24 RPG Project: Dust & Bones

[J.K.Mosher]

Started another system. Putting myself on the 24 hour deadline to get the basics down.
Time started 7pm MDT

Why? It worked with "the Silent Void" to get a basic system in place that I could work with.
(BTW: Yes I am still tweaking tSV, but I'm easily distracted with new projects/ideas)

Premise:
- Early Bronze Age world, suffering from drought, famine & plague.
- Combat is going to be quick and rough. Ie you and your foe can kill each other in a single combat round
- System is Roll Vs Target, with multiple dye types. Each Dye will represent a "Injury Level"
Minor(d12), Moderate(d10), Serious(d8), Severe(d6) & Lethal(d4)
Weapons boost dye rolls (ie Bronze Long Spear +2)
Sheilds Reduce Dye Rolls (Bronze Ageis -2)
Armor Soaks Rolls (ie Bronze Breast Plate 4, Bear Skull Helm 1 = Armor Soak of 5)
- Defeating foes offers resources (Food, materials for weapons & armor)
- Primal/Blood Magic; will be rare, powerful and hard to accomplish
- 3 Races; Elf, Human, orc
- 5 Skill Sets : Hunter, Gatherer, Shaman/Mystic, Healer, Warrior
- Skills are done via point buy

Once I have more background I'll post it . . . wish me luck

[J.K.Mosher]

Making a small adjustment here.
I'm going to remove the races, and the bronze age.
I want this to be even more "primitive" then I originaly envisioned.

[J.K.Mosher]

Made progress.
The game will have a strong gathering ideal, as defeating large "foes" (like a cave bear) will not only be an encounter but provide materials for the crafting of needed items/tools/armor. May have to tweak my combat idea, as it is pretty lethal for all parties involved. (I Did a quick "Example" Test and the character died in the first round, but the foe is also dying; unless someone comes up and use medicinal skills on him.)

Hunting & Trapping will be slightly different to combat, as both those skills require more stealth/surprise for it to work than just walking out and attacking.

Skill list is pretty bare, but is shaping together nicely.

It's 2:22 pm MDT so I've done 7 hours on the game idea/system with a couple tweaking re-writes to fix the concept.

[J.K.Mosher]

Getting back onto work on the Game now (it's 10:58 am MDT).

Going to concentrate on the Character Creation System and then round out the Skill and Combat System.

After which I'm hoping to setup the basis of the "Crafting/Fashioning" Skills/Tables.
The largest chunk will be the foes . . . as I will need to come up with a reasonable method of pay off
for characters to take on large game and dangerous game to gain resources.

[J.K.Mosher]

Well 1 hour to go and while I was hoping to be further along . .. I am and I'm not.

Pretty much feel I have character creation sewn up (minus a usable character sheet).

Still a bit of fluff/crunch to do with the skills, But I'll keep on that.

The resolution system looks good in theory and the couple practice rolls I did, seem to carry that thorey out. However without proper modifiers (which I'm working on) I can not really quick test the creation system.

The combat system is still lethal . . . but I may have a fix for that in a few hours.

I'll post a pdf (via google docs) sometime around 8pm with what I have completed up until the 7pm deadline.
After which I'll just keep plugging away. If everything meshes like I plan it should be an interesting game

[Rob Lang]

Congrats, JK!

Now in the cold light of day, is there anything you've learnt that you can pass onto the Monkeys?

[J.K.Mosher]

What have I learned . . . good question . . .

1) Use the first bit of your time to outline what you want to get done.
I always fail to do this . . . I just write . . . and write, and than re-write, and thereby do not use my time to the greatest extent, or an efficent manner.

2) Avoid the temptation to proof read as you go . . .
I always fine myself redoing stuff I've already written . . . keep pushing forward polish it AFTER you get done.

3) Focus on the main points of the game/system before bogging yourself down in the fluff/crunch & examples.
I would suggest if your writing and find a spot where you KNOW you should have an example, put a placeholder there and return to it latter. Same with Fluff . . . mark the spot where you wnat it to be and return to it after you have the basics of the system down.

And most importantly . . .

4) DO NOT ATTEMPT A 24 HOUR RPG when your wife is playing MINECRAFT . . . You'll never EVER get anything done when that happens . . . though sometimes it's good just to build things with a loved one

Anyway . . .
The Link to the "DRAFT" copy of the pdf is below. For the most part I'm liking what I have, I do have a lot more work ahead of me to get everything written out, and the extra fluff I have floating in my head on to the screen/paper. So this will be an ongoing project (much like my other games alll seem to be) with a plan on possibly finishing the FULL rough draft of the game by Halloween . . . while also tweaking "the Silent Void" and "Beard Rage:the RPG" in to more polished games.

Peace, and Happy Thanskgiving

[Onix]

Hi JK, did a read through, the setting sounds interesting. The lethality of the game in such a brutal world is going to make PCs not live very long. That could be a disincentive to play for a lot of people. I'm not suggesting changing that, but it might take some thinking on how to make the game fun even if your character dies every game. There are ways of doing that, I could make suggestions but I'd like to see if you had something in mind already for that.

I didn't really get the combat example, I kinda thought Kek beat the raider when I looked at it. Maybe there's a way to clarify that? I realize that this is a rough writing, I think I understood most of the rest, just not that example.

[J.K.Mosher]

IF I have to explain the example than I guess I didn't write a good example

There is a potion missing to the combat system, and that's an explanation of what the dice mean in terms of combat. In normal/average skill use each dye represents the chance of an additional success . . . however in combat each dye represents a wound level . . .

d12 = Minor
d10 = Moderate
d8 = Serious
d6 = Severe
d4 = Lethal

The other item is that the target number being rolled against is the Armor score of your foe, and that you have to beat it. Rolling equal to or less than has no effect.

So in effect you can have a combat situation where one character/npc rolls high on the d12, d10, and d8 dealing minor, moderate and serious wounds, while the other character/npc rolls badly on everything but the d4, and in that case actual inflicts a lethal wound.

So back to the original example. IN effect Kek did kill the Raider, the Raider just doesn't know it yet . . . however because the Raider got high on the d4 roll he was able to inflict a lethal wound causing Kek's death at the end of the round.

Wounds also "add up" with penalties, so again in the example the Raider has suffered enough penalties from the wound inflicted by Kek that unless someone aids him/her/it with healing/medicine he/she/it will dye in about 3 rounds.

The whole combat system needs a revision . . . To a point. The deciding factors on who is dead and who is dying need to be tweaked, as do the ideas in my head about healing and such.

As for what to do when PC's dye, to keep the game fun for players . . . I haven't crossed that bridge yet.
I might go more mystical in that, and give dead/dying PC's a chance to recover via a "Dream Vision" type scene. I would probably link it into the dying of the Draconis . . . that their blood has entered the world and gives this "2nd Chance" to those who are found worthy . . . or I could make a more ritualistic ideal . . . where the work of others enable the PC to come back . . . sort of a sweat lodge type thought.

I am open for ideas though

[Onix]

Death could be a form of advancement. The idea being the players are representing a family or clan. It's just they don't start with the best of the clan. If they die an honorable death, defending or trying to feed the clan, the player gets to move on to the next most accomplished in the tribe. Eventually they're playing the chief.

It would change player behavior to be more focused on their community. It could also make the game about the dwindling number of men as the players slowly kill them off. By the time they're the chief, the challenge of keeping the tribe alive becomes very great.