Social Contract

So resisted doing one of these but can see its worth in shortening down the conversation between GM/DM/Ref and Players (which ever side Im on)...















































I'd have to say that this applies to me if I am in the PLayers role as well.
Anyway Keep Calm and Carry On!....

Villians and Vigilants Redux part Deux

So, playing in our latest Supers game, using ICONS, I wondered how i could use some of the games ideas and use them in my favorite Supers system V&V.  So with that in mind  here we go...
If I wanted to include something like a stunt based off a power I would have some difficulty as this is not inherent in the system.  So coming up with an idea I propose that anytime a player wanted a character to pull off a stunt they would need to pay 10 power points.  This allows the character to do some nifty things but with sufficient cost so they don't run around breaking the gaming world.
Next, in some games you can gain a bonus if the group decide to 'wolfpack' an individual.  My version goes like this - up to 6 attackers can attack someone their own size and up.  Next the group that decide to do this attack must attack on the lowest attackers initiative score to co-ordinate the attack.  Each character pays their own power costs etc for their attack. Lastly each successful attacker does their damage minus the number of attacker less one.  The total number of damage is them used as the chance to knock out / resist damage via invulnerability or armour etc. No knock back is possible, although the defender can still roll with the total amount as if it were one attack.  For example if Pyro, flame thrower, Striker, martial artist and Captain Crab all attack and hit Evila then their individual attacks do  1d12(-2) + 1d8 (-2) +2d6 (crab claw)(-2).  The total amount ( in this case - 5+5+8) is used as the total (18) for Evila, overcome her 10 points of invulnerability and 8 % to knockout.
At the cost of 5 power points plus any attached power cost a character can attempt a 'Blockbuster' attack - if they succeed they get to do full damage. 
Lastly Character generation.  Been thinking about this one for a while.   The player consults one table and rolls randomly on it.  They then roll the 1d6+1 for number of powers and gets to thematically add the extra powers until they have gained all powers allowed and then rolls a weakness.  The regular generation then kicks in and they chose to keep the weakness and all their powers or lose another power to lose the weakness.  There's a few other things but I'm off to see how this plays out...  catch ya later and GAME ON!
Steve

RTF Addendum, hehe there's always a Part 4

Er... yes well still not finished tweaking the system.  So healing - unsatisfied with the original thought so it goes something like this now... a short rest gains the character back lv+ Con adjustment (either + or _ but always 1hp). A sleeps rest gains back one hit die at levels 1-6, 2 at 7 to 12 and 3 at 13+, as well as your level and con adjustment. So a 5th level fighter with a Con of 16 gains 7 hp per short rest and  from 8 to 17 hp per nights rest, a 10th level fighter would gain 12 per short rest and from 14 to 32 hp per nights rest and so on.
Cheers
Steve

RTF the Last...or Part 3

Okay so we've dealt with the character generation and most of the day to day workings.  Onto Character advancement and how those new 'abilities' (that are old thief and ranger skills) work.

Every character starts off with all of the following abilities ; Open Locks, Pick Pockets, Find/Remove Traps, Hear Noise, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Climb Walls, Tracking and Foraging. At first level the character picks one of these abilities that starts at the second level off the thieves table or adds 3% to either the starting point of 66% for Tracking or +1 to the Foraging roll (4d6 equals or less than the characters Wisdom score to succeed).  Characters have the racial, armour and Dexterity/Intelligence table to adjust their abilities (see below)  I have included my KAAtooM races to illustrate this. At each level a player chooses one ability to move to the next level.  Its up to the player to decide how they wish to develop their character with this.  So you could develop a very stealthy fighter, a Cleric that excells at opening locks or a Mage that is very good at finding and removing traps, or a generalist.  This is my nod to 'customisation' of characters  as is in 3.5 D&D without all of the cumbersome conditions, exceptions, prerequisites etc etc etc that hamper that rule set at higher levels.

