The Fudge RPG I been working stalled partly because +1 or -1 is just too great a modifier using Fudge Dice. So I been looking at Heroes and Other Worlds by +c.r. brandon, an interesting mechanic that the game add d6s to represent difficult rolls like use of a untrained skill. If you are untrained you roll 4d6 and see if you succeed instead of the normal 3d6. It is an elegant solution to what GURPS does with modifiers like the ones for default skill use.
By now most of you heard that DnD 5e handles modifiers with its system of advantage and disadvantage rolls. For a positive modifier roll 2d20 and take the best roll. For negative modifiers roll 2d20 and take the worse roll. Again elegant.
For the following I am using the calculators at Any Dice.
The problem with adding 4D as a general negative modifier for system using 3d6 is that it radically changes the odd. Far further than what advantage/disadvantage does for DnD 5e. For example rolling a 10 or less on 3d6 is 50%. Change it to a 4d6 roll it becomes 15%. In contrast in 5e's rolling 11 or better on a d20 (50%) changes to 25% odds on a disadvantage and to 75% odds on a advantage.
Yes I realize 3d6 is a bell curve and the d20 uses linear probability. Regardless it is obvious that adding an extra d6 to a 3d6 roll low system is a major hit. And going the other way for a positive modifier (2d6) looks to be too generous. But then I figured out another way.
Why not roll 4d6 and take the three LOWEST when you want to grant a positive modifier and take three HIGHEST when you want a negative modifier?
I plug in the formula into Any Dice and found that the 10 or less odds of 50% now become roughly 73% for a positive modifier, and roughly 27% on a negative modifier.
Increasing the dice to the three lowest or three highest of 5d6 results in 86% for a positive modifier and 14% for a negative modifier.
Critical have 1.85% chance of occurring (roll a 4 or 3). On 4d6 take the highest or lowest 3 Criticals now go to 5.79% odds with a positive modifier, and 0.39% with a negative. With 5d6 it is 11.39% and 0.08%.
I like this, now sure how and when I will use this mechanics but I am adding it to my bag of stuff. If you like advantage and disadvantage in 5e and want to use it in GURPS, I think this is easier to implement than rolling twice. Plus the it has the virtue of working perfectly with all the quirks of a GURPS success roll as in the end you are still only totaling 3 d6s.
It was pointed out to me by +Douglas Cole that adding 1 die and taking the highest or lowest 3 is roughly equivalent to +1 or -1 to the 3d6 roll. This is a result of how the bell curve works with multiple dice.
For some adding d6s instead of modifier may be more elegant as you don't have to remember the rules for calculating the odds of a critical, 3 or 4 is always critical success and 17 and 18 is always a critical failure.
Showing posts with label Fudge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fudge. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2015
Friday, May 16, 2014
Fudge Playtest Report #4 (Magic) and the very alpha rules.
Monday I ran another playtest of the roleplaying game I am working on that is based on Fudge and Fate.
I talked about the adventure I ran.
As well as some rules on the Characters.
And the combat system
Today's post is on Magic.
Magic
I am on the third version of the magic system. The first version was a spell slot system similar to DnD. The second... well it just didn't work. The third is a mana based system that works as follows.
There are two classes of spells. Arcane and Divine. The spell lists derives directly from the d20SRD. I don't include all the d20 spells however. It basically the list from Swords and Wizardry with some additional spells that fits in with the flavor side of the system.
Arcane caster start with a Mana Pool equal to their Fortitude + 4. Caster regain mana at 1 point per minute. Each spell has a mana cost associated with it. Arcane spells are caster with the Thamautology skill. The caster needs a 1 or better to cast the spell. The level of the spell subtracts from the roll making higher level spells more difficult to cast. The degree of success impacts the spell in various ways. Most importantly in making resisting certain spells more difficult. After Monday's playtest the degree of success will add to the damage of the spell. If the mage rolls a critical failure (natural -4) he rolls 4dF+ the mana cost and consults the Disastrous Magical Results table. If the mage has exhausted his mana pool, he can still cast a spells but immediately rolls 4dF + the mana deficit and consults the Disastrous Magic Results table.
The spells that a individual mage can cast are the spells written in his spell book. However unlike D&D the caster doen't have to memorize the spell. The act of writing the spell into the spell book allows the mage to cast the spell. The mage can scribe spell of a level equal to or less than his Thamautology bonus. The spellbook also have to be available to the mage to use as part of the daily routines needed to cast arcane magic.
The Divine caster starts with a Mana Tally, initially set to zero. The Divine caster can cast any spells equals too or is less than his Religious Ritual bonus. To cast a spell the divine caster has to get a 1 or better on a Religious Ritual Roll. The level of the spell subtracts from the roll. The mana cost is added to the religous caster's Mana Tally. If the Tally exceeds 20 then the caster has to immediately roll on the Violations of the Compact table. The gods of the default setting as largely agreed to operation on the basis of divine faith and excessive use of divine spells by a caster may result in the gods considering the spell a violation of the compact. Like arcane casters the degree of success effects the spell's effect particularly any required resistenance rolls. The Mana Tally is reduced by performing acts of piety. The most common of which is the daily prayer which subtracts 4 off of the tally.
Both Arcane and Divine caster can cast their spells as rituals. Instead of gathering mans quickly and releasing it as a spell. A slow ritual gathers in the mana through the use of magical components. In general a ritual takes ten minutes and requires components equal to the spell level squared times 10 silver. Zero level spells cost 1 silver (or d) to cast.
Included in the rules will be a magic item creation system. For example a scroll for one spell cost 100d per level to make and takes 1 day per 100d to write. A scroll can be made for any spell the caster knows, and doesn't require mana or adds to the tally.
In Monday's playtest these was well received. The biggest issue is that I didn't add the degree of success to the damage caused by a magic missile. In the future this will be the case.
Conclusion
What goint to make this work are the numbers. Having the right numbers to reflect a generic fantasy world that most gamers have experience with. +1 in Fudge is a significant bonus so it going to take some carefully planning to make it work.
My goal is to create a system that is flexible but at the same time provides plenty of ready to run content. A system that make it easy through the use of aspects to implement specific setting details.
A lot of been asking to look at the rules. I warn you, although nicely formatted, they are very rough and are only lightly edited at best. The major pieces that are missing are anytype of Monster list or NPC galley. Aspects are vaguely define and I only provide concrete example for a generic Fighter, Burglar, Mage, and Priest. Only one example of a gift granted by an aspect, the ability of priests to turn undead.
You can download the various PDFs from here.
I talked about the adventure I ran.
As well as some rules on the Characters.
And the combat system
Today's post is on Magic.
Magic
I am on the third version of the magic system. The first version was a spell slot system similar to DnD. The second... well it just didn't work. The third is a mana based system that works as follows.
There are two classes of spells. Arcane and Divine. The spell lists derives directly from the d20SRD. I don't include all the d20 spells however. It basically the list from Swords and Wizardry with some additional spells that fits in with the flavor side of the system.
Arcane caster start with a Mana Pool equal to their Fortitude + 4. Caster regain mana at 1 point per minute. Each spell has a mana cost associated with it. Arcane spells are caster with the Thamautology skill. The caster needs a 1 or better to cast the spell. The level of the spell subtracts from the roll making higher level spells more difficult to cast. The degree of success impacts the spell in various ways. Most importantly in making resisting certain spells more difficult. After Monday's playtest the degree of success will add to the damage of the spell. If the mage rolls a critical failure (natural -4) he rolls 4dF+ the mana cost and consults the Disastrous Magical Results table. If the mage has exhausted his mana pool, he can still cast a spells but immediately rolls 4dF + the mana deficit and consults the Disastrous Magic Results table.
The spells that a individual mage can cast are the spells written in his spell book. However unlike D&D the caster doen't have to memorize the spell. The act of writing the spell into the spell book allows the mage to cast the spell. The mage can scribe spell of a level equal to or less than his Thamautology bonus. The spellbook also have to be available to the mage to use as part of the daily routines needed to cast arcane magic.
The Divine caster starts with a Mana Tally, initially set to zero. The Divine caster can cast any spells equals too or is less than his Religious Ritual bonus. To cast a spell the divine caster has to get a 1 or better on a Religious Ritual Roll. The level of the spell subtracts from the roll. The mana cost is added to the religous caster's Mana Tally. If the Tally exceeds 20 then the caster has to immediately roll on the Violations of the Compact table. The gods of the default setting as largely agreed to operation on the basis of divine faith and excessive use of divine spells by a caster may result in the gods considering the spell a violation of the compact. Like arcane casters the degree of success effects the spell's effect particularly any required resistenance rolls. The Mana Tally is reduced by performing acts of piety. The most common of which is the daily prayer which subtracts 4 off of the tally.
Both Arcane and Divine caster can cast their spells as rituals. Instead of gathering mans quickly and releasing it as a spell. A slow ritual gathers in the mana through the use of magical components. In general a ritual takes ten minutes and requires components equal to the spell level squared times 10 silver. Zero level spells cost 1 silver (or d) to cast.
