The tweaking continues! During the latest melee the need for some additional Hand to Hand skills was realized. Two skills were added: Combination Punch, Flying Kick or for the summary see:
Skills listing.
I think we are going to see a lot more skills popping into the Hand to Hand category. There is a lot of interest there lately. The bruise vs wound damage is working out really well.
Showing posts with label Skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skills. Show all posts
Friday, July 11, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Heirarchial Change in Melee Skills
Get ready because it here it comes. Melee skills are being reworked to have greater hierarchy and more flexibility. Essentially "Basic Melee" is being changed to a fundamental melee skill, levels of which determine how many combat actions you can take in a round. To gain greater chance to hit however you will invest your skills into specific weapon types: Blades, Simple Weapons, etc.
All of this came about because of a disagreement about to handle to changing weapons. I won't bore you with the specifics as its already been decided. Look to see the web pages updating over the next week or so.
PUCS - Percentile Universal Combat System
All of this came about because of a disagreement about to handle to changing weapons. I won't bore you with the specifics as its already been decided. Look to see the web pages updating over the next week or so.
PUCS - Percentile Universal Combat System
Monday, March 17, 2008
PUCS website launched over the weekend
The PUCS website went public over the weekend. The DRAFT 2 Rules are publicly available there, however editing continues and the final DRAFT 2 PDF has not yet been created. A whole lot has been changed with regard to magic especially. Play testing continues and I think that spells are going to be revised for potency and cost before the final DRAFT 2 is released.
So what changed? Mainly spells. Previously you could cast a spell as many times per day as you had skill level in the spell. There was also a calculation to determine how long it took you cast the spell in melee. It worked fine, but was still clunky in play testing and really slowed things down in melee. So it was scrapped.
Now Magic is casts per round of skill level in the spell. That a huge change. There remain many balance issues to work out between cost of the skill and potency. Some competing plans are:
There are others issues to work out too. If I cast spell X in melee, can I cast spell Y in the same round? Its a worthy question but not yet answered. If you let the cast switch up between spells in the same round you increase their effectiveness and potency considerable.
So please browse the rules at the PUCS web site and post any comments that you might have. I would like to hear what you think!
So what changed? Mainly spells. Previously you could cast a spell as many times per day as you had skill level in the spell. There was also a calculation to determine how long it took you cast the spell in melee. It worked fine, but was still clunky in play testing and really slowed things down in melee. So it was scrapped.
Now Magic is casts per round of skill level in the spell. That a huge change. There remain many balance issues to work out between cost of the skill and potency. Some competing plans are:
- Make magic much more expensive then in DRAFT 1.
- Make spells much less potent then in DRAFT1.
- Keep cost and potency from DRAFT 1 the same but increase the hierarchy to get to powerful spells.
There are others issues to work out too. If I cast spell X in melee, can I cast spell Y in the same round? Its a worthy question but not yet answered. If you let the cast switch up between spells in the same round you increase their effectiveness and potency considerable.
So please browse the rules at the PUCS web site and post any comments that you might have. I would like to hear what you think!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Damage Bonus in Melee - Part III
The damage bonus from in melee is resolved although the word-smiths continue to play with how exactly to describe them.
Summary
The Damage Bonus From Strength will be 10% of the strength attribute. Each 10 points of strength bonus is rolled on its own 1d10. Rolling at or below the bonus, give the bonus of the dice roll. Rolling above the bonus gives no bonus. This is unchanged from previous blog posts. See Damage Bonus in Melee - Part II for details of how it works and see Damage Bonus in Melee for why we thought it needed to be changed.
Strengths Greater then 100
The Damage Bonus From Strength greater then 100 was problematic. We wanted to continue the variable nature of the bonus but we wanted to keep the calculation simple. So we ended up doing was giving each 10 points of the damage bonus from strength its own roll.
Example
For example take something hugely strong, Strength 250. The Damage Bonus From Strength is 10% of 250 or 25 points. You would break that down into three d10 rolls. The first two rolls 2d10 do that amount in bonus damage. The third d10 would only do damage if you rolled at or below 5. So you have a minimum damage of 2 and a maximum damage of 25. A likely damage of around 12 (statistics is not my strength.)
Unexpected Consequences
The damage bonus in melee has given rise to some new skills. These skills afford those with them to better leverage their strength. The only new skill whose defintion has settled down is this Power Attack.
Power Attack
Power Attack helps the character maximize their strength bonus on damage rolls in melee. The skill level in Power Attack is the minimum damage bonus the character can roll, after a successful attack. The Power Attack can not exceed the character's Damage Bonus from Strength .
