MARKED: You vs. the Universe

[anonymouse]

(Playtest will be in next few days, come hell or high water, so look for something in Actual Play! This is the first thing I've managed to finish that I could actually call a complete game.. though it's still a bit disorganised! wau! so proud of myself..)

[[design goals]]
* no death, only severe complications (see: G&S; yay gobi!)
* d12 dice pools
* single character vs. world
* few core stats
* point-based, player-created abilities
* MLWM-style endgame calculator
* "Trouble" mechanic
* fun combat

I'm really interested in coming with a MLWM-style "endgame calculator"; tally up the various variables, plug it into an equation/chart, and see what happens to the character. I love that thing so much! In this case, since I don't have much in the way of stats, I'm wondering if I could do a "Light Side/Dark Side" record. Every time the player does action A, he gets a Red Point, et cetera. Any tips or suggestions for something like that? This would be the only way the character would die, is if he's gone over some hidden threshold at the end, maybe. The end being either dealing with whoever branded you and becoming powerful enough through it that you can't be messed with anymore, or successfully removing it on your own.
--

MARKED

The universe rejects you. And it will do anything to remove you.

It knows you by your brand: a perfect mark upon your flesh. It knows where you are, knows how to find you. But the mark gives you power; survive the attempts of the universe to snuff out your life, and the mark - and you - grow stronger.

Strong enough to defeat the ones who marked you? Maybe. Or you could try and burn the mark away; if you somehow erase it, maybe reality would lose interest, and you could find peace.

Of course, you still might not survive the end of your story.
--

[[character creation]]
Will Points start at 6.
Mark Points start at 6.
Ability: Attack
Ability: Defend
1 custom Ability.
1 Large Sword.

Draw your mark and decide whether it covers your back, your chest, or one of your arms.

[[base rules]]
WP = Will Points, no maximum.
MP = Mark Points, max 12.
AP = Ability Points
TN = Target Number, rated 1-12 on a twelve-sided die.

TN for the character to do anything is 6 if your MP is less than 3, MP 4-8 is 8, or TN = MP for 9+.
TN for the Universe is 10 if MP is less than 3, 8 if MP is 4-8, and 6 if MP is 9+.

Any time Will is dropped to 0, suffer Vengeance and raise your Mark Rating by 1.
**Vengeance from the Universe most often takes the form of grevious physical harm to the one Marked; losing an arm or an eye, for instance, or perhaps crushing the Well of Life which you've been questing for. It should be noted that the Universe is attempting to completely erase you, and it's willing to do drastic things for that; for example, the Well of Life might've saved the nearby kingdom of good, righteous folk.. but if destroying the Well thwarts you, it will do it.

You can create Conflict for extra temporary Mark Points. 1 die = 1 MP.
**Give the Universe a free die to use against you for the remaining conflict. This can take the form of things like a collapsing bridge, or wind threatening to blow you off a cliff, or simply making Agents tougher. The MR gained from this is lost at the end of the conflict, after gaining Will.

You can burn WP for extra successes. 1 WP = 1 success for every 2 MP.

You gain a number of Will Points at the end of a conflict equal to the conflict's final TN.
   
MP lowered by 1 for every 10 conflicts that pass without gaining any MP (permanent or temporary).

Agent(NPC) and Conflict Ratings:
4 dice = Easy
8 dice = Standard
12 dice = Nightmare

the Universe can choose to turn any Agent or Conflict into a Nightmare, either in the middle of a combat or after the Marked has rolled his dice. the character immediately gains WP equal to his MP if this happens, or 6, whichever is greater.

Abilities are two- or three-word traits of supernatural things your character is capable of, such as Force Jump or a spell called Gravity. You can only use Abilities that are Mastered, and it takes 12 points to Master a Basic Ability (1 die), 24 for a Standard Ability (2 dice), and 50 for an Insane Ability (5 dice).

Every conflict in which you use an Ability other than Attack or Defend you gain one, two, or three AP to put towards an ability, depending on whether the conflict was Easy, Standard, or a Nightmare.

the Universe has a pool of 100 dice per session. Dice are taken out for a challenge and not considered used until conflict is over.
**If a conflict is rated Easy, the Universe takes 4 dice from its pool for that conflict; even though it will might re-roll those dice many times in the conflict, each roll does NOT count as an additional 4 dice.

