I am a freelance illustrator/cartoonist with three online webcomics. Two are just basic gag-a-day strips... but one is an ongoing fantasy comic book.
As of late, I have been toying with the notion of creating an RPG module based on the universe that comic is set in.
However, when it comes to RPGs, I am a babe in the woods.
I need a *lot* of advice here on which system would be best for it.

The comic is located at http://npc.keenspace.com, for those who wish to see what I'm talking about.

All I can do is reffer you to my thread about something that's almost the same thing.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4694&start=15

I don't know how to do links. Sorry.

Edit (For being an ass): Oh, and welcome to the Forge...

GURPS by Steve Jackson is a game that can be adapted to just about anything. They make suppliment books for everything under the sun, although the system is kinda lacking in certain areas.

The D20 system was originally built around Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition and is fairly adaptable. Whatever different races you have in your strip could be easily converted into the system.

Really, the only person who can decide what system would work best for your setting is you. You say you're wet behind the ears and we've all been there, but if you're serious about making your comic into a RPG, then you should probably try to learn as much as you can.

The Forge is a good place to learn, too. Welcome to it.

Gwen

In what areas, generally, is GURPS lacking?

Welcome to The Forge!

RHJunior wrote: In what areas, generally, is GURPS lacking?

Howdy.

Ron Edwards did a brief explanation of what he thinks are GURPS flaws in this older thread. It basically boils down to GURPS shoe-horning any "genre" into the box of its system, so that, for example, a GURPS Space game and a GURPS Fantasy game will be more like each other than they would be like a Traveller or a Riddle of Steel game.

Whoah!...RH, it's a beautiful comic. I think it's really great.

Let me ask, you've got a lot of fun, evocative setting details: the melting tent, the whakadu, the fact that they fish with explosives. In your eventual roleplaying game, do you envision the players inventing these kinds of things during gameplay, so everyone is effectively contributing to the setting? Or do you anticipate detailing most of what you have in mind for the setting yourself in the text of the game, and for gameplay to be about the players experiencing what you've created?

Answering this, I think, is the first step in narrowing your search for a game system.

Paul

Paul Czege wrote:
Let me ask, you've got a lot of fun, evocative setting details: the melting tent, the whakadu, the fact that they fish with explosives. In your eventual roleplaying game, do you envision the players inventing these kinds of things during gameplay, so everyone is effectively contributing to the setting? Or do you anticipate detailing most of what you have in mind for the setting yourself in the text of the game, and for gameplay to be about the players experiencing what you've created?

Answering this, I think, is the first step in narrowing your search for a game system.

Hey, Ralph.

I have looked at a couple webcomics over the last couple months and I must compliment you on yours. I actually like your style. I can't my finger on it, but I like it. So there you go.

RHJunior wrote: As of late, I have been toying with the notion of creating an RPG module based on the universe that comic is set in.
However, when it comes to RPGs, I am a babe in the woods.
I need a *lot* of advice here on which system would be best for it.

Hey Stuart,

I can think of a number of game systems, for which modules could be written that would deliver the first option. Let's give RH room to answer the question for himself.

Paul

Am I the only one thinking "The Questing Beast!" after seeing the comic?

WEll, as to artifact creation-- I was envisioning most magical artifacts and tools as being preexistant(as part of the Rac Conan culture, etc)... but the idea of a "make it yourself" artifact system is intriguing...

Now, when it comes down to it, there are two basic issues with fitting the Questorverse into a module for other gamesystems, as opposed to creating a Questor RPG from scratch:

1)The bestiary. The storyline is really only in its infancy, but as time goes on, you'll see that I've really played holy hell with many of the standard "high fantasy" creatures and settings. For instance, dragons are a sort of corporeal thaumaturgical plague; dryads are derivative of pixies-- and termites; unicorns are rude, mulish, and foul-smelling; elves die at the age of 15; trolls are generally classified under poisonous fungi....
You get the idea. Simply making a D+D module, for instance, would give GMs utter fits. "Wait a minute, that's not a proper fire salamander! What are you playing at, pal ?"

2)The magic system. Basically, all magic is built off the absorbing, controlling and expelling of "Lux"-- or mana, to use a more popular term. Lux is generated by, essentially, turbulence... by the dynamic processes of living things, or released by the decomposition or combustion of the same, or to a much lesser degree by atmospheric, aquatic or tectonic turbulence (storms, waterfalls, the pounding of the surf, earth tremors or eruptions, etc.) As such, Lux is relatively common, but lies rather thin on the ground...
A magic user's ranking is measured by several factors:
DRAW: how quickly they can pull in Lux, and how far away from a given source. (The range is usually measured in metres, not miles.)
CAPACITY: How much Lux they can store within themselves at a given time. (This can be amplified with artificial storage methods.)
VERSATILITY: How many different spells they know and can use. (Book knowledge-- and none of that "relearning spells after you cast them" stuff.)
The "schools" of magic are divided, roughly, by what method you use to gather Lux:
Life: drawing from the Lux expelled by living things. A slow, but steady and reliable source.
Necromantic: drawing the Lux released by dead, dying and decomposing things, or by burning matter.
Earth: the aforementioned atmospheric, tectonic, and aquatic.
Artifice: It is possible to build a Lux generator....
Planar: Very rare, and very dangerous. Consists of investing a LOT of lux into poking a hole into another dimensional plane with a higher lux quantity, and supping off the energy that spills through-- or even, if you're clever, poking a hole thru to a plane with LOWER lux content, and using the imbalance to suck up more lux to yourself. It entails great risk-- not only do you run the risk of being burnt out by a sudden surge of Lux, you run the risk of opening a portal on, say, an otherworldly volcano, an empty airless void, or an otherdimensional creature with fangs, tentacles, a bad temper and *WAY* too many eyes who will be VERY upset at being yanked out of its Saturday night bath and dropped into your living room.