A character has a Damage Bonus from Strength of 6 and Power Attack of level 2. The character hits in melee, rolls the weapons damage and then a 1d10 for the Bonus Damage from Strength. With the Power Attack skill, the character will always get 2 points of Damage Bonus from Strength even if they roll a 1,2,7,8,9 or 10. Rolls of 3,4,5 or 6 are not effected. Without this skill, rolls of 7,8,9 or 10 do no bonus damage.
Summary
The Damage Bonus From Strength will be 10% of the strength attribute. Each 10 points of strength bonus is rolled on its own 1d10. Rolling at or below the bonus, give the bonus of the dice roll. Rolling above the bonus gives no bonus. This is unchanged from previous blog posts. See Damage Bonus in Melee - Part II for details of how it works and see Damage Bonus in Melee for why we thought it needed to be changed.
Strengths Greater then 100
The Damage Bonus From Strength greater then 100 was problematic. We wanted to continue the variable nature of the bonus but we wanted to keep the calculation simple. So we ended up doing was giving each 10 points of the damage bonus from strength its own roll.
Example
For example take something hugely strong, Strength 250. The Damage Bonus From Strength is 10% of 250 or 25 points. You would break that down into three d10 rolls. The first two rolls 2d10 do that amount in bonus damage. The third d10 would only do damage if you rolled at or below 5. So you have a minimum damage of 2 and a maximum damage of 25. A likely damage of around 12 (statistics is not my strength.)
| Damage Bonus from Strength 25 | |||
| Bonus | Roll | Potential | Average |
| 10 | 1d10 | 1 to 10 points | 5.5 |
| 10 | 1d10 | 1 to 10 points | 5.5 |
| 5 | 1d10 | 0 to 5 points | 1.5 |
Unexpected Consequences
The damage bonus in melee has given rise to some new skills. These skills afford those with them to better leverage their strength. The only new skill whose defintion has settled down is this Power Attack.
Power Attack
Power Attack helps the character maximize their strength bonus on damage rolls in melee. The skill level in Power Attack is the minimum damage bonus the character can roll, after a successful attack. The Power Attack can not exceed the character's Damage Bonus from Strength .
A character has a Damage Bonus from Strength of 6 and Power Attack of level 2. The character hits in melee, rolls the weapons damage and then a 1d10 for the Bonus Damage from Strength. With the Power Attack skill, the character will always get 2 points of Damage Bonus from Strength even if they roll a 1,2,7,8,9 or 10. Rolls of 3,4,5 or 6 are not effected. Without this skill, rolls of 7,8,9 or 10 do no bonus damage.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Ahh so what to do about magic?
Well what happens when you combine 60 points for each of two player characters, matched up against: 16 goblins, 16 orcs and 8 evil humans. In a word... CARNAGE!
Ok it was a scenario designed for 4 PCs not 2. The goblins had short bows. The humans had long swords blades 4. The Orcs had short swords blades 3. The match lasted 43 seconds (took about an hour to play but there were many sidebars as it was play testing), 1 PC still standing and all others were killed or incapacitated. Most were incapacitated (grey X's on map above).
So what did we test:
1) Spell level = casts per round of that spell
2) Casting time = 1 second
3) Bow Level = missiles per round
4) Missile Rate of Fire = 1 second
So what did we learn:
1) Magic, well used with even simple spells is very powerful.
2) Magic skills may be too cheap.
3) If you have magic and your opponent does not, your opponent is going to loose.
4) Critical hits are deadly. One PC died in the first 10 seconds with a critical hit to the head.
5) Fireballs rock, but lowly sleep spell won the day.
6) We need articles/equipment for magic protection. This is a balance issue that requires A LOT more testing.
7) GAP comparisons for success of spell was too cumbersome. In a simple engagement we had not noticed, but calculating GAPs on 10 people at time was way too much work and we just stopped and went with simple Willpower checks instead.
8) MapTool remains the coolest thingie out there for remote RPG play.
9) Wands, rings and Staffs are far less useful in revised system.
10) Revised rules for magic were so simple to follow we never thought about them in play.
11) Revised rules for bows were so simple to follow we never thought about them in play.
12) Good armor is worth the money. Especially against missiles. A PC absorbed three volleys from a group of archers at short and medium range, and although damaged he was not brought down.
13) Large engagements are a lot of fun, especially with interesting terrain.
So what do we need to do.
1) Initially we will keep the spell costs unchanged, but add some protection equipment and see how that effects things.
2) More testing of spells with protection.
3) Small engagements, large engagements, open space, confined space.
4) Review spell list and drop the GAP for area of effect spells, its too cumbersome to calculate, simple willpower checks suffice and in truth degrade the power of the spell somewhat.
5) Consider an option for willpower based area of effect spells to use the GAP when the spell is targeted on a single creature instead of area of effect.
