[Usus] System Design

[e1ven]

Good Morning,

I'm working on a system that I can use for two or more settings, both a Western-style game, as well as a Gritty city, Sin-City style.

In working on the system, I'm trying to focus on two goals- Being able to allow more standard character creation, as well as allowing for a more cinematic straw that broke the Camel's back style death.
Additionally, I want the game to keep a constant level of fear- I've found that in games where a character knows that they can survive X rounds, they tend to bank on that, and I'd like to discourage that behavior.

Finally, I think the experience system I describe highly encourages characters to define their own allegiances, and work toward achieving them, rather than focusing on Killing "Monsters".

In terms of style, I tend to prefer a narrative style, but my players don't, so I've tried to compromise. Perhaps somewhere between Dust Devils and Deadlands D20.


You can see the entire system that I have, at
http://www.darkenedsky.com/playground/index.php/Usus20

That page is a wiki, and I won't mind at all if you edit anything on it. Feel free to change something, or everything.

That said, I'm specifically concerned about two elements.

The first is the system I'm using for specialization, or Subskills.
Basically,  Each rank you put into a skill is more expensive. The 1st rank costs less than 1/6th the 20th.
A subskill lets you essentially "reset" the counter- Increasing a subskill uses the cost of that subskill, rather than the cost of the main skill.

That means that there is no discount for Subskills, except that it avoids the expense of high-skills.


The theory is that by doing it this way is that it encourages a breadth of skills, rather than hyper-specializing in one area, while still allowing a character to concentrate where they are interested.




The second thing I'm worried about is the Damage Save. Basically, every time a character is hit, they take damage equal to the Weapon Damage, and the amount the Attack role beats the Defense role by. Ie, If A rolls a 16 to hit, and B rolls a defense of 13, B would take damage of 3 + Weapon Damage (4).


When a character takes damage, they make a Damage Save, with a TN equal to the damage they've taken. So in this case, they'd make a save with a TN of 7.

If they are hit again, this adds to the same roll, to eventually the TN will rise outside of the character's ability to make the check.


In the initial version, I said that if they failed the check, a character died. My players complained that this was too brutal, and they're likely right. In this version, I've given people three wound levels. Each failed check drops them a wound level. It does not reset the TN, however, so you are highly encouraged to end the fight when wounded. Even a single point of damage could kill a character.

I'd certainly appreciate any comments in general, but specifically on these areas. I'm intending the system to released as a free PDF, as well used in fleshed out games.

Thank you Very much for any suggestions,

Colin Davis