[GLASS] System Test Document v1.0 (beta)

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

Thanks to very useful feedback from participants on my previous GLASS threads (see my sig), I am now able to release...

GLASS System Test Document v1.0(beta)
GLASS-System-v1-0-beta.pdf
GLASS-Costs-v1-0-beta.pdf

Major Changes in this Release

• New focus on situation: Player v. World Priority and Game Tones
• Cost changes: less math, more parallel (more broken?)
• GLASS terminology: more specific terms, more consistently applied
• New effects: new Abilities, Advantages, Limitations, Defects, and player points of contact
• Printable and copyable: those who work best with paper or who want to quote text may now do so

Questions for Reviewers
Other than the comments and questions in the PDF (indicated by "[ed-"), these are the questions that I have for the current testing version:
1) Are the additions useful to serve agendas other than gamism?
2) Is it more apparent, now, what situations GLASS can model versus what situations require pure acting?
3) (For participants in the past threads) Have I muddled your suggestions for improvements, with my attempts to coherently integrate them into the existing GLASS system?

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

Given that I have closed the initial GLASS Cost Balance thread, I would like to shift the remaining "open" questions in that thread into this one, to whit:4) Use 300 Experience to make a character in GLASS; and post its Attributes, Abilities, and Defects, along with their Final Costs. What's the most "overdog" or "broken" character that you can create?
5) Are the current rules sufficient to develop your own Abilities and, thus, characters? If not, what game effect is not represented or what system is incomplete or unclear?

I encourage you to try to make your "old reliable" characters from any genre using GLASS, to find such holes or issues for the above questions. In a way, this is ALMOST a call for playtesters, but stops short of asking anyone to actually PLAY.

Thank you;
David

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

A rule change, based on feedback:

Experience
...
Gaining Experience
Player Priority - At each Reset, character receives Experience equal to a percentage of Starting Experience (% TBD; probably ~2%).
World Priority - (As currently in rules)
...

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

Rule changes, based on feedback:

Slay now costs 60 Experience: Originally, Slay was priced based on it being the same as a Harm Directly 4. However, HD 4 only takes a 4 Health target (above average: most normals are 3) to Unconscious, not Dead. Thus, Slay was underpriced, because it not only reduced the victim to 0 Health but also rendered the victim Dead without passing through Unconsciousness first. I have arbitrarily decided that is equivalent to a Harm Directly 5, especially given that a normal target would actually have a 3 Health.

Knockout now costs 30 Experience: Knockout was intended to be priced as if it were functionally equivalent to Harm Directly 3; it was never updated with the new cost structures. It now is slightly more than a Harm Directly 3.

Note: The costs for Counter (15 Exp) and Reflect (30 Exp) have not changed. This is to ensure that defense is always cheaper than offense, for character survivability. This also tries to mitigate the fact that Knockout and Slay become more attractive than Harm Directly in Mid and High Power games, when Health values will tend to be higher than 4 or 5.
New Question
6) Should there be "Immune to [Ability X]" Abilities? If so, what would be a fair Experience cost (e.g. double or quadruple the base Ability cost; some factor of the cost of the Ability to which the character will be immune)?

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

All rule changes above now incorporated into current v1.0 beta download (link above).

[David "Czar Fnord" Artman]

Final additional question (then I'll have to assume no one gives a shit about this project):

7) Should players be able to create Circles of Protection or Warding? If so, on what aspect of a target would they "trigger" (i.e. what is to be warded against, and how can it be indicated and checked quietly)?