Beejazz's Homebrew: Discussion Thread

[beejazz]

I have made small tweaks to the abilities and skills section (ability scores have descriptions now, and derived stats are actually defined and stuff). I have also just begun the combat section.

[beejazz]

I've got all kinds of info ready to go into the combat section, but I'm not sure how to organize it.

I've got initiative first (because it tells you how things start) and I've got action types after that (because it tells you what you can do in your turn) but I'm not sure how to order things after that.

I'm thinking after that including a little note with a general overview of the absolute basics of combat.

Besides that I've got to introduce and give a complete picture of the following rules.

attacks and damage are pretty basic, and should probably go early in the section.

wounds If players deal enough damage, they may inflict randomly determined wounds. There are also rules for called shots. This should probably go after attacks, but should it come before the defense rules?

defense Players can dodge, parry, or shield as a reaction against standard attacks. Additionally there are "saves" which are ability checks as a non-action to avoid various special attacks and such.

movement There aren't very many special rules for movement, actually, but I figure they should get a brief mention at the end of the first half of the section.

maneuvers This section would be for things like tripping, disarming, feinting, and opportunity attacks (all of which I have rules for) as well as charging, sundering, and grappling (I have no rules for these). Obviously this should go after all the more basic stuff. Right?

mounted combat I have no idea how to write rules for it or where to put them.

weapons and armor Both have a pretty big impact on earlier parts of the chapter. Weapons add a bonus to damage (a high bonus if they penetrate armor and a low bonus if they don't... penetration is determined by damage types). Armor gives a player DR (a high value if the armor isn't penetrated and a low value if it is). This all has a pretty big impact on whether a character gets wounded or not.

Anyway... yeah... I know how combat would run and what the rules would be more or less, but I just don't know how to go about writing it.

[beejazz]

Damage Thresholds, Critical Hits, Called Shots, Weapons and Armor

I'm almost completely finished with the first three. I've made several recent changes.

Damage Thresholds: Damage thresholds are now raw strength + level + 5 (5 less than they were before). The reasons for this have to do with getting weapon and armor values about right (you'll see a bit more on this later).

Critical Hits: As always, when you deal damage equal to or greater than your target's damage threshold, you roll a critical hit for him. You roll 1d10 on the following table:

1: Right Arm (Limb)
2: Left Arm (Limb)
3: Right Leg (Limb)
4: Left Leg (Limb)
5: Bleed
6: Knockback
7: Stun
8: Vitals
9: +1 Wound
10: +2 Wounds

On your character sheet, each type of wound has three boxes indicating varying degrees of severity. Boxes that indicate instantaneous results are already blacked out (all of knockback and stun 1'¦ vitals 3 is death and it doesn't get a box). Only the highest wound to any track applies (they overlap rather than stacking).
Bludgeoning and piercing weapons cannot deal three wounds to any limb. Treat any result of three wounds to a limb as two instead.

Arms:
1)   Take a penalty of 2 to all actions that require the use of this arm or both arms. You drop anything this hand is holding.
2)   Your arm is disabled. You cannot use this arm. You take a penalty of 2 to all actions that require the use of both arms. If both arms are disabled, you can do nothing that requires the use of either arm or both.
3)   Your arm is severed. It is disabled permanently.
Legs:
1)   Take a penalty of 2 to all actions that require the use of this leg or both legs. Your speed is reduced to one-half. You fall prone.
2)   Your leg is disabled. You cannot use this leg. You take a penalty of 2 to all actions that require the use of both legs. Your speed is reduced to one-half. If both your legs are disabled, you can do nothing that requires the use of either leg or both, and you cannot move.
3)   Your leg is severed. It is disabled permanently.
Bleed:
1)   You lose 1d10 hit points per round at the start of your turn.
2)   You lose 2d10 hit points per round at the start of your turn.
3)   You lose 3d10 hit points per round at the start of your turn.
Knockback
1)   You are knocked prone.
2)   You are knocked prone and forced back one square away from your attacker.
3)   You are knocked prone and forced back two squares away from your attacker.
Stun:
1)   You are stunned for one round.
2)   You are stunned for one round and you are staggered. You lose your minor action each round, though you can still take a minor action using your main action.
3)   You are knocked unconscious.
Vitals:
1)   You are stunned for one round and you are staggered. You lose your minor action each round, though you can still take a minor action using your main action.
2)   You are knocked unconscious.
3)   You are dead.
+1 Wound: Roll again and deal +1 wound to whatever you hit.
+2 Wounds: Roll again and deal +2 wounds to whatever you hit.

