Post by Gravedust on Aug 24, 2011 13:02:25 GMT -8
DUNGEON SMASHER======================================================================
[/b]Dungeon Smasher is a game designed for tabletop of forum play, it is a simple (and hopefully fun) RPG that allows characters to be made and played quickly. It owes a lot (including it's name) to the 'dungeon crawler" style computer games. The aim was to create a game simple enough to learn and enjoy quickly, but complex enough to retain entertainment value in the long run.
It takes the form of a standard turn-based 'strategic' RPG. You move according to a grid and use your attacks and abilities to destroy your foes. Your character's abilities can be upgraded by spending points you earn from defeating enemies. The combat system is simple mechanically but also designed to be more than the "He hits you.. Okay now you hit him... Okay now he hits you again" style. It's meant to encourage cooperative play and strategic thinking between players.
CHARACTER TYPES================================================================================[/b]
Dungeon Smasher does not have a class system. Instead you are free to choose whatever combination of Attributes and Specializations you prefer, and can pick and choose abilities to create custom builds.
You can recreate a common class archetype such as Warrior, Paladin, Mage, etc. or use your imagination and come up with a unique combination that does whatever you like. Due to the simplified game rules, Specializations won't be available to cover every nook and cranny of character archetypes, but I'm relatively confident you can find something that fits, or at least is fun to play.
ATTRIBUTES============================================================================================[/b]
Before we start building a character, let's take a look at the basic stats that help define them:
HEALTH: Increasing your characters health increases their maximum HP by 20 (all characters begin with 100 HP as a base) basically making your character that much harder to kill. Which is a pretty valuable thing, because dead is forever in most cases.
STRENGTH: Strength adds damage to a lot of physical attacks, and is useful for resisting some kinds of skill effects. High Strength is most useful to a front-line brawler who wants to dish out lots of damage at close range, but is also good for resisting certain spells and skills when under attack.
ACCURACY: Accuracy determines the chance your character has to hit with all non-AOE attacks, it's also a component in a few skills. The benefit of high Accuracy is not missing very often. Since many attacks won't do anything if they don't hit, it's a fairly important stat, especially for melee or ranged fighters. However, there are also skills that don't rely on accuracy at all, so it needn't be the focus of every character. Characters that intend to use a lot of area of effect attacks have comparatively little need for Accuracy.
EVASION: Evasion determiners the chance your character has to successfully dodge attacks and spells. It's also used for a few skills and defensive rolls. Another important stat for characters, however there are some attacks that cannot be dodged under any circumstances. Likewise, an AOE attack will always hit a character in it's area of effect, so Evasion is not the be-all and end-all of stats.
DEFENSE: Defense functions like armor, automatically reducing the damage from all attacks by an amount equal to the character's Defense score. It is also used as a component in a number of skills, usually as a defensive roll, but not always.
INTELLIGENCE: Intelligence can be a pretty situational stat. it doesn't help in all areas but in the areas it does it can be very valuable. Intelligence comes in handy for characters who use a lot of machines or gadgets, and it also helps to resist the effects of mind-bending spells.
SPEED: Speed determines how far your character can move across the grid during their turn. High speed can be important to fragile characters who rely on maneuverability rather than defense or high health to survive. Speed will also come in handy to close-range fighters who find themselves having to chase down fleeing foes.
MAGIC: Magic is a general representation of a character's overall magical potency. It's used as a component for a lot of spells and defensive rolls in some cases. High magic is useful for caster classes, of course, but can be useful as a defense for any character who wants to resist magical effects too.
SPECIALIZATIONS============================================================================
Specializations are how you define what your character's abilities are. There are a number (30+) of available Specializations to choose from, and each one will have a broad 'theme' and some associated abilities and powers. Each Specialization has a number of Skills in it for your character to use. Skills are things like attacks, defensive techniques, damaging or protective magic, special moves, etc.
Basically your character's Specializations outline what it can do in broad terms, and what skills the will have available to use and purchase.
So for instance if I wanted a versatile melee fighter that was also able to dish out some ranged damage and do a little healing, I might take these three specializations:
-----
Polearms
Bows
Healing Magic
-----
And make sure to pump up the SPEED, ACCURACY and MAGIC attributes.
-
If I wanted a frontline brawler capable of dishing out massive damage I might take:
-------
Blunt weapons
Berserker
Regeneration
-------
And make sure to pump up STRENGTH, ACCURACY and HEALTH.
-
If I wanted a hard to kill 'tank' character:
-------
Bladed Weapons
Shields
Heavy Armor
-------
And dump a bunch of points into HEALTH and DEFENSE.