Included in the rules will be a magic item creation system. For example a scroll for one spell cost 100d per level to make and takes 1 day per 100d to write. A scroll can be made for any spell the caster knows, and doesn't require mana or adds to the tally.
In Monday's playtest these was well received. The biggest issue is that I didn't add the degree of success to the damage caused by a magic missile. In the future this will be the case.
Conclusion
What goint to make this work are the numbers. Having the right numbers to reflect a generic fantasy world that most gamers have experience with. +1 in Fudge is a significant bonus so it going to take some carefully planning to make it work.
My goal is to create a system that is flexible but at the same time provides plenty of ready to run content. A system that make it easy through the use of aspects to implement specific setting details.
A lot of been asking to look at the rules. I warn you, although nicely formatted, they are very rough and are only lightly edited at best. The major pieces that are missing are anytype of Monster list or NPC galley. Aspects are vaguely define and I only provide concrete example for a generic Fighter, Burglar, Mage, and Priest. Only one example of a gift granted by an aspect, the ability of priests to turn undead.
You can download the various PDFs from here.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Fudge Playtest Report Part 3 (Combat)
Monday I ran another playtest of the roleplaying game I am working on that is based on Fudge and Fate.
I talked about the adventure I ran.
As well as some rules on the Characters.
Today's post is on Combat.
Combat Round
A combat round is six seconds with ten rounds in a minute.
In general characters can perform two actions one of which can be an attack (melee, missile, spell, item). In general the idea is that you can perform a move and then attack. Quaff a potion and attack and so on.
Character move in the order of their initiative roll. 4dF + Initiative. Or if you want they just move in the order of the their initiative score with dexterity breaking ties. I used the latter method for Monday's game.
Attacking
To attack with a melee or missile weapon is an opposed roll.
The attacker rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Skill.
For melee the defender has the options of blocking, parrying, or dodging.
Parrying the defender rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Weapon Skill+Shield Bonus
Blocking the defender rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Shield Skill+Shield Bonus
Dodging the defender roll 4dF+Dexterity+Acrobatics skill+Shield Bonus.
You can parry once, block once, and have unlimited dodges. Except that every dodge after the first one is at -1 accumulative. (-1 for the 2nd dodge, -2 for the 3rd dodge, and so on). You can only block or dodge missile fire.
If this sound familiar to GURPS it is. However what different compared to GURPS are maneuvers. In GURPS maneuvers are distinct actions to achieve a specific result. Maneuvers in the Majestic Realms RPG are lifted from Runequest II/Legends.
In Runequest you compared the degree of success c if the attacker and the defender have the same level of success, then combat proceeds. However if there a different whoever have the better degree of success is able to perform one or more special maneuvers. (Disarm, bypass armor, trip, etc).
I lifted this directly from Legend (Isn't the OGL great!) and applied this to game. I feel it really adds a lot to combat as the opposed rolls generate a richer set of results other than damage.
What I am not sure of is how to generate the number of maneuvers. Either to use the same degree of success as Runequest. Defining critical results as either a natural +4 or -4 or a +5 or greater degree of success.
Or just keep track of the relative degree of success from round to round allowing the person with a positive result to cash in for maneuvers. In previous playtest I allow players to hold their degree of success rather than just going for damage right away. It was felt that this represented gaining a positional advantage. The final damage roll represents exploiting the advent. The problem with this is what to do with the relative degree of success by the defender.
Damage and Injury
The degree of success is applied to the damage roll.
Attacker Damage = 4dF+Weapon Damage+Degree of Success+Strength+Scale.
The defender rolls his Damage Threshold which is
Defender Damage Threshold = 4DF+Fortitude+Armor+Scale.
If the attacker wins then injury results.
A character can take 3 scratches, 2 hurts, 1 very hurt, 1 incapacitated and of course 1 death.
If you are hurt, you are a -1 to all rolls. Very hurt you are at -2 to all rolls.
If they are out of any level the damage is applied to the next worse level. So if you are out of hurts and you take another hurt it is applied as a very hurt wound.
So far the system feels fairly deadly.
Keeping Track
Finally I added a combat section to the characters that has everything pre-calculated. Hopefully this is to speed up play over the long term.
The total modifier for the Attacker is the Offensive Combat Value or OCV. For the Defender it is a the Defensive Combat Value or DCV. Yeah a little Hero System in those terms.
Next time the magic system.
I talked about the adventure I ran.
As well as some rules on the Characters.
Today's post is on Combat.
Combat Round
A combat round is six seconds with ten rounds in a minute.
In general characters can perform two actions one of which can be an attack (melee, missile, spell, item). In general the idea is that you can perform a move and then attack. Quaff a potion and attack and so on.
Character move in the order of their initiative roll. 4dF + Initiative. Or if you want they just move in the order of the their initiative score with dexterity breaking ties. I used the latter method for Monday's game.
Attacking
To attack with a melee or missile weapon is an opposed roll.
The attacker rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Skill.
For melee the defender has the options of blocking, parrying, or dodging.
Parrying the defender rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Weapon Skill+Shield Bonus
Blocking the defender rolls 4dF+Dexterity+Shield Skill+Shield Bonus
Dodging the defender roll 4dF+Dexterity+Acrobatics skill+Shield Bonus.
You can parry once, block once, and have unlimited dodges. Except that every dodge after the first one is at -1 accumulative. (-1 for the 2nd dodge, -2 for the 3rd dodge, and so on). You can only block or dodge missile fire.
If this sound familiar to GURPS it is. However what different compared to GURPS are maneuvers. In GURPS maneuvers are distinct actions to achieve a specific result. Maneuvers in the Majestic Realms RPG are lifted from Runequest II/Legends.
In Runequest you compared the degree of success c if the attacker and the defender have the same level of success, then combat proceeds. However if there a different whoever have the better degree of success is able to perform one or more special maneuvers. (Disarm, bypass armor, trip, etc).
I lifted this directly from Legend (Isn't the OGL great!) and applied this to game. I feel it really adds a lot to combat as the opposed rolls generate a richer set of results other than damage.
What I am not sure of is how to generate the number of maneuvers. Either to use the same degree of success as Runequest. Defining critical results as either a natural +4 or -4 or a +5 or greater degree of success.
Or just keep track of the relative degree of success from round to round allowing the person with a positive result to cash in for maneuvers. In previous playtest I allow players to hold their degree of success rather than just going for damage right away. It was felt that this represented gaining a positional advantage. The final damage roll represents exploiting the advent. The problem with this is what to do with the relative degree of success by the defender.
Damage and Injury
The degree of success is applied to the damage roll.
Attacker Damage = 4dF+Weapon Damage+Degree of Success+Strength+Scale.
The defender rolls his Damage Threshold which is
Defender Damage Threshold = 4DF+Fortitude+Armor+Scale.
If the attacker wins then injury results.
+1 to +2 a scratch
+3 to +4 a hurt wound
+5 to +6 a very hurt wound
+7 to +8 incapacitated.
+9 or greater dead.
A character can take 3 scratches, 2 hurts, 1 very hurt, 1 incapacitated and of course 1 death.
If you are hurt, you are a -1 to all rolls. Very hurt you are at -2 to all rolls.
If they are out of any level the damage is applied to the next worse level. So if you are out of hurts and you take another hurt it is applied as a very hurt wound.
So far the system feels fairly deadly.
Keeping Track
Finally I added a combat section to the characters that has everything pre-calculated. Hopefully this is to speed up play over the long term.
Next time the magic system.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Fudge Playtest Report, Part 2 (Characters)
Monday I ran another playtest of the roleplaying game I am working on that is based on Fudge and Fate.
I talked about the adventure I ran in yesterday's post.
Now onto the game itself.
First off I do not use the adjectives of either Fudge or the Fate Ladder. I will provide a chart at the beginning of the rule but everything is expressed in numbers. In general if you roll a +1 or better you succeed at whatever you are doing.
Attributes
The primary Attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Constitution. The secondary attributes are Endurance, Reflex, Will, Perception, Fortitude, Move, and Initiative. Endurance is based off of strength. Reflex off of dexterity. Will and Perception off of Intelligence. Fortitude is based off of Constitution. Initiative is equal to Constitution + Dexterity. And Move is your Initiative +4 and is the number of yards per action you can move.
Scale represents the size and mass of the person/creature. Each point of scale is 1.5 greater size and/or mass. If a normal human averages 6 feet and is at Scale +0. A +1 Scale creature is around 9 1/2 feet tall. A -1 scale creatures is around 4 feet tall. Note that Halflings are at scale -1 while Dwarfs are at Scale +0. The dwarves are short than human but have a similar mass. Scales factor into strength, and damage rolls. As well as damage resistance. It is a simple but elegant method that Fudges uses to handle character of radically different sizes.
You buy your Attributes in accordance to this chart.
Skills
I have about 63 skills defined. Divided into Adventuring (Climbing, Stealth, etc), Arcane (Thaumatology, Alchemy, etc), Melee (Sword 1H, etc), Missile (Bow, etc), and Professional (Animal Handling, Mining, etc).
Each skill defaults to +0 (Brawling), -1 (Sword 1 handed), or -2 (Thaumatology). You buy skills in accordance to the following chart.
