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BronyHeresy
2013-07-16, 09:41 AM
Hey Guys. I decided, after some long thought processes, to try to make a decently basic system based at least in part on several with which I'm semi to intimately familiar. One of my goals in the creation of this system was to not have a Combat System that is as detailed as others, for the simple reason that combat, while A focus of the system, is not THE focus of the system. Additionally, I wanted it to be simple and extremely modular. Without further ado...

Heresy's Basic Storytelling System

These rules are intended to be adaptable to any universe.

[Core Mechanic]
All Actions that require effort or would have a consequence for failure are made with 2d6.

Checks:
Every check has a "difficulty" which is the number needed to successfully accomplish the task being attempted. WHile these are always decided by the GM, some examples are as follows:
TRIVIAL (3): Remember the name of your mayor.
EASY (5): Push open a stuck door that is not locked or barred.
NORMAL (7): March for a day without having to stop.
HARD (9): Remember the eye color of someone you've only seen once, and briefly.
CHALLENGING (11): Play a piece of complicated music without error on an instrument with which you are familiar.
PUNISHING (13): Maneuver a vehicle through a heavily bombarded warzone without being hit.
BRUTAL (15): Balance on a high wire.
UNBELIEVABLE (17): Lift a heavy crashed cart off of a trapped man which it is crushing.
INSANE (19): Survive falling off a very high cliff without protection.
HERCULEAN (21): Run at a full sprint for 20 miles without stopping or tiring.
NIGH IMPOSSIBLE (23): Magically pull a city and its inhabitants out of the prime material plane after a week of preparation.

Challenges:
Whenever your action is opposed by a person, rather than an event or a circumstance, both parties roll, instead of there being a fixed chance of success.
Whichever party rolls higher has a success. If both parties receive the same result, the situation remains unchanged (which means that, yes, an attacker who gets the same roll as a defender misses.)

Saves:
A save is similar to a check, but whereas a check is active, a Save is reactive, and usually defensive. Rolling to dodge or parry or resist an effect is a save. Nearly all toughness rolls are saves.

Modifiers:
Whenever a check or a challenge is made, certain circumstances might cause a character to have a significantly better (or worse) chance at succeeding in the action. In these cases, the character receives a modifier. This is a number which they either add or subract from their roll.
A modifier which adds is called a bonus, and a modifier which subtracts is called a penalty.

NOTE: A character may never apply more than one penalty and one bonus at a time, and takes only the largest of both. This rule does not apply to Attributes, Focuses and Flukes, though the GM should use discretion with flukes involving penalties or bonuses.

Degrees of Success:
When a character succeeds or fails either a challenge or a check, they may do significantly better than needed, or significantly worse. The GM may, and should reward multiple degrees of success, wherever possible, and punish multiple degrees of failure with equal glee. Every number higher or lower than the required number is one degree of success/failure.

Extended Checks and Challenges:
Some actions may take more effort and longer concentration than an ordinary action. In these cases, a character may need to roll multiple successes over a period of time. When a character is making an extended check he must focus his attention on it until his task is completed. If a character abandons an extended check, except in rare cases, they must start from the beginning again.

[Character Creation]

To create a character, follow the following steps:
1. Choose Attributes
2. Choose Focuses
3. Choose Flukes

Attributes:
These are traits which measure how well a character holds up in generally challenging situations.
There are several levels for each attribute, each of which provides a bonus or penalty to all checks and challenges made with that attribute:
HOPELESS (-5): The character's ability is worse than nearly everyone else's. (Example: Sherlock Holmes in "SHERLOCK" is HOPELESS at SOCIAL)
AWFUL (-3): The character's ability is significantly worse than most people's.
WEAK (-1): The character's ability is worse than most people's.
ORDINARY (0): The character is neither particularly strong in an attribute or particularly weak.
STRONG (1): The character has abilities which exceed most people's.
PRODIGIOUS (3): The character has abilities which are significantly better than most people's.
ASTONISHING (5): The character's ability is better than nearly everyone's. (Example: Sherlock Holmes is ASTONISHING at PRESENCE)


Attribute Descriptions:
TOUGHNESS: How well a character can stand up to physical and mental punishment.
SOCIAL: How good a character is at understanding living things, how good at interacting with them, and how magnetic their personality is.
STRENGTH: How powerful a character's muscles are.
DEXTERITY: How easily a character can move their body, and how much control they have over their body.
INTELLECT: How good a character is at remembering, identifying, and learning things.
PRESENCE: How aware of their surroundings a character is, and how quick-thinking.


