Big Friggin' Game - The RPG of guns and violence [longish]

[Ring Kichard]

After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

Whenever your Armor or Health changes (you get shot, you find new armor, a Medic fixes you) cross out the old number and write the new number in the next box. If you run out of boxes you've survived *way* too long and die instantly.

A diligent medic shrinks the life expectancy of a character by half. Every time they patch someone up their patient loses another box, in addition to the box they used when they got injured.

One work around could be to allow medics to use an eraser. Another might be to let the medic draw in another box at the end of the row when they fix someone. A third might just be to eliminate medics altogether.

Thoughts?

[damion]

After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

Whenever your Armor or Health changes (you get shot, you find new armor, a Medic fixes you) cross out the old number and write the new number in the next box. If you run out of boxes you've survived *way* too long and die instantly.

A diligent medic shrinks the life expectancy of a character by half. Every time they patch someone up their patient loses another box, in addition to the box they used when they got injured.

One work around could be to allow medics to use an eraser. Another might be to let the medic draw in another box at the end of the row when they fix someone. A third might just be to eliminate medics altogether.

Thoughts?

I see two ways of solving it.
1)Drop the box rule. Heck, just use a seperate sheet of paper for health and expect to fill it up. Characther turnover is ok, but 9 changes in health is not much

2)Keep the box rule, eliminate healing. Print LOTS of characther sheets. I would have people make them in batches for simplicity. I like the first option better. I don't think you should punish charachters for surviving.
If you REALLY want the box rule, I'd say the new charachter tele-frag's the old one :)

3)I'd try to prevent to much characther turnover, just because it interrupts the narration of destruction.

Other thoughts:
I really the like 're-roll but it adds complications' idea. Its great. It also makes it possible to hit things at X-Long Range. (Since you can't get more than 4 successes, you need this. Again, it's great)

I'll assume you mean the number of succeses on the damage dice is the damage.

With 5 health, people won't last long. Just have to scatter alot of healing/ect around. Personally, I'd up this to 10-20. People in these situations can absorb insane amounts of damage.
 
Looks really good though.

[Paganini]

Moderators: Delete this post please. Got posted twice by accident, and the delete button is not showing up in my browser.

[Paganini]

After reading it I only notice one design problem: medics are awful. You'd be better off shooting your own medic than letting him touch you. Why? The otherwise best rule in the game makes it so.

Dang it, you're right! I hadn't thought of that.

A diligent medic shrinks the life expectancy of a character by half. Every time they patch someone up their patient loses another box, in addition to the box they used when they got injured.

On the other hand, this has some pretty hillarious connotations. Could actually affect the life expectancy of Medics. "Get away from me with that hypo, you freak!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! "ACK! Freindly Fire!"

I've got this picture of deranged Medics scurrying around as fast as possible trying to fix everything they see, with all the injurred characters holding them off at gun point. "No! Not until I only have 1 Health left!"

And then, maybe, "Ooh, Medic boy, I'll let you heal me *now* if you give me that big gun you just found... "

One work around could be to allow medics to use an eraser. Another might be to let the medic draw in another box at the end of the row when they fix someone. A third might just be to eliminate medics altogether.

I think Medics are neccessary for the genre. I like the eraser idea. It makes sense, and fits with the tone of the game.

[Paganini]

Damion:

I don't want to lose healing and Medics, because those are a big part of any FPS game. Even in the action movies you often see a scene where the hero's getting patched up or bandaged or shot full of strange green serum.

With Medics and healing, though, characters could potentially last forever if they were played with niggling care. This is not what I want. One of the main points of this game is that every character is going to die... it's just a matter of when and how. It's like when you log onto a UT server... you know that you're going to die eventualy... but you also know that you'll spawn right in as a new player. I'm hoping that that kind of security will keep players from viewing the characters as vital resources to be preserved. So, that's where the box rule comes from.

I really the like 're-roll but it adds complications' idea. Its great. It also makes it possible to hit things at X-Long Range. (Since you can't get more than 4 successes, you need this. Again, it's great)

:)

I'll assume you mean the number of succeses on the damage dice is the damage.

Doh! Of course, yes.

He he he... off I go to change things!

With 5 health, people won't last long. Just have to scatter alot of healing/ect around. Personally, I'd up this to 10-20. People in these situations can absorb insane amounts of damage.

This is another reference to FPSs.  In UT, if you aren't wearing armor you feel butt naked. But boy, when you've got armor, thigh pads, and the Shield Belt you feel pumped. "I'm goin' after the flag, man, and no one is going to stop me!" :) So, yeah, you're supposed to die fast if you don't have armor. However, basic armor doubles the amount of damage you can take. And you can always get new armor just by picking it up when you find it.

Something else to think about is, with only 5 health, it's pretty easy for Medics to heal you significantly.

[Paganini]

BTW, I forgot to mention that I really like the "new character tele-frags old" idea. I'm adding that as an option. :)

Damion, can you PM me with your real name so I can add you to the credits list I'm keeping?

[Ring Kichard]

I've got this picture of deranged Medics scurrying around as fast as possible trying to fix everything they see, with all the injurred characters holding them off at gun point.

Oh my, you nearly got me fired for laughing so hard. I've got to stop reading these forums at work.