Valoria RPG - d20-like

So I've decided to take a break from Stuff of Legends (whether it stays diceless or again returns to dice, or both) and find a less confusing RPG creation sanctuary. I tend to go a bit crazy when I don't have a project to think about on demand, and Stuff of Legends has become a bit of a minefield.

So the new project is just Valoria. Despite the mechanical baggage in Stuff of Legends, I still really like the intended setting and plan on using it for this side-project too.

I've chosen to tread familiar lands and concepts and take on creating a d20-like RPG. I say "-like" since I have no intention of every touching any die aside from a d6 here. I don't like other polyhedral dice nearly enough to use them.

There are already things I'm fairly sure I'll be doing: limited amount of levels, magic points instead of daily spell slots, somewhat customizable advancement and a different class paradigm. Nothing particularly distant, but definitely away from d20-based games.

I'll keep posting about it, as things shape up.

Stuff of Legends - More About Dice Mechanics

Apparently I still have a lot to say about dice mechanics that I didn't cover in the last post.

Effects and the Effect Ladder

How I failed to mention this, I do not know.

The effect in a roll is wide concept - it is damage, it is the amount of targets, it is a type of margin of success and essentially ties into most rolls. Below, there will also be a redux on contests, now that I remembered to mention effects.

The effect of a roll is always determined by an effect die, with one special case of the effect simply being 1 - 1 damage, 1 target, a margin of 1. This is where the ladder comes in, since there are ways to affect your effect. The effect ladder has two special notations - high die, or HD, and low die, or LD:

1 > LD > HD > HD+2

After you reach HD+2, each additional increment simply adds another +2. This does mean that you can go into an infinitely large result, but it is unlikely. There are also some special cases where you might regard several effects for the same roll. In that case, you never count the same die twice. If you have 2HD, you count to highest and then second highest.

An effect might also move backwards on the ladder. If an effect goes backwards from 1, it is Shut Down and does not go into effect, normally defeating the purpose of a roll. No effect may move backwards from being Shut Down.

Criticals, Boosts and Drops

Like in many RPGs, Stuff of Legends also has a notion of a critical success or failure.

Criticals happen when you roll the same result on several of your dice, the more of them meaning the greater the critical. A critical success (under the threshold) produces Boosts. A critical failure (above the threshold) produces Drops.

When a critical occurs, the player tallies the amount of identical dice as Boosts or Drops. If he has more than one identical set, he tallies that set separately. Each set may only be applied to one effect in the roll. If there is only 1 effect, only the set with the most tallies applies. For some titles, and in some specific cases, boosts and drops become "free" and may be applied freely. If multiple criticals are rolled for one effect and they are "free", all apply.

A boost moves the effect forwards by 1 step per boost. A drop does the opposite, moving the effect backwards. By the nature of getting criticals, a critical would always produce at least 2 boosts or 2 drops, causing any critical to be at least spectacular.

Contests, revised
I made contests needlessly complex in the last post. At least in hindsight.
New rules!
A contest happens any time two characters are certain goals, normally as opposing parties for the same one. Races, holding a door closed and other activities apply.
A contest has a length, measured in the amount of victories that are needed by one of the parties to succeed over the other. The more victories needed, the harder the goal should be to attain - a race from one end of the room to another is not a 5 victory affair, while a race across the city is unlikely to require just the 1 victory.
Each round in a contest assures a single victor for that round. Every round each participant, normally only 2 of them, rolls the respective skill. The victor is whoever rolled higher under his threshold. In ties, whoever has a higher effect wins. Effect is determined in advance, starting from LD. Certain traits may change the effect for certain skills. In the unlikely case that both roll and effect are tied, all tied score a victory. In the contest had a length of 1 victory, this will usually lead to another contest.

Now I'm fairly certain I've left nothing out.

Stuff of Legends - Magic Part 1

This post could be considered out of order in a way, given that I had said I would have a post dedicated to magic and I think this is a bit early for it. Won't be letting that stop me, though.