Or a formidable backline caster:
-------
Fire Magic
Hex Magic
Illusion
-------
Investing points in MAGIC, of course, and also plenty of EVASION and maybe DEFENSE.
-
Or just something completely bizarre:
-------
Shapeshifting
Antimagic
Traps
-------
...Just for fun. ;)
---
A beginning character can choose 3 Specializations to begin with, and additional specializations can be unlocked later.
Taking a Specialization grants one free skill, and the rest can be purchased by spending CP. (CP stands for Character Points and works a lot like XP in most other games. We'll cover it more later)
The Specialization Master List has information on all the specializations and their associated skills and is located at the end of this document.
SKILLS=============================================================================================================
As mentioned above, all of your character's abilities (except movement) are defined as Skills. Your Character uses it's skills to attack enemies, defend themselves, cast magic and everything else. So let's look at some sample Skills and explain a little about them.
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+Demonstration Strike::(15 cp)::(Adjacent) Attacks for 10 damage.
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From this we can tell that the title of the skill is "Demonstration Strike" and it costs 15 cp to purchase.
The second set of parentheses gives information on what the skill effects and how it can be used. There are a few common ones:
+Adjacent: Effects a target in any square that is next to the one the Character is occupying. Most melee attacks are Adjacent.
+Self: The skill effects only the Character himself or herself.
+Passive: The skill is considered to always be active, it does not require an Action to use. Passive effects cannot be removed or dispelled.
+Range: The skill can be used against any target within the number of movement spaces indicated. For instance a Skill with (Range: 4) can be used against any target that is visible and 4 or less squares away. Ranged attacks cannot be made through walls or other solid obstacles.
+Undogeable: This ability cannot be dodged and will be treated as always hitting it's target, if that target is in range. Often times this is used with spells with resistible effects, but certain damaging physical attacks are Undodgeable as well. Undodgeable attacks may still be Blocked or otherwise mitigated through Skill effects however. however.
+AOE: Denotes that the spell or ability has an Area of Effect, rather than targeting a specific character. It will affect characters within a certain range of the target point. The number inside the AOE brackets indicates the radius of the effect in squares. Since AOE effects are targeted on squares rather than characters, an AOE spell may also have a Range, which will indicate the furthest targetable square to center the effect on.
+Self AOE: Denotes the ability is an AOE effect as described above, but can only be centered on the casting character.
+Line: The ability effects all characters in a straight line of squares up to the length indicates. Line:2 has a length of 2, and Line:4 has a length of 4. Line effects can be used in any of the four cardinal directions, or diagonally.
So let's look at a few more skills to see examples of these effects and introduce a few more concepts….
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+Demonstration Explosion::( - )::( AOE:1)(Range: 8) Deals 10 damage to all characters inside the area of effect.
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Again, the name is Demonstration Explosion. The part where cp cost is listed is empty ( - ), meaning this Skill is learned automatically when the Specialization it belongs to is taken. This Skill is a bit fancy to get for free, but it's a demonstration after all. ;)
The ( AOE:1)(Range: 8) means it can target a square up to 8 squares away, and that square will be the center of an effect that hits everything in the target square and a 1-square radius around it in it for 10 damage.
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+Demonstration Smash::(25 cp)::( Adjacent) Attacks for 10 (+STRENGTH) damage.
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Okay, so the name is Demonstration Smash and it costs 25 cp to learn. The skill can hit an adjacent character, and it deals 10 (+STRENGTH) damage. What that means is the character's STRENGTH score is added to the damage. So if the character using the skill has a STRENGTH score of 3, the damage will be 10+3, or 13 instead of just 10. Many skills have damage or other effects that are modified by Attributes in this way.
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+Demonstration Root::(20 cp)::(Range: 4, Undodgeable) Has a Chance (MAG vs. STR) of immobilizing the target.
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So the name is Demonstration Root and it costs 20 cp.. It can effect a single target up to 4 squares away, but can't be dodged using Evasion. and it has a Chance (MAG vs. STR) of Immobilizing the target. What that last part means (pretty much whenever you see the term Chance) is that the attackers MAGIC score is rolled against the defender's STRENGTH score. If the Attacker's roll is higher the Defender is Immobilized (can't move during their next turn) If the Defender's roll is higher then they evade the effects of the spell and nothing happens to them. (Most skills with a Chance involved will be undodgeable, since there's still a chance to resist them through the Attribute rolls.)
Unless otherwise specified, the duration of all Skill effects is 1 round. Meaning that the effect disappears once your enemy's turn comes around again.
