Spin System: inspired by The Pool, TROS, and Princess Bride

[Jeph]

One: Characters

    The first step of character creation is to write a short (about fifty words) paragraph describing your character. This is not a term paper, nor is it a single sentence. The paragraph should describe what your character is good at, their passions and drives, family, friends, background, and anything else.
    After you have written this paragraph, pick three to five Traits from the information that you gave. Traits can be almost anything, from Strong to Swordsmen to Loves Jolene. Traits should be narrow and well defined. For instance, Weapons is too broad, as is Passionate. What type of weapons does your character use? Are they an Archer? How are they passionate? Do they love deeply, or have strong fits of anger?
    Then, assign a rating of two to five for each trait. A higher rating indicates a stronger trait. The total of the ratings of all of your Traits may not exceed ten, and characters must use at least six points on traits.
    Now that you know your Traits, you can figure your Spin Pool. First, you must find your Spin Modifier, which is equal to eleven minus the sum of all your starting Traits. Your Spin Pool starts at two plus three times your Spin Modifier, and may fluxuate up and down durring the game.

Trait    Skill Level
01       Untrained, Joe Average
02       Trained but nothing special
03       Real talent is evident
04       One of the best around
05       the best around, maybe even ever

    Example: Alex is creating a new character, Joseth. He writes: 'Joseth's father was murdered in cold blood by a prince, and Joseth has dedicated his life to tracking the man down. He has become a master of the blade in order to dispath the man, and stays fit so that he may catch him.' From this, Joseth distills the traits Swordsman at four, Seeking Revenge for Father at four, and Athletics at two. He has spent all ten of his Trait points, so his Spin Modifier is one, and his Spin Pool is five.

Two: System

    Whenever a character attempts to do something difficult, they will make a Roll. When a character makes a Roll, they roll a six-sided die. They may spend Spin to roll up to four extra dice. Spent spin is immediately subtracted from a character's Spin pool.
    Before they roll, a character may pick a relevant Trait. This may be any Trait that they possess, as long as they can logically relate it to the task at hand. If they can't find a relevant Trait, their Trait value is treated as one.
    When a character makes a Roll, the GM must set a Difficulty for the Roll. This Difficulty should be one for a moderately hard task, two for difficult tasks, three for very difficult tasks, and four for a task that borders on the impossible. If the task is being actively resisted by another character, the GM does not set a Difficulty. Instead, both players roll, and the one that gets the most Successes wins. If both characters roll the same number of Successes, the one with the higher relevant Trait value wins. If both characters have the same Trait value, then the roll is a tie.
    Every die that comes up equal to the character's relevant Trait value is treated as a Success. If the player rolls at least as many Successes as the task's Difficulty, the task succeeds.
   Every time a character rolls one or more Successes, their Spin rating increases by the number of Successes rolled.

    Example: Joseth is chasing after a catpurse that snatched his money pouch. He makes a check to catch up, spending two points of Spin (bringing his pool down to three) and using Athletics as the key trait. He rolles a one, a four, and a six: one success, raising Joseth's spin pool to four. The catpurse rolls spends one of his three points of spin, and has no relevant trait. He rolls a one and a two: also one success, and his Spin goes back up to three. Because Joseth has the higher Trait, he wins the contest, and catches up with his target.

Three: Combat

    When characters are engaged in combat, time is broken down into Rounds. Each Round, characters may normally perform one Action. If they wish, they may spend a point of Spin to take a second action. Their third action costs two Spin, their fourth action costs three Spin, and so on.
    Striking another character in combat normally has a Difficulty of one. However, if they take an action to dodge your attack (they must declare that they are dodging before your attack is rolled), the attack is instead an Opposed Roll.
    When a character is actually hit in combat, the attacker compares the number of Successes that they rolled on the attack plus their weapon's Damage Modifier (the total of these two numbers is the attack's Damage Rating) to the defender's highest Trait relating to brawn or endurance. Typical Damage Values are zero for an unarmed attack or knife, one for a short sword, two for a rapier or pistol, and three for a large axe or rifle. The defender suffers Wounds equal to the attack's Damage Rating minus their relevant Trait. If a character's relevant Trait is equal to or higher than the Damage Rating, they still take one Wound, unless the damage is ridiculously low and their Trait is ridiculously high. If a character is wearing a significant amount of armor, they will take one less point of damage from many attacks. Exactly which attacks have their damage reduced is up to the GM.
    If a character has at least two Wounds, they must spend one point of Spin whenever they attempt an action. If they have at least four Wounds, this increases to two points of Spin. When a character has accumulated five Wounds, they are knocked out. If they take any more Wounds, they will most likely die, but this is up to the GM.