This is all pretty common to most "spending points" magic systems. But the devil is in the details:
Among other things, the Questorverse magic system sticks a little closer to the RL laws of conservation of matter and energy. You won't see people or objects shrinking to ant size or growing 100 feet tall-- or sizechanging at all, for that matter; things will neither spring into existence from nowhere nor disappear into oblivion. Shapeshifting will be rare, but will follow that-- a 100 lb man isnt going to turn into a 5 lb dog, nor will he turn into a 200 lb werewolf.
Alchaemy-- elemental transmogrification-- won't exist. You can turn coal into a diamond, but you can't turn lead into gold.
Demons, demigods--- none to be found, thank you very much. Mages won't have to worry about losing control of their demonic slaves; they wont have any, and besides, they're going to have enough headaches worrying that their latest lux experiment doesn't blow up in their faces. (Note: aforementioned betentacled Thing From Beyond to the contrary. they don't qualify as actual demons-- merely as unwilling and accidental tourists.)

After reading the comic, I would have to say that it is a high magic world, and substantial mechanics will have to surround it. Any system you use would have to be very versitle to accept the addition of a magic system that complex. It seems to me that much focus is on your occupation, so I'd do something with that, be it the addition of classes, attributes, etc.

From what I'm inffering (which is unfortinitely quite a bit), I'd have to say that creating your own module might not produce the gameplay that you envision being tied to your comic. I'd suggest designing your own or working with someone else. That's just me, though.

Oh and the questor thing... I would really dislike the probable situation that each character is a questor, unless I'm interpreting it wrong.

Hi, Ralph.
Tales of the Questor is a great web comic! I enjoyed it so much that I read it twice. Thank you!

Lux magic system. There's a hard number reference to amounts of Lux on this page: http://npc.keenspace.com/d/20020922.html The elfshot pistol, holding a hundred shots or darts of lux each lasting a second, taking a day or more to recharge. Presumably each shot is at least one "point" of lux. With a full recharge rate of around a "day or more" (say 25 hours?), that implies about 4 shots per hour recharge rate or around 1 shot per 15 minutes, just for a relatively common, "pricey little toy". I'd suggest not accounting for Lux points in the RPG. :)

Eric:

I would really dislike the probable situation that each character is a questor, unless I'm interpreting it wrong.

I suppose that you could say that each profession is a type of questor, but that seems to limit the imporance, or whatever, that a questor is. They seem to be a well rounded character suited for adventuring whose name carries special importance.

BTW: How are you going to do the animal-animal interactions. You make refferences to elves and humans, but hard evidence is hard to find. In the opening, a dragon is about the same size, but later on there are other things which do have the relative sizes correct. I'm not saying that you did anything wrong, but I really am not sure how you plan/have planed to carry it out exactly.

Attributes for Questor RPG
Size seems important, so does "Determination" -- see the impressive amount of Quentyn's determination to be a Questor at the Truth Stone. :)

I'd be tempted to use Fudge levels for these attributes.

For skills, these seem to be more easily acquired. Spells seem very easy to learn, once one has some training in the art.

Lemme clarify a few story points:

1) Those aren't dragons. They're GRAGUM-- centauroid alligators. bit of a difference, that.

2)There's a LOT of magic--- but levels and capacities differ from species to species (the story hasn't progressed far enough to address that, so consider this a bit of a spoiler....) To wit, the Rac Cona Daimh have a nearly 100% rate of thaumaturgical ability(or "lux aptitude", a genetic trait). This is counterbalanced by the fact that they tend to level out at a moderate power level... no earth-shattering magical titans among them.

Very very common magic, but medium to low power.

Humans, on the other hand, have very few magical adepts--- but the power curve is a lot steeper, going up abruptly from spoon-benders and water dowsers to heavy hitters.

Very rare magic, but very high power.

Whereas the Gragum (to give yet another example) have very very rare magic, AND very low power.....



Another limitation on magic is... well, it has a lot of the same limitations that *electrical* power has IRL. Consider that electricity is incredibly versatile-- but after a certain point, the cost-to-benefit ratio starts going south. For instance, one of the problems with electric cars is that the batteries run down very fast-- and take a deuce of a long time to recharge. Which is the reason you see very few electric cars on the road, and no battery-powered battle tanks.

Essentially, the Rac Conan society is something akin to a civilization with all the whizbang electric gizmos--- but no internal combustion engine. (Hence the goat-drawn carts.)

