vault13dweller
2013-06-11, 05:04 PM
I have recently begun to design my own system, strongly inspired by FATE (and more specifically, the derivative of Kerberos Club) and World of Darkness. I am unsure if a system exactly like what I am about to present to you has already been written, and if it has, any kind of plagiarism, bad legal juju or anything of the sort was NOT intended in any way.
Each character has 3 attributes (Mental/Physical/Social) that rank from 1 (starting level) to 5 (max). Whenever a character makes any kind of check, they roll an amount of six-sided dice equal to their relevant attribute. So in a physical check, they would roll dice equal to their physical attribute.
Then, each character also has a number of skills, that start by default at level 1, but can go up to level 5. The level of a skill determines what any rolled dice need to come up as in order to count as a success. You want to roll equal to or less than your level in a skill when making a skill check.
During character creation, the first thing you do is distribute 6 ranks among your three attributes (which each start at 1)- though rank 5 costs 2 ranks. After that, you determine your characters History, (the character's life up until the game begins) Profession (the character's trained occupation or primary hobby, whatever they have the most training in), Motivation (a goal, a belief, whatever keeps the character moving forward) and Gift (their natural talent in something, basically a free aspect for anything) as part of their Background.
Each of these parts of the character's background provide a number of skill points to spend on any skills that could be justifiably known because of the background. For example, if someone's profession was "Soldier", they could have the skills "Guns, Tactics, and Survival". These skills are made up by the player (but of course require GM approval), but can't be too unspecific. (e.g. "fighting", though "fist-fighting" would work.)
Each background piece grants a number of skill points to spend on skills relevant to it. History provides 4 skill points, Profession provides 6, Motivation provides 3, and Gift provides 2. (gift is basically free skill points to spend on anything that the player wants that don't fit into any of the other background pieces).
All skills, even ones that a character doesn't designate as having, start at level 1. The highest a skill can go is 5, and the 5 level in a skill costs 2. If two or more background pieces have a skill that's relevant to both of them, skill points from either background piece can be spent on the skill.
Skills determine what needs to come up on a die in order for that die to count as a success. You need to roll equal to or lower than your skill on a die in order for it to be success. A skill of 1 means you have to roll a 1 on a die to succeed. A skill of 2 means you have to roll a 1 OR a 2 for it to count as a success.
Those are the very crucial core mechanics, I practically have the rest of the game planned that I'm working on writing. Other rules I have ready to answer questions about-
Initiative in conflicts
Multiple types of contests in one conflict
Knacks (Feats/Advantages, of sorts)
Aspects
Creation of Antagonists
High power level play
Experience and Advancement
Area Aspects
Magic
If there's an important issue that I seem to be missing, please bring it up. And if you have any questions, concerns, ideas, any input at all, please say so.
But otherwise, how does it sound so far? Would anyone play it?
Also, here's the link to the google doc in which I'm typing up the first core rulebook. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FPC7y3B5R5B32YJvJG-7L3p92vqXr9UOdUxd7xFid_U/edit?usp=sharing)
Each character has 3 attributes (Mental/Physical/Social) that rank from 1 (starting level) to 5 (max). Whenever a character makes any kind of check, they roll an amount of six-sided dice equal to their relevant attribute. So in a physical check, they would roll dice equal to their physical attribute.
Then, each character also has a number of skills, that start by default at level 1, but can go up to level 5. The level of a skill determines what any rolled dice need to come up as in order to count as a success. You want to roll equal to or less than your level in a skill when making a skill check.
During character creation, the first thing you do is distribute 6 ranks among your three attributes (which each start at 1)- though rank 5 costs 2 ranks. After that, you determine your characters History, (the character's life up until the game begins) Profession (the character's trained occupation or primary hobby, whatever they have the most training in), Motivation (a goal, a belief, whatever keeps the character moving forward) and Gift (their natural talent in something, basically a free aspect for anything) as part of their Background.
Each of these parts of the character's background provide a number of skill points to spend on any skills that could be justifiably known because of the background. For example, if someone's profession was "Soldier", they could have the skills "Guns, Tactics, and Survival". These skills are made up by the player (but of course require GM approval), but can't be too unspecific. (e.g. "fighting", though "fist-fighting" would work.)
Each background piece grants a number of skill points to spend on skills relevant to it. History provides 4 skill points, Profession provides 6, Motivation provides 3, and Gift provides 2. (gift is basically free skill points to spend on anything that the player wants that don't fit into any of the other background pieces).
All skills, even ones that a character doesn't designate as having, start at level 1. The highest a skill can go is 5, and the 5 level in a skill costs 2. If two or more background pieces have a skill that's relevant to both of them, skill points from either background piece can be spent on the skill.
Skills determine what needs to come up on a die in order for that die to count as a success. You need to roll equal to or lower than your skill on a die in order for it to be success. A skill of 1 means you have to roll a 1 on a die to succeed. A skill of 2 means you have to roll a 1 OR a 2 for it to count as a success.
Those are the very crucial core mechanics, I practically have the rest of the game planned that I'm working on writing. Other rules I have ready to answer questions about-
Initiative in conflicts
Multiple types of contests in one conflict
Knacks (Feats/Advantages, of sorts)
Aspects
Creation of Antagonists
High power level play
Experience and Advancement
Area Aspects
Magic
If there's an important issue that I seem to be missing, please bring it up. And if you have any questions, concerns, ideas, any input at all, please say so.
But otherwise, how does it sound so far? Would anyone play it?
Also, here's the link to the google doc in which I'm typing up the first core rulebook. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FPC7y3B5R5B32YJvJG-7L3p92vqXr9UOdUxd7xFid_U/edit?usp=sharing)