Hello all, an early morning edit here. This thread hasn't gotten any replies yet. I have the basics of the system down, now I need some help with some of the bits of math. The system is an alteration of M&M (it will be largely using the same power structure, though costs might end up different in the end, depending on how the magic skills end up working).
One fundamental change to M&M is that I want to have the entire combat system be Attack vs. Defense, with the removal of Damage and Toughness (though HP will be used to handle damage attacks). Rather than rolling to hit and then your opponent rolling to save, you roll to hit and the effect of your attack is determined by how much your attack exceeds your target's defense. Luckily, most effects in M&M scale. I am going to need help ensuring that typical characters can survive a somewhat equal number of attacks (so that no attack type is particularly more effective than others in a vacuum; I don't want the system to end up encouraging all damage attacks or all sleep attacks).
Here are the ability scores and what they will do. My only complaint right now is Dexterity; it has the least amount of abilities that will affect all characters. If your character is not a ranged combatant and doesn't care about the dexterity skills, only your low Acrobatics skill will penalize you in any meaningful way (Acrobatics will be useful for maneuvering around and through difficult terrain, as well as potentially to resist trips and other things; characters with low acrobatics have terrible balance and poise). If your other Dex skills are low, you simply don't use them (stealth might be hard to not use willingly, though). I'm listening to all input on this.
I'm also not fully comfortable with the Perform skill being brought back. It seems very minor, and acting (as in disguising) seems to be more inline with Bluff (and thus Cunning) than with Charisma (Charisma makes someone a more likable and powerful actor). Like my Creativity skill, I think it needs to be expanded to have more of an impact on more aspects of play.
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[th rowspan="6"]Air[/th][th]Agility[/th][th]cost[/th] [th]Cunning[/th][th]cost[/th]/[/tr]
| Reflex Defense | 1 | Extra Skill Points (2 per point) | 1 |
| Speed | ½ | -Bluff | ¼ |
| -Initiative | ¼ | -Creativity | ¼ |
| -Athletics | ¼ | -Disable Device | ¼ |
| | | -Repair | ¼ |
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[th rowspan="6"]Earth[/th][th]Constitution[/th][th]cost[/th] [th]Reason[/th][th]cost[/th][/tr]
| Fortitude Defense | 1 | Will Defense | 1 |
| Hit Points | ½ | -Concentration | ¼ |
| Recovery Checks | ¼ | -Craft Skills | ¼ |
| -Endurance | ¼ | -Language | ¼ |
| | | -Knowledge Skills | ¼ |
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[th rowspan="6"]Fire[/th][th]Strength[/th][th]cost[/th] [th]Charisma[/th][th]cost[/th][/tr]
| Melee Weapon Skills | 1 | Action Points | 1 |
| Grappling | ½ | -Diplomacy | ¼ |
| Strength Checks | ¼ | -Gather Information | ¼ |
| Carrying Capacity | ¼ | -Intimidate | ¼ |
| | -Perform | ¼ |
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[th rowspan="6"]Water[/th][th]Dexterity[/th][th]cost[/th] [th]Perception[/th][th]cost[/th][/tr]
| Ranged Weapon Skills | 1 | Awareness Defense | 1 |
| -Acrobatics | ¼ | -Medicine | ¼ |
| -Drive/Pilot/Ride* | ¼ | -Notice | ¼ |
| -Sleight of Hand | ¼ | -Sense Motive | ¼ |
| -Stealth | ¼ | -Survival | ¼ |
[note=Human Speed]From my math today, the world record sprinter is doing a bit over 200 feet per round at the 100m and 200m dashes, which would be a 40 walk speed if a theoretical "run" feet is x5 speed; world 20km walking record was 80 feet per round, and the 100km record was 88 feet per round, which give me baselines for double moves I think. A 40 walk speed with an 18 agility would give me a somewhat low 20 walk speed baseline for someone with a 10 Agility if I have it be +5 ft. per Agi bonus. That's barely 2.3 miles per hour, so that might be a little slow for a baseline average; good old wiki says young people average 29.1 to 29.7 feet per round (they said it in feet per second ...) and 24.66 to 25.98 f/r for older people. If I remove the "run" feat, 18 Agi can be 50 speed, which would make 10 agi 30 speed and 8 agi 25 speed, perfect for aging problems. It also means the walkers aren't quite getting their solid hour and 17 minutes pushing double moves ... .[/note]This table does not include my magic skills, because I am attempting to construct the system so that it will work for any setting (note the conspicuous lack of "Computers" and other such setting dependent skills; those types of skills will all be Knowledges or Crafts).
Strength governs melee weapon skills (except for "Heavy Thrown Weapons" in my default setting) and Dexterity governs ranged weapon skills (except for "Light Weapons" in my default setting). Weapon Skills, like magic skills, will probably cost 1/2 instead of 1/4th like the other skills. I may reduce these in an effort to get people to pick up more weapon skills instead of sticking with just one.
