I am working on a horror RPG which has suffered many different incarnations due to my inability to settle on a given method of...well...anything.  From the basics of the dice system (it has used 1d20, d6, 8 and 10 dice pools, percent die, etc!) to the level of fantasy in the story.  By level of fantasy I mean just how far out from reality it actually goes.  Being completely new as a poster to the Forge, I wanted to start with the basics: dice convention, attributes and traits. 

First, let me say that my utmost priority at this point is simplicity.  I want as simple a system as possible without sacrificing all semblance of reality.  That said...

There are three attributes: Body, Mind and Spirit.  The ratings for attributes are 1 through 3, with 1 being below average, 2 average and 3 above average.  These ratings correspond to 6-sided dice so, effectively, 1d6 below average, 2d6 average and 3d6 above average.

There are a number of traits per attribute, which are basically like skills.  However, they also encompass aspects of the attribute, hence the blanket term "traits."  For instance, under Body, you have Stamina (resistance to physical wear and damage), Deftness (quickness and coordination), Marksmanship (ranged weapons), Fighting (unarmed combat), etc.  Each trait is measured in points which do not currently have an upper range value.  These points add to the result of the appropriate attribute.  So, let's say a character of average Body and a Marksmanship of 2 wants to fire at an opponent.  They would roll 2d6 + 2.  The average difficulty might be 7 or 8 (this part is undecided right now). 

The way it would seem to work is that at lower skill values the attributes play a more influential role, while at higher trait levels the trait adder becomes the defining aspect of success or failure.  It is possible that the upper range of the traits should be limited, at least to normal human standards.  At this point I haven't even decided concretely on what the trait values mean (i.e. what level equals professional and what level equals mastery, etc).

Does anyone see an immediate or, more likely, eventual problem with the attribute dice + trait adder system and the average difficulty hovering around 7 or 8? 

I will certainly post more in the future because I am keen to garner opinions on some of these ideas. 

In actual resolution, actions taken against another character would be on an opposed roll basis - higher roll wins.

Thanks to anyone who helps.  If the information is too sketchy, please let me know what might help and I'll reply.

Yes, I think we'll have an interesting discussion. Some questions:

Tell us more about your game. I'm especially interested in the sort of interactions you're looking to create for the players: will there be a GM who describes a setting and prepares adventures? What sort of decisions will the players make in the crucial turning points of the game? Will they make decisions? How does the game inform and support this interaction? What sort of experiences do you want to create for the players? That sort of thing; I want to know about the social interaction you visualize for the game, rather than the resulting fiction.

How does the differentiation between traits and attributes inform the experiences and activities of play? In what sort of situations does the distinction come up? Do the two change at any point, or are they fixed in value? Are the changes engendered in the attributes and abilities important for the core activities of the game?

Tell us about your background with rpgs and especially horror rpgs. Would you say that there are games out there that have informed your work on this? Are you making a new game to improve or fix your past experiences with some other game, or would you say that your game is trying to do something new?

What sort of interaction will the characters in the game undertake to use these abilities and attributes? Who determines what sort of actions and events come up in the fiction of the game? What principles or rules does he use in making these decisions?

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That array of questions is ultimately predicated upon a suspicion on my part that I should probably illuminate: I suspect that the ability/attribute system you describe actually has no Earthly significance whatsoever for your horror rpg and the central goals you are trying to fulfill in your design. I might be grievously wrong, and have actually seen horror games where the arrangements of abilities are actually significant, but I wouldn't know without hearing more. So let's reserve any further discussion until we know more, eh?

Wow, yeah interesting indeed.  First, to address the last bit: you're right that the attribute/trait system does not have a grand amount of significance in this horror game specifically.  I am also trying to formulate the basis of a system which will be applied (with genre-specific alterations) to multiple genres for future use.  Again, the theory behind the system itself is simply that our inborn talents (the attributes) have more of a role to play initially than our experience or specializations, which begin to eclipse raw talent almost completely.  Does this mean a hill of beans to this horror game?  No, not really, other than to be a mechanic for resolving conflict and measuring the abilities of characters, which any other mechanic will do.

Now, on to the other stuff...

The game (Illuminatus: the Dwindling Light, working title) assumes that the popular conspiracy theories concerning the Illuminati are wrong - the order exists, but for the greater good of mankind.  Players assume the role of IOs (Illuminati Operandi), who are essentially the field operatives of the order.  The purpose of the order is to research, understand and ultimately protect the world from a powerful and unseen darkness from which all ghoulies and haunts originate.  The game centers around the obvious confrontations with the supernatural as well as the necessity of utmost secrecy in all things.  This secrecy is not just to protect the order: the more people "believe" in this darkness and, more importantly, fear it, the stronger it becomes.  That's the basic backdrop.

The GM describes the setting and lays out individual missions (things to seek out and resolve), while also providing a foundation from which the players can operate independently.  IOs are somewhat left to themselves, occasionally visited by their Magus to receive new orders.  There should be as much intrigue with the order itself as there is horror or adventure in its operations.  The players' decisions, then, could influence a number of things.  Firstly, their survival, obviously.  The system needs to be dangerous - the baddies should be lethal, so that this does not become a "seek and destroy" sort of game.  In some cases it will be as simple as physically removing the problem, but more often than not there will be spiritual connections which must be severed through other means.  The players will also decide how their IOs interact with the world, what lengths they go to in order to protect the order's oath of secrecy.  There are eyes always watching them.  In that regard, they have to be discrete in their dealings with the Darkness.  Mundane people can't be allowed to witness events transpire in ways that might clue them in to the greater realities of the cosmos.  Experience wise, players should not only experience dark horror (inasmuch as a RPG can inspire with proper atmosphere), but also the difficulties of sitting on a secret that's almost not a secret at all.  Everyone's heard of the Illuminati, but (in the game) no one really has a clue to what they're all about - nor should they.  The players (and thusly the characters) should be forced into teamwork, with loners quickly losing their lives in the field.  To this end, characters have Gifts, which are supernatural abilities such as Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Exorcism, Healing, etc.  These are not ultra-powerful by any means but are useful in their endeavors.  All IOs are assumed to possess a Gift, part of the reason they were chosen as IOs in the first place.  Lastly, the structure is largely put in place by the GM, but this should not be so rigid that the players feel "boxed in."  Players should have the ability to ultimately change the story - if nothing else, they could endanger the secrecy of the Illuminati (though they would be quick to discredit it!).  Their only contact, by the way, with the order itself is the Magus.

