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Orzel
2010-09-19, 05:55 PM
I'm fixing up one of my homebrews but I watch to spot overpowered things early. Since it's easier for others to find flaws, I'm leaving that up to you. Here are the rules that matter.

Disciplines:
Every character has one or more disciplines. Disciplines cover a wide range of elements that a character uses to solve problems and end conflicts. Disciplines are categorized as either Natural or Supernatural. Not all disciplines are available to all characters and many are restricted by blueprints.

Each discipline has three parts to it, rank, setting, and accents. A discipline's rank determines how many accents a character may have, how many bonus mental, physical, and social hits the character gets, and the bonus the discipline offers on offense and defense. The sum of the ranks of all of the character's disciplines is his tier.

The discipline's Setting grants a static bonus to offense and defense and determines how many of the character's ranks are contributed to the character's mental, physical, and social hits.

A discipline's accents can be used to gain bonuses and effects when offensively using an discipline. Each discipline has one accent per rank. Not all accents are available to every discipline.







Disciplines:

Age: (Natural): Age represents accumulated knowledge gained from years of experience with the weird stuff of the Notes.

Setting- Age can be used in Any Combat as Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used as Armor. Age grant no bonus hits.
Available Accents:

Artifact Armor: (Supernatural): An artifact armor is a powerful intelligent piece of armor. It can be anything from a breastplate to a steel cap. The user fuses his soul to it and it cannot be broken until his death. A defense of an artifact armor is practically unbreakable..

Setting- Artifact Armor can be used in Physical Combat as Defense and Armor, and in Mental combat as Defense. It grants a +5 bonus when used in Physical Defense. Artifact Armor grants 1 Physical hit per 2 ranks
Available Accents:

Artifact Weapon: (Supernatural): An artifact weapon is a powerful intelligent weapon. It can be anything from a sword to a pistol. The user fuses his soul to it and it cannot be broken until his death. A strike of an artifact weapon can break almost anything, from the hardest steel to a magic shield.

Setting- Artifact Weapon can be used in Physical Combat as Offense and Defense, and in Mental combat as Defense. It grants a +5 bonus when used in Physical Offense. Artifact Weapon grants 1 Physical hit per 2 ranks
Available Accents:

Conjuration (Supernatural): Conjuration is a magic school. It involves of teleporting or summoning items from place to another.

Setting- Conjuration can be used in Physical and Social Combats as Offense, Defense, and Armor. Conjuration grants no bonus hits.
Available Accents:

Dragon (Supernatural): Dragon represents all the abilities associated with dragons. It is a must for dragons and half dragons.

Setting- Dragon can be used in All Combats as Offense and Armor. Dragon grants 1 Physical, Mental, and Social hit per 3 ranks.
Available Accents:

Evocation (Supernatural): Evocation is a magic school. It involves creation of raw energies and matter and roughly shaping it

Setting- Evocation can be used in Physical Combats as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used in Physical Offense. Evocation grants no bonus hits.
Available Accents:

Fae (Supernatural): Fae represents all the abilities associated with the fair folk.

Setting- Fae can be used in Mental and Social Combat as Offense and Defense.. Fae grants 1 Mental and Social hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:

Lunacy (Supernatural): Lunacy represents all the abilities associated with the moons. It is available only to werewolves and berserker.

Setting- Lunacy can be used in Physical and Mental Combat as Offense and Defense.. Lunacy grants 1 Physical and Mental hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:

Might (Natural): Might represents raw strength, speed, dexterity, and constitution. It is the discipline of pure physical ability.

Setting- Might can be used in Physical Combat as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used in all forms Pysical combat. Might grants 1 Physical hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:

Mind (Natural): Mind represents intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge. It is the discipline of pure mental ability.

Setting- Mind can be used in Mental Combat as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used in all forms Mental combat. Mind grants 1 Mind hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:

Personality: (Natural): Personality represents charisma and knowledge of appearance, class, and society. It is the discpline of pure social ability.

Setting- Personality can be used in Social Combat as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used in all forms Social combat. Personality grants 1 Social hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:

Psychics (Supernatural): Psychics is a magic school. It involves of mental control and communication.

Setting- Psychics can be used in Mental and Social Combats as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used as Mental or Social Offense.
Available Accents:

Resources: (Natural): Resources represents any accumulated wealth, connections, and contacts. Expensive or rare weapons, items, and favors are at your disposal.