Ok it was a scenario designed for 4 PCs not 2. The goblins had short bows. The humans had long swords blades 4. The Orcs had short swords blades 3. The match lasted 43 seconds (took about an hour to play but there were many sidebars as it was play testing), 1 PC still standing and all others were killed or incapacitated. Most were incapacitated (grey X's on map above).
So what did we test:
1) Spell level = casts per round of that spell
2) Casting time = 1 second
3) Bow Level = missiles per round
4) Missile Rate of Fire = 1 second
So what did we learn:
1) Magic, well used with even simple spells is very powerful.
2) Magic skills may be too cheap.
3) If you have magic and your opponent does not, your opponent is going to loose.
4) Critical hits are deadly. One PC died in the first 10 seconds with a critical hit to the head.
5) Fireballs rock, but lowly sleep spell won the day.
6) We need articles/equipment for magic protection. This is a balance issue that requires A LOT more testing.
7) GAP comparisons for success of spell was too cumbersome. In a simple engagement we had not noticed, but calculating GAPs on 10 people at time was way too much work and we just stopped and went with simple Willpower checks instead.
8) MapTool remains the coolest thingie out there for remote RPG play.
9) Wands, rings and Staffs are far less useful in revised system.
10) Revised rules for magic were so simple to follow we never thought about them in play.
11) Revised rules for bows were so simple to follow we never thought about them in play.
12) Good armor is worth the money. Especially against missiles. A PC absorbed three volleys from a group of archers at short and medium range, and although damaged he was not brought down.
13) Large engagements are a lot of fun, especially with interesting terrain.
So what do we need to do.
1) Initially we will keep the spell costs unchanged, but add some protection equipment and see how that effects things.
2) More testing of spells with protection.
3) Small engagements, large engagements, open space, confined space.
4) Review spell list and drop the GAP for area of effect spells, its too cumbersome to calculate, simple willpower checks suffice and in truth degrade the power of the spell somewhat.
5) Consider an option for willpower based area of effect spells to use the GAP when the spell is targeted on a single creature instead of area of effect.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Well its time for a redo
Playing testing has revealed that we inadvertently mucked up the simplicity of the system. What we came to realize was that we had fallen into a trap of having different rules for different types of skills. Skill for Melee, Missiles and Spells were each getting their own rules set. This was a very sad realization and a violation of the games creed. "Keep it simple."
What is most interesting is that the rules actually worked very well. They were fair, gave good mechanics is play, but it was overly complicated as the rules were significantly different for: Missiles, Melee and Spells. Sadly all this work on Spells and Missiles will be abandoned. The spells points concept is dead. The rate of fire concept for missiles is dead. We are back to basics, and while not as detailed it is much much easier to learn, remember and most importantly PLAY!
So expect in the next few weeks to see a new draft of the Rules released at: D100 Open Melee System
...and Happy New Year!
What is most interesting is that the rules actually worked very well. They were fair, gave good mechanics is play, but it was overly complicated as the rules were significantly different for: Missiles, Melee and Spells. Sadly all this work on Spells and Missiles will be abandoned. The spells points concept is dead. The rate of fire concept for missiles is dead. We are back to basics, and while not as detailed it is much much easier to learn, remember and most importantly PLAY!
So expect in the next few weeks to see a new draft of the Rules released at: D100 Open Melee System
...and Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
More Pre Requsits
Well after some discussion and poking around we are probably going to drop pre-req's for melee skills. However the consensus is to leave them for spells. Speaking spells we need more a lot more. So far spells have been created as needed in play testing, that is not a practical method for creation. Over the next few months we expect the spell lists to grow every week.
We have had some interesting discussions on the basis for spells, nothing has been decided but eventually our "theory" will be set and then spells will be reorganized. At a minimum the spells will be split into 2 categories. Spells of the Will (Willpower) and Spells of Intellect (Intelligence). I'll write more detail on the that later once it has been decided.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
To Pre-Requisite or not
In developing the the skills and spells we have adopted a hierarchy approach to the skills, meaning you needed one skill before you gained another. On the surface this seemed like an easy way to add depth to the characters.
We have found in practice that for spell casters it acts more like a penalty and for melee skills it is near useless. So I think for melee skills it will go away and for spells it will be simplified or dropped all together.
Play testing continues and new players are showing us many holes in the system. We have been so focused on the mechanics that we lack the breadth of skills and spells of other systems. So the evolution continues!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
More Melee Skills Please?
As a result of play testing outside the inner circle, I realized that many of their complaints and requests trended the game back towards D20 style melee. While initially each request seemed simplistic and justified. However in total, the significantly complicated the system.