Aspects
For a campaign, I recommend picking five aspects. A high concept, a trouble/complication, and three background aspects.
My take on aspects probably will be the most controversial thing about this game. In a nutshell they replace what GURPS and Hero System uses for Advantages and Disadvantages. They can be purely roleplaying or they include additional powers and mechanics for the character. For example taking the High Concept of "A priest of Delaquain, goddess of justice." Will confer the ability of turning undead on the character. Taking one of the mage high concepts will allow the character to use Thamautology to cast spells.
YOU DON"T PAY CHARACTER POINTS. Nada, zip, zilch. You just right it down on your character sheet. So what the catch? The catch is that your referee will define the available aspects for his setting. In addition these aspects will come with consequences as defined by the referee. For example a Paladin of Delaquain will have superior abilities over that of an ordinary fighter. But a consequence is a requirement to follow the Five Fold path. And a big consequence is the undivided attention of the goddess Delaquain as you are now one of her champions in the mortal world.
So what to stop a group from having aspect like God of Thunder on their sheets. Nothing, if that how you want to play your campaign go for it. I know for me having uber power quickly becomes boring and soon I am seeking other challenges. I suspect most of you are like that as well.
You see GURPS, Hero System, Fudge and all the other point buy systems with their advantages, disadvantages, gifts, faults, talents, etc, etc are a rat race in my opinion. What does a point mean, how much work is enough to balance everything out according to cost? I been playing some of these systems so long that some are on their third or fourth cycle of rethinking costs.
What works consistently is making the mechanics reflect your setting. If a character is required to do X, Y, and Z to achieve the maximums fitness package, then that what the character needs to do during the campaign. Not trying to scrimp together X points to buy it. To fair what GURPS and other games do is recommend both. You have to do the roleplaying in-game AND have the point on hand to get whatever. However my group (+Tim Shorts +Dwayne Gillingham) we wind up ignore the points stuff after the campaign starts. Dwayne as William Enderil becomes the wealthiest man in the City-State. Does he have to buy Very Wealthy, nope it just the consquence of how the campaign played out. His points went into improving things like accounting, and his weapons skills. Maybe buying the Fit Advantage. The same for Tim's character Dracolindus who manages to become a Duke. Does he need to buy social status, nope.
This will codify what I been doing across multiple systems for the last 15 years. That many issues with mechanics cease being important if the focus on making the mechanics reflect the reality of the chosen setting.
Now right now in this playtest I don't have a lot of these aspects defined. I plan to draft a "ready to run" set of aspect to allow a bog standard fantasy campaign to be run. For those of you who have my Majestic Wilderlands Supplement can see some of these ideas in a more polished form. Particularly in my comments about how the classes and races are not "balanced" but rather reflect how the Majestic Wilderlands works.
Tomorrow we will look at combat and then in the concluding post the magic system.
I talked about the adventure I ran in yesterday's post.
Now onto the game itself.
First off I do not use the adjectives of either Fudge or the Fate Ladder. I will provide a chart at the beginning of the rule but everything is expressed in numbers. In general if you roll a +1 or better you succeed at whatever you are doing.
Scale represents the size and mass of the person/creature. Each point of scale is 1.5 greater size and/or mass. If a normal human averages 6 feet and is at Scale +0. A +1 Scale creature is around 9 1/2 feet tall. A -1 scale creatures is around 4 feet tall. Note that Halflings are at scale -1 while Dwarfs are at Scale +0. The dwarves are short than human but have a similar mass. Scales factor into strength, and damage rolls. As well as damage resistance. It is a simple but elegant method that Fudges uses to handle character of radically different sizes.
You buy your Attributes in accordance to this chart.
I have about 63 skills defined. Divided into Adventuring (Climbing, Stealth, etc), Arcane (Thaumatology, Alchemy, etc), Melee (Sword 1H, etc), Missile (Bow, etc), and Professional (Animal Handling, Mining, etc).
Each skill defaults to +0 (Brawling), -1 (Sword 1 handed), or -2 (Thaumatology). You buy skills in accordance to the following chart.
Aspects
For a campaign, I recommend picking five aspects. A high concept, a trouble/complication, and three background aspects.
My take on aspects probably will be the most controversial thing about this game. In a nutshell they replace what GURPS and Hero System uses for Advantages and Disadvantages. They can be purely roleplaying or they include additional powers and mechanics for the character. For example taking the High Concept of "A priest of Delaquain, goddess of justice." Will confer the ability of turning undead on the character. Taking one of the mage high concepts will allow the character to use Thamautology to cast spells.
YOU DON"T PAY CHARACTER POINTS. Nada, zip, zilch. You just right it down on your character sheet. So what the catch? The catch is that your referee will define the available aspects for his setting. In addition these aspects will come with consequences as defined by the referee. For example a Paladin of Delaquain will have superior abilities over that of an ordinary fighter. But a consequence is a requirement to follow the Five Fold path. And a big consequence is the undivided attention of the goddess Delaquain as you are now one of her champions in the mortal world.
So what to stop a group from having aspect like God of Thunder on their sheets. Nothing, if that how you want to play your campaign go for it. I know for me having uber power quickly becomes boring and soon I am seeking other challenges. I suspect most of you are like that as well.
You see GURPS, Hero System, Fudge and all the other point buy systems with their advantages, disadvantages, gifts, faults, talents, etc, etc are a rat race in my opinion. What does a point mean, how much work is enough to balance everything out according to cost? I been playing some of these systems so long that some are on their third or fourth cycle of rethinking costs.
What works consistently is making the mechanics reflect your setting. If a character is required to do X, Y, and Z to achieve the maximums fitness package, then that what the character needs to do during the campaign. Not trying to scrimp together X points to buy it. To fair what GURPS and other games do is recommend both. You have to do the roleplaying in-game AND have the point on hand to get whatever. However my group (+Tim Shorts +Dwayne Gillingham) we wind up ignore the points stuff after the campaign starts. Dwayne as William Enderil becomes the wealthiest man in the City-State. Does he have to buy Very Wealthy, nope it just the consquence of how the campaign played out. His points went into improving things like accounting, and his weapons skills. Maybe buying the Fit Advantage. The same for Tim's character Dracolindus who manages to become a Duke. Does he need to buy social status, nope.
This will codify what I been doing across multiple systems for the last 15 years. That many issues with mechanics cease being important if the focus on making the mechanics reflect the reality of the chosen setting.
Now right now in this playtest I don't have a lot of these aspects defined. I plan to draft a "ready to run" set of aspect to allow a bog standard fantasy campaign to be run. For those of you who have my Majestic Wilderlands Supplement can see some of these ideas in a more polished form. Particularly in my comments about how the classes and races are not "balanced" but rather reflect how the Majestic Wilderlands works.
Tomorrow we will look at combat and then in the concluding post the magic system.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Fudge Playtest Report Part 1
Monday I ran another playtest of the roleplaying game I am working on that is based on Fudge and Fate.
The characters were
Olaf, a fighter played by Chris
Maximilian, a mage played by Tim
Randor, a cleric of Dannu played by Ken
Fahris Starfall, half-elf mage/archer played by Dan
The setting was the City of Tashal from Harn. I used Harn instead of City-State because in a unrelated project I am working on a urban adventure and didn't have time to do the detailed maps I wanted. Luckily over on Lythia.com, a dedicated Harn fan mapped out an entire city block of Tashal that had all the elements I had planned for the adventure. A few modifications, some uploading of files to Roll20 and I was done on the prep.
The rules are the Majestic Realms RPG I been working on. Basically at this point it has the following elements
A set of traditional attributes (Str, Int, Dex, and Con)
A traditional skill list expanded from my MW Supplement ability list.
Aspects taken from Fate
Fudge style combat where your to hit is an opposed roll. If you win the degree of success is applied to your damage.
I added combat maneuvers modified from Runequest II/Legends.
The spell system has been revised a third time. This time everything is based off either a Religious Ritual roll for Divine spells, or a Thaumautology Roll for Arcane spell. The spell level subtracts from the roll making higher level spells more difficult to cast. Arcane spells take mana to cast which based off the character's constitution. The mana for Divine spells are kept track in a mana tally. If you exceed a threshold you are deemed in violation of the divine compact and various "bad" things can result for the caster.
The results of the session was as follows
The Scenario
The scenario I felt went well. For this adventure I embraced the traditional "meeting at a tavern" trope with a vengeance. The characters for the most part either worked at the tavern or had a relationship with the tavernkeeper.
A new mechanic I was trying out was a way to simulate the ebb and flow of tavern life. I noticed that the Harn Urban Encounter rules had some interesting features. The Harn book tells you to roll every minute. That if you roll a 16 or higher you generate an encounter. When I plugged this into Inspiration Pad Pro and generated 240 encounters (two hours) the result felt like what would be happening if you were just standing there in the tavern. On average 10 to 15 minutes would go by before an encounter happened and there were the occasional burst were three or four encounters would happen in successive minutes.