5)Spells consist of shaping lux and forcing it to go thru particular convolutions and patterns (something akin to the way an electrical circuit makes electricity jump thru hoops to produce certain effects.) These patterns can be broken down into particular common building blocks... and different effects can be produced by arranging these building blocks in different ways.
Enchanting objects consists of basically "engraving" or imprinting these patterns into the material substance of the object, so that lux pumped thru the object follows those patterns-- certain substances being able to hold the patterns better than others... in fact, runes are nothing more than a "circuit diagram on the outside of an object, so that a mage can tell what patterns have been imbedded in the artifact.
(A real coup would be to design an actual "runic alphabet" so that players could design new spells from scratch.... ah well. Getting ahead of myself.)

4) Questor is, in Rac Cona Daimh society, a very particular career path (one that, in the time of the story, has faded away somewhat.) Something of a cross between a village champion, intrepid explorer, and an adventurer-for-hire... with a dash of private eye thrown in on the side. Indiana Jones with a day job. ;) And, as Quentyn illustrates, the job has been somewhat romanticized by the passage of time. Questors are also some of the very few Rac Conans likely to go roaming far from home.... however, other types of Rac Conan professions would be playable as well.

An off-sides note here... why is it that all the game systems I have seen, clerics/priests can do healing, and exorcisms, and all other nonesuch--- yet not a single game system has a "proselytizing" attribute for them? I submit that this is one of the main objectives for most travelling ministers--- stopping and preaching the Holy Word of Whomever, winning converts, starting churches/ temples, etc. (and making the occasional enemy from opposing theologies, one might add.) It certainly would add more realism to the clerical characters-- rather than simply leaving them as human band-aid dispensers and Holy Lysol sprayers.
Speaking as a son of a Baptist Pastor, I can testify (amen, brothah!) that being a 'cleric' rarely involves bandages and healing potions.. it more often involves ministering to the emotional upsets of your flock, settling in-church squabbles, dealing with outsiders hostile to your church, visiting your churchmembers' reprobate offspring in the hospital and in prison, patching the church roof yourself because noone bothered to show up to help like they promised.... and if you're a missionary in a foreign land (like your average RPG cleric could be assumed to be), it gets REAL interesting....
It's just a shame that most game designers don't take advantage of that rather story-rich aspect of things.

RHJunior wrote: Speaking as a son of a Baptist Pastor, I can testify (amen, brothah!) that being a 'cleric' rarely involves bandages and healing potions.. it more often involves ministering to the emotional upsets of your flock, settling in-church squabbles, dealing with outsiders hostile to your church, visiting your churchmembers' reprobate offspring in the hospital and in prison, patching the church roof yourself because noone bothered to show up to help like they promised.... and if you're a missionary in a foreign land (like your average RPG cleric could be assumed to be), it gets REAL interesting....
It's just a shame that most game designers don't take advantage of that rather story-rich aspect of things.

Hi RH,

I'm very interested in your answer to Paul's question from yesterday. Any thoughts on that?

Best,
Ron

Here's hoping that you take up the gauntlet you threw down. As a pastor's son, you have more insight into this sort of thing than the rest of us. Please design a game like this. I know I'd like to try it out.

Ron Edwards wrote: Hi RH,

I'm very interested in your answer to Paul's question from yesterday. Any thoughts on that?

Best,
Ron

Ron Edwards wrote: Hi RH,

I'm very interested in your answer to Paul's question from yesterday. Any thoughts on that?

Best,
Ron

RHJunior wrote: I'm not sure which question you're referring to....

Paul Czege wrote: Let me ask, you've got a lot of fun, evocative setting details: the melting tent, the whakadu, the fact that they fish with explosives. In your eventual roleplaying game, do you envision the players inventing these kinds of things during gameplay, so everyone is effectively contributing to the setting? Or do you anticipate detailing most of what you have in mind for the setting yourself in the text of the game, and for gameplay to be about the players experiencing what you've created?

The more I consider it, the more it seems a better idea to create a module for "Tales of the Questor" as I intended originally, so that it's playable/compatible with another preexisting RPG system, as opposed to creating a whole new RPG from scratch... the initial objective was to let fans of my comic enjoy RPing some of the characters and races from my storyline. In the end, it's much easier to adjust the saddle to fit the horse than to breed a horse to fit the saddle, if you see my point.
Still, I press onward. Danged if this isn't fascinating stuff.

I'm curious as to how one sets up an effective point system for various attributes--- especially in light of games that feature multiple playable races. Okay, first you have to determine what constitutes "average" for your game. Then you have to determine how RL increments in capability translate to game rules and incriments. For instance, assume that "normal average" translates a 30 year old human male, medium build, in perfect physical health for his age. (Now that alone causes problems. Does that mean he's an athlete? A Schwartzenagger? Or is he in perfectly NORMAL physical health for a man of his age-- aka a flabby couch potato?)

Either way, I would think that a game system would tend to put "average" stats at Zero, across the board.... and subsequent levels would run into positive and negative numbers. But what does, say, +2 to strength mean, in RL terms? twenty percent stronger? Two percent? Two hundred percent stronger? I've seen enough "Murphy's Rules" to know it's darn dicey getting it right--- games where ordinary characters could fall up to two stories without an injury, where otherwise normal armored soldiers could outrun a timber wolf, ones where a PC with +2 to stamina could survive a rhino stomping on his chest but a +1 croaked if you looked at him funny.....
And intelligence as an attribute is hairy as all hell.


