Announcing Draft 6. Page count: 20.
The biggest addition to this one is the Alternate/Optional Rules section. Things including: rolling character attributes (something I'm personally not a fan of, but recognize that many are), movement rules, simplifying the rules, cover and flanking.
On another note: I've signed up to GM 2d6 at the Recess in NYC. http://nerdnyc.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=25
They're already full so I'm only signed up as a sub if anyone drops out, which I hope they do!
I've also made some unique business cards with an equally interesting business card holder.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Catica: the eve of battle
Things have been rather crazy at the wench bench lately. Eric, a promising young member of the Flayers interrupted the party with turning into a werewolf. Fortunately he was cut down quickly and was unable to infect anyone.
Ariel, an ambitious and attractive frost mage eyes the opening of a Lieutenant's position and is willing to do most anything for the job, including using her powerful magics to cool the drinks of her superiors. Bob and Garrett sent her to find out more about the lycanthrope and about the mysterious red shards Bob found in those pesky rats. Ariel knows of a similar kind crystals that come in pairs and resonate with each other, allowing for communication and remote control, though those crystals are extremely rare and are never this small.
Drool, searches the sleeping drunks and finds a small egg in a man's pocket. She thinks that it could hatch into a small lizard and maybe even a miniature Dragon, something that the wealthy often put collars on and name BoBo.
As the ashes of Eric were scattered to the wind, a Dwarven fellow came into the small inn, bringing with him a dozen huge wooden crates that stunk up the entire building making the wenches very unhappy. Drool opened a crate and recognized the contents to be humanoid remains that were stewing with raw necromantic energy. The problem with a product like this is even though the flesh carries a substantial amount of raw energy which can be crafted into many many things, is that the energy dissipates quickly and will become useless in a weeks time. And nobody really knew who they were supposed to sell the stuff to. So the stuffed all but one smelly crate in a warehouse, and called upon a few experts for their opinion and hopefully purchase of the meat.
A flying origami bird found it's way to the wench bench. It came bearing a message, a ransom note for Nog, with Nog's pin attached to it. After visiting a party store and finding out where Drool keeps her money (you do NOT want to know), Bob and Drool found themselves at the residence of an eldery Wizard named Sax.
Sax is a dealer in fine Magical artifacts, his store is held in his residence and only those who know that it is infact a store would know so. Just the way he likes it. Sax takes a sniff at the paper, and trades one crate of nasty dead things and a night with Mindy, and tells you that it came from the Adventurers' guild.
The group scout out the guildhall. It is a stone building that is three stories tall, with barred windows on the first floor. A mostly forgotten temple, made of the same stone sits next to the hall, they ask for a prophecy from the elderly Cleric who tells them that 'Goodness' is what has Nog and that goodness is their enemy.
The Flayers gather in the basement of the wench bench and start planning. Garrett secretly plans to kill Nog and blame it on the chaos of battle, leaving himself as Master Flayer, and also eliminating that pesky guild once and for all.
Ariel, an ambitious and attractive frost mage eyes the opening of a Lieutenant's position and is willing to do most anything for the job, including using her powerful magics to cool the drinks of her superiors. Bob and Garrett sent her to find out more about the lycanthrope and about the mysterious red shards Bob found in those pesky rats. Ariel knows of a similar kind crystals that come in pairs and resonate with each other, allowing for communication and remote control, though those crystals are extremely rare and are never this small.
Drool, searches the sleeping drunks and finds a small egg in a man's pocket. She thinks that it could hatch into a small lizard and maybe even a miniature Dragon, something that the wealthy often put collars on and name BoBo.
As the ashes of Eric were scattered to the wind, a Dwarven fellow came into the small inn, bringing with him a dozen huge wooden crates that stunk up the entire building making the wenches very unhappy. Drool opened a crate and recognized the contents to be humanoid remains that were stewing with raw necromantic energy. The problem with a product like this is even though the flesh carries a substantial amount of raw energy which can be crafted into many many things, is that the energy dissipates quickly and will become useless in a weeks time. And nobody really knew who they were supposed to sell the stuff to. So the stuffed all but one smelly crate in a warehouse, and called upon a few experts for their opinion and hopefully purchase of the meat.
A flying origami bird found it's way to the wench bench. It came bearing a message, a ransom note for Nog, with Nog's pin attached to it. After visiting a party store and finding out where Drool keeps her money (you do NOT want to know), Bob and Drool found themselves at the residence of an eldery Wizard named Sax.
Sax is a dealer in fine Magical artifacts, his store is held in his residence and only those who know that it is infact a store would know so. Just the way he likes it. Sax takes a sniff at the paper, and trades one crate of nasty dead things and a night with Mindy, and tells you that it came from the Adventurers' guild.
The group scout out the guildhall. It is a stone building that is three stories tall, with barred windows on the first floor. A mostly forgotten temple, made of the same stone sits next to the hall, they ask for a prophecy from the elderly Cleric who tells them that 'Goodness' is what has Nog and that goodness is their enemy.
The Flayers gather in the basement of the wench bench and start planning. Garrett secretly plans to kill Nog and blame it on the chaos of battle, leaving himself as Master Flayer, and also eliminating that pesky guild once and for all.
