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View Full Version : Original System Red-shirt. A system for mass produced characters that die easily.



Evoker
2017-11-03, 01:53 PM
This is a home-brew system that I developed with the intention of using it to run hilariously lethal games and adventures e.g. Grimtooth's Traps. It is very experimental, and balance will likely be an issue. I would appreciate the community's input on this.

Character Creation.

Characters in Red-shirt are represented by 3 statistics, a class, and equipment.

The statistics are Strength, Agility, and Willpower. Strength is used for attacking in close combat, and for defending against attacks. Agility is used for attacking in ranged combat, defending against attacks, and locating and disarming traps. Willpower is used when activating magical abilities, and when defending against magical attack. Statistics will take damage in combat. If any one of your statistics reaches zero or lower, that character is dead. To generate stats, roll 1d6 in order, or organize one of the following arrays as you see fit: 4,3,3. 5,3,2. Then, choose a class.

Classes provide stat adjustments, gil(money), and abilities in some cases.


Fighter. Fighters are the simplest class, having no special ability other than a large amount of stat adjustments, and the most money. +2 to Str, +1 to Agi. 10 gil.

Thief. Thieves are the second most simple class, as they get less stat plusses and money in exchange for the ability to locate and disable traps. +2 to Agi, Trap finding, 6 gil.

Wizards. Wizards are the most complex of the three classes, getting the least money and stat adjustments, in exchange for two magical abilities. +1 to int, 2 magic abilities, 4 gil.

Magical Abilities. Wizards are allowed to choose two of these. They range from utility to damaging abilities. Abilities denoted with a number of uses can only be used that many times per adventure. Using a magical ability in combat uses that characters chance to attack that round.


Sense Magic: This ability allows the user to automatically detect any magic traps. In addition, it can be used to determine whether or not a given enemy has magic abilities themselves or not.

Magic dart: This ability allows the user to make a magic attack. It gives no modification to their Willpower when attacking. 3 uses

Will Blast: This ability allows the user to make a magic attack. It multiplies their Willpower by two when attacking. 1 use.

Heal: This ability allows the user to restore Willpower/2 points to the statistics of another character, up to a max of their original value. 2 uses.

Charge attack: add Willpower -1 to the appropriate statistic for the next attack made by target character. 3 uses

Light: this character can generate light equivalent to that of a torch at will.

Equipment. A character may purchase as much equipment as they like, up to the maximum gil indicated by their class. Only one armor may be used at a time.


Dagger. Close weapon. subtract 1 from the roll of any character attacking with this weapon. 1 gil

Sword. Close weapon. no modification to the attacking character. 2 gil

Claymore. Close weapon. add 1 to the roll of any character attacking with this weapon. 4 gil

Bow. Range Weapon. subtract 1 from the roll of any character attacking with this weapon. 2 gil

Longbow. Range Weapon. no modification to the attacking character. 4 gil

Leather armor. Armor. Add one to any Str or Agi defense roll of the character using this. 3 gil

Metal armor. Armor. Add two to any Str defense roll of the character using this. 6 gil

Torch. Utility. Provides light. Usable only once. 3 for 1 gil

Healing potion. Utility. Restore 3 points to the users statistics, up to the original value. usable only once. 3 gil.

Example of character creation:
Wyatt is crating a character, and he uses the standard 4,3,3 array, putting his four into Agi and his threes into Str and Will. he chooses to create a thief, so he adds 2 to his Agi of 4, getting 6. he has no magical abilities, so he skips that step and moves on to equipment. He has 6 gil, so he spends two of it on a bow for his weapon. He then buys leather armor, and 3 torches with his remaining 4 gil. His character can be written as follows:
Str: 3, Agi: 6, Will: 3. Thief. Bow, Leather Armor, 3 torches.

Enemies: enemies in redshirt are represented by three stats, Str, Agi, and Will, along with any modifications to their attacks, any modifications to their defense, what type of attack they use, and any magical abilities they have. Enemies also have a number representing the approximate amount of characters that will be required to defeat it

Example monsters:

Goblin: Str: 3. Agi: 3. Will: 2. Attack: Close. Defense modifiers: None. Magic: none. Characters: 1/2
Orc: Str: 5. Agi: 4. Will: 3. Attack: Close +1. Defense modifiers: Str +1. Magic: none. Characters: 1
Orc Archer: Str: 4. Agi: 5, Will: 3. Attack: Range. Defense modifires: None. Magic: none. Characters: 1
Sorcerer: Str: 3. Agi: 3, Will: 4. Attack: Close -1. Defense modifiers: none. Magic: Heal, Magic Dart. Characters: 1
Demon: Str 6, Dex: 5, Will: 4. Attack: Close +1. Defense modifiers: Str +1, Dex +1. Magic: Magic dart. Characters: 2

Combat.

Redshirt uses a system of turn based combat.

First, determine initiative. Ranged weapon users always go before close weapon users. Magic attacks go before Ranged. Within Magic, Ranged and Close combat weapons, roll a d6 and add Agi. In the event of a tie, the character with the higher natural Agi goes first. in the event of equal Agi, resolve attacks simultaneously.