Most Direct attacks that are not Chance attacks are resolved by ACCURACY versus EVASION.
TERMINOLOGY=================================================================================
A brief explanation of some of the terms used in the Skills sections.
Immobilized: The character cannot Move this turn.
Lose an Action: The character can only use 1 Skill rather than 2 this Turn. It's possible for a character to lose both their Actions, meaning they can move but do nothing else.
Lose a Turn: The character can neither move nor perform Skills this turn.
Open Square: A square that is not occupied by a character, trap, chest, closed door or inside a wall, etc.
Direct Attack: Basically any attack that isn't an AOE.
HOW COMBAT WORKS===================================================================================
Combat is turn-based, meaning that one side gets to move and perform skills, and then it's the the side's turn to move and perform skills.
Initiative (who goes first the first turn) is determined by the averaged SPEED score of both sides.
Each Character gets 2 Actions per turn (unless they happen to lose one) to use Skills with.
Skills can be used unlimited times throughout a fight, HOWEVER, any single Skill may only be used ONE TIME per round per character. So if you intend to attack a target twice you will have to use two different skills to do it. Likewise you cannot cast any spell, even a beneficial one or a buff, or use any other ability more than once per round.
Skill-based Combat is pretty simplified. Basically the success or failure of all skills are determined by making dice rolls based on the Attributes of the Attacker and Defender.
In terms of actual dice rolls, basically a number of D10's equal to the score of the appropriate Attributes are rolled. (Because rolling lots of dice is fun!) any results over 5 are taken as successes, anything less than 5 is discarded. If the Attacker rolls more successes than the Defender, the skill succeeds.
There really isn't much to it, but to show an example:
Character A makes an Adjacent attack against Character B. Since it's not an AOE or a Chance attack, the applicable stats are ACCURACY for the Attacker (Character A) and EVASION for the Defender (Character B).
Character A has an ACCURACY score of 5 .
Character B has a EVASION score of 3.
So 5 Dice are rolled for Character A , And 3 Dice for Character B.
Character A's results: 2, 3, 5, 8, 9
2 and 3 are failures, and discarded. 5 is a success, and so are 8 & 9. That leaves us with 3 successes.
Character B's results: 3, 7, 8
3 is a failure, but 7 and 8 are successes. Unfortunately that's only 2 successes to Character A's 3, so it looks like Character A's Skill is going to hit.
(If Character B had managed 3 successes it would have been a miss, since the the attacker has to get MORE successes than the defender)
MOVEMENT=============================================================================================
Combat is done on a Grid, with each character (and noncharacter entities like traps, chests, etc) occupying a Square on the grid.
Each Character gets a free Movement per round. They can move a number of Squares equal to their Movement score. All characters have a base Movement score of 4, increased by 1 per every 2 points of SPEED the character has. Diagonal moves are not permitted. Characters can pass through friendly characters, though moves must always end their movement in an open square. Characters cannot pass through enemy units except through the use of certain skills or Items.
Movements are always performed before any Skills are used. It is not possible to use Skills and then move. (Unless the movement is causes by a Skill)
RANGE=================================================================================================
Range is calculated in the same manner as movement, by counting the squares it takes to get to the target square.
ITEMS===================================================================================================
Each character has a small inventory, with enough space to hold 4 items. Items are consumed on use and convey powerful effects. Items can be found in treasure chests or dropped by enemies or bestowed as quest rewards. Items do not stack, and it takes an Action to use one. A full list of Items and their effects will be available at the end of this document.
Items can be traded between characters so long as they are adjacent to one another (this does not cost an Action) or dropped if a character doesn't want it for some reason. Due to the inscrutiable laws of the universe, dropped items disappear forever.
DOORS, TRAPS, CHESTS, LEVERS AND STUFF============================================================================
Occasionally there will be objects on the play area such as treasure chests, doors, levers and such. Most objects can be interacted with in the predictable manner by being Adjacent to them and using an Action to fiddle with them.
GIVING ORDERS=============================================================================================
Since this is played over a forum and not on a table, some considerations need to be made. You as the players will have to tell me as the GM what you want your character to be doing. There is a simple form for doing this. Basically you just say what you want your character to do, in bold text after any roleplaying or anything else you might want to type. (If you are an awesome role-player you might earn some CP for being in character or doing something awesome.)
Amongst characters on the same team, initiative is handled on a first post, first served basis. I.e. if you post your Actions first your character will act first. Feel free to plan moves in advance in character if you like.