From the start, Stuff of Legends was designed with a specific setting in mind. While the rules have a toolbox nature, they are meant for use with the one setting. With that in mind, I looked at justifying some mechanical logic fluff wise. Most of the post below is fluff, with some pointers at mechanical implications.

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The most basic thing to establish about magic in the setting is that it is very much a science. Mana, the fuel for magic, is an environmental resource that is used by way of spells and enchantments. Much in the same way the tools that humanity developed as it evolved, the tools the science of magic provides are coherent and predictable. In the same way language can be read and be understood, so can magic.

Magic was first introduced to the mortal races by the immortal First Wizard, shortly after the Dragon Empire had come to an end and with it humanity's subjugation. The First Wizard sent out his disciples and they taught magic to any who would listen. That said, other prominent cultures, notably to the south of the Empire, had already developed their own magics, although those magics saw infrequent use due to the rarity of those who practiced them.

The magic that the First Wizard gave unto the mortals is called Scripted Magic, in that it uses magical script as spells and enchantments. Spells are inscribed onto magically charged vessels, most normally the bodies of wizards, and then tapped into using mana in order to create predesignated effects. Spells inscribed so can be removed, but remain for as long as they are not disrupted. However, that is not to say there aren't limits: there is only so much space to inscribe on and mortals have a certain, inner tolerance to magic - any more strain than they can take, both magically and mentally, is dangerous.

Mechanical Pointer: spells inscribed are limited by 2 things - how much physical space is on the wizard's body, which is their race's size, and how tolerant they are, a number achieved by multiplying ESS with INT. The resulting tolerance is the upper limit of total spell weight that isn't dangerous. Spell weight is the amount of strain a spell has on the wizard.

The method of inscription was the first thing introduced by the First Wizard to his disciples and it has two methods - the first is a "spell-free" spell, it is the simpler of the two, but requires to have mana to spare in advance; the second is physical inscribing with magical reagents, which create a temporary tattoo. In either case, something that does look like a temporary tattoo appears on the skin of the wizard and glows when that spell is cast. Wizards are known to inscribe their arms, as that's the place easiest to reach and look at, and cover their arms well so that others may not know too quickly what spells they cast. The glow from a spell will always be a dead giveaway, since it can shine through clothing.

Mechanical Pointer: in the same way it's described, there are two ways for wizards to "prepare" spells in Stuff of Legends - they either cast a spell or use the Inscription skill. Those competent in either method act quicker and do a better job. High quality inscriptions have advantages, like making casting easier or less costly.

To ease the introduction of magic to the general populace, in particular to those aspiring to be wizards themselves, the First Wizard established what is now known as the Wizardly Academium. The largest school is at the place where the First Wizard resides, and many additional schools that belong to the Academium have been built since. The fast track to becoming a wizard is by studying, for a small fee, at the Academium. Beside the Academium, there are other, smaller schools that teach Scripted Magic of their own designs. The Academium itself has 6 avenues of studies: Fire Magery, Water Magery, Wind Magery, Earth Magery, Force Magery and Practical Magery. Each avenue has dedicated parts of each school.

Mechanical Pointer: nearly every single character that starts with a magic title is bound to belong to one of the Academium's avenues of magic. The graduate will receive a title that derives from that avenue - Fire Mage, Water Mage, Wind Mage, Earth Mage, Force Mage or Practical Mage. The first five focus on those specific magics, which are the most prevalent, while the last one focuses on casting a mix of the previous five in a way that relates to practical use. Practical Mages have an easy time finding jobs.

With the prevalence of magic, and its ease of acquiry, it has supplanted technology in many places and fast-forwarded advancement. Houses are warmed with special enchantments, decorations created with magic simple enough to be used by commoners and other such basic human needs made simple. The mages of the Academium sell their services as enchanters and inscribers and the general population benefits in many ways. Commerce, travel and everyday life have all been affected. The single most outstanding effect magic has had on everyday life is that nearly every commoners carries around at least a spell or two with them at all time, normally one to soothe pain and another that fits the season. The spells used by commoners expire after a time, by design, giving the profession of inscription a place in the economy. Learning to cast a spell is easier than to learn how to inscribe it, both of which wizards normally learn. Commoners find it adequate to not bother to learn how inscribe, even it means a regular money sink.