    Example: Joseth has cornered the catpurse, and has him by the scruff of the neck, when the rogue pulls a knife on him. The catpurse spends all three of his spin, and uses his Brawl trait at two, rolling one, one, five, six, for two successes. His Spin pool jumps back up to two. Joseth doesn't have his sword out, so can't parry the blow, and decides to take the strike. He takes two Wounds, as he has no armor or relevant Trait. For his action, Joseth whips out his sword and attacks, automatically spending one point of Spin because of his wounds, and uses the remaining three for the attack. The thug dodges, paying one Spin for the extra action, and using the other point to enhance his dodge. He rolls a five and a six; no successes, and leaving the poor fool with no remaining Spin. Joseth rolls a two, three, three, six: three successes against his Swordsmanship of four, and three points of Spin total. The catpurse's Brawl of two reduces the damage by two points, and Joseth's weapon (a rapier) increases it by one, for a total of two damage. The catpurse, knowing defeat when he sees it, drops the knife and Joseth's money and runs. Joseth doesn't follow.

Four: Rejuvenating

    Characters regain some of their former glory when they take a bit of time for rest and recreation. While taking a breather, characters slowly recover their health and regain Spin.
    Each day that a character rests, they may make a Roll to reduce their Wound Total. The Difficulty of this roll is equal to the number of Wounds that a character has, minus one. If they succeed, they recover one Wound.
    In addition, characters at rest regain some Spin each day. At the end of each day of rest, roll a number of dice equal to ten minus the character's current Spin Pool, with a minimum of no dice. Each die that rolls equal to or under the character's Spin Modifier lets them regain one point of Spin.

Five: Advancement

    Through the course of the game, characters may grow and change. There are two ways that a character's Traits can shift: Redistribution and Experience.
    Redistribution is when a character decreases or eliminates one trait to increase or add to another. For example, Alex's character, Joseth, has Seeking Revenge for Father at four. At the end of an adventure, in a climactic battle, he cathes up with his father's murderer, and slays him. With that trait now irrelevant, Alex decides to increase his Swordsmanship by one (bringing it all the way up to five), increase his Athletics by one (for a total of three), and add Bluffing at two. As always, Traits must be at least two, and cannot be increased above five.
    When a character or group of characters have accomplished a long term goal, the Game Master may award them Experience. When the GM does this, each player may either increase one of their character's Traits by one point (but not to six or above), or add a  new Trait at two.
    Note that characters may never have more than five Traits at any one time. Also, note that even if a character's Traits increase, their Spin Modifier remains the same.

Comments on the system?
-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Okay: A few notes. Firstly, I designed this game with The Princess Bride in mind, right after having read the pool, and a day after downloading the quickstart version of The Riddle of Steel. You may have noticed that Joseth is Inigo with a different name. With the Princess Bride thing in mind, stats for the main characters using Spin System:

Inigo: Swordsman 5, Seeking Revenge for Father 3, Athletics 2. Spin Modifier 1, Spin Pool 5.
Fezzik: Incrediby Strong Arms 5, Incredibly Tough 5. Spin Modifier 1, Spin Pool 5.
Vizzini: Read People Like Books 4, Dizzying Intellect 3, Criminal Contacts 3. Spin Modifier 1, Spin Pool 5..
Buttercup: Dazzlingly Beutiful 5, Loves Westly 3, Act Like a Noble 2. Spin Modifier 1, Spin Pool 5.
Prince Humberdinck: Expert Hunter 4, Rule a Country 3, Evil Machinations 3.
Count Ruegen: Knows Everything About Pain 5, Political Jockey 3, Swordsman 2.
Westly: (note that he is not a beginning character.) Swordsman 5, Sailor 3, Loves Buttercup 3, Athletics 5, Great Ideas 3, Resistant to Poisons 3, Brawling 3, Farming 3. Spin Modifier 5 (his beginning traits were Loves Buttercup 3 and Farming 3), Spin Pool 17.