Setting- Resources can be used in Physical and Social Combat as Offense, Defense and Armor. Resources grants 1 Social hit per 2 ranks..
Available Accents:

Shaping (Supernatural): Shaping is a magic school. It involves of transformation and manipulation of existing objects.

Setting- Shaping can be used in Physical Combats as Offense, Defense, and Armor. It grants a +5 bonus when used in Physical Defense. Shaping grants no bonus hits.
Available Accents:

Science: (Natural): Sciences knowledge of science and technology. Weapons, items, and favors that require vast research is it's domain..

Setting- Science can be used in Physical and Mental Combat as Offense, Defense and Armor. Science grants 1 Mental hit per 2 ranks..
Available Accents:

Undeath (Supernatural): Undeath represents all the abilities associated with the living dead. It is available only to vampires and zombies.

Setting- Undeath can be used in Physical and Mental Combat as Defense. Undeath grants 1 Physical hit per rank.
Available Accents:

Vampirism (Supernatural): Vampirism represents all the abilities associated with vampires. It is available only to vampires.

Setting- Vampirism can be used in Physical and Social Combat as Offense and Defense.. Vampirism grants 1 Physical and Social hit per 2 ranks.
Available Accents:







Blueprints

Berserker:
Must have Lunacy as a discipline.
May not have Mind, Psychics, Personality, nor Resources as a discipline.

Dragon:
Must have Dragon as a discipline.
Dragon must be their highest discipline.
May have Dragon at one rank higher than Individual Discipline Capacity
Must have Resources as a discipline.
May have one additional discipline
May not have Lunacy as a discipline.

Dwarf
Must have Fae as a discipline.
Must have Resources as a discipline.
May not have Vampirism as a discipline.
May have one additional discipline

Elf:
Must have Fae as a discipline.
Must have Age as a discipline.
May not have Vampirism as a discipline.
May have one additional discipline

Goblin:
Must have Fae as a discipline.
Fae must be their highest discipline.
May not have Vampirism as a discipline.

Half-Dragon:
Must have Dragon as a discipline.
May not have Fae as a discipline.

True Normal:
May not have Dragon, Fae, Lunacy, Undeath, nor Vampirism over rank 3.

Sorcerer
Must have Conjuration, Evocation, Psychics, or Shaping as a discipline.
Conjuration, Evocation, Psychics, or Shaping must be their highest discipline
May have Conjuration, Evocation, Psychics, or Shaping at one rank higher than Individual Discipline Capacity.

Untouched:
May not take any supernatural disciplines
May have one discipline at one rank higher than Individual Discipline Capacity
May have any number of additional disciplines

Vampire:
Must have Vampirism as a discipline
Vampirism must be their highest discipline
Must have Undeath as a discipline.
May have one additional discipline

Werewolf:
Must have Lunacy as a discipline.
Lunacy must be their highest discipline
May have Lunacy at one rank higher than Individual Discipline Capacity
May not have Mind, Psychics, Personality, or Resources as a discipline.

Wizard:
Must have Conjuration, Evocation, Psychics, and Shaping as a discipline.
Conjuration, Evocation, Psychics, or Shaping must be their highest discipline
May take 3 additional disciplines.

Zombie:
Must have Undeath as a discipline
Undeath must be their highest discipline
May not take Mind as a discipline


Rules.
The tier (sum of the ranks of all of your character's disciplines) is 12.
Each discipline cannot exceed the Individual Discipline Capacity (highest rank) of 6 unless stated otherwise
Each character has 3 disciplines unless stated otherwise.

Base Offense= The discipline's rank + bonus
Base Defense= 6 + The discipline's rank + bonus
Armor= The sum of the discipline's ranks and bonus divided by 2, rounded down.
Hits= the sum of all disciplines' bonus to hits + 2

Rolls (if you care)
Attack roll: 2d6 + The Attacker's Offense vs The Defender's Defense
If Attacker wins, make a damage roll.
Damage roll: 6 (or 10 if attacker rolled doubles) vs 1d6 + Defender's Armor
Leftover damage is subtracted from hits
If any of a character's hits reached 0, they are taken out the combat or conflict.


Notes:
I didn't add accents. I don't really care how broken accents are. Accents typically add a d6 or +3 to Offense, Deffense, Damage, or Armor. Adding an accent to a roll costs another resource call Spirit. Regaing spirit is hard and there are accents that removes the spirit of others. There are other things that suck up spirit too. Having 0 spirit is bad bad bad bad so I'm not worrying about broken accents.

