Chronologist
2014-01-25, 09:11 PM
So, I've been working on a quick, simple point-buy system for about two weeks now, and it's in a decent enough place at this point that I'd like to post it. There's no working title at the moment, and constructive criticism would be much appreciated.
Character Creation and Advancement
Characters have a number of Experience Points, or XP, which they can spend in several ways. Below is the list of what they can purchase with these Experience Points. Characters should, be default, start with around 20 XP, and should gain XP as they accomplish important tasks and progress the narrative. All characters should be within 2-5 XP of each other at all times. 150 XP is an approximate maximum for most characters.
Character Quality Cost
Quality Cost by Bonus|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5|+6|+7|+8|+9|+10
Accuracy|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Aspect|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Damage|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Fortitude Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Reflex Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Will Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Quality Cost by Value|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10
Potency|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Purviews Known Total|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Foci Known Total|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Asset Value (each)|1|2|4|7|10|-|-|-|-|-
Bond Value (each)|1|2|3|4|6|-|-|-|-|-
Ward Value (each)|0|1|2|3|4|-|-|-|-|-
Pool Cost by Total|5|10|15|20|25|30|35|40|45|50
Health|-|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15
Mana|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Character Quality Description
Accuracy is a measure of your co-ordination, speed, might, focus, or anything else you use to attack others. It does not determine how hard you hit, only how accurate those hits are. Characters with low Accuracy will find themselves missing enemies frequently, while characters with high Accuracy will hit enemies more often.
Damage measures how much additional damage your strikes do, on top of the damage your weapon naturally inflicts. Higher damage means you can knock more powerful enemies out of the fight faster, lower damage makes it harder to KO enemies.
Fortitude, Reflex, and Will are your Defenses. You roll Fortitude to avoid sudden impacts, poisons, and other brute-force attacks. Reflex is used when you need to dodge attacks, like arrows, explosions, and traps. Your roll Will to shrug off attacks that target your mind, morale, or confidence. Lower defense makes you more vulnerable to those kinds of attacks, higher defense makes you harder to affect.
Health is a measure of how much punishment you can take before being knocked out. All kinds of damage, from fire to stab wounds to psychic attacks, reduce your Health. Low Health means you’re easily injured, higher Health means you can take a ton of punishment before going down. Characters with 0 Health are KOed, and cannot take actions of any kind. Characters continue to take damage once KOed - when they take enough equal to half their maximum Health, they are dead. Some enemies, once reduced to 0 Health, are killed immediately instead.
Aspect refers to the sum of your practical skills and dominant qualities as an individual. With every point of Aspect, you gain one Descriptor Word, which can be any specific noun, adjective, or verb. You should avoid broad terms like ‘smart’, or ‘strong’, instead going for things like ‘arcanist’ or ‘athletic’. Professions and races work well as nouns. Whenever you attempt something risky that’s not attacking or using a special power, you can roll 3d6 and add your Aspect. If one of your descriptor words clearly applies, add your full Aspect to the roll. If it only partially applies, add half your bonus instead. If it wouldn’t apply at all, add nothing.
Assets give you Strike X against anything they would apply against, all the time, where X is their Rating. If they would only partially aid you, add half your Asset’s value as Strike. In addition, once per Sequence per point of Asset you have, you can gain an Edge on a single action that you would apply your full Strike against.
Bonds give you a +X bonus to all rolls when applied against the subject of your Bond, where X is their Rating. When you act against or on behalf of the subject of your Bond, you can apply Strike X AND Guard X to all conditions you face for one round. You can do this a number of times equal to your Bond Rating per Story.
Wards give you Guard X against any effect that would cause you to violate your Ward, where X is its Rating. If you intentionally violate your Ward, you suffer a -X Complication, where X is the strength of your Ward. Wards so violated are out of commission for the rest of the Story.
