[STaRS] a few questions on the system

[JeenLeen]

I'm planning on running a game using STaRS, made by our own Grod the Giant. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?361270-STaRS-the-Simple-TAbletop-Roleplaying-System-5-0) I'm running a supers game, kind of between Marvel's mutants and Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/) in flavor.

For him, or anyone else, who has tried a game with it, I had a couple questions:

1. When does Physique come into play for determining physical damage? From one reading, it seems like you roll to hit, and your success/flourishes determine how much damage is done (or 0 damage on fumble/fail). But if that's the case, Physique is left out. I could see rolling once to hit, and then again for damaging. Do you only use Physique if you aren't attacking with a weapon or power?

2. If you are rolling to Complicate or Aid, and you Step Up (or down), how does that impact things?

3. If someone has a power to infuriate someone they focus on, making them target the user (think tank-aggro), should the player have to roll Will to succeed? Or would that depend on how powers are used in a given game?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Eeee someone's using my system! :smallbiggrin: Let me know how it goes!

For a supers game, I'd recommend a default scale along the following lines:

-1: Civilian
Base: Badass Normal (ie, Batman)
+1: Low Superhuman (Spiderman)
+2: Medium Superhuman (the Thing)
+3: High Superhuman (Superman)


1. When does Physique come into play for determining physical damage? From one reading, it seems like you roll to hit, and your success/flourishes determine how much damage is done (or 0 damage on fumble/fail). But if that's the case, Physique is left out. I could see rolling once to hit, and then again for damaging. Do you only use Physique if you aren't attacking with a weapon or power?
Physique determines the basic scale of your melee attack-- how many steps up or down from human default it is. If you've Stepped Up your Physique once, all your melee attacks are also Stepped Up, as if you'd bought a Martial Boost.


2. If you are rolling to Complicate or Aid, and you Step Up (or down), how does that impact things?
Hmm, I knew I forgot something in the rules...

If you're one or more Steps down from the task's difficulty, you fail.
If you're one Step up, you automatically succeed, and roll as though you had a rank of 10 to determine Flourishes
If you're two Steps up, you automatically succeed with the maximum number of Flourishes (3).

It'd also be reasonable to rule that each Step Up for something like Aid, where a duration is involved, doubles the number of rounds the benefit lasts.


3. If someone has a power to infuriate someone they focus on, making them target the user (think tank-aggro), should the player have to roll Will to succeed? Or would that depend on how powers are used in a given game?
You could rule otherwise, but I'd say yes. It's a reasonably-resistible kind of effect, and success or failure has definite consequences.

[JeenLeen]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm looking forward to playing it. The idea of PCs rolling everything is nice, and I like how easy it is to make NPCs. We've mainly done D&D 3.5, Mutants & Masterminds, and White Wolf, so this is a new system I'm interested in trying it.

So, for Physique, your actual rank in Physique doesn't actually come into play with how much damage you do, correct? How much damage you do would be based off agility/dexterity (depending on attack type) and flourishes?

Makes sense for Complicate/Aid. On a similar note, if I had a NPC who was a Step above the PCs and using a complicate action, would it automatically hit them but they roll to see how long the duration is?

[Grod_The_Giant]

So, for Physique, your actual rank in Physique doesn't actually come into play with how much damage you do, correct? How much damage you do would be based off agility/dexterity (depending on attack type) and flourishes?

Makes sense for Complicate/Aid. On a similar note, if I had a NPC who was a Step above the PCs and using a complicate action, would it automatically hit them but they roll to see how long the duration is?
Correct and correct.