1KM1KT Free RPG Community

Ok, I'm working on a game and I need some people to light a fire under me.

Right now, it's pretty unfinished. I don't have any art assets (and I'm unlikely to get any without outside aid, so the cover might wind up being pretty vector designs as opposed to anything relevant). Light a fire under me, please.

Anyway, it's a work-in-progress (aimed to be a short micro-game without too much setting baggage) with a simple system that allows over-the-top heroes (mathematically so- a novice will get about 75% the result of a veteran on average, and about 50% of a master's average) and has a mix of combat, stealth/outwitting, and social interactions (hacking is sorta in, but it's gonna be a more "sensible" option [truly critical stuff isn't/shouldn't be stored in means accessible to the internet, unless you're going up against Sony, and I'm avoiding brand names], so players will use combat/stealth/sleazing past guards to get to the computer, then use it to do what you need). It's loosely inspired by a mix of Firefly, Shadowrun, and Deus Ex. One of the ideas is to have a game that doesn't feed the players anything, and doesn't need to. Players' characters do intelligence, upkeep, infiltration, and fighting. All dice used are d6 to encourage speed (and because they're cheaply available and I've got a ton laying around).

Example: When drug dealers are in town, players aren't necessarily fed the info they need to take them down. They use their characters' investigative abilities (social or mental) to track the flow of drugs, then either turn the dealers in or take them out, though they get more physical bonuses for the latter, they'd probably gain relations with local law if they chose the former (the relation system is iffy right now, I'm not sure if I wanna put one in).

The basic design for the character system is as follows:

First, though this isn't really a character thing, each character gets two "basic dice" used for almost everything. These are just normal d6 dice.

Pick a "Category" specialization (Red, Blue, or Green, representing physical, mental, or social) for the character. They get one die for each to be used for any actions that fall under those spheres.

Pick two "Attribute" specializations (I use ABACUS-PH as the acronym, it translates to Agility, Bulk, Awareness, Cleverness, Understanding, Sympathy, and the Psychic and Hyperhuman attributes which have their own category but can't be specialized in). The character gets an additional die for each of these.

Finally, there are skill specializations. Each attribute has three or four skills associated with it. I'm unsure exactly how many skill specializations to choose (right now I have four, but with close to 28 skills, that leaves characters very specialized). Psychic and Hyperhuman skills require the appropriate attribute specialization, but gain a free "ghost" skill specialization that must be paid off before more skills can be bought for their attribute in play (this restriction is bypassed for character creation). These skill specializations work like any others.

All things accounted for, players can get to use up to 5 dice with a skill (some skills cannot be used untrained and ignore the 2 "base dice", some cannot be used untrained but allow full dice with training). The sum of all dice is a tree, written like [Red/Agility/Evasion] (I'm not happy with this format, but it's quick and clean.

Characters also get "Contacts" who they can call in. Contacts may have a political background with one of the five factions (basically two different anarchic philosophies, a corrupt but benign government, the rebellion that seeks to end corruption but could lower quality of life by doing so, and a token faction representing corporations). Contacts just have one specialization in each area to start, but progress like normal characters. Contacts will not harm their own faction, and have a limited amount of gear (unless the players give them some), but can make up for skill deficiencies (a contact may be a master hacker, for example) or just add another gun.

Gameplay will be split up into "scenes", which will fall into one of a few types:

Open scenes allow any type of outcome. While most scenes allow at least a couple methods of success, this one allows all of them. This would cover a basic thing- getting to the general location of a goal. NPC's for a open scene should have full statistics, because they could be put into a scene that requires almost anything.

Skill scenes require a specific skill. They may allow a expert to go in alone (for instance, there could be a Sniping scene), or they may require everyone present to play along (being trapped in a room full of poison gas would be an Endurance scene). These are uncommon, and usually spring up after a failed scene of a specific type, or as a result of a trap. Haggling would be another example of this type of scene. Skill scenes could also be run in parallel to other scenes- hacking would consist of lots of attempts to beat security, and there may be a combat scene that the hacker isn't participating in, adding a layer of drama.

Combat scenes allow any combat skill, and would be the sort of thing one would bust out miniatures for. Unfortunately, I haven't even begun on combat yet (I wanted to make it just be skill rolls for everything, but when it became apparent the rules were bloating, there's been a shift over to the scene-based system), but there'll be something along the lines of making attack rolls versus an Evasion roll (this roll could be done actively each round, though there will be an minimum/passive result based on a character's Evasion skill that will be automatic). NPCs prepared for a combat scene need only have combat oriented specializations, which makes the GM's job easier.

Social scenes allow social interactions- each NPC prepared for a social scene needs only social and occasionally combat (should things really go bad) specializations.

Mental scenes are used for when people are poking around in stuff. This is stuff like investigation and hacking. Typically there aren't NPCs in this sort of scene, but those that are only need a handful of statistics (for seeing if they beat the players' characters in an investigation/if the players can get info out of them should they pursue a social scene).