The attributes and traits do have some importance, I should say.  The breaking down of Body, Mind and Spirit are to address the three fundamental aspects of mortal life: the physical, the ethereal (or mental) and the spiritual.  Most traits can be based on these three aspects, so that a player can begin to focus their character's abilities more effectively.  The basic questions you are asking here are: Is my character strongest physically, mentally or spiritually?  This attribute obviously gets a 3.  Is my character weakest physically, meantally or spiritually?  This attribute gets a 1.  The remaining attribute will be considered average with a 2.  This is obviously incredibly basic.  The traits, then, are a focal point.  Take a Body of 3: this means the character's strongest assets are physical, but how?  Perhaps the player decides their character has a background in athletics.  They would put emphasis on traits such as Balance, Speed, Muscle and Stamina rather than Melee, Marksmanship or Fighting.  Likewise, if a character is strongest mentally, they would have a Mind of 3.  Suppose the player decides their character is a physicist primarily, and certainly an overall scientifically minded individual.  They might focus on the Mind traits of Intelligence, Memory, Science (General) and Science (Specific - in this case Physics) rather than Creativity, Mechanical or Technical.  Now, I can see potential problems with taking aspects of an attribute and calling them a trait the same as skills.  For instance, Intelligence and Memory both surely influence a character's abilities in Science, but they have no impact on it as presently stated.  Obviously, I need to back up and punt on that.  Suggestions?  (Can you tell I'm writing from stream of consciousness here?)

Changewise, attributes are not going to naturally change, but traits will.  Again, this will become an issue with Intelligence or Memory as far as being treated like skills.  It looks like I'll have to break away from the simplicity of only the 3 attributes or just suck it up and deal with the fact that one attribute embodies all aspects of itself (Mind of 3 means you are very intelligent, very creative, have a great memory, etc, straight across the board) completely and traits are simply changed to skills.  Obviously in such a case the skills would change but, again, the attributes are not likely to.

My experience in roleplaying games goes back to Basic and Advanced D&D (primarily the latter), through a plethora of them - just assume many.  I have owned and read more than I have actually run or played.  Horrorwise, my background is in the Storyteller series of games and Call of Cthulhu.  I own Chill but never liked the system enough to attempt running it. 

This game is not so much attempting to reinvent the wheel as tell a different story and do it with a very simple system that isn't outright stealing from others.  I want it to be simple but not totally freeform (it's the old D&Der in me).  I want dice to matter but not to be the focal point of the game by any means.  The actions of the characters will lead to the needs to use the attributes and traits, though the GM will provide the backdrop that leads them toward these points of conflict.  It will be fairly open as to how the characters go about accomplishing their goals, but the goals will largely be set by the GM in accordance with the assumed overall goal that has them all in the same order to begin with - combatting the dark forces that prey upon the Light.

Hope that helps.  I'll be checking, so let me know anything else you're looking for.

Also, I should note that the 1, 2, 3d6 concept with adders for traits/skills is a rather sudden thought that I am toying with.  The standing system is based on a variant of Robin Laws' Feng Shui rules, using 2d6, one positive and one negative, resulting in a modifier of -5 to +5.  This modifier is then applied to a number composed of an attribute and a relevant skill.  Attributes are given a simple 1-10 scale, with 1 being feeble and 10 being a prime specimen.  Skills are then expressed as an adder, so that a Firearms skill of 3 would be added to a Reflexes value of 6 (fairly average) to yield a 9.  Rolling the dice, the result (let's say +1) is applied and the final value is 10.  This is compared to the difficulty of the attack (usually an opposed roll using the defender's Dodge skill).  If the attacker equals or exceeds the defender's roll, the attack succeeds.  If taking an unopposed action, such as picking a lock, the GM assigns a difficulty - say, 8 - and the roll must exceed this.  I'm sure you're familiar with this type of system if you've read Feng Shui at all.  It is partially open-ended: if you roll a 6 on either the positive or negative die (not both), reroll and add.  If you again roll a 6, reroll and add again, etc.  If both dice are sixes, it is simply treated as a zero.  I think this system is actually quite simple and is probably the one I'll stick with.  The problem is, I'm a tinkerer.  I can't seem to be totally satisfied with something.  I think, too, I'm trying to create a proprietary system so I don't feel like I'm taking from Robin's.  That said, I know game designers do it all the time.  I think the 1-10 scale is cool for the simple reason that it's a natural scale for people to use.  We've all heard "on a scale of one to ten..." and we automatically know that 1 is the worst and 10 is the best.  Thus, it's almost more intuitive to sum up a character's attributes this way at a glance than looking at numbers based on 3d6 or what have you.  Just my opinion, I suppose.

That's a very good answer! I have multiple fronts I'll want to address this from, so I'm going to break it down a bit...

Dementia wrote:
Wow, yeah interesting indeed.  First, to address the last bit: you're right that the attribute/trait system does not have a grand amount of significance in this horror game specifically.  I am also trying to formulate the basis of a system which will be applied (with genre-specific alterations) to multiple genres for future use.  Again, the theory behind the system itself is simply that our inborn talents (the attributes) have more of a role to play initially than our experience or specializations, which begin to eclipse raw talent almost completely.  Does this mean a hill of beans to this horror game?  No, not really, other than to be a mechanic for resolving conflict and measuring the abilities of characters, which any other mechanic will do.