And how do you cap off outlandish increases? I've listened in and read up on gaming enough to know that eventually your players-- if they're any good-- eventually level up so high that their GM has to resort to "killing off" a character to save the game.... because no matter the system, even even the weeniest PCs level up to the point they're striding across the gameland, ten feet tall and farting thunderbolts.

Wouldn't most stats, IRL, follow something of a curve... after a certain point, increasing in a certain stat would yield diminishing returns?
For instance, what about the square-cubed law? (for those who don't know, it basically states that for every level an animal's size is increased, as its volume is cubed, its strength is squared. This is the reason that ants can lift 50 times their body weight-- not because they're super strong, but because they're super small, and the square cubed law works in their favor.) Turning into a giant, beyond a certain size, would NOT necessarily be beneficial strength and stamina wise. After a certain point, adding +Whatever to something should be gilding the lily.

And then there's the rule of Unintended Consequences-- aka "you can't do just one thing." Unless you're using a metaphysical explanation, increase in strength requires an increase in *size*--- muscle size, and beyond a certain point, necessary increase in overall body size. (Yet ever-upward-leveling warriors never need to have their armor resized. Odd, no?) I would think that increases in certain stats and attributes should result, beyond a certain point, in alterations *and detriments* to other stats...

Then again, RPGS rarely address the consequence of neglect. In RPGs, if you start out with a level 3 intelligence, barring accident or evil curses or the like, you'll stay *right there* regardless of how little you tend to your mental growth.
In the real world, people's attributes-- their intelligence and knowledge, their physical health, stamina, strength, agility, etc etc, require constant maintenance, simply to maintain status quo-- as I can personally testify (he said woefully as he looked down at his woefully be-twinkied midriff.) And all else being equal, you can't focus all your attention on one attribute without suffering losses in another-- the bookworm gets flabby; the jock falls behind in his grades; the social butterfly loses grip on the reins of her finances.
And, of course, there are the debilitating effects of age and senility...
In other words, *you lose ground.*
Perhaps game systems could avoid runaway juggernaut PCs if there were some sort of.... "use it or lose it" system in effect. Some method for actually losing ground on certain attributes. It would keep characters from endlessly climbing the Jacob's Ladder, and maybe result in some richer gameplay as the character's nature changed with the passing of time.

And it *would* be entertaining seeing some swarthy Cohen the Bavarian getting old, fat, and indolent, and finally retiring from adventuring, stinking rich, to loll about his mansion.... it wouldn't even necessarily mean the end of the character as a PC, just that rather than being a mighty thewed warrior he'd be a huge-bellied financier of other up-and-coming adventurers....

Jack Spencer Jr wrote:

RHJunior wrote: I'm not sure which question you're referring to....

Paul Czege wrote: Let me ask, you've got a lot of fun, evocative setting details: the melting tent, the whakadu, the fact that they fish with explosives. In your eventual roleplaying game, do you envision the players inventing these kinds of things during gameplay, so everyone is effectively contributing to the setting? Or do you anticipate detailing most of what you have in mind for the setting yourself in the text of the game, and for gameplay to be about the players experiencing what you've created?

Emphasis mine.

I am a little late coming in...but I gotta say this sounds awesome. Love the comic.

RHJunior wrote: In the end, it's much easier to adjust the saddle to fit the horse than to breed a horse to fit the saddle, if you see my point.
Still, I press onward. Danged if this isn't fascinating stuff.

With regard to your questions concerning experience, attributes, etc., you might want to check out a series of old columns on RPG.net called Ruleslawyer For Free, by Sergio Mascarenhas (scroll to the bottom). He has several on experience and trait curves, ideas of learnings and mechanics to match, etc.

Fiddly Bits, by Larry D. Hols might also be wirth checking out if/when you get into the nitty gritty stuff of mechanics design.

Hey RH,

I've listened in and read up on gaming enough to know that eventually your players-- if they're any good-- eventually level up so high that their GM has to resort to "killing off" a character to save the game.... because no matter the system, even even the weeniest PCs level up to the point they're striding across the gameland, ten feet tall and farting thunderbolts.

I'm going to suggest that your research, likely unbeknownst to you, has been concentrated on a subset of the range of possibility delivered by roleplaying games.

I've read your comic. I think it's awesome. My girlfriend read it. She loves it. Unlike, say, Todd Macfarlane, you have dual facility as both an artist and a storyteller. I envy you. I went and read some of your posts in the Keenspace forums about the physics and geography of the Questorverse, and the posts you've written here about Lux. Let me explain what I was trying to suss from you with my first question about what you envision for your game module:

You've spent a lot of time thinking about the physics and cosmology of the comic. There's nothing wrong with that. But I suspect that all the stuff you've come up with is actually in retrospect to the actual artistic and creative process of doing the comic every week. I suspect that your actual artistic process is one of spontaneous invention, informed by a strong personal understanding of how to create narrative tension and deliver a compelling story, and that your attitude toward the setting when you're actually doing the comic is almost certainly one of great flexibility. When you're actually doing the comic, you give yourself license to re-envision anything and everything about the setting in service to the drama of the story. Am I wrong? I bet I'm not.

