D10 System: Bare Bones of a future OGL system

[Delmer Esau]

This is how the system works..roughly...



*********

Stats:………..Range………Components of

Soul: 4- 20

Mind and Body : 2-10 (Mind + Body = Soul)

Traits:

Dexterity: 1-5
Strength: 1-5

(Str + Dex = Body)

Intelligence: 1-5
Heart: 1-5

(Int + Heart = Mind)

(Heart is a trait that defines a persons wisdom and character and is used for NPC response ie: charisma checks and mystical abilities)

Saving Throws:

Death Save = Soul/2 +/- modifiers. Roll under on 1d10 to make instant death saves ie: hit by the blast from an huge open steam vent.

Body Save = Body +/- modifiers. Roll under on 1d10 to make body checks to resist stressors like exhaustion.

Mind Save = Mind +/- modifiers. Roll under on 1d10 to make mind checks to stressors like interrogation.



Life Points: Soul + Body

Skills: 1-5 plus Hot Effects.




Task resolution rolling mechanic: Trait + Skill + 1d10 over Difficulty Number or Opposed Roll equals success. Degree of success may be measured and is used.

Reroll a natural 10 and add second roll on top of the 10 rolled. This means the die has gone Hot. Some technology assisted or mystical skills have special effects upon a successful roll and a hot die. These effects are called Hot Effects.

What do you at the Forge think of this? I want to create a holistic integration between the character and the enviroment. As well I like cinematic heroics. How can I integrate the effects of technology further into this scheme?  See also my other post "Machina: Steampunk Roleplaying"

[MoonHunter]

1) What is Soul used for besides the Death Save and hit points?

2) Is Soul just a mesure of power for the campaign, i.e. the base point total for characters?  

3) Or is Soul randomly or point determined? Is it set by the GM for all the characters? Or it generated after the character selects the substats they want?

4) Are the sub stats rolled for or point determined? Who determines their spread?  Do they determine their over stat? (probably not, but hard to tell)

5) Are hot effects purchased or do they come free with the skills/ feats choosen?

6) Natural abilities, how are these represented? Knacks, Perks? etc  So if I'm an Elf do I get any abilities for free or do I pay for them with soul points or what?

7) The die mechanic is functional, though prosaic.  Perhaps if we saw the chart for difficulties...

8) Do you get additional success for superior die rolls, other than when you roll a 10 and confirm it (this 1 in 100 chance occurs no matter what your skill is).  Is there a fumble equivalent?

9) 1-5 skills how is that determined?  Pre set? Determined by GM for game? Some function of mind?

The questions just pile up.  Can you answer all these and perhaps repost so we have a clearer idea.

[Delmer Esau]

The questions just pile up. Can you answer all these and perhaps repost so we have a clearer idea.

*grits his teeth*

Perhaps there are questions because the game isn't written yet. That is why I posted with the phrase "bare bones" in the title and requested feedback.

But yes. I will set about to answer your questions. Yes I will.

[deadpanbob]

Delmer Esau,

Welcome to the Forge.

You're going to find that posting anything here in the Indie Game Design forum can generate a lot of questions.  Part of the point for this forum, in fact, is to help Independent RPG Designers to work the kinks out of their games.

If you browse this forum, you'll see lots and lots of games that have been started, only to never be heard from again.  If you do a search on "Indie Game Design Forum" you'll also see several threads discussing the various viewpoints on how and when to post a game idea.

Nothing official, aside from the stickies at the top of this forum, has ever been decided.  However, from my limited experience here, you're a lot more likely to get response to specific questions about the game you're designing rather than a response to "give me some general feedback".  Not to say you won't get responses to the general feedback questions - but it's a lot less likely.

Questions like "Do these rules as written seem to achieve this design goal?" or "I'm trying to decide what form of character advancement I should include in my game, and thoughts?" will usually get at least one or two thoughtful replies.  When asking such questions, you just need to give enough information about the system in a thumbnail sketch (like you did above) so that everyone here has a good-enough understanding of your system.  When you do that, you're bound to get a lot of questions in response.

Nobody is recording this, so if you don't have the game written yet - or even if you're not decided yet on elements that would answer these questions - sometimes an off the cuff response can help.  Particularly, if you respond to some of these questions, it could spark a slightly wider ranging debate about elements of your proposed system.

