The Synergy Workshop

[Polycarp]

A bit of history: I've been working on a system with dependent abilities since this thread.  I put out something preliminary with NTSA, but that was too narrowly focused.  Since then, I've read a lot more systems (and played a few too), and I've been working on a system based on NTSA but with a little more influence from other systems (the basic mechanics, however, are pretty similar).

My original plan was to get something "complete" and then post it, but I realized that this was dumb.  I've also been a bit exasperated lately by too many different mechanics and ideas - there's so much promising stuff out there, and it's hard to decide what's worthwhile and what's just a fun distraction.

At some point I decided that I was going to be developing this system with an eye towards using it with the Clockwork Jungle.  While it doesn't have any system-specific mechanics, I do try and craft it into something that works with the themes of the setting.  That said, I may or may not end up using it; there are commercial systems that I think would probably work out just fine.  Still, I'd like to make some kind of finished product out of the system.

[spoiler=Part 1 - The Basics]
I. The Basics

Attributes

Characters have a set of 7 attributes that indicate their general strengths and weakness (as opposed to skills, which describe specific activities that your character can perform well).

• Strength (Str) represents raw physical power.
• Stamina (Sta) represents the ability to maintain physical exertion over long periods of time.
• Coordination (Coo) represents the fine orchestration of physical movement.
• Perception (Per) represents the ability to discern reality and notice detail.
• Cunning (Cun) represents swiftness of mind and the ability to quickly think on one's feet.
• Aptitude (Apt) represents capacity for learning, memorizing, understanding, and applying new concepts.
• Charm (Cha) represents the ability to read and engage with others in a social environment.

Skills

A normal character starts out with all attributes at 1.  At character creation, attributes are modified slightly by racial bonuses, but they are primarily increased by synergy bonuses from skills.

Attributes are end products - you don't put any points into them.  Instead, your character assigns points to certain skills, which in turn influence your character's attributes.  As an example, consider the Observation skill.

Observation (Per|Sta)

Every skill is keyed to two attributes, a primary attribute and a secondary one.  The one listed first (in this case, Perception) is the primary attribute, and the one listed second (Stamina) is the secondary attribute.  Most specific tasks are accomplished with skill checks, which are made by adding a character's relevant attributes to their number of skill ranks.

[ic=The Skill Check]Skill Ranks + Primary Attribute + Secondary Attribute = Final Result[/ic]
Both primary and secondary attributes contribute to the dice pool, but a skill is considered to be in a category based on its primary attribute alone; Observation, for instance, is a 'Perception skill.'  In the Synergy system, skills contribute to attributes based on their category.  This, coincidentally enough, is called synergy.

[ic=Rule of Synergy]For every 4 points a character possesses in skills of a certain category, the attribute linked to that category is increased by 1.[/ic]
In other words, if a player puts 4 points into the Observation skill, their character's Perception attribute is increased by 1.  They need not spend it all in one place, however.  The same player could instead put two points in Observation and two points in Ranged Combat (Per|Coo), and this would also increase the character's Perception by 1 because the total ranks of skills in that category add up to 4.

Thus, spending points in skills of a certain category will boost your abilities in all skills of that category - if you hone your abilities of perception through observation, you'll become a better archer as well.  The implications go beyond that, however, because of secondary attributes.  Consider the skill Evasion (Coo|Per). Evasion is a Coordination skill, not a Perception skill, but its secondary attribute is Perception, so an increase to Perception by buying Perception skills will also increase a character's Evasion skill check result. In other words, Evasion is considered primarily a skill that uses and trains physical reflexes, but a character who is very perceptive will find that their Evasion attempts benefit from their perceptiveness as well.

A small number of skills have 'Apt|Apt' as their keyed attributes.  This is the only exception to the rule that skills must have two different attributes, and this is used only for certain academic skills that could not conceivably require the use of any other attribute.  A character using such a skill simply gains the benefit of their Aptitude bonus twice, as if it were both primary and secondary.

Some skills are 'multiple skills,' meaning that they can be taken multiple times to cover different sub-skills.  Examples include Craft (Apt|Coo) and Melee Combat (Str|Cun).  Each separate sub-skill tracks ranks separately and contributes to synergy as if it were an entirely separate skill, so a character who puts two ranks in Crafting, Blacksmithing and two ranks in Crafting, Carpentry would gain a +1 synergy bonus to Aptitude.

Alternate Attributes

The GM is encouraged to change a skill's secondary attribute if the situation merits it.  Such uses should be roleplayed by the character.  Some skills have an alternate secondary attribute already provided, such as Climbing (Sta|Str/Coo) and Intimidation (Cha|Str/Cun).  A skill's secondary attribute can be changed to anything, however, so long as it makes sense to the GM.

Often, a player will try to use attributes more advantageous to their attempt, and will try to roleplay a skill that they have more points in.  Keep in mind, however, that what attribute is used may have real effects on the situation above and beyond the simple calculation of success or failure.  For instance, a character may have strength as his highest score, but if he wants to interrogate a prisoner without roughing him up, the GM may decide that he needs to use another attribute (like Cunning) even if it's not his highest.

Randomness

Dice are thrown with the skill check to introduce some chance into the system.  A standard distribution centered on zero is ideal; in other words, something like Fudge dice or one of its variants.  d6-d6 is my current variant of choice (1d6 subtracted from 1d6, and treat results of +5 or -5 as 0 instead), as it is a bit simpler and has a bit higher variability.  For results closer to 0, standard Fudge dice are an option.

Attribute Checks

Skills cover a wide variety of specific tasks, but sometimes a character wishes to attempt something not covered by skills, such as kicking down a door.  In cases where raw ability is required and normal skills do not apply, a character makes an attribute check.  In an attribute check, or 'general roll,' a player simply uses their attribute bonus alone (adding random dice), either against a set difficulty or against another character's attribute check.

While you can't put skill ranks into "door kicking," putting ranks into Melee Combat (Str|Cun) or other Strength skills will build up your door kicking ability through synergy. Every 4 ranks in Strength skills increases your Strength by 1 - that's not a bonus to other Strength skills, but a raw bonus dice for Strength, and so it applies to attribute checks as well (as well as skills which have Strength as a secondary attribute).

Skill Limits

The number of points a character can spend on a specific skill is limited by her attributes.  A character's ranks in any one skill cannot exceed 2 + the character's primary attribute for that skill.  For example, a character with a Strength of 0 cannot have more than 2 ranks in any one skill in the Strength category, but if she puts a total of 4 ranks into any number of Strength skills, her Strength will increase to +1 through synergy, and she will be able to put up to 3 ranks in any single Strength skill.

During character creation and advancement, attribute increases from synergy are applied only after a character assigns all skill points.  Thus, skill limits don't actually increase until you're done assigning all your skill points, so you can't increase your maximum level in a skill and max out on that skill at the same time.

No matter how low a character's attributes are, a character is always allowed to have at least one rank in any skill.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Part 2 - Derived Attributes]II.  Derived Attributes

The seven attributes cover all skills - that is, what a character can accomplish.  There are, however, other measures of a character aside from skill alone.  Synergy has two additional mechanics that are derived from the main attributes a character has.

Derived attributes do not function in any way like standard attributes.  There are no skills associated with them, nor do they grant any kind of synergy bonuses.

Health

A character's health represents his physical integrity against wounds, diseases, poisons, and other sources of damage and/or toxicity.

Health is a derived attribute.  A character's health is equal to 2 plus the average of their Strength attribute and their Stamina attribute, rounded down.  Regardless of any penalties to these attributes, a character's normal health cannot be below 2.