I attempted to run the playtest last Monday but only Chris was able to play. So I ran a short session with him acting as a bouncer. I used the above encounter method and got good results. Like with all random encounter tables, I had to apply a little creative interpretation of the results. Afterward, Chris remarked that it felt natural and was fun to deal with.
Now back to last Monday, I tried it out on the whole group, and the results were about the same. The main difference I focused on each player in turn. Every fourth encounter focused on a particular character. But for most encounter that didn't stop the others from jumping in.
I think I need to come up with a better table geared towards tavern life but the basic idea is very workable.
After about a hour or so of dealing with the tavern, the rest of the adventure unfolded. This led to the group being hired to look for a wayward young noble lord who happened to be the grandson of the King. The party combed the back alleyways of Tashal, gambling dens, and finally confronted a vampire in a crumbling tenement. They didn't destroy the vampire but managed to rescue the young noble. And that where the session ended.
Everybody did a great job roleplaying. Tommorrow I will dig into the system.
The characters were
Olaf, a fighter played by Chris
Maximilian, a mage played by Tim
Randor, a cleric of Dannu played by Ken
Fahris Starfall, half-elf mage/archer played by Dan
The setting was the City of Tashal from Harn. I used Harn instead of City-State because in a unrelated project I am working on a urban adventure and didn't have time to do the detailed maps I wanted. Luckily over on Lythia.com, a dedicated Harn fan mapped out an entire city block of Tashal that had all the elements I had planned for the adventure. A few modifications, some uploading of files to Roll20 and I was done on the prep.
The rules are the Majestic Realms RPG I been working on. Basically at this point it has the following elements
A set of traditional attributes (Str, Int, Dex, and Con)
A traditional skill list expanded from my MW Supplement ability list.
Aspects taken from Fate
Fudge style combat where your to hit is an opposed roll. If you win the degree of success is applied to your damage.
I added combat maneuvers modified from Runequest II/Legends.
The spell system has been revised a third time. This time everything is based off either a Religious Ritual roll for Divine spells, or a Thaumautology Roll for Arcane spell. The spell level subtracts from the roll making higher level spells more difficult to cast. Arcane spells take mana to cast which based off the character's constitution. The mana for Divine spells are kept track in a mana tally. If you exceed a threshold you are deemed in violation of the divine compact and various "bad" things can result for the caster.
The results of the session was as follows
The Scenario
The scenario I felt went well. For this adventure I embraced the traditional "meeting at a tavern" trope with a vengeance. The characters for the most part either worked at the tavern or had a relationship with the tavernkeeper.
A new mechanic I was trying out was a way to simulate the ebb and flow of tavern life. I noticed that the Harn Urban Encounter rules had some interesting features. The Harn book tells you to roll every minute. That if you roll a 16 or higher you generate an encounter. When I plugged this into Inspiration Pad Pro and generated 240 encounters (two hours) the result felt like what would be happening if you were just standing there in the tavern. On average 10 to 15 minutes would go by before an encounter happened and there were the occasional burst were three or four encounters would happen in successive minutes.
I attempted to run the playtest last Monday but only Chris was able to play. So I ran a short session with him acting as a bouncer. I used the above encounter method and got good results. Like with all random encounter tables, I had to apply a little creative interpretation of the results. Afterward, Chris remarked that it felt natural and was fun to deal with.
Now back to last Monday, I tried it out on the whole group, and the results were about the same. The main difference I focused on each player in turn. Every fourth encounter focused on a particular character. But for most encounter that didn't stop the others from jumping in.
I think I need to come up with a better table geared towards tavern life but the basic idea is very workable.
After about a hour or so of dealing with the tavern, the rest of the adventure unfolded. This led to the group being hired to look for a wayward young noble lord who happened to be the grandson of the King. The party combed the back alleyways of Tashal, gambling dens, and finally confronted a vampire in a crumbling tenement. They didn't destroy the vampire but managed to rescue the young noble. And that where the session ended.
Everybody did a great job roleplaying. Tommorrow I will dig into the system.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Divine Magic Version 2
As promised here the rules for divine magic. The main challenge were allowing cleric to have access to all divine spells but somehow tying the maximum spell level to something in-game. In this case I opted to tie to the skill bonus for Knowledge(Theology). Specific to my campaigns was that cleric/priest got a specific bonus spell at 3rd level. I converted that into a rule that use of the bonus spell is not fatiguing except on a critical failure.
Also yesterday I decided at the last minute to write a In a Nutshell section that summarizes the rules as a introduction. I like this idea and place to use it in the other sections of the rules.
The character can cast divine spells with a Religious Ritual roll. The higher the spell level is the more difficult the spell is to cast. The character can cast Divine spells where the spell level is equal to or less than his Knowledge (Theology) skill bonus without an additional penalty. Casting is fatiguing and repeated casting without rest will cause the character to pass out. A spell can be cast as a longer ritual without fatigue.
Spells
With the right aspect a priest can cast a spell as a single combat action. Casting requires a successful Religious Ritual roll based on the difficulty of the spell. Casting is fatiguing unless a critical success or a high degree of success is rolled.
Religious Ritual
In order to successfully cast a spell, the result of a Religious Ritual roll needs to be equal to or greater than the spell level plus one.
Knowledge (Theology)
The level of spell the priest can cast without penalty is equal to Knowledge (Theology) bonus. For example a +3 bonus to Knowledge (Theology) allows the priest to cast up to 3rd level spells.
Higher level spells can be cast but the difficulty increases to two times the spell level +1. For example for the above priest to cast a 4th level spell requires a +9 or better result on his Religious Ritual roll.
Spell Components
In order to cast a spell, components costing 10d times the spell level squared are consumed. In addition the caster must be wearing or holding his holy symbol. One pound of spell components equals 100d.
Fatigue
The casting of spells from memory is fatiguing. Unless there is a +8 degree of success or a critical success (a natural +4). The character must make an endurance check or pass out. Afterwards the character’s endurance is reduced by 1. It takes 15 minutes of rest to regain each point of fortitude.
Each deity has one spell that is not fatiguing to cast (except on a critical failure). For example priest of Delaquain, the goddess of honor and justice can cast the 3rd level divine spell, Prayer without incurring fatigue.
Rituals
Any divine spell can be cast as a ten minute rituals. In general Priests can cast any divine spell as a ritual and not incur fatigue except on a critical failure (-4).
Also yesterday I decided at the last minute to write a In a Nutshell section that summarizes the rules as a introduction. I like this idea and place to use it in the other sections of the rules.
Divine Magic
In a NutshellThe character can cast divine spells with a Religious Ritual roll. The higher the spell level is the more difficult the spell is to cast. The character can cast Divine spells where the spell level is equal to or less than his Knowledge (Theology) skill bonus without an additional penalty. Casting is fatiguing and repeated casting without rest will cause the character to pass out. A spell can be cast as a longer ritual without fatigue.
Spells
With the right aspect a priest can cast a spell as a single combat action. Casting requires a successful Religious Ritual roll based on the difficulty of the spell. Casting is fatiguing unless a critical success or a high degree of success is rolled.
Religious Ritual
In order to successfully cast a spell, the result of a Religious Ritual roll needs to be equal to or greater than the spell level plus one.
Knowledge (Theology)
The level of spell the priest can cast without penalty is equal to Knowledge (Theology) bonus. For example a +3 bonus to Knowledge (Theology) allows the priest to cast up to 3rd level spells.
Higher level spells can be cast but the difficulty increases to two times the spell level +1. For example for the above priest to cast a 4th level spell requires a +9 or better result on his Religious Ritual roll.
Spell Components
In order to cast a spell, components costing 10d times the spell level squared are consumed. In addition the caster must be wearing or holding his holy symbol. One pound of spell components equals 100d.
Fatigue
The casting of spells from memory is fatiguing. Unless there is a +8 degree of success or a critical success (a natural +4). The character must make an endurance check or pass out. Afterwards the character’s endurance is reduced by 1. It takes 15 minutes of rest to regain each point of fortitude.
Each deity has one spell that is not fatiguing to cast (except on a critical failure). For example priest of Delaquain, the goddess of honor and justice can cast the 3rd level divine spell, Prayer without incurring fatigue.
Rituals
Any divine spell can be cast as a ten minute rituals. In general Priests can cast any divine spell as a ritual and not incur fatigue except on a critical failure (-4).
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Arcane Magic version 2
So after some initial sessions the players would like a different magic system than vancian style spell slots. I would still like to use the wealth of material based on the d20 SRD. So I developed this system to use for the next round of playtesting.
This is for Arcane Magic and I will cover Divine Magic in the next post. Remember I am adapting the spell list found in the d20 SRD including the spell levels. For the arts of magic see this post. I am still working on the list of spells and when that done I will post a list of what spells goes into which art.
Spells
With the right aspect a mage can cast a spell as a single combat action. Casting requires a successful Thaumatology roll based on the difficulty of the spell. Casting is fatiguing unless a critical success or a high degree of success is rolled.
Thaumatology
To successfully cast a spell, the result of a Thaumatology roll needs to be equal to or greater than the spell level plus one.
Spell Components
In order to successfully cast a spell, components costing 10d times the spell level squared are consumed. One pound of spell components equals 100d.