Assigning Attributes:
A GM is free to allow a character's attributes to be whatever he likes, but characters should generally be in the same range as each other.
A "run of the mill" adventurer should probably average between "STRONG" and "ORDINARY," while really impressive characters might get into the range of PRODIGIOUS in two attributes.
STANDARD: Give players 3 character points. Positive Attributes cost character points.
ORDINARY: 0 points
STRONG: 1 point
PRODIGIOUS: 3 points
ASTONISHING: 5 points
Negative Attributes award players with additional points.
WEAK: 1 point
AWFUL: 2 points
HOPELESS: 3 points

Focuses:
If a character is noted to be trained at a specific activity, they can spend Focus Points any time they make a check or a challenge related to that focus.
Every focus is specifically related to one attribute.
AMATEUR: A character has taken an unprofessional interest in this focus. They may spend up to one focus point to add to any rolls in which they are an AMATEUR.
TRAINED: A character has the necessary knowledge, but may not yet be sure of his ability in his focus. They may spend up to two focus points to add to any roll in which they are TRAINED.
FAMILIAR: A character knows what he is doing in his focus. They may spend up to three focus points to add to any roll in which they are FAMILIAR.
CONFIDENT: A character is practiced and comfortable with their focus. They may spend up to four focus points to add to any roll in which they are CONFIDENT.
WIZARD: This character has nearly a lifetime of experience in their focus. They may spend up to five focus points to add to any roll in which they are a WIZARD.

Focus Points: Characters have a number of focus points inherent to them which can be lost and gained in multiple ways, but generally have a maximum.
STANDARD: Supporting Characters have 10 maximum Focus Points, Adventurers have 15 focus points, Movers and Shakers have 20 focus points.

Gaining and Losing Focus Points:
When a character spends a focus point, it is lost and cannot be spent again. When a character rests between encounters, the GM may allow them to recover 1d6 (for a short rest) or 2d6 (for an extended rest, i.e. sleep) to their maximum.

Focus Descriptors:
SOCIAL FOCUSES
Commerce: A character's ability to barter and trade.
Deceive: A character's ability to fool others with their behavior and speech, and notice the deceptions of others.
Charm: A character's ability to endear others to them.
Persuade: A character's ability to convince others of their position.
Handle Animal: A character's ability to work with beasts and control them.
Gather Information: A character's ability to learn information from gossip and casual conversation.
Leadership: A character's ability to inspire and command followers.
STRENGTH FOCUSES
Athletics: A character's ability to run, jump, swim, and throw.
Demolish: A character's ability to properly break hard objects.
Heave: A character's ability in lifting and moving heavy objects.
Fight: A character's ability in hand to hand combat. There are numerous disciplines of fighting, but the most common are listed here: Unarmed, Blade Weapon, Blunt Weapon, Piercing Weapon, Power Weapon
DEXTERITY FOCUSES
Acrobatics: A character's ability to tumble, leap, dodge, roll, and flip.
Stealth: A character's ability to move quickly and quietly.
Deftness: A character's ability to work cleverly with their hands.
Operate: A character's ability to use a complex piece of machinery. There are many different types, such as musical instruments, and as such, there are numerous subdisciplines, and coming up with a comprehensive list of them would be impossible.
Drive: A character's to control a vehicle. There are numerous modes of transportation, but the most common are as follows. Riding Animal, Automobile, Locomotive, Aeroplane, Airship, Steamship, Voidship.
Aim: A character's ability in ranged combat. There are numerous disciplines, but the most common are as follows. Projectile Weapon, Bullet Weapon, Ray Weapon, Thrown Weapon.
INTELLECT FOCUSES
Common Lore: A character's knowledge of a subject, typically one available from easily accessible sources. Common subcategories are as follows: Geography, Politics, Culture, Races, Beasts, Plants
Scholastic Lore: A character's knowledge of a subject which typically requires formal training. Common Subcategories are as follows. Mathematics, Classical History, Philosophy, The High Sciences, The Low Sciences, Aetherology, The Arts.
Weird Lore: A character's knowledge of obscure, occult, or forbidden information. Common (or uncommon as the case may be) subcategories are as follows. Divine, Arcane, Spirits and Fey, Cults and Secret Societies.
Search: A character's ability to conduct an ordered investigation.
Logic: A character's ability to draw conclusions from information, and solve puzzles.
PRESENCE FOCUSES
Medical: A character's ability to treat and care for the injured or sick.
Profession: A character's ability to do a job which will earn them money on a day by day basis. These are so varied that attempting to compile a comprehensive list would be useless.
Spellcraft: A character's ability to craft and cast spells, and use magic. There are numerous types of magic, and as such, attempting to create a comprehensive list of different sub-disciplines would be pointless.
Notice: A character's ability to spot details, hear quiet sounds, and smell or taste small differences in the environment.
Navigate: A character's ability to find his way using navigational tools, his senses and the environment.
Arcaniscience: A character's ability to sense magic and distinguish between different types.
Survival: A character's ability to find food and shelter and track things in uninhabited places.

Assigning Focuses:
The GM should generally allow a starting character between four and six focuses, and a few Amateur Focuses.
STANDARD: Give players 7 character points. Focuses are costed as follows.
TRAINED: 1 point
FAMILIAR: 2 points
CONFIDENT: 4 points
WIZARD: 7 points
In addition, they may choose three skills in which to be AMATEUR.