Characters can receive Health damage from a variety of sources.  If a character's Health is reduced to zero, he slips into a coma and dies in 1d6 rounds.  A character heals Health damage at a rate of one point per day, but Health damage from systemic sources (like an ongoing disease or a poison still in the system) does not heal until the cause is alleviated.

Breath

Breath represents one's mastery of one's own life force.  Most Earth cultures have some concept of "spirit" or "life force," and often the word they use translates literally into "air," "breath," "wind," and so on.  For humans, it is breathing that distinguishes the living from the dead.  In the Clockwork Jungle, the Breath is universally recognized as that which makes mere dead matter alive.  All animals have it, the Forest has it '" even Cogs have it, in a limited sense, because nothing can be alive without it.
[note=Breath]Breath is the first really setting-specific thing in Synergy.  I won't go into too much fluff here, but any system for CJ needs to include something to represent this all-important force.  That said, Synergy could be reworked to omit this, or Breath could be altered to something else with a similar effect.[/note]
Breath is a special composite attribute.  A character's Breath score is equal to 1 + the sum of all their synergy bonuses to attributes (but not the attributes themselves, which may be modified by a character's race or other factors).

Breath is used either for Feats (an unconscious use of the Breath) or Channeling (a conscious use).  Both are detailed in Chapter 7.

There is a difference between Breath being used and being lost.  A point of Breath that is used for magic or focus is simply used '" the point is temporarily depleted, but it still exists.  Breath can also be lost, usually involuntarily.  "Used" points of Breath are lost before unused points are.  When a character loses all their points of Breath, they die.  Breath loss is uncommon but can be effected by spirit-draining magic and a few deadly creatures.

Depleted points of Breath are replenished each day.  Lost points of Breath are recovered at a rate of one per day.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Part 3 - Combat]
III. Combat
Combat in Synergy is handled by an assortment of combat skills:

• Melee Combat (Str|Cun)
• Throwing (Str|Coo)
• Ranged Combat (Per|Coo)
• Unarmed Combat (Str|Sta)
• Evasion (Coo|Per)

All other skills are considered to be non-combat skills. Depending on the skill and the goal, non-combat skills might not be allowed in combat; even if they are, the character suffers a -2 penalty to the skill check. 'In combat' is defined as any round in which one uses or is the target of any of the combat skills as listed above, regardless of what effect they have (a character being shot at is considered to be in combat even if none of the arrows have hit him - yet). The rare exception is if the character is targeted by one of these skills but remains unaware of it (a character is shot at, but the shot misses and the character does not notice it).

A character can use only one combat skill in a single combat round.

Checks Against a Fixed TN

Combat is performed either as an opposed roll or as a roll against a fixed TN depending on whether the target is actively trying to evade the blow.  A target who is unaware of an attack or chooses not to make any defense against it does not require an opposed roll to hit.

The standard TN for hitting a creature with an attack is 2.  This can be modified in a variety of ways:

• Size.  The Hit TN of a creature is increased if it is smaller than its opponent, and decreased if it is larger.
• Shield.  A creature holding a shield is harder to hit in combat even if it isn't actually trying to deflect your blow, simply due to its obstructing presence.
• Range.  The Hit TN of a creature increases as you get further away from it (this applies only to missile attacks).
• Environment.  A creature who is obscured by darkness or concealed behind dense foliage has a higher Hit TN.
• Movement.  A creature who is moving is harder to hit than one who is not (this applies only to missile attacks).

Opposed Checks

When a character is actively attempting to not get hit - generally, a good idea - combat is handled with an opposed roll.  The attacker's roll is not always opposed by the same skill; while Melee Combat is usually pitted against Melee Combat, a character without weapons will have to oppose with Unarmed Combat, and Ranged Combat attacks are always opposed with Evasion (if they are opposed at all).

Knowing the defender's Hit TN is still important here, because even if the attacker wins an opposed check, he does not score a hit unless his roll result is good enough to hit the target if it were not resisting at all.  Thus, a character can't actually become easier to hit by trying not to get hit (though it is possible to get no benefit from opposing the roll if you are bad or unlucky enough).

Melee Combat

Combat at melee range is handled using the melee skills (Melee Combat and Unarmed Combat), even if a missile weapon is being used - even if you're using a crossbow to fight the man next to you, you're still fighting in melee.

Initiative

Not all opponents get to attack every round.  When two characters engage in melee combat, one has the initiative and the other does not.  Initiative determines who is the aggressive party at any one instant during the combat.

The character with the initiative - the attacker - has a chance of hitting and wounding the opponent.  If his combat roll is successful (it is higher than the defender's opposed roll and Hit TN), he holds on to the initiative and is also the attacker in the following round, even if his hit caused no damage.

The character without initiative - the defender - usually has no chance of hitting his assailant unless he can gain the initiative for himself.  If the attacker's combat roll is unsuccessful (it is lower than either the defender's opposed roll or Hit TN), no hit is scored and the character who defended gains the initiative for the next round.

If the result of the attacker's combat roll is a tie - it is exactly equal to the defender's opposed roll or Hit TN, whichever is higher - no hit is scored, and the initiative is 'split' in the next round.  In a split initiative round, both parties are considered to be attacking, and both may hit and wound their opponent if they win the roll.  Any character who hits the opponent during a split initiative round has their margin of success increased by 1, as when both opponents are attacking, neither is defending especially well.

At the beginning of a combat round, either combatant may choose to forfeit the initiative.  A character who forfeits the initiative immediately becomes the defender, and must win back the initiative through a successful defense if they wish to regain it.  If both players forfeit the initiative, no attack occurs, and the combatants circle each other warily.

The first round of any melee combat is always a split initiative round, as is any round after both opponents have forfeited the initiative.  In either case, one or both opponents may choose to forfeit the initiative.

The Riposte

A character who succeeds in parrying an attacker's attack by a wide margin can make a strike of their own, called a riposte.  A riposte is only available to a character under the following conditions:

1.  The character is making an opposed combat check at melee range.
2.  The character is defending (does not have the initiative).
3.  The defender's check result is greater than the attacker's check result by 4 or more.
4.  The defender's check result is greater than the attacker's Hit TN.

If a character meets these conditions against a single melee opponent, he may choose to immediately make a riposte.  He not only gains the initiative for the next round, but scores an immediate hit with a base margin of success equal to 3 less than the difference between his result and the attacker's result (e.g. A defender who got a result of 6 against the attacker's result of 2 would score a hit with a base margin of 1).  This hit happens instantly, within the same round.

A character may make only one riposte per round.  If he meets the conditions against multiple melee opponents in the same round, he must choose one to make the riposte against.

Multiple Opponents

Fighting multiple opponents in melee at once is difficult.  A character must make a choice between concentrating on a single opponent or spreading his attention among multiple assailants.

A character may choose to oppose only one opponent.  If he does this, he suffers no penalty against that one opponent and makes checks against him as normal, but his other opponents need only roll above his Hit TN to hit him.

A character may fight against multiple opponents by splitting his skill points.  He can split his skill points in any way he chooses among his opponents.  A character with 6 ranks in Melee Combat, for instance, could choose to make opposed checks against three opponents simultaneously as if he had only 2 ranks in Melee Combat, or put 4 into checks against one opponent and 1 against each of the other two.  A character may not split skill points among a number of opponents greater than half his total points in the skill, rounded down (so a character with 7 skill points in Melee Combat could only oppose 3 opponents at most - any more would be unopposed and only have to surpass his Hit TN).

