Petals in the Wind (split from Struggling for a balance)

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Ok first off this thread started here http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=ugn9il9amtf8ma66ggcmdhkbo2lfb268&topic=24840.0 however due to the fact that I very, very poorly organized the previous thread it seemed to be causing more confusion to people than desirable, so I have started this thread as a fresh start to the idea of the previous.

Setting:
There was some request for a bit of word on the setting intended so I will throw a brief description here.

At it's core the setting is tangents, with a healthy dose of cthulhu thrown in for good measure. The concept of the metaverse is that ancient great gods who once lived have long since passed away their blood representing creation and time. As the gods essence bleeds out into the void timelines split apart creating many varied realities. Another byproduct of this constant expansion is that the realities which originated from one fallen god have begun to blend and mesh together.

Characters are displaced "petals in the wind" sheered from the comfort of their sanity and flung far into the ranks of the blood wars. They must take their place amongst the verse choosing sides carefully. Will you side with the glorious light of Yahweh who in times beyond our own sought to bring an end to his siblings wars, his insidious siblings who seek to consume the essence of their brethren, or one of the endless cults of mortals desperately clawing at the chance of divinity.

System:
"Petals in the Wind" is a game system which I hope will promote a dynamic and immersive game experience. The way I hope to capture this game play is through the use of descriptors in the actions that characters take to further draw the players into the action. I also want to set in place a method for characters to bid on and alter to a degree the story and realities which the characters inhabit due to the morphic qualities of the setting.

Attributes:
Each character has three attributes, World, Flesh, and Devil all ranked from 1-5. These attributes represent both, a factor in the maximum amount of dice you can roll, as well as hit point values.

Hit Points:
There are three hit point tracks each named and corresponding to the three attributes. These attributes each have three separate tracks as follows, flesh = value of attribute, wound = ½ flesh, and mortal = ½ wound. Damage is described further below.

Traits:
Traits are general terms with numerical value attached to it acting as a more narrowly focused attribute. Traits can be anything from swordsman, to soldier, courtesan, to fast talking. The balance struck between balanced and narrow traits falls in conflict between characters with the character having the most narrow trait gaining 1 extra d6.

Kewl Powerz:
Kewl Powrz are basically anything that is not a piece of removable equipment, or trait/attribute, that offers some game effect. Generally these are amazing stunts of immense skill and application, as well as mythical powers. A fully functional and not overly clunky system by which Kewl Powerz can be created pretty much on the fly. One thing about Kewl Powerz is that they are dynamic, and thus can only be used if enough descriptors are added to an action to make it succeed.

Gear:
Gear is a cross between traits and Kewl Powerz, but ultimately break down to anything that is not a permanent part of the character.

Getting things done
(all dice used are d6) (For those less creative groups
Basic Conflict:
All actions in Petals in the Wind are descriptive concepts. The way each conflict is played out is as follows.
1.   Determine the attributes, traits, and any other miscellaneous bonuses together to determine your "maximum dice pool" no more dice than this may be rolled unless other wise stated by some gear or Kewl Powerz. When the gm creates a difficulty for a task it should be represented in a maximum dice pool amount.
2.   Starting with the conflict initiator (this includes the gm if the player is competing against certain none character aspects of the game environment) and going clockwise around the table description is added to the action and response and thus one dice to their pool each cycle.
3.   If a player runs out of dice to add their descriptive input ends, likewise if a player falters in response he misses his turn to add description that pass as well as 1 of the possible max d6 they could add to the check.
4.   Once the dice pools have been confirmed the parties involved roll their pools. Which ever party involved rolls the highest total pool wins.  To tally your total pool value take all the even sided dice and add them together, no odd sized are used unless otherwise stated.

Combat

Combat differs from standard conflict in that it is a series of conflicts played out in rapid succession. To organize these combats two extra rules must be taken into consideration, initiative, and damage.

Initiative:
Before damage can even be thought off people must act and to decide turn order you must roll a number of dice equal to your attribute separating all of the even dice out. There will be three total rounds 2,4, and 6 and your character can act a number of times within each round equal to the number of dice which correspond with the round. Conflicting turn order is handled through whom ever has the highest total value if they were to add all of their dice together.