Next, you're going to get asked this question eventually, so I might as well be the first:

What's the point of the game?  In other words, what, in your conception, will playing the game look like - among the real people sitting down around the table playing the game?  Why would someone play this game in favor of any number of skill/attribute systems that are availalbe?

I'm not trying to be cheeky or to say you don't have a good idea.  I'm asking these questions to see how much focus you've got on the game, what your vision of the game is, in order to as fairly as possible judge how well the mechanics as written support that vision.

Finally, there's a suggested reading list here at the Forge.  For anybody doing RPG design, I highly reccommend both of the following:

System Does Matter

and

G/N/S And Other Matters of Roleplaying Theory

Both of these articles form a sort of taxonomy/terminology set that gets thrown around a lot here at the Forge.  Reading and understanding these articles can go a long way toward helping you understand where a lot of the regulars here are coming from.

Cheers,



Jason

[Delmer Esau]

Thank you deadpanbob, for the last 4 years I have been a member of the Rpg.Net forums, different game design discussion style I guess. I'm also used to what is the this-is-not-meant-as-a-positive-comment wild west flame or be flamed attitude that prevails there.

Okay I have read the sticky.

Consider what I have previously posted as background for this question:

What sort of combined traits could you think up from the following:

Heart + Strength

Heart + Dexterity

Intelligence + Strength

Intelligence + Dexterity

An example might Intelligence + Dexterity = Craft

The D10 System focuses on heroic struggles involving technology as a prevailent theme. I want to D10 to be the first OGL system to provide a backbone for specifically: steampunk and cyberpunk genre RPG's, whether or not they are produced by myself and my crew.

Thank you for the thoughtful response, deadpanbob.

[deadpanbob]

Thank you deadpanbob, for the last 4 years I have been a member of the Rpg.Net forums, different game design discussion style I guess. I'm also used to what is the this-is-not-meant-as-a-positive-comment wild west flame or be flamed attitude that prevails there.

Understood - and things are a little different around here (not nec. always better for everyone, just different).

On to the question at hand

What sort of combined traits could you think up from the following:

Heart + Strength

Heart + Dexterity

Intelligence + Strength

Intelligence + Dexterity

An example might Intelligence + Dexterity = Craft

Well, I'm not sure what these combined traits would be used for, but here are some suggestions:

Heart + Strength = sex appeal
Heart + Dexterity = initiative; wits; grace
Intelligence + Strength = power/leverage; deliberation
Intelligence + Dexterity = prowess; agility

I get the sense that the above aren't exactly what you're going for.  Are you looking more for "what skills could be dfined by x + y?" or more for "what, generally, does x + y equal?".  I've answered more of the latter rather than the former.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,



Jason

[Delmer Esau]

Heart + Strength = sex appeal
Heart + Dexterity = initiative; wits; grace
Intelligence + Strength = power/leverage; deliberation
Intelligence + Dexterity = prowess; agility

I get the sense that the above aren't exactly what you're going for. Are you looking more for "what skills could be dfined by x + y?" or more for "what, generally, does x + y equal?". I've answered more of the latter rather than the former.

That is exactly what I'm looking for. Players add the the values then there will be instructions on how to commute them to things like an Iniative value (as you suggested). Each value will also be available (when divided by 2) as an unskilled use trait for skills the player doesn't have (with negative modifiers of course). So any combined traits that you at the Forge can think up will be appreciated.

You just solved my physical charisma problem BTW with the sex appeal suggestion.

[M. J. Young]

What sort of combined traits could you think up from the following:

Heart + Strength

Heart + Dexterity

Intelligence + Strength

Intelligence + Dexterity

Multiverser uses hand/eye and intuition for ranged strike value; it mixes strength into it for martial strike value (averaged attributes, not cumulative). You might find useful combinations there, that is, deriving a chance to hit a target from a combined score. Also, our target value--how hard a character is to hit--includes intuition and agility, and something like that might be significant.

We derive damage value from several scores, but it occurs to me that heart plus strength could be used to derive a will power or determination score.

Hope that helps.

--M. J. Young