Rules rewrite + draft character sheet
Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:39 amOk. So, the following is an attempt to rework the rules for skill tests so that they are reasonably easy and system light. I wanted to take on board some of the suggestions from previous posts, but rework the system so that it involved a single die roll instead of a dice pool.
I'v e also got a draft character sheet here:
Any and all comments are welcome. Thanks.
Chris
Rules Fundamentals
Rules are used in tabletop roleplaying games to resolve actions or scenes where the outcome is uncertain or where the Players may disagree on the most likely outcome. Rules also help to create a sense of tension in a game. There is only a sense of risk to an action if the success or failure is uncertain at the outset.
Action Testing
Most of the time, in Spellwoven, Characters will be able to do stuff without there being any need to roll dice. Walking down a road, climbing a tree or buying something to drink in an inn are examples of simple actions that require no dice tests. Testing an action is needed only when the action has dramatic importance or where the action is dangerous or actively opposed by some other Character. Striking a rock with a stick is relatively easy and risk-free, but it will probably be much more difficult to strike another Character with a stick.
The basic testing of an action is done by rolling a d20 and aiming to score a value equal to or under a threshold number for success. The default level of success for a task in which you are unskilled is 5.
For example: John's Character wants to jump a dangerously deep crevice, but is unexperienced at this sort of thing. John rolls a d20 and scores a 5. This is a success, just barely (equal to or under 5) and the Character leaps the crevice safely. If he had failed (rolled 6 or higher) then the Gamesmaster would have to decide on the consequences.
Attributes
Characters have five Attributes. Mind: Intelligence, wisdom and wit. Power: Raw magical power. Presence: Social powers, charm, manipulation Quickness: Agility, speed and dexterity. Sinew: Brute strength and endurance. Attributes will have one or four ranks Ordinary (0), Exceptional (1), Fabled (2) and Legendary (3). The numbers in brackets are Adjustment Bonuses (Adj.). These allow you to modify a relevant roll up or down.
Using the same example as above, except now we take into account that John's Character has Exceptional Quickness. He attempts to jump the crevice and rolls an 6. This would be failed roll, except that the Adjustment bonus of 1 lets John modify the roll to a 5 and pass (6 minus 1).
Skills
Skills are spheres of experience that allow you to improve your basic ability to complete a task. Sometimes more than one skill might arguably be used in a situation, and this is a matter that the Gamesmaster has the final say on. Skills have associated levels represented by a number. The higher the number, the better the skill. This number functions as the threshold for dice rolling.
Using the example, John's Character has an Exceptional Quickness and a Sport skill of 9. He rolls a 7, which is a success, but decides to adjust this up by one point to 8, which he can do because of his Exceptional Quickness (7 plus 1). But he already succeeded. What is the use of adjusting the skill up a rank?
Success Levels and Contests
When you succeed at a Test of Skill, the number you roll is your Success Level. This is not always important, but when you are actively opposing someone else, then the Success Level is used to determine who 'wins' a contest if both parties succeed on their roll.
Imagine this time that another Character is chasing John's Character and is now just within reach. This attacker attempts to stop John's Character jumping the crevice and escaping. John's Character has an Exceptional Quickness and Sport skill of 9. The attacker has an Ordinary Quickness and a Sport skill of 6. John rolls a 5 and adjusts the roll to 6 (because of his Exceptional Quickness). His attacker rolls a 4 but cannot adjust his roll (because of his Ordinary Quickness).
When using your Adjustment Bonus you are not forced to adjust the dice roll by the full bonus. If you have a Fabled Attribute you can adjust relevant rolls by 1 or 2 as needed.
You are allowed to opposed an attack against your Character during combat, but this counts as an action. If you have already taken an action in a Round, then to oppose the attack (usually done with Quickness+Evasion) then you need to spend a point of Stamina (extra actions during a round cost a point of Stamina).
Helping and Hindering
You can also take an action that works to either help or hinder another Character. In this instance, the level of your success can be added to or subtracted from any subsequent roll that it could conceivably help or hinder.
So, continuing the example, imagine that John's Character has a friend who decides to get in the way of the attacker so as to help John's Character escape. The friend decides to step in the way and present herself as a block against the attacker--this is related more to strength than agility, so the roll would involve a Sinew+Fortitude roll. The friend has Ordinary Sinew and a Fortitude of 14. She rolls a 3, and cannot adjust this roll. Now, let's imagine that the attacker rolls a 5, which with a skill of 6 (as in the above example) would normally be a pass. However, the friend can add her 3 to the 5, making 8. The 8 is over the attacker's skill level of 6, and so the interference from the Friend results in the attacker failing to get hold of John's Character.
Skill Advancement
Each time you fail a Test of Skill during a single game session add a dash nest to the Skill under the Experience (Exp) column. Normally, you can only gain one Experience dash per Skill per Game Session in this way. If it is an unusually long Game Session and you have failed at a Skill multiple times in different scenes then your Gamesmaster may decide to allocate a bonus Experience dash. Once you have three dashes, your skill increases by one point and the dashes are erased. You then start collecting dashes again.
