Topic: The Focus System
Started by: zmobie
Started on: 4/17/2008
Board: First Thoughts
On 4/17/2008 at 3:16am, zmobie wrote:
The Focus System
I've noticed a lot of proposed diceless systems lately, so stop me if this is horrendously similar to another one. My system is, for lack of a better title, is called the Focus system. I've started to compile a wiki in order to publish / organize the rules, but as of right now it is kind of a mess.
http://versusgames.wikispaces.com/Focus
I'll give an overview here so you don't have to wade through all that garbage.
The focus system was originally inspired by this unassuming little flash game
http://www.studiohunty.com/dungeon/
Which, was in turn inspired by Dragons Lair, Space Ace, and other great laserdisk games of the 80's. I played this game for hours and hours and finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to make an RPG with the same fast paced feel and reactive nature of games like these. I was also playing a lot of the FATE role playing system, from which I have also borrowed heavily. (http://www.faterpg.com/)
Behold! The Focus System.
From the website:
"Focus points are the backbone of the focus system. Focus represents all the effort and attention you give to any action you take. Focus points can be used in two different ways. They can be placed or spent. Placed points give a bonus to the skill or ability that the points are placed on, and stay on your character sheet from round to round. Your characters rank in focus determines the maximum amount of focus you may have on your character sheet at any one time. At the beginning of your turn you may place focus points on any of your skills, aspects, abilities, or even specific enemies and external threats in order to gain a bonus equal to the number of focus points for related actions you decide to make. Bonus points gained by focus placement are added to your appropriate skill level in order to determine the outcome of any action taken in the game. Characters may not place more focus points in any skill than they have in their skill rank.
Spent focus points are used to activate different abilities and special moves. When you spend a point it is removed from your character sheet as a cost for some specific action. For example, you must spend focus points to increase the amount of damage you do with a weapon after a successful hit. Spent points are regenerated at a rate determined by your energy rating. You regenerate one focus point per round for every rank you have in your energy stat."
That gives you a feel of the basics of the rules. Let me know what you think.