While not a rule, it's typically assumed that combat scenes flow from social scenes, social scenes flow from mental scenes, and mental scenes are the typical "first scene" to be encountered, so they don't really flow from anything. Combat scenes can lead to any type of scene. These rules are sorta made to be broken, but follow the logic that players find out what's going on, stick their noses in somewhere, and may get in trouble.

Part of the motivation of a scene system is for GM preparation- they could prepare a few detailed scenes, and if players went off track they could push them towards the scenes using elements from the scenes (a NPC may approach them about a problem and flash money in their face).

I've left *something* out, but I've forgotten it. If anyone wants, I can e-mail them a version of my current draft.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the Hyperhuman attribute is basically augmentations. It's possible to get human-level replacement cyberware, but to get something awesome (say, the ability to see through walls), you'd have to have hyperhuman specializations. Hyperhuman implants will be expensive, and anyone who focuses on them had better be ready to dish out a ton of money, but they'll each allow a edge for at least a couple of the more generic scene types (able to spot enemies easier, see every detail in a scene, and see every last bit of body language).

EDIT 2: It's gonna be released under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, with BitCoin options for print copies should I ever get art and typesetting done.

EDIT 3: There's a focus on spreading out characters or getting a super-specialization. Typically even tough rolls are possible for an unskilled character (the typical base "hard" roll is 12, for instance for stamina loss checks), but a stamina system discourages repeat attempts without a reason. Stamina also means that characters can't run and gun through. Body armor will allow stamina to burn (at a decreased rate) instead of health. Character creation is intentionally balanced in such a way that the RBG categories can be given skill, attribute, and category specializations so that only one attribute's skill set winds up without any bonus if a player is so inclined to balance their character, but a character who stacks his character's specializations into the same "tree" winds up rolling five dice off the bat- making a roll of 12 child's play.

Stamina and health proceed normally through increased specializations- for each specialization (or skill double-specialization, which comes with a bonus for that skill but can't be taken at character creation) there is a health/stamina value associated with it (for instance, color categories are worth four, statistics are worth two, skills are worth one, so starter player characters have 12 health and their contacts have 7 health). This may encourage players to choose skills quick to get extra health and stamina, rather than save up for categories (which are 8x as expensive as skills, or statistics, which are 4x as expensive). The logic behind this is that players will expand their skills, hopefully for any stat that sounds useful.

EDIT 4: Stamina also serves as a sort of reminder of the dystopian setting. The player characters can get really powerful really easily, so stamina serves as a sort of reminder that they are still men. Similarly, stamina drops most for direct action (fighting or occasionally sneaking) rather than using brainpower or social engineering, meaning that even though combat will be quick and favor the player, they'll still wind up wanting to avoid it so they can do stuff later. Gear will also be capable of replacing stamina loss- you could bash the door down, or apply a Semtex charge. The downside of this is that currency is limited, and player characters will be forced into even more of a job-to-job lifestyle if they can't save stuff.

One thing I'm thinking about is that the scene system could also be used as a sort of CYOA system, and could be used to remove the need for a GM at the cost of a less interactive experience and a loss of some mystery (since it can't say "If the players know about X" if the players don't know about X yet). I've contemplated using a token system (If "2175" is complete) for this, but that just feels wrong for some reason.

EDIT 5: I'm writing edits as fast as I post, but I'm also not sure how to license this. I want something open, but I don't want people running with this idea since Orchestra's the proof for a future project I don't want to be pre-empted before it's finished. Once the future project is done, I may release both under a more free license, but Orchestra's PDF will be free (as in you can grab it, not that you can redistribute [I'm thinking 1km1kt and my own site will be the only places to grab it, unless I can get it on DriveThruRPG {If you know a site, feel free to recommend it} as a free file]). Also, I'm noticing that I'm using a lot of parentheses and company in these posts, but that's unrelated.

Welcome to 1km1kt.net!

My first recommendation would be to write a bit about the setting. Unless you're a theoretical mathematician, it is rather hard to get "fired up" about probability and dice types. You need some story to point out the awesome aspects and focus how the game should flow, reveal what NPCs you need, and give players a point of reference. For example - is combat supposed to be deadly, quick, and to who shoots first, or is there a more tactical element?

I've often used the metaphor of map making. Set benchmarks or the major land marks for what to accomplish. Fill in some details to show how they relate, then make successive passes fleshing out the game further.

You mention that heroes are over the top - but in relation to what? Are the players supposed to be wolves among sheep protagonists or generally operating in the same league as others. What kind of paranormal and cybernetics are available, and why are these things present? (Combat cybernetics are expensive, difficult to create, and aren't too likely to overcome the large squads of normal troops you could get, unless say a population crash made every soldier more valuable...)