Mechanical Pointer: nearly every single character the players will play will have at least a spell or two, likely inscribed permanently (that is to say that they do not expire).

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I don't recall what else I had to say about magic, so this ends part 1. Part 2 is likely to be a lot more about mechanics.

C&C welcome, as always.

Stuff of Legends - Dice Rolling Mechanics

I've probably should've started with this post, on some level. The dice rolling mechanics are usually one of the first things mentioned about any RPG in its back, from my experience.

Well, better late than never.

I'll start off with what I hear relatively frequently - rolling dice is meant for interesting actions. To define an interesting action: any action in which failure will produce a result with consequences for the characters. For the matter, let us take a door. Many things can be done with a door, but only certain things warrant a roll. If it is locked and between the characters and something they want, a roll would make sense. If there's nothing that the characters would actively want on the other side, no roll and probably no lock are needed. In another instance, the door is unlocked but there someone on the other side who wants to open it and it swings to his direction. If the characters wish to avoid allowing him to open the door, they're gonna want to grab that door handle and quick. This would definitely warrant a roll, since the order of who gets to the handle first is important.

Short and simple, as I opened with: if failure has consequences, a roll would make sense.

The second thing to address is additional attempts after a failure. The characters are assumed ambitious yet competent, and with that competence comes a certain awareness of when you fail and why. With that assumption in mind, a character that has failed a roll has no reason to believe that any additional attempts at his current skill level will yield different results. So, a failed roll cannot be reattempted by that same character until he has gained a rank in the relevant skill.

The Dice

In Stuff of Legends, the only dice that are used are six-sided ones, henceforth d6(s).  It is recommended that you have an amount of d6s in the double digits at the table, and at least 4 per player, including the judge. It is recommended that you have 3-4 green dice and 3-4 red dice, as they serve as advantage and disadvantage dice.

The advantage dice are added to the ones the player would normally roll and after the roll the player removes dice until he is left with the amount he would have rolled with the advantage dice. This allows a greater freedom in results and increases chances for doubles or more by a large percentage.

The disadvantage dice are similar to advantage dice, but are different in one way: instead of removing any dice they choose, the player instead removes the lowest dice until he is left with his normal amount. This doesn't guarantee an increased failure chance, but it takes a lot of freedom from the player.

There are 3 types of rolls in Stuff of Legends, corresponding to different situations: skill rolls, reaction rolls and contests.

Skill Rolls

The basic type of roll the players will make is a skill roll. They take their own skill rank and match it against the skill opposition. If their own rank is above the opposition, they have some flexibility in the amount of dice they roll. If their own rank is under the opposition, they must roll as many dice as the opposition.

Example: an archer aims her bow at a monster. The archer's Ranged skill is at rank 3 and the monster's Reflexes and Acrobatics are both at rank 2. The archer may choose to roll as few as 2 dice or as many as 3. In another case, a different monster has Reflexes and Acrobatics at rank 4, forcing the archer to roll 4 dice, despite only having a rank 3 Ranged Skill.

Reaction Rolls

In many cases, after an opposing party has made a skill roll, a reaction roll may be done. Reaction rolls are used when defending, for instance. After a skill roll was successful, the judge will usually ask if the target of the skill roll is interested in reacting. When reacting, the skill roll result acts as a type of minimum threshold: the reacting party tries to roll under their own threshold, but above the opposing skill roll result.

If the skill roll result is above the reacting party's threshold, no reaction can be made.