Because this is based loosely off tPB, I don't mind characters being able to be the best ever. Afterall, Buttercup was the most beutiful girl in the world, Inigo was the best fencer in the world, and Fezzik was the strongest man in the world.

Not that, even though it has a medieval foundation, it is really a pretty generic system, leaning towards the heroic side.

Inspiration from The Riddle of Steel: I love the combat pool thing, and realistic combat. However, I dislike differences between the way combat is done and the way the rest of the game is done. So why not make the Combat Pool apply to all situations?

Inspiration from The Pool: When I read through this, that's when I got the idea of a 'spin pool'. Not being a die-hard narrativist, I cut back on the narrativist aspects of The Pool, and introduced a mechanic for tougher situations (higher difficulty). Also, I dislike how a Trait in the pool can fade away when submerged in the plethora of bonus dice from the character's Pool, and having a Trait serve as a TN helps to offset that.

A character will on average, unless they have a Trait of 5, lose more Spin then they gain. The amount of Spin gained per roll is equal to (Trait x [Spin spent + 1]) / 6. I'm still working on the equations for determining the chance of success for a specific combination of Traits and spent Spin against a certain Difficulty. Any assistance in this area is appreciated.

[Brian Leybourne]

Yeah, I like it. Being a TROS fan, a Princes Bride fan, and someone who likes the Pool, that's not unusual though :-)

Probabilities are easy. I'll knock something up for you today.

Brian.

[Brian Leybourne]

If you give me your email address, I'll send you a little program I just wrote that shows you the percentage chances of 0 through 5 successes, for trait levels 1 through 5 for anything from 1 to 6 dice.

Brian.

[Jeph]

Sent you my email, Brian. :)

Okay, a revision of the rules. The new version uses a roundless combat system, allows Traits at one (they won't help much, but hey), and has characters regain Spin between scenes (for a pace-picker-upper), among other tweaks.


One: Characters

   The first step of character creation is to write a short (about fifty words) paragraph describing your character. This is not a term paper, nor is it a single sentence. The paragraph should describe what your character is good at, their passions and drives, family, friends, background, and anything else.

   After you have written this paragraph, pick three to five Traits from the information that you gave. Traits can be almost anything, from Strong to Swordsmen to Loves Jolene. Traits should be narrow and well defined. For instance, Weapons is too broad, as is Passionate. What type of weapons does your character use? Are they an Archer? How are they passionate? Do they love deeply, or have strong fits of anger?

   Not all of your character's Traits have to be positive qualities. In fact, none of them do. For instance, you may choose Cowardice to be one of their Traits. This would aid your character in fleeing from danger, and getting the other guy to go see if the dragon's really 'just sleeping'.

   Then, assign a rating of two to five for each trait. A higher rating indicates a stronger trait. The total of the ratings of all of your Traits may not exceed ten, and characters must use at least six points on traits.

   If a player wishes, they may 'break the rules' and set a Trait at one. A trait at one provides very little imediate game benefit, but lets that Trait increase to a useful level more quickly, and can help out in tied opposed rolls.

   Now that you know your Traits, you can figure your Spin Pool. First, you must find your Spin Modifier, which is equal to eleven minus the sum of all your starting Traits. Your Spin Pool starts at two plus three times your Spin Modifier, and may fluctuate up and down during the game.

   Example: Alex is creating a new character, Biran. He writes: 'Biran's father was murdered in cold blood by a prince, and Biran has dedicated his life to tracking the man down. He has become a master of the blade in order to dispatch the man, and uses his natural charm and cunning to advance his goal.' From this, Alex distills the traits Swordsman at four, Seeking Revenge for Father at three, and Manipulative at two. He has spent nine of his Trait points, so Byran's Spin Modifier is two, and his Spin Pool is eight.



Two: System

   Whenever a character attempts to do something difficult, they will make a Roll. When a character makes a Roll, they roll a six-sided die. They may spend Spin to roll up to four extra dice. Spent spin is immediately subtracted from a character's Spin pool.

   Before they roll, a character may pick a relevant Trait. This may be any Trait that they possess, as long as they can logically relate it to the task at hand. If they can't find a relevant Trait, their Trait value is treated as one.