Fatigue
The casting of spells from memory is fatiguing. Unless there is a +8 degree of success or a critical success (a natural +4). The character must make an endurance check or pass out. Afterwards the character’s endurance is reduced by 1. It takes 15 minutes of rest to regain each point of fortitude.
Spell Book
In order to cast a spell caster must scribe into a special book incantations and rituals of the spell. The cost of scribing a spell into a spell is 100d per level of spell. In addition to the cost it takes a number of days equal to the spell level to scribe the spell in the spell book.
Study
The caster must set aside one hour of study per spell level per spell per month in order to cast spells from memory.
Initial Spells
At character creation the caster buys his initial spells from his character's starting funds.
Spontaneous Magic
With the right aspect the caster can use spontaneous magic. Instead of casting spells learned from a spell book, the character performs a series of meditations and rituals to memorize and attune to one of the ten arts of magic. This requires 1,000d worth of components and ten weeks of time.
Afterwards the character can cast any spell from that art with an additional -4 to his Thaumatology roll. The character can only attune to as many arts equal to his Intelligence score in addition to the Art of the Forge.
Starting characters are attuned with one art plus the Forge.
Rituals
Any spell can be cast as a ten minute ritual. In general mages can cast any spell in their spell book as a ritual without incurring fatigue except on a critical failure (-4).
For mages practicing spontaneous magic they can cast any spell out of a spell book or any spell in the arts they have learned. Any spell cast from their knowledge of the arts is cast at a -4 penalty.
Saving Throws and Spell Effects
The degree of success of the ritual roll is used as the target number for any required saving throws. For example a mage cast a sleep spell and rolls a +4. Since sleep requires a 2 or better to cast the degree of success is 2. The target now needs to make a will save of 2 or higher. The degree of success is also used in some spell to determine how effective the spell is.
This is for Arcane Magic and I will cover Divine Magic in the next post. Remember I am adapting the spell list found in the d20 SRD including the spell levels. For the arts of magic see this post. I am still working on the list of spells and when that done I will post a list of what spells goes into which art.
Arcane Magic
In a Nutshell
The character can cast any spell found in his spellbook with a Thaumatology roll. The higher the spell level is the more difficult the spell is to cast. Casting is fatiguing and repeated casting without rest will cause the character to pass out. A spell can be cast as a longer ritual without fatigue. Casting spells also require the expenditure of components. Spontaneous magic is more flexible and doesn't require spell books. Learning magic and spell casting are more difficult.
With the right aspect a mage can cast a spell as a single combat action. Casting requires a successful Thaumatology roll based on the difficulty of the spell. Casting is fatiguing unless a critical success or a high degree of success is rolled.
Thaumatology
To successfully cast a spell, the result of a Thaumatology roll needs to be equal to or greater than the spell level plus one.
Spell Components
In order to successfully cast a spell, components costing 10d times the spell level squared are consumed. One pound of spell components equals 100d.
Fatigue
The casting of spells from memory is fatiguing. Unless there is a +8 degree of success or a critical success (a natural +4). The character must make an endurance check or pass out. Afterwards the character’s endurance is reduced by 1. It takes 15 minutes of rest to regain each point of fortitude.
Spell Book
In order to cast a spell caster must scribe into a special book incantations and rituals of the spell. The cost of scribing a spell into a spell is 100d per level of spell. In addition to the cost it takes a number of days equal to the spell level to scribe the spell in the spell book.
Study
The caster must set aside one hour of study per spell level per spell per month in order to cast spells from memory.
Initial Spells
At character creation the caster buys his initial spells from his character's starting funds.
Spontaneous Magic
With the right aspect the caster can use spontaneous magic. Instead of casting spells learned from a spell book, the character performs a series of meditations and rituals to memorize and attune to one of the ten arts of magic. This requires 1,000d worth of components and ten weeks of time.
Afterwards the character can cast any spell from that art with an additional -4 to his Thaumatology roll. The character can only attune to as many arts equal to his Intelligence score in addition to the Art of the Forge.
Starting characters are attuned with one art plus the Forge.
Rituals
Any spell can be cast as a ten minute ritual. In general mages can cast any spell in their spell book as a ritual without incurring fatigue except on a critical failure (-4).
For mages practicing spontaneous magic they can cast any spell out of a spell book or any spell in the arts they have learned. Any spell cast from their knowledge of the arts is cast at a -4 penalty.
Saving Throws and Spell Effects
The degree of success of the ritual roll is used as the target number for any required saving throws. For example a mage cast a sleep spell and rolls a +4. Since sleep requires a 2 or better to cast the degree of success is 2. The target now needs to make a will save of 2 or higher. The degree of success is also used in some spell to determine how effective the spell is.
Friday, December 20, 2013
What is Fudge and why?
Fudge is game developed in the early 90s on the internet by Steffan O'Sullivan. Specifically the rec.games.design on the old Usenet forum. The Wikipedia article has live links to the original post so you can read them yourselves.
It is a toolkit meant to be refined for a specific game. The core rules have a wealth of options that a referee can choose from to make the game he wants. Anything from extremely lite and freeform to very crunchy.
Fudge in a Nutshell sums up in two pages the heart of the Fudge mechanics.
Fudge characters are defined by attributes, skills, gifts, and faults. When there is a rating like for a Strength attribute or Piloting skill it uses the fudge scale; from low to high; Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Superb. If you don't like the descriptive scale you can use numbers with Fair = 0, Mediocre = -1 and Good = +1 and so on.
Fudge assumes that one attribute level = 3 skill levels, 1 gift = 6 skill levels, 1 gift = 2 attribute levels, 1 gift = 1 fault.
Coupled with this is the concept of scale. In a human focused campaign a human being has a scale of +0. It is primarily a rating of Strength and Mass which is mostly applied to the ability to deal damage and to withstand damage. Each +1 scale give the character 1.5 times the mass of a ordinary human. The rules have examples of scale equated to various real world and mythological creatures.
The elegance of this system is that the resolution of two creatures at the same arbitrary scale works the same as resolution of two humans. So if two pixies at scale -7 go at it the system work just as well as normal human combat. The same with two dragons. For fights between two creatures of different scale in general the larger creatures will do more damage and have the ability to withstand more damage than the small creature.
Action are resolved by either an opposed roll or a roll against a target difficulty. In an opposed roll the two sides will have a skill or attribute level. For example a fighter with a sword skill of Good and a mage with a mediocre dexterity. Both side roll 4dF generating a number from -4 to +4. For example the fighter rolls a -1 and the Mage rolls a +2. Like GURPS 3d6 roll the result is a bell curve. The result is applied to the two sides skill and compared. For example because the Fighter rolled a -1 he only gets a Fair result as Fair is one level lower than his Good sword skill. The mage in contrast has a Good result as his +2 roll is applied to his mediocre dexterity raising it to Fair and then Good. In this roll the Mage successfully dodged the fighter's sword swing.
For unopposed rolls the skill or attribute is compared to a target difficulty set by the referee. For example the Fighter has a good strength and is trying to lift the portcullis gate up. The referee rules that he need a Great result. The Figher rolls 4dF and gets a +1. This is applied to his Good strength raising it up by one level to Great. The gate is wrenched up.
The Fudge core rules gives several ways of resolving a successful combat hit. Fudge spends the most time on a wound level system. Characters can be undamaged, scratched, hurt, very hurt, incapacitated, or dead. Typically you can take 3 scratches, 1 hurt, and 1 very hurt. If you already taken all the damage you can at a particular level it is applied to the next worse level.
Again this is summarize nicely in Fudge in a Nutshell. Also the core documents are released under the open game license which means you are free to adapt and publish them for your own use.
So why Fudge? As readers of this blog know I am a long time fan of GURPS. While developed independently Steffan and those helped have strong connections to GURPS and many have written GURPS books. So while Fudge is not GURPS it shares some DNA like the bell curves and allows for attributes to be the primary component of a skill level as well as advantages i.e. gifts and disadvantages i.e. faults.
And what it comes to is that I want to publish my GURPS material along with my Dungeon and Dragon material. Since GURPS doesn't have an open license, to me Fudge is the next best thing. And the fact that Fate, a closely related game, is popular system for many doesn't hurt either.
My focus is implementing Fudge for the type of fantasy games I been running for the past 30 years. Building on the things I like about the various games I played over the years. There is a lot of inspiration from GURPS but also I am inspired by Hero System, Fate, Runequest, and other games I have played over the years. The result is I hope a fantasy game that is allows for skill based character with a moderately detailed combat system using the fantasy tropes of the world's most popular roleplaying games that is easy to get into and that because of it common heritage with Fudge and Fate easy to add new elements of the referee's choosing.
And thanks to the development of the internet and the progress of technology, when I am done writing this it is easy to share it in an attractive format with the rest of you. Like Blackmarsh and my other open projects the PDF will be free I will charging for the physical book.
I am shooting to get this done by the fall of 2014, I have some other projects to complete first that are priority like a certain English Civil War setting. In the meantime I will play one off games and then when the rules are settled enough I will start a playtest campaign. And of course I will be sharing the development when I have something usable.
