Quick Play RPG System

[Nomadic]

What this is is my attempt to design a quick play rules system. I want to have something that lets the players get started within minutes instead of the half an hour to hour plus required for the average character. It does mean that in-depth realism is thrown out the window, but sometimes you just want to play and don't feel like waiting. So here is the first draft. Please review honestly. I would like constructive criticism on how to make this work. Just a heads up though, don't recommend any systems that already exist unless you can legally get me the rules in full for them. I sadly cannot afford anything right now. Anyhow, to the matter at hand...

Ideas on what to point out to me:
- Necessary things I am missing
- Unnecessary things I have
- Ideas for making things quicker/smoother
- Anything else you feel is important

The below has been broken up into sections for your convenience. Thank you for the time taken to read this and comment fairly on what you think and any ideas you may have.

0-1 = -5
2-3 = -4
4-5 = -3
6-7 = -2
8-9 = -1
10-11 = 0
12-13 = +1
14-15 = +2
16-17 = +3
18-19 = +4
20-21 = +5

And so on

Skills encompass areas that determine how good a player is at doing specified things. Picking a lock, hacking a computer, fashioning a good disguise, these all are based on skills. The types of skills you will have depend upon the game type you are playing. During character creation, the players pick 3-6 skills to be proficient in (how many is up to the DM and depends somewhat on how large the total skill list is) Those skills get an extra 'trained' bonus to their rolls (+5 is probably a good bonus). When using a skill a player rolls 1d20 and adds their trained bonus (if any) as well as their modifier bonus (the mod of the attribute attached to the skill) the total is then compared to the difficulty of the feat (5: super-easy; 10: easy; 15: normal; 20: hard; 25: very hard; 30: heroic; 35: legendary). Using the below list then a person with 16 mobility trained in acrobatics who is trying to accomplish a normal feat of acrobatics (such as a back flip or a handstand) would have to roll at least a 12 (5+3+12=20).

Example Skills List:
Acrobatics (mob)
Athletics (pow)
Concentration (res)
Healing (int)
Knowledge (int)
Perception (int)
Stealth (mob)
Etc...

Combat has several phases as well as areas within those phases that determine how things play out. In combat certain scores affect certain rolls in determining things such as damage, hits, and defense. Note that a sprung trap counts as combat in which the trap gets a surprise round.

Important Static Scores:
Defense: 10 + Resistance or Mobility + Armor (armor mods don't count if the attack is magical)
Hitpoints: (level + 1) * (6 + resistance mod)
Initiative: 1d20 + Mobility or Intellect

Important Dynamic Scores:
Attack: 1d20 + Power or Mobility
Damage: weapon damage dice + power mod

The phases are as follows:
Surprise: If either group has their opponents in an attackable position and their opponents do not know they are there or are otherwise incapable of defending themselves before the strike, a surprise round happens. During a surprise round the characters being surprised lose the mobility modifier bonus to their defense score (if this mod is negative it remains at its current penalty amount).
Initiative: All characters involved roll their initiative scores. This determines their position in the attack order.
Combat: In order of highest to lowest initiative (with tied initiatives considered as happening at the same time) everyone makes their decisions within the limits of what can occur during a round.

Can be done during a combat round:
- Move up to 25 feet [5 squares] (must be done in no more then two move sequences; so you could move 25 feet in one go or 10 feet do an action and then move 15 more feet but not 5 feet 10 feet and 10 feet).
Plus one of the following:
- Attack someone
- Cast a spell that takes one round or less to attempt
- Do anything else that can be done within the span of one round (roughly five seconds)

Movement: Moving over difficult terrain requires you to slow down. For each square moved, you use up two squares of movement while moving over difficult terrain. You cannot move over it if you do not have enough movement left (10 or more feet). Difficult terrain includes things such as ice, rubble, or anything else that would force you to slow down. You may also charge during a round provided the ground you are charging over is not difficult terrain and you move in a straight line. During a charge, you may move up to 50 feet but you must do so in one movement. Charging uses up your entire round.
Attacking: During a melee or ranged attack the player chooses an enemy within range of the attack and rolls their attack roll (1d20+ MOB mod). If their roll is greater than the Defense score of the defender, they score a hit. Roll the appropriate damage dice to see how much damage is done.
Other: The player may also choose during a round to do some other action that takes five seconds or less. This includes casting quick magic spells or drinking a potion. Depending on the action the DM may require a roll to see if you manage to do it depending on how hard it is to achieve during combat. To do this roll 1d20 and see if it is higher then the difficulty score. Difficulty score depends upon how hard the task is to do. Five for easy, ten for average, fifteen for hard.
Resolution: Victory, defeat, or something else causes combat to end. Tally up experience (note that even losing a battle will earn some experience provided they survive it; if the party loses a battle give them a quarter of the experience they would have earned had they won).

