After significant delay, I figured it was time to post the actual rules--how you accomplish things--in Anti-d20. In general, there are three basic types of rolls that you need to make in Anti-d20, but there are also some optional rolls that can come up.
1) The first type of roll is called a Check, as in "Give me a Strength check." Checks can be made against traits or skills. To make a Strength check, look at the Strength trait, see what type of dice it is, and roll that dice. You need to meet or beat the Target Number with this check. The default Target Number is 4, but of course, the GM can assign any Target Number that he thinks is appropriate given the difficulty of the task. Using a Strength Check to catch and hold a falling steel portcullis might be quite a bit more difficult than 4.
The GM is also responsible for adjudicating what happens on a success or a failure. On the example above, the GM might assign a difficulty of 8 or even 10 to catch a portcullis. A success means that the character has managed to halt the fall of the portcullis and the group can sneak through before he lets it fall again. A failure might mean that the portcullis crashes into the character, crushing him and calling for a Health Roll.
2) An Opposed Roll is one where two characters (player characters or non-player characters) make opposed rolls; i.e., instead of a Target Number, to be successful, one character must beat the check rolled by another character. A Perception Trait check vs. a Sneak Skill check would be one example. Two characters in melee combat would make Opposed Rolls using their Fighting Skill. (A character who wants to shoot another character probably also rolls against the other characters Agility Trait assuming they attempt to dodge out of the way, modified as necessary by the GM. For example, for shooting a modern firearm at close range, I'd give the defending character's agility roll a significant penalty; maybe -6 or even more.) Again, the GM is responsible for defining what success and failure mean. In melee combat, it could mean that the losing character has to make a Health Roll, for instance. In a Perception vs. Sneak check, obviously the Perceiver notices the other character if he wins the Opposed Roll and does not if he loses it.
3) The third and final of the basic rolls in the game is the Health Roll. This is what happens when something bad happens physically to a character, and the Health Check is made using the Health Trait. Both the Target Number and the results of a check, either successful or failure, are up to the GM and are highly situation dependant. Getting punched in the face and failing a Health roll might only stun the character for a moment, while getting shot in the face with a shotgun will have a much higher Target Number, and failure might mean instant death.
As a general rule, as with other Checks, a Health Check baselines to a target number of 4, but could fluctuate considerably based on circumstances. As a very general rule, failed Health Checks could temporarily reduce the Health trait by a step on the dice scale. So a character with a d8 Health skill could temporarily go down to d6. This, however, represents relatively minor damage, and any given situation could be considerably worse.
In general, the more steps you lose, either cumulative or through a single devastating failed Health roll, the more difficult it is to recover, and the more recuperation is needed, as well as possibly first aid or protracted medical care.
This isn't really handled in the rules, though. There's a Heal skill, and GMs can adjudicate based on what they think is appropriate. Because what is appropriate is as much based on the genre as it is on anything realistic, then that can vary considerably.
Lastly, there are some optional rolls. The Luck trait can call for a Luck Check, which the GM can call for as a "safety net" for catastrophically failed rolls. Characters never announce their intent to make a Luck Check; it can only be used when the GM says it is appropriate. It doesn't change a failure to a success, but it could change a catastrophic failure into a more routine one.
And Sanity, for games that use it, work very much like Health checks, except, naturally, for mental rather than physical health.
Showing posts with label Anti-d20. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-d20. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Anti-d20 #3: Character skills
After traits are assigned, which are inate abilities and capabilities, we move on to skills, which are learned abilities and capabilities. In many cases, if you don't have the appropriate skill, a GM can allow you to make an appropriate trait check with a penalty to attempt to use the skill anyway, but that's the GM's call as to whether or not that makes sense in the specific given situation where he's calling for the check.
Each skill is meant to be fairly broad, so that rather than having a very long skill list, a shorter skill list covers more eventualities. However, given that this system is, by design, a rules-light system, that means that there will be a fair bit of GM interpretation as to what skills will actually allow you to do on some of the less obvious cases; it's not my intention to proscriptively spell out uses for skills, only to describe them briefly.
The skills available are, then:
Climb: Self explanatory, really, right? Without taking the skill, you could attempt this with a Strength check with a -2 to your roll.
Drive (when applicable): Mostly refers to settings in which self-powered land vehicles (i.e., cars and whatnot) are available, but could also be used to refer to driving a coach, carriage, or wagon, if needed.
Fight: The ability to skillfully engage in melee combat, either with or without weapons. For characters who don't take this skill, you can still attempt to fight using Agility with a -2 to your roll.
Heal: The ability to do both immediate first aid, as well as long-term care, assuming appropriate supplies are on hand. This can save the life of a character with an improvised field dressing, or even with long term care, possibly remove major diseases, injuries or insanity. The GM is the final arbiter on whether or not something can be healed in the first place.
Knowledge Specialty: While the Knowledge trait can be used as a general check to find out if a character knows something, characters with more specific knowledge, such as Knowledge (Occult) or Knowledge (Engineering) can determine things that are beyond the Pale for general Knowledge rolls and make knowledge rolls that other characters cannot. Before spending points on this skill, I recommend talking with your GM to make sure that it will actually come up in game. You can take this skill multiple times, with different specialties each time. If your specialties are in turn fairly broad, the GM might give you a penalty to certain rolls, although you'll be able to roll in more situations. Again, talk with your GM to make sure you understand the implications of the tradeoff.
Persuasion: The ability to lie, bluff, persuade, convince, and even "pick up" characters romantically are all covered by this ability. Many of these applications can be done with a charisma check, but certain of them (especially bluffing) will receive a penalty without using the specific skill.
Piloting (if applicable:) Mostly used for operating flying vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, blimps, or whatever. Can also be used for boats, if wanted. Make sure that your setting has a use for this skill before you take it. Most fantasy settings, for example, would not.
Repair (if applicable): The ability to fix gadgets, machines, and other complex devices. Only applicable in settings where machines are common.
Riding: The ability to mount and handle a riding animal. Even unskilled riders can usually make an attempt with an agility check (or a charisma check if the animal needs to be convinced to let you--or both, depending on the circumstances) but this is a relatively specialized skill, so you'll be looking at anywhere from a -2 to a -4 penalty on those rolls.