It is a toolkit meant to be refined for a specific game. The core rules have a wealth of options that a referee can choose from to make the game he wants. Anything from extremely lite and freeform to very crunchy.
Fudge in a Nutshell sums up in two pages the heart of the Fudge mechanics.
Fudge characters are defined by attributes, skills, gifts, and faults. When there is a rating like for a Strength attribute or Piloting skill it uses the fudge scale; from low to high; Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Superb. If you don't like the descriptive scale you can use numbers with Fair = 0, Mediocre = -1 and Good = +1 and so on.
Fudge assumes that one attribute level = 3 skill levels, 1 gift = 6 skill levels, 1 gift = 2 attribute levels, 1 gift = 1 fault.
Coupled with this is the concept of scale. In a human focused campaign a human being has a scale of +0. It is primarily a rating of Strength and Mass which is mostly applied to the ability to deal damage and to withstand damage. Each +1 scale give the character 1.5 times the mass of a ordinary human. The rules have examples of scale equated to various real world and mythological creatures.
The elegance of this system is that the resolution of two creatures at the same arbitrary scale works the same as resolution of two humans. So if two pixies at scale -7 go at it the system work just as well as normal human combat. The same with two dragons. For fights between two creatures of different scale in general the larger creatures will do more damage and have the ability to withstand more damage than the small creature.
Action are resolved by either an opposed roll or a roll against a target difficulty. In an opposed roll the two sides will have a skill or attribute level. For example a fighter with a sword skill of Good and a mage with a mediocre dexterity. Both side roll 4dF generating a number from -4 to +4. For example the fighter rolls a -1 and the Mage rolls a +2. Like GURPS 3d6 roll the result is a bell curve. The result is applied to the two sides skill and compared. For example because the Fighter rolled a -1 he only gets a Fair result as Fair is one level lower than his Good sword skill. The mage in contrast has a Good result as his +2 roll is applied to his mediocre dexterity raising it to Fair and then Good. In this roll the Mage successfully dodged the fighter's sword swing.
For unopposed rolls the skill or attribute is compared to a target difficulty set by the referee. For example the Fighter has a good strength and is trying to lift the portcullis gate up. The referee rules that he need a Great result. The Figher rolls 4dF and gets a +1. This is applied to his Good strength raising it up by one level to Great. The gate is wrenched up.
The Fudge core rules gives several ways of resolving a successful combat hit. Fudge spends the most time on a wound level system. Characters can be undamaged, scratched, hurt, very hurt, incapacitated, or dead. Typically you can take 3 scratches, 1 hurt, and 1 very hurt. If you already taken all the damage you can at a particular level it is applied to the next worse level.
Again this is summarize nicely in Fudge in a Nutshell. Also the core documents are released under the open game license which means you are free to adapt and publish them for your own use.
So why Fudge? As readers of this blog know I am a long time fan of GURPS. While developed independently Steffan and those helped have strong connections to GURPS and many have written GURPS books. So while Fudge is not GURPS it shares some DNA like the bell curves and allows for attributes to be the primary component of a skill level as well as advantages i.e. gifts and disadvantages i.e. faults.
And what it comes to is that I want to publish my GURPS material along with my Dungeon and Dragon material. Since GURPS doesn't have an open license, to me Fudge is the next best thing. And the fact that Fate, a closely related game, is popular system for many doesn't hurt either.
My focus is implementing Fudge for the type of fantasy games I been running for the past 30 years. Building on the things I like about the various games I played over the years. There is a lot of inspiration from GURPS but also I am inspired by Hero System, Fate, Runequest, and other games I have played over the years. The result is I hope a fantasy game that is allows for skill based character with a moderately detailed combat system using the fantasy tropes of the world's most popular roleplaying games that is easy to get into and that because of it common heritage with Fudge and Fate easy to add new elements of the referee's choosing.
And thanks to the development of the internet and the progress of technology, when I am done writing this it is easy to share it in an attractive format with the rest of you. Like Blackmarsh and my other open projects the PDF will be free I will charging for the physical book.
I am shooting to get this done by the fall of 2014, I have some other projects to complete first that are priority like a certain English Civil War setting. In the meantime I will play one off games and then when the rules are settled enough I will start a playtest campaign. And of course I will be sharing the development when I have something usable.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Lower starting character in Majestic Wilderlands Fudge
This weekend I ran a another session of my Fudge based Majestic Wilderlands for my friend Dan and my wife Kelly Anne. The object this playtest is to see how characters with lower starting points work out. One of the feedback I got from previous sessions that 30 points characters felt really tough. So this time I cut the points in half and made 15 points characters.
Overall I think it went well. The players felt they were more like first level DnD characters. However they didn't get slaughtered by the some bandits I threw at them despite being out numbered. Dan played a magic-user and cleric template, and Kelly Anne played a burglar and a fighter.
As a twist the burglar was really a swarm of rats that acted in unison and was friends with the fighter. Fudge is so straight forward mechanically it wasn't hard to figure out a way to handle this. In exchange for being limited to using only a dagger like attack, the burglar could fit through rat size opening and reform on the other side. Otherwise the character was treated as a human burglar for skills and combat.
For the adventure I used Field of Daises by Columbia Games. A short adventures involving an investigation into some missing serf boys and a atmospheric exploration of a local cave. The one of the monsters was an adaption of Harn's Vlasta or Eaters of Eyes. It is a small cat size creature (scale -2) that is noted for it leaping ability and its propensity for going for the face and gouging out the target's eyes.
Basically it had a Dex of +3 and if it hit for +4 for better it hit you in the face. If you sustain a very hurt wound it gouges one of your eyes out. What made the creature interesting was it fast speed vs its scale -2. What damage it did was based solely on its ability to score a good hit as this fudge variant the margin of your to hit roll is applied to your damage roll. If it got hit it scale -2 meant it usually got crushed by the fighter.
I have to take another look at the spell system. Like Scourge of the Demon Wolf, Field of Daises is representative of the type of adventure I ran using GURPS. Which means adventures happens over days with ample time to rest. There is rarely more than a few combat encounters per day. The DnD magic system with it limited but powerful spells may be not a good fit. All three playtest groups have been lukewarm about it use. Despite it working pretty like it does in my Swords and Wizardry games. I could tone it down to more like how the spells are in the d20 SRD.
So 15 point characters is what I will focus on in subsequent revisions of the rules. I will probably reserve a final decision on the magic system after a proper campaign.
Right now I am going to get some more options and this will come directly from OGL sections of Runequest 2/Legends. If you score a greater degree of success you get one or maneuvers. Ranging from disarming your opponent, blinding them, or bypassing their armor. I am going to adapt this to my fudge based games. You can covert every +4 degree of success into a maneuver. Some maneuvers require double or +8. If need be I will reduce it down to every +3 or even +2.
Overall I think it went well. The players felt they were more like first level DnD characters. However they didn't get slaughtered by the some bandits I threw at them despite being out numbered. Dan played a magic-user and cleric template, and Kelly Anne played a burglar and a fighter.
As a twist the burglar was really a swarm of rats that acted in unison and was friends with the fighter. Fudge is so straight forward mechanically it wasn't hard to figure out a way to handle this. In exchange for being limited to using only a dagger like attack, the burglar could fit through rat size opening and reform on the other side. Otherwise the character was treated as a human burglar for skills and combat.
For the adventure I used Field of Daises by Columbia Games. A short adventures involving an investigation into some missing serf boys and a atmospheric exploration of a local cave. The one of the monsters was an adaption of Harn's Vlasta or Eaters of Eyes. It is a small cat size creature (scale -2) that is noted for it leaping ability and its propensity for going for the face and gouging out the target's eyes.
Basically it had a Dex of +3 and if it hit for +4 for better it hit you in the face. If you sustain a very hurt wound it gouges one of your eyes out. What made the creature interesting was it fast speed vs its scale -2. What damage it did was based solely on its ability to score a good hit as this fudge variant the margin of your to hit roll is applied to your damage roll. If it got hit it scale -2 meant it usually got crushed by the fighter.
I have to take another look at the spell system. Like Scourge of the Demon Wolf, Field of Daises is representative of the type of adventure I ran using GURPS. Which means adventures happens over days with ample time to rest. There is rarely more than a few combat encounters per day. The DnD magic system with it limited but powerful spells may be not a good fit. All three playtest groups have been lukewarm about it use. Despite it working pretty like it does in my Swords and Wizardry games. I could tone it down to more like how the spells are in the d20 SRD.
So 15 point characters is what I will focus on in subsequent revisions of the rules. I will probably reserve a final decision on the magic system after a proper campaign.
Right now I am going to get some more options and this will come directly from OGL sections of Runequest 2/Legends. If you score a greater degree of success you get one or maneuvers. Ranging from disarming your opponent, blinding them, or bypassing their armor. I am going to adapt this to my fudge based games. You can covert every +4 degree of success into a maneuver. Some maneuvers require double or +8. If need be I will reduce it down to every +3 or even +2.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Majestic Wilderlands/Realms Characters
Yesterday I posted what a Majestic Realms character looks like. As you can see it is rooted in the Fate/Fudge family of RPGs.