   When a character makes a Roll, the GM must set a Difficulty for the Roll. This Difficulty should be one for a moderately hard task, two for difficult tasks, three for very difficult tasks, and four for a task that borders on the impossible. If the task is being actively resisted by another character, the GM does not set a Difficulty. Instead, both players roll, and the one that gets the most Successes wins. If both characters roll the same number of Successes, the one with the higher relevant Trait value wins. If both characters have the same Trait value, then the roll is a tie.

   Every die that comes up equal to the character's relevant Trait value is treated as a Success. If the player rolls at least as many Successes as the task's Difficulty, the task succeeds.

   Every time a character rolls one or more Successes, their Spin rating increases by the number of Successes rolled.

   Example: The thief quitely snuck up to Byron, eyes fixed upon the man's bulging moneypouch. A quick slash, and then he'd disappear across the moonlit rooftops of the night.

   The Thief has a Pickpocketing Trait of three, and a Spin Pool of five. He spends three of his Spin Pool, rolling six, four, three, one: two successes, and a current Spin of four. The GM asks Alex to make a roll for Byron involving perception. Byron has no relevant Trait, but Alex doesn't want to be duped, so spends two points of Spin. He rolls one, one, five: two successes and a Spin remaining at eight. Because the theif has a higher Trait, he succeeds at the task, but the GM rules that Byron is at least aware of the rogue.

   The thief's hand darted in, the dagger twirled deftly, and the pouch fell into his hand. Sensing a slight tug, Byron spun around, but too late: a shadowy figure leapt up onto a barrel, then up a fence, and was now bounding away over the city's shingled peaks. Byron whiped out his sword, roared, and gave chase.

   Byron again has no relative Trait, but wants to get his money back, because he earned it, damn it! He spends four points of Spin, rolling one, one, four, five, five: two Successes, and a current Spin Pool of six. The theif is again ready for this sort of thing, with a Quick Getaway Trait of two. He spends three points of Spin, rolling one, two, two, three: three Successes, a current Spin Pool of four, and a victory.

   The thief nimbly leapt over a rooftop, and was gone. Byron stopped, breathing hard, and began casting about in the shadows. There! More distant, but still there. The chase goes on . . .



Three: Combat

   When characters are engaged in combat, time is not broken down into rounds, as it is in many other Role Playing Games. Instead, characters simply declare an action, state what Trait they are using and give a justification if necessary, and assign a number of Spin to the roll. After they have done this, but before they have rolled any dice, all other characters have a chance to react. They, too, will follow the above process. Then, players either roll appropriate dice, or one or more of them Bolsters their roll.

   When a player decides to Bolster one of their characters' rolls, they must immediately pay 1 point of Spin. After they have done this, they may add extra dice to the roll on a one-for-one basis, as long as the total number or dice rolled does not exceed five. Bolstering can represent extra effort, a feint, a shift of the wind, or anything else. Each player may only Bolster once per roll, but you may Bolster in reaction to the Bolstering of another. After all Bolstering is done, the roll is made.

   Striking another character in combat normally has a Difficulty of one. However, if the target declares that they are Dodging your attack (they must declare that they are dodging before your attack is rolled), the attack is instead an Opposed Roll.

   When a character is actually hit in combat, the attacker figure's the attack's Damage Rating, which is equal to the number of successes rolled in the attack plus the Damage Modifier of the weapon used. Typical Damage Modifiers are zero for an unarmed attack or knife, one for a short sword, two for a rapier or pistol, and three for a large axe or rifle.

   The defender may now take an action to Soak Damage. If they do, they make a relevant roll. Subtract the number of Successes rolled from the attack's Damage Rating. The defender takes this many Wounds. Characters that don't wear armor can only soak damage that comes from impacts, such as a punch or fall.  

   If a character has at least two Wounds, they must spend one point of Spin whenever they attempt an action. If they have at least four Wounds, this increases to two points of Spin. When a character has accumulated five Wounds, they are knocked out. If they take any more Wounds, they will most likely die, but this is up to the GM. Characters damaged by edged or pointed weapons are more likely to die than those hurt by impacts.

   Example: As he ran, the theif flipped his knife, so that he held the blade between his two fingers. He wanted to end this chase, end it now: that man looked dangerous. He cocked the blade back, let fly.