Remember movement must come first (if any) and then Actions.
Movement orders should be in squares, using the cardinal directions. (North South West East) On diagonally oriented maps a compass rose will be provided to help with this.
Example: Move 2 squares North, 1 square East, and one square North.
For skill use, just identify what skill you want to use and a target. Most enemies will be named (or at least numbered)
Example: Use Super Generic Slam on Monster 4
AOE targets can be identified in the same method as indicating a movement:
Example: Use Super Generic AOE Blast on the square 6 spaces to the North
Line attacks can be made in any for the cardinal direction, (North South East west) or diagonally (Northeast, Northwest, etc.)
Example: Use Super Generic Line Attack to the Southeast
CHARACTER GROWTH========================================================================
Your character can be improved by buying additional Attributes and Skills using CP. (Character Points) CP is earned by completing objectives, defeating enemies, and at the GM's discretion. (Usually for doing something the GM thinks is cool in terms of roleplaying and/or being clever or artistic.) All CP gain is shared between all characters, except for GM-awarded CP, which is usually dolloped on one person.
New Skills can be bought for the CP cost indicated with each skill.
Attributes can be increased by 1 point for 50 CP.
A new Specialization can be bought for 200 CP.
Character improvements can be purchased at any time, even during combat.
CHARACTER SHEETS============================================================================================
Character sheets will be maintained and updated by the GM throughout the game, and will be posted at the bottom of every round of combat for your perusal.
The basic character template is:
========================
NAME: ############
[Health: [###/###] [Movement: ##)][CP: ##]
[Defense: #]
-----------------------------------Attributes-------------------------------------
[HEL: #][STR: #][INT: #][ACC: #][EVA: #][DEF: #][SPD: #][MAG:#]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Passive::
Buffs::
Debuffs::
----Specializations----
Specialization 1 (Skills: ##,##) Specialization 2 (Skills: ##,##) Specialization 3 (Skills: ##,##) -Inventory-
[Item1][Item2][Item3][Item4]
======================
MAKING A CHARACTER=========================================================================================
Beginning characters have 16 free Attribute points to distribute. No Attribute may be raised higher than 5 at character creation. Once a character enters play, any unallocated Attribute points are lost.
Characters can choose up to 3 Specializations. (Or they can choose less, but that would be silly) Remember that each specialization comes with a free Skill, which will be the first skill on the list, marked as ( - ) where the CP cost should be.
Once they have chosen their Specializations, characters have 60 temporary CP to spend buying additional skills. Any unused temporary CP is lost once the character enters play.
Players should provide a portrait for their character so they can be more easily identified on the playing grid during combat.
A description, a little backstory and some history would be pleasant to have as well. If you desire each character can have his or her own thread in the Character Bin recording their heroic exploits. This is purely for fun, but characters with Bio threads will eligible to be included in the Graveyard should they fall in battle.
You can make and store as many characters as you wish, though generally a player is limited to using only one at a time. When not being played actively, a character's information will be stored in the Bin.
OTHER STUFF=======================================================================================
Is the game balanced?
…Sort of, but not entirely. I've tried to tailor it to be more or less fair, but there may be some overpowered or underpowered Specializations and other abilities. I'll probably adjust some Skills during play as it becomes clear just how things are going to work… I did put some thought into making sure the game isn't horribly broken, but I'm sure you can min/max yourself a pretty unbalanced character if you really want to.
Some Specs I put in just for fun. Chaos is a prime example, in case you were wondering.. ;) Though if you look close it has the by far highest damage potential of any Spec…
Some things I did on purpose that you might think are mistakes:
Physical attacks tend to do a lot more damage than ranged ones, the real damage dealers (outside of casters dropping AOE on everything) will be the up-close fighters. This is to compensate for them having to get up close when other characters don't and also because there are so many disabling abilities people can use against them. It's supposed to be sort of a big deal when some 10 STR Blunt/Berserker/Glyph toon gets close enough to crush you into paste with a 90 damage Massive Smash, and you're going to want to try and avoid that.
That being said it should be pretty much impossible to 1-shot anyone given the amount of health everyone will have. So you won't have any instant fight-enders, allowing you time to use strategy somewhat.
On the other hand, Healing is (purposefully) inadequate in most cases to keep up with damage output. I don't want turtle matches in this game. Damage outstrips recovery ability because EVENTUALLY something will have to die almost no matter what. You may notice if you look at the items that a lot of healing Items are pretty powerful and restore a lot of health. You're really meant to use those in an emergency, and healing skills to fill in the cracks. Healing Skills will help a lot in the long run, but they won't save your bacon if you're being focus-fired into the ground.