Adjustments to Abilities

Ability Adjustments			Armour
		None	Std/Padd	ElfChn	Scl/Rng/Chn		Splt/Bnd	Plate
Pick Pockets		5	-30	-20	-35		-40	-50
Open Locks			-10	-5	-15		-20	-30
Find/Remove Traps			-10	-5	-10		-25	-35
Move Silently		10	-20	-10	-25		-30	-40
Hide in Shadows		5	-20	-10	-25		-30	-40
Hear Noise
Climb Walls		10	-30	-20	-35		-40	-50
Tracking		5			-5		-10	-20
Race
		High H	Low H	Grn Elodin	Brz Elodin	Iron Dw	Cppr Dwarf	Vallan	Osian	Wld Osian	Pl Rukunn	Hl Rukunn
Pick Pockets		5
Open Locks		5				15	10		15	10	5	5
Find/Remove Traps		5			10	20	15				5	5
Move Silently				10	5	5	5		10	20	5	5
Hide in Shadows				10	5	5	5		10	20	5	5
Hear Noise		5		10	5	5	5	10	5	5
Climb Walls			5	10	5	-15	-10	15	20	25
Tracking			5	5	5				5	10	5	5
Intelligence for Tracking
For every point over 9 add 2 %, conversley for every 1 point under 9 remove 2 %

 For Dexterity follow the adjustments from the table in the players handbook. There is no adjustment to foraging due to statistic or armour or race.

Experience:
There is one unified experience table as follows;

Lv        XP             Lv        XP          Lv        XP
1          0                7        5040       13        241920
2          2                8      10080      14        282240
3          6                9      20160      15        302400
4         24              10   40320      16         312480
5        120             11  80640      17         317520
6        720             12 161280     18        320045

How does one gain XP?  Instead of individual creatures XP is given based one the events of the encounter and what happened etc,  a single character fighting off a gang of thugs may only get none, 1 XP or several XP depending on the challenge and on the ideas the character comes up with to solve the problem.  While this does not quantify for the group what can be expected from any particular type of encounter it certainly does raise the stakes if a player wants to generate as much XP from an encounter etc.

So thats about it .  Tell me what you think of the system.  We have been playing it now for about 2 months and the feedback so far has been positive from the players. Cheers and Game on!
Steve

RTF Continued... Part 2

So ..onto combat..
So to add a little spice to combat I have decided to do the following. If something is hit with a natural 20 it has been critically hit.  This means several effects can take place.  One- maximum damage is inflicted, two - the target needs to throw a saving throw using any Con penalty/bonus.  If they make it no further effect happens.  If they fail by between 1 to 4 points then they can only heal naturally using a 'short rest' each day until either of two things happen - each day the make a new saving throw  to see if they can remove this effect (with a plus one per day) or gain magical healing which removes the effect.  Also if they fail the saving throw  by more than 4 they suffer the effects of short rest healing and roll on the table to have an ongoing effect until the above saving throw is made;

1: Movement is cut in half
2: -1 to hit
3: -1 to damage
4: -1 to Armour Class
5: -1to Saving Throws
6: -2 or 10% to any other activity not mentioned.

Short rest - each person can take one short rest per day to recover  their level plus any Constitution adjustment in hit points. For example a 5th level Magician with a -1 con penalty gains back 4 hit points per short rest
Nights rest- each person can heal their hit die for one night of complete rest ( no fighting etc but allowed to do watch duty as long as no strenuous actions are taken). For example a third level Fighter can roll 3d10 to see how much they gain back

As long as the attack can gain a successful move silently or hide in shadows before making a melee back attack this counts as the previous Thief ability of Surprise back attack:

Lv 1-6: additional 1d6 damage
Lv 7-11: additional 2d8 damage
Lv 12-16+: additional 3d10 damage

Saving Throws
Each class now has one beginning Saving Throw number and applies modifiers to this to make a saving throw;
 e.g. a poison save would apply a Con adjustment, a save versus illusions either a Saving throw using Int or Wis adjustments etc.

Lv    F         P       M
1      16      14     13
3      14      13    12
7      12      11    11
9      10      10    10
12      8        8      9
14      6         7     8
17      5        6      7

To hit;
Fighter: 20 level1, -1/level to 4 at level 17
Priest: 20 @ level 1, 19 @ level 3, 18 @ level 5 etc to 9 @ level 15
Magician: 20 @ level 1, 19 @ Level 4, 17@ Level 7, 16 @ Level 10, 14 @ Level 13, 13 @ Level 16
Bard proceeds at the next number each two levels so a 1 level Bard who was a 7th Level Magician would be 16, then at rd level be at a 15.  A 1st level Bard who was a 7th level Fighter would be at a 12 then an 11 at 3rd level.

All constructive feedback welcome.
Next: XP and how the Thiefly and ranger abilities work.