Home Brew RPG - Part 2

And here I am again continuing my little project.  Now last time I wrote I developed a set of Attributes to be used for a homemade RPG system.  Now like I did before everything I post on this is protected as my intellectual property and thus is copy righted by me, as of March 11, 2015.

So here we will be moving on to our next step now that we have a foundation in place.

Step 4:  Building a Structured Character

The foundation of a character is their attributes.  The scores are the framing and steel rebar while the stats are the cement that gives it all solidarity.  But now that there is a foundation there also has to be more, a structure that is on the foundation.

Of course the question is where to start on this.  Now in some games skills would be next, while in other it might be talents, traits, perks, feats, or whatever else you want to call them.

So what I’m going to do is run with working out skills.  But why skills?  Skills are the structure of a character telling you what it is you can do and how well you can do it.  Other things like traits, perks and more simply function as the aesthetics of a building; the windows, appliances and so on.

Now to figure out skills we need to now establish a mechanic for using dice.

Now to kick things off, for our dice we will start with a base of d6’s for things.  Now if a trait or the Intellect attribute upgrades a die then then there is room to do so.  On the other hand a downgrade would be limited to just a d4.

Now skills will have to function in some manner or another.  Skills will have levels that determine the number of dice a character will roll.  But how do you determine success and failure?

Now I mentioned before with Defense under the Agility Score you have to roll vs. the defense score to generate a success and that depending on what was being done a certain number of successes are needed.  But with the way how I’m figuring on working skills, that’s not going to work.  So we will go over the changes to Defense later…and I’ll have to update the previous blog entry.

But how to apply this to skills?  So let’s give this a try…

• To generate a success you have to roll a 4 or higher on your dice.  You need at least one success in order to successfully use the skill.
• Rolling a failure, or less than 4 does count against your successes.  Thus if you rolled six dice and have 3 successes and 3 failures your skill roll ultimately fails because you don’t have any successes.
• A critical success occurs when you have 2x more successes than you do failures.  A critical failure is the same.  Generating a critical success or failure can offer up positive or negative effects.
• Opposed rolls are also something that can occur.  Here both the character and an opponent roll dice and compare their respective successes.  The one with the most successes over the other succeeds.  In the event of a tie no progress is made for either and the two must make another roll.
• Certain attributes provide additional points which you can use to augment your skill rolls in order to succeed.  These do not form a total pool but instead are applied to their respective skills.  Thus if you have 3 successes and 3 failures you can put points into one of those dice to try and improve it to be a success.

Now skill bonuses provided by attributes need to have some restrictions.

• How often can they be used?
• How quickly do you recover their use?

So the idea here is that you can’t just spend points on any and every skill whenever you want.  Your pool lasts you the duration of an encounter, and the encounter’s length depends on the game master.  In a new encounter the bonus pool is resupplied.

Moving on from this we have the four levels of training for skills as provided by the character’s Intellect level.  Remember that these free levels of training can be applied to any skill and not just Intellect skills.

• Untrained:  So I am changing this from what I had originally.  Making a skill roll untrained is something anyone can do, but succeeding isn't going to be easy.  Rather than rolling a d6 per level in the skill, untrained skills roll as a d4 per level.  Also when and how a skill may be used can be restricted.  For example a character who is untrained in a medical related skill will not be allowed to do surgery regardless of their level in the skill; they just may be really good at first aid.
• Trained:  A trained skill uses a d6 for rolls rather than d4’s.
• Journeyman:  Buying a skill up to journeyman status allows you to roll a single die at 1 level higher than normal.  A d6 becomes a d8, or a d8 becomes a d10, and a d10 becomes a d12.  Some traits or other abilities may allow for skills to already be upgraded under certain conditions.
• Master:  Buying a skill up to master level allows for 2 additional dice to be upgraded one step.

A starting character should also be limited to having only “Trained” skills and nothing higher unless the GM permits this (as in the case of starting with a stronger character than normal).

Interpretation of a Roll

So a skill roll is applied/used when a situation would deem it necessary.  Skills are meant to be open for interpretation on what can be done with them based on what the GM allows and what the player is seeking to do.  In some game systems a difficulty score is set for different tasks that a character can perform.

For example, a kip-up is a martial arts move used to get to one’s feet quickly and without using your hands.  It’s a difficult trick to do and in games is meant to be a way of getting up without having to use a character’s actions. 

Now with rules like this one, you say what it is your trying to accomplish and a skill is assigned to that which best suits what you’re trying to do.  In this system you simply need to generate one success to succeed though if you have more than one success it’s even better.  Going back to our kip-up example, the player simply says that they want to get up quickly without wasting too much time to do so, thus standing up without having to use any actions to do so.

The GM may decide that a normal roll is all that is needed and that a single success generated is what will accomplish the task.  However the GM can also apply other circumstances to the roll to make it more difficult, like being surrounded, or attempting to do this on slippery ground.