Example: the archer from before has hit her target with the rank 2 skills. The monster, attempting to avoid the arrow, reacts with its Acrobatics. The archer's Ranged result was 12 and the monster's Threshold is 15. If the monster hopes to avoid the arrow, it can't roll less than 13 or more than 15. Had the archer hit with a result of 16, the monster would have had no hope of avoiding the attack.

Contests

Contests are relatively short rolling contests between two parties, each aiming for a certain goal before the other. Normally, the goal is the same, like racing to the end of the street, climbing the cliff face first or reaching for a certain door handle before someone else.

In contests, the rolls are made differently than in skill and reaction rolls. First and foremost, contests have a predefined length, measured in victories, and predefined round ending conditions, measured in margin of loss. Both are predefined in advance of each contest by the judge.

The length, or victories, is how many times one party needs to win against the other. Winning can be achieved in two ways - either your succeed in a contest round and the other party does not or the other party's margin of loss is too big. A length of 1 or 2 is common, while 3 or more are exceptional.

The margin of loss is how many success ties can be had. If both parties succeed, the one with the lower result takes a disadvantage on their next roll. The margin of loss is how many disadvantages may be taken before the round is over. If the round is over by having too many disadvantages, the other party wins. A margin of loss of 1 is very common, 2 relatively common and 3 or more extremely rare.

A contest with a length of 1 and a margin of loss of 1 is called a quick contest. All other contests are simply contests.

I believe that these 3 mechanics cover every type of action that might come up - active, reactive and opposing.

As normal, critiques and comments are welcomed.

Stuff of Legends - Character Basics: Skills, Titles and Traits

I know I implied this post would be up a couple of day ago. So sue me for being busy.

A quick glossary for terms below:

• Threshold - the number the player needs to roll under to succeed in a roll. Composite of attribute, confidence and skill rank.
• Skill Opposition - every skill, when rolled, has an opposition. Sometimes it's a static number and other times it's another skill or attribute. This opposition is the minimum number of dice that may be rolled when using the skill being opposed.
  An opposition that is higher than the opposed means you must roll the opposition number. (A skill of 3 versus an opposition of 5 requires 5 dice, despite the slim chances.)
  An opposition that is lower than the opposed means that you may roll a number of dice between the opposition and your skill rank. (That same skill of 3 versus an opposition of 2 means you may roll either 2 or 3 dice.)

 

I've covered the attributes and confidence in the previous post. This time I would like to cover those things that accentuate characters and define them better - Skills, Titles and Traits.

• Skills are the bread-and-butter of performing actions. Any  action that can be done in Stuff of Legends is tied to a skill. All skills are used in conjunction with one attribute, so a character with a high attribute would benefit from skills that are frequently used with that attribute.
• Titles are a bit like classes in other fantasy games. Where they differ is that by themselves they aren't much. Just having a title doesn't make the character considerably more powerful or special in any way. Every title has Traits, below.
• Traits are a sort of improvement for characters that titles can provide. Traits, as a whole, accentuate the use of a certain skills in a certain way. Every title has a nested list of traits that improve it.

Skills

In Stuff of Legends, skills are the majority of what defines a character - his ability to fight, to pick locks, to cast spells or to express themselves in a certain way. Skills have ranks and each rank contributes 3 points to the threshold of the skill when rolling it and raises the maximum of 6-sided dice that may be rolled with that skill.

Example: a character with a rank 3 Melee skill adds 9 to his threshold. He may also roll up to 3d6 when using the Melee skill, if the skill opposition allows.

The list of skills in Stuff of Legends is relatively sparse and separated into several categories. The category separation is meant to make the skill choice simpler and offer hints at what attribute would be more relevant for skills within. The categories are: physical, mental, professional, social, magery and combat.

A short excerpt from the skill list, sans any explanations, to offer an image:

• The physical category includes: Acrobatics, Athletics, Reflexes, Riding, Stealth and Vigor.
• The combat category includes: Light Melee, Melee, Ranged, Shields, Thrown and Unarmed.

Notably, the combat skills are considerably generalized. This is to offer a basic level of specialization and to better define the character's combat skills. Titles are what offer the more in depth choices and differences.

