Artwork: Porphyry and Other Bits-

A well-fed (unlike certain Feierlandish fiends) character as rendered by the able hand of Jez 'Stanicore' Gordon for my PORPHYRY: World of The Burn supplement for T&T5 and MSPE.

I've got a rough .pdf of the document, but have found a few tweaks that need to be made to the text, omissions to be remitted, and other li'l bits of error to be expunged.  Then...off to LuLu for PoD copies before the North Texas RPG Con.

SALT is a light system I've been writing and gaming with for pickup/one-off games, and there is some talk of using it as the main system for Jeffrey Osthoff's ALLTERRA game.  One application I've put it to is for Natalie Bennett's desire to have a racing RPG, and am working on that in my spare time.

For those that read last post, I've settled on the Chart Look-up method for URUTSK: Space Age, and have recently run a game using it again (, after having taken a year off from it), with great speed and success.  VANGUARD, using a d6 die-pool, is still humming along nicely, especially after a major simplification, and I may be able to have a few copies available by time of departure for Dal/Ft.Worth area, this June.

Okay, see you on Google+.  :D

Development Question: U:SA-

URUTSK: Space Age-


In returning to the 2d12 task resolution system I have used for years with Urutsk (from the d6 Die Pool of Vanguard), I find that I want a bit more peculiarity in the results, and have been toying with a Doubles Add, Roll-Over (DARO), ported straight over from Tunnels & Trolls.  No doubt this is from my work on Porphyry, and seeing how much joy the occasional DARO brings to the beleaguered Players.  However, 2-24 expanded to an open-ended range presents new design considerations, namely, what are the implications of over achieving on a T# on the output of a Effect Roll?


In Porphyry, I've added the effect of half the difference of Ranged Combat adding to damage.  This seemed to work well in T&T, even with Ranged Combat modifiers included in the already high ranged weapon damages (firearms, and even arrows, kill in Porphyry).  Would this work as well in U:SA, and on technical Task Resolution, such as repairing a starship drive?  Reducing Time, finding Work Arounds/reducing the number of steps, and Improved Quality are all clear possibilities for use with the one-half Overachieve mechanism.


My Spectral Index mechanism is a feature that GMs and Players either enjoy, or hate, and I've come to learn that many find chart look-up a deal-breaker, even if only the GM ever needs to do so.  I'm certain that Overachievement can be substituted for the SI, but it also increases the maths needed to perform Task Resolution, possibly an even swap in look-up v. calculations.


Which do you prefer?  A GM chart, or Player maths?
--Why?


Lookining forward to your input.  :D