Failing at using a skill can offer up penalties to a character depending on what is going on.  For example if you are hacking a computer and you fail your roll you run the risk of setting off alarms.  Another example being the kip-up; if you fail that roll you fail to stand and must spend an action to stand…though if you failed the roll badly enough (critical failure) you may even be denied the ability to stand.

Situational Modifiers

The GM at any time can apply situational modifiers to any and all skill rolls.  Negative modifiers simply increase the number of successes you need to generate in order to complete a task.  In some cases you may have a positive modifier too that grants you a modified roll making a task easier.  Modifiers also vary based on being in combat or out of combat and if certain actions are taken in combat.

Negative Modifiers (Non-Combat)

• No penalty for failing = 1 Success needed, a roll may not be needed but a roll could be used to determine how well one does.
• Minor penalty for failing = 2 successes needed.
• Moderate penalty for failing = 4 successes needed.
• High penalty for failing = 6 successes needed.
• Guaranteed penalty for failing = 8 successes needed.

Note that negative modifiers are based upon sources present that grant them, as such they can compound on each other.  The highest negative modifier sets the number of successes needed and each additional modifier then adds just 1 additional success needed.

Positive Modifiers (Non-Combat)

• Taking your time (doable if you can spare 2x the amount of time, or longer, to perform the task) = Reduce successes needed by 1.
• Extensive planning/rehearsing = Reduce successes needed by 1 per week spent planning/rehearsing.
• Right equipment = Reduce successes needed by 1 for having the right tools on hand.
• Assistance = Each person who helps you lowers the number of successes needed by 1.

Note that positive modifiers can never lower your required successes to less than 1.

Tasks And Minimum Successes

Some actions do require a minimum number of successes in order for a task to succeed, and are thus modified by situations from there.

• Melee Attacks:  These are vs. a character’s Defense.  Defense is marked as Active and Passive.  Passive Defense is where the character is unaware of an attack, and Active Defense is where you are actively moving around and attempting to evade harm.  Your Active Defense is equal to your Agility Score, while Passive Defense is half your Defense Score.
• Dodging:  There is always more you can do to evade harm, and dodging is the action you can take to do this.  Here you give up your ability to attack in favor of being harder to hit against any attack.  Dodging increases the number of successes needed by 2.
• Evade:  This is when a character is subjected to an attack that affects an area.  Evading an attack that targets an area requires an applicable skill roll.
• Ranged Attacks:  While these attacks are vs. a character’s Defense for number of successes needed to be generated , the range at which you are attacking and if a target is moving all make it more difficult to hit an opponent.
• Moving Characters:  Any character/target that is making use of a normal move action on their turn increases the number of successes needed by 1.
• Range Increments:  Range is based on the weapon being used, or the user’s Might Score if thrown.  However accuracy is more based upon the individual making the attack and the actual distance and less so on the weapon which mostly dictates how far out an attack can go.  Range increments also apply to one’s ability to sense or detect things happening around them.
• Adjacent/Close:  This is the range at which you can touch someone with your hand.
• Point Blank:  This is between Close range and around 10ft away.  Range does not impose penalties to attack rolls at this distance.
• Thrown:  A thrown weapon still applies to the same rules for determining additional successes.  Throwing range is based upon your Might score x 5 which shows how far you can hurl an object.
• Average:  This range is past point blank.  Usually this range is anywhere past 10ft and around 30ft away from the character.  Most normal firefights occur at this distance and attacks made have a +1 increase in required successes.
• Long:  This range is beyond the normal 30ft.  Attacks beyond his point see a +2 increase in required successes.
• Distant:  This is a range that is quite some distance from the person, though closer objects might still be somewhat visible, to see anything in detail or to see objects further out one would need special equipment.  Attacks here have a +4 increase in required successes.
• Extreme:  Extreme range is beyond any visual range of a person without some sort of enhancement.  This can be something like viewing an object miles away.  Any attack made at this range is likely to fail unless the weapon/attack can operate at extreme ranges, and the user has to have some sort of means of viewing at these ranges.  Even then an attack made at this range is going to suffer a +8 increase in required successes.
• Non-Combat Skill Use:  To start, skills vary in the amount of time needed to use them.  On average a skill roll requires a minimum of 1 success to be generated in order for a skill to be successfully used in a normal time frame as determined by the Game Master.  In many cases this is a task that can be completed as either part of an existing action taken by the character, or it makes use of more time.  Rushing a task is also possible with anything you do, but this can apply a negative modifier to the skill when rolled.

What are Skill Levels?

Skill levels determine how many dice you can roll when using a skill.  One level equals one die.  All skills start with at least 1 level in each.  You can then buy up your levels to a limit equal to your attribute for a certain cost.  Buying up levels past an attribute however will cost even more.  Thus you are not entirely limited in your levels by your attributes, they just make things cheaper to buy.

