% botch rate else 3-5, flat, 5 = 12.5%
2d6: ~44% botch rate else 3-9, slight bellcurve, 7+ = 22%
2d8: ~35% botch rate else 3-13, bellcurve. 9+ = 28%
2d10: ~28% botch rate else 3-17, bellcurve. 11+ = 32%
Note: Mechanic has a lot of potential beyond magic - perhaps a generic name like Double Down.
Melee combat: A lunge (or huge swing leaving you open).
Skills: something relying dangerously on luck (may not be applicable, as with Knowledges)
Skills: something relying dangerously on luck (may not be applicable, as with Knowledges)
Knowledge Double Down: "Let's look this up on the Internet." ;)
\ Chaos magic, sum of 2d10, 0's botch and doubles botch POOL:=2d10; if ((min POOL) = (max POOL)) then 0 else if ((max POOL) = 10) then 0 else sum POOL
Balancing Rate of Advancement for Higher Levels
Note that this would have to take into account the rarity of Exceptional mages: maybe you have to spend a certain number of points on magic to threshold?- Ooh, I like this idea. Maybe have buyable "Casting Options", different per source school. Must spend 8pt? for Comp, 24pt for Strong, 48pt for Excep?
- And Extern/Volit plateau earlier because there are fewer casting options available! You have to burn "empty points" (no benefit) or multischool to advance ...?
- Perhaps "empty points" buy at 2:1 so it's still cheaper to be a non-pragmatist.
- Casting Options (perhaps some are built into school itself - underlined letters):
- VDEP Combat Training
- VEP Spontaneous Casting
- E Powerful ... But Unreliable (1 optional reroll on a primary die for ANY spell - BUT - Doubles on your 2 largest dice IMMEDIATELY botch, no rerolls)
- Upgraded version: May reroll out of a botch using normal RR rules.
- V Self-Powered (Bonus RR to ... sensing? defense? - BUT -Double Fatigue losses)
- Upgraded version: Buy down to 1x (but not to 0 if this is primary).
- D Ritual Casting (x)
