Bhits

[dragondmii]

well im not sure if this is the right method for posting games made fro the 24 bit but here goes nothing (if this is the wrong place or wrong format let me know)

before i add it to this post please be aware i give this a personal 5 out of 10 (im very harsh on all of my work) one i dont like how nature magic turned out and i dont like that i didnt go deep into story or dming but other then that im proud of it so please read it and give me your opinions

24 HOUR GAME DESIGN
Start: 7:00pm 6/19/2008

Welcome to BHITS (Big Hat In The Sky) the game of western magic.

well this is my first attempt at a 24 hour game, I cut it short because I knew that if I started into the last bit id go crazy with my limited time left (less then an hour), but for my first attempt I don’t think its too bad. I know there are spelling and grammar errors everywhere, English has always been a weak subject for me. On that line of though please let me know if you find any thing that absolutely needs to be changed. If there are any comments about the actual system let me know as well. I hope this lives up to the 24 game standard and I hope I have to opportunity to do this again this was a blast.

Ending time : 6:10 pm 6/20/2008

 
Character creation
Characters have 3 major parts to them: Profession, Skills, and Gear. All three will be vital to playing BHITS and will color your character and the world around her. Each player starts with 30 profession points to develop their profession, 14 skill points to add ranks to skill, and $10 to buy starting gear.
Profession
A profession has 3 elements in it: Health, Skills, and Start Wealth. Each player has 30 profession points (pp) to define their profession.
Health
1pp D6
2pp D8
4pp D10
8pp D12
Skills 2pp/rank
Starting Wealth 5pp/$5
Unused points become extra hit points at the end of creating a profession.

Example: John wants to create a horse wrangler named Buck Rickleffs. He wants Buck to have plenty of health but not an over abundance so he selects D10 for his hit dice(4 pp) and he knows he needs Buck to be good with horses so he spends the points for 3 ranks in the ride skill(6pp), he also wants Buck to be able to, as his profession name, wrangle livestock so he gets rank 2 in wrangle(4pp). from here we wants to make sure that Buck can defend himself so he puts 2 ranks in to both firearms and dodge(4pp each 8 total) and 2 ranks into brawl(4pp). last but not least he wants Buck to be able to notice things easily, so he give Buck 2 ranks in perception(4pp). now he has spent 24pp(4(hd)+6(ride) +4(wrangle) +4(firearms) +4(dodge) +4(brawl) +4(perception)) and has 6 points to spare so John decides to give Buck extra dollars in starting cash (5pp), leaving him with one extra point which will get added to his hit point total at the end of character creation.

Skills
Skills are the bread and butter of a character and will have the most influence on what she is capable of each player begins play with 14 skill points to be divided as she see fit. The skills of BHITS are listed below and all of them are bought at a rate of 1 skill point equals one rank.
Ride riding a horse
Brawl fist fight
Firearms gun fight
Dodge gun defense
Channeling magic fight European magic elemental based
Abjuration magic defense European magic elemental based
Nature Magic spells Native American based nature magic more ritualistic
Wrangle handle animal
Innuendo understand the sub text
Perception see, hear, listen, smell, taste
Intuition skill ask dm for extra information player is missing
Persuasion convince npc
Deal trade skill
Medicine heal skill
Larceny stealing

Example: now John needs to give Buck some skills so he starts with the ones he wants Buck to be good at so he spend 2 sp each into Ride, Wrangle, Firearms, and Dodge(total 8 skill points). From there he decides that Buck wants to be able to defend himself form magic so he gives Buck 1 rank in Abjuration (1sp), and it will be important for Buck to care for his wounds so he add 1 rank in Medicine(1sp). John decides that he wants Buck have a lot of common sense so he give Buck 3 ranks Intuition (3sp). And lastly he wants Buck to be able to get items a little cheaper so he gives Buck 1 rank in Deal (1sp) for a total of 14 skill points used (2(Ride) +2(Wrangle) +2(Firearms) +2(Dodge) +1(Abjuration) +1(Medicine) +3(Intuition) +1(Deal))

Gear
Each player starts with $10 in cash to spend on gear or to keep and use later. In addition if a players profession gives her extra cash that player starts play with that cash as well.

Example: Buck’s profession gives him an extra $5 so he starts the game with $15. This means he has just enough for a pistol and some basic supplies, but no horse so he will have to find a job where he can put his wrangling skills to work so he will be able to afford a horse.