Any player can cast magic if they have a positive INT modifier and have taken the Tap Aether ability. Casting magic requires the player to draw Aether from their inner energy. A player's max Aether is calculated as their intellect mod times ten. By spending points of Aether, the user can cast spells. Each spell shows how much it costs as well as how long it takes to cast and its possible effects and targets. Once the spell is cast, the player subtracts its cost from their total points, regardless of if it failed or succeeded. To regain these points certain items may be used. Aether also restores naturally over time (INT mod per hour; this becomes INT mod * 2 during sleep). Players however cannot cast any spell they wish. They must first learn them. After taking the Tap Aether ability the player learns one utility and one combat spell. Combat spells are focused on defeating opponents through damage or other means. Utility spells are centered on making life easier. A combat spell might cause an explosion that burns everyone in the room. Meanwhile, a utility spell might create a light source or decipher a scroll. The player gains a utility spell and a combat spell at every level provided they have the Tap Aether ability. Below is an example spell. The type determines if it is combat or utility and what level it is. Casting cost shows how much mana it uses while casting time determines how long it takes to cast.

Ice Dart
Type: Combat - Level 1
Casting Cost: 2
Casting Time: Instant
Description: You launch a thin shard of ice, which impacts the target at high speed.
Result: Roll to determine if you hit (1d20 + intellect mod). On a hit, deal 1d20-15 damage (minimum 1).

I also reserve the right to award the gold trim badge to any truly helpful posters:



Thanks to all of you who have helped me out with this.

[Steerpike]

No idea if you've seen  this before - the FUDGE roleplaying system, a very quick and dirty, customizable, "rules light system," whose basic elements remind me of what you're doing.  Salacious Angel/Vermillion is into it quite a bit I believe, I found it from a link he posted somewhere.

[Nomadic]

That is very awesome. I think its a bit too much reading for this (I want something short enough that a new player can read up on the rules in a few minutes). So probably 5-15 pages. Nevertheless I really like it and will have to save it for later. Great find, thank you very much for that. :)

[Ra-Tiel]

Looks very neat. :) But there's one thing that sort of bothers me...

...this:

[...]
Experience Chart:
Level 1 - 0
Level 2 - 100
Level 3 - 200
Level 4 - 400
Level 5 - 800
Level 6 - 1600
Level 7 - 3200
Level 8 - 6400
Level 9 - 12800
Level 10 - 25600
Level 11 - 51200
Level 12 - 102400

And so on'¦
[...]

Exponential XP requirements/gains are imho a bad idea.

(My following comments are based on the assumption, that the numbers represent the total amount of XPs to be accumulated in order to advance a level - similar to how the system in DnD works - and not the incremental amount needed in addition to the already gained XPs.)

For one, the numbers explode after a certain point. For example, to reach level 20 a character would have to gain 26,214,400 XPs. Each monster would have to be worth 1/5th of that according to your suggestion, which would be 5,242,880 XPs. To reach level 30 a total of 26,843,545,600 XPs is required. And so on. Additionally, it makes tracking XPs and recording them a PITA. ;)

Another point is that you'd have to make absolutely sure that a character/party cannot possibly defeat monsters of a higher level. Imagine a level 6 character who somehow defeats a level 9 monster. The character needs only 1600 XPs more to reach the next level, but the monster is worth 2,560 XPs. By defeating a single monster, he'd skip at least one level.

Are these things intended?

[Ninja D!]

I've read a little bit of this only, so far, but this looks like something similar to ideas I had for my own system.  When I have a bit more time, you can bet I will be back to give you my full thoughts on this.  It looks nice.

[Llum]

Skills encompass areas that determine how good a player is at doing specified things. Picking a lock, hacking a computer, fashioning a good disguise, these all are based on skills. The types of skills you will have depend upon the game type you are playing but below is a possible setup for a fantasy game. During character creation the players pick X skills to be proficient in. Those skills get an extra 'trained' bonus to their rolls.

Example Skills List:
Acrobatics
Athletics
Healing
Knowledge
Perception
Stealth
Etc...