Grenades, Hordes, and Armor
Before I didn't have any rules for grenade type things, and I'm working on it. My idea is that the item will have it's own attack/damage stats and different things can have different effects. Such as some kind of grenade that makes them fall unconscious will have the status effect 1 or 2 power, with adding modifiers on the size of the room at GM discretion.
I've been thinking about how to run a mass battle type of thing because of the upcoming raid on the adventurer's guild in Catica. And I've come up with a few ideas.
1. Just use narratives. Since both sides have a bunch of minions and a handful of actually competent people, it would be easy to simply say, "Ok, this group of people and this group of people are busy fighting each other while the heroes are locked in an epic one on one fight in the middle.
2. Each minion on that side's initiative rolls 1d6 (all at the same time obviously), add up the number of 6s and that's how many minions/heavy wounds they have dealt as a group. This way is nice because it makes the battle a bit more quantifiable in terms of which group is winning and losing. However, it does take time, and if the heroes of a side win, it doesn't matter much which group of minions is left standing.
3. This one doesn't work as well with what I have planned for the next game but it is something I'm definitely going to play around with either in the playtesting group or on my own. Treat the horde as a single monster, but with a few differences. Give them a ton of health points (which in this system is like 10) which isn't necessarily representing 10 minions, each health point could be 2 or even three if your super heroic and can toss orcs like Gandalf. And give the horde a damage and/or attack bonus based on the number of HP they have left. It makes them incredibly scary at the beginning but as the battle wears on, they become much less so. I need to play with the numbers before deciding were the balance is with this one.
Armor and Mages: I wanted to have something to discourage a mage from wearing heavy plate armor. But I didn't want it to not be possible for there to be a fighter character or ranger type that can use both. So now light armor takes a -1 attack penalty to magic attacks, and heavy takes a -2.
I've been thinking about how to run a mass battle type of thing because of the upcoming raid on the adventurer's guild in Catica. And I've come up with a few ideas.
1. Just use narratives. Since both sides have a bunch of minions and a handful of actually competent people, it would be easy to simply say, "Ok, this group of people and this group of people are busy fighting each other while the heroes are locked in an epic one on one fight in the middle.
2. Each minion on that side's initiative rolls 1d6 (all at the same time obviously), add up the number of 6s and that's how many minions/heavy wounds they have dealt as a group. This way is nice because it makes the battle a bit more quantifiable in terms of which group is winning and losing. However, it does take time, and if the heroes of a side win, it doesn't matter much which group of minions is left standing.
3. This one doesn't work as well with what I have planned for the next game but it is something I'm definitely going to play around with either in the playtesting group or on my own. Treat the horde as a single monster, but with a few differences. Give them a ton of health points (which in this system is like 10) which isn't necessarily representing 10 minions, each health point could be 2 or even three if your super heroic and can toss orcs like Gandalf. And give the horde a damage and/or attack bonus based on the number of HP they have left. It makes them incredibly scary at the beginning but as the battle wears on, they become much less so. I need to play with the numbers before deciding were the balance is with this one.
Armor and Mages: I wanted to have something to discourage a mage from wearing heavy plate armor. But I didn't want it to not be possible for there to be a fighter character or ranger type that can use both. So now light armor takes a -1 attack penalty to magic attacks, and heavy takes a -2.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Draft 5
Draft number 5 is here. Page count: 17 It annoys me when my boxed in things get split between two pages, so that every draft I have to space things out a bit differently. That's what all the pretty pictures will be for :)
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Daggers' names.
When you join the Daggers, you not only give your life to them, but also your identity. All new recruits must relinquish their names and take on their assigned number. Numbers do not exceed three digits, and a new recruit acquires the highest number that is not taken. (So if number 26 dies or is named, then the next to be numbered takes 26 even if there are only 300 Daggers with numbers). The numbers mean nothing, though a few Daggers try to expedite or delay their initiation to get certain numbers.
There are others, though that have names that are not numbers. These names are prized, and it is an honor to be given a name. Certain names are more prestigious than others. The only way one gets a name is by inheritance. A name is like a piece of property, it is something that you give to someone. The receiver of a name also inherits much of the reputation associated with the name, especially with those outside the Daggers who may not realize this tradition. Everyone's will is a secret, written in a book with magic weaved within it's pages so that the writing only appears after death.
Names come and go, and rise and fall within the ranks. The current high names are- Hawk, Talon, Spider, Jagged, Blade and Spark.
The only way someone can inherit more than one name is if multiple people with names die around the same time and did not have time to re-assign their name to someone else and they both had planned on giving their names to the same person. In this case the receiver take on both names, and can choose to give the names to multiple people or simply combine the names into one (ie. ShadowLark).
There are others, though that have names that are not numbers. These names are prized, and it is an honor to be given a name. Certain names are more prestigious than others. The only way one gets a name is by inheritance. A name is like a piece of property, it is something that you give to someone. The receiver of a name also inherits much of the reputation associated with the name, especially with those outside the Daggers who may not realize this tradition. Everyone's will is a secret, written in a book with magic weaved within it's pages so that the writing only appears after death.
