Hard Wired (Gears and Cogs (GaC)) first thoughts please longish :(

[Seth M. Drebitko]

[SkuToV]

Bimary is an incredibly horrible idea on coping with it as few people I know can understand it and read it like their own mother language. I like the idea for the background though and the "kewl powerz" is a brilliant idea. I would be glad to help playtest/design this.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

I did not mean actual binary just some kind of binary like resolution. Strings of nine numbers (possibly zero's and ones) compared to another string or something to determine success or fail.
(off to dinner though thanks for the interest)
Regards, Seth

[J. Scott Timmerman]

My system veils binary in decimal digits, and works great.  It seems to work a lot easier than even addition. 

Any round the character does not manage to complete an action, a digit which represents margin of success/failure is calculated.  I call this digit "partial".  Partial is kept track of on a "Track", which is basically a string of digits like you say.

In my system, the lower "Partial" is, the better the success; but depending on how your system works, you may want to reverse this.  A partial one higher means half the success, whereas a Partial of zero means complete success.

In any round you obtain Partial success, you write it on the Track.  If that Partial is already there, you instead write one lower, getting you closer to having a zero.

As you can see, this is all based on Binary in a roundabout way, though the players don't actually have to think in binary.  I use this system to replace things like Hit Points and Time lapse.

-Jason T.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

In theory it sounds like a spiffy method though I am having trouble at this early hour of the day picturing it lol. Could you possibly toss an example of how a round of actions for a character would go via these rules. Also I am gonna try and churn out one of those example templates on lunch today.

Regards, Seth

[J. Scott Timmerman]

While I could go over how a round would work in my system, I think my main point was that binary can work well, if you use it to its advantages.  In particular, a single round can't illustrate why binary works in my system, because the whole point behind using a binary Track at all is when multiple rounds are required for an action to reach completion.

Here's an abstract of how a series of several rounds would work.  Know that "Initiative" as it appears below is not initiative as it works in most rpgs.  "Initiative" in this system simply refers to the result of the character's action, which incorporates the difficulty, the dice, aspects of the action itself, the capabilities of the actor(s) [and perhaps the defender(s)] as well as a stunt-like mechanic.  I rigged the outcome here to show you my point (also, I wanted Gotarou to win).

Samurai Warrior Gotarou is ambushed on his journey by a group of 5 dark ninja.

Round 1:
The ninja attack (to kill) Gotarou with their shuriken. Initiative 10
Gotarou takes a Reaction action versus the ninja's stealth.  Initiative 12

The Span of the round (the highest initiative for the round) is 12.  Therefore, Gotarou's Reaction action completes, but the kill attack fails by 2.
Gotarou reacts in time to avoid dying, but is still wounded.  He marks a 2 (12 - 10) on his damage Track.

Round 2:
One of the ninja throws dirt in Gotarou's eyes: attack to blind.  Initiative 11.
The remaining ninja draw short swords and attack to kill, Initiative 9.
Gotarou tries to swipe at the one who is about to throw dirt in his eyes. Initiative 11.

The span this time is 11.  Gotarou manages to kill one ninja, but is blinded.
The remaining ninja don't manage to kill Gotarou, but still inflict another 2 onto his damage Track.
Since Gotarou's damage track already has a two, the two is instead crossed out, and a 1 is placed there.
Gotarou, with a 1 on his damage track, now suffers a -1 Damage Penalty to his actions (and he can't see).

Round 3:
The ninja move in to slit Gotarou's throat to finish him off; Initiative 8.
Gotarou uses an old technique to visualize the auras of his opponents.  He stunts, and still manages to get Initiative 10 on his attack to kill the ninja, despite his condition. 

The span is 10.  Gotarou manages to slay his enemies, but has not come out unharmed.  He takes another 2 (10 - to his damage Track, which is now showing "1 2", meaning that further actions he takes would incur a -2 Damage Penalty.  Besides that, he's blinded.

Gotarou must now seek medical attention at the nearest town, if he can find it in his state.

-Jason T.

[Seth M. Drebitko]

Seems like an interesting mechanic I think I might go along these lines myself.

Player rolls a pool of d6 equal to stat + skill + mod - negatives arranging the dice in a string highest to lowest

Players at the start of combat roll initiative (equal to what ever I decide determines initiative) arranging the dice from lowest to highest.

Players go around the table announcing and committing actions to those dice from lowest to highest. At the end once every one has announced actions play goes as follows.

To complete an action roll a pool of dice as noted above list the dice in order highest to lowest and announce priority of action. All rolls are composed of multiple parts representing the "cogs" in the over all "gear" that is the action the most basic cogs are quality and speed. A secondary part of taking an action is fusion in which one dice is removed from the chain to cause the dice next to it to be counted as one value higher. However a character may wish to resolve multiple actions within a single task and example would be:

Rowin attempts to strike at Nico with his heavy sword deciding that he wants one quick devastating blow to be landed, while Nico scrambles to defend he to attempts to get a quick shot it. Rowin's total dice pool is equal to 5,4,4,3,1, while Nico's roll is equal to 6,3,3,2,2,2.

Rowin had initially put his priority as damage and so his secondary was to hit putting it at four. Nicos primary was defense with a secondary of attack, and a third of damage. When Rowin had consolidated down to 5,and 7, while Nico had preferred 7,3,6. Deftly Nico rolled to the side slashing across Rowins gut with his short stiletto on the way, his seven matching (and thus blocking the attack roll), while his own attack was uncontested and he dealt a total of 6 damage.

I am thinking something along those lines would work  probably needs a little tweaking but basically even in combat each "action" would actual be like its own little mini scene.

Would love to hear opinions on the basic mechanic idea, while I am still whipping up those example templates.
Regards, Seth