Note: 4dF produces a range from -4 to 4 in a bell curve. You roll +0 or higher 63% of the time.
I picked the priest because it show all my planned elements in a single character.
Aspects
I will get to this later in the post.
Attributes
This part echoes GURPS the most. I picked Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Constitution. The secondary attributes are Endurance, Reflex, Will, Perception, Fortitude. Each of the secondary attributes are based off of a primary and can be raised and lowered from there. There is one derived attribute Init which is your Dexterity + Constitution. I opted for GURPS 3rd Edition version of basing Endurance off of Srength (Fatigue) and Fortitude off of Constitution (Fudge Hit points sort of).
Skills
Skills start at -3,-2, -1, or +0. You buy skill levels and when you make a skill roll an attribute will come into play. So to swing a mace you are rolling Mace (+0) + Dexterity (+1) for a total of +1 to your 4dF roll.
Spells and Gifts
I will explain gifts when I talk about Aspects. Spells are bought as spells slots that work just like Swords and Wizardry. You memorize a spell for each slot (duplicates allowed) and after you cast it you have to rest for 8 hours plus 1 hour of study. The spell slot have to be bought in a pyramid until you have four spells in a level. Then you can have a equal number of spells in the level above. For example 4 1st, 4 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 1 5th is a legal pyramid. I will have copious example to make this clear. It is the system I used when playing NERO LARP and it works well at replicating DnD style vancian magic with a point based system.
Combat Statistics.
Scale is straight out of the Fudge rules. Basically each level of scale is 150% heavier and/or taller than the level below it. It is added to damage rolls and damage resistance rolls as well as strength rolls. It is a very elegant way of handling creatures of disparate size.
In combat you get up to three defenses, Dodge, Block, or Parry. Dodge is based on Reflex plus Combat Dodge skill. Block is based on Shield Skill + Dexterity, and Parry is based on Weapon Skill + Dexterity. Shields give a bonus of +0 small, +1 medium, or +2 large.
Threshold is based on your Fortitude + Armor Bonus.
OCV (Offensive Combat Value) of a weapon is Dexterity + Skill
DCV (Defensive Combat Value) of a weapon is Dexterity + Skill + Shield Bonus
Damage of a weapons is Weapon Damage + Strength.
Combat involves everybody getting two actions in the order of a 4dF+Init roll.
To Hit = +1 or better on an Opposed Roll of your OCV versus your opponent's DCV or Dodge.
Damage = An Opposed Roll of Damage versus Threshold plus the margin of success on the to hit roll.
+1 to +2 success is a scratch. You can take 3
+3 to +4 success is a hurt injury. You can take 2 and you are at -1 to all rolls
+5 to +6 success is a very hurt injury. You can take 1 and your at -2 to all rolls
+7 to +8 success means. You are incapacitated and no longer act.
+9 or better you are dead.
Aspects
This I borrowed from Fate. However I use it differently. Aspects are used to define the background and personality of the character. They are also prerequisites to Gifts and Complications which are may have a mechanical impact. For example to be able to cast divine spells you need to take an aspect that says the character is a priest of some deity. I arbitrarily said that in the Majestic Realms taking this aspects gives you the ability to buy and cast divine spell slots, and it gives you the give of being able to Turn Undead. Both of which are defined by a set of rules I wrote.
In addition being a priest of Delaquain brings in some complications like being a member of church's hierarchy and having to adhere to a code. For those of you with the Majestic Wilderlands supplement Delaquian is the Majestic Realms name for MW's Mitra.
Note the "I arbitrarily said". Majestic Realms aspects are meant to reflect how the setting of the referee works. If something is not covered by a skill or an attribute then make it an aspect. The only requirement is an agreement between the player, and the referee. If a referee and his players feel it OK for one player to be very wealthy and the rest are his employees then have everybody take the appropriate aspects to make this happen.
So what about points? In the 20 years of playing GURPS I fine that most campaign start with the players talking among themselves about what they want to play. This is a result of the wealth of options that GURPS provides. There is so many that to keep things that they organize things among themselves to make complimentary characters. This is without me prompting them, it just how GURPS (and Hero System for that matter) seem to work among a group of mature roleplayers. The downside of GURPS, character creation always winds up involving searching the disadvantage list to get the bit of allowed points. Even when you have everything you already need.
In Swords and Wizardry there are no mechanics for character background other than to pick a race and/or class. If a players decides to be poor it because they wrote it down on the back of their character sheet. Or if they are a noble it because the referee and the player came to an agreement that this was OK.
I think Swords and Wizardry is little too loose and GURPS a little to formal. I think the general idea behind Fate's Aspect is a good balance between the two. So I jettison the metagame Fate point mechanics and retained the idea of Aspect as prerequisite to various benefits and complications.
Because of my experience with GURPS campaigns I am not going to bother charging points for aspects as most of the time players and their referee wind up hashing things out anyway as part of getting the campaign going.
Now a mistake of many "generic" system is that they give you the mechanics and the ideas but little in the way of worked example. I am going to provide a complete ready to run implementation of all these ideas. Largely based on the style of fantasy I been running for the past 30 years. Some of which you seen in the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement, Blackmarsh, and Scourge of the Demon Wolf.
And it going to take a while I expect to release this no earlier than next fall. In the meantime I got other projects to complete that I owe people for. But I will keep you posted and eventually release a beta.
So far it has been an interesting experience and I learn a lot about some interesting games like Fudge and Fate.
Note: 4dF produces a range from -4 to 4 in a bell curve. You roll +0 or higher 63% of the time.
Aspects
I will get to this later in the post.
Attributes
This part echoes GURPS the most. I picked Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Constitution. The secondary attributes are Endurance, Reflex, Will, Perception, Fortitude. Each of the secondary attributes are based off of a primary and can be raised and lowered from there. There is one derived attribute Init which is your Dexterity + Constitution. I opted for GURPS 3rd Edition version of basing Endurance off of Srength (Fatigue) and Fortitude off of Constitution (Fudge Hit points sort of).
Skills
Skills start at -3,-2, -1, or +0. You buy skill levels and when you make a skill roll an attribute will come into play. So to swing a mace you are rolling Mace (+0) + Dexterity (+1) for a total of +1 to your 4dF roll.
Spells and Gifts
I will explain gifts when I talk about Aspects. Spells are bought as spells slots that work just like Swords and Wizardry. You memorize a spell for each slot (duplicates allowed) and after you cast it you have to rest for 8 hours plus 1 hour of study. The spell slot have to be bought in a pyramid until you have four spells in a level. Then you can have a equal number of spells in the level above. For example 4 1st, 4 2nd, 3 3rd, 2 4th, and 1 5th is a legal pyramid. I will have copious example to make this clear. It is the system I used when playing NERO LARP and it works well at replicating DnD style vancian magic with a point based system.
Combat Statistics.
Scale is straight out of the Fudge rules. Basically each level of scale is 150% heavier and/or taller than the level below it. It is added to damage rolls and damage resistance rolls as well as strength rolls. It is a very elegant way of handling creatures of disparate size.
In combat you get up to three defenses, Dodge, Block, or Parry. Dodge is based on Reflex plus Combat Dodge skill. Block is based on Shield Skill + Dexterity, and Parry is based on Weapon Skill + Dexterity. Shields give a bonus of +0 small, +1 medium, or +2 large.
Threshold is based on your Fortitude + Armor Bonus.
OCV (Offensive Combat Value) of a weapon is Dexterity + Skill
DCV (Defensive Combat Value) of a weapon is Dexterity + Skill + Shield Bonus
Damage of a weapons is Weapon Damage + Strength.
Combat involves everybody getting two actions in the order of a 4dF+Init roll.
To Hit = +1 or better on an Opposed Roll of your OCV versus your opponent's DCV or Dodge.
Damage = An Opposed Roll of Damage versus Threshold plus the margin of success on the to hit roll.
+1 to +2 success is a scratch. You can take 3
+3 to +4 success is a hurt injury. You can take 2 and you are at -1 to all rolls
+5 to +6 success is a very hurt injury. You can take 1 and your at -2 to all rolls
+7 to +8 success means. You are incapacitated and no longer act.
+9 or better you are dead.
Aspects
This I borrowed from Fate. However I use it differently. Aspects are used to define the background and personality of the character. They are also prerequisites to Gifts and Complications which are may have a mechanical impact. For example to be able to cast divine spells you need to take an aspect that says the character is a priest of some deity. I arbitrarily said that in the Majestic Realms taking this aspects gives you the ability to buy and cast divine spell slots, and it gives you the give of being able to Turn Undead. Both of which are defined by a set of rules I wrote.
In addition being a priest of Delaquain brings in some complications like being a member of church's hierarchy and having to adhere to a code. For those of you with the Majestic Wilderlands supplement Delaquian is the Majestic Realms name for MW's Mitra.
Note the "I arbitrarily said". Majestic Realms aspects are meant to reflect how the setting of the referee works. If something is not covered by a skill or an attribute then make it an aspect. The only requirement is an agreement between the player, and the referee. If a referee and his players feel it OK for one player to be very wealthy and the rest are his employees then have everybody take the appropriate aspects to make this happen.