Names come and go, and rise and fall within the ranks. The current high names are- Hawk, Talon, Spider, Jagged, Blade and Spark.
The only way someone can inherit more than one name is if multiple people with names die around the same time and did not have time to re-assign their name to someone else and they both had planned on giving their names to the same person. In this case the receiver take on both names, and can choose to give the names to multiple people or simply combine the names into one (ie. ShadowLark).
Catica-History
The city of Catica was founded by the great mage Dorian Catica. He used his magics to build a large square stone wall around the city, and planned the streets so that each block was a perfect square as well. It has been theorized that Dorian had obsessive compulsive tendencies, though mental illness and magery often goes hand-in-hand and is not that unusual. It has also been proposed that Dorian founded the mafribium as well as Catica city.
The curious thing about this city is it's location. Most cities grow around some well traveled place, like along a trade route so something like that. But Catica is build in the middle of the East Forest, with her farm land spaced between the trees and meadows of East Forest. Yet, despite it's obscure and hard to find location, it drew more and more people each year.
Long after Dorian Catica's disappearance the city had out grown it's square city walls and it was decided to erect a new city wall, this one circular as it is much more efficient. But they did not destroy her original wall. And to this day, the massive stone wall separates the highly organized inner city with it's haphazard outer city counterpart.
There are many ways to get through the inner wall other than it's original front gate, tall rickety wooden ladders are dotted around the walls, though climbing them can be somewhat dangerous if someone who does not like you (which in this city is almost anyone) spots you. There are many hidden doors, which is very valuable information to have. The Daggers own many of those secrets, though with the escape of Garrett, several of those doors have become used by the Flayers as well.
The city does not see many new comers or travels these days. In it's state of chaos it is no wonder why. And it has become exceedingly difficult to leave. Even news from outside Catica and her farms is hard to get without the help of a mage.
Not much else is known about the history of Catica, many of the libraries have been burned and any surviving books are heavily guarded by the mafribium.
The curious thing about this city is it's location. Most cities grow around some well traveled place, like along a trade route so something like that. But Catica is build in the middle of the East Forest, with her farm land spaced between the trees and meadows of East Forest. Yet, despite it's obscure and hard to find location, it drew more and more people each year.
Long after Dorian Catica's disappearance the city had out grown it's square city walls and it was decided to erect a new city wall, this one circular as it is much more efficient. But they did not destroy her original wall. And to this day, the massive stone wall separates the highly organized inner city with it's haphazard outer city counterpart.
There are many ways to get through the inner wall other than it's original front gate, tall rickety wooden ladders are dotted around the walls, though climbing them can be somewhat dangerous if someone who does not like you (which in this city is almost anyone) spots you. There are many hidden doors, which is very valuable information to have. The Daggers own many of those secrets, though with the escape of Garrett, several of those doors have become used by the Flayers as well.
The city does not see many new comers or travels these days. In it's state of chaos it is no wonder why. And it has become exceedingly difficult to leave. Even news from outside Catica and her farms is hard to get without the help of a mage.
Not much else is known about the history of Catica, many of the libraries have been burned and any surviving books are heavily guarded by the mafribium.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Rules updates
So, we learned a few things about the system during the game.
1) Racial attributes will change from having a +1 and -1 in specific attributes to having a +1 and -1 in specific categories. For example- Mark's Half-orc will have a +1 in physical, and a -1 in mental making his array 6/4/2. The math works out the same and it eliminates the problem of not having negative stats.
2) All weapons will be classified as Light, medium, or heavy. Light weapons have a +1 attack, and -1 damage, medium have no changes, and heavy have -1 attack, +1 damage
3) Shields- I didn't have any rules for shields until now. Now if you have a shield you have one more point in the melee defensive combat style than you would have without a shield. Shields provide no armor bonuses.
4) Flatfooted/Surprise attack. Not sure what I'll name this, but when you catch an enemy by surprise, they loose their dexterity from their defense score for that attack
Tim and I are going to try to create an Excel program that allows one to see the chances of getting hit and damaged under different circumstances. It's a bit too complicated for me, but Tim is good with that stuff and thinks we can pull it off. It should be pretty cool.
1) Racial attributes will change from having a +1 and -1 in specific attributes to having a +1 and -1 in specific categories. For example- Mark's Half-orc will have a +1 in physical, and a -1 in mental making his array 6/4/2. The math works out the same and it eliminates the problem of not having negative stats.
2) All weapons will be classified as Light, medium, or heavy. Light weapons have a +1 attack, and -1 damage, medium have no changes, and heavy have -1 attack, +1 damage
3) Shields- I didn't have any rules for shields until now. Now if you have a shield you have one more point in the melee defensive combat style than you would have without a shield. Shields provide no armor bonuses.
4) Flatfooted/Surprise attack. Not sure what I'll name this, but when you catch an enemy by surprise, they loose their dexterity from their defense score for that attack
Tim and I are going to try to create an Excel program that allows one to see the chances of getting hit and damaged under different circumstances. It's a bit too complicated for me, but Tim is good with that stuff and thinks we can pull it off. It should be pretty cool.
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