A character may only have the initiative against one opponent at a time.  If he gains the initiative against more than one of his opponents, he must forfeit the initiative against his opponents until he holds it against no more than one of them.  Though this means a character can only be the attacker against a single foe at one time, a riposte against another in the same round may still be possible.

Ranged Combat

Combat at range is covered by the Ranged Combat, Throwing, and Evasion skills.  Unlike the melee combat skills, which are used for both attacking and defending, skills for ranged combat are used only either to make attacks (Ranged Combat and Throwing) or defend against them (Evasion).

Ranged combat does not utilize initiative.  A character in ranged combat always decides whether he is attacking or defending in any given round, regardless of whether he has been hit by another or not.

Preparation Time[/b]

Aiming and firing a ranged weapon usually takes longer than swinging a fist or blade.  Most missile weapons have a 'prep time' that indicates how many rounds must be spent preparing the weapon before the round in which it is fired.  Usually, the prep time varies depending on how the weapon or ammunition is carried - a javelin already in the hand has only one round of prep time, while one carried on the back or strapped to a shield has two rounds.

A character can rush a ranged attack to try and make a ranged attack in haste.  Decreasing a weapon's prep time by 1 round incurs a -2 penalty to a character's Ranged Combat or Throwing check.  Prep time can only be decreased by one round in this way.

A weapon with a prep time of zero cannot be reduced any further; it cannot take less than one round to make a ranged attack.

Evading Missiles[/size]

A character can only oppose a ranged attack roll with the Evasion skill.  If the attacker's result is less than or equal to the defender's Evasion result, the attack misses.  As with melee attacks, the missile attack result must be higher than the target's Hit TN as well in order to score a hit (which can be quite high at long ranges).

Because Evasion is a combat skill, however, using it precludes the use of any other combat skill that round, including making a ranged attack of one's own.  A character can move around while making an attack to raise his hit TN, but this is not Evasion (Evasion is watching and dodging a specific attack, not just running around to make yourself a more difficult target).

Evasion can be used against multiple opponents by splitting one's skill points.  Like fighting in melee against multiple assailants, a character can only split his skill points among a number of opponents equal to half his total skill points, rounded down.  All others need only exceed the character's Hit TN.

Evading thrown weapons is easier than evading shots from a bow, and characters using Evasion against attacks made with the Throwing skill gain a +1 bonus to their check result.

Equipment in Combat

Armor and weaponry is not part of the combat system itself, but the damage system - both the weapon used and the armor used against it may change the impact of a successful hit, but they don't actually make the attack more or less likely to succeed.  Some pieces of equipment, however, do affect combat skill checks directly.

Shields

Shields can be employed in both melee and ranged situations.  They may provide both a passive defense (raising a character's Hit TN) and an active defense (providing a bonus to a character's Melee Combat and Evasion checks).

A shield's passive bonus is applied to the character's Hit TN against all ranged and melee attacks; optionally, the GM may decide that attacks coming from directly behind a character ignore this bonus (combat facing is not covered here).  Ripostes ignore this bonus to Hit TN.

A shield's active bonus is applied to all Evasion checks a character makes, as well as all Melee Combat checks a character makes while defending.  A character does not gain the shield's bonus when attacking (making Melee Combat checks on opponents against whom he has the initiative).

A shield's effectiveness is based on its size:

Small: +1 active, +0 passive
Medium: +1 active, +1 passive
Large: +2 active, +2 passive

A small shield permits a character to hold objects and use certain two-handed ranged weapons (though not melee weapons) even while wielding the shield.  Medium shields are too large for this; the hand cannot be used for anything else.  Large shields likewise require the whole arm, and in addition impose a -1 penalty to Melee Combat checks made when a character is the attacker.

Reach (Optional Rule)

The length of weapons is not detailed in this system.  At the GM's option, however, a character's reach can affect his initiative.

A character with significantly longer reach than another, whether naturally or because of a weapon, automatically causes his opponent to forfeit the initiative at the beginning of any round that would be a split initiative round (at the beginning of combat or any round after both opponents forfeit the initiative).[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Part 4 - Wounding]
IV. Wounding[/size]

A successful attack in combat, among other things, can wound a character.  Wounding is primarily expressed in terms of skill and attribute check penalties, but it also can degrade a character's total Health, eventually leading to death.

Damage and Wounding[/size]

When a character is hit in combat, the damage of the attack must be determined.  An attack's damage is based on the attacker's margin of success, the difference between his result and the defender's opposed result (or Hit TN, whichever is higher), and modified by other factors including armor and weaponry.  Armor decreases the damage of an attack, while the weapon used by the attacker may increase or decrease it depending on its type and quality.

If an attack's damage is 0 or less, it is considered to be a glancing blow that does no harm to the target.  Though an attacker will still gain the initiative because of his success (see part 3 - Combat), the defender suffers no adverse effects from the hit itself.

If an attack's damage is 1 or more, it may cause two different effects - shock and wounding.

Shock

Shock represents the debilitating effect of sudden trauma and intense physical pain.  When a character is dealt damage by an attack, he suffers a shock penalty in the next round equal to the attack's damage.  This penalty applies to all skill and attribute rolls.

A shock penalty lasts for only one round.

Shock penalties do not stack with other shock penalties; only the highest penalty applies in any given round.  Penalties from shock, however, do stack with wound penalties (see below).

At the beginning of any round, if a character's shock penalty is greater than his Health, he must make a Stamina check against a TN equal to the difference or pass out.  This Stamina check is not modified by any Shock penalties.

Wounding

Wounding represents the loss of function due to actual physical damage, not just the sensation of pain or trauma.  When a character is dealt damage by an attack, he gains a wound with a severity equal to the attack's damage divided by two, rounded down.

A character suffers a wound penalty equal to the total severity of all his wounds added together.  This penalty applies to all checks with skills that have Strength or Coordination as their primary or secondary attributes, as well as all Strength and Coordination attribute checks.  Wound penalties only take effect after the initial shock has faded - in other words, a character wounded on the first round of combat will only begin taking wound penalties at the beginning of the third.  Unlike shock penalties, wound penalties persist until the wounds causing them are healed.

Though wound penalties are cumulative, wounds should be tracked separately for purposes of healing.  Three wounds with a severity of 1 each, for example, will heal much faster than a single wound with a severity of 3, even though they impose the same penalty.

For each point of wound severity a character has, he loses one point of Health.  A character reduced to zero health immediately loses consciousness and will die within minutes.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Part 5 - Weapons and Armor]
V. Weapons and Armor

Equipment affects combat by adding to or subtracting from the attacker's margin of success, from which damage is derived.  Armor and weapons, however, do not have immutable modifiers '" their effectiveness depends on their type and their relative strengths.

Damage Types

Different weapons deal different kinds of damage.  The basic types of weapon damage are piercing, slashing, crushing, and striking.

Piercing (P) weapons rely on massive force behind a single point (spears, picks, daggers).
*Slashing (S) weapons rely on speed and an exceptionally sharp edge (swords, sabers, sickles).
*Crushing (C) weapons use tremendous weight to smash or chop (axes, maces).
*Striking (T) weapons are blunt (and frequently light) weapons that use swift strikes to pound an enemy (staves, clubs, punches).[/list]
A fifth type, caustic damage, is not a kind of weapon damage but can be caused by other sources.  Fire, severe cold, acid, quicklime, and other substances or conditions that burn or corrode all deal damage of this type.