Shooting: The ability to handle any weapon that shoots a beam or projectile. While this is more important in modern, semi-modern or futuristic settings than in others, where powerful firearms are more commonplace, it also is the skill used for things as simple as a slingshot or bow and arrow too. Agility checks at a -2 (or more, depending on the complexity of the weapon being used) can substitute.
Survival: The ability to take care of your needs while away from civilization. Want to catch animals and fish? Find edible plants? Follow the trail of a wanted man? Start a fire with just a rock and a stick? All applications of the Survival skill. Some of these applications (but not all) can be attempted with a Perception trait check at a -2 (or more.)
Swim: It's amazing to me that there are people in this world who aren't nearly as comfortable swimming as they are walking or running, but apparently its true. Is your character capable of crossing the river? Keeping himself afloat if cast overboard into the ocean? Even untrained swimmers can attempt to doggy-paddle with a Strength check, but you'll be doing it at a -2 penalty at best.
Throw: Used for anything that you toss. Atlatls, slings, darts, Molotov cocktails, grenades, or water balloons and snowballs; they all apply. Agility checks can sub at a -2 (or more, for more complicated types of weapons or manuevers.)
While this list isn't meant to be exhaustive, between it and the traits, your GM shouldn't have any trouble figuring out something to have you roll for any action you tell him you want to attempt. And that's the whole purpose; to give a quick and dirty tool that GMs can use to keep the game rolling quickly and without fuss, and without the need to resort to looking something up, or wrangling about what rules mean. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive system as is; it needs GM adjudication to work.
Anyway...
You assign your ranks in skills by assigning the following ranks to whichever skills best fit your character. For non-modern settings, you can assign a d12, d10, d8, d8, d6 and d6 to whichever of the ten skills you wish. If you're adding back in Drive, Pilot and Repair, add an additional d8 and d6 to that list. Anything else that you don't possess, you can either sub a trait check with the appropriate penalty, or use a d4, whichever is better (subject to GM approval.)
If that doesn't seem like a lot; don't worry---there will also be forthcoming rules on advancing your character. These initial chargen rules gives us the equivalent of neophyte, "low level" characters, so they're not meant to be extremely capable across a wide spectrum of situations. Rather, they can have a few things that they are good at, and a few others that they are decently capable at, and they can start there.
Coming next: the types of die rolls you make in Anti-d20, or "Running the game" followed shortly by Advancing your character. After that, we'll have a look at a few slightly more specialized rules for specific campaigns, and then move on from there.
Each skill is meant to be fairly broad, so that rather than having a very long skill list, a shorter skill list covers more eventualities. However, given that this system is, by design, a rules-light system, that means that there will be a fair bit of GM interpretation as to what skills will actually allow you to do on some of the less obvious cases; it's not my intention to proscriptively spell out uses for skills, only to describe them briefly.
The skills available are, then:
Climb: Self explanatory, really, right? Without taking the skill, you could attempt this with a Strength check with a -2 to your roll.
Drive (when applicable): Mostly refers to settings in which self-powered land vehicles (i.e., cars and whatnot) are available, but could also be used to refer to driving a coach, carriage, or wagon, if needed.
Fight: The ability to skillfully engage in melee combat, either with or without weapons. For characters who don't take this skill, you can still attempt to fight using Agility with a -2 to your roll.
Heal: The ability to do both immediate first aid, as well as long-term care, assuming appropriate supplies are on hand. This can save the life of a character with an improvised field dressing, or even with long term care, possibly remove major diseases, injuries or insanity. The GM is the final arbiter on whether or not something can be healed in the first place.
Knowledge Specialty: While the Knowledge trait can be used as a general check to find out if a character knows something, characters with more specific knowledge, such as Knowledge (Occult) or Knowledge (Engineering) can determine things that are beyond the Pale for general Knowledge rolls and make knowledge rolls that other characters cannot. Before spending points on this skill, I recommend talking with your GM to make sure that it will actually come up in game. You can take this skill multiple times, with different specialties each time. If your specialties are in turn fairly broad, the GM might give you a penalty to certain rolls, although you'll be able to roll in more situations. Again, talk with your GM to make sure you understand the implications of the tradeoff.
Persuasion: The ability to lie, bluff, persuade, convince, and even "pick up" characters romantically are all covered by this ability. Many of these applications can be done with a charisma check, but certain of them (especially bluffing) will receive a penalty without using the specific skill.
Piloting (if applicable:) Mostly used for operating flying vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, blimps, or whatever. Can also be used for boats, if wanted. Make sure that your setting has a use for this skill before you take it. Most fantasy settings, for example, would not.
Repair (if applicable): The ability to fix gadgets, machines, and other complex devices. Only applicable in settings where machines are common.
Riding: The ability to mount and handle a riding animal. Even unskilled riders can usually make an attempt with an agility check (or a charisma check if the animal needs to be convinced to let you--or both, depending on the circumstances) but this is a relatively specialized skill, so you'll be looking at anywhere from a -2 to a -4 penalty on those rolls.
Shooting: The ability to handle any weapon that shoots a beam or projectile. While this is more important in modern, semi-modern or futuristic settings than in others, where powerful firearms are more commonplace, it also is the skill used for things as simple as a slingshot or bow and arrow too. Agility checks at a -2 (or more, depending on the complexity of the weapon being used) can substitute.
Survival: The ability to take care of your needs while away from civilization. Want to catch animals and fish? Find edible plants? Follow the trail of a wanted man? Start a fire with just a rock and a stick? All applications of the Survival skill. Some of these applications (but not all) can be attempted with a Perception trait check at a -2 (or more.)
Swim: It's amazing to me that there are people in this world who aren't nearly as comfortable swimming as they are walking or running, but apparently its true. Is your character capable of crossing the river? Keeping himself afloat if cast overboard into the ocean? Even untrained swimmers can attempt to doggy-paddle with a Strength check, but you'll be doing it at a -2 penalty at best.
Throw: Used for anything that you toss. Atlatls, slings, darts, Molotov cocktails, grenades, or water balloons and snowballs; they all apply. Agility checks can sub at a -2 (or more, for more complicated types of weapons or manuevers.)
While this list isn't meant to be exhaustive, between it and the traits, your GM shouldn't have any trouble figuring out something to have you roll for any action you tell him you want to attempt. And that's the whole purpose; to give a quick and dirty tool that GMs can use to keep the game rolling quickly and without fuss, and without the need to resort to looking something up, or wrangling about what rules mean. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive system as is; it needs GM adjudication to work.
