Celtricia, World of Factions-Mechanics Information V2.0

Xathan · November 23, 2011, 04:14:18 PM

Glad the post was appreciated. :) And didn't expect you to apologize for anything, but I always feel bad for skipping over your thread because I just don't know what to say, so felt the need to explain why I don't know what to say. :P

As for what I'd want answered...is there a good way to find out what the game is about/core concepts? In other words, if I wanted Guildschool boiled down to its essentials so I could understand them, where would I go? Because until I'm able to grasp that, I'm not even sure what questions to ask. :P

LordVreeg · November 24, 2011, 07:43:28 AM

I do think every game has some of this denseness upon entry. I remember being introduced to d&d , when it was more like a cult....rolling dice when I was told, having a great time, even while not really understanding.

At it's heart, the real differences are the magic system...that really is different than anything out there...and how different people's ability in skills is derived, since it comes from attributes and the guild the character is from. Other than those, it's a damn d100 roll under to succeed skill based rpg.

Xathan · November 25, 2011, 12:13:35 AM

I'll admit my initial response was a bit more inflammatory than this one – I took a bit of umbrage at the "damn d100 roll under to succeed skill based RPG" comment. It seemed there was a bit of a "Duh, how can you NOT get that?" implied in that statement – and to make matters worse, at first that sentence made as much sense to me as telling me it was a "d20 roll plus poker card draw based RPG", and I had to get clarification in the IRC. In hindsight, I was probably more irritated because not understanding what a d100 roll under to succeed skill based RPG was made me feel like I should know immediately what that means. (Incidentally, it means you roll d100, and if you get under your skill total, it works, right? Or am I still baffled)

I think the problem here might be that you are too close to it and I'm too distant. The setting makes perfect sense to you, and while it obviously does make sense to other people or you wouldn't have a long-running IRC game using it, I'm certain I'm not alone in finding Guildschool to be as tricky and incomprehensible as four-dimensional Rubik cube. I'd like to understand it, but starting on the page is going to be the task of weeks of time, and I don't have the time needed to start an in depth journey to figure out the system – and it seems there is some difficulty in you explaining it, since when asked for something that would be of assistance in understanding it, I was told the magic system was different (how?) and then the aforementioned d100 roll comment, which brought me no closer to comprehension than no answer would have. So, with all intent of wanting to understand the system:

Quoteis there a good way to find out what the game is about/core concepts? In other words, if I wanted Guildschool boiled down to its essentials so I could understand them, where would I go? Because until I'm able to grasp that, I'm not even sure what questions to ask.

LordVreeg · November 25, 2011, 01:27:32 PM

WEll, you're not wrong that there was some 'Duh, this is the easy part that I should put out there' meant in that statement. I don't want to deny it. And what it means in the parlance is that it is a d100 based game, where you use d100 to roll under a % to succees in a task, and that is is skill based as opposed to a class-based system. I think that line comes from me spending too much time on RPG sites. But I really appreciate taking the time to come back to me on this. Giving me a lot to think about.

But maybe that is one of the problems. I say 'one of the probelms' as this back and forth nas been rolling around the back of my head a lot lately. Communication is something I teach at work, for god sake. But I can see multiple issues with what I am trying to transmit, sometimes in how I am doing it.

Quote from: XathanThe setting makes perfect sense to you, and while it obviously does make sense to other people

This is another huge issue. I try to post setting notes seperately from System notes. This is specifically a mechanics thread, for example. The setting threads are a whole (larger) grouping, since there is a lot more setting stuff (Celtricia) written than there is for the mechanics (GuildSchool). But the mechanics are written expressly to support the game I want to play in Celtricia.

I am working on trying to boil down some some really core concepts, and produce them in exclusive threads. How does that sound?

LordVreeg · December 03, 2011, 05:12:39 PM

And BTW, Xathan, I am not ignoring the issue you and I have been grappling with. I have been writing about it, and I think I am going to start a few threads for each issue. This is the latest page on the wiki, which is formalizing some tactics used regularky.

Tactical Moves

In Guildschool, there are a number of tactical moves a player or GM can use to increase their chance of success in combat situations. Many of these can be made more effective with the use of skills, creating fighting styles that are hard to beat.

These also can aid to the immersion of the situation.

From the GM perspective, many of these need the PCs (or creatures) to expressly mention what they are doing. While in reality some of these would happen somewhat automatically due to sheer physics, in terms of gameplay, they need to be mentioned.

•· Full Parry
A character using this may forgo their attacking initiatitve to fight purely defensively. This adds 20% of their weapon skill (or a minimum of 3, if they have no little skill or no skill) to their protection for that initiative phase, until they roll again. This can be added onto the parry skill, making a character a formidable fortress.

•· Riposte
This move requires a character to have an initiative the same or better than the person they face, and this action must be declared before rolling initiative. A riposte assumes a parried attack and a quick counter attack. A player making this choice adds 10% of their weapon skill to protection, but their attack is delayed until the segment after their opponent's attack. The riposte attack gains no bonus to hit, but subtracts one from the damage dividing die.

•· Charge
This tactic requires a user to have at least 10' of run up to use properly. A charging attacker uses their impetus to increase the force of their attack. A charging user uses readied initiative if their weapon is longer than a defenders. In either case, this attack allows an attacker to reduce their damage dividing die by 1.