Characters have between 3 and 7 Wounds, or none if the GM desires it. A character can spend a Wound as a Minor Action once per Scene to regain 1/5 of their Health immediately. Characters may spend Wounds at will outside of combat. Characters with 0 Health are KOed and can’t take Major or Minor actions. Characters who take damage at 0 Health lose a Wound instead of Health. Characters reduced to 0 Wounds are killed when reduced to 0 Health, and characters with 0 Health who are reduced to 0 Wounds through damage are also killed.
Potency is your all-day supernatural ability. Potency determines the Power of your Foci, and the likelyhood of your Purviews functioning. Characters with high Potency can use multiple powers at once, and their abilities are stronger throughout the day. Characterws wtih lower Potency are unable to use supernatural abilities well without expending Mana, or even at all!
Purviews are the broad sets of ability your character has. Every Purview contains one or two Knacks and five specific functions of that Purview. Purviews include things like Fire, Mechanics, Mind-Control, Lightning, and the like. Purviews are often draining and take time to use. Characters with more Purviews are able to control more aspects of magic, and are thus more flexible. Characters with fewer Purviews will find themselves unable to do much outside of their mundane abilities, except in combat.
Foci are the narrow abilities your character has. They faster to use than Purviews, and function differently. Major Foci are used as a Major Action, and do something immediate and useful. Often, their effectiveness is based on your current Potency. Minor Foci are used as a Minor Action, and generally last until you choose to stop using them. However, they reduce your Potency as long as they’re active, including the turn you use them and the turn afterwards. Characters with many Foci have more tactical choices in combat, and can approach fights differently, even exploiting enemy weaknesses. Characters with few Foci will find themselves relying on Attack actions and without many choices in combat.
Mana is your pool of supernatural energy you can tap into to fuel your abilities. You can spend up to 1/5th of your Mana as a Free Action, and you improve your Potency by that amount until the end of your turn. However, if you do not use a Major Foci that turn, your Potency increase instead lasts until the end of the Scene, until you use a Purview, or you use a Major Foci, whichever comes first. Characters with large amounts of Mana will be able to push themselves that much farther when needed, while characters with little to no Mana will often get into sticky situations without the Mana needed to brute-force out of them.
Character Creation and Advancement
Characters have a number of Experience Points, or XP, which they can spend in several ways. Below is the list of what they can purchase with these Experience Points. Characters should, be default, start with around 20 XP, and should gain XP as they accomplish important tasks and progress the narrative. All characters should be within 2-5 XP of each other at all times. 150 XP is an approximate maximum for most characters.
Character Quality Cost
Quality Cost by Bonus|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5|+6|+7|+8|+9|+10
Accuracy|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Aspect|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Damage|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Fortitude Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Reflex Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Will Defense|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Quality Cost by Value|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10
Potency|2|4|6|8|11|14|17|21|25|30
Purviews Known Total|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Foci Known Total|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9
Asset Value (each)|1|2|4|7|10|-|-|-|-|-
Bond Value (each)|1|2|3|4|6|-|-|-|-|-
Ward Value (each)|0|1|2|3|4|-|-|-|-|-
Pool Cost by Total|5|10|15|20|25|30|35|40|45|50
Health|-|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15
Mana|1|2|3|4|5|7|9|11|13|15
Character Quality Description
Accuracy is a measure of your co-ordination, speed, might, focus, or anything else you use to attack others. It does not determine how hard you hit, only how accurate those hits are. Characters with low Accuracy will find themselves missing enemies frequently, while characters with high Accuracy will hit enemies more often.
Damage measures how much additional damage your strikes do, on top of the damage your weapon naturally inflicts. Higher damage means you can knock more powerful enemies out of the fight faster, lower damage makes it harder to KO enemies.
Fortitude, Reflex, and Will are your Defenses. You roll Fortitude to avoid sudden impacts, poisons, and other brute-force attacks. Reflex is used when you need to dodge attacks, like arrows, explosions, and traps. Your roll Will to shrug off attacks that target your mind, morale, or confidence. Lower defense makes you more vulnerable to those kinds of attacks, higher defense makes you harder to affect.