Armor

Armor's protective value depends on the type of damage it is called to defend against.  The value of a defender's armor is subtracted from an attacker's margin of success, potentially reducing an attack's damage to zero.

[th][/th][th]Strike[/th][th]Slash[/th][th]Pierce[/th][th]Crush[/th]

[th]Padded Cloth[/th] 2 1 1 2 [th]Coat of Rings[/th] 1 3 1 1 [th]Beast Leather[/th] 2 2 2 1 [th]Yeske Bark[/th] 1 3 2 1 [th]Scale, Leather[/th] 3 3 2 1 [th]Saryet Silk[/th] 0 1 3 0 [th]Scale, Iron / Brigandine[/th] 3 4 2 2 [th]Lamellar[/th] 3 4 3 2 Padded Cloth: Soft cloth or leather, quilted and stuffed with animal hair.  Cheap and common. Coat of Rings: Metal rings sewn onto a soft leather or cloth backing; essentially, a primitive precursor to proper mail (which does not exist in CJ).  It resists slashes well. Beast Leather: A catch-all term for armor made from particularly tough animal leather, often made up of several layers.  It is stiffer than padded armor but more resistant to blades. Yeske Bark: The tough inner bark of the Yeske tree that has been cut into strips, soaked, and often lacquered or oiled once bent into shape.  The resulting strips are laced together to form a kind of laminar armor. Scale, Leather: Layered or lacquered overlapping leather scales sewn to a cloth backing.  A decent all-around medium armor. Saryet Silk: A layered fabric made from the exceptionally strong raw silk produced by the saryet (or 'whistling') spider.  The so-called 'arrow-proof cloth' can stop piercing attacks but is too thin to be useful against percussive blows. Scale, Iron / Brigandine: Like the leather variety, but with metal scales and better protection against sharp weapons.  Brigandine is similar, with smaller scales riveted to an exterior layer of cloth or leather instead of sewn on to an underlying layer. Lamellar: Metal plates attached to each other rather than to a backing.  Its construction makes it better than scale against thrusting attacks, but it is more rigid and inflexible as well. Toughness Most creatures do not wear armor.  Some creatures, however, are afforded an armor value because of their thick or scaly hides.  A creature with such defense is said to have toughness.  A creature's toughness value is subtracted from an attacker's margin of success, just like armor.  This value applies equally to all damage types unless the creature's description specifies otherwise.  Toughness and normal armor stack together. Though rare, it is possible for an exceptionally vulnerable or fragile creature to have negative toughness, which is added to the attacker's margin of success instead. Player races do not naturally have toughness, but may acquire toughness temporarily through certain channeling forms. Weapons All weapons have three important attributes - type, damage, and grip. Type determines its effectiveness against certain kinds of armor.  Weapons that can be used in multiple ways may have several types.  The wielder must decide which type he is using at the beginning of each combat round in which he is attacking.  When a character makes a riposte with a weapon that has more than one type, the type used in the riposte is determined randomly - a riposte represents a defending character seeing an opening and striking immediately, allowing little time to bring the optimum part of the weapon to bear. Damage, given as a plus or minus modifier (or zero), is added to the attacker's margin of success.  A weapon may have different damage modifiers for different types - for example, a dagger deals more damage when used to stab than when used to slash. Grip indicates how many hands are used to wield the weapon.  Unless noted otherwise, a shield cannot be wielded when also wielding a weapon with a two-handed grip.  Weapons with a variable grip (1-2) may be used with either one or two hands.  These weapons are given with their one-handed stats; if such a weapon is used two-handed, its damage increases by +1.  While a purely one-handed (1, not 1-2) weapon may conceivably be used in two hands, it gains no benefit from it. Melee Weapons Melee weapons have two additional attributes that ranged weapons lack, reach and throw. Reach indicates a melee weapon's striking distance.  An attacking character who has a weapon with a longer reach than his opponent automatically causes his opponent to forfeit the initiative at the beginning of any round that would be a split initiative round (at the beginning of combat or any round after both opponents forfeit the initiative).  This applies only to the target of the attacking character, not any other opponents who may be fighting him. Throw simply denotes whether a melee weapon may be thrown effectively. The melee weapons below are grouped by reach. [th]Short[/th][th]Grip[/th][th]Damage[/th][th]Type[/th][th]Throw[/th] [th]Beak[/th] 1 +2 P [th]Club[/th] 1 +1 T Y [th]Dagger[/th] 1 +1/-1 P/S Y [th]Fist Axe[/th] 1 0 S [th]Mace/Hammer[/th] 1-2 +1 C [th]Thicket Knife[/th] 1 -1/+1 P*/S [th]Trumpet Axe[/th] 1 0 C Y [th](Unarmed)[/th] 1 -1 T Beak: A narrow-bladed pick useful for piercing armor. Club: A short wooden club (or bone, perhaps).  A metal-shod club becomes a mace. Dagger: A dagger, either of the normal variety or the punching kind (a katar). Fist Axe: Like brass knuckles with a sharp crescent-shaped blade affixed. Mace/Hammer: A metal-shod crushing instrument. Thicket Knife: A machete.  Some may not have points at all (and thus can't make piercing attacks). Trumpet Axe: A small axe, often with a triangular or trumpet-shaped blade. [th]Medium[/th][th]Grip[/th][th]Damage[/th][th]Type[/th][th]Throw[/th] [th]Crescent Axe[/th] 1-2 +1 C [th]Cudgel[/th] 1-2 +1 T [th]Leaf Sword[/th] 1-2 +1/+1 P/S [th]Saber[/th] 1-2 0/+2 P/S Crescent Axe: A single-bladed battle axe. Cudgel: A larger club or short staff. Leaf Sword: A sword with a straight, tapering blade. Saber: A sword with a curved blade. [th]Long[/th][th]Grip[/th][th]Damage[/th][th]Type[/th][th]Throw[/th] [th]Greatsaber[/th] 2 +1/+3 P/S [th]Helmbreaker[/th] 2 +2/+1 C/P [th]Spear/Trident[/th] 1-2 +1/0 P/S* Y [th]Staff[/th] 2 +1 T [th]Warbeak[/th] 2 +3 P Greatsaber: An oversized saber, longer but usually with a thinner blade. Helmbreaker: A two-handed mace with a short blade or spike on the end. Spear/Trident: A normal spear or trident.  If it is used one-handed, it can't make slashing attacks. Staff: An ordinary staff. Warbeak: A large war-pick or 'dagger-axe.' [th]Very Long[/th][th]Grip[/th][th]Damage[/th][th]Type[/th][th]Throw[/th] [th]Polearm[/th] 2 +2/+1* P/C* [th]Polefan[/th] 2 +1/+2 P/S Polearm: Any number of long pole weapons; the posted numbers represent a halberd or other polearm with a spear point and an axe blade.  A lance (long spear) has only a piercing attack.  A sword-bladed polearm, such as a partisan or fauchard, deals slashing damage instead of crushing. Polefan: A polearm with a spearhead on one end and a crescent or fan-shaped blade on the other. Missile Weapons Melee weapons have one additional attribute that ranged weapons lack, prep. Preparation (Prep) indicates the amount of preparation time needed to fire a ranged weapon.  Preparation time is in addition to the actual round in which the attack takes place.  The figure given assumes that ammunition is readily available '" for example, a javelin held in the hand, arrows stuck into the ground, or a sling stone in the off hand.  If ammunition is harder to access '" for example, a javelin strapped to a shield, arrows in a quiver, or sling stones in a belt pouch, prep time increases by 1 round.  Crossbows are the exception to this rule, as you can't really have a bolt 'in hand' while loading a crossbow; the prep time given for crossbows assumes that the missiles are in a pouch or quiver. [th]Ranged[/th][th]Grip[/th][th]Damage[/th][th]Type[/th][th]Prep[/th] [th]Blowgun[/th]    2 -1* P 1 [th]Bola[/th] 1 0* T 1 [th]Bow[/th] 2* - - - (Short) - +1 P 2 (Long) - +2 P 2 [th]Crossbow[/th] 2 - - - (Arbalest) - +4 P 5 (Heavy) - +3 P 4 (Light) - +2 P 3 (Repeating) - 0 P 0* (Stonebow) - +1 T 3 [th]Javelin[/th] 1 +2 P 1 [th]Net[/th] 1 * P 1* [th]Sling[/th] 2* +1 C 2 [th]Throwing Knife[/th] 1 +1 P 1 Blowgun: A hollow pipe for blowing small darts.  A blowgun deals no damage in combat; if the attacker's result would indicate damage, the defender is instead afflicted with any poison or other toxin smeared on the dart. Bola: Three weights connected by rope, twirled and thrown in the hand.  Bolas cannot deal more than 1 point of damage.  They may entangle an opponent if they hit, even if no damage is dealt. Bow: A bow, long or short, usually made of grass (that is, bamboo-like plants) or cane.  A small shield can be wielded with a bow. Crossbow, Arbalest: A specialized armor-piercing crossbow favored by Iskites.  