Se7en: A 'Generic' rpg

[erithromycin]

This grew out of an idea I had about an hour ago. It's posted here rather than at a URL for convenience, probably more on my part than yours. This is an attempt to address some of the suggestions made about PUNk, and, well, I like it, but I would.

Se7en – The RPG: This is a game where the place of an action in your moral compass affects the likelihood of you succeeding. Higher for positive things, lower for negative things! Attributes let you change the value, lower if they are 'bad', higher if they are 'good'! That is to say, intimidate subtracts from your inspire, so on and so forth. Or rather, inspire subtracts from your attempt to intimidate. It'll all made be clearer later. Anyway, that's the spectacularly innovative and unique thing here. Unless it isn't.
All measure(s) start at 0. You can add or subtract points at will, in that a point subtracted 'buys' you a point to add somewhere else, and you have se7en other points to manipulate stuff with. No attribute may be higher or lower than 4/-4. Basically, you can fiddle about with it, as long as the totals aren't any more than 7 or any less than –7. In fact, it's recommended that the total be either one of those.
There is no intelligence statistic, because they annoy me, and because this system was grown out of the early work that went into NTRM and PUNk. Other influences include Sorcerer, V:TM, Suzerain, and Sunset: Resurrection [Season One]. This is a vaguely universal system, and here are the attributes.

Se7en Attributes:
Agility  - Moving self
Inkling    - Noticing/Knowing stuff
Inspire    - Affecting others' emotions
Sleight  - Manipulating things
Stamina  - Resisting/pressing on
Strength - Lifting/pushing
Se7enth      

The Se7enth Attribute: This is the special one, the one that sets you apart. 'Normal' people only have the first six attributes, and only have six points to spread over them. This can be anything, literally anything, that fits, like net.goth, or wizard, or medium, or artisan, or artiste, or well, whatever's appropriate to the nature of the character. Warrior, psychic, wiseguy, teacher, all these things are possible. It can be a profession [milkman], a species [monster], a description [vampish], a totem [penguin], or a deity [mercury]. Where it fits into your conception of this ability, you can use it. Details are in the other bit called The Se7enth Attribute. It is strongly suggested that you talk through with your GM your ideas for your se7enth ability, if only to ensure that what you hope it can do isn't at odds with the way the game is intended to work. It's only fair, after all. If you can't fit it into se7en letters, well, you're going to have to try again. Sorry. Then again, it still leaves a lot of room for messing about.

For example: I am, apparently, Wolfish, so I look a little like this:
Agility      +1   Inkling      +2
Inspire      +2   Sleight      +1
Stamina      +0   Strength   -1
Wolfish      +2

Mechanic: To inspire somebody with a speech, I roll on 2D6, and add my Inspire. As it's a positive thing to I'm looking to get more than 7 on 2D6+2. If I get 7, that's a single, basic success. 8, is another, 10, 11, 12, and 12 even more so. 14 is just a little better. It's a critical. It counts as 5 successes, and lets me gain a point of Fortune. The more successful I am, the better I do. Hardly surprising really. 9 is a special case. As it's a natural seven, I get a single success.
To intimidate somebody, using words, I roll on 2D6, and add my Inspire. I'm looking to get less than 7 on 2D6+2, as it's a negative thing. If I get a 7, that too is a single, basic success. 6 is two successes, 5, three, 4, a critical. That's 5 successes, and I gain a point of Trouble. A 9 is still a success, however, as it too is a natural seven. It gets me a single success.
If you fail, you fail. You can convert a failure on a 'positive' roll to a single success with a point of Fortune. You can convert a failure on a 'negative' roll with a point of Trouble.
To recap: Try to get se7en, then under it if what you're doing is negative, over it if what you're doing is positive. Criticals occur on a natural 2 or 12, and give 5 successes, and a point of Trouble or Fortune. A natural seven always gives a single success.

Trouble and Fortune: Spend a point of Trouble to reduce a roll by one. Spend a
point of Fortune to increase a roll by one. Spend a point of either to convert a failure into a single success. A roll can't be made a critical by using Trouble and Fortune. You start with se7en points of Trouble and Fortune, split however you choose.

Combat and Opposed Rolls: The most successes wins. Harsh, but there.  If you're daft enough to bring in combat, then all I have to say to you is here are the rules. Use what's appropriate. Attacking someone may, in fact, be a positive option. Let your moral compass guide you. If you succeed in hitting someone, you'll damage them with your margin [here Fortune and Trouble are shown to be quite useful here.
You can attempt to use Stamina to absorb damage. Try to get as many successes as your opponent did. What you don't absorb, you have to carry. When you get to se7en points, you're winded, 4ourteen wounded, and at 2wenty-one you're dead. Winded means you lose a success from every roll, wounded means you lose two successes, trying to do stuff when you're dead is just silly. When it comes to damage, Clubs and the like double damage, knives and stuff triple it, fire-arms quadruple it.

The Se7enth Attribute: If it's appropriate, lets you get more successes. Just add them on, after you roll seperately. This is the advantage of the se7enth ability, the one that sets you apart. So, to inspire with a Wolfish grin, I do that, and add my successes on. No matter how many successes you add though, you can't make a failure a success wthout the use of Fortune or Trouble. To intimidate with a growl, I do the same. The se7enth attribute can be used for good as well as bad, so you can keep it at any level that you want. Remember of course, that in some games, my being Wolfish just means I'm hairy and lithe, with strong teeth, and that in others it means that every full moon I shed my skin to run with a pack.

What do you think?

[Edit] I left out seven=success. It is now in. [/Edit]
_________________
"I wouldn't be satisfied with a roleplaying  session if I wasn't turned into a turkey or something"

[ This Message was edited by: erithromycin on 2001-12-15 22:40 ]