So what about points? In the 20 years of playing GURPS I fine that most campaign start with the players talking among themselves about what they want to play. This is a result of the wealth of options that GURPS provides. There is so many that to keep things that they organize things among themselves to make complimentary characters. This is without me prompting them, it just how GURPS (and Hero System for that matter) seem to work among a group of mature roleplayers. The downside of GURPS, character creation always winds up involving searching the disadvantage list to get the bit of allowed points. Even when you have everything you already need.
In Swords and Wizardry there are no mechanics for character background other than to pick a race and/or class. If a players decides to be poor it because they wrote it down on the back of their character sheet. Or if they are a noble it because the referee and the player came to an agreement that this was OK.
I think Swords and Wizardry is little too loose and GURPS a little to formal. I think the general idea behind Fate's Aspect is a good balance between the two. So I jettison the metagame Fate point mechanics and retained the idea of Aspect as prerequisite to various benefits and complications.
Because of my experience with GURPS campaigns I am not going to bother charging points for aspects as most of the time players and their referee wind up hashing things out anyway as part of getting the campaign going.
Now a mistake of many "generic" system is that they give you the mechanics and the ideas but little in the way of worked example. I am going to provide a complete ready to run implementation of all these ideas. Largely based on the style of fantasy I been running for the past 30 years. Some of which you seen in the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement, Blackmarsh, and Scourge of the Demon Wolf.
And it going to take a while I expect to release this no earlier than next fall. In the meantime I got other projects to complete that I owe people for. But I will keep you posted and eventually release a beta.
So far it has been an interesting experience and I learn a lot about some interesting games like Fudge and Fate.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Fudging Majestic Wilderlands/Realms
Last Monday I ran the third playtest of a fudge based Majestic Wilderlands/Realms*.
*I intend to write the ruleset for general DnD style fantasy rather than just my Majestic Wilderlands. The name will be Majestic Realms to reflect this.
This session featured Chris playing a fighter type, Ken playing a Burglar type, Dan playing a Fighter with a single spell, and finally Tim playing a mage. The adventure was an adaption of Brave Halfling's Ruins of Ramat.
The playtest rules featured a first draft of converted Swords and Wizardry spells. A character creation booklet with slightly more detail the most important of which was four character templates (fighter, mage, burglar, and priest) to use a base for character creation.
For preparation I mostly focused on trying to get the numbers right for the monsters. I found a C++ program to simulate Fudge combat. Plus I bought Hack-n-slash a Fudge DnD style RPG, along with a bunch of other Fate and Fudge supplements for fantasy. I found that the starting level I been using is probably way overpowered. But since characters were already made I decided to live it with for this session.
The basic fact of Fudge/Fate is +1 is a significant modifiers enough to turn a 50-50 contest into a 66 to 34 contest for the side with the +1 advantage.
The upshot is at the end the players agreed that 30 pt characters felt more like high point GURPS characters or high level DnD characters.
Here are the template I been using. 30 point characters.
Here is what 15 points look like as starting characters.
I will talk in more detail about the various elements of the characters in a follow up post.
Some Rough Notes.
Tim's use of spells went pretty much like it did in a Swords and Wizardry game. Only a handful of spells but when used often a game changer especially when the use of web saved the party from a pair of tentacle demons.
All the combat when pretty much as predict by the Combat simulator I wrote. The Skeletons didn't really stand a chance although injury was inflicted. The tentacle demons were going to be the toughest fight. The combat with the Huecuva went a little easier but Tim rolled really well on a Magic Missile taking it out in one shot.
The basic Fudge Mechanic is pretty solid and despite the greater number of rolls compared to Swords and Wizardry combat went fast.
Definitely need to run a lot of session similar to how the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG was developed. Everytime I ran I found something either to add that was way better than the stuff I initially thought of or something that needs worked on. For example I gave the players the option of holding over to the next round their number of successes in liu of trying to inflict damage.
Roll20 lighting feature is pretty damn cool.
The GM Side (and showing the tentacle demon fight)
The Player Side
There is some work setting it up but the result it worth it in my opinion.
*I intend to write the ruleset for general DnD style fantasy rather than just my Majestic Wilderlands. The name will be Majestic Realms to reflect this.
This session featured Chris playing a fighter type, Ken playing a Burglar type, Dan playing a Fighter with a single spell, and finally Tim playing a mage. The adventure was an adaption of Brave Halfling's Ruins of Ramat.
The playtest rules featured a first draft of converted Swords and Wizardry spells. A character creation booklet with slightly more detail the most important of which was four character templates (fighter, mage, burglar, and priest) to use a base for character creation.
For preparation I mostly focused on trying to get the numbers right for the monsters. I found a C++ program to simulate Fudge combat. Plus I bought Hack-n-slash a Fudge DnD style RPG, along with a bunch of other Fate and Fudge supplements for fantasy. I found that the starting level I been using is probably way overpowered. But since characters were already made I decided to live it with for this session.
The basic fact of Fudge/Fate is +1 is a significant modifiers enough to turn a 50-50 contest into a 66 to 34 contest for the side with the +1 advantage.
The upshot is at the end the players agreed that 30 pt characters felt more like high point GURPS characters or high level DnD characters.
Here are the template I been using. 30 point characters.
Here is what 15 points look like as starting characters.
I will talk in more detail about the various elements of the characters in a follow up post.
Some Rough Notes.
Tim's use of spells went pretty much like it did in a Swords and Wizardry game. Only a handful of spells but when used often a game changer especially when the use of web saved the party from a pair of tentacle demons.
All the combat when pretty much as predict by the Combat simulator I wrote. The Skeletons didn't really stand a chance although injury was inflicted. The tentacle demons were going to be the toughest fight. The combat with the Huecuva went a little easier but Tim rolled really well on a Magic Missile taking it out in one shot.
The basic Fudge Mechanic is pretty solid and despite the greater number of rolls compared to Swords and Wizardry combat went fast.
Definitely need to run a lot of session similar to how the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG was developed. Everytime I ran I found something either to add that was way better than the stuff I initially thought of or something that needs worked on. For example I gave the players the option of holding over to the next round their number of successes in liu of trying to inflict damage.
Roll20 lighting feature is pretty damn cool.
The GM Side (and showing the tentacle demon fight)
The Player Side
There is some work setting it up but the result it worth it in my opinion.
Friday, September 13, 2013
So D100 (Runequest, Legend,BRP) or Fudge/Fate?
I have two issues with GURPS first is the comparative lack of ready made content and second the comparative lack of a third party publishing program. Now to be clear about this I inserted the work comparative because GURPS does have ready made material, and does work with third parties. The problem is that for both those areas alternatives are not just easier to work with they are a lot easier to work with.
So why D100 and Fudge? Because both are skill based systems with options for detailed combat, and featured extensive character customization. Well suited for how I run my campaigns. Both have open license that I can choose to take advantage of. And both have a sizable audience as far as RPGs goes.
This this the way I feel about the two at the moment and note I haven't had the opportunity to put these two games to the test.
D100
Basic Roleplaying, Runequest 6, Legend, and OpenQuest are all close relatives. All feature a large library of creatures, NPCs, magic, and items. The work is coming up with religions/cults that fit my Majestic Wilderlands along with deciding which of the myriad options for magic to use.
Fudge/Fate
This is a system with a growing audience. The game simple mechanic allows for a large range of results at various level of details. Like GURPS it primarily a toolkit to make your own game. And it a lot closer to how GURPS work than D100 is. Which makes sense given the origins of the game and its initial community. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with another toolkit RPG after my years with GURPS and Hero System.
But as I collected material and kept at reading and rereading the rules I am impressed with how it all hangs together. Compared to D100 I have to put a lot more work implementing it for my Majestic Wilderlands. If I use it the result would be game more "crunchy" then how most people I read play Fate or Fudge. And will it probably be more Fudge than Fate.
Open Gaming
In Fudge Dice terms both are +0 to each other. How much more open can you get with Legends or OpenQuest? With Legends it doesn't stop with the core rulebook either. The Fudge and Fate SRD are available as well as a lot of third party products with varying degrees of open licenses.
Ah hell I just might work with both given time. So what your thoughts?
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Fate Fudge Dice are in!
Fate is a popular system to use for many RPGs. It part of the Fudge family of RPGs and developed a large following of its own. Recently it has concluded several kickstarters, a new Fate Core, and Fate dice (which are perfectly suited for Fudge as well).
Fudge/Fate is one of those system that always in my "I will get around it" bin. So the price was good on the kickstarter so I got in for a single pack of three sets of dice.
That one barrier down to running a Fudge/Fate game as I have extra sets to for players to use.
The following picture shows the dice I got alongside a white set of Fudge dice I had since the late 90s.
Fudge/Fate is one of those system that always in my "I will get around it" bin. So the price was good on the kickstarter so I got in for a single pack of three sets of dice.
That one barrier down to running a Fudge/Fate game as I have extra sets to for players to use.
The following picture shows the dice I got alongside a white set of Fudge dice I had since the late 90s.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)