The GM describes the setting and lays out individual missions (things to seek out and resolve), while also providing a foundation from which the players can operate independently.  IOs are somewhat left to themselves, occasionally visited by their Magus to receive new orders.  There should be as much intrigue with the order itself as there is horror or adventure in its operations.  The players' decisions, then, could influence a number of things.  Firstly, their survival, obviously.  The system needs to be dangerous - the baddies should be lethal, so that this does not become a "seek and destroy" sort of game.  In some cases it will be as simple as physically removing the problem, but more often than not there will be spiritual connections which must be severed through other means.  The players will also decide how their IOs interact with the world, what lengths they go to in order to protect the order's oath of secrecy.  There are eyes always watching them.  In that regard, they have to be discrete in their dealings with the Darkness.  Mundane people can't be allowed to witness events transpire in ways that might clue them in to the greater realities of the cosmos.  Experience wise, players should not only experience dark horror (inasmuch as a RPG can inspire with proper atmosphere), but also the difficulties of sitting on a secret that's almost not a secret at all.  Everyone's heard of the Illuminati, but (in the game) no one really has a clue to what they're all about - nor should they.  The players (and thusly the characters) should be forced into teamwork, with loners quickly losing their lives in the field.  To this end, characters have Gifts, which are supernatural abilities such as Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Exorcism, Healing, etc.  These are not ultra-powerful by any means but are useful in their endeavors.  All IOs are assumed to possess a Gift, part of the reason they were chosen as IOs in the first place.  Lastly, the structure is largely put in place by the GM, but this should not be so rigid that the players feel "boxed in."  Players should have the ability to ultimately change the story - if nothing else, they could endanger the secrecy of the Illuminati (though they would be quick to discredit it!).  Their only contact, by the way, with the order itself is the Magus.

The attributes and traits do have some importance, I should say.  The breaking down of Body, Mind and Spirit are to address the three fundamental aspects of mortal life: the physical, the ethereal (or mental) and the spiritual.  Most traits can be based on these three aspects, so that a player can begin to focus their character's abilities more effectively.  The basic questions you are asking here are: Is my character strongest physically, mentally or spiritually?  This attribute obviously gets a 3.  Is my character weakest physically, meantally or spiritually?  This attribute gets a 1.  The remaining attribute will be considered average with a 2.  This is obviously incredibly basic.  The traits, then, are a focal point.  Take a Body of 3: this means the character's strongest assets are physical, but how?  Perhaps the player decides their character has a background in athletics.  They would put emphasis on traits such as Balance, Speed, Muscle and Stamina rather than Melee, Marksmanship or Fighting.  Likewise, if a character is strongest mentally, they would have a Mind of 3.  Suppose the player decides their character is a physicist primarily, and certainly an overall scientifically minded individual.  They might focus on the Mind traits of Intelligence, Memory, Science (General) and Science (Specific - in this case Physics) rather than Creativity, Mechanical or Technical.  Now, I can see potential problems with taking aspects of an attribute and calling them a trait the same as skills.  For instance, Intelligence and Memory both surely influence a character's abilities in Science, but they have no impact on it as presently stated.  Obviously, I need to back up and punt on that.  Suggestions?  (Can you tell I'm writing from stream of consciousness here?)

Changewise, attributes are not going to naturally change, but traits will.  Again, this will become an issue with Intelligence or Memory as far as being treated like skills.  It looks like I'll have to break away from the simplicity of only the 3 attributes or just suck it up and deal with the fact that one attribute embodies all aspects of itself (Mind of 3 means you are very intelligent, very creative, have a great memory, etc, straight across the board) completely and traits are simply changed to skills.  Obviously in such a case the skills would change but, again, the attributes are not likely to.

This game is not so much attempting to reinvent the wheel as tell a different story and do it with a very simple system that isn't outright stealing from others.  I want it to be simple but not totally freeform (it's the old D&Der in me).  I want dice to matter but not to be the focal point of the game by any means.  The actions of the characters will lead to the needs to use the attributes and traits, though the GM will provide the backdrop that leads them toward these points of conflict.  It will be fairly open as to how the characters go about accomplishing their goals, but the goals will largely be set by the GM in accordance with the assumed overall goal that has them all in the same order to begin with - combatting the dark forces that prey upon the Light.

You've given me a lot to think about and have really hit the nail on the head about obsessing over things that are, at best, of minimal importance to the overall experience.  It doesn't actually matter about the difference between attributes and skills, except that my experience with older RPGs dictates it to be so.  Even newer ones, for that matter, considering that games such as White Wolf's different offerings still add a skill value to an attribute value.  What I want is simplicity overall, at first thought.  Once I get into the system, a Mr. Hyde side of me takes over that wants it to come as close as possible to "real life" and I guess that really complicates things. 

I'm going to think over what you've written here and already have some ideas rolling around about how to keep things simpler, since I want the focal point to be the confrontations with the Outer Darkness and the impact that has on the character's psyches and lives, not to mention their being part of an order that is secretive even to its own members.

I will come back with more soon, but you've sent me back to the drawing board on these points.  Thank you very much for taking the time to write such insightful responses.  I really do appreciate it - it's difficult to stay focused without someone else's influence, too many distractions for the mind to seize hold of when it ought to keep its sights on the primary objective: a horror game that actually conveys horror.  On that subject, I've never seen Delta Green before but I do actually posses a copy of Dread and played in one of Raphael's one-shots.  I do like the game but I'm after more of a ongoing campaign potential.  Further, while Dread is indeed very simple, it is also very action oriented.  As I told Raphael, if In Nomine and Feng Shui had a love child, Dread would be it.  I enjoy it, but it's not what I'm after with mine.  I'm looking more for the grittier CoC or Chill aspect, where characters are not that powerful (though they do have Gifts to help out a little) and are constantly in real danger.  It should never be a good idea in Illuminatus to just charge something, and combat is likely to be completely pointless and futile in some situations because the entities encountered are simply above and beyond any kind of mundane concept of "combat," instead requiring mystical secrets to be unveiled and utilized for the specific task.  Anyway, that's for another discussion.  For now, I'm back to the drawing board on the attribute/stats issue, because it is important in so far as I don't want it to get in the way - which it certainly does right now.

Thanks again, and I'll post more soon.

Here is how the Power 19 shapes up at this point.  While I'm working on the resolution system a little more, notice that I'm having issues with finding ways to reward good roleplay.  I know it has to be fairly simple, it's just that I'm distracted by other things.  Any suggestions would be welcomed.

1.) What is your game about? 
The world of men, the world of reason, logic and stability, is known by certain enlightened individuals as the Light.  It embodies all the natural laws and scientific facts upon which we as humans have come to depend.  However, there is a little-known enemy of the Light, dubbed the Outer Darkness, which seeks, whether intentionally or not, to extinguish the Light and plunge our reality into a new aeon of personal erosion, the loss of hope and the overwhelming presence of fear.  Between these two extremes are the Illuminati, an ancient order which has been largely misunderstood by conspiracy theorists and would-be scholars alike.  The Order studies the paranormal with great interest and takes measures to banish the Uninvited (denizens of the Outer Darkness which cross into the Light) from our world.  The primary tools of this engagement are the Illuminati Operandi, IOs for short – the characters that players will control.