If the Marked manages to exhaust the Universe's dice pool for the session, he automatically gains one of the following and the session is over:
   * 5 Ability Points, placed individually as desired.
   * WP equal to 2(MP).
   * -2 MP.




GENERAL CONFLICT:

Code Select Expand


01: throw down N dice!
* N = MP + Focus Die + Ability Dice for Marked, or Conflict Rating for Universe.
* Ability Dice only if relevent and must accompany appropriate narration.
* Focus Die TN = number of M + A successes. if FD = S, get S more successes.
02: apply Ability effects if appropriate.
03a: if Marked successes > Universe's, action succeeded
03b: if Marked successes < Universe's, action fails, WP loss = U's successes
04: gain WP and MP based on results.

Code Select Expand


Ezra (WP 6/MP 6) is trying to leap over an Easy chasm. He also has a relevent Basic Ability, 7-Cloud Leap. And just to be sure he doesn't run out of WP, he's going to add a bit of trouble to the mix: there's a fierce contrary wind blowing from the chasm worth 2 dice, so he gains an extra two temporary MP, bringing him up to MP 8. He'll be rolling 8 (MP) + 1 (Ability) + 1 (Focus) = 10 dice, trying to hit a TN of 8 on each die. Results: 12 11 10 9 9 7 5 3 1 + Focus of 3, for 5 successes.

the Universe takes 4 dice from its pool, and gains an extra 2 free dice thanks to Ezra's introduction of opposing elements; it's rolling 6 dice at TN 8. Results: 10 10 9 3 3 2, for 3 successes.

Ezra makes it over the chasm, gaining 8 WP in the process, one Ability Point to place in his next marked ability, and drops back down to 6 MP.

COMBAT CONFLICT:

Agents are entities that the Universe is working through. They draw on its dice pool, gain a Focus Die in conflicts, and can sometimes use Abilities. They tend to use these in direct attempts to end your life. We call this "combat".

In combat, you're always using an Ability of some kind; at the very least, you are either using Attack or Defend. These do not generate any AP, however, and do not give you a bonus Ability die.

The first roll in a combat conflict is there to determine who has Inertia; whoever's Focus Die result is closest to the number of his successes has Inertia, and may now Attack each round until he loses Inertia to an Agent.

After that, the conflict rolls proceed until one side or the other is dropped to WP 0.

Code Select Expand


Ezra's battling a Ravager. In the first round, he had 4 successes and a Focus Die of 3; the Ravager had a whopping 9 successes, but his Focus Die was -also- 3. Even though Ezra seemed to have been battered back, it was merely a clever ruse (or maybe just the devil's own luck) and he now has the advantage, suffering no ill effects for it.

In the next two rounds, Ezra manages to eek out 1 and 2 successes more than the Ravager, meaning he both keeps Inertia and does a total damage of 3 WP to the Ravager.

In the fourth round, however, the Ravager sneaks 6 successes to Ezra's 2, meaning the Ravager does 4 WP damage and is now on the Attack; all Ezra can do is defend until fortunes change.

--

So! 'ppreciate any insight, especially regarding the endgame bit. I apologise again for the somewhat scattered-ness; a proper PDF with a non-ADD layout is on the way! I hope. Or at least a cohereant .doc...

Quick notes: drawing bits of inspiration from Paladin and especially its ghost-revision, Gears & Spears, Wraith: the Oblivion, and a lot of video games.

[anonymouse]

Hah hah! I forgot the usual "what do you do?" bit.

FIGHT CRI-- maybe not.

You're a badass with a sword looking to either clear your name or destroy the ones who gave you the Mark in the first place; your problem gets solved either way. Lots of fighting and cinematic heroics. Kind of standard stuff, but I'm aiming for a bit of a darker mood at times supported by the system. Heavy video game influence in what I'm imagining, especially the recent Final Fantasy games and Vagrant Story.