Combat has several phases as well as areas within those phases that determine how things play out. In combat certain scores affect certain rolls in determining things such as damage, hits, and defense. Note that a sprung trap counts as combat in which the trap gets a surprise round.

Important Static Scores:
Defense: 10 + resistance mod + mobility mod + armor mods
Hitpoints: (level + 1) * (6 + resistance mod)
Initiative: 1d20 + mobility mod

Important Dynamic Scores:
Attack: 1d20 + mobility mod
Damage: weapon damage dice + power mod

The phases are as follows:
Surprise: If either group has their opponents in an attackable position and their opponents do not know they are there or are otherwise incapable of defending themselves before the strike, a surprise round happens. During a surprise round the characters being surprised lose the mobility modifier bonus to their defense score (if this mod is negative it remains at its current penalty amount).
Initiative: All characters involved roll their initiative scores. This determines their position in the attack order.
Combat: In order of highest to lowest initiative (with tied initiatives considered as happening at the same time) everyone makes their decisions within the limits of what can occur during a round.

Can be done during a combat round:
- Move up to 25 feet [5 squares] (must be done in no more then two move sequences; so you could move 25 feet in one go or 10 feet do an action and then move 15 more feet but not 5 feet 10 feet and 10 feet).
- Attack someone
- Cast a spell that takes one round or less to attempt
- Do anything else that can be done within the span of one round (roughly five seconds)

Resolution: Victory, defeat, or something else causes combat to end. Tally up experience (note that even losing a battle will earn some experience provided they survive it; if the party loses a battle give them a quarter of the experience they would have earned had they won).
[/quote]
Characters level up by gaining enough experience. To get to the first level requires 100 experience, each subsequent level requires double the amount of experience. Experience is gained by battling enemies, overcoming obstacles, and otherwise doing things that would enable the character to learn. Low level encounters give less experience. For example, killing a rat or sneaking past a peasant might earn 5-10 experience while taking down a giant could earn much more. Encounters should be tailored to the characters levels when possible (a good rule of thumb being 5 encounters per level; or roughly 20 experience per encounter at level 1).

Experience Chart:
Level 1 - 0
Level 2 - 100
Level 3 - 200
Level 4 - 400
Level 5 - 800
Level 6 - 1600
Level 7 - 3200
Level 8 - 6400
Level 9 - 12800
Level 10 - 25600
Level 11 - 51200
Level 12 - 102400

And so on'¦
[/quote]

I agree with Ra-Tiel on exponential XP systems being not so great, and his reasons cover everything mentioned. However you mention a static 5 encouters to level up, no matter the level. Now if you have this, why even bother with XP at all? Just award a basic 4 XP per victory, and 1XP for defeat and level up every 20 XP, thats essentially your system, but simpler and easier to keep track of (like Ra-Tiel mentioned).

[Nomadic]

Thanks Ra-Tiel, that is probably not something I want. To be honest I wasn't sure what I wanted so I based it off another system I once played. I really like Llum's idea about switching it to a more basic system. I like to go by 10s since it gives a bit more oomph (dunno if that makes sense). Here let me give it a try.

[ic]
Defeated: 50 xp
Easy Encounter/Task: 100 xp
Normal Encounter/Task: 200 xp
Hard Encounter/Task: 300 xp

Level Up At: 1000 xp
[/ic]

This still begs the question of how to determine what is easy, normal, and hard for an encounter. For this I am thinking that normal will just be a level appropriate encounter while hard will be above normal up to just before things become impossible. Meanwhile easy will be below normal down to a certain level. I am not sure how to calculate those points though. Any ideas?

On another note...

Attributes: Yes I am thinking that levels will be comparable to DnD. So I need to get a point base that gives me the right number of points per area for each attribute.

Skills: I haven't really set a hardened amount for number of skills. That would be up to the DM to decide. If you have a list of your own to put forward feel free to do so. I will probably post it up (be sure to say what genre it is for and perhaps tell what the skills do; heck I should probably do that myself).

Combat: Thanks! I forgot to split that up. It should be that you can do a total of 25 feet of movement in up to 2 separate steps and one other thing (attack, cast a spell, drink a potion, etc). Speaking of potions I should probably have something on how certain items work. I do of course want to be able to have magical and otherwise special items.

Thanks everyone (I shall look forward to your post ninja d!).

To Llum and Ra-Tiel: Thanks for the awesome help, please accept a gold trimmed award for not only reading but putting forth excellent ideas and commentary on the system.

[Nomadic]

Have taken everything into consideration and updated the system (plus added a few more things). So give it a look over and tell me what you think.

