In any case, before I start waxing philosophical, the point is that I've been looking at a lot of systems in my development of what I call the "Scions Engine".
First and foremost, I wanted to keep it simple. In the eternal words of George Cassie, no one likes book keeping. I wanted to keep stats at a minimum, not have a real focus on "leveling up" so much as "growing stronger". When the goal is to actually complete a task, rather than to just meet the next level, I think you are able to focus so much more on the actual task. Step one was to create a system that was level free, in a way, that focused on the gradual build up into a more powerful character.
Further, I wanted a system that relied heavily on the action first, and the stat second. There are no skills for that very reason. You don't walk up to a magic ball and say, "oh man, look how magic it is, I wanna roll arcana all over that shit." Thus, the goal with Scions was to have people approach the ball and say, "I want to know if it is magic or not." "Well, roll Spirit." The job of taking the players in and out of the mechanic and narrative should lie, at least in my opinion, almost solely with the GM. So, step two was to put something together that relied very heavily on open ended decisions.
Some other determining factors included my personal love for the d20 and the simplicity, and therefore elegance, in many ways, of its probabilities. Any one number has 5% of being achieved. Boom. Done. Making a one a minimum and a twenty a maximum just seemed so easy and clear to me. That took a big part out of the development, but I knew I wanted something more. There are a ton of d20 games out there, but why not make it something more.
That was where the systems of fate and apocalypse world really loaned something to the system, in my mind. That truly failing would have it's consequences really resonated with me. The failure shouldn't always only be that you don't get what you want. Sometimes, you drop your keys in the sewer, or end up fucking your computer up when you're trying to fix it. On the other hand, there's not fun in punishment if there is no possibility for reward. Thus, I further liked the idea of introducing an opposing system for balance on the other end. A critical doesn't have to be only a critical. What's the real wonder of max damage if you can just max out your damage on a normal roll? That's where the idea of boons and mishaps really grew. If you do something really well, great, you get something a little extra for it, icing on the cake. You mess it up, though, and you'll have to be ready to pay the price for taking a chance. A little bit of danger never hurt anyone.
When all was put together, the system sort of came into itself, with the help of some SIGNIFICANT beta testing, of course. I wanted a system with only 3 stats, one representing what I saw as the three traditional poles of the human(oid) character: Body (formerly brawn) for the physical, musculoskeletal form, Nerve (formerly reflex) for the nervous system and brain, and Spirit (formerly will) for the intangible, the personality and a sense of grace. This all comes originally from an old Japanese saying that translates loosely to the equivalent of the english "mind, body and soul", though it sounds much better in Japanese.
Body would control strong physical abilities, as well as overall hit points. Nerve focuses on reflexive abilities and skills requiring concentration. Spirit focuses on social skills and channeling divine ability, a center point of the Scions experience. Nerve would overpower Brawn by using powerful attacks at range to whittle down larger hit point pools. Spirit would overpower Nerve by inflciting armor piercing statuses. Brawn would overpower Spirit by battering otherwise fragile characters. It was like getting a gift, just what I'd always wanted.
Somewhere in the process, movement went away. In my mind, Nerve (which originally controlled movement) was too powerful, and moreso, in the 2 or 3 seconds it normally took you to actually finish a round in game time, a couple points here or there in a stat wouldn't actually drastically affect how well and quickly you could move. Instead, I settled on zones in the style I had seen in other games, though slightly modified. It actually came to me while watching an episode of Legend of Korra, where they are in the bending tournament. By utilizing 4 zones in any given combat (enemy front, enemy rear, ally front, ally rear) movement could be achieved more simply, as well as removing the necessity for a large scale map, while still facilitating its use, if you (like me) wanted to have them around. The decision really granted a sense of balance in the system, which really became a huge defining factor.
Balances are in turn based off of the above stats. Each stat has an associated defensive property. Body is responsible for determining hit points, which absorb damage. At any point, a character has a number of hit points equal to twice their body score. Nerve is responsible for Defend, which blocks physical attacks from hitting. Defend is equal 10 plus the Nerve modifier. Spirit is responsible for Resistance, which prevents powers from making contact. Like Defend, Resistance is equal to 10 plus the Spirit modifier. Modifiers are determined with a simple formula, where the modifier is equal to the stat divided by 5, rounded down, while any stat under ten is a zero modifier, and any under 5 is a negative 1 modifier.