Anyway...
You assign your ranks in skills by assigning the following ranks to whichever skills best fit your character. For non-modern settings, you can assign a d12, d10, d8, d8, d6 and d6 to whichever of the ten skills you wish. If you're adding back in Drive, Pilot and Repair, add an additional d8 and d6 to that list. Anything else that you don't possess, you can either sub a trait check with the appropriate penalty, or use a d4, whichever is better (subject to GM approval.)
If that doesn't seem like a lot; don't worry---there will also be forthcoming rules on advancing your character. These initial chargen rules gives us the equivalent of neophyte, "low level" characters, so they're not meant to be extremely capable across a wide spectrum of situations. Rather, they can have a few things that they are good at, and a few others that they are decently capable at, and they can start there.
Coming next: the types of die rolls you make in Anti-d20, or "Running the game" followed shortly by Advancing your character. After that, we'll have a look at a few slightly more specialized rules for specific campaigns, and then move on from there.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Anti-d20 #2: Character traits
I decided to split character generation up into two parts in order to keep either blog post from being overwhelmingly large. Although character generation should, like everything else in Anti-d20, be pretty quick, easy, simplified, and utilize scaling dice to to differentiate odds of success for any given task, at the same time, it needs to be robust enough to actually define the character with some detail. My experience is that many players (myself included) frequently don't have a highly detailed, fleshed-out idea of the character in their heads when they start playing, so they use character generation (chargen) and things that happen in play to gradually develop the characters over time. A system that gives you enough mechanics to "sink your teeth into" can give you a headstart on defining the character in your mind before you have to actually start playing him.
In a move borrowed more or less wholesale from The Window (although Savage Worlds is also essentially the same here too), I've split character generation into Traits and Skills. Given the nickname of my system as Anti-d20, ironically, you'll see that the six traits I've used are very similar to the ability scores of the d20 system (although for that matter, very few roleplaying systems of any stripe venture too far from these basic traits too.) The Window originally came with five of these that I'm using unchanged. I added a sixth, Charisma, because I think it's important to recognize that mechanically instead of just saying, "roleplay it out" in order to account for differences in the player and the characters inate abilities there.
In addition to the six basic traits, there are also two additional optional traits. These could be very important for certain games… or they could be completely irrelevant. Because of their ties to specific genres or modes of play instead of the universality of the basic six traits, they've been relegated to the optional status, but I recommend them both.
Strength
This score tells you how strong your character is. This comes up when a character attempts to do something that is primarily driven solely by strength, and not skill (the relevant skill check should be made if applicable… this is for checks which are specifically strength related, or which seem to not have a skill against which there is an obvious correllation.) Actions like picking up heavy weights, breaking down doors, holding someone so they can't move, etc. are examples of things that should call for a Strength check.
Agility
This score tells you how coordinated your character is. Many items that require agility also have specific skills that should be used instead (throw, or shoot, for example) but there are also many actions that one could undertake that do not. Attempting to keep your balance on the tilting deck of a ship in a storm, feats of hand/eye coordination, picking a pocket, or other feats of general athleticism may all require Agility checks. In d20 terms, this replaces some skills (because my skill list here isn't as long) as well as the Reflex save, if that helps put some context behind when this should be used.
Health
A character's basic constitution, heartiness, and healthiness. This will be used frequently in many physically dangerous situations; health checks are used whenever your character is injured, poisoned, encounters a disease, or even fatigue. In many ways, Health is a combination of hit points and the Fortitude save. Or, if you're familiar with True20, it's both the Fortitude and the Damage save rolled into one. Kinda. Albeit subject to a lot more GM interpretation, so as to avoid save or die effects except when you want them.
The effects of a failed Health roll are highly situational dependant, and require GM interpretation. If an opponent shoots you in the head with a 9mm at point blank range, not only with the target you need to roll be incredibly high, but even the effects of a successful roll aren't going to be good (maybe the character is in a coma for three months and then wakes up with amnesia, for example… a failed one is obviously instant death.) On the other hand, if an enemy spy is trying to get you drunk and you're playing along, the target number will be more modest, and a failed roll just means that you take a penalty on your Perception, Charisma and skill checks for a few hours.
Knowledge
Used any time the player wants to determine if the character would know something that is in question. This can be formal education, hard knocks experience, ability to draw disparate clues that the character may have heard somewhere years ago together, or anything else. Basically it's "Make a check to get a clue when the player seems stumped" combined with some in-game roleplaying where it's unclear if a character would know something more esoteric or not.
Perception
The ability to notice stuff. This one can save your life, of course. What you can see, what you can smell, what you can hear… very important in most settings.
Charisma
Neither Savage Worlds nor The Window use a Charisma score (although d20 does.) Although it's often good (and fun) to roleplay out social situations, that can lead to the situation in which players who are charismatic end up always having charismatic characters and those who are not, can't. This attempts to bridge that gap somewhat. It's also a shorthand for when you don't want to roleplay out an interaction, because you'd rather speed the pace up and move on to something else. Anything from negotiating passage with a caravan, attempting to bluff a beat cop, to crusing the bar scene to pick up one night stands all fall under the aegis of the Charisma check.
Luck
This is the first of the alternate traits. This is basically the "get out of jail free card." You're unlikely to ever roll this on your own initiative (unless the GM decides to do more with this, see below), but a GM might call for a luck roll if you just blew a major, important roll and he wants to give you chance to mitigate the failure. Note that this doesn't undo the failure… it just mitigates the effects of it somewhat. This is more of a GM safety net than anything, but including a luck trait certainly goes a long way towards making the game less punishing if you're in an environment where checks are being made frequently. If that's the case, odds are you'll eventually fail some, and if they're really important ones (i.e, a health check to avoid drowning, an agility check to avoid being swept off the hull of the spaceship into the void, etc.) then having a second chance with the Luck trait can make a major difference in PC survivability.
An alternative way to use the Luck trait is to make a Luck check after a failed check of another type and add the Luck roll total to the other failed check. Personally, I'm indifferent to re-rolling versus rolling Luck as if it were an "Action Point", but check with your GM on how he wants to handle. In any case, you can't abuse the Luck trait and use it to add (or reroll) any failed check on a whim. Luck checks should only be used when your GM tells you to make a luck check (or if he agrees to allow you to if you ask him) if you are using your luck too often the GM can (and should) permanently reduce the value of your luck trait after a while to represent you using up your luck.