Next, make the attack roll. this consists of rolling a d6 and adding the appropriate stat(Str in the case of a close attack, Agi in the case of a ranged attack, and Will in the case of Magic attack) and any modifications for weapon or spell. Then, the character being attacked will make a defense roll, consisting of a d6 plus any modification for armor and their choice of Str or Agi if it is a non Magic attack, or Will in the case of a magic attack. If the defense roll equals or exceeds the attack roll, then the attack failed. Otherwise, subtract the difference from the stat used to defend. If this results in the stat hitting zero or lower, the character defending is dead. If the character defending survives, the damage is still permanent.

Finally, once all attacks have been resolved, move to the top of the initiative order and start again until all of the combatants on every side but one have been killed.

Example of combat. Bob is attacking a goblin. He is attacking with a sword, and he has a Str of 4. He rolls a 5 on his attack, so he has a total attack roll of 9. The goblin will defend with strength. Unfortunately, it rolls a 2. it adds 3 for it's strength, for a total of 5. The difference between it's defense and Bob's attack is 4, so the goblin takes 4 damage to it's Str. Unfortunately, that reduces it to -1 Str, so it dies.

Traps: When activated, traps make a single attack, then go dormant until triggered again. Traps can be detected and disarmed by thieves. Traps can be presented by three numbers and a type: Concealment, Disarm, and attack value. The type specifies whether it is magic or not. A wizard with the Sense Magic ability will automatically detect magical traps, and magic traps target Will instead of the target's choice of Str or Agi. Concealment is the number that a thief must reach on a roll of 1d6 + Agi to notice the trap if they declare that they are searching for traps. Disarm is the number that a thief must reach on a roll of 1d6 + Agi to disarm the trap if they are aware of it. Attack is the number that the trap adds to a roll of 1d6 when it is triggered as it's attack. Traps are triggered on a pre set condition EG: opening a door. In addition, if a disarm check is failed, the trap will trigger.

Example traps:

Arrow launcher: Con: 7, Dis: 7, Attack: 5. Non-magical
Gas burst: Con: 8, Dis: 8, Attack: 7. Non-magical
Magic Blast: Con: 7, Dis: 9, Attack: 7. Magical

So, what does the playground think?

JeenLeen
2017-11-03, 02:37 PM
I haven't thought deeply about the mechanics or balance between classes. At a quick glance, it looks legitimate.
However, what is the intent with the game? It sounds like a kinda fun tactical game where you have your team try to overwhelm some monsters, but it doesn't seem like it would work well for a tabletop RPG due to PCs dying too fast to really build a personality. Paranoia has a high death rate, but clones and the setting make that not really an issue. If you just have your one PC, it'll likely die so soon that attachment and fun (whether or not fun is keyed to attachment) will likely decrease. If you have several PCs controlled by one player, then that's a lot of math to deal with.

So I guess I'm asking if you can provide more details on how you expect the game to be played before I can give good commentary.

Nitpicks
About Light/Torches: you don't have rules about darkness or line-of-sight, so this seems ambiguous to meaningless at the moment.
I see no good reason that Healer can't heal the caster.
For the wizard stat adjustments, is "+1 int" meant to be +1 Willpower?

Knaight
2017-11-03, 03:34 PM
The big question after reading this is how everything but combat works. It's fine that the game is combat focused, but having at least something for everything else is pretty necessary.

The combat system as described also explicitly requires fighting to the last creature and thus prevents retreating completely. That might be worth changing.

Evoker
2017-11-03, 04:38 PM
The idea is that you would write dungeons and say: "This room is dark. If the players don't have any light, they risk falling into a pit" or something along those lines. The idea that I had was each player controls multiple characters. Also, it isn't done yet, this is just the bare bones. I want to include some way to improve characters, etc but first want to check with the fourm for any major issues.

Arte
2017-11-03, 04:58 PM
There was a 2e game likes this; Tomb of unspeakable horrors or something. I recall there was supposedly only one player who survived it and they named the spell after him, was it Tenser... I really can't recall.

But yea it was brutal and fun, good luck with this.

Evoker
2017-11-03, 05:32 PM
I just finished fleshing together a Level Up system.

Promotion:

Whenever you complete an adventure, you can choose one of your characters to be promoted to an Elite. If a character is promoted to an elite, it gains a name and one of the following three bonuses:

Three extra stat points to distribute as you choose

7 gil to purchase equipment with

One magical ability.

The unit also, if reduced to zero in any stat but one or more of your group survives the fight in witch that happened, will be restored to one in the appropriate stat.

You can choose to waive your ability to promote a character to an elite on one adventure. If you do so, then at the end of the next adventure, you may promote any Elite that participated in both adventures to a Hero. Promotion to a Hero gives the unit +1 to all stats, and one of the following bonuses

If the Hero is reduced to zero, at the end of the fight, assuming a unit survived, the stat is set to 3(or the max, whichever is lower) instead of one

The Hero can now find and disarm traps as a thief can

The hero can choose 2 new magical abilities.

