Story Telling mechanic concept

[gameskald]

Just a concept I recently had for a Freeform style Storytelling type game. What I have so far could really be used in any genre... I wanted to get some feedback on it from the crowd here. As you will see from reading the rules, character creation is quick and easy, and continues throughout play. I decided on this style of continued creation as I am personally sick of 3 hour character creation sessions. Sorry if there are any typos in the write up.

The Characters
Roll a d100 5 times.
Cross-reference your rolls on the following chart and make note of the titles you are given.

01-20 = Poor
21-60 = Mediocre/Average
61-80 = Good
81-95 = Great
96-00 = Legendary

Now write a description of your character. Be anything you want that your Game master will allow. Character creation should be done with your Game Master, even if you just run the idea of your character by your GM. Descriptions of your character do not have to be a book, a few sentences will work fine. In fact the more precise the description the easier the game will be to play.

Ex. We rolled a Poor, 2 Goods a Great and an Legendary.
Gunther is a Barbarian from the northern region of the world. The strength of Gunthar is LEGENDARY but is counter balanced by his POOR intellect.

During the clan wars of his people Gunthar became a great GREAT swordsman and quite GOOD at sailing as his clan would sail across the narrow channel between their land and that of their enemies. Since those times Gunther has been travelling through the world and found that the ladies of the land have found him quite GOOD looking.

You will notice that we make reference to some information that is actual world history. Depending on your GM and the world your character will be adventuring in you may be able to create some historical references on your own.

Story Points
Now we roll the d100 again to see how many story points your character begins the game with.

01-10 = 1 Story point
11-20 = 2 Story points
21-30 = 3 Story points
31-40 = 4 Story points
41-60 = 5 Story points
61-90 = 6 Story points
91-00 = 7 Story points

Story points can be used before, during and after game play has begun. These points can be used however the player wishes to assist with advancing the story, so long as the GM approves of the use. For instance you can use Story points to add to your characters description. 1-story point could be used during character creation to make the character very wealthy. Or players can use them to give their character some mystical weapon or ability. They can also be used in combat.

Once a story point is used it is gone forever. However you can earn more as you progress in your game.

Characters with Legendary abilities
Legendary Abilities and Fame are not the same. Characters with Legendary abilities do not come with fame. However, fame can be bought with Story Points. Having a Legendary ability merely means that you have the potential to become a legend for that ability, but first you have to show it off to the masses.


Fame
All characters being the game with no Fame, unless it is bought with Story Points. Players may only spend 1 story point on fame. Fame works as a direct percentage. If the GM wants to see if someone recognizes the character they will roll a d100, if the roll is lower than the Characters fame score then the non-player character will have heard of the character. The greater the difference the more they would have heard.

Ex. Gunther has a Fame score of 25. The GM rolls the d100 to see if Edgar has ever heard of Gunther.
 If he rolls higher than 25 then Edgar has never heard of Gunther.
 If he rolls a 24 Edgar may recognize Gunther's name and perhaps may have perhaps heard of how strong he is, but he wouldn't recognize Gunther by sight.
 If he rolls a 15 Edgar will know who he is and perhaps have heard of some of his adventures.
 If he rolls a 01 then Edgar would recognize Gunther on sight and know every tale Gunther    had ever been involved in.

The Fame system truly relies on the GM to decide what stories the NPC would know and finds the task up to them to determine the range of the roll they have made. However the closer the roll is to the Fame score the less the NPC knows.

Characters and Skills:
If a character has not attempted a skill in the past and has not already assigned it a value in their description then we must determine how good they are at it before they can use it.  In this case we would roll the d100 on the following chart for the skill needed and then assign it accordingly.

01-20 = Poor
21-70 = Mediocre/Average
71-90 = Good
91-98 = Great
99-00 = Legendary

Ex.
Gunther did not include swimming in his description, so we do not know how good of a swimmer he is. In this case Gunther has come to a River that he needs to cross. Gunther would know whether or not he has the skill to swim the river, but we do not. So we have to roll to find out. We roll a 62 and discover that Gunther is an average swimmer. Now the player can look at the river and make the decision on whether Gunther would attempt to swim the River or look for a better place to cross by foot.

Overcoming obstacles
A Skill/Abilities rating comes with a roll modifier. The GM must predetermine how difficult a situation is on the same rating as a Characters skill. What skill level does the obstacle require to over come. For instance if we are climbing a rocky cliff with a lot of crevices you might decide that it would require Average climbing skills to ascend the cliff. This means that any player with an average or higher climbing skill will not need to roll to ascend the cliff face. However a player with a Poor climbing skill will need to overcome the obstacle, meaning that they must roll the d100.
The players rolls are modified as follows according to their current rating in that skill/ability.