   The thief has a Knife Fighting Trait at three, and spends his entire remaining Spin Pool (four points). Alex says that Byron attempts to deftly knock the dagger out of the air with his sabre, using his Swordsman skill at four, and also spending four points of his Spin Pool. The thief rolls one, two, two, six, six: three successes, and a current Spin of three. Alex rolls one, two, three, four, five: four successes, a current Spin of eight (still), and a successful manuever.

   Byron twirls his sword, flicking it like a snake, and the dagger ceases it's flight and clatters to the roof, then slides off to the street below. The theif pulls another knife as Byron leaps over the rooftops to close and attack.

   The GM rules that this is actually two actions for Byron: one to close, one to attack. Alex spends four points of Spin to catch the theif, using the default Trait of one. The thief, knowing that he'll be caught eventually, spends no Spin points, and uses his Quick Getaway of two. Byron rolls one, one, five, five, six: two successes, and a Spin Pool of six. The theif rolls a four: no successes, and his Spin remains at four. Byron closes.

   Next comes the attack. Byron's Swordsman Trait at four applies, and Alex elects to spend just two points of Spin. The thief attempts to catch the blade with the hilt of his knife, using his Kife Fighting at three, and spending three Spin. Alex then Bolsters, adding another two dice to the attack, and rolling one, two, five, five, six: two successes, and a Spin now at three. The thief rolls one, two, four, four: two Successes, and a curret Spin of three. Because Byron has a higher relevant Trait, his attack hits.  It deals four points of damage: two for successes, and two for the weapon used (a sabre). As he does not wear armor, the thief can not Soak damage.

   Byron rushes across the rooftop, leaping over a chimney and using his momentum to aid a quick strike at the thief's shoulder. The sabre slashes into flesh, and the rogue cries out in pain. Knowing that he's faced with an opponent of superior skill and drive, he drops the money pouch and flees for his life.



Four: Rejuvenating

   Characters regain some of their former glory when they take a bit of time for rest and recreation. While taking a breather, characters slowly recover their health and regain Spin.

   Each day that a character rests, they may make a Roll to reduce their Wound Total. The Difficulty of this roll is equal to the number of Wounds that a character has, minus one. If they succeed, they recover one Wound.

   In addition, characters at rest regain some Spin when they're not climbing mile high cliffs, combating the forces of evil, or doing other strenuous work. Between scenes, each player will roll a number of dice equal to ten minus their character's current Spin Pool, with a minimum of no dice. Each die that rolls equal to or under the character's Spin Modifier lets them regain one point of Spin.

   Example: After the bout with the purse snatcher, the scene ends. Byron picks up his money, and shudders in the cold night air. It is refreshing, and he can feel his vitality flowing back.

   Byron currently has a Spin Pool of three, and a Spin Modifier of two. Therefore, he rolls 7 dice, and regains one point of Spin for each one or two rolled. He rolls two, two, three, four, five, six, six; regaining two points of Spin and bringing his pool back up to five.



Five: Advancement

   Through the course of the game, characters may grow and change. There are two ways that a character's Traits can shift: Redistribution and Experience.

   Redistribution is when a character decreases or eliminates one trait to increase or add to another. This should only be done with the Game Master's permission, and only when it makes sense.

   When a character or group of characters have accomplished a long term goal, the Game Master may award them Experience. When the GM does this, each player may increase one of their character's Traits by one point (but not to six or above).

   Note that characters may never have more than five Traits at any one time. Also, note that even if a character's Traits increase, their Spin Modifier remains the same.

   Example: At long last, Byron has found his father's murderer, and put an end to him. The Game Master awards Alex a point of Experience to spend. He puts it into Swordsmanship, increasing that Trait to five.

   In addition, with his target of revenge out of the way, he has three points from his Seeking Revenge for Father Trait to redistribute. He chooses to switch the trait to Longlasting Hate of Noir, the royal family to which the prince belonged.

[Brian Leybourne]

Good stuff. Just a couple of points/questions:

When characters are engaged in combat, time is not broken down into rounds, as it is in many other Role Playing Games. Instead, characters simply declare an action, state what Trait they are using and give a justification if necessary, and assign a number of Spin to the roll. After they have done this, but before they have rolled any dice, all other characters have a chance to react. They, too, will follow the above process. Then, players either roll appropriate dice, or one or more of them Bolsters their roll.