Leveling
In BHITS characters have a level, at character creation this level is 1, that is noting more then a point of reference because unlike in most game where high levels control certain abilities in BHITS skills, not level, control aptitude at a given task so as you character gains level she gains skill points. Each new level your character gains 2 new skill points and every 5th level she gains an other hit dice, which one is based on your profession.
Example: after taking out the cattle rustlers hideout and bring the rustlers to the sheriff Buck gain 5 experience points, enough to bring him up to level 5. At this level Buck gains another 2 skill points and also gains his next hit dice. Because of his profession Buck add 1d10 hit points to his hit point total.

Stats your character needs to have written down
Your name as a player
Your characters name
Characters Hit Point total and current hit points
Skills
Your profession
Your gear

[dragondmii]

 
Skills
Ride riding a horse
Brawl fist fight
Firearms gun fight
Dodge gun defense
Channeling magic fight European magic elemental based
Abjuration magic defense European magic elemental based
Nature Magic spells Native American based nature magic more ritualistic
Wrangle handle animal
Innuendo understand the sub text
Perception see, hear, listen, smell, taste
Intuition skill ask dm for extra information player is missing
Persuasion convince npc
Deal trade skill
Medicine heal skill
Larceny stealing

Ride
Ride is the skill that controls riding a horse. Ride is a standard skill and some standard checks needed are listed below.
Stay on a horse after getting hit 3+damage taken
Stay on a horse while galloping 7

Brawl
Brawl is the attack and defense skill for fist to fist fighting. While fighting with fists your damage is 1d6 and follows the stunning rules. Weapons assist in this roll and drop the stunning rule.

Firearms
Firearms is your accuracy at shooting a gun, be it a rifle or a pistol, and is also the combat skill for ranged combat.

Dodge
Dodge is your ability to keep yourself out of other peoples line of fire. This is the ranged defense skill and is the skill used to oppose Firearms.

Channeling
Channeling is the combat form of European magic and is the magic combat skill which you use to attack others with magic.

Abjuration
Abjuration is a European art of canceling or blocking magic in what every from it comes. Abjuration is the magic defense skill and is used to oppose Channeling in combat. To use Abjuration the defender must spend one of his actions every turn to keep the magic shield working thus this skill is less effective when dealing with a surprise attack must be used under tricky conditions (-2 on every dice).

Nature Magic
Nature Magic is the Shamanistic magic of the native people of the Americas and does not have the weaponized training or potential of European magic, but what it lacks in offensive capabilities it makes up for in utilitarian spells. Read about nature magic in the Magic section. Nature magic is a standard skill.
Cast a spell dependent on the spell
Maintain focus 7+damage dealt

Wrangle
Wrangle is skill in controlling and moving live stock. Wrangle is a standard skill.
Make live stock move equal to the number of live stock
Train an animal equal to its hit dice

Innuendo
Innuendo is skill at both hiding and hearing messages in a conversation besides what is actually being said. Innuendo is a standard skill that uses opposed rolls to determine if the message was hidden or read properly.

Perception
Perception is your standard 5 senses. Perception is a standard skill and some standard checks needed are listed below.
Hear something 4 or stealth (subject to distance)
See something 4 or stealth (subject to distance)
Feel something 4 or stealth (subject to distance)
Smell something 8 or stealth (subject to distance)
Taste something 8 or stealth

Stealth
Stealth is your skill at hiding things, be it yourself, another character, or even the scent of blood. Stealth is a standard skill, to use it make a roll and write that number down the only way to know if something was detected is if someone points it out.

Intuition
Intuition is a special skill in that it allows the player to ask the Big Hat for any piece of information they as players may have missed, and through a mix of luck and information the character may be getting for somewhere the players don’t know about, but should have. This skill will not always produce information and the Big Hat is the final arbiter on whether there is any information to be gleaned here and how hard it is to know. Other then the special nature of the skill Intuition follows standard skill rules.

Persuasion
Persuasion is your characters ability to convince other characters that he is right weather he is or not, this skill includes everything from lying to basic diplomatic skills. Persuasion is a standard skill, and uses opposed rolls.

Deal
Deal is skill at haggling over prices. Deal is a standard skill, and uses opposed rolls.

Medicine
Medicine is skill at caring for wonders and healing people back to health. Medicine is a standard skill and some standard checks needed are listed below. A note that care can only be given if the patient has been treated for wounds first, thus healing a patient does nothing but make it possible to care for them until they are well again.
Stabilize a patient 10
Heal 5 points of damage or less 10
Heal 20 points of damage or less 15
Care for patient till fully healed 5 every day health regained at a rate of 5 a day.

Larceny
Larceny is skill at stealing thin

Gambling
Gambling is skill at cards or dice, this a quick way to earn money but also a quick way to make it. Gambling is a standard skill, but you must first place a bet “on the table” before making the check, if you beat the Big Hat you the pot, which is based on how many players are there, but if you lose you get nothing. Also be aware the Big Hat gets a roll for each opponent.