NOTE: Characters who are almost certainly going to be involved in combat ought to take at least one Fight or Aim Focus. For more cerebral parties (i.e. Mystery solvers) this might be one to three members. For more down and dirty parties, this could potentially be every character.

A character must spend focus points BEFORE rolling. Every focus point spent increases the roll's result by one.


Flukes:
These are features which are more of an "on-off" setting - either a character has them, or he hasn't.
Whether a fluke is a disorder, a single "schtick" or merely an unusual but striking attribute (like being adopted), they typically provide either some sort of nasty disadvantage, or enjoyable perk to a character in situations.
Most flukes provide a situational modifier, and are usually single tricks which a character is capable of replicating without much effort. As such, they are usually triggered by an event or a circumstance.

EXAMPLE FLUKES:
Alert: This character is constantly tensed for combat. He receives a +3 bonus to initiative.
Berserk: This character may ignore the effects of being winded, bloodied, and exhausted, but drops to one damage condition worse at the end of a battle where they do.
Disinterested: This character has no hobbies. They may not take any focuses as an amateur.
Fascinated: This character learns a lot at random. They may choose three additional focuses in which to be to be AMATEUR.
Freakish Loner: This character hates being near others. He receives a -2 penalty to all checks and challenges while he is in adjacency with any individual.
Hide in Plain Sight: This character is good at disappearing suddenly. If they are not being observed by someone looking for them, on a successful NORMAL DEXTERITY check, they hide and anyone searching for them must succeed an extended search check (Three successful CHALLENGING) to find them.
Lacks Social Empathy: In spite of at least understanding social activities, this character has no interest in other people, and has a very difficult time relating to others. Whenever this character (who must have a SOCIAL of at least STRONG attempts a roll which relies on relating to people (CHARM, some DECEIVE checks, most COMMERCE checks), they receive a -3 penalty.
Lead Legs: This character has poor reaction time. They receive a -3 penalty to initiative.
Liar: This character suffers no guilt from deceiving. They may substitute their PRESENCE for their SOCIAL when rolling to deceive another.
Opportunist Attacker: This character is excellent at ganging up on enemies. If there is at least one friendly combatant adjacent to an enemy this character is attacking, the character may reroll an unsatisfactory result.
Uncanny Dodge: This character has insane luck while being shot at. The first ranged attack made against this character in an encounter automatically misses them. On succeeding a NORMAL PRESENCE check, they are alerted to the location of their shooter.

NOTE: Flukes are so varied that it is impossible to come up with any really comprehensive list of them. Instead, players who want to give their characters flukes should run them by the game master, and see what he thinks.
Characters shouldn't generally have more than a few flukes, and like attributes for an adventurer they should probably average in the positive.

BronyHeresy
2013-07-16, 09:42 AM
SAMPLE CHARACTER SHEETS:

Inigo Montoya

TOUGHNESS | STRONG
STRENGTH | PRODIGIOUS
DEXTERITY | STRONG
INTELLECT | WEAK
PRESENCE | ORDINARY
SOCIAL | WEAK

Focuses
Fight (Fencing) | Wizard
Athletics | Amateur
Acrobatics | Amateur
Drive (Sailship) | Amateur

Focus Points: 15

Flukes:
Blood Oath of Vengeance: Inigo is sworn to kill the six-fingered man. While attacking or challenging the six-fingered man or anyone in his employ, Inigo gains a +1 modifier to all rolls.
Ultimate Suffering: Inigo Montoya knows the sound of ultimate suffering, as it is the sound his heart made the day the six-fingered man slaughtered his father. He recognizes it instantly.
Alcoholic: Inigo drowns his sorrows in alcohol. If he is not able to spend a half hour quietly drinking, at the end of the day he takes a -1 penalty, which is cumulative until the end of a day in which he does, to a maximum of a -3 penalty.

Fezzik

TOUGHNESS | PRODIGIOUS
STRENGTH | ASTONISHING
DEXTERITY | WEAK
INTELLECT | AWFUL
PRESENCE | WEAK
SOCIAL | WEAK

Focuses
Fight (Unarmed) | Confident
Aim (Thrown Weapon) | Trained
Athletics | Familiar
Logic | Amateur
Stealth | Amateur
Charm | Amateur

Focus Points: 15

Flukes:
Group Fighting Specialist: Gangs for local charities, that sort of thing. Fezzik may roll to attack all enemies who are in adjacency with him, without penalty. If Fezzik is only adjacent to one enemy, he may not spend focus points, and receives a -1 penalty to attack rolls.
Sportsmanship: Fezzik cannot hit an enemy who is unaware of him.

Vezzini

TOUGHNESS | WEAK
STRENGTH | WEAK
DEXTERITY | WEAK
INTELLECT | ASTONISHING
PRESENCE | WEAK
SOCIAL | ORDINARY

Focuses
Logic | Trained
Deception | Trained
Notice | Trained
Scholastic Lore (History) | Trained
Common Lore (Geography) | Trained
Weird Lore (Poisons) | Trained
Common Lore (Culture) | Trained
Tactics | Amateur
Charm | Amateur
Deftness | Amateur