That seems a tiny bit haphazard. If you have 3 characters, and three NPC's involved in a combat, who declares first, and who has to merely react to other declarations? Is it dependant on who can shout the loudest/quickest? I can understand the desire to get away from a turn-based system, but with the system you have, I fear some level of chaos.

It should be possible to interject some order in there while still keeping away from rounds (maybe). How about this: All players roll against any related trait (any kind of quickness, deftness, nimbleness, whatever, otherwise defauly to 1 as usual). Highest roll gets to declare first (or can defer to the next highest, and so on). Once that initial declaration is out there, the realities of combat will probably not necessitate any further "initiative" type rolls, but if it comes down to that again, just look at the orders rolled. Conversely, you could simply allow bids for the first action, whoever is prepared to spent the most spin. Just a thought, what do you think?

When a player decides to Bolster one of their characters' rolls, they must immediately pay 1 point of Spin. After they have done this, they may add extra dice to the roll on a one-for-one basis, as long as the total number or dice rolled does not exceed five. Bolstering can represent extra effort, a feint, a shift of the wind, or anything else. Each player may only Bolster once per roll, but you may Bolster in reaction to the Bolstering of another. After all Bolstering is done, the roll is made.

Nice, I really like this mechanic. However, is it possible to throw a bone in there for characters who are naturally better at feinting et al? Your master fencer, your sly cutpurse, etc. These kinds of characters should be better than others at feinting (and this is true in non-combat situations also: A wily moneylender should have an easier time bolstering their roll to swindle the characters out of their cash while exchanging money than the stallkeeper on the side of the street would).

When a character is actually hit in combat, the attacker figure's the attack's Damage Rating, which is equal to the number of successes rolled in the attack plus the Damage Modifier of the weapon used. Typical Damage Modifiers are zero for an unarmed attack or knife, one for a short sword, two for a rapier or pistol, and three for a large axe or rifle.

I'm probably just too find of sim play, but it irks me when I have just as much chance to hit someone with an axe/rifle as I do punching them, but the axe/rifle does a lot more damage - why would anyone ever take a weapon with less than +3 damage? Yes, style is important and IMO fencers are cooler than axe wielding barbarians, but it's something to think about - any thoughts on how this could be balanced, or is that not a priority for you?

The defender may now take an action to Soak Damage. If they do, they make a relevant roll. Subtract the number of Successes rolled from the attack's Damage Rating. The defender takes this many Wounds. Characters that don't wear armor can only soak damage that comes from impacts, such as a punch or fall.  

Maybe Armor gets rated as a trait (or as a bonus to any kind of toughness/resistance trait)?

Next comes the attack. Byron's Swordsman Trait at four applies, and Alex elects to spend just two points of Spin. The thief attempts to catch the blade with the hilt of his knife, using his Kife Fighting at three, and spending three Spin. Alex then Bolsters, adding another two dice to the attack, and rolling one, two, five, five, six: two successes, and a Spin now at three. The thief rolls one, two, four, four: two Successes, and a curret Spin of three. Because Byron has a higher relevant Trait, his attack hits.  It deals three points of damage: two for successes, and one for the weapon used (a rapier). The thief chooses not to Soak damage.

Is there no consideration for the defensive successes the thief managed? I just want to clarify that if I get 5 successes to attack you and you get 2 defensive successes, I hit with a margin of 5, not a matgin of (5-2=) 3. It just seems more intuative the other way.

Oh, and incidentally, you said earlier than a rapier has a damage rating of +2 - it's nice to be consistant in your examples :-)

Note that characters may never have more than five Traits at any one time. Also, note that even if a character's Traits increase, their Spin Modifier remains the same.

Hmm.. two points here. Firstly, how does a character ever increase his spin modifier? If it always stays the same, characters who spent more points at the start are permanently disadvantaged against other characters, seems a little harsh perhaps. Perhaps the spin modifier could be treated like a trait, to be increased with experience?

Also, I'm a little confused as to why you would cap the number of traits permanently at 5. This is clearly a change from version 1, where The Man in Black had eight. It means that characters can only ever advance to a certain point - eventually they'll have 5 traits at 5 points each, and all they can do is redistribute the points around into 5 new traits (also all at 5 points each). This not only limits characters, but NPC's also.

Two issues there AFAIC - one that characters can only have 5 traits, and two that because of that limit they'll tend to be exceptionally good at a few things (well, 5) and suck at everything else.

