Fighter-D Alpha - Beta Playtest

[Zak Arntson]

Okay, I'm opening up Fighter-D Alpha for playtesting. I've provided the rules-skeleton here: http://www.harlekin-maus.com/fighterd/fighterd.html.

It's inspired by Donjon, but has had enough huge changes to be considered it's own game. Here's where I get to the Game Design part:

- All Characters are at a fairly equal effectiveness. Two characters with the same Power are nearly identical in effectiveness, but due to differing character-style, abilities, Special Moves, etc, their color is wildly different.

- Dice Pool system, explicit Fortune-In-The-Beginning. You say which ability you are using and roll the dice. The narration comes afterward. You don't say, "I'm going to smack the guy on the head -- roll -- roll --", you say, "I'm using Crush Enemies Underfoot ability -- roll -- roll --" All narration happens after facts are given.

- It all boils down to 1 success = 1 fact.

- Danger dice - these are a tricky resource. If you fail at a dangerous task (or any failure during combat), you gain Danger dice. These are good, in that they are dice added to your pool. They are bad, in that a Danger die matching a regular die will "gobble" that regular die.

- Special Moves - They use Danger dice. This is where the gambling comes in. Do you try to earn more Danger dice, with the chance of having too many? Or do you fire off a Special Move and use up your Danger dice now?

- Purely improvised GMing - Monsters and adventure are created entire on the fly, often with Player input.

I'm not quite sure how I'd GNS the thing. I've seen it encourage Gamist resource management (with the Danger die resource) coupled with Exploration of Color (in the game's mood following the players' whims) and Situation (the players often create entirely new situations out of their facts).