Modern Monsters system

[quozl]

The basics of the Modern Monsters system:

Each player character (PC) has three attributes:

Love
Strength
Will

Will and Love can start at no higher than 5.  
Strength can start at no lower than 10.
All attributes must be at least 1.
Each player starts with 15 points.

Normal humans have attributes from 1-5.

Whenever there is a physical fight between a PC and a normal human, the PC wins and narrates the outcome.  If the PC hurts the human, a point of love is lost.  If the PC kills the human, a point of Will is gained and two points of Love are lost.  If Love goes to zero, you become a monster in the worst sense of the word and can no longer be a PC.  

Humans can gang up on PC's in order to capture them.  The combined strengths of the humans must be double that of the PC for them to automatically succeed.  Otherwise roll 6-sided dice for each point of strength and compare the total of the PC to the total of the humans.  Winner narrates what happens.  If a PC is captured, a point of Will is lost.  If Will goes to zero, it is the same result as Love going to zero.

If there is a contested fight and the love interest of the PC is somehow related to the fight, add the Love score to Strength for purposes of the fight roll.

The mad scientist has attributes similar to the PC except that Will and Strength are switched. Will can be no lower than 10 and Strength can be no higher than 5.  In order to fight the mad scientist, the PC must first conquer the mad scientist's Will.  The contest is settled just as a normal fight except that Will is used instead of Strength.  Also, Love can be added in if the love interest is somehow involved.

Everyone has a love interest including the PC's, the mad scientist, and all humans.  The love interest can be a person, place, or thing.

Each PC also has other monstrous abilities that come into play at appropriate times.

Comments?
---Jon

[Ring Kichard]

Will and Love can start at no higher than 5.
Strength can start at no lower than 10.
All attributes must be at least 1.
Each player starts with 15 points.

Emphasis mine.

I don't mean to pick, but if you spend the minimum points on Strength and Will (10+1 = 11) you only have (15-11 = 4) 4 points left over for Love. The same holds true for the other arrangement of 10 strength and 1 love. That leaves 4 for Will.

No matter how I try, I can't have a stat of 5 in Love or Will.

Math sucks.

I don't know how you'd want to change this, thought it shouldn't be too difficult.

Humans can gang up on PC's in order to capture them. The combined strengths of the humans must be double that of the PC for them to automatically succeed. Otherwise roll 6-sided dice for each point of strength and compare the total of the PC to the total of the humans. Winner narrates what happens. If a PC is captured, a point of Will is lost. If Will goes to zero, it is the same result as Love going to zero.

So if I'm a monstrous character with strength 11, and two strapping young men with strength 5 attack me, I roll 11 dice and add, while they roll 10 dice and add? Egad. That's a lot of dice and a bit of a handling time.

Also, consider the following

Two aged gents of strength 1 are ganging up on a monster... do they automatically lose? Do they have a combined strength of two? Do they get to roll even though one comely lass of strength 4 might not?

Again, math sucks.

Am I correct that the only way to gain Will is to kill people at the cost of love? And the ultimate goal is to gain at least 10 Will (to confront your creator) we're going to need a source of Love, then. I like this, all the monster really wants is to be loved. I think, thought, it needs an explicit rule.

Maybe something along the lines of, "Every time the monster successfully seeks out its love it refills it's love back to the original value"? This would encourage players to take 5 love 1 will, and 10 strength, and over the course of a game they'd have to revisit their love interest 5 times. I just bring up the math in this case because I figure it's important to know what we're rewarding.

I like the way this is headed, I think it's a strong central idea.

[Andrew Martin]

How about using a balance point mechanic? Add up the numbers (Strength and Love occasionally)  for one side to get the total factors for that side. Then add the numbers (Strength/will etc) for the other to get a total. That forms a ratio, like for a strong normal human (5) versus strong monster (10) of 5:10 or 1:2. So roll a D3. 1 = Human wins, 2+ = Monster wins. Or, if you don't want division, roll a D20, 01 - 05 = Human wins,  06 - 15 = Monster wins, 16 + = reroll. It would seem a faster system than rolling lots of D6. For multiple foes, just add their strength scores.

[quozl]

Will and Love can start at no higher than 5.
Strength can start at no lower than 10.
All attributes must be at least 1.
Each player starts with 15 points.

Emphasis mine.

I don't mean to pick, but if you spend the minimum points on Strength and Will (10+1 = 11) you only have (15-11 = 4) 4 points left over for Love. The same holds true for the other arrangement of 10 strength and 1 love. That leaves 4 for Will.

No matter how I try, I can't have a stat of 5 in Love or Will.

Math sucks.

I don't know how you'd want to change this, thought it shouldn't be too difficult.

It's actually just a holdover when I wanted everyone to start with 20 points but then I thought 15 was better.  

Humans can gang up on PC's in order to capture them. The combined strengths of the humans must be double that of the PC for them to automatically succeed. Otherwise roll 6-sided dice for each point of strength and compare the total of the PC to the total of the humans. Winner narrates what happens. If a PC is captured, a point of Will is lost. If Will goes to zero, it is the same result as Love going to zero.

So if I'm a monstrous character with strength 11, and two strapping young men with strength 5 attack me, I roll 11 dice and add, while they roll 10 dice and add? Egad. That's a lot of dice and a bit of a handling time.

Also, consider the following

Two aged gents of strength 1 are ganging up on a monster... do they automatically lose? Do they have a combined strength of two? Do they get to roll even though one comely lass of strength 4 might not?

Again, math sucks.

Yes, yes, yes and yes (although the comely lass could roll too) to the questions  above.

Am I correct that the only way to gain Will is to kill people at the cost of love? And the ultimate goal is to gain at least 10 Will (to confront your creator) we're going to need a source of Love, then. I like this, all the monster really wants is to be loved. I think, thought, it needs an explicit rule.

Maybe something along the lines of, "Every time the monster successfully seeks out its love it refills it's love back to the original value"? This would encourage players to take 5 love 1 will, and 10 strength, and over the course of a game they'd have to revisit their love interest 5 times. I just bring up the math in this case because I figure it's important to know what we're rewarding.

I like the way this is headed, I think it's a strong central idea.

Actually, no.  Love and Will can also be gained by roleplaying (it would take the place of experience points).  I do like the "refill rule" you propose and thank you for being my "math checker".  

---Jon

[quozl]

How about using a balance point mechanic? Add up the numbers (Strength and Love occasionally)  for one side to get the total factors for that side. Then add the numbers (Strength/will etc) for the other to get a total. That forms a ratio, like for a strong normal human (5) versus strong monster (10) of 5:10 or 1:2. So roll a D3. 1 = Human wins, 2+ = Monster wins. Or, if you don't want division, roll a D20, 01 - 05 = Human wins,  06 - 15 = Monster wins, 16 + = reroll. It would seem a faster system than rolling lots of D6. For multiple foes, just add their strength scores.

I think that could work but with the tweak that 1:2 automatically fails and 2:1 automatically wins.  

Or how about that everyone rolls a base fo 2 dice and the one with the higher rating adds the difference in dice to the his base?

For example: Str of 12 vs Str of 9.  Str 12 rolls 2+3=5 dice.  Str 9 rolls only 2 dice.  Is that mathematically equivalent?

---Jon

[Mike Holmes]

For example: Str of 12 vs Str of 9.  Str 12 rolls 2+3=5 dice.  Str 9 rolls only 2 dice.  Is that mathematically equivalent?

No, that's not mathematically equivalent. But it's a much better curve, IMO. Good idea.

Mike