You could fix both issues at the same time if you opened up the number of traits, but made progressive values cost more. Maybe buying a trait at 1 costs a point, but after that the costs is the current trait level (so 1-2 costs 1 point, 2-3 costs 2 points, 3-4 costs 3 points and 4-5 costs 4 points), something like that anyway. This will tend to lead PC's into being fairly good in a wider range of skills rather than experts in a very narrow range.

This all might be totally contrary to where you're going, of course - I'm not trying to take over your game, just offer suggestions where I see things, YMMV and feel fre to tell me to bog off.

Final nitpick (just because I'm pedantic): You spell "Byron" as "Biron" once or twice, and the word is "thief", not "theif".

Brian.

[Jeph]

Combat Structure: When everyone yells at the same time, I tend to ask the one who said nothing, "Andrew, what does your character do?". This usually works pretty well. Maybe I'll include, "Characters may not state actions other than reactions until all other characters have had a chance to act." Or something similar but much less confusing. :-)

Bolstering: Bolstering is a way for high-Trait or high-Pool characters to compound their advantage against low-Trait and low-Pool ones. I.E., both sides must effectively spend one point of Spin, and the higher rated character either has more to waste, or gets it back more reliably. Therefore, a character with Swordsman five could Bolster more often and with less risk than one with Swordsman three (they'd get the extra Spin back faster).

Weapons: Why wouldn't a character use an axe? Same reason people didn't all use them IRL: you can't defend with them. So, in game, I'd let a character parry at full Trait with a sword, but maybe use default trait of one or trait minus two or something with an axe.

Armor: Light armor will just let you soak damage from edged weapons. Maybe heavy armor will give you a +1 or +2 automatic points of soak, and maybe force +1 spin spent on physical actions.

Theif vs. Byron: Nope, you just use the # of successes rolled. Subtracting the defender's successes adds another step, and I want combat to be pretty fast-paced. I just corrected the +1/+2 thing--and the fact that he was using a sabre, not a rapier. :-)

Advancement: Uncapping the number of Traits allowed and letting the Spin Mod be advanced are good ideas--the decisions to keep them steady were pretty arbitrary and unfounded. However, I have no problem with best-in-the-world characters, as there's plenty of that in the source material. Note that even a character with two traits doesn't 'suck at everything else,' as long as the player can come up with creative ways to use their traits.

Final Nitpick: Yeah, yeah, yeah. :D

[Brian Leybourne]

Oh yeah, one more thing I meant to ask - is there any advantage to having more than one trait that can be used in a situation? Lets say I have "master swordsman" at 4 but also "reflexes like greased lightning" at 3, and I'm trying to use my sword to knock aside a dagger that's being thrown at me. Any advantage to having both or do I just use 4?

Possibility: Maybe I get to use the better trait but because I have a secondary trait that also applies I get a bonus point of spin to be used for that roll only (i.e. one extra die)?

Brian.

[Jeph]

That's the same problem with systems like FUDGE, where the attributes and skills don't effect each other. I like your suggestion, but then I get this.

Andrew: "Okay, so I have master swordsman at four, hyper reflexes at two, battle frenzy at two, and voices in head urging me to kill white males at two. So I gain +3 spin when I attack the thug, right?"
Me: *twitch* *twitch*

In the example you gave, the reflexes like greased lightning trait would probably come into play when defending against larger, heavier weapons that can't be parried by a sword (like really big rocks).

On the subject of weapon bulk etc.--I'll probably insert a paragraph that goes something like this: "GMs should not let characters block attacks with weapons such as axes or warhammers. In addition, they should ask about actions from characters with more agility related traits, and those who use lighter weapons. For instance, a character that uses two daggers and has the Trait 'quicker than the eye' at three might be asked for actions three times to every one time that the GM enquires after the character who wields a sledgehammer."

[Valamir]

One thing you might want to consider is to borrow Hero Wars Augment Rules.  You get 1 trait just as you've described.  But if you have a bunch of affiliated traits you can roll 1 die against each of those, and if it comes up successful you get a free "spin die" to add into the main roll.  It works pretty well in HW and allows all the variety of possible bizarrely applicable traits to be included.

[Jeph]

I considered that, but it means rolling more dice, which I don't want.