And so my question first question to you was an effort to determine whether you were interested in a gameplay dynamic of collaborative artistic creation emulating more of the actual artistic process of creating the comic, or that you were actually interested in delivering your setting in a more canonical way that avoids players potentially creating into it in ways that maybe you wouldn't personally think were all that cool. I submit that in seeming contradiction of your RPG research and experiences, that the former is entirely possible. The latter is the traditional approach.

Now, there's nothing wrong with either of these approaches. But if you're curious about the not so traditional approach, take a look at this thread about actual play of Clinton Nixon's game Donjon, starting with Dave Turner's sentence, "For those that care, here's a brief synopsis of what actually happened in the story."

Paul

In other words, Do I want people to be inventive and go their own route, or do I want to keep the game strictly "canonical" ? :)
hm.

WEll, I really doubt there's any way I could ever possibly keep it perfectly canonical anyway. I'd be more interested in the preservation of the *spirit* of the comic.... that wisdom, courage, intelligence and virtue outrank brute power and ruthlessness; that good is a worthy goal in and of itself. A little spit in the eye for those who would deconstruct heroism.

Eh, enough woolgathering.


I think that, if I design the mechanics as I intend, I'll be able to preserve the spirit of the story regardless of what variations from the canon people may devise.

Hi RH,

Actually, I think Paul is asking something much more deeply philosophical (and crucial) than whether game-play is to interfere with the canon established by your comic or game-text.

He's asking, is a player (GM, whoever, anyone) of your game ... basically, a fellow comics author. That is to say, if you put out your game and I buy and play it, am I and my group essentially making our own comic in our heads, using your stuff and style as a jumping-off point?

You see, I love your comics. As a major fan of Vaughn Bode and many other funky-delic comics/cartoonists, this stuff floats my boat.

But if I'm playing a game based on them, it's not because I want to "bathe" in your comics world. No, I want to make stuff like you do, adopting your creative mode and being inspired in a way that we - as separate people - already share. The game will be my medium (and the players') for creating this stuff, just as board, paper, and pen are yours.

Whereas another person might have a completely different outlook from mine. He says, "Ooooh, I want to meet that nifty guy or thing from the comic. I want to be in the comic as it stands." That person is expecting his games to be a form of reading the comic in the medium of role-playing.

I can guarantee you that me and this other guy are not going to do well as players together, not in the long term. I can also suggest, based on a bezillion zillion role-playing text experiences, that a game that tries to please us both is either going to be very innovative or go all kerflooey.

Which person do you think you'd rather satisfy with your game?

Best,
Ron

Well, I would say it's more of a jumping-off point.

RHJunior wrote: Well, I would say it's more of a jumping-off point.

My initial goal was simply to provide something for the fans I have who might want to RP a RacConan.... Okay, I confess-- I wanted to RP them myself... that still remains the primary goal. I still intend to draw up basic stats for the most common RP systems out there to that end. But also, time and resources permitting, I'll be trying to make a fuller RPG world all its own.

Okay, thus far I've got a VERY roughed-out basis for the magic system.

Essentially, what it is, is a spell *constructing* system... You can use the spells that would come with the sourcebook--- but beyond that *you can custom design spells and magical artifacts to suit your own needs.* This is far more flexible than looking up spells in game sourcebooks, and it encourages both creativity and the "brains over brawn" attitude I'm looking for in magicking.

It's very akin to a "programming language"-- except that the glossary of commands are essentially very basic spells, which any mage is assumed to be able to cast. By stringing them togethor, or more accurately by arranging them into a flowchart, more complex effects can be accomplished.

Okay, starting with the basics: mages have two basic attributes: FLOW, which indicates how much Lux (magical energy) they can channel, and POOL, which indicates how much Lux they can contain within themselves. These are the upward limits for that mage, without the aid of artifacts. Some improvement is possible in those areas, but the player's own versatility is going to be more important.

There are two ways to use this "Spellcoding;" live casting the spell, which consists of mentally visualizing and assembling the spell, and creating a magical artifact by INFUSING the spell into a material object.
Live casting is affected by the caster's mental attributes; since the spellcasting method is basically the equivalent of mentally assembling a clock one piece at a time, it's both demanding of concentration and intelligence.... and after a certain point, spells become too complex to visualize in their entirety. Also, the larger a spell, the longer it takes--- one node/command can be formulated per 1/8 of a turn. ( a definite incentive for avoiding thaumaturgical "bloatware.")

Magical artifacts are a different matter: ENGRAVING a single node takes five to fifteen minutes... so creating a truly kickass magical weapon takes a darn good amount of time. Magical artifacts have their own FLOW and POOL attributes, dependent upon their size and what materials they're made of. Some artifacts can be designed without POOLS.... but it's inadvisable, because although Lux is readily renewed by the natural world, it is-- save for only certain exceptions-- neither bountiful nor uniform. The POOL acts as a rechargeable battery, providing you needed magical energy at times the stuff may be scarce on the ground.

For the most part, the clever magician splits the difference between artifacting and spellcasting, and keeps himself supplied with pocketfuls of cheap, discardable, quick-and-dirty magical artifacts to get himself through the day. They also keep at least one or two artifacts-- medallions, rings, staves, so forth--on their person that serve no other purpose but to act as artificial POOLS to dip into in an emergency, as well as a rather largish one at their home residence.