Regular “non-combat” skills will cost less than “Combat” skills.

But just what are these skills going to be?  Well let’s get to that then.

Non-Combat Skills (NCS)

These are skills that are used outside of combat situations typically.  They often require a degree of time to use that is not typically used in a combat situation, though this is not always the case like when using social interaction based skills.

Combat Skills (CS)

These are skills that are of course used in combat situations.  The skills require an action of some sort in order to use or in some cases the characters full turn to use.

Agility Skills

Acrobatics (NCS):  This skill is used when the character needs to perform a feat of agility involving movement or motion.  Standing up as a free action, jumping, or doing flips, all are acrobatic feats that one can perform.  If you cannot move then you cannot use acrobatics.

• Fast Stand:  You use the skill to quickly get to your feet.  A single success allows this to be possible, but environmental conditions can apply. 
• Jumping:  The distance you need to jump determines how many successes are needed.  Jumping 1 meter/3ft is fairly easy and needs only 1 success, but each additional increment of distance you need to jump will require an additional success.
• Movement Feat:  Acrobatics can be used to move over obstacles without losing one’s move action to do so.  The number of successes needed to do this is determined the same way as jumping.  And covers the area in which the character has to move through/across.

Sleight of Hand (NCS):  The skill is used to perform actions of hand-eye-coordination and subterfuge.

• Entertaining:  The skill can be used to entertain people.  The number of successes needed is dependent upon how difficult of a task you want to perform.
• Pickpocketing:  The skill is used to steal items that are on another person, or placing items on a person.  The roll is vs. the target’s ability to perceive their surroundings, and thus is an opposed roll.

Driving (NCS/CS):  This skill is used when operating a vehicle of some sort whether it’s one that operates on the land, water, or in the air.

Melee (CS):  The skill is used when making a melee attack.  This attack can be an unarmed strike, a strike with a melee weapon, or used for grappling.

Ranged (CS):  This skill is used when making a ranged attack with any ranged weapon or similar attack.

Intellect Skills

Craft (NCS):  The skill is used when attempting to make things whether it’s a table, a wicker basket, or metal working.  The skill roll mostly determines the degree of the craftsmanship put into the item.  When the skill is taken it needs to apply to a specific field of craftsmanship.

Computer Use (NCS):  The skill is used to build computers, or work with computers, hacking, programing and so on.

Decipher (NCS):  The skill is used to figure out codes, signals, combinations, or putting clues together to get a bigger picture.

Education (NCS):  The skill is used when making a roll regarding area’s of knowledge that came from being educated.  This is primarily affixed to non-scientific areas of knowledge.

Electronics (NCS):  This skill is used when working with electronic devices, whether its figuring out how it works, repairing it, upgrading it, or making something new for the first time.

Mechanics (NCS):  This skill, like electronics, allows the character to understand machines, how they work, how to make them, how to fix them.

Science (NCS):  The skill also functions in a similar manner to electronics and Mechanics, but dealing with mathematics, chemicals, physics, and so on.

Tactics (CS):  This skill is used to determine a course of action that would grant an advantage to either a single ally or a group.  Inversely it can be used to impose a hindrance to opponents instead.  For example the skill would be used to determine a strategy to outflank the opponent or to lure an opponent into a trap.

Reason Skills

Intuition (NCS):  The skill is used for picking up on things you are being told, finding the truth in lies, discerning nuances in mannerisms, and just plain out knowing if a person is lying.

Awareness (NCS):  The skill is used for finding things in ones environment from finding hidden doors, skulking persons, where the air is flowing from in a dark cave.

Presence Skills

Charm (NCS/CS):  The skill is used to alter a person’s attitude toward your character in a favorable way that does not involve the use of violence but one’s own charisma and presence.  The skill can be used in combat as a means of attempting to talk down opponents, or talk them out of a course of action.

Intimidate (NCS/CS):  This skill is a skill that can be used instill fear into people through the use of physical or mental manipulation that involves instilling fear into the person.  The skill can involve causing an opponent to run away, surrender, give up information, or act recklessly due to being afraid.

Persuade (NCS):  This skill is used to get a person to do something for you that involves making a compelling statement or argument.  For example, negotiating for a hostage taker to surrender, or for someone to do you a favor are aspects of persuades use.

Attribute Bonuses

So as a finishing note on this I will hit on the bonus to skills given by attributes.  Basically an attribute (except for Might) will grant a bonus to some skill rolls in the form a pool of points.  These points are spent only for each group of skills that are associated with the attribute.  You then assign these points to grant a +1 per point to a single die roll.  You can assign all of these points to a single die or distribute them to multiple dice.  The limitation is that points cannot be spent to increase a roll above a 4 (what is needed to generate a success).  Thus if you have a 3pt bonus and you roll 4 skill dice and get a 4, 2, 1, and 6, you could add the 3 pts to increase the 2 up to a 4 and the 1 up to a 2.