Four specializations sounds like plenty. They already have (base)+(Category)+(Attribute)+(Skill) - adding too many super-focused skills would mean the characters might begin to overlap and become less unique to the group. Every player should have a shot at the spot light.

How did Firefly influence the game - are there space ships, is it a sense of frontier, or simply the idea characters are flitting from one wrong place to another?

Most RP games don't just feed the players stuff. So how does this scene by scene investigation work? Does passing a scene add dice to a pool that can be called on later for bonuses or build towards a threshold to end the adventure?

I hop this helps, though if you have any other questions, I'll be around.

Edit after the Edits:
First of all, you're allowed to start more than one thread. It might be helpful to split your above inquiry to focus on specific areas - GM vs troupe play, number and type of skills, how stamina works and regenerates etc.

You don't need to worry about licensing just yet. Everything is presumed to be the copyright of the writer until you say otherwise. Technically, you can't copyright game mechanics - otherwise we would all have to pay Milton-Bradly every time you specify "Roll 2d6" - but story elements are definitely yours. We haven't had much problem with plagiarism on 1km1kt.net - I only know of one incident (involving my game Gangland) and it was resolved amenably.

This running stamina sounds interesting - are there going to be a lot of trans-human elements that make a reminder of humanity an important feature? And how is stamina restored - addictive drugs (and their downward spiral), simply sitting out scenes, or sleeping and making yourself vulnerable?

That's a lot to handle at once... therefore I'm only adressing one issue right now, the scene system. In its current shape I find it bulky and honestly, unnecessary. I can't put a finger on exactly what's bothering me - but probably the fact that it's too "computerish". Maybe it's because you are referring to Deus Ex as an example of it (and as I gather, even though I haven't played it, you are greatly influenced by this game on many levels)? Nevertheless, please, elaborate more on this system.

(Also, keep in mind that keeping track of too many numbers and stats is not everybody's cup of tea. But I'm sure there's a demographic that loves it!!)


The world background, on the other hand, is quite intriguing! Lots of stuff to play around with. But you need to find a way to organize it properly - an encyclopedia of some sort, maybe even a wiki-site!- e.g. you can provide a narrative in the core book but run a site that makes quick searches and look-ups possible. Also, wikis are great for making connections visible.

I like the idea of over-the-top heroes; you should emphasize a certain Achilles-vibe though,on every level. 1. heroes should have a weakness, 2. heroes face a choice: live long and in obscurity or die young but, well, as a hero.



Keep creating!!

So far the story is viable. The system is heavy. It's heavy for story elements, and light on mechanics and that's usually the opposite of how people like it. If they're into story, they don't want rules getting in the way.

I'm not saying the scene rules can't work, I think the explanation of them needs a lot of refinement so they're fluid and understandable. So far there's a lot of grey in there that makes understanding how things are supposed to work difficult. Maybe examples could make it clearer or an example scenario?

As far as someone stealing your ideas, I worried about that nine years ago when I put my game on the internet. If people like your idea they'll be more likely to join your project than steal your idea, especially if you invite them. People who have ideas write RPGs. Not the other way around. RPGs are a medium for imaginative people to share ideas so they usually have enough of their own.

I like that the Psychic abilities are internal. I did something similar in a game I posted at with a character type called a Lojec. As a donation idea, what if at the end of a failed scene, a player could roll and see if the failed scene was all just a mental model of what could happen. If they pass the roll, the characters could start the scene over, knowing what the model says didn't work.

Bump for first draft release:

Find it at , because I don't have time to post it elsewhere right now.

I've downloaded it: I'm not promising a fast reaction, because 41 pages is 41 pages... But I'll do my best.

I think the scenes are better expressed, but to be honest, if I were to play, I'd ignore them. Kind of like phases in turns where I can only opt into a certain type of action (ranged weapon phase, running phase, etc) we've always ignored them as needlessly complicating things. The only function the scenes seem to play is to tell the players what they're expected to do. Some might take that as railroading.

To have more traction the scenes have to do something. I'm not sure what you want them to do so I'm having a hard time coming up with a suggestion. In the end, this is a simulation of something, think about what you're trying to simulate and then think about what it does and how to model it.

For example scenes play a role on film and books because you want to jump from one time and place to another. Then theres a lot of stuff about up beats and down beats that I couldn't explain to save my life. The scene does something, that's why there's a word for it. In most RPGs, players understand that you can jump from one scene to another without having a system of restrictions on it. In most RPGs the players decide what kind of scene it is. I've had scenes that I thought should be social end up hacking. Times that I expected to be combat turned into a player coning his way to the bridge of a SSD and convincing the captain he was an admiral getting control of it for a short period of time.

So what would it model to have the GM say "this is a social scene" or "this is a combat scene"? What does it mean when a Conan the Barbarian character is told he's in a social scene when he's all about combat?

I could see you doing something interesting with this but I don't see it yet.