[/b]Dungeon Smasher is a game designed for tabletop of forum play, it is a simple (and hopefully fun) RPG that allows characters to be made and played quickly. It owes a lot (including it's name) to the 'dungeon crawler" style computer games. The aim was to create a game simple enough to learn and enjoy quickly, but complex enough to retain entertainment value in the long run.
It takes the form of a standard turn-based 'strategic' RPG. You move according to a grid and use your attacks and abilities to destroy your foes. Your character's abilities can be upgraded by spending points you earn from defeating enemies. The combat system is simple mechanically but also designed to be more than the "He hits you.. Okay now you hit him... Okay now he hits you again" style. It's meant to encourage cooperative play and strategic thinking between players.
CHARACTER TYPES================================================================================[/b]
Dungeon Smasher does not have a class system. Instead you are free to choose whatever combination of Attributes and Specializations you prefer, and can pick and choose abilities to create custom builds.
You can recreate a common class archetype such as Warrior, Paladin, Mage, etc. or use your imagination and come up with a unique combination that does whatever you like. Due to the simplified game rules, Specializations won't be available to cover every nook and cranny of character archetypes, but I'm relatively confident you can find something that fits, or at least is fun to play.
ATTRIBUTES============================================================================================[/b]
Before we start building a character, let's take a look at the basic stats that help define them:
HEALTH: Increasing your characters health increases their maximum HP by 20 (all characters begin with 100 HP as a base) basically making your character that much harder to kill. Which is a pretty valuable thing, because dead is forever in most cases.
STRENGTH: Strength adds damage to a lot of physical attacks, and is useful for resisting some kinds of skill effects. High Strength is most useful to a front-line brawler who wants to dish out lots of damage at close range, but is also good for resisting certain spells and skills when under attack.
ACCURACY: Accuracy determines the chance your character has to hit with all non-AOE attacks, it's also a component in a few skills. The benefit of high Accuracy is not missing very often. Since many attacks won't do anything if they don't hit, it's a fairly important stat, especially for melee or ranged fighters. However, there are also skills that don't rely on accuracy at all, so it needn't be the focus of every character. Characters that intend to use a lot of area of effect attacks have comparatively little need for Accuracy.
EVASION: Evasion determiners the chance your character has to successfully dodge attacks and spells. It's also used for a few skills and defensive rolls. Another important stat for characters, however there are some attacks that cannot be dodged under any circumstances. Likewise, an AOE attack will always hit a character in it's area of effect, so Evasion is not the be-all and end-all of stats.
DEFENSE: Defense functions like armor, automatically reducing the damage from all attacks by an amount equal to the character's Defense score. It is also used as a component in a number of skills, usually as a defensive roll, but not always.
INTELLIGENCE: Intelligence can be a pretty situational stat. it doesn't help in all areas but in the areas it does it can be very valuable. Intelligence comes in handy for characters who use a lot of machines or gadgets, and it also helps to resist the effects of mind-bending spells.
SPEED: Speed determines how far your character can move across the grid during their turn. High speed can be important to fragile characters who rely on maneuverability rather than defense or high health to survive. Speed will also come in handy to close-range fighters who find themselves having to chase down fleeing foes.
MAGIC: Magic is a general representation of a character's overall magical potency. It's used as a component for a lot of spells and defensive rolls in some cases. High magic is useful for caster classes, of course, but can be useful as a defense for any character who wants to resist magical effects too.
SPECIALIZATIONS============================================================================
Specializations are how you define what your character's abilities are. There are a number (30+) of available Specializations to choose from, and each one will have a broad 'theme' and some associated abilities and powers. Each Specialization has a number of Skills in it for your character to use. Skills are things like attacks, defensive techniques, damaging or protective magic, special moves, etc.
Basically your character's Specializations outline what it can do in broad terms, and what skills the will have available to use and purchase.
So for instance if I wanted a versatile melee fighter that was also able to dish out some ranged damage and do a little healing, I might take these three specializations:
-----
Polearms
Bows
Healing Magic
-----
And make sure to pump up the SPEED, ACCURACY and MAGIC attributes.
-
If I wanted a frontline brawler capable of dishing out massive damage I might take:
-------
Blunt weapons
Berserker
Regeneration
-------
And make sure to pump up STRENGTH, ACCURACY and HEALTH.
-
If I wanted a hard to kill 'tank' character:
-------
Bladed Weapons
Shields
Heavy Armor
-------
And dump a bunch of points into HEALTH and DEFENSE.
