Revision [799]
This is an old revision of TomorrowlandsRPGMechanics made by BaxilDragon on 2010-05-27 13:14:18.
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?
Characters
Point-buy GURPS style, definitely. (i.e. choose a power level, 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.
- 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.)
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.
Rolls
Ironclaw-style? (take highest number out of dice pool) That seems fairly balanced for magic ... (needs a bit more oomph on the high ends though)
Difficulties:
2 - Anything but a botch. Simple tasks. i.e., "don't bother rolling" except when a failure has big consequences.
3 - (50% @ 1d4, 96% @ 2d10)
4 - (25% @ 1d4, 50% @ 1d6, 91% @ 2d10) - Limit of untrained rolls;
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. Fail/Fail: Head-on collision.
Magic
Something to reflect the exponential nature of the power levels.
[1pt] Insignificant -- d2? (for primary school only?) Or nothing?
[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) |
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%
\ 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)