 
Gear
In this section every thing is listed with a dollar value but unlike in modern times much of the prices were haggled over thus all prices listed are only suggestions and are subject to change at a moments notice as decided by the Big Hat, also through use of the Deal skill many of these prices can be lowered.


Guns
Rifles $12.50
Pistols $11
Scatter $13
Livestock
Cow $50
Horse untrained $60
Horse Trained $100+

Magic
Spells books
Fire $8
Water $6.5
Earth $5
Wind $6.5
Magic ammo
Rifle
Flame Cartridge 65¢ each
Gust Cartridge 50¢ each
Spike Cartridge $ 10 each
Pistol
Flame Cartridge 50¢ each
Gust Cartridge 40¢ each
Ammo
Guns
Rifle 50 rounds $1
Scatter gun 50 rounds $1
Pistol 50 rounds 50¢
Magic
Mana 10 vials $1

Gear descriptions
Guns
Rifles
Rifles come in many makes and models but for the purposes of BHITS all rifles perform the same. All rifles at this time have an internal magazine of 6 rounds and all rifles do 2D10 points of damage, but because of their size and weight they require two hands to use. Rifles have a maximum range of extreme and treat the penalty for shooting at a distance as one less then it actual is.
Pistols
Pistols come in as many varieties as there are people on this earth but for the purposes of BHITS they will all have the same mechanical stats. A pistol in BHITS actually refers to a revolver and thus all pistols have up to 6 rounds at a time inside of them and do 1d10 points of damage. The advantage they have over rifles is that they may be wielded one handed. Pistols have a maximum range of long.
Scatter Guns
Scatter Guns, or more commonly known as shotguns, do 2d10 points of damage and always follow the scatter rules. Scatter guns have a maximum range of long.
Magic
Spells
Fire
Fire magic as a weapon comes in the form of thrown fire balls these deal 3d10 damage but follows scatter rules. Each use of this spell costs one vial of mana. Fire magic has a maximum range of long.
Water
Water magic as a weapon comes in the form of a small but focused ball of water that deals 3d6 damage. Each use of this spell costs one vial of mana. Water magic has a maximum range of extreme.
Earth
Earth magic as a weapon comes in the form of Spikes that rise under the target and deal 3d10 damage. It takes a single turn to bring this spell into effect during which it is unable to attack. The spell stays in effect for 3 turns after this during which time it may make 3 separate attacks, at a rate of one per turn. Each use of this spell costs one vial of mana. Earth magic has a maximum range of long.
Wind
Wind magic as a weapon comes in the form a small jet that strikes the target dealing 3d10 points of damage, all of which follow the stunning rules. Each use of this spell costs one vial of mana. Wind magic has a maximum range of extreme.
Magic Ammo
Flame Cartridge
Flame Cartridges use fire magic to add +1d10 damage and will light flammable objects on fire.
Gust Cartridge
Gust Cartridges uses wind magic to make the gun follow the stunning rules.
Spike Cartridge
Spike Cartridges are exceedingly deadly rounds that are illegal to own and not mass produced, which leads to a high price and common appearance among criminals. A spike Cartridge does 5d10 points of damage per shot.

[dragondmii]

 
Combat and Other Rules
Combat happens when some one attacks some one else. The attacker makes an attack roll and the defender rolls a defense roll, and then both compare results and decide the winner based on the highest score. An attack roll entails rolling a number of dice equal to your rank in the appropriate attacking skill, and a defense roll entails rolling a number of dice equal to your rank in the appropriate defense skill. Both the attacker and the defender total all the numbers on the dice and compare the totals, highest total wins.

Firing a firearm at some one
Firearms Vs. Dodge
Attacking some one with a spell
Channel Vs. Abjuration
Fist Fights
Brawl vs. Brawl
Example: Buck decides to shoot at the Indians attacking his camp so John rolls a firearms check and the Big Hat rolls a dodge check for the Indian. John rolls 4d6 (4 ranks in firearms) and gets a total of 12, and the Big Hat rolls 3d6 (3 ranks in dodge) and 10. Because John rolled higher he hits the Indian and proceeds to roll damage, but if the Big Hat had rolled higher then John Buck would have missed the Indian.

Range
Weapons in BHITS have a maximum range and can fire at any point closer then the maximum range. The ranges, in order from closest to farthest from the shooter, are: close, standard, distanced, long, far, extreme, and continental. Rifles have a maximum range of extreme and pistols have a range of long, but of course the Big Hat may find or make models that defy these rules. For measurement purposes close is less than 15 yards, standard is less than 40 yards, distanced is less then 80 yards, long is less than 100 yards, long is less than 250 yards, far is less than 500 yards, extreme is less then 1000 yards, and continental is less then 2000 yards. For each range beyond close all weapons loss one dice on attacks to represent the drastic loss of accuracy.