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As for changes to the M&M rules, you can see that I'm adding in an Awareness Defense. This will cover both passive uses of Notice (counter Stealth) and Sense Motive (counter Bluff) and serve to defend against Illusions and other such mental effects. Part of the reason for this is so that "skills are nice but not required"; while I want someone with a low skill to think "gee, I wish I had X" at some point, I don't want someone to go "gah, I died because I didn't have X" (though that might be hard for athletics ...); no more high level fighters having rogues sneak up on them with no chance of succeeding.
I'm still going with skill points instead of skill training and level bonuses. Every 4 skill ranks will net someone a training bonus, a nifty trick or bonus they get when using that skill (like stealth could unlock no -5 penalty for moving full speed while stealthing). These will replace the Skill Challenges from M&M. Weapon and Magic skills will get these training bonuses as well. As an added feature, melee weapon bonuses will be applicable to all melee weapons, no matter the skill they were gained from; I hope this will encourage warriors to learn multiple weapons to gain multiple bonuses; ranged weapon bonuses will apply to any ranged weapon, and magic skill bonuses will apply to any magic skill ... .
I'm looking to handle carrying capacity differently. Rather than having a table of weights and light/medium/heavy loads, I'm considering making a simpler table of weights and associated penalties. Your strength modifier will reduce these penalties. These penalties will apply to certain skills and such. If it works as I have planned, it will allow for a simple strength check system for throwing objects (and creatures). Don't know if it will work or not, but here's to hoping.
Otherwise ... the system is turning out nicely I think. Go me.
New game elements
Speed: Your Agility increases your speed by +5 feet for every bonus. This is equal to 1/2 a rank in the Speed power (with an alternate progression used for the Speed power table).
Athletics: Athletics was moved to Agility. Archetypally, it is fast characters who are better at climbing, jumping, and swimming. Additionally, high strength characters weigh more than low strength characters. It will be assumed that your character has a body weight appropriate for your strength score; if you are overweight, that will be a drawback that will come with appropriate skill penalties (it will actually add weight to your load). Characters with high strengths and high agility will be better able to use their Athletics skill while carrying heavy weight than a low strength and high agility character.
Hit Points: I will be using hit points instead of the Toughness save. The exact method for this has yet to be determined.
Weapon Skills: Unlike M&M, ability scores will be adding to attack rolls. Caps will still be in place, so it is really just determining how you get your bonus since it is a point based system.
Carrying Capacity: I am going to explore adding a "strength score" to items based on their weight so there is something for you to roll against when making checks to lift things. I hope to be able to create a universal system for throwing objects and creatures this way, and also a way of handling skill penalties for loads.
Skill Points: The Cunning ability score adds free skill points.
Creativity: The creativity skill is used for creating works of art, such as fiction, poetry, music, and paintings. It is also required for performing power stunts. For those familiar with M&M, the DC will be set so that a character who has no chance of failure could have spent the points on a Boost (1 point any Alternate Power feat) power, so it will be balanced.
Language: I'll be using a language skill with checks instead of just ranks to buy languages. You will still buy languages, but it will take multiple ranks to achieve full fluency. In return, you can make language checks to see if you understand unfamiliar languages; the more languages you know, the more likely you are to understand an unfamiliar language (probably with a lower DC if you know a related language).
Awareness Defense: The Awareness Defense will be used to resist illusions and other sensory attacking effects (it might even be used to help you avoid perception based attacks since you could resist paying attention to the effect). It will also be used to oppose the Stealth and Bluff skills. This is an extension of "feats should be nice but not required", only for skills. Everyone will have their Defenses maxed (though people may spread their points about differently, as there will be a max Defense and a max combined Defense value so if you want one high another has to be low), so it is more fair for skills and attacks to all target Defenses. Skills are cool, but you should never be forced to make a skill check, those are your choice (some uses of Acrobatics break this rule, but that is currently unavoidable; I guess you can choose to not step into the difficult terrain?). This means that Awareness takes on the passive uses of Notice and Sense Motive; these skills are more active now (such as looking for traps before triggering them, looking for weak points on a monster, getting a hunch about a situation, sensing mind control, or gauging your opponent's "power level" [hint, it won't be 9,000]).
In addition to the fundamental rules changes, I'm going to alter the points given out per power level. All players will get to choose a race, which gives them a 15 point racial container (a template that is noticeable and innate); humans just get 15 extra points to work with. Players also get to chose a home culture, which gives them a 5 point cultural container (not noticeable or innate) to represent things that they learned growing up in their culture rather than biological abilities.
Then, characters get 100 points and are Power Level 6; this is 10 points more than the standard, which I hope will give players a little more wiggle room to work with since I've added ability scores and a defense (though the defense is the only thing that really increases the cost of the game; I'm also probably removing the raw "defense" stat, which used to be a big drain on character points). Building lower PL characters was always a little difficult, so I hope the extra points will help without making all characters too versatile.
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Just a friendly bump. I'll add this thread to my signature so I don't need to keep bumping it.