Arbalests have steel prods and are usually spanned by windlass. Crossbow, Heavy: A dedicated war crossbow spanned by a belt claw or cranequin. Crossbow, Light: A versatile crossbow used for hunting or skirmishing.  Light crossbows are spanned by hand with the assistance of a stirrup. Crossbow, Repeating: A crossbow that fires small, featherless bolts from a 10-round magazine.  It is weak, inaccurate, and short-ranged, but can fire extremely quickly.  Prep time between magazines is 5 rounds; this increases to 15 rounds if the magazine must be refilled. Crossbow, Stonebow: A stonebow is basically a double-stringed light crossbow that fires stone or clay spheres.  It is almost exclusively used for hunting game because its missiles will not damage an animal's pelt like a bolt will. Javelin: A light, flexible spear designed for throwing.  If a javelin is used as a melee weapon, treat it as a spear with medium reach (instead of long) and no slashing attack. Net: A circular, heavy-duty net made for combat.  These nets have a rope attached to them that the thrower keeps in the hand, and usually have lead or stone weights around the edge.  Nets do no damage, but may entangle an opponent if they hit.  Nets must be folded to throw effectively, and an unfolded net '" for instance, a net you have pulled back after a missed throw '" has its prep time increased by 2. Sling: A simple string with a pouch for hurling stone or lead shot at high speed.  A small shield can be wielded with a sling. Throwing Knife: A small blade designed specifically for throwing, often with multiple sharp edges to maximize the chances of a wounding hit.[/spoiler] [spoiler=Part 6 - Disease and Poison] VI. Disease and Poison[/size] Poison and disease are unique hazards that sap a character's Health and other attributes directly. A Note on Health Checks Health is not a primary attribute, and characters typically do not use Health to make checks.  Disease and poison are the exceptions - to stave off their effects, a character must make successful checks using his Health as if it were a primary attribute.  A character uses their current Health to make the check, modified as it is by any existing wounds, diseases, poisons, or other factors. Factors that impose penalties to attribute checks, including those caused by disease and poison, do not affect Health checks unless they specifically state that they do. Disease Disease is a common part of everyday life.  Though disease can be a serious matter, serious diseases are not always life-threatening.  Many ailments can disable a character but are not ultimately fatal unless the character was already wounded, diseased, or otherwise weakened.  Minor diseases are not covered here and should probably be ignored as an unnecessary complication. Diseases have different stages.  When a character is exposed to a disease, he must make a Health check against a TN that depends on the individual disease to avoid contracting it.  If he does contract it, he will move into Stage 1 of the disease after a certain incubation period.  A character must make a Health check at regular intervals; a failure will cause the character to progress to the next stage, while a success will keep him at the stage he is at.  Two successes in a row will move him back to a previous stage; if he was already at Stage 1, he is cured.  Some diseases have stages that require two or more consecutive failures to move on instead of one (fewer failures than this do nothing).  The effects of stages are not cumulative '" a character suffers only the effects listed for the stage he is currently in. A disease is defined by the following characteristics: Vector indicates the means by which the disease spreads. Contraction TN indicates the TN a character must make a Health check against to avoid contracting the disease if he is exposed. Incubation Period indicates how long the disease takes to begin affecting the character after the character has contracted the disease. Stage X indicates the symptoms of the stage, as well as the Health check TN for that stage and the check time (how often the character makes checks when in this stage). Notes includes any other comments. Two sample diseases are provided. Weeping Sickness Vector: Drinking water Contraction TN: 8 Incubation Period: 1 week Stage 1: TN 7, 4 days.  Itchiness and inflammation around the eyes. Stage 2: TN 8, 2 days.  Highly irritated eyes, which water continuously.  -2 penalty to Perception when sight is involved.  -1 Health. Stage 3: TN 7, 2 days (2 failures to progress).  Blindness, continued eye watering.  Perception and skill checks that rely on sight are impossible.  -1 Health Stage 4: TN 5, 1 day.  Searing eye pain, permanent blindness.  -1 to all attribute and skill checks.  -1 Health. Notes: A character who progresses to Stage 4 remains blind even if the disease is cured. Saffron Blight Vector: Ingested spores (usually in corrupted fruit) Contraction TN: N/A.  Contraction is assured if exposed. Incubation Period: 4 days Stage 1: TN 8, 2 days.  Nausea and muscle tremors.  -1 Coordination, Health, and Breath. Stage 2: TN 8, 1 day.  Continued muscle tremors, severe nausea, and occasional hallucinations.  -1 to all attribute and skill checks. -2 Health and Breath. Stage 3: TN 10, 1 day.  Victim's skin turns a yellowish color.  Hair falls out.  Muscle tremors continue.  Continual hallucinations; victim is incoherent and completely unaware of his surroundings.  -2 to all attribute and skill checks, assuming they are possible. -3 Health and Breath. Stage 4: TN 12, 12 hours (2 failures needed to progress).  Saffron moss sprouts in patches from yellow skin.  Muscle tremors continue.  Victim is aware of his surroundings but now permanently insane.  -1 to all attributes and skill checks, in addition to  -3 Cunning, Aptitude, Charm, Health, and Breath. Stage 5: Death.  Victim becomes an Abomination under the control of the Saffron Moss within 6 hours. Notes: Three consecutive successful checks, rather than two, are required to move back to a previous stage.  Natural recovery is impossible; a character at Stage 1 cannot be cured of the disease naturally regardless of how many successful checks he makes.  Only Mosscutter Tea can cure a character afflicted with this disease.  A character who progresses to Stage 4 remains insane even if the disease is cured. Poison Poison is quite dangerous; it can fell a mighty warrior as easily as the meekest craftsman.  Unlike disease, which a character can often recover from on his own, poison typically can only be delayed by a character's robust health.  Poisons progress to their inexorable conclusion - whatever that is - unless an antidote can be found. Poisons work in stages, like diseases.  Unlike diseases, however, no amount of successful checks can cause a character to return to a previous stage.  Once the final stage is reached (provided that stage is not death), the victim begins to recover as soon as a successful check is made.  A recovering person ceases to be affected by the symptoms of the disease except for any Health loss, which must be healed normally as if it were Health damage caused by a wound.  Some diseases may also cause permanent effects that linger even after the toxin is no longer in the system. All poisons have a potency that indicates how strong this particular batch of the poison is.  A poison has a 'base potency' that may be augmented depending on how skilled the poison's creator was.  A poison's potency is the TN that the victim must achieve to delay the effects of the poison; in addition, a poison's stages have a minimum potency, below which the effects of that stage (and subsequent stages) fail to occur.  A poison's potency degrades over time, depending on the type of poison.  A 'dose' is considered to be a normal amount for the poison (e.g. the amount one could smear on an arrowhead for an injury poison); each additional dose increases the effective potency by 1, but may also make the poison easier to detect. A poison's potency may be reduced by an antidote; if a poison's potency is reduced below the minimum potency of the stage the victim is currently in, the victim regresses to the highest stage allowed by the potency as soon as the next check would be made.  If the potency is reduced to less than the minimum potency necessary for Stage 1 of the poison, it is cured completely as soon as the next check would be made.  Additional doses of an antidote decrease the potency by 1 per additional dose, but only up to the number of additional doses of poison (thus, more than two doses of an antidote are ineffective if the victim has only taken two doses of poison). A poison is defined by the following characteristics: Type indicates how the poison is introduced into the system. Dormancy Period indicates how long the poison takes to begin affecting the character after the character has been dosed. Base Potency is the standard, unmodified potency of a single dose of the poison. Decay indicates how quickly the potency of the poison decays under different conditions.  