2.) What do the characters do?
IOs are given assignments by their Magus, the only representative of the Illuminati with which they have contact.  These assignments are based on evidence or suspicion of paranormal activity.  IOs investigate the activity and determine what forces or entities they are dealing with, subsequently taking whatever measures are necessary to send them back where they belong.  At the same time, they walk the thin line between the mundane world and that of the Illuminati, two worlds that must not cross over, since secrecy is paramount to survival.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
Players take on the roles of the IOs in the game, Illuminati Operandi.  They decide how the IOs respond to events and challenges, as well as make decisions which influence the future of play as the GM improvises in response.  The GM’s responsibility is first to bring the setting and atmosphere alive, then to present the actual storyline being developed and respond improvisationally to the reactions and decisions of the characters.  Like most games, the GM also takes on the role of any non-player characters encountered.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
It is not so much setting as atmosphere in Illuminatus.  The setting is basically our world, with the same histories, cultures, continents, nations and relationships.  However, the Outer Darkness enters the Light routinely, in often secret and nearly undetectable ways.  The setting, then, can be anywhere in the known world.  The atmosphere, however, is one of divergence from the norm and the oppressive mood of knowing that there is a force much greater than you which is nothing but hostile and bent on the destruction of that world. 

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
Character creation minimalizes the importance of statistics and maximizes the importance of character background, especially how the character first encountered the Outer Darkness and subsequently the Illuminati.  In addition, one aspect of character creation is the choosing of a Gift which, in fact, chose the character.  This Gift, ranging from Telepathy to Animal Kinship is the one thing that physically sets IOs apart from the general mundane populace.  Because it makes them special, that is part of their usefulness to the Order.  Most importantly, the concept phase of character creation, which fleshes out who the character is moreso than “what” the character is, seeks to unite the player with their character through a bond of believability.  This can only enhance the game down the road as players are more likely to experience fear if they actually care what happens to their character.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
The game rewards teamwork, first and foremost, since survival is dependent upon it.  Characters cannot successfully complete a scenario and gain whatever secrets that may be learned from it if they do not survive.  Further, the game should reward players that play their characters according to their concept (background and personality), but I have not devised an actual mechanic for that yet.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
Again, characters can only complete scenarios and gain the secrets they may impart if they are able to survive, which is almost always going to be dependent on teamwork.  The reward for playing characters according to their concept has not been determined at this time.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Narration is primarily the responsibility of the GM, while players will narrate the actions of their own characters.  However, it is desirable for players to narrate their characters’ actions effectively: rather than saying, “I shoot at the cultist,” the player might say, “I move for the nearest cover while drawing my pistol, taking aim at the cultist.”  There doesn’t seem to be a big difference, but the first sentence does not sound like something you might read in a horror novel, while the latter is (although it is still very simplified in this example!).

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
Hopefully the character creation (which is to be in-depth) and subsequent roleplay will build the foundation of player engagement.  It is then the responsibility of the game to create situations which appeal to the particular aspects of this concept in a meaningful way so that the player can’t help but become engaged in their character’s newest conflict.  At the same time, there is the Illuminati who, in and of itself, can be a nasty adversary as much as it is a support network.  If characters are slipping in their oath of secrecy or their field operations, (i.e. things get ho-hum at the table with one player), the Illuminati may take measures to shake things up (i.e. the GM has ways).

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
I want them to be simple and quick, not taking away from the story but only supporting it in a functional (yet graceful) way.  They need to get the job done and retain some flavor of the game in their implimentation, but they are not to be at the forefront of players’ minds.  I have gone back to the drawing board on this part – watch this space.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
I don’t know yet.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Two ways: failures in important situations lead to enlightenment with that ability, improving it.  Secondly, the characters’ abilities regarding the Outer Darkness improve with encounters and scenarios, but at the cost of the character growing more and more out of touch with the Light. 

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
Enlightenment through failure reinforces the struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds, while an improved understanding of the Outer Darkness coupled with the slow loss of connectedness between the character and the Light reinforce the idea that, even in trying to combat it, the Outer Darkness taints you.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
I want the game to bring back the real sense of horror in such an RPG.  It feels like horror RPGs in the past two decades have focused more on being a part of the horrifying things, so that players never feel a sense of “fear” or apprehension in scenarios, instead just feeling like they are part of a dark story.  Instead, I hope to create a game which will leave players slightly disturbed or at least uncomfortable at certain points and possibly cause the occasional nightmare later on.  That’s what good horror movies and books did for me back in the day, and that’s what I’d like Illuminatus to do now.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
Fear.  One of the key components of the game is Fear.  Characters encounter things that have a Fear value, which is not just how scary it appears, etc, but an actual radiated power akin to that in D&D.  It is not a power in itself, but the overwhelming negative emotion in the creature encountered which is picked up on by the mind, and the mind has great difficulty processing it calmly.  I think Fear is an important part of horror as a game mechanic, and at least simulates fear even if the player doesn’t personally experience it.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
The encounters and the use of Fear, because it’s so integral to good horror fiction.  The story itself and the tools to help create it.  To this end there will be a section wholly devoted to setting the mood and creating atmosphere.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?
As I mentioned earlier, I want Illuminatus to reinstill horror in the RPG world where others have become somewhat ho-hum in delivery.  Call of Cthulhu is a great game on which I cut my teeth but players don’t seem to feel much anymore, they just know that their characters do.  I want to make horror personal again.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
I do want Illuminatus to be released in paper form.  I am very much on the fence about .pdf format.  Part of me wants to treat it as a business (trying to prevent free distribution), and part of me just wants to contribute to the industry even if I don’t break even.  With POD, it’s a bit easier to get things in book format.  There are other options, as well, such as Mongoose’s “Flaming Cobra” series of books by other designers.

19.) Who is your target audience?
Anyone who loves a good horror story, doesn’t mind playing a character that isn’t going to be all-powerful or steal the show and is satisfied with using teamwork along with their fellow players.

Should I be moving this to a different forum by now, or is it still a first thoughts sort of thing?

Good to know that you have a process going on there. I'm liking a lot of what I'm seeing in your Power 19; I can see a game here that I'd play, even if I'm not that hot on the kewl powerz angle.