Or a formidable backline caster:
-------
Fire Magic
Hex Magic
Illusion
-------
Investing points in MAGIC, of course, and also plenty of EVASION and maybe DEFENSE.
-
Or just something completely bizarre:
-------
Shapeshifting
Antimagic
Traps
-------
...Just for fun. ;)
---
A beginning character can choose 3 Specializations to begin with, and additional specializations can be unlocked later.
Taking a Specialization grants one free skill, and the rest can be purchased by spending CP. (CP stands for Character Points and works a lot like XP in most other games. We'll cover it more later)
The Specialization Master List has information on all the specializations and their associated skills and is located at the end of this document.
SKILLS=============================================================================================================
As mentioned above, all of your character's abilities (except movement) are defined as Skills. Your Character uses it's skills to attack enemies, defend themselves, cast magic and everything else. So let's look at some sample Skills and explain a little about them.
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+Demonstration Strike::(15 cp)::(Adjacent) Attacks for 10 damage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From this we can tell that the title of the skill is "Demonstration Strike" and it costs 15 cp to purchase.
The second set of parentheses gives information on what the skill effects and how it can be used. There are a few common ones:
+Adjacent: Effects a target in any square that is next to the one the Character is occupying. Most melee attacks are Adjacent.
+Self: The skill effects only the Character himself or herself.
+Passive: The skill is considered to always be active, it does not require an Action to use. Passive effects cannot be removed or dispelled.
+Range: The skill can be used against any target within the number of movement spaces indicated. For instance a Skill with (Range: 4) can be used against any target that is visible and 4 or less squares away. Ranged attacks cannot be made through walls or other solid obstacles.
+Undogeable: This ability cannot be dodged and will be treated as always hitting it's target, if that target is in range. Often times this is used with spells with resistible effects, but certain damaging physical attacks are Undodgeable as well. Undodgeable attacks may still be Blocked or otherwise mitigated through Skill effects however. however.
+AOE: Denotes that the spell or ability has an Area of Effect, rather than targeting a specific character. It will affect characters within a certain range of the target point. The number inside the AOE brackets indicates the radius of the effect in squares. Since AOE effects are targeted on squares rather than characters, an AOE spell may also have a Range, which will indicate the furthest targetable square to center the effect on.
+Self AOE: Denotes the ability is an AOE effect as described above, but can only be centered on the casting character.
+Line: The ability effects all characters in a straight line of squares up to the length indicates. Line:2 has a length of 2, and Line:4 has a length of 4. Line effects can be used in any of the four cardinal directions, or diagonally.
So let's look at a few more skills to see examples of these effects and introduce a few more concepts….
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+Demonstration Explosion::( - )::( AOE:1)(Range: 8) Deals 10 damage to all characters inside the area of effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again, the name is Demonstration Explosion. The part where cp cost is listed is empty ( - ), meaning this Skill is learned automatically when the Specialization it belongs to is taken. This Skill is a bit fancy to get for free, but it's a demonstration after all. ;)
The ( AOE:1)(Range: 8) means it can target a square up to 8 squares away, and that square will be the center of an effect that hits everything in the target square and a 1-square radius around it in it for 10 damage.
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+Demonstration Smash::(25 cp)::( Adjacent) Attacks for 10 (+STRENGTH) damage.
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Okay, so the name is Demonstration Smash and it costs 25 cp to learn. The skill can hit an adjacent character, and it deals 10 (+STRENGTH) damage. What that means is the character's STRENGTH score is added to the damage. So if the character using the skill has a STRENGTH score of 3, the damage will be 10+3, or 13 instead of just 10. Many skills have damage or other effects that are modified by Attributes in this way.
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+Demonstration Root::(20 cp)::(Range: 4, Undodgeable) Has a Chance (MAG vs. STR) of immobilizing the target.
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So the name is Demonstration Root and it costs 20 cp.. It can effect a single target up to 4 squares away, but can't be dodged using Evasion. and it has a Chance (MAG vs. STR) of Immobilizing the target. What that last part means (pretty much whenever you see the term Chance) is that the attackers MAGIC score is rolled against the defender's STRENGTH score. If the Attacker's roll is higher the Defender is Immobilized (can't move during their next turn) If the Defender's roll is higher then they evade the effects of the spell and nothing happens to them. (Most skills with a Chance involved will be undodgeable, since there's still a chance to resist them through the Attribute rolls.)
Unless otherwise specified, the duration of all Skill effects is 1 round. Meaning that the effect disappears once your enemy's turn comes around again.