A poison with a potency of zero is inert and useless. Antidote notes whether there is a known antidote and by how much the antidote reduces the potency.  Some antidotes may completely counteract a poison regardless of potency. Stage X indicates the symptoms of the stage, the check time (how often the character makes checks when in this stage), and the minimum potency (MP) needed for the stage to take effect. Notes includes any other comments. Two sample poisons are provided. Boltwheel Poison Type: Injury Dormancy Period: 1 round Base Potency: 6 Decay: 1d6/week in a dry, airtight container.  1d6/day otherwise. Antidote: Boltwheel root paste (-4 potency), Weaver's Fern (-2 potency) Stage 1: MP 1, 2 minutes.  Dizziness, elevated heart rate, muscle weakness.  -1 Str, Coo, Per. Stage 2: MP 4, 5 minutes.  Victim loses consciousness.  -2 Health. Stage 3: MP 6.  Death. Notes: Boltwheel poison is a nearly transparent, slightly pinkish liquid that is fast acting and highly lethal.  Its use by assassins is uncommon, however, because of its instability. Arsenic Type: Contact or Ingested Dormancy Period: 1 minute Base Potency: 5 Decay: Does not decay in a dry environment.  1d6/month otherwise. Antidote: Garlic (-1 potency), Rot-lily (-2 potency) Stage 1: MP 1, 5 minutes.  Nausea.  -1 Sta.  -1 Health Stage 2: MP 3, 5 minutes.  Abdominal pain, severe nausea, vomiting.  -1 to all attribute and skill checks.  -2 Health. Stage 3: MP 4, 5 minutes.  Delirium, severe convulsions.  -3 to all attribute and skill checks.  -2 Health. Stage 4: MP 5, 5 minutes.  Victim loses consciousness.  -3 Health. Stage 5: MP 6.  Death. Notes: Arsenic is a common tool of the poisoner.  It is common, stable, deadly, and has few effective antidotes.  When derived from realgar, it typically appears as a red powder.  Roasting arsenic powder in air is a dangerous process, but it yields a compound known as 'white arsenic' which has a Base Potency of 6 but is otherwise identical to regular arsenic in its effects.[/spoiler] [spoiler=Part 7 - Powers of the Breath] VII. Powers of the Breath[/size] The Breath flows through all living things and makes all things possible.  Through the pursuit of mastery and quality, higher beings can cultivate an unconscious understanding of this universal force that propels their bodies to feats beyond expectations.  A select few seek a truly conscious understanding of the Breath, and seek to sense and manipulate its currents to exert power even beyond their own body; this art is called channeling.  Whether using Feats or Forms, however, all characters rely on the exercise of the Breath. As noted previously, a character's Breath is equal to 1 + the sum of all their synergy bonuses to attributes (but not the attributes themselves, which may be modified by a character's race or other factors). Feats A Feat is an unconscious use of the Breath to perform strenuous tasks better, more quickly, or heedlessly of pain.  Any character may use a Feat, barring special circumstances detailed below.  No particular skill is necessary. List of Feats A character may only spend one point of Breath on any particular Feat in a single round, but may spend points on any number of different Feats in a single round so long as the number of points spent does not exceed their Stamina attribute.  A character with a Stamina of zero may still spend a point of Breath on a single Feat per round. The use of a Feat must be declared after a character has decided their action for the round but before any rolls have been made.  A Feat's effects last for a single round. Swiftness: Ignore the usual -2 penalty for reducing the prep time of a ranged attack by 1 (this feat may only be used once for any single attack), OR gain a +2 bonus to Evasion rolls. Power: Gain a +1 bonus to all Strength attribute rolls and all skill rolls with Strength as a primary attribute. Endurance: Gain a +1 bonus to all Stamina attribute rolls and all skill checks with Stamina as a primary attribute. Reflexes: Add a +2 bonus to the margin of success of any successful riposte made, OR force an opponent to forfeit the initiative during a split initiative round following a tie roll (unless they also use this Feat). Fortitude: Decrease any shock penalty you suffer in the current round by 2. Feats and Encumbrance While wearing armor does not interfere with the Breath itself, extraordinary physical acts of strength and speed are difficult to perform in heavy or cumbersome gear.  Whenever a character uses a Feat while wearing any kind of armor, he must make a Coordination attribute roll for each feat used against a TN that varies according to the type of armor worn.  This TN is increased by 1 for each additional feat the character attempts in the same round.  If this roll fails, the feat has no effect but the point of Breath is still spent.   At the GM's option, a character with a heavy or otherwise cumbersome load may have their TN for this roll increased beyond what their armor would indicate. A character who is entangled (e.g. by a bola, net, vines, etc.) who attempts to use a Feat, assuming the use of a feat is even possible, has the TN of this Coordination roll increased by 4.  Even if they are wearing no armor, they must still make a Coordination check against a base TN of 4. The Fortitude feat alone is exempt from all the above.  It may be used regardless of a character's armor, encumbrance, or freedom of movement. Obstructing Feats With few exceptions, all uses of the Breath require a character to have free access to its currents.  A character that is drowning, choking, being strangled, or otherwise unable to breathe freely cannot use feats, just as they cannot use (most) Channeling forms. [/spoiler] [spoiler=Example 1: Character Creation] Let's explore the process of character creation now that we've got an idea of a character's basic statistics.  We'll begin with a written character background. Sseswa is a female Iskite from Valssasth, the 'City of Scales,' a large village in the Anath Archipelago in the Sea of Netai.  She was a child when the Iskites of the Right Orientation Alliance marched into her village, freeing it from alien rule, but their hopes were dashed when the Netai Confederation defeated the Alliance and conquered her home in the Third Netai War.  She had been the pupil of a warrior of her village, destined to become one of Valssasth's professional guardians, but the conquering Umbril abolished Valssasth's warrior caste, fearing that they could form the core of a pro-Alliance rebellion.  Sseswa became a wanderer among the Iskite villages of Sekah, telling tales and singing songs of her village and its stories to earn food and lodging.  When the Fifth Netai War began, she volunteered with the Alliance to free her home, but the Alliance was eventually defeated and dismantled by the victors.  Unwelcome in her homeland and scornful of the other Iskite communities that failed her village, she departed with her saber and lyra to the Black Circle, believing that she is one of the last vessels of her people's identity and has an obligation to share her heritage with others so the Valssasth she knew as a child will not be entirely forgotten. Race and Culture Sseswa's race is Iskite.  The attribute adjustments for an Iskite are +1 Per, +1 Apt, and -1 Cun.  Iskites are perceptive and quick learners, but tend to be inflexible and rigidly axiomatic and are  less equipped to deal with rapidly changing situations as a result.  Sseswa's attributes are now: Str 1 Sta 1 Coo 1 Per 2 Cun 0 Apt 2 Cha 1 Sseswa's culture is Sekah Iskite, which will inform our later decisions about which languages she receives, as well as how her player roleplays her in the game.  Presently, however, we're focusing on mechanics, so this does not come into play in this example of character creation.  The GM may decide that certain cultures also add minor bonuses to certain skills closely associated with them, but this is optional. Skills Now that our attributes have been modified for race, we are ready to buy skills.  For this campaign, the GM has ruled that characters begin with 15 skill points to assign as they wish. Sseswa is a skilled warrior, but also a musician and storyteller, who probably has some survival skills from traveling between the Iskite villages of the Netai.  Starting characters are given 15 skill points to assign as they wish.  Sseswa can have up to 3 ranks in Perception or Aptitude skills, up to 1 rank in Cunning skills, and up to 2 in everything else.  Our ultimate decision is: Melee Combat (Str|Cun): 2 ranks Survival (Sta|Apt): 2 ranks Evasion (Coo|Per): 2 ranks Observation (Per|Sta): 1 rank Music (Apt|Coo), Stringed: 3 ranks Herbalism (Apt|Per): 1 rank Oration (Ch