As an even further last ditch maneuver, GMs might allow you to even mitigate a failed Luck roll in life or death situations by permantly reducing your Luck score one dice band (i.e., from a d8 to a d6, for instance) to convert the failed Luck roll into an instant success. This is optional however, and it cannot be assumed that a GM is using this rule even if he is using the already optional Luck rules. Be sure and check with your GM and find out how he's running it!)
Sanity
Made famous by the popular Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, some kind of sanity-type mechanic has been a staple of any horror themed game that's come out ever since, and they've even been integrated into other genres that have some horror influence, including darker sword & sorcery settings like Freeport. This optional trait is therefore going to be highly genre dependant… although as it turns out, for most games I'd run, it'll definitely work.
As with health rolls, sanity rolls are highly situation dependant, and require GM adjudication. Seeing a mangled carcass at a crime scene is disturbing, but probably won't be a major risk (at least not for a player character), while seeing your wife die traumatically while a demon claws its way out of her innards on its way to try and steal your soul will almost certainly require a much higher target and have much more punishing consequences for a failed roll.
While I was tempted to include a quick and dirty chart of sanity effects, I'll defer for the time being (although in actual play, I'll probably borrow one from my Cthulhu books, or my Freeport books, or some other such book that already has some in print… here's a link to one such system that's online, although I'll probably want one that's more streamlined). Anything from catatonia to fleeing in uncontrollable panic, to having your score permanently reduced (as from a d10 to a d8, for example) are appropriate.
Assigning values to traits
Now that you know what the six basic and two optional traits are, how do you assign values to them? In The Window, it's assumed that characters are "so mature" that they can assign whatever they want to those values to flesh out their characters and that will work out well. While that approach does seem to coincide with my own stated "authorial paradigm", in practice, I prefer (both as a player and as a GM) to have a little more direction than that, just so I can feel confident that we're all on the same page.
Given that, I've devised three "tiers" of trait assignment. The first tier is "realistic" and it features characters that are not particularly extraordinary. "Heroic" features characters that are larger than life, and more competent than everyday, regular Joes. This is probably where most roleplaying games fall in terms of character competency, roughly speaking. The third tier is "pulpish" and features out and out superheroes. John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Conan, Doc Savage, James Bond… these characters are beyond even mere heroes, they're legends.
As an aside, my games will be assuming the heroic tier almost exclusively.
For "realistic" games, you have the following six stats to assign to your six basic traits: d10, 3d8s, and 2d6s. If you use one of the optional traits, add an additional d6 to the mix, and if you use both optional traits, add an exta d8 as well.
For "heroic" games, you will use d12, d10, 3d8 and d6. Again, use an extra d6 for an optional trait and also an extra d8 if you use both optional traits.
For "pulpish" games, you will use 2d12, 2d10, and 2d8 with an extra d8 and d10 respectively if you use the optional traits.
Keep in mind that these are starting numbers only. Assuming your character survives multiple sessions of play, you will start having opportunities to improve your traits as the game goes on.
Next up -- Skills!
In a move borrowed more or less wholesale from The Window (although Savage Worlds is also essentially the same here too), I've split character generation into Traits and Skills. Given the nickname of my system as Anti-d20, ironically, you'll see that the six traits I've used are very similar to the ability scores of the d20 system (although for that matter, very few roleplaying systems of any stripe venture too far from these basic traits too.) The Window originally came with five of these that I'm using unchanged. I added a sixth, Charisma, because I think it's important to recognize that mechanically instead of just saying, "roleplay it out" in order to account for differences in the player and the characters inate abilities there.
In addition to the six basic traits, there are also two additional optional traits. These could be very important for certain games… or they could be completely irrelevant. Because of their ties to specific genres or modes of play instead of the universality of the basic six traits, they've been relegated to the optional status, but I recommend them both.
Strength
This score tells you how strong your character is. This comes up when a character attempts to do something that is primarily driven solely by strength, and not skill (the relevant skill check should be made if applicable… this is for checks which are specifically strength related, or which seem to not have a skill against which there is an obvious correllation.) Actions like picking up heavy weights, breaking down doors, holding someone so they can't move, etc. are examples of things that should call for a Strength check.
Agility
This score tells you how coordinated your character is. Many items that require agility also have specific skills that should be used instead (throw, or shoot, for example) but there are also many actions that one could undertake that do not. Attempting to keep your balance on the tilting deck of a ship in a storm, feats of hand/eye coordination, picking a pocket, or other feats of general athleticism may all require Agility checks. In d20 terms, this replaces some skills (because my skill list here isn't as long) as well as the Reflex save, if that helps put some context behind when this should be used.
Health
A character's basic constitution, heartiness, and healthiness. This will be used frequently in many physically dangerous situations; health checks are used whenever your character is injured, poisoned, encounters a disease, or even fatigue. In many ways, Health is a combination of hit points and the Fortitude save. Or, if you're familiar with True20, it's both the Fortitude and the Damage save rolled into one. Kinda. Albeit subject to a lot more GM interpretation, so as to avoid save or die effects except when you want them.
The effects of a failed Health roll are highly situational dependant, and require GM interpretation. If an opponent shoots you in the head with a 9mm at point blank range, not only with the target you need to roll be incredibly high, but even the effects of a successful roll aren't going to be good (maybe the character is in a coma for three months and then wakes up with amnesia, for example… a failed one is obviously instant death.) On the other hand, if an enemy spy is trying to get you drunk and you're playing along, the target number will be more modest, and a failed roll just means that you take a penalty on your Perception, Charisma and skill checks for a few hours.
Knowledge
Used any time the player wants to determine if the character would know something that is in question. This can be formal education, hard knocks experience, ability to draw disparate clues that the character may have heard somewhere years ago together, or anything else. Basically it's "Make a check to get a clue when the player seems stumped" combined with some in-game roleplaying where it's unclear if a character would know something more esoteric or not.
Perception
The ability to notice stuff. This one can save your life, of course. What you can see, what you can smell, what you can hear… very important in most settings.