For example D100 Melee System, has no "Charge" or "Bull Rush" defined as either a skill or an option in the Rules for moving in melee. On the surface these were simple enough to add as skills and whala! We had well defined charge and bull rush and procedure to carry them out. However what I realized is that neither was really needed as the D100 System already supported those actions and had no need for a defined "Charge" or "Bull Rush" procedure. A character could charge in melee by moving and then attacking in the following second. In fact the D100 System is superior without the defined procedure because it affords a good deal of risk in making an attack styled after a charge. The initiative and actions of both characters determine the outcome, rather then some simple check.
It was a good lesson to learn, the requests were coming from a D20 mindset where the definition is required, in the D100 mind set, the character need only sequence their actions to achieve the same goal. Furthermore it did result in one additional rule, that allowed the character to combine a move action and a attack/defend action into one action with considerable deductions.
For example D100 Melee System, has no "Charge" or "Bull Rush" defined as either a skill or an option in the Rules for moving in melee. On the surface these were simple enough to add as skills and whala! We had well defined charge and bull rush and procedure to carry them out. However what I realized is that neither was really needed as the D100 System already supported those actions and had no need for a defined "Charge" or "Bull Rush" procedure. A character could charge in melee by moving and then attacking in the following second. In fact the D100 System is superior without the defined procedure because it affords a good deal of risk in making an attack styled after a charge. The initiative and actions of both characters determine the outcome, rather then some simple check.
It was a good lesson to learn, the requests were coming from a D20 mindset where the definition is required, in the D100 mind set, the character need only sequence their actions to achieve the same goal. Furthermore it did result in one additional rule, that allowed the character to combine a move action and a attack/defend action into one action with considerable deductions.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Skills Skills Skills
The foundation of the D100 Melee System is the development of abilities through characters acquiring skills. Rather then a class model with limitations and bonuses by major categories we developed a simple listing of skills.
How Does A Skill Work?
Each skill is based on an attribute: Strength, Will Power, Reflex, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma and Movement. The base chance of success is the attribute value. As levels in a skill increase the chance of success increases too.
Is its complicated?
No. The most complicated it can get is when a skill has a pre-requisite. All that means is that to get one skill, you might have to first have another skill. It gets no more complicated then that.
Kinds of Skills
From the perspective of melee there are essentially 2 kinds of skills: Martial and Magical. There are other skills for abilities not melee related, for example: climbing, swimming, bluffing, professions etc.
Acquiring and Improving Skills
The skills are built up by awarding the characters with "Improvement Points". The points are used to buy more skills. The system includes guidelines for how Game Masters could choose to dole out points, but really it is up to the Game Master to do what works best for the group at play. The guideline is simple with no complicated formulas what so ever.
What about Feats?
D20 style feats, do not exist in the D100 Melee System. All character abilities are skills.
Even Magic (Spells) is a skill?
Yes all character abilities are skills. Magic skills for the fantasy realm have the most pre-requisites of any list so far developed for D100 Melee System. Magic is different from D20 Style magic, this is for many reasons: Playability, Lethality, Sustainability. In D100 a character could invest "Improvement Points" and make a deadly caster, a sustainable caster would require more points and so on. In play testing thus far, we have found most characters who start as pure casters, do not live very long unless the party is large, or they are very smart about melee. A more typical path has been to split the skills between magic and martial until a certain level of melee survivability is achieved.
How Does A Skill Work?
Each skill is based on an attribute: Strength, Will Power, Reflex, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma and Movement. The base chance of success is the attribute value. As levels in a skill increase the chance of success increases too.
Is its complicated?
No. The most complicated it can get is when a skill has a pre-requisite. All that means is that to get one skill, you might have to first have another skill. It gets no more complicated then that.
Kinds of Skills
From the perspective of melee there are essentially 2 kinds of skills: Martial and Magical. There are other skills for abilities not melee related, for example: climbing, swimming, bluffing, professions etc.
Acquiring and Improving Skills
The skills are built up by awarding the characters with "Improvement Points". The points are used to buy more skills. The system includes guidelines for how Game Masters could choose to dole out points, but really it is up to the Game Master to do what works best for the group at play. The guideline is simple with no complicated formulas what so ever.
What about Feats?
D20 style feats, do not exist in the D100 Melee System. All character abilities are skills.
Even Magic (Spells) is a skill?
Yes all character abilities are skills. Magic skills for the fantasy realm have the most pre-requisites of any list so far developed for D100 Melee System. Magic is different from D20 Style magic, this is for many reasons: Playability, Lethality, Sustainability. In D100 a character could invest "Improvement Points" and make a deadly caster, a sustainable caster would require more points and so on. In play testing thus far, we have found most characters who start as pure casters, do not live very long unless the party is large, or they are very smart about melee. A more typical path has been to split the skills between magic and martial until a certain level of melee survivability is achieved.
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