[Ruined Lands] Take-2

[ghostwolf]

Questions to consider while reading this:
1: Does the character generation method allow enough lee-way?  Does it encourage specialization?
2: LUCK...good meta-stat? Well explained?
3: Is the combat resolution/dice tests mechanic streamlined and easy to use?
4:  Psionics.  It's rough...I know...but is it cool??  Does it encourage creativity and co-operation between player and GM?
5: general suggestions, comments, critiques are appreaciated and much needed.


stats-
Each stat starts at a base level of 1.  The player has 20 points to divide between the stats.

Vitality- A measure of health, strength and endurance.  Also used for Resisting physical damage.
Agility- manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, reflexes. Also used to determine action sequence.
Aura- Raw psionic power.  Also used for resisting Psionic damage.
Combat-  combat abilities, be it with weapons or hand to hand
Lore- Knowledge of the ancients and how to use their technology
Psionics-  Ability to direct psionic power to a useful end
Personality- leadership ability, diplomacy, charisma

LUCK-  Luck is a special stat, no points can be added directly to it during character creation.  The starting level of Luck is equal to the Aura score.  Luck is used to modify dice rolls to force success or failure. Luck can be increased by GM rewards.

Dice Mechanics-

Dice tests are used to resolve actions as follows:
1. Determine relevant stat.
2. Player and GM each roll 1d10 and add the stat to it.  The higher total wins the roll.
3. If the player failed the roll, he may use his luck to modify it.  At the cost of 1 luck point, the player can either modify his roll by his current luck, or force a reroll of his or the GM's die.  
Luck used in this fashion refreshes at the end of the current adventure or at GM's discretion.  Luck can also be used to force a total failure.  Luck used in this fashion is permenantly spent.

Combat-

Initiative:  At the start of each round, all players involved in combat roll 1d10 and add their Agility.  GM rolls for each NPC.  Actions proceed from Highest to lowest, ties are broken by Higher agility.

During his action, a character can move at a normal pace and attack anything in range of his weapons or psionic abilities, or use his whole action to run at or away from combat.

Attacks are resolved in 2 steps:
1: Roll for hit. If attacker rolls higher on 1d10+combat he scores a hit. Tie goes to defender.
2: Roll for damage. If attacker rolls higher on 1d10+weapon bonus vs 1d10+vitality, targets vitality is reduced by 1. Tie goes to defender.

When a character is reduced to 0 vitality, he falls unconcious.  Any further damage will kill him.

Psionics-

Notes on Aura:  Aura is used to resists psionic powers.  It is also drained while using said powers against someone or something.  Aura refreshes slowly, at 1 point for 10 minutes of rest.  If aura is reduced to 0 by use or resisting attacks, the character falls unconcious.

There are several different psionic focuses.  At creation, the character may choose 2 focuses, one major and one minor.  

Focuses:
Thinker (Telepathy)
Mover (Telekinetics)
Changer (Bio-Manipulation, ex Healing, changing bodyform, boosting physical abilities)
Burner (Pyro-kinetics)
Seer (Clairivoyance, remote viewing, divination)

Minor focuses are limited to simple things, such as a Mover picking up a small rock with his power, or a Thinker projecting a message to a single person.  Minor focus use costs 1 point of aura.  Major focuses are limited only by how strong the character's aura is, and how skilled he is with  psionics.  Major focuses can use as much aura as the character wishes to spend.  The more aura used, the more powerful the effect.  If a Mover chose to use 5 aura, he could potentially crush the walls of a concrete building, or rip a tank open.  This would, or course, leave him weak and vulnerable to attack, until he could rest.

Psionic tests are slightly different than regular tests.  The GM determines the difficulty of what the character is trying to do and sets it from 1 (trivial) to 10 (HOLY COW That was awesome!) and adds this number to d10 roll.  The player rolls d10+Psionic+Aura used.  If he beats the GM roll, the power is used successfully. If this is a combat situation, the player then rolls d10+Psionic vs opponents d10+aura to see if the attack succeeds.  Physical attacks (telekinetics, Pyro-kinetics) are resisted by vitality.

[ghostwolf]

Also, on the combat system:  along with streamlined and easy to use, does it look like it would encourage speedy combat resolution, instead of bogged down d20/shadowrun type combat?

[Mike Holmes]

I think that combat resolution would be fairly quick, yes. There are a number of questions that will come up with it, however, that might need to be addressed. Since it's a "rounds" system with initiative and all, you will probably need to consider things like disengaging from combat. Can a player simply have their character run at any time, or do they have to make a combat v combat roll on their turn to do so?

That sort of thing.

Mike