Charisma
Neither Savage Worlds nor The Window use a Charisma score (although d20 does.) Although it's often good (and fun) to roleplay out social situations, that can lead to the situation in which players who are charismatic end up always having charismatic characters and those who are not, can't. This attempts to bridge that gap somewhat. It's also a shorthand for when you don't want to roleplay out an interaction, because you'd rather speed the pace up and move on to something else. Anything from negotiating passage with a caravan, attempting to bluff a beat cop, to crusing the bar scene to pick up one night stands all fall under the aegis of the Charisma check.
Luck
This is the first of the alternate traits. This is basically the "get out of jail free card." You're unlikely to ever roll this on your own initiative (unless the GM decides to do more with this, see below), but a GM might call for a luck roll if you just blew a major, important roll and he wants to give you chance to mitigate the failure. Note that this doesn't undo the failure… it just mitigates the effects of it somewhat. This is more of a GM safety net than anything, but including a luck trait certainly goes a long way towards making the game less punishing if you're in an environment where checks are being made frequently. If that's the case, odds are you'll eventually fail some, and if they're really important ones (i.e, a health check to avoid drowning, an agility check to avoid being swept off the hull of the spaceship into the void, etc.) then having a second chance with the Luck trait can make a major difference in PC survivability.
An alternative way to use the Luck trait is to make a Luck check after a failed check of another type and add the Luck roll total to the other failed check. Personally, I'm indifferent to re-rolling versus rolling Luck as if it were an "Action Point", but check with your GM on how he wants to handle. In any case, you can't abuse the Luck trait and use it to add (or reroll) any failed check on a whim. Luck checks should only be used when your GM tells you to make a luck check (or if he agrees to allow you to if you ask him) if you are using your luck too often the GM can (and should) permanently reduce the value of your luck trait after a while to represent you using up your luck.
As an even further last ditch maneuver, GMs might allow you to even mitigate a failed Luck roll in life or death situations by permantly reducing your Luck score one dice band (i.e., from a d8 to a d6, for instance) to convert the failed Luck roll into an instant success. This is optional however, and it cannot be assumed that a GM is using this rule even if he is using the already optional Luck rules. Be sure and check with your GM and find out how he's running it!)
Sanity
Made famous by the popular Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, some kind of sanity-type mechanic has been a staple of any horror themed game that's come out ever since, and they've even been integrated into other genres that have some horror influence, including darker sword & sorcery settings like Freeport. This optional trait is therefore going to be highly genre dependant… although as it turns out, for most games I'd run, it'll definitely work.
As with health rolls, sanity rolls are highly situation dependant, and require GM adjudication. Seeing a mangled carcass at a crime scene is disturbing, but probably won't be a major risk (at least not for a player character), while seeing your wife die traumatically while a demon claws its way out of her innards on its way to try and steal your soul will almost certainly require a much higher target and have much more punishing consequences for a failed roll.
While I was tempted to include a quick and dirty chart of sanity effects, I'll defer for the time being (although in actual play, I'll probably borrow one from my Cthulhu books, or my Freeport books, or some other such book that already has some in print… here's a link to one such system that's online, although I'll probably want one that's more streamlined). Anything from catatonia to fleeing in uncontrollable panic, to having your score permanently reduced (as from a d10 to a d8, for example) are appropriate.
Assigning values to traits
Now that you know what the six basic and two optional traits are, how do you assign values to them? In The Window, it's assumed that characters are "so mature" that they can assign whatever they want to those values to flesh out their characters and that will work out well. While that approach does seem to coincide with my own stated "authorial paradigm", in practice, I prefer (both as a player and as a GM) to have a little more direction than that, just so I can feel confident that we're all on the same page.
Given that, I've devised three "tiers" of trait assignment. The first tier is "realistic" and it features characters that are not particularly extraordinary. "Heroic" features characters that are larger than life, and more competent than everyday, regular Joes. This is probably where most roleplaying games fall in terms of character competency, roughly speaking. The third tier is "pulpish" and features out and out superheroes. John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Conan, Doc Savage, James Bond… these characters are beyond even mere heroes, they're legends.
As an aside, my games will be assuming the heroic tier almost exclusively.
For "realistic" games, you have the following six stats to assign to your six basic traits: d10, 3d8s, and 2d6s. If you use one of the optional traits, add an additional d6 to the mix, and if you use both optional traits, add an exta d8 as well.
For "heroic" games, you will use d12, d10, 3d8 and d6. Again, use an extra d6 for an optional trait and also an extra d8 if you use both optional traits.
For "pulpish" games, you will use 2d12, 2d10, and 2d8 with an extra d8 and d10 respectively if you use the optional traits.
Keep in mind that these are starting numbers only. Assuming your character survives multiple sessions of play, you will start having opportunities to improve your traits as the game goes on.
Next up -- Skills!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Anti-d20 #1: Introduction
Welcome to the Anti-d20 Roleplaying game system! While posted on a blog for the time being, this will, when it's complete, be collated and gathered together into a pdf document, probably with pretty spartan layout and formating, and posted somewhere for anyone to grab if they so choose.
The impetus to develop Anti-d20 can ultimately be tied to my own dissatisfaction with the roleplaying games available to me. Now, don't get me wrong; I've played many games, and enjoyed most of them, but all of them had something that frustrated me; something that just wasn't quite right. Sometimes it was the environment that I played the game in (playing via Pbp introduces a number of challenges that face to face tabletop gaming doesn't have, for instance) but in most cases, it was simply my tastes that were a poor fit for some element of the game in question.
What is a roleplaying game anyway? No game system, it seems, can resist the call to answer that question in the introductory session, and it seems Anti-d20 will crumble before that peer pressure as well. The answer, of course, depends on whom you ask and what they want out of the game. At its heart, a roleplaying game is a game in which the players (or at least most of them) take on a role; a character other than themselves, and tell stories about this character and his adventures. For some people, roleplaying games are akin to method acting; getting into character is what roleplaying is all about. For others, it's about exploration of believable, simulated fictional environment. In addition to roleplaying, roleplaying games are also games and what many people enjoy is tactical manuevering. Few indeed are the RPGs that don't have conflict of some kind (usually violent combat) as an important component of the experience. Some gamers want to be mentally challenged, and solve mysteries and puzzles. Others find that activity frustrating and boring, and want to show up, relax, kick some butt and take some names. Most gamers like all of these things to some extent, so a good roleplaying game has to scratch all of those itches to have the maximum potential appeal to the most players.