Finally, skills are the only thing that define the character's tier, their "level": the lowest skill level of among the five highest level skills is the character's tier. It serves to suggest a relative power. GMs are encouraged to provide the tier of a certain character if asked for it.

Titles

Titles are what fills the shoes of character classes. Each title implies several things and accentuates what the character is. Titles are usually relatively general and each one belongs to one of 4 groups: combat, expertise, magic and unique.

• Combat titles are warriors, monks, archers, knights and anything that engages in regular combat. Having a combat title allows the character to learn combat stances (which will be covered in a later post).
• Expertise titles are thiefs, assassins, merchants, rangers, priests and anything that would otherwise have a practiced trade. Having an expertise title allows the character to learn skill secrets (which will also be covered in a later post).
• Magic titles are wizards, blood mages, healers, druids, necromancers and anything that uses magic on a regular basis. Having a magic title allows the character to learn magic more potent than cantrips and on a larger scale. Magic will have its own extensive post.
• Unique titles are titles that don't readily fit into the other titles and serve to give characters a special definition. A paladin in other games is a type of holy warrior. The holy part isn't implied as a combat thing and so won't fit into the combat group. The warrior part, if defined as warrior, prevents it from being an expertise or magic title. To fill this niche, paladins will have a secondary, unique title which will unlock holy powers. In the same way this could turn an expertise priest into the more well-known cleric.

Most characters will gain 2 or 3 titles over the courses of their career, having started with one. Edge cases and some humans will reach as high as 4 or 5. When several titles are used in conjunction, it's usually recommended to come up with a word that would mix them. A wizard and warrior might become a warmage or a spellblade on the singular title level.

An example of several titles from the game, from all groups in no particular order: warlord, wizard, assassin, alchemist, champion, knight, arcanist and elementalist.

Every title is constructed out of 3 parts - the core feature, the core trait and traits:

• The core feature always provides a channel to earn Legend Points by way of a certain skill, sometimes in conjunction with a combat stance, skill secret or spells.
• The core trait always accents the core feature in a way. It may add an advantage when using a certain combat stance, skill secret or spells and in the case of unique titles might provide an new option altogether.
• Traits will be expanded upon below.

A final important thing to note about titles, specifically unique titles: characters may only start with a non-unique title. Humans begin the game with 2 titles and may choose a unique title along their non-unique one. Unique titles also have a special caveat - they might be fickle or offer special restrictions. Become a vampire is a unique title. Gaining the favor of a god is a unique title. Anyone with the vampire title will die in sunlight. The favor of a god may be lost. In the first case, you die. In the second case the title may be lost. Every unique title, in this respect, requires a certain type of maintenance.

Traits

Traits are the thing that would make any two character with the same title different. Between 2 monks one might favor becoming an agile killing machine while the other might aim for a body that can take a beating and dish out powerful, unique attacks. This is done by choosing traits.

Each title has several traits and there are general traits which aren't under any title. I won't talk about general traits at all this time.

Title traits, as in those traits under titles, come in 3 varieties - core, unnested and nested:

• The core trait, as mentioned above, is the single most defining trait in a title. It affects nearly every single roll performed under that trait. To continue the monk example, the core trait increases unarmed damage.
• Unnested traits are standalone. They might or might not have traits nested below them. these traits normally accentuate a single aspect related to the title. A monk might have a natural armor trait or improved dodging trait that are unnested.
• Nested traits can only be taken after taking their parent trait. A nested trait will always improve on the parent trait in some way. The monk with improved dodging might have a nested trait below it that allows a free retaliation to attacks if they do get hit. Nested traits might have another trait nested below them.

I feel like I haven't covered all I could, so if there are any massive holes I could patch up, please say so.
Comments and critiques welcome as always.

Stuff of Legends - Character Basics: Attributes and Confidence

Full disclosure - since the last post about Stuff of Legends, the game and design had undergone some streamlining and restructuring. I'd like to believe the current iteration of the below is better than what I had presented last time.