This is totally first thoughts territory, still. We can move out to the playtest forum whenever you'd like to discuss your playtest experiences, though.

Being that you're familiar with Dread, do check out the GMing section of that game with an eye towards the notion of game process. I've found it immensely useful myself to concentrate on designing game processes, as opposed to game structures. Consider, which one of these is the heart of Dread:

• Characters have attributes and skills, but they are not used in a layered manner. Instead, the attributes cover the general tasks, such as fighting and magic-use, while skills are used for highly specific information gathering purposes. d12s are rolled against a difficulty set by the GM. There is no character development system to speak of, the characters are pretty much as good as they're going to get right from the start.
• The GM has chosen a particular demon with particular preference of victims and an in-built program of behaviour. The demon terrorizes the community, killing people and doing its demon things, which attracts the attention of the player characters. The players need to collect clues as to the nature of the demon, so they can find it and take the right steps to stopping it. The climax of the session is the fight with the demon; success depends on luck and setting up the conditions smartly, to favor your side. All of this is prepared by the GM in very rough terms: he has a list of prepared locations for hints and for fights, which the players then go through; whether the players of the GM control the progress from location to location depends on how well the players do in gathering clues and being assertive.

What i'm driving at here is that the actual game design of Dread is not in the dicing mechanics, really. Those are just support structures for the real heart of the game, which is the challenge of finding and overcoming the demon. The core that makes Dread the game it is is that process described in the GMing section - that's the social, interactive process the players go through when playing, and that's what the designer should focus on when designing a game.

But anyway, that's general, let's look at specifics: I'd like to hear more about the Fear and your ideas regarding it, that sounds like an interesting part of the game. I'd also like to know how your game is going to handle failure - what happens when characters mess it up and just plain make stupid decisions, or the dice are against them or whatever. Will the GM rearrange things to save them, or will the characters die horribly?

That part about failure brings me to the heart of your design theory - it seems to me, according to your Power 19, that your game is predicated on the idea that the players will care about their characters and live vicariously (experiencing thrills and fear) through them thanks to the character generation process, which will be in-depth. Could you tell me more about what sort of depth your chargen process has, and how that allies the player and his character? I'm asking this because what first comes to my mind when somebody mentions "deep character generation" is writing a long-ass essay about the character's childhood and the mysterious man who gave him an amulet on his 13th birthday. This has always been boring as hell to me, so I'm interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the matter; I have some notions from other games and other ways that character generation can be deep [Poison'd < come back if pertinent], but it's better to hear about your ideas, first.

Also, a question that surfaces when looking at the Power 19 is that I'm interested in hearing about the system of play your game works with - we've covered the character mechanics and resolution, more or less, so what I'd like to hear about is the structural precepts of GMing the game. Is there an elaborate setting that the events of the game are embedded in, '90s style? Do you have some sort of flow-chart process that the GM runs the characters through, like Dread has? Or does the GM have a Call of Cthulhu -style backstory-heavy prepared scenario, which is then arranged to open at the table during play? I think I understand the sort of resulting adventure you're looking to create, but I'm still a bit vague about the tools the GM will use to bring this about.

The character creation process, as I have most recently defined it, works in 13 steps.  As part of this, I have already revamped the basic mechanics to really simplify them and I'm pretty happy with the results.  Basically, you answer 13 questions.  When you've finished, your character is created.  Here's the process:

1: What is your character’s name?

2: What is your character’s gender?

3: What is your character’s age?

4: What was your character’s best childhood experience?

5: What was your character’s worst childhood experience?

6: What was your character’s best adolescent experience?

7: What was your character’s worst adolescent experience?

8: What was your character’s best adult experience?

9: What was your character’s worst adult experience?

10: Based on #s 4, 6 and 8, think of a circumstance that soothes and calms your character when adverse conditions have upset or disturbed them emotionally.

11: Based on #s 5, 7 and 9, think of a circumstance that causes intense fear in your character, perhaps irrationally.

12: Imagine your character broken down into three parts: Body, Mind and Spirit.  On a scale of -2 to +2, the average rating is 0.  However, people are rarely average in all aspects.  A -2 is very poor, while a +2 is truly exceptional.  Is your character stronger in Body than the average person, or perhaps more intelligent (Mind) or spiritual with great faith (Spirit)?  Rate your character in each area between -2 and +2.  However, keep the following in mind: for every point above 0 you add to one of the attributes, you must subtract the same amount among the remaining two.  For instance, if your character has a Mind of +2, then you must distribute -2 points among Body and Spirit, giving you either Body -1 and Spirit -1, Body -2 and Spirit 0, or Body 0 and Spirit -2.  Or, if your character is strong in both Mind and Spirit, with a +1 and +1 respectively, then Body must be -2.  To assist you in distributing attribute points, remember the following rule: however you distribute the attribute points, they must always add up to 0.

13: Think about your character’s career and interests.  Record your character’s profession and two of their favorite hobbies.  It’s better if you make sure the hobbies and profession are as unrelated as possible.  In game terms, your Profession will impart a +2 bonus to any actions related to it, while each hobby will impart a +1 bonus to any actions related to them.  Note that there are no skills - things are down to interpretation and GM and player agreement.  For instance, if your character is a Doctor and someone needs First Aid, you might tell the GM that you want to administer first aid and, being a doctor, that relates to your profession.  This gives you a +2 bonus to the attempt.  It is important to note that with 2d6 and a difficulty range of 6 to 14, every +1 bonus is significant in terms of probability, as are penalties.

Basically, that's it.  Players always roll 2d6 and add/subtract the relevant attribute.  If the action being attempted can be convincingly related to either the character's profession or hobbies, then a bonus (either +2 or +1) is also applied to the roll.  These are rolled against either a static difficulty or an opposed roll.  I think just answering the questions, thinking about the best and worst experiences uring the three phases of the character's life, already creates a pretty good bond between player and character without being an essay like you mentioned.  Players can write it out however long they want, but what will go on the character sheet is a very short (no more than, say, 3-5 words) nutshell of each answer. 

I'm toying with getting rid of the Gifts, simply because they seem to complicate matters a bit for very little benefit.  I like the idea of psychic phenomena being part of it, but turning those into simple mechanics without getting into stupid matters of range, duration, blah blah blah has proven somewhat frustrating.  Either they seem too watered down or too complicated compared to the rest of the game.  Might be time to just axe them, I don't know.