[Cap. Karnaugh]

It seems really interesting...will keep an eye on it!

[Nomadic]

Keep it up... and once you finish you are obligated to run a CJ game online :P

[Polycarp]

Development Decisions

So I thought I'd go into a bit of "why."

Why not dice pools?
I got pretty enamored with dice pools since I learned about and then played Riddle of Steel some months ago.  It's a fun system if you've got the patience to learn it.  I decided, however, that ultimately the dice system was just too complicated.  In TRoS, you could alter probability in multiple different ways:

You could increase/decrease the number of dice in the pool.
You could increase/decrease the number needed for a dice to count as a success.
You could increase/decrease the number of successes required for a task or result.

The upshot of this is that you actually need a statistics major to understand the full implication of what you're doing.  Which is better, getting 1 additional dice in the pool, or making it easier for the dice to roll a success?  How does that change depending on the size of the pool?  What about multiple successes?  All of this is interesting but it's not really necessary, especially if all I'm interested in is replicating a moderately faithful standard deviation from a norm.

Standard deviations are what Fudge dice do best.  They come up +1, 0, or -1 most of the time, with the largest results (+/-4) much more difficult to achieve than rolling a 20 on a d20.  The d6-d6 method does make things a little more random than standard Fudge, but at least I can look at a probability table and know what the hell I'm doing.

Why 4?
"4 ranks per attribute advancement" is totally and completely arbitrary.  In NTSA, it was 5.  Too high and too low are both bad, but it's hard to know what is what without actual testing.  Since I'm nowhere near that point yet, 4 is really a placeholder.

What happened to hard/soft caps?
NTSA's soft and hard caps were needlessly complicated.  I recently learned about FATE's "pyramid" system in which you have to have a bottom-heavy skill assortment - if you have X skills at level 3, then you need X+1 at level 2, and X+2 at level 1 (that's not really how FATE works but you get the idea).  The idea behind all of it, of course, is to prevent super-specialization that results in someone being a god among men at one specific thing (usually this is combat) but absolutely sucking at everything else.

FATE tries to explain why you might need to take a totally unrelated skill (basketweaving, I think, is their example) before advancing a skill like swordfighting, and it's moderately persuasive.  I feel that my system is better, however, because it creates similar limitations in specific categories.  With Synergy, at least when you're taking other skills to better your combat skill, you are taking skills that are related to it instead of just grabbing any skill to meet your requirement.

But again, "attribute+2" is totally arbitrary.  It's another thing that will have to be borne out by playtesting in the distant future.

[Lmns Crn]

I am captivated. The system itself is intriguing, but the glimpse into the thought processes that support it is invaluable.

[Polycarp]

Development Decisions II

A Long Post Approacheth

More recent modifications to TRoS by the developers introduced a sort of static skill roll, where the number needed for a success is set and unchanging (6 or 7 out of a d10, don't remember exactly).  This takes one variable out of the mix... but if the odds of success on a die is now fixed to 50% or close to it, why are you rolling d10s?  Why not just flip a lot of coins?

I can't deny that there is a certain tactile element to dice that people enjoy.  I enjoy it too, which is why I'd never do a diceless system (well, there are other reasons, but that's one).  Reading the comments of the TRoS developers, however, were enlightening - there were forum comments like "we know more about probability than some of you assume."  No doubt, but the whole "fixed-number-for-success" mechanic struck me as something of a concession to the fact that the developers are probably the only ones who know how TRoS's dice mechanic actually works.

Zero-ing dice

But there is another problem with dice pools.  Well, it's not really a problem, but calling it a feature seems a little euphemistic.  Consider d20 - a simple mechanic that can "zero" anywhere.  By this, I mean that the difference between a dude with a +2 modifier to something and a dude with a +5 modifier to the same thing is exactly the same, mechanically speaking, as if their modifiers were +0 and +3, +1,002 and +1,005, or -17 and -14.  A difference of 3 is a difference of 3 regardless of where you are on the scale.

That doesn't work for dice pools.  The difference between someone with 5 dice and someone with 6 dice is very, very different than the difference between someone with 1 die and someone with 2 dice.  Where you "zero" the system is very important because the statistics don't scale like d20 does; the more dice you're dealing with, the less important a single die is.

Negative Territory

And what if you want that guy with 1 die to get weaker?  What do you do, ask him to throw zero dice?  Negative two dice?  Yeah, sorry... 1 is the bare minimum.  You can find other ways to penalize people below 1 die, of course, like raising the threshold of getting a success on that lonely die, but you're throwing your curve of probability out the window.  The difference between 1 die and 2 dice is huge.  The difference between 1d10 success on 7 and 1d10 success on 6?  Not so much.  And there's only so long you can do this for, because eventually you just can't make things any shittier, while d20 laughs at you because they can take the negatives as low as they want.  Say what you will about d20, but nobody can make a character as theoretically bad as they can.

So the point is that dice pool systems have to zero themselves very carefully.  If PCs start with their attributes at 1, there is going to be a very steep curve in which PCs gain huge relative power (1 to 2 is twice the dice!) and then trail off.  It means the opponents they face early on will be really tough even with only one or two more dice, while later opponents will have to really pour on the dice to gain a substantive mechanical advantage.

But this, though it presents some difficulties, is attractive for low power campaigns.  So you improved your Strength from 6 dice to 7?  Well, statistically, that's not really that impressive compared to the boost that 1 to 2 gave you, and returns just keep diminishing from there.  There is definitely an intrinsic advantage to spreading out your skills, because improving bad scores is generally a better use of your effort than further pushing great ones.