Updates:
- Added in actual number amounts for various points per level
- Added an example ability to the abilities section
- Added some notes into the combat area to clarify things
- Changed the leveling up system
- Added a section on magic

[Loch Belthadd]

I tried it with some players and it does work out fairly well.

[SDragon]

Have you ever seen OPIGS (One Page GamIng System)? It might have some good ideas for you to consider.

[Nomadic]

@Loch are you serious? Cause if you are that is completely awesome.

@Sdragon Thanks man I will look that over, it does follow a similar idea I had to this one. :)

[Llum]

For the attributes, 44 points gives an average of 11 per stat. This means no bonuses at all. Without gaining any negative bonuses, two +1 bonuses or a single +2 bonus is the max attainable.

However if I were to min/max with I could have a +5 in two stats and -5 in two stats. Or something even more ridiculous like +15 in a stat and -5 in all others. While the bonuses average out at 0, is their a cap that attributes can start at?

Also, if you wanted their to be bigger starting bonuses would you consider starting each stat at 5 and only giving 22 points to spend? Something along those lines? Or are the current possibilities outlined the way you envision the system working?

Ability wise, looks good, however having a +1 modifier at level one isn't something that's easy to get, so if players start out with four abilities they would most likely all be in the same general kind (int abilities vs end abilities for example)

For combat, you can only move 25 feet (in up to two separate movements) and make one action, could you sacrifice your second movement (lets say I'm a melee char, I don't want to run out of of melee after I attack, unless I'm maybe a rogue type but still) to take a second action?

Are their spells that take longer then a single round to cast? Could I sacrifice my movement to cast it faster?

Your new streamlined leveling system works great I think, very simple. And yes I do understand what you mean about going by 10s.

For the magic. Aether point system works good, to simplify matters you could just say that people regain their Int modifier per hour (since Max Aether is Int mod*10 and they regain 1/10 per hour, so it makes it simpler, same goes for resting, double your Int mod, I'm sure you understand the math). For acquiring new spells, is their a limit on spells known? Do some spells have a minimum level requirement? Are some spells related to Abilities?

Alright so far it keeps getting better and better good job :D

[Nomadic]

Also, if you wanted their to be bigger starting bonuses would you consider starting each stat at 5 and only giving 22 points to spend? Something along those lines? Or are the current possibilities outlined the way you envision the system working?

Ability wise, looks good, however having a +1 modifier at level one isn't something that's easy to get, so if players start out with four abilities they would most likely all be in the same general kind (int abilities vs end abilities for example)

Your new streamlined leveling system works great I think, very simple. And yes I do understand what you mean about going by 10s.
[/quote]
For the magic. Aether point system works good, to simplify matters you could just say that people regain their Int modifier per hour (since Max Aether is Int mod*10 and they regain 1/10 per hour, so it makes it simpler, same goes for resting, double your Int mod, I'm sure you understand the math). For acquiring new spells, is their a limit on spells known? Do some spells have a minimum level requirement? Are some spells related to Abilities?

Alright so far it keeps getting better and better good job :D
[/quote]

Thanks for catching that, can't believe I missed it. And yes spells have levels. You may notice on ice dart how it is marked as a level 1 combat spell. That means that it fulfills the combat spell slot for your two spells gained. The level 1 says what level you must be to learn it. More powerful spells will be higher leveled. For abilities though, I am not sure. Perhaps but that depends on what spells and abilities I come up with.

In fact if anyone here wants to, go ahead and list off any ideas for spells and abilities. Just try to imagine what you would find cool to be able to do in such a game and throw it my way. We can work something out with it, get it statted and everything. Oh and to all you fans of other genre's, think of this as the fantasy module. It's geared towards magic and other fantastical type abilities. I do plan on making other modules that will have abilities and areas focused on steam-punk, hard sci-fi, horror, and anything else I can think of.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

If you're going for as simple as possible, why have attributes with negative bonuses? Or have dead level attributes?

All bonuses are relative to the bonuses of others. So for example, you could have the attributes on a scale of 1 to 10, assuming 3 is average (or 5, or whatever). Smaller numbers and no negatives. Many players may find this simpler.

[Llum]

Something I didn't notice earlier, your Ice dart spell has a 80% chance of doing only 1 damage, and only a 20% chance of doing more then that (5% chance for each 2, 3, 4 and 5 damage).

Is this intended? Or are you looking for a different kind of dsitribution, like 1d6-1 (same damage range, but a more even spread of damages)