Last but not least came Favor, the last portion of the game truly in development. Favor, which is a resource/currency representing how well liked you are by your personal Patron deity, was always a part of the game, but development had remained fluid with it for the duration. Through the course of testing, having different abilities have different costs really became a defining factor of what it meant to players and GM alike. In its current state, it rolls out like this, no pun intended:
- Spend 1 to get a minor hint or to empower a roll (details are included in more depth in the rules).
- Spend 2 to get a reroll on anythying or introduce a narrative point of their choosing
- Spend 3 manifest your Patron in physical form, or get an immense boon to the rest of the conflict
Furthermore, at any point, a player can spend the associated amount of favor to permanently gain a new power, which is listed on the power spread sheet.
Favor is granted for the completion of tasks, especially those directly associated with the personal goals of your Patron. It is not always given evenly, though it often should be, and it can be lost in rare cases. It is a coveted resource, and players will have to weigh carefully when to use what abilities.
After all is said and done, a character sheet for a Scions character can be kept quite compact, easily fitting with little issue on a single index card. Spaces will list name, race and patron, the most determining factors of a character's identity in the game. Next, there will be columns for Body, Nerve, and Spirit, with a space for the modifier (eg, Body 20 [B 2], where modifiers are denoted with a capital letter beginning the stat). Then, there will be spots for keeping tack of hit points, defend and resistance, followed by Favor. The card should end with a list of powers and traits.
Any one character, complete from scratch, is created with just a couple decisions. The GM should offer the players a number of stat points to freely distribute between the three stats. Players creating characters of the Last race will receive all free stat points, while the other races will start with some of their points pre-allocated. The maximum number of stat points at start is truly useful in creating monsters. You simply give the monsters the same number of stat points, and then allocate some negative traits if you want to nerf them a bit, so as to throw them around at larger quantity, or positive traits if you want to make them bosses. These enemy specific traits are located in an index in the GM chapter of the rules.
With stat points comes starting Favor. Any one character begins with a single power from their race as well as another from their Patron. On top of this, they will come preset with a set of three traits, two from race and one from Patron. Though these characters are largely complete and totally playable, it is up to the GM to determine how much further Favor the players have to further spend, if any at all. If they start with just one Favor, then their decisions are over at this point. However, starting them with 2 will give them the option of choosing another power or trait, while 5 will allow them to choose one second and one 3 level power. Players may also choose to spend none of this favor to instead have a safety net later on should a conflict get sticky. My personal recommendation is to start players with a number that is enough to get a power or two, but leaving them a little favor. At first this seems like charity, but then they realize that they have to make the decision to either take the power and only have 1 Favor left for a reroll, or to spend none of it in order to get an opportunity to call their god later.
This is only further complicated by the Fallen status, where a character with 0 favor must use 0 in place of their positive modifiers until they regain Favor. If a character spends everything they have at creation, it's going to be tough going for them for a while when they begin the game.
Whatever the case, creation should take no longer than players choosing what Race and Patron they would like. After that, the stats should fall into place rather quickly. The last step of all of them is for the player's to introduce their characters. This step can be much more important than it often is in other games, as a player's narrative choices will determine 2 other starting traits that are integral to how their character will run. Perhaps you have a Tethari assassin who now works as a doctor to make amends for what they have done. It would be important for them to be able to play that out via their character, so it would be prudent at character creation to grant them a trait that boosts their ability to recognize and stabilize disease. You have a Kholibar that's worked in a mine their entire life? Give them a trait that will boost their dark vision, maybe, or their understanding of rocks and minerals. These traits should all relate to rolls. Very specific boosts should grant large bonuses to rolls in their subject (+5?) while very general ones should offer smaller bonuses, for the sake of balance. These introductions are also, of course, crucial for setting the tone of the adventure.
With the introductions completed, that's that. You're ready to go. Player's who have had a chance to peruse the material beforehand should take no longer than 30 minutes to complete character creation. Some will finish in just moments. Players shouldn't have to absorb themselves entirely in the reading material in order to enjoy it. The GM is the rules; they offer the rulings, determine who rolls what, keep the flow of the story going.
The ultimate goal in making a so called "Scions Engine" was to make it pick up and play. One person with one copy should be able to start a game for a group of their friends with minimal preparation on the spot. The math, the character creation, everything is simplified for the sake first and foremost of introducing challenge through narrative and conflict, but not through an inability to recall and count. I have some faith that such a system is what I have achieved.
- Robert
For the movement/positioning stuff, you might be interested in the "Conflict Action Map" from Ancient Odysseys.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be neat to post a couple sample characters as well.