More inherently supernatural Characters are also more static and less prone to change or learning. This is represented in the rules by adjusting the number of Experience dashes needed to increase a skill level. We use a number called your 'Mythos' to keep track of this. To determine your Mythos add up the Adjustment bonuses associated with your Attributes and add this to 3. For example:
A Character with…
Mind: Exceptional (Adj 1)
Power: Ordinary (Adj 0)
Presence: Exceptional (Adj 1)
Quickness: Ordinary (Adj 0)
Sinew: Ordinary (Adj 0)
...would add 1+0+1+0+0 (+3) = 5. The Character is deemed to have a Mythos of 5, and a requirement to have five Experience dashes per skill for improvement instead of the usual 3. This means that although it is possible to create a Character with substantially supernatural Attributes, there is a strong disincentive if you want your Character to learn and grow during gameplay.
A failed Test of Skill can be either a simple failed roll (i.e. rolling a d20 over your Skill level) or failure to out-Skill an opponent during an opposed Test of Skill. Both of these following count as failed Tests of Skill.
- You have a Skill of 6 and roll an 18: a simple failed roll.
- You have a Skill of 6 and in a Contest of Skill you roll a 5 (nominally a success). However, your opponent has a Skill of 14 and rolls a 12. Your opponent's 12 beats your 5, and thus you are deemed to have failed.
High Level Skills
Once you reach a Skill level of 20, you no longer fail in simple unopposed Tests of Skill, but you can still fail in opposed Contests of Skill. This can be thought of as a situation where you have nothing left to learn from day-to-day use of your skill, and can now really only learn by going up against the few other Characters in the world who are as good or better than you.
Because of the Adjustment Bonuses from Attributes, Success Levels can actually exceed 20. For this reason, your Skill rating is also allowed to exceed 20. Consider the following: you have a Fabled Sinew and a Fighting Skill of 21. You roll a 20. A Fabled Sinew would allow you to adjust your Skill by 2 points, but if you adjust your roll to 22 you would fail. Adjusting to 21 allows you to pass.
At Skill ratings of 20 and beyond, whenever your advance a point of Skill rating after gaining enough Experience dashes you add a point to your Skill and also to your Adjustment Bonus for that skill. So, if you have a Skill of 20 and an Adjustment Bonus of 1 for the skill, you advance these to a Skill of 21 and Adjustment Bonus of 2. Only the Adjustment Bonus relevant to the Skill improves, not all of your Bonuses and not the basic Attribute.
I'v e also got a draft character sheet here:
Any and all comments are welcome. Thanks.
Chris
Rules Fundamentals
Rules are used in tabletop roleplaying games to resolve actions or scenes where the outcome is uncertain or where the Players may disagree on the most likely outcome. Rules also help to create a sense of tension in a game. There is only a sense of risk to an action if the success or failure is uncertain at the outset.
Action Testing
Most of the time, in Spellwoven, Characters will be able to do stuff without there being any need to roll dice. Walking down a road, climbing a tree or buying something to drink in an inn are examples of simple actions that require no dice tests. Testing an action is needed only when the action has dramatic importance or where the action is dangerous or actively opposed by some other Character. Striking a rock with a stick is relatively easy and risk-free, but it will probably be much more difficult to strike another Character with a stick.
The basic testing of an action is done by rolling a d20 and aiming to score a value equal to or under a threshold number for success. The default level of success for a task in which you are unskilled is 5.
For example: John's Character wants to jump a dangerously deep crevice, but is unexperienced at this sort of thing. John rolls a d20 and scores a 5. This is a success, just barely (equal to or under 5) and the Character leaps the crevice safely. If he had failed (rolled 6 or higher) then the Gamesmaster would have to decide on the consequences.
Attributes
Characters have five Attributes. Mind: Intelligence, wisdom and wit. Power: Raw magical power. Presence: Social powers, charm, manipulation Quickness: Agility, speed and dexterity. Sinew: Brute strength and endurance. Attributes will have one or four ranks Ordinary (0), Exceptional (1), Fabled (2) and Legendary (3). The numbers in brackets are Adjustment Bonuses (Adj.). These allow you to modify a relevant roll up or down.
Using the same example as above, except now we take into account that John's Character has Exceptional Quickness. He attempts to jump the crevice and rolls an 6. This would be failed roll, except that the Adjustment bonus of 1 lets John modify the roll to a 5 and pass (6 minus 1).
Skills
Skills are spheres of experience that allow you to improve your basic ability to complete a task. Sometimes more than one skill might arguably be used in a situation, and this is a matter that the Gamesmaster has the final say on. Skills have associated levels represented by a number. The higher the number, the better the skill. This number functions as the threshold for dice rolling.