BASIC COMMANDS

DRAW--- pulls in Lux each cycle; limited to maximum Flow of spellcaster/artifact or maximum available Lux within 1 hex radius, whichever is lowest. Cannot tap committed Lux resources(eg, Lux pools within an artifact or the Lux within another Spellcaster's body.) (Note: if a spellcaster is casting a spell with no DRAW stated, it is assumed the spell is drawing from the mage's own internal Lux pool. All artifacts must state a DRAW or they will not work unless INFUSED manually.)

POOL-- specified storage space for Lux. capacity varies based upon materials. If no POOL is specified, it is assumed the spellcaster's own body; in the case of an artifact, it is assumed the lux is spent or expelled at the same rate it is absorbed.

INFUSE--- directs Lux to be infused into a material target. Target is assumed to be within 1 hex of spellcaster or artifact or in physical contact.

FORM--- determines the physical shape of a specified spell effect. (EG "FORM Ball," "Hollow Tube," "Dome," etc)

AREA-- determines size or area (in hexes) to be filled by a specified spell effect. Default area is one hex.

PRECISE-- specifies location of spell manifestation within its given AREA (such as "end of fingertip" or "one inch from end of wand", etc)

COLOUR-- determines colour of specified amount of lux (see notes on Lux Colour)

UNCOLOUR-- Returns specified amount of lux to "clear" or colourless state.

MANIFEST-- the "execute" line of the spell; to be used after all the parameters of the spell are set, and right before the spell cycle repeats.

SENSE-- detects a specified phenomenon. (Note: basic rule--- anything a spell can use lux to create, a spell can use SENSE to detect. See notes on Lux Colour.)

QUERY statement (also known as IF/THEN)--- a basic decision branch within the spell.

RANGE--- determines distance at which spell effect takes place. Default range is 0 (so don't cast a battle spell without at least a RANGE modifier, unless you want to rain death on yourself!) expense goes up with distance.

LOB--- essentially used to make the spell a "magic missile." Requires uncommitted lux to "throw" the effect; distance is determined by amount of lux LOB uses.


<amount>--- modifier, determines how much Lux will be accessed or modified by the rule.


ENGRAVE--- the process of imprinting a spell-node onto a material object. Takes one turn per node engraved.


LUX COLOUR NOTES

"Natural" lux is known as "Clear" lux-- not due to color (though it is invisible to the nonmagical eye)-- but due to the fact that it is clear of any specific effect. Natural Lux is divisible/transformable into four basic colors, which can be manipulated for three types of effects each. Coloured Lux can be absorbed by a DRAW, but has to be retransformed to clear lux or UNCOLOURED before it can be manipulated further.



The four types of lux and their associated effects are


RED---
Gross Movement
Vibration or Sound
Heat

YELLOW--
Light
electromagnetics
Material State (solid, liquid or gaseous-- can make solids act like liquids, gases act like solids, etc by manipulating molecular cohesion and adhesion)

GREEN--
Molecular bonds
Chemical reactions
Life functions

BLUE--
Sensations
Emotions
Thought


Below is an example of an artifact--- a rather crude magic lamp.

<html><img src="http://home.ntelos.net/~blue27a/images/Lux_Lamp.gif"></html>

For reference, one point of Lux equals one candlepower for one turn.

I suspect I am putting overemphasis on the magic system at this point. But I can't help it; I love systems that let you tinker and be creative. Hey, I was the kind of kid who passed up all the other toys and went straight for the Legos and tinkertoys.

But I digress. Back to the point:

RPGs tend to have a central goal, I've noted. In D+D, the goal is apparently treasure and power-- "leveling up." In Werewolf:The Nihilism (sorry, but honestly--) the objective seems to be "Renown," whatever that might be.

However, in "Little Fears," the central concept is Innocence, or the preservation thereof.... a more emotional and spiritual approach to character evolution.

I like that.

The measure of really good high fantasy such as JRR Tolkein was never the flashy magic or the ferocious battles-- though those are great fun. It was about the characters' *inner changes.* Their beliefs, their hopes and fears, their determination or despair in the face of adversity..... AKA, *character development.*

All real battles take place on the inside, and a good writer knows that.

I'm a semiprofessional fantasy writer/illustrator, among other things. I am heavily right-brained. The mathematics you people throw around for combat mechanics gives me headaches. But I can most certainly understand things like character motivation.

And it makes sense that such should be the central focus of Questor:The Dice-rolling Colossal Waste of Time >:D


The way I see it, there are at least four basic emotional ingredients to my characters: Spirit, Faith, and Will, and Calling.

Spirit-- how much "keep the course" stamina you have. Your determination.

Faith-- what you believe in.

Will-- your resistance to losing Spirit or Faith.

Calling-- the keystone of your character's personality, and their first Article of Faith....What you believe your life mission to be. The "Quest" part of being a Questor, or the "Mission" part of being a Missionary.

All characters start out with a basic number of points to divide up between their Will, Faith and Spirit, with bonuses and penalties based upon their Calling and the character's background, among other modifiers.

SPIRIT is how much gumption you have. It would essentially be a pool of "emotional hit points." As characters face setbacks and failures--- lost battles, injuries, deaths of allies and friends, physical weariness, even persistent rotten weather--- they lose points of Spirit. Spirit can be restored by time, rest, successful endeavors, and especially by deeds related to the character's Faith or Calling.