For me, though, I've also approached roleplaying games with an authorial perspective. So to me, the most important thing that a roleplaying game is is a collaborative storytelling process. I want engaging characters and engaging plots. I want to create my very own pulp action or horror serial or novel right there at the table. Not literally, of course (I don't novelize the adventures of my characters, for one thing.) Nobody is the author in this process. Everyone contributes. Each player brings their own character (the Player Character, or PC) and they decide what that character will do, not an omnipotent author. One player, in lieu of that, becomes the Gamemaster, or GM, and provides everything else: the environment in which they adventure, the adversaries, allies and bystanders that they encounter, and all that that entails.
The paradigm by which I cobbled together Anti-d20 was one, therefore, where I wanted a very quick and easy system, very fast and easy to understand, without a lot of rules and without a lot of complications, that I could use in multiple environments to facilitate the kinds of games that I most enjoy. While I, and most gamers, mostly play in a face to face environment, with the GM and the other players all sitting within easy conversational distance from each other and rolling real dice, I also want a system that doesn't bog down and become cumbersome or difficult to use in other environments. With the spread of the Internet in the last couple of decades, play-by-post, play-by-e-mail, play-by-Skype, and other forms of gaming have become more common, and I've even dabbled in them with some success myself. One thing that I noticed is that such venues are extremely hard on games that require a lot of complexity or a lot of tactics. Since neither aspect of gaming is particular important to me personally, I thought I'd tweak some stuff up myself to make a game that not only gives me what I want in a traditional environment, but is also optimized for use in some of these newer, non-traditional environments.
And… credit where credit is due. I'm not really a game designer at all, even in an amateur sense. It's not my strong suit, and I don't care for game design overly much, honestly. So I'm not really doing anything new here. Rather, I'm taking some tried and true games that I know of that are already similar to what I'm looking for in some ways, kitbashing the best elements of each together, and then smoothing over the corners a bit to optimize the rules for my own personal goals. Therefore, the authors of The Window and Savage Worlds get a major shout-out, because Anti-d20 will bear some obvious similarities to both (as well as equally obvious differences from each.)
The core conceits of Anti-d20 are 1) to create a consistent, easy to use, easy to remember, and easy to adjudicate mechanic that can be applied to practically every situation that might come up in the game, 2) create an extremely rules light yet robust system framework that "disappears" in game, and 3) provide just enough detail that players can feel like the mechanics of the game and their character concepts work well together and support each other, and give them at least a little something mechanical to "bite onto" in terms of getting a handle on their characters. After all, many times players still don't "know" their characters very well yet when a game starts, and they develop over time and with play and practice. Having a few cues from the get-go can greatly speed up and facilitate that process.
In roleplaying games, we use dice. Dice are great, because they provide randomness. We're not actually authors (even if, like me, you approach it from an authorial standpoint) and the fact that success or failure often depends on the random nature of dice tosses creates the tension and friction that make roleplaying games so much fun. Anti-d20 uses all of the dice in a typical RPG dice pack set except (appropriately enough) the d20.
The core mechanic of the game is to roll dice and meet or beat a target number. This target defaults to 4 for basic tasks. Anything less than 4 probably isn't worth calling for a roll, because it's insuficiently challenging to create any sense of tension, and it bogs down the game with tediousness. Which die you roll to beat that target depends on your ability to meet that specific challenge. Dice with more sides are better, because they have access to higher numbers, and have a lower probability of rolling numbers below the target. A four-sided die (d4), therefore, represents a completely unskilled die roll. A check for someone who has no aptitude for the task he's attempting. But he can attempt it anyway. And if it's not particularly difficult (i.e., his target is 4), he might even succeed if he manages to roll a four (he's got a 25% chance of that happeneing.) If he's got some basic skill and can roll a six-sided die (d6) then his range of possible outcomes increases, and his chance of hitting at least a four jumps from 25% to 50%. If the character is incredibly apt for that particular task and can roll a twelve-sided die (d12), then his chance of successfully completing that task increase to 75%.
And that, right there, folks, is the core of the system. For my next post on this topic, I'll get into the specific rules of how this core concept is implemented. While my goal is to be rules light, it's not rules free by any means, and it'll take me several posts to put this system completely together. And when that happens, I'll start happily playtesting it and using it. Feel free, if you like, to do so too.
Upcoming topics (or chapters, if you will--since eventually this will be collated into an actual document) include.
• Character creation
-- Traits
-- Skills
-- Description
-- Races (if applicable)
-- The Group
-- Advancement
• Task and conflict resolution
-- Target rolls
-- Opposed rolls
-- Health rolls
-- Other rolls (magic, sanity, luck, armor, etc.)
-- On the consequences of failure
After that, I may expand it even more with settings, examples, adventures, adversaries, or who knows what, but at that point, the rules, at least, will be done and the game will be complete enough to be useable.
The impetus to develop Anti-d20 can ultimately be tied to my own dissatisfaction with the roleplaying games available to me. Now, don't get me wrong; I've played many games, and enjoyed most of them, but all of them had something that frustrated me; something that just wasn't quite right. Sometimes it was the environment that I played the game in (playing via Pbp introduces a number of challenges that face to face tabletop gaming doesn't have, for instance) but in most cases, it was simply my tastes that were a poor fit for some element of the game in question.
What is a roleplaying game anyway? No game system, it seems, can resist the call to answer that question in the introductory session, and it seems Anti-d20 will crumble before that peer pressure as well. The answer, of course, depends on whom you ask and what they want out of the game. At its heart, a roleplaying game is a game in which the players (or at least most of them) take on a role; a character other than themselves, and tell stories about this character and his adventures. For some people, roleplaying games are akin to method acting; getting into character is what roleplaying is all about. For others, it's about exploration of believable, simulated fictional environment. In addition to roleplaying, roleplaying games are also games and what many people enjoy is tactical manuevering. Few indeed are the RPGs that don't have conflict of some kind (usually violent combat) as an important component of the experience. Some gamers want to be mentally challenged, and solve mysteries and puzzles. Others find that activity frustrating and boring, and want to show up, relax, kick some butt and take some names. Most gamers like all of these things to some extent, so a good roleplaying game has to scratch all of those itches to have the maximum potential appeal to the most players.
