July Contest: 4th Of The Edition

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > July Contest: 4th Of The Edition

1337JiveTurkey: Feb 17, 2005

I dunno if I'll have the time to get this done by the end of the month, but I've got sort of the basic ideas hashed out:

Psychic powers people use intuitively instead of magic. It's not always clear where to draw the line between plain old talent and psychic powers.
The basic six stats still exist but are defined in a way that makes them applicable to most classes. A strong psychic may not be muscular but has a knack for smashing the crap out of stuff. High dexterity characters are more subtle, whether it's sneaking or illusion.
Higher ability scores affect how often can use abilities related to that stat rather than simply how powerful it is. So a stronger character doesn't deal more damage but they can shove an opponent as part of an attack more times per day.
Bonuses either always apply or cost resources so players only hunt for bonuses when they think it's worth the cost.
Everything uses HP as a measurement of plot persistence. Character abilities can reduce a challenge's HP rather than relying on simple binary resolution. Powers can have additional advantages and disadvantages over skills but still work with HP.
No separate check to see whether an attack hits or misses before determining whether to do damage. All attacks hit but defenses may reduce the amount of damage that the target takes.
Status effects are based on overcoming HP thresholds. Powers that have battle-ending effects work like Power Word: Kill but with a much smaller randomly determined threshold similar to a normal attack.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 07:10

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:10

1337JiveTurkey: Feb 17, 2005

So as a short update:

Went with the six stats as pseudo-classes. Having numbers for everything and making all distributions equally valid is just not going to work. So instead of rolling for numbers the character picks one of Strength, Intelligence or Charisma and one of Dexterity, Constitution or Wisdom. The first three are considered to be active abilities and the second three passive. Powers can have 1-6 different stat-based effects. Characters using the power get the additional effects based on their stats. Sort of an abstract example would be:

Shield Bash
1 [W] damage
Str: Push target one square away from you
Cha: Ally adjacent to you or target can shift one square
Dex: May use this just before an adjacent enemy attacks an ally.
Wis: May use this instead of making a basic attack when an ability would let you make an extra basic attack.

So a Str+Dex character might knock an enemy back just before it attacks their ally. A Cha+Wis character might use the opening a warlord-type ally provides to help another ally to retreat. An Int+Con character really shouldn't bother with this ability, but it's more obvious than 4e.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 17:14

1337JiveTurkey: Feb 17, 2005

At this point it's pretty clear it's not going to be finished in time due to work.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 12:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > July Contest: 4th Of The Edition