WILL is your stubbornness, essentially. It provides a saving throw against losing Spirit or Faith.

Faith would be a measure of how quickly you recuperate your Spirit. (x number of Spirit points per day.) Your amount of Faith is measured by what or how many things your characters have faith *in*... for instance, a code of honor, a philosophy, a particular king, the faithfulness of a lover, their friends... a particular theology or religion provides a tremendous boost, especially if the character is a practitioner of that faith (a cleric or paladin, for instance.) You divide up your Faith between the different things you have faith *in*-- your Articles of Faith, as it were (One of those articles of Faith has to be your character's Calling.) Subsequent deeds or activities related to that Article of Faith pump up your Spirit by that amount. For instance, suppose you had 5 points of Faith invested in True Love--- reading a long-awaited love letter would give you a boost of Spirit.

Take note, though: whatever you have Faith in makes you vulnerable to betrayals of that Faith. Say you were a Knight Errant who had profound amount of faith in your King... and you discovered that he was a murderer, a thief or a drunken philanderer, or had otherwise violated the code of honor. Savage hit to the Spirit should it overwhelm your Will. Be careful where you put your Faith.

Every time your Spirit hits zero, you have the option to Lose Faith--- to drop points from your Articles of Faith(first preference to be to whatever Article of Faith dropped you to zero Spirit.) This makes you less vulnerable to betrayals, and gives you a one-time boost in Spirit (Cynicism points), but it also makes it harder to reboost your Spirit later on.

Cynicism is its own punishment in this game.

Regaining Faith/Replacing Faith.... Loss of Faith, IRL or RPG, is a traumatic experience. Regaining an article of faith-- or finding something new to place your faith in-- is going to be a challenge. This, I believe, should be at the GM's discretion--- presenting the characters in play with a tremendous "faith affirming incident," then afterward giving them the option to roll *against* their Will to add a point of Faith to their Articles... or to move points out of one of their Articles into another related to the incident.
Example given: A thief is betrayed by his former partners in crime, who leave him to the hangman's gallows-- and is subsequently rescued by a companion he formerly scorned, at great risk to the companion's life. After the Thief's loss of spirit due to this betrayal, the GM gives the player the option of rolling against his will to shift Faith points out of "honor among thieves" and placing them into "friendship".... or (foolishly) keeping his faith in his criminal partners, and rolling against his will (which would represent his muleheadedness in this case) for a point in "friendship" (Which is more reflective of how people behave in reality anyway.)

Boosting Spirit/Will/Faith pools: Follow the basic example above. Profound victories--- successful Quests, victories in battle, and so forth-- should be rewarded at their end by the GM with added points to the PC's pool points.
What sort of points (will, spirit, or faith) should be based on gameplay. The clergyman who has an encounter with his Deity should obviously get one mother of a boost to his religious Article of Faith (well, assuming the encounter with the Deity in question didn't turn out to be horrendously disillusioning.) A PC who takes a pounding in battle and who keeps going in spite of it all to defeat the villain hand to hand, deserves a subtle markup in Will. The PC who keeps the spirits of the party from flagging by his acts of charity and loyalty should get an upper in Spirit. Or the GM may simply choose to award blank points, for the players to disperse as they see fit....


BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS. The player has the option, in bad circumstances, of "burning" a certain number of Spirit points for a one-day gain in Will. Think of it as protecting that last one inch of your courage... For example, suppose the PC has been captured and is being tortured. He may choose to trade in all but the last one or two points of Spirit to raise his Will to iron-hard levels, to keep himself from cracking under the torturers' hands. Next morning though, his Will is back at its original levels. So unless he's been rescued, he'll have to spend whatever Spirit he recuperated overnight to do it all over again...


Overall this "spirit attribute" system has the advantage of replicating a wide array of personalities--- ranging from the unshakeable hero to the hardened cynic to the self-doubter to the moodswing dayflower who loses hope like a punctured balloon, yet jumps out of bed the next morning bursting with confidence (couldn't you just *kill* them?)... and it also provides rewards for faith, friendship, loyalty, honor and other abstract attributes rarely touched in RPGs. It also makes teamwork not only advantageous but *beneficial* to the PCs.... and not just for slaying monsters, either.

RHJunior wrote: I suspect I am putting overemphasis on the magic system at this point. But I can't help it; I love systems that let you tinker and be creative. Hey, I was the kind of kid who passed up all the other toys and went straight for the Legos and tinkertoys.

But I digress. Back to the point:

RPGs tend to have a central goal, I've noted. In D+D, the goal is apparently treasure and power-- "leveling up." In Werewolf:The Nihilism (sorry, but honestly--) the objective seems to be "Renown," whatever that might be.

However, in "Little Fears," the central concept is Innocence, or the preservation thereof.... a more emotional and spiritual approach to character evolution.

I like that.

The measure of really good high fantasy such as JRR Tolkein was never the flashy magic or the ferocious battles-- though those are great fun. It was about the characters' *inner changes.* Their beliefs, their hopes and fears, their determination or despair in the face of adversity..... AKA, *character development.*

All real battles take place on the inside, and a good writer knows that.

I'm a semiprofessional fantasy writer/illustrator, among other things. I am heavily right-brained. The mathematics you people throw around for combat mechanics gives me headaches. But I can most certainly understand things like character motivation.