What do you think on the promotion mechanic?

Doorhandle
2017-11-03, 05:51 PM
I haven't thought deeply about the mechanics or balance between classes. At a quick glance, it looks legitimate.
However, what is the intent with the game? It sounds like a kinda fun tactical game where you have your team try to overwhelm some monsters, but it doesn't seem like it would work well for a tabletop RPG due to PCs dying too fast to really build a personality. Paranoia has a high death rate, but clones and the setting make that not really an issue. If you just have your one PC, it'll likely die so soon that attachment and fun (whether or not fun is keyed to attachment) will likely decrease. If you have several PCs controlled by one player, then that's a lot of math to deal with.

So I guess I'm asking if you can provide more details on how you expect the game to be played before I can give good commentary.

Nitpicks
About Light/Torches: you don't have rules about darkness or line-of-sight, so this seems ambiguous to meaningless at the moment.
I see no good reason that Healer can't heal the caster.
For the wizard stat adjustments, is "+1 int" meant to be +1 Willpower?

I think it's more designed for meatgrinder, gamier dungeons where the focus is less on character and more on "will I survive this day?"
And frankly I'm very comfortable with that.

Evoker
2017-11-03, 06:23 PM
I think it's more designed for meatgrinder, gamier dungeons where the focus is less on character and more on "will I survive this day?"
And frankly I'm very comfortable with that.

Yeah. My original concept was a system that would work well to show off stuff like the tomb of horrors, whitefang peak(?), grimtooth, etc. I thought I might rework the dungeons to the simpler system for the purpose of allowing people to run it without the risk of losing characters their emotionally invested in.

Knaight
2017-11-05, 09:48 PM
The idea is that you would write dungeons and say: "This room is dark. If the players don't have any light, they risk falling into a pit" or something along those lines. The idea that I had was each player controls multiple characters. Also, it isn't done yet, this is just the bare bones. I want to include some way to improve characters, etc but first want to check with the fourm for any major issues.

If the game is explicitly for dungeons and the like (which is fine), it's worth explicitly declaring that as part of the major design. That makes the game's fundamental unsuitability for other types of games less important - although even in a dungeon it generally helps to have something for everything other than fighting.

Evoker
2017-11-06, 10:50 AM
Well, There is trap finding :smalltongue:

Grod_The_Giant
2017-11-06, 10:58 AM
Presumably you'd roll d6+stat for skill-type challenges, if applicable? d6+Str to climb a wall, d6+Agil to cross a tightrope, d6+Will to decode some obscure script, that sort of thing?

Evoker
2017-11-06, 01:46 PM
Sounds good!

jqavins
2017-11-06, 03:16 PM
Quick impressions:

The standard stat sets both add up to 10. Average on 3d6 is 10 1/2, so being average is impossible, but I'd be inclined to give PCs the benefit of an extra 1/2, so sets should add to 11. A minor point? Yes!
The starting gil seems a little low to me, but also a minor point. Consider a fighter, who has the most starting gil due to needing the most equipment. He'd like to have metal armor (6 gil), a sword (2 gil), a longbow (4 gil) and maybe torches and a healing potion or two. That's 12 gil without the torches and potions. OK, a starting character doesn't start with everything, but I think I'd give him 2 more gil to start, and probably the same for the others. Then the fighter could have the sword, armor and longbow, or trade down (leather armor and/or short bow) to get other stuff.
The promotion writeup is confusing. What's a unit? Are there only three levels a character can have?
The example CRs (for lack of a better term) seem a little low. I'm looking mainly at the sum of the stats, which approximates HP. If the PCs have 10, a CR 1 enemy should have about 10. They seem out of whack.
Last but the opposite of least, there is a major hole in the combat system. When a hit is successful, damage is taken against the stat used for defense. Fine, I won't defend myself; I'll roll the d6 and add nothing. The attacker hits far more often that not, but, since I didn't use a stat to defend, the damage goes nowhere. I win.

Knitifine
2017-11-06, 07:46 PM
You could just play 2nd Ed

Evoker
2017-11-06, 08:58 PM
in response:
1: Most of the time, when stat arrays are pre generated, the total aims low. Also, I think it's ok to give a little extra to anyone who risks getting some very low totals.

2: Ok, makes sense, except I don't see the reason for having more than one weapon. You can't attack twice if you have a ranged and melee weapon if that's what you were thinking?

3: Unit is a character. sorry that's confusing. Also, hero is indeed the max you can "Level Up" because that's not really the focus I had in mind.

4: OK. I should try to rebalance the monsters. how about 7, 5, 4 for the orc, 5, 7, 4 for the orc archer, 4, 4, 6 for the sorcerer, and 8, 5, 5 for the demon. I think the goblin's stats are good.

5: Ok, I meant to specify that you have to defend yourself with one of the stats.

Hope this address your concerns?