For me, though, I've also approached roleplaying games with an authorial perspective. So to me, the most important thing that a roleplaying game is is a collaborative storytelling process. I want engaging characters and engaging plots. I want to create my very own pulp action or horror serial or novel right there at the table. Not literally, of course (I don't novelize the adventures of my characters, for one thing.) Nobody is the author in this process. Everyone contributes. Each player brings their own character (the Player Character, or PC) and they decide what that character will do, not an omnipotent author. One player, in lieu of that, becomes the Gamemaster, or GM, and provides everything else: the environment in which they adventure, the adversaries, allies and bystanders that they encounter, and all that that entails.
The paradigm by which I cobbled together Anti-d20 was one, therefore, where I wanted a very quick and easy system, very fast and easy to understand, without a lot of rules and without a lot of complications, that I could use in multiple environments to facilitate the kinds of games that I most enjoy. While I, and most gamers, mostly play in a face to face environment, with the GM and the other players all sitting within easy conversational distance from each other and rolling real dice, I also want a system that doesn't bog down and become cumbersome or difficult to use in other environments. With the spread of the Internet in the last couple of decades, play-by-post, play-by-e-mail, play-by-Skype, and other forms of gaming have become more common, and I've even dabbled in them with some success myself. One thing that I noticed is that such venues are extremely hard on games that require a lot of complexity or a lot of tactics. Since neither aspect of gaming is particular important to me personally, I thought I'd tweak some stuff up myself to make a game that not only gives me what I want in a traditional environment, but is also optimized for use in some of these newer, non-traditional environments.
And… credit where credit is due. I'm not really a game designer at all, even in an amateur sense. It's not my strong suit, and I don't care for game design overly much, honestly. So I'm not really doing anything new here. Rather, I'm taking some tried and true games that I know of that are already similar to what I'm looking for in some ways, kitbashing the best elements of each together, and then smoothing over the corners a bit to optimize the rules for my own personal goals. Therefore, the authors of The Window and Savage Worlds get a major shout-out, because Anti-d20 will bear some obvious similarities to both (as well as equally obvious differences from each.)
The core conceits of Anti-d20 are 1) to create a consistent, easy to use, easy to remember, and easy to adjudicate mechanic that can be applied to practically every situation that might come up in the game, 2) create an extremely rules light yet robust system framework that "disappears" in game, and 3) provide just enough detail that players can feel like the mechanics of the game and their character concepts work well together and support each other, and give them at least a little something mechanical to "bite onto" in terms of getting a handle on their characters. After all, many times players still don't "know" their characters very well yet when a game starts, and they develop over time and with play and practice. Having a few cues from the get-go can greatly speed up and facilitate that process.
In roleplaying games, we use dice. Dice are great, because they provide randomness. We're not actually authors (even if, like me, you approach it from an authorial standpoint) and the fact that success or failure often depends on the random nature of dice tosses creates the tension and friction that make roleplaying games so much fun. Anti-d20 uses all of the dice in a typical RPG dice pack set except (appropriately enough) the d20.
The core mechanic of the game is to roll dice and meet or beat a target number. This target defaults to 4 for basic tasks. Anything less than 4 probably isn't worth calling for a roll, because it's insuficiently challenging to create any sense of tension, and it bogs down the game with tediousness. Which die you roll to beat that target depends on your ability to meet that specific challenge. Dice with more sides are better, because they have access to higher numbers, and have a lower probability of rolling numbers below the target. A four-sided die (d4), therefore, represents a completely unskilled die roll. A check for someone who has no aptitude for the task he's attempting. But he can attempt it anyway. And if it's not particularly difficult (i.e., his target is 4), he might even succeed if he manages to roll a four (he's got a 25% chance of that happeneing.) If he's got some basic skill and can roll a six-sided die (d6) then his range of possible outcomes increases, and his chance of hitting at least a four jumps from 25% to 50%. If the character is incredibly apt for that particular task and can roll a twelve-sided die (d12), then his chance of successfully completing that task increase to 75%.
And that, right there, folks, is the core of the system. For my next post on this topic, I'll get into the specific rules of how this core concept is implemented. While my goal is to be rules light, it's not rules free by any means, and it'll take me several posts to put this system completely together. And when that happens, I'll start happily playtesting it and using it. Feel free, if you like, to do so too.
Upcoming topics (or chapters, if you will--since eventually this will be collated into an actual document) include.
• Character creation
-- Traits
-- Skills
-- Description
-- Races (if applicable)
-- The Group
-- Advancement
• Task and conflict resolution
-- Target rolls
-- Opposed rolls
-- Health rolls
-- Other rolls (magic, sanity, luck, armor, etc.)
-- On the consequences of failure
After that, I may expand it even more with settings, examples, adventures, adversaries, or who knows what, but at that point, the rules, at least, will be done and the game will be complete enough to be useable.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Anti-d20
So, as I said in my last post, I've been reading the Savage Worlds rulebook. I finished through character creation last night, so about page... 50 or so? Out of 160. Many of the subsequent "rules" are actually things like campaign examples and stuff, so I've done more than half of the meat of the system already.
In many ways, Savage Worlds reminds me sharply of The Window. I've always been fascinated with The Window... years ago because it mirrored my own pretentious and arrogant viewpoint. Today, looking back at the portions of it that reflect that attitude makes me cringe, but from a design philosophy standpoint, I still think it's a sound structure. In The Window, you use different die types to indicate how good you are at something, and the point is to roll below a target number (the default which is 6, although obviously circumstances could cause that to be a different number.) So if you had a d4 Strength, your strength would be phenomenal, nearly superhuman, while a d6 would be guys who compete in Worlds Strongest Man competitions, and d20 or d30 (the highest die available) would be way below average.
Savage Worlds reverses this; instead of rolling under a target number, you want to roll over it, so a d4 is basically "untrained, and I suck" while a d12 is "phenomenally good". The d20 and d30 aren't really used, and the default target number is 4.
I like this more open-ended system, because it allows for supernaturally phenomenally good stats. If a really strong human has a Strength of d12, then an ogre might have a strength of d20, a giant of d30 and a dragon, titan or god of d100. For example.