And it makes sense that such should be the central focus of Questor:The Dice-rolling Colossal Waste of Time >:D


The way I see it, there are at least four basic emotional ingredients to my characters: Spirit, Faith, and Will, and Calling.

Spirit-- how much "keep the course" stamina you have. Your determination.

Faith-- what you believe in.

Will-- your resistance to losing Spirit or Faith.

Calling-- the keystone of your character's personality, and their first Article of Faith....What you believe your life mission to be. The "Quest" part of being a Questor, or the "Mission" part of being a Missionary.

All characters start out with a basic number of points to divide up between their Will, Faith and Spirit, with bonuses and penalties based upon their Calling and the character's background, among other modifiers.

SPIRIT is how much gumption you have. It would essentially be a pool of "emotional hit points." As characters face setbacks and failures--- lost battles, injuries, deaths of allies and friends, physical weariness, even persistent rotten weather--- they lose points of Spirit. Spirit can be restored by time, rest, successful endeavors, and especially by deeds related to the character's Faith or Calling.

WILL is your stubbornness, essentially. It provides a saving throw against losing Spirit or Faith.

Faith would be a measure of how quickly you recuperate your Spirit. (x number of Spirit points per day.) Your amount of Faith is measured by what or how many things your characters have faith *in*... for instance, a code of honor, a philosophy, a particular king, the faithfulness of a lover, their friends... a particular theology or religion provides a tremendous boost, especially if the character is a practitioner of that faith (a cleric or paladin, for instance.) You divide up your Faith between the different things you have faith *in*-- your Articles of Faith, as it were (One of those articles of Faith has to be your character's Calling.) Subsequent deeds or activities related to that Article of Faith pump up your Spirit by that amount. For instance, suppose you had 5 points of Faith invested in True Love--- reading a long-awaited love letter would give you a boost of Spirit.

Take note, though: whatever you have Faith in makes you vulnerable to betrayals of that Faith. Say you were a Knight Errant who had profound amount of faith in your King... and you discovered that he was a murderer, a thief or a drunken philanderer, or had otherwise violated the code of honor. Savage hit to the Spirit should it overwhelm your Will. Be careful where you put your Faith.

Every time your Spirit hits zero, you have the option to Lose Faith--- to drop points from your Articles of Faith(first preference to be to whatever Article of Faith dropped you to zero Spirit.) This makes you less vulnerable to betrayals, and gives you a one-time boost in Spirit (Cynicism points), but it also makes it harder to reboost your Spirit later on.

Cynicism is its own punishment in this game.

Regaining Faith/Replacing Faith.... Loss of Faith, IRL or RPG, is a traumatic experience. Regaining an article of faith-- or finding something new to place your faith in-- is going to be a challenge. This, I believe, should be at the GM's discretion--- presenting the characters in play with a tremendous "faith affirming incident," then afterward giving them the option to roll *against* their Will to add a point of Faith to their Articles... or to move points out of one of their Articles into another related to the incident.
Example given: A thief is betrayed by his former partners in crime, who leave him to the hangman's gallows-- and is subsequently rescued by a companion he formerly scorned, at great risk to the companion's life. After the Thief's loss of spirit due to this betrayal, the GM gives the player the option of rolling against his will to shift Faith points out of "honor among thieves" and placing them into "friendship".... or (foolishly) keeping his faith in his criminal partners, and rolling against his will (which would represent his muleheadedness in this case) for a point in "friendship" (Which is more reflective of how people behave in reality anyway.)

Boosting Spirit/Will/Faith pools: Follow the basic example above. Profound victories--- successful Quests, victories in battle, and so forth-- should be rewarded at their end by the GM with added points to the PC's pool points.
What sort of points (will, spirit, or faith) should be based on gameplay. The clergyman who has an encounter with his Deity should obviously get one mother of a boost to his religious Article of Faith (well, assuming the encounter with the Deity in question didn't turn out to be horrendously disillusioning.) A PC who takes a pounding in battle and who keeps going in spite of it all to defeat the villain hand to hand, deserves a subtle markup in Will. The PC who keeps the spirits of the party from flagging by his acts of charity and loyalty should get an upper in Spirit. Or the GM may simply choose to award blank points, for the players to disperse as they see fit....


BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS. The player has the option, in bad circumstances, of "burning" a certain number of Spirit points for a one-day gain in Will. Think of it as protecting that last one inch of your courage... For example, suppose the PC has been captured and is being tortured. He may choose to trade in all but the last one or two points of Spirit to raise his Will to iron-hard levels, to keep himself from cracking under the torturers' hands. Next morning though, his Will is back at its original levels. So unless he's been rescued, he'll have to spend whatever Spirit he recuperated overnight to do it all over again...


Overall this "spirit attribute" system has the advantage of replicating a wide array of personalities--- ranging from the unshakeable hero to the hardened cynic to the self-doubter to the moodswing dayflower who loses hope like a punctured balloon, yet jumps out of bed the next morning bursting with confidence (couldn't you just *kill* them?)... and it also provides rewards for faith, friendship, loyalty, honor and other abstract attributes rarely touched in RPGs. It also makes teamwork not only advantageous but *beneficial* to the PCs.... and not just for slaying monsters, either.