Most Direct attacks that are not Chance attacks are resolved by ACCURACY versus EVASION.
TERMINOLOGY=================================================================================
A brief explanation of some of the terms used in the Skills sections.
Immobilized: The character cannot Move this turn.
Lose an Action: The character can only use 1 Skill rather than 2 this Turn. It's possible for a character to lose both their Actions, meaning they can move but do nothing else.
Lose a Turn: The character can neither move nor perform Skills this turn.
Open Square: A square that is not occupied by a character, trap, chest, closed door or inside a wall, etc.
Direct Attack: Basically any attack that isn't an AOE.
HOW COMBAT WORKS===================================================================================
Combat is turn-based, meaning that one side gets to move and perform skills, and then it's the the side's turn to move and perform skills.
Initiative (who goes first the first turn) is determined by the averaged SPEED score of both sides.
Each Character gets 2 Actions per turn (unless they happen to lose one) to use Skills with.
Skills can be used unlimited times throughout a fight, HOWEVER, any single Skill may only be used ONE TIME per round per character. So if you intend to attack a target twice you will have to use two different skills to do it. Likewise you cannot cast any spell, even a beneficial one or a buff, or use any other ability more than once per round.
Skill-based Combat is pretty simplified. Basically the success or failure of all skills are determined by making dice rolls based on the Attributes of the Attacker and Defender.
In terms of actual dice rolls, basically a number of D10's equal to the score of the appropriate Attributes are rolled. (Because rolling lots of dice is fun!) any results over 5 are taken as successes, anything less than 5 is discarded. If the Attacker rolls more successes than the Defender, the skill succeeds.
There really isn't much to it, but to show an example:
Character A makes an Adjacent attack against Character B. Since it's not an AOE or a Chance attack, the applicable stats are ACCURACY for the Attacker (Character A) and EVASION for the Defender (Character B).
Character A has an ACCURACY score of 5 .
Character B has a EVASION score of 3.
So 5 Dice are rolled for Character A , And 3 Dice for Character B.
Character A's results: 2, 3, 5, 8, 9
2 and 3 are failures, and discarded. 5 is a success, and so are 8 & 9. That leaves us with 3 successes.
Character B's results: 3, 7, 8
3 is a failure, but 7 and 8 are successes. Unfortunately that's only 2 successes to Character A's 3, so it looks like Character A's Skill is going to hit.
(If Character B had managed 3 successes it would have been a miss, since the the attacker has to get MORE successes than the defender)
MOVEMENT=============================================================================================
Combat is done on a Grid, with each character (and noncharacter entities like traps, chests, etc) occupying a Square on the grid.
Each Character gets a free Movement per round. They can move a number of Squares equal to their Movement score. All characters have a base Movement score of 4, increased by 1 per every 2 points of SPEED the character has. Diagonal moves are not permitted. Characters can pass through friendly characters, though moves must always end their movement in an open square. Characters cannot pass through enemy units except through the use of certain skills or Items.
Movements are always performed before any Skills are used. It is not possible to use Skills and then move. (Unless the movement is causes by a Skill)
RANGE=================================================================================================
Range is calculated in the same manner as movement, by counting the squares it takes to get to the target square.
ITEMS===================================================================================================
Each character has a small inventory, with enough space to hold 4 items. Items are consumed on use and convey powerful effects. Items can be found in treasure chests or dropped by enemies or bestowed as quest rewards. Items do not stack, and it takes an Action to use one. A full list of Items and their effects will be available at the end of this document.
Items can be traded between characters so long as they are adjacent to one another (this does not cost an Action) or dropped if a character doesn't want it for some reason. Due to the inscrutiable laws of the universe, dropped items disappear forever.
DOORS, TRAPS, CHESTS, LEVERS AND STUFF============================================================================
Occasionally there will be objects on the play area such as treasure chests, doors, levers and such. Most objects can be interacted with in the predictable manner by being Adjacent to them and using an Action to fiddle with them.
GIVING ORDERS=============================================================================================
Since this is played over a forum and not on a table, some considerations need to be made. You as the players will have to tell me as the GM what you want your character to be doing. There is a simple form for doing this. Basically you just say what you want your character to do, in bold text after any roleplaying or anything else you might want to type. (If you are an awesome role-player you might earn some CP for being in character or doing something awesome.)
Amongst characters on the same team, initiative is handled on a first post, first served basis. I.e. if you post your Actions first your character will act first. Feel free to plan moves in advance in character if you like.
Remember movement must come first (if any) and then Actions.
