Friday, we began to buy-back the Fight Dice and Attack Bonus purchases and then allowed re-purchases of Fight Dice.
Fight Dice now are based on creature Frame, a new minor characteristic, with Human-sized creatures rolling d6s; smaller: d4s; and, larger: d8 or higher.
--There was a slight trend toward an increase in combat prowess as a result of the (FD# = +AB), but the cost of FD becomes pretty steep and I don't think anyone has more than 5FD, even though we have at least two 6th Magnitude characters.
---When a Strike is successful, the Attacker is entitled to add +1dx to Effect. Likewise when struck, +1dx to (as of yet not cleverly named) 'soak' (Armour) rolls.
Dynamic Pool: DP are now Dynamic Pool rather than merely Damage Pool, as DP empower Aberrations, Blood, and Powers.
Magnitude is the new replacement for Level, because I hate the confusion created by Level-this, level-that, level-down, level-up... Float those bubbles in the centre of the yellow window to assure everything is plumb. Ick.
--Magnitude gets a prominent 20-space track on the character sheet, with space to record purchased increases via the integrated Point-Design system. This will aid in tracking suppressed Magnitude from Undead and other debilitating effects, without resorting to 'level-losses' and concurrent 'HD'-loss.
Blood receives the promised integration with characters, and it becomes clearer that Blood, Abilities, Critical Tests, and Combat Data are all interrelated (and based on the modified Ability Scores)
--Still working out the Blood effects/mechanisms, but I hope it will more suitably gel with the setting-feel and the Psychedelia James Hargrove correctly identified as the perpetual soundtrack to the milieu.
Abilities re-named: Conviction, Psionic Index, Scope, Agility, Fighting, and Body. Discussion?
Aberrations & Powers: Ya'know, mutations and stuff like that. More at 11.
Environmental, Primary and Secondary Backgrounds: Tags that aid the Referee quickly gauge the capabilities of a character based upon their backstory and their geographic origins without resorting to game mechanisms. This is essentially the (Ability/Friend/Knack) stuff, expanded in pure narrative elements that provide a +1 or so to a governed action.
Training: Technical Skills (Secret, Silence, Tracking, Hack Spell, etc.), but I am thinking of condensing some of the Percentages into Bands of success --still in the werke-- and perhaps replaced with 2d12 rolls --dunno--
That's about it, so far.
I like the term magnitude to remove one more reference to level, which I think is something that causes alot of confusion in many games.
ReplyDeleteZzarchov: Thank you. :)
ReplyDelete--I plan on doing something similar with Magic.
Ya know, people new to your blog might not have a clue what you are posting about. A little context would be most appreciated.
ReplyDeleteOr am I just being dense?
Sounds interesting whatever it is.
Norman,
ReplyDeleteThe beta-release of Urutsk: World of Mystery was back in July, if memory serves.
--The link to the free beta .pdfs is listed in the right column of this blog, along with two reviews, feedback, and a very nice recommendation by a fellow game designer I admire.
Additionally, there are 7 previous months of posts listed to the right, totalling (with this month's so far) 161 posts.
--The Dragonsfoot Workshop link will take a reader to my initial planning and playtest campaign information.
Lastly, here is the current Urutsk list of pages on Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Urutsk&hl=en&sourceid=gd
Thanks! :D
I like the term "magnitude" better than "level" — in fact, I'm not a big fan of "level" as a measure of character expertise or power in any game. So, good change there.
ReplyDeleteI also like the sub-attribute "frame." It has a kind of aesthetic to it that seems befitting of Urutsk's alien nature.
James: I appreciate it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Timeshadows. I *was* being dense. And, now have lots of reading to do.
ReplyDeleteAnd rereading my post I can see it coming off as hostile/rude, sorry if it was taken that way. Wasn't my intention.
TS, what about Cognitive Index instead of Intelligence? I'm assuming that is what the Psionic Index is replacing.
ReplyDeleteI really really like agility. A lot.
What about these abilities: Influence, Certitude (or Intuition?), Cognition, Agility, Power, Physique (I like health here, too, or even wellness--although that sounds a day with a walk and no pizza). These are in the same order as the attributes on Page 13 of the Player's Beta document.
@Norman,
ReplyDeleteNo. Not at aall.
--I hope you find it to your liking. :)
@TRBA,
* Psionic Index is what I'd like, and it is in place of Wisdom. Scope is in place of Intelligence.
I'm thinking of dropping the Characteristics and instead simply printing in the text calling for a particular value BDY PM, or CNV 2M, as those are shorter and more succinct than Certitude, etc.
--But, the Critical Tests have been retained (incl. Health)
I'm glad you dig on Agility
--The new names are a direct result of the revelations I experienced while working on PBAM, and share the same names and much of the same operating system, as it were.