How does Fear work, you ask.  Characters have a Pulse Meter, which is somewhat like a wound level chart, but for stages of fear, starting at Shaken and ending with Horrified.  These levels do impart penalties as they progress but, more importantly, they describe the physical symptoms as well.  At Shaken, for instance, pulse is quickened slightly but otherwise the character is alright.  At Disturbed, the character's pulse is even quicker, color is leaving the features and eyes are dilating, etc.  Penalties start to accrue as fear overcomes rationality.  In addition, characters receive Dissociation points, which have multiple effects.  On the good side, they work as a bonus against Disturbance rolls (when characters roll to see how they deal with a given disturbance: the very means by which the Pulse Meter gets activated).  On the bad side, they work as penalties in social interactions and in sensing the Outer Darkness.  The reason for this is that Dissociation means the character is growing harder to the things which once filled him with fear, but is also slowly breaking away from what made him a part of the Light to begin with.  If Dissociation reaches too high a point, the character is considered lost to the Outer Darkness, a complete raving lunatic who can't really function in normal society any longer.  The actual mechanic for fear is pretty simple.  Univited and horrifying events have a Disturbance Level which works on the same scalse as difficulties.  Characters make a Mind roll (2d6 +/- Mind stat, + any current Dissociatve points) against the Disturbance Level.  If they succeed, they're able to cope with what they've just encountered.  If they fail, the margin of failure is applied to the Pulse Meter.  Conversely, there is a mechanic for therapy which can gradually lower Dissociation, but it can mean a character being out of commission for a little while, while they deal with the horrors they've experienced.

I hope this answers some questions.  I'm still working through some things at the moment, so the above may not be concrete, but it's pretty close to what the final playtest product will be.

Now for your question concerning setting: there will be background information on the Illuminati, the Outer Darkness and the Uninvited, known Cults (people who actually want the Uninvited to be here).  Uninvited are widely ranged, from ghosts and poltergeists to demons and doppelgangers, with all sorts of things in between.  There will not be heavy setting information regarding locale, since it is just like the real world and the GM can set the game wherever he likes.  This gives the added benefit of writing from what you know (think of Raphael's examples always being based in North Carolina, where he lives!).  As far as GM tools, he or she will have the backgrounds just mentioned and a chapter on setting atmosphere and tone, tips on running a successful game (which will be more meaningful after playtesting), etc. 

How are failures treated?  Similarly to real life - death is a reality.  However, I've been toying with providing some sort of point which can be spent to reverse situations or provide an extra roll.  I don't want such a thing to be too plentiful or easy, though - horror is much less horrifying if there is no potential for true bodily harm or even death.

Some of what you write reminds me heavily of Dead of Night, an excellent horror movie roleplaying game. I think that I can now understand your character modeling aesthetics from that viewpoint, specifically - DoN has somewhat similar logic in how and why characters are represented mechanically. The Pulse Meter also reminds me of how tension points work in that game.

A further question, to help me understand your creative agenda here: would you say that players fail when their characters succumb to the Darkness, or would you say that the point of the game is to experience the thrills and events that are commonplace in this genre, including awful failure and death? In other words, is it the player who fails, or is it the character who fails? I'm asking because horror roleplaying games ever since Call of Cthulhu have often been rather confused about this very point - CoC, for example, simultaneously advocates both viewpoints.

Other than that, I'm liking what I'm seeing. The Pulse Meter seems especially nice, although I'd be more excited if it were more concrete about its effects instead of just piling mathematical penalties on action. It seems to me that the horror would penetrate better for the player if his character simply couldn't do something because of the stress and fear, instead of just having a big penalty on doing it. Psychological point, that.

Regarding Gifts, this is just my perspective, but I suspect that you might be better served if you detached the idea of paranormal events and forces from player character identity. You could just say that a character is more or less capable/impressionable towards psychic forces based on some statistic, but leave the exact meaning of that confluence to be resolved on a case-by-case basis.

Other than that, it seems that you have this game well in hand, and should perhaps be thinking of playtesting. I'm thinking that you probably should keep a careful eye on the processes of play when you do - what players care about, how their character identity forms and affects play, how they react to different GMing techniques regarding atmosphere and tension - those are key questions where you can actually provide value to your audience if you succeed in laying out some principles, rules, advice or other structures. Rules for modeling characters and resolving attempts at climbing out of a pit are thirteen to a dozen; the interesting bit in your game will be the way you decide to structure the situation of play to generate the sort of experiences you're interested in.

No, players don't fail if their characters succumb to the Darkness.  In fact, if the characters are routinely doing their jobs, they'll be edging toward that line all the while.  Not unlike, I suppose, a CoC character's inevitable decline into madness and depravity - same thing, really.  The only way I would say players can fail is by not doing their part to create a good story (i.e. not playing their characters according to their concept and not being adequately involved in the session).  Of course, the GM can just as much fail in that regard as well.  The Dissociation only portrays the hardening process to the bizarre experiences they have and how that affects them in mundane life.  Sorta like in The Crow, "this is the really real world, there ain't no comin' back," only from the other side of the mirror.

The Pulse Meter... I agree that putting stuffy old penalties on actions is overdone and pretty boring.  However, it's the only way I know right now to simulate the obvious in good films and stories - picture the character running in panic, fumbling with keys, dropping them, having trouble starting the car, etc, like you've seen in a million stories.  It isn't that they literally couldn't handle the keys or start the car, but their fear and panic was making it more difficult.  That's what I'm after.  If you have a suggestion of a smoother way to handle that notion, I'm up for it, because the penalties thing occurs in every game, just about, and it really is a boring effect.  Just the only way in my mind so far to simulate the difficulty of handling oneself with escalating fear.

I think that the Spirit attribute will come into play with supernatural/paranormal phenomena, I just don't totally know how yet.  I think it will be a part of a Sensitivity check, something like Chill's ability to detect the Unknown.  I'm still cooking some ideas in my head that aren't ready to be put down in writing just yet. 

Yeah, there's no doubt that atmosphere and tension are the very backbone of such a game.  One of the ways to TRY to accomplish that is to provide the GM with not just the Darkness, but the Illuminati itself.  Characters will have stress from both directions at various times and for various reasons.  It will be paramount that things sometimes happen within the Order that the characters don't understand, things that seem to be helping the opposition and hurting them.  There should be a "the Illuminati move in mysterious ways" feel to the Order.  Even though they are the street-level members of it, they are so far removed from it that only the Magus is in contact with them - they will not have met anyone else.