Movement orders should be in squares, using the cardinal directions. (North South West East) On diagonally oriented maps a compass rose will be provided to help with this.
Example: Move 2 squares North, 1 square East, and one square North.
For skill use, just identify what skill you want to use and a target. Most enemies will be named (or at least numbered)
Example: Use Super Generic Slam on Monster 4
AOE targets can be identified in the same method as indicating a movement:
Example: Use Super Generic AOE Blast on the square 6 spaces to the North
Line attacks can be made in any for the cardinal direction, (North South East west) or diagonally (Northeast, Northwest, etc.)
Example: Use Super Generic Line Attack to the Southeast
CHARACTER GROWTH========================================================================
Your character can be improved by buying additional Attributes and Skills using CP. (Character Points) CP is earned by completing objectives, defeating enemies, and at the GM's discretion. (Usually for doing something the GM thinks is cool in terms of roleplaying and/or being clever or artistic.) All CP gain is shared between all characters, except for GM-awarded CP, which is usually dolloped on one person.
New Skills can be bought for the CP cost indicated with each skill.
Attributes can be increased by 1 point for 50 CP.
A new Specialization can be bought for 200 CP.
Character improvements can be purchased at any time, even during combat.
CHARACTER SHEETS============================================================================================
Character sheets will be maintained and updated by the GM throughout the game, and will be posted at the bottom of every round of combat for your perusal.
The basic character template is:
========================
NAME: ############
[Health: [###/###] [Movement: ##)][CP: ##]
[Defense: #]
-----------------------------------Attributes-------------------------------------
[HEL: #][STR: #][INT: #][ACC: #][EVA: #][DEF: #][SPD: #][MAG:#]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Passive::
Buffs::
Debuffs::
----Specializations----
Specialization 1 (Skills: ##,##) Specialization 2 (Skills: ##,##) Specialization 3 (Skills: ##,##) -Inventory-
[Item1][Item2][Item3][Item4]
======================
MAKING A CHARACTER=========================================================================================
Beginning characters have 16 free Attribute points to distribute. No Attribute may be raised higher than 5 at character creation. Once a character enters play, any unallocated Attribute points are lost.
Characters can choose up to 3 Specializations. (Or they can choose less, but that would be silly) Remember that each specialization comes with a free Skill, which will be the first skill on the list, marked as ( - ) where the CP cost should be.
Once they have chosen their Specializations, characters have 60 temporary CP to spend buying additional skills. Any unused temporary CP is lost once the character enters play.
Players should provide a portrait for their character so they can be more easily identified on the playing grid during combat.
A description, a little backstory and some history would be pleasant to have as well. If you desire each character can have his or her own thread in the Character Bin recording their heroic exploits. This is purely for fun, but characters with Bio threads will eligible to be included in the Graveyard should they fall in battle.
You can make and store as many characters as you wish, though generally a player is limited to using only one at a time. When not being played actively, a character's information will be stored in the Bin.
OTHER STUFF=======================================================================================
Is the game balanced?
…Sort of, but not entirely. I've tried to tailor it to be more or less fair, but there may be some overpowered or underpowered Specializations and other abilities. I'll probably adjust some Skills during play as it becomes clear just how things are going to work… I did put some thought into making sure the game isn't horribly broken, but I'm sure you can min/max yourself a pretty unbalanced character if you really want to.
Some Specs I put in just for fun. Chaos is a prime example, in case you were wondering.. ;) Though if you look close it has the by far highest damage potential of any Spec…
Some things I did on purpose that you might think are mistakes:
Physical attacks tend to do a lot more damage than ranged ones, the real damage dealers (outside of casters dropping AOE on everything) will be the up-close fighters. This is to compensate for them having to get up close when other characters don't and also because there are so many disabling abilities people can use against them. It's supposed to be sort of a big deal when some 10 STR Blunt/Berserker/Glyph toon gets close enough to crush you into paste with a 90 damage Massive Smash, and you're going to want to try and avoid that.
That being said it should be pretty much impossible to 1-shot anyone given the amount of health everyone will have. So you won't have any instant fight-enders, allowing you time to use strategy somewhat.
On the other hand, Healing is (purposefully) inadequate in most cases to keep up with damage output. I don't want turtle matches in this game. Damage outstrips recovery ability because EVENTUALLY something will have to die almost no matter what. You may notice if you look at the items that a lot of healing Items are pretty powerful and restore a lot of health. You're really meant to use those in an emergency, and healing skills to fill in the cracks. Healing Skills will help a lot in the long run, but they won't save your bacon if you're being focus-fired into the ground.