Savage Worlds also has hindrances and edges, which in d20 terms is kinda like feats and anti-feats. While I like the concept, I dislike canned lists, and the implicit assumption that "if you don't have the feat/edge, you can't do this" mentality. While not a bad mechanic, I think I'd rather do away with it in my ideal system--edges could be reworked as stunts, tricks or even skills if a player really wants to capture that on the character sheet. Hindrances, on the other hand, could just be freeform character quirks described on the characters description section or something.
Where both Savage Worlds and The Window are common, again, is in traits and skills. Savage Worlds gives a nicely robust skill and trait system, although I don't know how much I like the correllations between some abilities and skills. The Window, on the other hand, has prescribed traits, but skills are completely freeform and you're supposed to make up your own. Savage Worlds gives you points to spend; The Window assumes that everyone's going to somehow come up with a good character by "working together" or something. I've always been disatisfied with this aspect of The Window, both from a GM and a player perspective, because I think having some direction is helpful on both sides of the table. When I ran a modified Window game for my kids, I came up with my own list of skills, and told the kids which dies they could use. They assigned them to taste, but we didn't end up with something strange or unbalanced. Savage Worlds definitely has the advantage there.
I haven't read combat and task resolution in Savage Worlds yet (and I don't remember it well from The Window) but I'm vaguely familiar with it, and its concepts of bennies, playing cards, wild dice, and a simple condition track. The Window's task and conflict resolution is basically just opposed rolls to be followed up by roleplaying. The Window's system seems too Spartan for my tastes, while Savage Worlds seems too wrapped up in weird novelty mechanics that are somewhat distracting. I'll need to read both again before I can judge which I like better.
If you can't tell, though, the similarities between the two systems have excited me about "kitbashing" the two systems together into my "ultimate rules light" approach. This doesn't mean that I'm abandoning d20, because I still enjoy playing it, but I've struggled with it in a few key areas in particular: 1) teaching it to new players (particularly younger players.) This doesn't reflect on them so much as on me; I don't have the patience to teach them about the game when I would rather just jump in and get playing, and 2) playing the game in unusual formats, i.e. in play by posts and whatnot.
I'd still enjoy it in more "regular" arenas as well, and I don't think it would ever become my go-to system for everything. It could, however, be a go-to system for a lot of different scenarios. So, while I don't see myself as a game designer at all, I'm actually kinda excited to kitbash these two systems together. I'll be posting the results here on my blog as I do it, in sections. So... stay tuned!
I called this post Anti-d20 as a bit of a joke; I don't think that the d20 would actually be used much in this system (if at all) whereas almost all of the other dice would. Plus, it's got a nice symmetry to d20 being my other system of choice.
In many ways, Savage Worlds reminds me sharply of The Window. I've always been fascinated with The Window... years ago because it mirrored my own pretentious and arrogant viewpoint. Today, looking back at the portions of it that reflect that attitude makes me cringe, but from a design philosophy standpoint, I still think it's a sound structure. In The Window, you use different die types to indicate how good you are at something, and the point is to roll below a target number (the default which is 6, although obviously circumstances could cause that to be a different number.) So if you had a d4 Strength, your strength would be phenomenal, nearly superhuman, while a d6 would be guys who compete in Worlds Strongest Man competitions, and d20 or d30 (the highest die available) would be way below average.
Savage Worlds reverses this; instead of rolling under a target number, you want to roll over it, so a d4 is basically "untrained, and I suck" while a d12 is "phenomenally good". The d20 and d30 aren't really used, and the default target number is 4.
I like this more open-ended system, because it allows for supernaturally phenomenally good stats. If a really strong human has a Strength of d12, then an ogre might have a strength of d20, a giant of d30 and a dragon, titan or god of d100. For example.
Savage Worlds also has hindrances and edges, which in d20 terms is kinda like feats and anti-feats. While I like the concept, I dislike canned lists, and the implicit assumption that "if you don't have the feat/edge, you can't do this" mentality. While not a bad mechanic, I think I'd rather do away with it in my ideal system--edges could be reworked as stunts, tricks or even skills if a player really wants to capture that on the character sheet. Hindrances, on the other hand, could just be freeform character quirks described on the characters description section or something.
Where both Savage Worlds and The Window are common, again, is in traits and skills. Savage Worlds gives a nicely robust skill and trait system, although I don't know how much I like the correllations between some abilities and skills. The Window, on the other hand, has prescribed traits, but skills are completely freeform and you're supposed to make up your own. Savage Worlds gives you points to spend; The Window assumes that everyone's going to somehow come up with a good character by "working together" or something. I've always been disatisfied with this aspect of The Window, both from a GM and a player perspective, because I think having some direction is helpful on both sides of the table. When I ran a modified Window game for my kids, I came up with my own list of skills, and told the kids which dies they could use. They assigned them to taste, but we didn't end up with something strange or unbalanced. Savage Worlds definitely has the advantage there.
I haven't read combat and task resolution in Savage Worlds yet (and I don't remember it well from The Window) but I'm vaguely familiar with it, and its concepts of bennies, playing cards, wild dice, and a simple condition track. The Window's task and conflict resolution is basically just opposed rolls to be followed up by roleplaying. The Window's system seems too Spartan for my tastes, while Savage Worlds seems too wrapped up in weird novelty mechanics that are somewhat distracting. I'll need to read both again before I can judge which I like better.
If you can't tell, though, the similarities between the two systems have excited me about "kitbashing" the two systems together into my "ultimate rules light" approach. This doesn't mean that I'm abandoning d20, because I still enjoy playing it, but I've struggled with it in a few key areas in particular: 1) teaching it to new players (particularly younger players.) This doesn't reflect on them so much as on me; I don't have the patience to teach them about the game when I would rather just jump in and get playing, and 2) playing the game in unusual formats, i.e. in play by posts and whatnot.
I'd still enjoy it in more "regular" arenas as well, and I don't think it would ever become my go-to system for everything. It could, however, be a go-to system for a lot of different scenarios. So, while I don't see myself as a game designer at all, I'm actually kinda excited to kitbash these two systems together. I'll be posting the results here on my blog as I do it, in sections. So... stay tuned!
I called this post Anti-d20 as a bit of a joke; I don't think that the d20 would actually be used much in this system (if at all) whereas almost all of the other dice would. Plus, it's got a nice symmetry to d20 being my other system of choice.
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