Undercover Hero Squad- NaGa DeMon project

[kylesgames]

Ok, here's the scoop:

Everymen with powered armor fighting against oppressive elements, with themes of transhumanism and resistance in a simple rule set and anime-stylings.

System:
"percentile sliders"
Basically the entire game is built around d%, so it's pretty simple. Some of these sliders are variable (i.e. strength is good at high levels but has no opposite force so it can go negative), others are "opposed" (humanity versus detachment). As thus statistics are tracked essentially on a progress bar.

Professions:
Characters can choose from a variety of professions- these have non-combat effects. They are upgraded with experience like anything else. When a character reaches a certain level in a profession they "retire" and move on into another. Professions include things like "Student" or "Unemployed/Retiree", which have special handling (both examples can be "retired" from and chosen again freely without level penalty). Professions which are "retired" yield passive effects, encouraging a mastery of at least some professions.

Combat:
Undercover Hero Squad uses a three-dimensional matrix system to determine environments. Each cell has things going on inside it at any given time (collateral damage is a must!), and firing/moving between cells can be a challenge.

Trauma:
Things like the death of innocents or teammates can cause trauma in player characters, which basically functions like Elder Scrolls style imprisonment, though it is resisted with Detachment/Humanity.

[Rob Lang]

One argument against all percentile systems is that adding and subtracting modifiers gets complicated as 54 + 61 - 36 + 77 is not as simple as 5 + 6 + 4+ 8 and that the added resolution is not worth the bother.

The sliders feel a little like Icar's deviant wheel. The problem I had with that is that extremes often lead to weird mechanics, where you can be a very nice person on paper but if played correctly comes across as a complete nut case that everyone hates. Icar's deviant wheel isn't a mechanic, it is only for reference so for mechanics I would make sure you test the limit cases.

Can you expand on trauma for those who haven't played Elder Scrolls?

[kylesgames]

[Rob Lang]

Interesting stuff!

Does trauma and power act as % modifiers? Be careful do don't do what I did with an older version of Icar and sneak complexity in through the back door. Also be careful how you label complexity because what you think of being easy is actually complex to others.

[kylesgames]

Nah, trauma and power are basically experience. That said, having unspent trauma *will* give penalties.

And yeah, it's needlessly complex in some ways, but it's built in a way to make it simple in the way I play (i.e. computer based with reference documents freely available on another window). It's not necessarily the best way overall but I'm trying to build it to go well with computer-based RNG's and virtual tabletops. Anyone know a digital tabletop program that allows players to choose what layers to look at? I think MapTool does that, and it's crucial to representing the matrices for movement.