Ooh! How bout this: I've found, in little me-vs.-myself battles, that the rule of "If two characters roll the same number of successes, then the one with the higher relevant Trait wins" comes into play quite often. Maybe, if you have multiple relevant traits, you total them together when comparing them in this way? This makes sense, as the times when you'd most need those related Traits is when you're equally matched in your primary area, and you just need that teensy little edge. Ideas?

[Brian Leybourne]

Yeah, that's not bad, although I still prefer my suggestion :-) (I would limit it to a maximum of +1 spin per roll regardless of how many additional "related" traits the character possesses. But I would probably ALSO use your suggestion of adding them together in the case of a tie.)

My regular game is on hiatus for a while, so I think I'll give the Spin system a, err, spin next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Brian.

[Jeph]

My regular game is on hiatus for a while, so I think I'll give the Spin system a, err, spin next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Brian.

Thanks! I myself won't be able to *really* playtest it, aside from the odd skirmish, until next weekend, as this weekend's all locked up in Star Wars Feng Shui.

Not that I have a problem with SWFS . . .

[Jeph]

I was just thinking about how to do poisons and stuff. Then it hit me: just make the poison an NPC, with a few special rules! An example of a dragon and his poison is shown below:

Gryshnakmyuscrulmak, Great Green Dragon: Cunningly Evil 3, Fearsome Natural Weapons 5, Thick Armor Scales 5, Great Dragon's Wings 2. Spin Modifier 2, Spin Pool 10. Gryshnakmyuscrulmak's scales allow him to soak any type of damage, and provide him with 2 points of automatic damage soak. When he successfully bites his prey, he injects a deadly paralyzing poison.

Gryshnakmyuscrulmak's Poison: Horribly Painful 5, Slowly Paralyzes Those Unfortunate Enough To Encounter It 3. Spin Modifier 3, Spin Pool 5. This poison is excrutiatingly painful. Whenever the victum attempts to take a physical action, they must succeed at an opposed roll vs. Horribly Painful. If they fail, they cannot attempt the action, and collaps in pain. In addition, every hour Slowly Paralyzes . . . kicks in, forcing an opposed roll. If the poison wins, the victum must pay +1 spin every time they attmpt a physical action. This extra spin cost is cumulative with wound penalties, and with it's self. When it has reached +5 spin, the victum is completely immobile.

You can also use this method to describe a fire: It's Trait Value would determine it's intensity, and it's Spin Modifier how long it would last. In fact, you could describe almost anything in this way. Comments?

[Brian Leybourne]

Yeah, good stuff - I like the idea that just about anything gets statted as an NPC, keeps the system simple. From your poison, it seems obvious to extrapolate further and get things like:

Arrow trap: Difficult to spot: 3; Shoots an arrow at target 3; Tricky to reload properly 4; Spin Modifier 2, Spin Pool 2. (or whatever, you get the idea).

On point however: NPC's and creatures I can see using spin pool to improve their rolls, because that represents a form of extra effort I guess. I don't like the idea of a poison or a trap using spin dice though as that seems (to me) to denote intelligence or at least animal cunning that they don't have.

Perhaps for items etc that don't have any natural cunning or intelligence of their own, they automatically use their spin modifier in spin dice each roll until/unless they run out of spin dice. Thus, Gryshnakmyuscrulmak's Poison always uses 3 spin dice as long as it has them, and the arrow trap above would use both of it's spin pool dice for its (one) shot, and these would be refreshed automatically when it was reloaded. What do you think?

I didn't manage to get tgether with my group this weekend, but will definately test the system next Sunday, and I'll I get back to you early the following week with the players'comments and how the system ran.

Brian.

[Jeph]

I was thinking that non-intelligent stuff would automatically spend as much Spin as they can, and never do any fancy stuff like Bolster. If you just had inanimate objects always get their Spin Modifier in Spin each turn, then you wouldn't get that naturally dissipating effect.

A bit on practicality . . . do you think the players will be able to keep track of their spin pools easily? You could probably just have a d12 or d20 for each player, and have them keep the die at their current spin pool, and record their current pool at the end of each session. Or maybe a spin tracker board, like the shot trackers in Feng Shui?

Also, this brings up a question: should players be allowed to see eachothers', and NPCs', Spin Pools, without doing something like scrying? Maybe that would be a roll with a Difficulty of the target's Spin Modifier, or something? Or just let it be a piece of universal metagame knowledge, maybe?