•Set to Receive
This move requires the user to have a longer weapon than the attacker, or using the move against a charging opponent, or it fails. Period. If a client declares this move and the conditions are met, they use their readied initiative-2, and gain a +2 to damage before the dividing die, and a -1 to dividing die if their opponent is charging.

•Full Shield cover
Obviously, this tactic requires a shield...

If used, the target does not make any attacks, but merely covers up 100%. Initiaitve is rolled normally, but the attack is forgone. This spell does add 10 to protection. A user can move 1/3 normal, and this bonus only applies to attacks the shield would be valid for.

•Partial shield cover
This skill is similar to Full shield cover, but it does allow an attack. The user attacks at -10% to hit and this applies to critical hits as well. The protection bonus gained is 5. Movement is 1/2 normal when using this. This action simulates moving forward into combat in a guarded position, as well as a fighting retreat.

•Split defence
A player using this must be able to outnumber an opponent. They must be able to engage a combatent that is already engaged, and have range to get close to 180 degrees from the other person engaging. The affect of this is to negate the shield of the defender and add one to damage before the divider. PLease note the attacker declaring it can continue declaring it until conditions change.

•Flank Attack
This is a single attack, similar to a split defence, where the attacker comes at an angle to the side or rear side of the target. This is not a total surprise back stab, but still an advantageous attack, in that shields do not come in. Shields do not com into play in terms of preotection, and the attacker has a +15% to hit, +1% to critical and adds 2 to damage before the divider.

•BackStab
Some skills or situations allow for a total surprsie backstab. This attack, if the skill rolls or extreme circumstance are succesful, mean that surprise was gained, and a the attacker was able to hit an advantageous area. If the backstabbing attempts are ussuccesful prior to the attack, it is considered a flanking attack. If it is sucessful, the attacker has a +20% to hit, +2% to critical, +2 to damage before divider, -1 to the dividing dice and their backstab skill is added to their chance of critical. If the attack is a critical, the -1 to the divider is on top of this.

LordVreeg · February 25, 2012, 11:32:26 AM

I've made some changes to the costing of skill kits. The idea behind the changes are to make lesser and artisan skills much easier to acquire. I have noted that while players take a few artisan skills on creation and while they fulfil a game mechanic need, so that I can have fth level bartenders, I want to make the more mundane skills easier to acquire.

I attached the PDF of the web page on the Celtrician wiki to this. The basic idea is to make the EXPMOD the basic for how fast one can pick up a skill, in that this simulates deeper and more difficult skils being harder to learn.

SIG and other players can be grandfathered if they choose, or use the newer system for any kits currently being worked on.

LordVreeg · March 09, 2012, 07:50:41 AM

One of the ideas of this mechanic, the 'skill kits' mechanic, is to support the in-game fluff of gaining abilities. Back in them olden days, when I had a character break level who broke a level and suddenly had a new ability, it was sort of weird that one day, they did not have an ability, the next, they did.
In D&D, when they added in the concept of having to study, when breaking level, it was a pain in the ass, but we used it, because it made sense.
So the skill-kit mechanic is there to support the fluff of learning new abilities, while formalizing and setting. Reliable, quantifiable limits.

The reason for tweaking it, above, was so that more role-play-specific skills, artisan style skills, would be much easier to acquire. Players certainly use a lot more artisan skills in town, though I swear some players somehow use the strangest skills to gain an advantage...
Which is the way I want it.

LordVreeg · March 11, 2012, 04:23:19 PM

Since it came up recently, I dug up some of my old GS advanced rules (that are in a notebook, I no longer have the original (wrtten on a program called Volkswriter I believe. much as the original spreadsheet stuff was on Lotus 1-2-3) on Combat, whioch include a lot of hit location, etc. You might nor believe it, but as early as 1985-86, one of our guys created a initiative/hp tracker.
But I found my old rules on Subdual/physical HP, and it is interesting how topical they still are. They are at the bottom of this PDF.

LordVreeg · May 09, 2012, 10:06:04 AM

The shield use skill has been redone, the full text is here.

The Shield use skill allows a character to add their skill ability directly to their protection when using a shield. It simulates the fact that the proper use of a shield was, in fact, an art, and that a skilled user could get a lot more mileage out of a shield.

When a character uses this skill, it adds directly onto the protection skill, up to 'doubling' the amount of protection a shield has. After that, it moves to a 1/10 ratio, in that every 10 full points a character gets in the skill adds an additional point into the protective ability of the shield.

It does not apply to surprise attacks or situations where the shield's protective value does not come into play.

This simulates the need for a cerain amount of shield to gain a benefit, as well as working with the power curve to aid lower level characters more, similar to the curve in spells. The same character gains different amounts of benefir from different sized shields. A skill of 40 in Shield use, for example, can be used in these two illustrative examples.

With a shield with a 7 protection, that character uses the first 7 points in the skill to add 7 points right to protection (doubling the shield). The character gets another point for 17, 27, and 37 (the character has 40 points of skill, remember). This gives a total shield protection of 17 for this shield.

Take the same character with a bigger shield with 15 protection, and that character uses the first 15 points in the skill to get to 30 protection with the shield, then another at 25 and 35, for a total protection of 32 points of preotection for the shield.

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