Modifier   Current Ability Rating
-10   Poor
+ 0   Mediocre/Average
+10   Good
+20   Great
+30   Legendary

Lets stay with the Cliff climbing example... Our character has a climbing skill of Poor, so we have to roll the d100. The GM has stated that the Cliff requires an average climbing ability. So we look at the following chart.

01-20 = Poor
21-60 = Mediocre/Average
61-80 = Good
81-95 = Great
96-00 = Legendary

We need to roll higher than a 21 in order to climb the cliff. We roll the d100 and get a 30, but we still have to apply the Obstacle modifier for a Poor skill, which is -10. So 30 - 10 = 20... We cannot climb the cliff, guess we have to find another way to reach the top.

Resolving Combat:
Combat is s tricky devil in a more story telling game style. While many people like hard values to determine the outcome, we want a more intuitive combat that hard statistics just cannot give. The attacker should describe what they are about to do and then roll the d100, applying the appropriate modifier.

The defender should then make use of any skill they feel they possess to dodge, or halt the attack and also make a roll on the d100 with the appropriate modifier. If the defenders roll for defense is greater than the Attackers attacking roll then they are safe, however they had decided to defend themselves.

Combat Modifier   Current Ability Rating
-10                             Poor
+ 0                    Mediocre/Average
+10                             Good
+20                             Great
+30                           Legendary

Ex.
Edgar who has a sword skill rating of Great is attacking Gunther. Edgar rolls the d100 and gets a 40, he then adds in the modifier of +20 for the Great skill rating giving him 40+20 = 60 total. Gunther also has a sword skill rating of Great and decides he wants to Parry Edgar's attack. Gunther rolls a 50 on the d100, then adds his modifier of 20 for a total score of 50+20 = 70. Edgar's attack is parried!


More in depth Ex.

Edgars Turn            
Edgar    "My sword descends through the air in an arch as it makes it's              way to cleave Gunthers skull in two."
E Rolls    40+20 = 60
Gunther    "I lift my sword to meet Edgar's in an attempt to lock our blades"
G Rolls    50+60 = 70
GM       "Gunthers Sword clangs against yours locking your blades together"

Gunthers Turn            
Gunther   "While my blade is locked with Edgar's I begin to push back attempting to knock Edgar to the ground by sheer might."
G Rolls   53+30 (Legendary Strength) = 83
Edgar   "I twist my blade to unlock it from Gunthers hilt as I side step to the right so I don't loose my footing."
E Rolls   70+20 (Great Sword skill) = 90
GM   "Your sword becomes free as it spins over Gunthers blade."


Using this method of combat can be quick or exceedingly detailed depending on how in depth the GM and players want to make it.

[gameskald]

Anyone have any comments? Will the game hold water? Is the mechanic concept sound?

[ethan_greer]

Hi there! Yes, I think the concept is sound, and I think the game will hold water.

That said, I also think that you might like Fudge, which has similar concepts: Word-based trait levels, subjective character creation, and bell-curve resolution mechanics. I see a lot of similarities. At the least, I'd check out Fudge as a source of inspiration.  You may also want to take a look at the Pool, which has a similar story char-gen process, but whose mechanics depart very radically from your design and Fudge.

Also, I'm not seeing much here that inspires me as a gamer. Your system is straightforward, simple, and utilitarian. Which makes it perfect for personal use in your own gaming, but not particularly attractive to others. This is not a bad thing! A game you like is a game that you will use, and playing is a good thing. Have you tried the game out yet?

[gameskald]

No I have not played it yet, I actually just started writing it down yesterday.

I have mostly played D&D and some other games, but D&D has been my goto game. However, D&D is only good for D&D. And I have more recently been considering a game that rely's less on Dice and more on story. But in the same instance I have so many Setting idea's I wanted a more utilitarian engine which can be added to for more specific settings.

I have reviewed Fudge and I have to say that was my starting point for the system. It was Fudge that gave me the idea for Description based skills.

As far as inspiring you as a gamer, could you explain? What would inspire you as a gamer? Is it the more the setting that tickles your fancy? The only thing I really added that I havent seen in a game before is the Fame statistic. I want the game to truly allow the characters to become Legends in their game world.

Does the Fame system make sense?