I guess playtesting isn't too far away.  I'm still trying to find a good damage system that fits in with the theme.  I like the Pulse Meter concept for fear, but I'm not sure if a wound box or hit points quite get there where physical injury is concerned.  Any ideas from your experiences?  It seems you've seen a lot more indie games than I have, so I'm assuming you've seen damage handled a million ways.  What's made the most sense in a horror-type game to you?

Ah, the Illuminati itself is an active, operational tool that the GM can use to mold the characters' situation? Most excellent, usually the background organization is very passive in this sort of game, or at least there is no in-built structure to make it do any work for the game.

I think I'm getting a handle on your agenda here, based on what you wrote about player success and failure. In case you're interested in that fabled beast of rpg theory, GNS, it seems that this game project is solidly simulationistic. Good for you, and a good reason to check out Dead of Night and Dread (the jenga one, not Rafael's), which are two excellent simulationistic horror games that might have some good ideas to steal. I found both of those games (and refound this particular type of rpg in general) just a short while ago, so I'm always keen to recommend them to anybody who comes along ;)

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About the Pulse Meter and a character fumbling for his keys, I totally get what you're trying to go for here. About five years ago I wrote a horror rpg scenario that worked with similar atmosphere and had the same goal of inducing impressions and feelings on the players. The approach I took then was to make strong, ritualized suggestions to the players about how they might wish to play their character at a given time. In practice I had this deck of cards on the table, out of which the players would draw cards now and then. There were no rules about how those cards would need to be used - they included ideas, thoughts and feelings that these characters in this desperate situation might have. This helped the players see the scenario from my perspective - or rather, the perspective of their scared, desperate characters.

However, looking at this specific situation... when characters in horror movies or stories get afraid and panicky, what does that actually mean for the story? It seems to me that reducing character efficiency numerically is a very diametrical approach compared to what happens in those movies; it draws focus on the capabilities of the character and the tactics the player should be employing to get out of the situation, as the player is rewarded for understanding and adapting to the fact that his character's level of efficiency is impacted. This doesn't seem like a psychological process that would give the player thrills; more likely he'll experience frustration as he crosses off things in a mental list of possible strategies, which all would now fail with this big fat penalty hanging above his head.

Looking at it from this perspective, it seems that some other mechanic would serve better in getting the player into the right frame of mind. Dead of Night, which I mentioned above, does this same thing by having the GM collect tension chips (or whatever, I forget their name) which he piles in front of himself as the monsters go bump in the night, the characters get injured or the situation turns to the worse in other ways. The increasing pile of chips in front of the GM serves to increase the tension, as the players know that when the pile reaches certain size, awful things turn even more awful. When the chips are actually used, they're used by the GM to proactively mess with the situation on a case-by-case basis, instead of having them affect all characters equally all the time. Consequently the players know that those chips are trouble, but they don't ever get to categorize their characters into the safe and unambiguous category of "scared" or "panicky" - the tension chip penalty might strike them whenever the GM feels like it, and they can't do anything to help it, so they never need to account for that pile, either. It's pure terror.

However, one might also question whether fear and panic are best reflected by increasing chance of failure at all. After all, when characters panic and fumble with their car keys in the movies, it's usually not an important pivot point for the events - the character will get the car going anyway, the fumbling is just color. Or he fails to get the car going, but it's pretty rare that the scriptwriter assigns the blame to the character's panic and fear; sure, he's afraid, but whatever went wrong would have likely gone wrong anyway. It's just not very good psychology on the part of the scriptwriter to have his characters actively sabotage themselves, even when afraid, as that tends to turn the audience against them pretty easily. Fumbling buffoons are not as sympathetic as vulnerable victims.

From this background, I could see going into all sorts of directions with panic in a horror game. For example, what if the panic was not a modifier on task resolution, but a consequence? Have the player normally roll black dice, but when the situation is dire, have him roll red dice (either instead of or in addition, perhaps). Then if the red dice fail him, have the character panic and act accordingly. This way we can say that "he was so afraid that he failed this task", but we don't actually need to lower the chances of success to do it. Heck, we could even raise the chances: let the player add however many red dice he wants into the check to improve his chances, but if any of them rolls a '1' or whatever, then the character panics and does stupid things. That sort of possibilities.

Or fear could be a full-body condition that limits the things the character can successfully do. It might even freeze him to the spot at a crucial moment. But also give the player some kind of resource pool to spend, so he can pull the character out of the jaws of death - sure his hands shake from the fear, but spend a point of willpower or whatever, and he's just dextrous enough to not drop those car keys.

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Damage-wise, it seems to me that you should take your cues from whatever you end up using to handle fear, panic and exhaustion. The damage system can then feed into and out of that: injury feeds panic which feeds exhaustion which feeds more injury, perhaps. Personally I'd stay away from hit points and such traditional abstractions, but that's largely because I have a personal dislike of that sort of mechanics. Dead of Night, for instance, does the hit point thing very well by leaving actual damage completely freeform and up to description while keeping track of character survival points - drop to zero, and the next time a monster succeeds in attacking, it's lethal.

Even if actual injury is tracked, perhaps the important thing to track is not how badly the character gets hurt, but how much pain he's in, which again raises his pulse. I could imagine doing a system where whenever you get hurt you mark a "hurt" box on the character sheet and roll a 1d6 or whatever to find out how much pain the character happened to suffer this time around, regardless of what sort of damage it was. Then factor that pain into the fear/stress/exhaustion mechanics, whatever they are, and forget the whole damage otherwise. Later on, when the character gets out of the situation, those hurt boxes can be used to figure out how quickly he recuperates, if at all.

In general the horror genre is not very sadistic in the way dungeon adventure fetishizes violence. A character in a horror movie or novel will, when hit by something, either be basically fine, basically dead, or basically corrupted/poisoned/impregnated/doomed to a slow death. So perhaps that'd be something I'd use in this sort of thing. Better yet, I wouldn't let the player know at the time of the injury which one it'll be. Actually, why anybody would need to know? Just mark down that wound box and roll dice after the situation to find out whether the injury was fatal or not. That should make for some nice tension!