Damage:
Characters inevitably want to hurt one another...whether its emotionally or physically we seem to like hurting others, and Petals in the Wind has kept such things in mind. Before taking damage you will want to understand the damage tracks. Each stat has its own unique track to keep track of damage as follows.
Flesh: represents physical damage to the character, if these tracks are fully filled the player gains a permanent physical ailment.
World: Represents emotional damage to the character, and when the tracks are filled the character gains a "response" which is incontinently brought up in certain situations.
Devil: Represents mental fatigue and when depleted leaves characters psychologically scared.

The severities of damage are flesh, wound, and mortal and they are determined as follows:
Flesh: is equal to twice the value of the attribute in question.
Wound: is equal to the rank of the attribute in question.
Mortal: is equal to half the attribute it relates to.

A player receives damage when an action that is determined to be damaging occurs the individual will receive a number of damage equal to the number of odd dice rolled.

Weapons and Armor
Weapons and armor are a special type of much loved gear by players and will offer a special type of dice to a players pool which should be represented by other colored dice. These extra dice if they turn up to be odds will either subtract the amount of damage taken or add to it. All damage is standard flesh unless otherwise stated.

I really hate to run so quick but I have to go pick the girl from school. Upon quick review this appears to be everything I think is needed if not let me know I will be back tonight and tomorrow night to do some work on it.

Right now my question is how playable does the system come off in the areas of:

Ease of use?

Fun factor?

And fairness?

Much thanks to those who posted to the original thread I hope this provides a better glimpse at what I am working on. Once I can nail down and week points and things like that in the game I will build and diverge from there. There are some things like the Kewl Powerz and such which I have purposely waited to expand on.

Regards, Seth

[Vulpinoid]

That seems to be a fairly concise and handy game mechanic.

My only question for "kewl powers" and "gear", is whether you are going to base these off form or function.

If a character is projecting a divine energy blast, will the basis of the "kewl power" be the fact that it's a blast that does damage (form)? Or will it be described in the form of a damage effect that comes in the form of a blast (function)?

It's a subtle difference at it's core level, but this kind of defining aspect can really focus the way the remainder of the game mechanics are derived.

If it's a blast, then you'll probably end up with dozens (if not hundreds) of specific powers; for example, numerous blasts that do different types of things. Each of these specific instances will be easy to grasp, but the overwhelming number of them could be off putting.

If it's a damage effect, then you can describe a wide variety of effects by combining a few simpler game mechanics. For example, it's a "Damage" effect, it's a "Ranged", and it causes an "Elemental Fire" impact when it hits. With maybe twenty or so of these general terms, you can mix and match powers to create a huge range of effects with minimal rules explanations. The problem here is that a lot of players don't easily grasp the concepts of mix-n-match powers and the basic forms of the powers aren't as simple as the one off explanations above.

I'm just thinking in text here, but it looks like you've got some good ideas that you're working with...

V

[Seth M. Drebitko]

" If a character is projecting a divine energy blast, will the basis of the "kewl power" be the fact that it's a blast that does damage (form)? Or will it be described in the form of a damage effect that comes in the form of a blast (function)? "

I will probably try and do a cross between the two. For example BESM, and Mutants and Masterminds provide the bases for almost anythign you could possibly imagen, and on the off chance their once something they did not add the ground work for creating it was already in place.

Regards, Seth

[Seth M. Drebitko]

One thing I have been contemplating incorporating is the idea of plot hooks as a way to gain experience, as the game emphases drama, and descriptive growth. What I want is for players to have a pool of resources used to invest in both the characters development, as well as story development.
What I am thinking is that when ever something in the game happens which a player feels is to them important they can invest experience in it. Writing it down and as it appears in future events they will gain experience from it. Now one thing I am having problems with is balance. Obviously the problem of a players investing in story elements for character growth is the potential for to many loose plotlines lying around.

What I am looking to know, are some opinions on what might be a good method for hampering players from creating to many plot lines. So far I am just thinking a max allowance at any given time so that there is only so much influence on the plot from any given player at any one time, but I am not sure how that would fly with people.
Regards, Seth

[lighthouse]

Powers should not be "cool", they should not be added just for the sake of being added, imho. Instead they should be an integral part of the game.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

My bad in the wording. "powers" are in fact very important to game play as they affect the flow of things outside normal action res. One of the key things that I meant by "cool" was more of a descriptive appeal to things. More or less "Kewl Powerz" are nothing special compared to other rpgs abilities, except that they incorporate a need for descriptive elements.

Regards, Seth