Health is a measure of how much punishment you can take before being knocked out. All kinds of damage, from fire to stab wounds to psychic attacks, reduce your Health. Low Health means you’re easily injured, higher Health means you can take a ton of punishment before going down. Characters with 0 Health are KOed, and cannot take actions of any kind. Characters continue to take damage once KOed - when they take enough equal to half their maximum Health, they are dead. Some enemies, once reduced to 0 Health, are killed immediately instead.
Aspect refers to the sum of your practical skills and dominant qualities as an individual. With every point of Aspect, you gain one Descriptor Word, which can be any specific noun, adjective, or verb. You should avoid broad terms like ‘smart’, or ‘strong’, instead going for things like ‘arcanist’ or ‘athletic’. Professions and races work well as nouns. Whenever you attempt something risky that’s not attacking or using a special power, you can roll 3d6 and add your Aspect. If one of your descriptor words clearly applies, add your full Aspect to the roll. If it only partially applies, add half your bonus instead. If it wouldn’t apply at all, add nothing.
Assets give you Strike X against anything they would apply against, all the time, where X is their Rating. If they would only partially aid you, add half your Asset’s value as Strike. In addition, once per Sequence per point of Asset you have, you can gain an Edge on a single action that you would apply your full Strike against.
Bonds give you a +X bonus to all rolls when applied against the subject of your Bond, where X is their Rating. When you act against or on behalf of the subject of your Bond, you can apply Strike X AND Guard X to all conditions you face for one round. You can do this a number of times equal to your Bond Rating per Story.
Wards give you Guard X against any effect that would cause you to violate your Ward, where X is its Rating. If you intentionally violate your Ward, you suffer a -X Complication, where X is the strength of your Ward. Wards so violated are out of commission for the rest of the Story.
Characters have between 3 and 7 Wounds, or none if the GM desires it. A character can spend a Wound as a Minor Action once per Scene to regain 1/5 of their Health immediately. Characters may spend Wounds at will outside of combat. Characters with 0 Health are KOed and can’t take Major or Minor actions. Characters who take damage at 0 Health lose a Wound instead of Health. Characters reduced to 0 Wounds are killed when reduced to 0 Health, and characters with 0 Health who are reduced to 0 Wounds through damage are also killed.
Potency is your all-day supernatural ability. Potency determines the Power of your Foci, and the likelyhood of your Purviews functioning. Characters with high Potency can use multiple powers at once, and their abilities are stronger throughout the day. Characterws wtih lower Potency are unable to use supernatural abilities well without expending Mana, or even at all!
Purviews are the broad sets of ability your character has. Every Purview contains one or two Knacks and five specific functions of that Purview. Purviews include things like Fire, Mechanics, Mind-Control, Lightning, and the like. Purviews are often draining and take time to use. Characters with more Purviews are able to control more aspects of magic, and are thus more flexible. Characters with fewer Purviews will find themselves unable to do much outside of their mundane abilities, except in combat.
Foci are the narrow abilities your character has. They faster to use than Purviews, and function differently. Major Foci are used as a Major Action, and do something immediate and useful. Often, their effectiveness is based on your current Potency. Minor Foci are used as a Minor Action, and generally last until you choose to stop using them. However, they reduce your Potency as long as they’re active, including the turn you use them and the turn afterwards. Characters with many Foci have more tactical choices in combat, and can approach fights differently, even exploiting enemy weaknesses. Characters with few Foci will find themselves relying on Attack actions and without many choices in combat.
Mana is your pool of supernatural energy you can tap into to fuel your abilities. You can spend up to 1/5th of your Mana as a Free Action, and you improve your Potency by that amount until the end of your turn. However, if you do not use a Major Foci that turn, your Potency increase instead lasts until the end of the Scene, until you use a Purview, or you use a Major Foci, whichever comes first. Characters with large amounts of Mana will be able to push themselves that much farther when needed, while characters with little to no Mana will often get into sticky situations without the Mana needed to brute-force out of them.