Yes, the Illuminati should feel very much like a "once you're in, you can't get out" society that is on the one hand helpful (connections can sometimes make pesky things like police charges after killing that cultist just sorta go away...) and on the other hand ominous and threatening to its own members.  There should always be that tension in the background, regardless of what's happening in the field.

Here are my current proposals for fear and damage:

Combat

2d6 + Body + Skill vs. 2d6 + Body + Skill.  If attacker is equal to or higher than defender, apply MoS to attack damage value and compare result to defender’s Endurance value (6 + Body).  If damage is less than Endurance, apply 1 level of damage.  If damage is => Endurance, apply 2 levels of damage.  If damage is => Endurance x 1.5, apply 3 points of damage.  If damage is => Endurance x 2, apply 4 points of damage.  If damage is => Endurance x 3, character is dead.  (Bear in mind that the above calculations would be already done on the character sheet, so that damage is only compared to the actual numbers).

 Hurt: superficial damage, slight bleeding, nagging pain, 2 Death points
 Injured: damage is more apparent, pronounced bleeding, focused pain, 2 Death points
 Wounded: freely bleeding, possible fractured or broken bones, hurts to breathe, intense pain, 2 Death points
 Mortally Wounded: bleeding profusely, definite broken bones, shallow breathing, agonizing pain, 4 Death points.
 Incapacitated: loss of consciousness, above effects present, roll 1d6 every round thereafter.  If result is less than the number of rounds incapacitated, character dies.

Every time damage is taken, roll 2d6 + Body vs. current Death point total.  Failure brings you immediately to the Incapacitated level.  Once Mortally Wounded is reached, characters roll the usual 2D6 + Body vs. 10 (the total of the previous Death points) every time they would be damaged, until they fail and reach the Incapacitated level.

Sample Damage values:

1: small knife, small club, small caliber weapon, blow dart, etc.
2: large knife, small sword, large club, medium caliber weapon, claw hammer, etc.
3: large sword, axe, large caliber weapon
4: heavy duty damage above and beyond the above.

Willpower can reduce damage or fear by one point per expenditure.

Fear:
Character makes a Mind roll (2d6 + Mind) vs. disturbance difficulty (a value based on level of disturbance).  If the roll fails, apply MoF directly to the following pulse meter:

 Shaken: pulse quickens slightly, 2 Fear points
 Disturbed: pulse quickens significantly, color fading, eyes dilating, 2 Fear points
 Panicked: pulse is rapid, color is gone, eyes fully dilated, clammy hands, 2 Fear points
 Terrified: pulse is deafening in the ears, chest hurts, breath is short, 4 Fear points.
 Frozen: Incapacitated due to either fainting or freezing in one's tracks.  1 Dissociation point.

Similar to damage, character makes another Mind roll vs. current Fear points each time a disturbance occurs.  Failure brings them to the Frozen level.  There should also be a desire to flee somewhere in there.

Some tension, both with damage and fear, should be gained by watching the Death or Fear points increasing and knowing it's going to get increasingly harder to succeed at the roll and stay in the game. 

What do you think?  Progress?  Regression?

Probably instead of keeping two different stats, though, I would just include the overall accumulated amounts on the scales, so, for instance, Mortally wounded would not say 4 Death points, it would read "10 Death points," which would already include the previous damage.  Just a matter of simplicity.

And why is the Forge so freakishly slow and difficult to load?  It's been like that for two days.

Forge has had that sort of trouble for the last year or so. It seems to get worse periodically; I'd say that it's something to do with the server load. Vincent (lumpley) probably knows better, he's handling the technical side nowadays. Perhaps the site should switch to a faster server.

As for your damage system, aesthetically I like how the physical and psychological damage tracks mirror each other. However, I'm not sure if the Endurance-based math is satisfying, considering the emphasis of your game: your combat process seems to derive interest from modeling how a butch guy can take a wound and still walk, while the weakling keels over. What has this got to do with the horror genre? X-Files never focused on how Mulder could or couldn't walk away from a gunshot wound because of his keen interest in working out. I know that this sort of emulative thinking is the traditional solution in rpg design, but it's not sparking interest for me when the character's endurance seems like a non sequitur in the midst of a game about modern supernatural conspiracies.

Other than that, the system seems to work and bring some nuance to how severely the character gets damaged at a given point. Consider, however, that you're now bringing more rules detail into the process of getting injured than the simple skill check rules do with something like researching mysterious manuscripts, interviewing subjects, crime scene investigation, hiding from danger and all the other content that I'd actually expect of an occult conspiracy game. I don't know if that's a problem, but it certainly seems to be drawing attention to the physiology of injury in a surprising context.

I was thinking, actually, of doing away with the attributes.  They don't actually bring that much to the table, other than the bonuses.  Instead, characters can just have Psyche points which would allow a bonus here and there and fuel any supernatural effects such as precognition, etc.  I don't want to get rid of the Gift concept altogether, but I think what i'm going to do is let the player decide what sort of "gift" the character has (rather than choosing from a published list with statistics and all that rot), and when they want to use it they spend a Psyche point and roll.  The same points would be used for bonuses to actions, etc, which would simulate to some degree the effort that an attribute would normally deliver.  I just don't think that in the grand scheme of things it makes much difference who is stronger, faster or even smarter.  That can all be roleplayed rather than dictated by numbers.  I think the less to be a pain in the bum the better.  I'll keep the Profession and Hobby/Special Interest bonuses, simply because they add flavor and help players to distinguish their characters further by bringing certain advantages to the table without them being over the top.  Just my thoughts there.

I don't know why I started thinking about that today, but I realized that my need for attributes comes from previous experience with RPGs, but they aren't, strictly speaking, necessary in this case.  Along those lines, the damage system will change by default, so we'll see what I come back with.  I don't think the fear mechanism will change much, other than there is no bonus from Mind on the roll.

That all sounds sensible to me. Do play the game and keep a careful eye on what you and the other players are doing, and which activities are fruitful and capable of being formalized into rules. The opposite is also valuable information: where the rules encourage behaviors that do not add to the game, take a good hard look at the rules.

I plan to do just that.  I suppose once that's done, I need to move the discussion to the playtest forum.  Thank you for your suggestions and sense of direction.  You really helped pull me out of a funk and get the ball rolling again.