Prohibiting conditions
Prohibiting conditions covers every thing from a target taking cover to being unable to move your hands to cast your spell. When I character is subject to prohibiting conditions each dice they roll to accomplish the prohibited task takes a penalty appropriate to the situation, thus these numbers are largely up to the Big Hat.
-1 slightly harder
-2 tricky
-3 challenging
-4 difficult seeing something during a rain storm
-5 extremely hard
-6 impossible, (auto fail)
As a side note it is not even possible to complete an impossible task(hence the name), this would be something like being hog tied and unable to move over to your gun on the other side of the room so you can shoot the bad guy.
Similar to prohibiting conditions there are certain conditions that assist you in doing certain tasks.
+1 ease
+2 Simple
+3 effortless
Is it possible to fail an effortless task? Yes ever seen some one fall going up a flight of stairs?

Movement
Characters move about 3 miles an hour while traveling, where as horses walk about 4 miles an hour, trot about 9 miles per hour, and canter about 15 miles per hour. This information is useful for calculating movement overland for large distances but rather useless in a fire fight or while walking around town, for these short distances it is more efficient to know that characters on foot can move about 20 to 40 feet in one turn, note that this is different from most systems in that characters don’t have a set speed rather they can move about 20 to 40 feet to either take cover or get a line of sight on a target. Exact distances don’t matter and as such a grid is not necessary.

Skill rolls
Standard skills follow the following rules. When you roll a skill check you roll a number of D6 equal to your ranks in that skill and take the total, you are trying to get higher then a given number to be successful at a the task you are attempting.

Death and dying
When a character is reduced to 0 or less hit points he begins dieing, at this point he has 3 turns to either get at least basic medical care or die. If a character is reduced to a negative number less than her level she remains conscious and my attempt the medical treatment necessary herself, otherwise the character is unconscious and begins bleeding out, and after 3 rounds of bleeding out the character is dead. In certain case the Big Hat may wish to extend this bleeding period.

Special combat conditions and summaries
Stunning
Stunning is a special kind of damage that should be counted separate from normal damage, when you have few hit points left in your normal damage count then hit point left in your stunning damage count you pass out.
Scatter
Scatter weapons deal the most damage at close range and less and less as they move farther down range. A Scatter weapon takes -1 damage per dice for each range unit the weapon is fired beyond the first.
 
Magic
There are two types of magic in the world of BHITS, European magic and Nature magic. European magic is based on the classical elements of earth, fire, wind, and water, where as Nature magic is based on the natural world and follows a more shamanistic tradition. European magic in its traditional form is quick to cast compared to the slow style of nature magic.

European magic
Earth
Earth magic involves moving heavy objects and is most commonly seen in the construction of castles and also in the siege-ing of them.
Fire
Fire magic is the most destructive style of European magic and is also seen powering smithy’s in rich towns.
Wind
Wind magic has a long tradition among all of the seafarers of the European world.
Water
Water magic is the least offensive of the European types of magic and is use far and wide to keep water available to remote outposts.

Nature magic
Nature magic is different form European magic in that even the simplest spell feels like a ritual because of the methods for communing with the power of the earth to make the spells happen. As well as taking a long time to cast nature magic has the potential to make any thing that could naturally occur happen, with the Big Hats discretion of course. Take the time to sit down with the Big Hat and talk you spell over with him or her, but be aware that this should take quite a bit of time and probably some other hard to get natural resources (like deer antlers). Once the ritual time and resources are set the Big Hat needs to set a score for you to make, every hour, on a Nature Magic check, if you should fail hope that your Big Hat is a nice person.
 
Big Hat In The Sky (BHITS)
In an attempt to not call the Game Master the DM or GM I jokingly came up with Big Hat In The Sky and I decided I like the name so much I named the whole system that. But for all of you out there that miss your DM the Big Hat is really the same thing, somewhere deep in his cowboy heart. The Big Hat runs all of the NPC and creates the towns the players visit, its his job to make sure every ones have a good time and see to it that the story, whatever that me be, carries through to its ends.

NPC’s
Npc are real easy just make a character that does what you need out of the npc

Town Creation
The actual layout of your town is irrelevant but a few things are common to every town from a western setting.
Sheriffs office/ jail
Church
General store
Saloon
A Barn
And so on if you need help with this go watch some western flicks (which is suggested any way because that’s the basis of the setting), I suggest any thing with John Wayne or “Open Range”.

[tadk]

Nice post there
Usually the 24 hr RPG is submitted off the main page as a single document
If you need help with that let me know and we can work on it