Using the example, John's Character has an Exceptional Quickness and a Sport skill of 9. He rolls a 7, which is a success, but decides to adjust this up by one point to 8, which he can do because of his Exceptional Quickness (7 plus 1). But he already succeeded. What is the use of adjusting the skill up a rank?
Success Levels and Contests
When you succeed at a Test of Skill, the number you roll is your Success Level. This is not always important, but when you are actively opposing someone else, then the Success Level is used to determine who 'wins' a contest if both parties succeed on their roll.
Imagine this time that another Character is chasing John's Character and is now just within reach. This attacker attempts to stop John's Character jumping the crevice and escaping. John's Character has an Exceptional Quickness and Sport skill of 9. The attacker has an Ordinary Quickness and a Sport skill of 6. John rolls a 5 and adjusts the roll to 6 (because of his Exceptional Quickness). His attacker rolls a 4 but cannot adjust his roll (because of his Ordinary Quickness).
When using your Adjustment Bonus you are not forced to adjust the dice roll by the full bonus. If you have a Fabled Attribute you can adjust relevant rolls by 1 or 2 as needed.
You are allowed to opposed an attack against your Character during combat, but this counts as an action. If you have already taken an action in a Round, then to oppose the attack (usually done with Quickness+Evasion) then you need to spend a point of Stamina (extra actions during a round cost a point of Stamina).
Helping and Hindering
You can also take an action that works to either help or hinder another Character. In this instance, the level of your success can be added to or subtracted from any subsequent roll that it could conceivably help or hinder.
So, continuing the example, imagine that John's Character has a friend who decides to get in the way of the attacker so as to help John's Character escape. The friend decides to step in the way and present herself as a block against the attacker--this is related more to strength than agility, so the roll would involve a Sinew+Fortitude roll. The friend has Ordinary Sinew and a Fortitude of 14. She rolls a 3, and cannot adjust this roll. Now, let's imagine that the attacker rolls a 5, which with a skill of 6 (as in the above example) would normally be a pass. However, the friend can add her 3 to the 5, making 8. The 8 is over the attacker's skill level of 6, and so the interference from the Friend results in the attacker failing to get hold of John's Character.
Skill Advancement
Each time you fail a Test of Skill during a single game session add a dash nest to the Skill under the Experience (Exp) column. Normally, you can only gain one Experience dash per Skill per Game Session in this way. If it is an unusually long Game Session and you have failed at a Skill multiple times in different scenes then your Gamesmaster may decide to allocate a bonus Experience dash. Once you have three dashes, your skill increases by one point and the dashes are erased. You then start collecting dashes again.
More inherently supernatural Characters are also more static and less prone to change or learning. This is represented in the rules by adjusting the number of Experience dashes needed to increase a skill level. We use a number called your 'Mythos' to keep track of this. To determine your Mythos add up the Adjustment bonuses associated with your Attributes and add this to 3. For example:
A Character with…
Mind: Exceptional (Adj 1)
Power: Ordinary (Adj 0)
Presence: Exceptional (Adj 1)
Quickness: Ordinary (Adj 0)
Sinew: Ordinary (Adj 0)
...would add 1+0+1+0+0 (+3) = 5. The Character is deemed to have a Mythos of 5, and a requirement to have five Experience dashes per skill for improvement instead of the usual 3. This means that although it is possible to create a Character with substantially supernatural Attributes, there is a strong disincentive if you want your Character to learn and grow during gameplay.
A failed Test of Skill can be either a simple failed roll (i.e. rolling a d20 over your Skill level) or failure to out-Skill an opponent during an opposed Test of Skill. Both of these following count as failed Tests of Skill.
- You have a Skill of 6 and roll an 18: a simple failed roll.
- You have a Skill of 6 and in a Contest of Skill you roll a 5 (nominally a success). However, your opponent has a Skill of 14 and rolls a 12. Your opponent's 12 beats your 5, and thus you are deemed to have failed.
High Level Skills
Once you reach a Skill level of 20, you no longer fail in simple unopposed Tests of Skill, but you can still fail in opposed Contests of Skill. This can be thought of as a situation where you have nothing left to learn from day-to-day use of your skill, and can now really only learn by going up against the few other Characters in the world who are as good or better than you.
Because of the Adjustment Bonuses from Attributes, Success Levels can actually exceed 20. For this reason, your Skill rating is also allowed to exceed 20. Consider the following: you have a Fabled Sinew and a Fighting Skill of 21. You roll a 20. A Fabled Sinew would allow you to adjust your Skill by 2 points, but if you adjust your roll to 22 you would fail. Adjusting to 21 allows you to pass.
At Skill ratings of 20 and beyond, whenever your advance a point of Skill rating after gaining enough Experience dashes you add a point to your Skill and also to your Adjustment Bonus for that skill. So, if you have a Skill of 20 and an Adjustment Bonus of 1 for the skill, you advance these to a Skill of 21 and Adjustment Bonus of 2. Only the Adjustment Bonus relevant to the Skill improves, not all of your Bonuses and not the basic Attribute.