Characters in Stuff of Legends are similar to the ones in D&D. There, that's on the table now. The full concept and original intention behind Stuff of Legends is a type of OSR game with a very different approach to characters ad progress, very similar to what BareBones Fantasy did, I think.

Every PC in Stuff of Legends has several important bits: attributes, confidence, skills, titles, traits and derivative stats. On top of all those stands the "level", called tier. The tier does not really matter.

Today's I'd like to cover attributes and confidence.

Attributes in Stuff of Legends are half of the core of characters, next to skills. There are a total of 5 attributes and they have a natural range of 0 to 5 although racial modifiers may bring an attribute as low as -1 or as high as 7. Each attribute, when it is high enough, gives an attribute bonus which is usually applied to certain rolls but also sometimes apply elsewhere. Attributes at 0 or -1 impose restrictions on characters.

The five attributes are Strength (STR), Health (HLT), Dexterity (DEX), Intellect (INT) and Essence (ESS):

• Strength - STR is the measure of raw physical power a character has, as well as the primary attribute for most combat types. It's the basis for many physical skill rolls and the bonus from strength is applied to the damage of most attacks.
  A strength of 0 means the character cannot help others in strength rolls or wield a weapon larger than medium.
  A strength of -1 means the character cannot make strength rolls at all, nor aid others in strength rolls. They also cannot wield a weapon larger than light.
• Health - HLT is the measure of the overall physical condition of a character and an important attribute for all characters. A character's Endurance is derived from their health.
  A health of 0 means the character
• Dexterity - DEX is the measure of a character's overall speed and coordination and an important attribute of all combat types and some expertise types. Nearly all attack rolls rely on dexterity and the bonus from dexterity aids ranged damage.
  A dexterity of 0 means the character cannot aid others in dexterity rolls or take aim.
  A dexterity of -1 means the character cannot make dexterity rolls at all, nor aid others in dexterity rolls.
• Intellect - INT is the measure of a character's overall intelligence, cognitive abilities and focus and the primary attribute for magic types and some expertise types. Intellect applies to many skills and its bonus aids in spellcasting and mental skills.
  An intellect of 0 means the character cannot aid others in intellect rolls or learn or cast magic.
  An intellect of -1 means the character cannot make any intellect rolls or aid others in intellect rolls. They also cannot learn or cast magic nor can they magical implements or devices.
• Essence - ESS is the measure of a character's magical potential and it is important strictly for spell casters. It affects the amount of Mana a character has and the potential power of their spells.
  An essence of 0 means the character is magically impotent and cannot cast magic.
  An essence of -1 does not naturally occur. If a character does have an essence of -1, they become a type of magical vacuum and the GM is suggested to interpret this as they see fit.

Along these five fairly fixed attributes, there's also Confidence. Confidence is an ever-changing attribute that applies any time a character makes a skill roll. By default every character has 3 confidence, but this serves as a base number when characters begin a new adventure. Some races have a higher or lower base and traits (below) may change a character's base confidence.

Confidence goes up or down in certain situations:

• When a character rolls a successful double or higher, they gain 1 confidence.
• When a character wins a contest, they gain 1 confidence.
• Whenever a character would receive a Legend Points from their Title's core feature, they may instead gain 1 confidence.
• When a character rolls a failed double or higher, they lose 1 confidence.
• When a character loses a contest, they lose 1 confidence.

*Note: I would like some input on more opportunities to increase or decrease confidence.*

That's what I got for this post. Another may go up today about skills, titles and traits.
As usual, any comments and critiques are welcome. Granted, I would like to discuss any critique you might have, so that I may learn.

1/1000 - Species Profile: Humans

Following this post and starting with it, I will present profiles of each species in 1/1000. Each will have a list of what is going for them, what are the problems they face and how their situation might look a year, 10 years and 100 years after the bomb hit.

To start us off: humans.