Called Shots:
A called shot takes a penalty equal to the number of wounds you intend to inflict, +1 if you intend to inflict a wound to vitals. If you hit and exceed the target's damage threshold, you inflict the intended wound. Otherwise you miss or inflict damage as normal.

Weapons:
Weapons have certain specific stats representing their capabilities.

Hands: Denotes the number of hands that are required to use the weapon effectively.
Damage: Damage has two values, one of which applies if the weapon penetrates your foe's armor (the values run from 5-10) and one of which applies if it does not (the greater value minus 1 to 5) listed before and after a slash respectively. Example: 7/10.
Damage Type: Each weapon deals one of three types of damage (piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning), each of which may penetrates different kinds of armor (piercing penetrates plate and leather, slashing penetrates leather, and bludgeoning penetrates mail).
Keywords: Keywords tell you everything else about a weapon, including whether it has reach, can be used with finesse, can be thrown, trips well, or whatever else.

Armor:
The stats for armor are vaguely similar to those of weapons.

Damage Reduction: Damage reduction has two values, one of which applies if the weapon fails to penetrate your armor (the values run from 5-10) and one of which applies if it penetrates your armor (the greater value minus 1 to 5) listed before and after a slash respectively. Example: 7/10.
Damage Type: Each type of armor may be overcome by one or more damage types, as mentioned in the entry for weapons.
Armor Penalty: Each armor inflicts a penalty from 1-3 on its wearer when he attempts to use movement, defense, or magic skills. Armor training can reduce the penalty on defense and magic, but not movement.

What do you guys think?

[beejazz]

I've changed ability scores around (to 5+ raw score + level), written up an almost finished combat section, worked out most of the weapons and armor kinks (still got a few weeks' work to do there), written up my magic system, and gotten the bulk of the perks list down. A lot of this will be going up soon. I've also decided to include fantasy races and make the setting steampunk with all the fixings except for mecha. Races will be goblins, trolls (was going to go with ogres, but the name troll fits better), elves, dwarves, humans, and robots. I haven't yet figured them out mechanically, outside of size mods for goblins and trolls and built in armor and a few immunities for robots.

Soon I'll be posting a separate brainstorming thread for my setting, and thinking of a format for publication there. As I've mentioned, I'm working this system for publication, but I'm also hoping to sell a subsciption-based, ever-expanding, ground-level detail setting. So a monthly slew of hex maps, a few cities, and some adventure modules in a new locale (and maybe adventures to get people into new realms from the old ones). This is looking a little far ahead, though.

Just a bump until I have time to do all that stuff.

[beejazz]

I've filled in the basic attack and wounds info. Shorter section on defense and saves soon. After that, it'll probably be opportunity attacks and then on to maneuvers and such.

Is the basic attack info written clearly? Is there a better place to put wounds? Or a way to write it in a lot fewer words?

[Tillumni]

I was wondering, could you perhaps provide examples of a character, would help me abit with getting a clear view of how the systmem works. I like the difficulty = amounth of D10 used by the way. don't think I've seen that used in any system before, but it makes sense and is fairly intuitive.

[beejazz]

I was wondering, could you perhaps provide examples of a character, would help me abit with getting a clear view of how the systmem works. I like the difficulty = amounth of D10 used by the way. don't think I've seen that used in any system before, but it makes sense and is fairly intuitive.

Thanks. It's kind of derivative of Alternity's system, but there they had a d20 and you added or subtracted d4s, d6s, etc. based on the difficulty.

For sample characters... let's see... for simplicity's sake, I'll assume starting (level 0) Characters.

Sword and Board Fighter:
Abilities: Str10, Dex9. Distribute others as you see fit.
Trained skills: Melee attack, Shield, 5 others.
Perks: Skill Focus (Melee), Skill Focus (Shield), Armor Proficiency I
Gear: Sword, Shield, Light Plate, Buy the rest as you see fit.


Mage:
Abilities: Int10, Will9, Distribute others as you see fit.
Trained Skills: Magic, Focus, 5 others.
Perks: Skill Focus (Magic), Skill Focus (Focus), Spell
Gear: Ritual Book, Buy the rest as you see fit.

[beejazz]

Defenses and saves are done. Movement will probably be next, followed by opportunity attacks and maneuvers. I might be looking for a small bit of advice on grappling rules soon. I've got most of it worked out except for this one little detail.