Most conflicts are only one type: physical, mental, or social. By combat typically includes all three. You might be able to be a vampire in a fist fight, but the vampire can use his social offense in the form of a hypnotic gaze and convince you into giving up.

Your goals:
Make a character with at least one Offense of 6 AND have a Defense of at least 9 for Physical, Mental, and Social without using Mind, Might, or Personality.

Make a character with at least one Offense of 6 AND have an Armor of at least 3 for 2 of Physical, Mental, and Social without using Age.

Make a character with at least two Offenses of 5 AND have a Defense of at least 8 or Armor of 2 for Physical, Mental, and Social

Make a nonzombie with 7 hits in any category And have a Defense of at least 8 for every other category.

NEW! Make a character with at least two Offenses of 4 AND have a Defense of at least 10 or Armor of 3 for Physical, Mental, and Social

NEW! Make a character with all Defenses of at least 11

Anything else broken.

If you want some fluff, I'll drop a little.

Example Character:

Old Man Nightstick
Blueprint: Half-Dragon
Dragon: 3
Artifact Weapon: 6
Age: 3

Physical-
Offense: Dragon (3) Artifact Weapon (11)
Defense: Artifact Weapon (12)
Armor: Age (4) Dragon (1)
Hits: 6

Mental-
Offense: Dragon (3)
Defense: Dragon (9) Artifact Weapon (12)
Armor: Age (4), Dragon (1)
Hits: 3

Social-
Offense: Dragon (3)
Defense: None (6)
Armor: Age (4), Dragon (1)
Hits: 3

erikun
2010-09-19, 06:53 PM
I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what to make of the system. It isn't presented very intuitively, and I'm having a bit of trouble invisioning the characters it would produce. It looks like I can try breaking it for you anyways, although I have no way of telling how broken (or useable) such a character would be.

Make a character with at least one Offense of 6 AND have a Defense of at least 9 for Physical, Mental, and Social without using Mind, Might, or Personality.

Artifact Armor 2
Science 6

P. Offense: 0 (none)
P. Defense: 13 (Artifact Armor 2 + 5 + 6)
P. Armor: 1 (Articact Armor 2/2)
P. Hits: 3 (Articact Armor 2/2 + 2)

M. Offense: 6 (Science 6)
M. Defense: 13 (Artifact Armor 2 + 5 + 6)
M. Armor: 3 (Science 6/2)
M. Hits: 5 (Science 6/2 + 2)

S. Offense: 6 (Science 6)
S. Defense: 12 (Science 6 + 6)
S. Armor: 3 (Science 6/2)
S. Hits: 5 (Science 6/2 + 2)

There is still three more points to use, either for increasing Artifact Armor or for the third discipline. Anything that has only one required discipline, such as Berserker or Half-Dragon, or simply does not restrict Artifact Armor or Science, such as True Normal, can do so.

Make a character with at least one Offense of 6 AND have an Armor of at least 3 for 2 of Physical, Mental, and Social without using Age.

Actually, I think I just did this as well.

Make a character with at least two Offenses of 5 AND have a Defense of at least 8 or Armor of 2 for Physical, Mental, and Social.

Wow, I'm on a roll! The first example fits this as well.

Make a nonzombie with 7 hits in any category And have a Defense of at least 8 for every other category.

Artifact Armor 2, Science 6, and Mind 4 gives us 7 hits in Mental and the same stats as above. The True Normal blueprint can accomplish it.

Orzel
2010-09-20, 05:18 AM
These aren't the full rules, just the ones I'm concerned about breaking. I've trimmeed down those rules too just so you have what is needed.

Roughly the character you made would be a scientist who owns a power magical shield or helmet. There are other elements like accents, spirit, seeds, and color were not added. Your Science 6, AA2 character could have the Poisonous accent and deal 1 hit of damage each round instead of 6-1d6-Armor if he hits in a conflict. If he or she were Black, it would discount the spirit cost and allow combination with the Venomous accent for 3 damage next round.


Overall It seems erikun has shown that the +5 disciplines might be too powerfull with disciplines with multiple defenses with True Normals.

Keep on breaking it though.

Another challenge:
Make a character with at least two Offenses of 4 AND have a Defense of at least 10 or Armor of 3 for Physical, Mental, and Social

Make a character with all Defenses of at least 11

Orzel
2010-09-21, 04:57 PM
Anyone else want to break my game?