Default setting is likely a human-centric series of city-states, with remnants of ancient technology floating around. A few of the nations likely focus on recovering and rebuilding some of this tech, while the others rely on traditional magic.

"Clean" and logically advanced Renaissance, likely; if there's levitation magic, there'll probably be lift platforms in some of the cities, and so on.

Hum! Think that's about it for the snapshot.

[bifevo]

Looks interesting.

Are you looking for comments, criticisms, playtesters? Just wondering,
 -Scott

[anonymouse]

All of those would be neat, but I went ahead and stuck to IGD etiquette: have a question! See top of the thread.

If you haven't played MLWM.. it has three stats for characters (Self-Loathing, Weariness, and Llove) and two for the environment (Fear and Reason). When you reach the end of the game (having dealt with the master), you've got a little chart that compares the various scores against each other, and that tells you what happened to a character. Such as: if a minion/character has no Love, he winds up as a new Master; or if SL and W are greater than F, he dies a messy death (for example; not sure if that's actually right).

I just really love that thing, and was wondering if anyone had any tips (especially Mr. Czerg(sp?)) on creating something along the same lines. I think I may need to draw on more setting elements and character choices than hard numbers.

[Demada]

So, the starting custom ability, it starts at 0?

Also, is the WP of an Agent up to the GM, or is it equal to the Agent Rating Dice?

[anonymouse]

Re: starting ability: No, it's full, and thus usable. Then you'd probably come up with another ability or two you wanted to work on, so you had something to put AP in. Moth mentioned that to me in chat as well, I need to clarify that. Thanks!

re: Agent WP: wow! Totally spaced that. Thanks again. I think for starters I'll set WP to Rating, yes. I'll see how it plays out in test and if that needs to be adjusted, although I'll probably go for something formulaic (i.e. x1.5 or x2 the AR).

[Demada]

Ok, I could be incredibly dense, but when you add Ability Dice, how many? Is it just one, like the Focus Die? Or does it equal the number of AP you have put in, divided by 12, round down? And, in the latter case, whenyou say an ability starts out "Full", does that mean it starts out with 1 die, AKA 12 AP?

Sorry for all the questions, but it sounds like a really neat game for one on one sessions.

[anonymouse]

Ability Dice are granted based on the level of the ability. Basic (starting at 0/12) gives you 1 die to add, Standard (0/24) gives you 2, and Insane (0/50) gives you 5.

re: Full: correct. I think I used two or three terms to describe that state in my draft notes, and I'm not sure if any of them made it to the post. I think a better word is "Mastered".

To work this into better language:

New characters begin with one mastered Basic Ability, which can add one die to their rolls during conflicts. They also have the Abilities of Attack and Defend.

Abilities can only be used in a conflict once they are mastered; that is, enough Ability Points have been gained (12, 24, or 50, depending) to match both the current AP and maximum AP (C/M) of an ability.

AP are gained by using Abilities in conflicts, but the Abilities of Attack and Defend do not contribute any AP. (I think I have some draft rules on this in the Combat section, but I may rework them; I'm not sure if I want a lot of abilities or a few.)
--

I know the feel and spirit of what I want to do with Abilities, but am kicking around how best to do that. Really appreciate the comments!

Also, re: one-on-one: exactly what it's design for. Really, I wrote this for my brother and I, since I've been looking for a two player game that works out of the box forever, and we've not had much luck. So good observation. ;)

[qxjit]

This game sounds like a lot of fun.  

What does the focus die do besides determine Inertia at the beginning of combat?  Does it count as a success with all the other dice if it's above the TN?

[anonymouse]

Focus Die is like a jackpot. If the number on the FD comes up with the same number of regular successes, you get that many more successes.

Example: Roll a 10, 8, 8, 4, 3, plus a Focus Die of 3. You got 3 successes (10, 8, and 8), FD came up 3, which means you get 3 more successes for a total of 6. If you got 4 successes, and FD came up 4, you'd get a total of 8 successes.

I liked the visual that even if you didn't roll very great - maybe only 3 or 4 successes - if your character was focused (I'm thinking sort of zen no-mind kind of thing) you could boost it, get a lot more out of your effort.