Am I Reconsidering?

No, I'm not reversing on dice pools - I still think they're unnecessary.  I do, however, like the idea of a system that presents a power "curve" that levels off, and when I say this I mean that the actual mechanics level off, not just that higher levels take more xp/time/whatever to achieve.  World of Warcraft has made it clear to everyone that grinding is no obstacle to an interested player, and scaling advancement levels doesn't change the fact that once you actually get there, you're insanely powerful.  The fact that D&D 3rd ed has scaling experience point levels doesn't change the fact that epic level characters are gods among men.

So how can I retain the simplicity of a Fudge-style dice mechanic while getting some scaling out of the deal?  That, I think, is the primary dilemma here.  Fudge presents a bit of a kludge solution - you can't get better than a certain level.  It just doesn't exist unless you're playing a superhero campaign.  One can argue that this is realistic - there are certain limits to human capacity.  Real life, however, is closer to the scaling dice pool; the difference between the 10 best swimmers in the world is very, very slight compared to the difference between any of them and me, but they still do practice.  It's not that there's a hard cap, but that each "level" they go up gets smaller and smaller in terms of benefit, to the point where shaving a millisecond off your time is quite an achievement.

My opinion is that a system with Fudge-style simplicity and standard deviation randomness plus TRoS-style dice scaling with diminishing returns would basically be the most awesome game system of all time.  But how do I do that?  Synergy doesn't really have the answer.  (Yet?)

[Polycarp]

The Array System

Ok, this is a bit of a departure from Synergy as it currently exists, but I was thinking about the question I just asked myself.  How do I make a non-dice pool system, with randomness based on a normal distribution, that also scales to give mechanical diminishing returns?  Well, I think I answered that, though perhaps not in a very useful way.  The Array System is what you get when you combine the probability table of a dice pool system with a normal distribution dice mechanic.

The Array

The Array System is based on a probability table.  The numbers of the table are based on the probability that, if you roll X number of dice, at least one of these dice will show a "success" where success is defined as a chance equal to 1/N.  N is our "index number."  The higher N is, the "smoother" the curve - in other words, low index numbers will give us a very steep system in which higher levels fall in effectiveness dramatically, while a high index number will give us a system in which higher skill levels only gradually start to lose effectiveness.  Here's a sample table with levels 1-10 for an N of 6.[note]You can see the diminishing returns - the difference between level 1 and 2 is 14 points, while the difference between 9 and 10 is only 3 points.[/note]

[th]Level[/th][th]Score[/th]

1	17
2	31
3	42
4	52
5	60
6	67
7	72
8	77
9	81
10	84

The Randomness

Now we add our normal distribution dice.  Normally I'd ask isomage about this first, but he's not here and I'm lazy, so we're going to skip it and go with d20-d20 instead.  This gives us a probability distribution that's basically pyramid-shaped.  There would be significantly fewer outliers if we used a method that actually gave us a normal distribution, but we'll assume for this example that the GM and players want some really random results.

The Skill Check

In the Array System, the GM sets a target number.  The player notes what his skill level is, takes the score indicated for that skill level, rolls our random dice, and adds the result to this score.  If the result is equal to or higher than the target number, the skill check is successful.  With our current dice distribution, the player's score could be modified from -19 to +19.

Let's say the target number is 75 for a certain task.  A player with Level 1 skill can't hope to accomplish it; he can only get a maximum of 17+19=36 even with supreme luck (the chance to get +19 is 1 in 400 - not good).  The lowest level player who could manage it is one with L5 skill, and he'd have to get at least a +15 (15 out of 400).  Here's a rough rundown of everybody's chances to get that 75.

[th]Skill[/th][th]Chance[/th]

5	3.75%
6	19.5%
7	38.25%
8	61.75%
9	77.25%
10	86.25%

You can see how the scaling works.  Our weird d20-d20 dice warps it a little bit, but you can at least glimpse the concept here.  If we wanted to make higher levels pay off even less, we could always go back to the original table and decrease the index number we used to generate the array.

Conclusion

It seems like array mechanics would actually be fairly flexible.  It's just a matter of tweaking your index number until you're satisfied with the curve and finding a method of dice rolling that gives the distribution you want.  The array allows you to use the randomness of a system like Fudge with the diminishing returns of high levels that dice pool systems boast, without the massively complicated probabilities of dice pools that I find to be unnecessary.

What are the weaknesses of the system?  Well, the most obvious one is aesthetic - you have to look up the score for your skill level, which is a seemingly arbitrary number.  This may not be appealing to all people.  There may well be some statistical errors I've made or problems I've overlooked.  I blame the late night for any errors and take no personal responsibility whatsoever.
[note=(Un)originality]I also accept no responsibility if this, or something like it, has already been done.  I think it's likely that someone has indeed made probability tables like this before and used them for the same purpose.  Since I haven't seen it around, however, I thought it would be worth posting about.[/note]
Compatibility

This could conceivably work with a Synergy-like mechanic.  All the Array system does is tell you what to do with skill ranks; the main point behind Synergy is how you get skill ranks and how skill ranks interact with attributes.  I'm going to have to think about the Array System a lot harder, however, before I decide whether it's worth including.

[Polycarp]

Development Decisions III

Well, that whole Array thing is something for another time.  It was just an idea I got; now we let it stew for a while and come back to it later.  In the meantime, I've posted Part 2 of Synergy, a short little part about the "Integrity Attributes" of Health and Breath.

I've never been satisfied with the idea that Constitution/Stamina/whatever should impact how easily a character gets cut to ribbons.  One's physical constitution certainly impacts one's resistance to disease, but poison is a stretch, and you certainly can't take a sword blow any better because of it.  Stamina, which is what I use here, is even farther removed from health.  The upshot is that in Synergy, health is basically static, unaffected by either character advancement or abilities (though in Synergy, those are the same thing).  You can learn to defend yourself better, but if you get stabbed, you are in as much trouble as the baker's apprentice.  Such is the fragility of life.

Breath, as I mention, is a setting-specific concept.  You can read more about it in the thread/wiki, but in CJ the Breath is both the "life force" of the world and the actual, physical wind that living things breathe.  This leads to some rather interesting situations (for instance, you can't use magic if you're drowning).  Aside from being a "mana pool" of sorts, Breath points function a bit like Action Points, allowing even non-spellcasting characters to get some mileage out of them.

Breath advancing with attributes seems like a curious choice, but it works in the context of CJ.  In the setting, though all living things have the Breath within them, the truly great are believed to be more strongly imbued with it.  Mastery is intimately connected with mysticism '" the legendary blacksmith is not just legendary because of technical merit, but because the quest for mastery over metal has also yielded mastery over the self, and no true legendary feat can be accomplished without self-mastery.  Anyone who is good at anything is considered to be more strongly imbued with the Breath than a novice, even if they've never studied the control of the Breath formally.  That control is called Channeling (basically, CJ spellcasting), and it's a skill that uses Breath points.  Those who have no points in the skill can still have a strong life-force, they just don't have the expertise to do anything more with it than augment their mundane efforts (what the "focus" mechanic is supposed to represent).

[Nomadic]

Development Decisions III

Well, that whole Array thing is something for another time.  It was just an idea I got; now we let it stew for a while and come back to it later.  In the meantime, I've posted Part 2 of Synergy, a short little part about the "Integrity Attributes" of Health and Breath.

I've never been satisfied with the idea that Constitution/Stamina/whatever should impact how easily a character gets cut to ribbons.  One's physical constitution certainly impacts one's resistance to disease, but poison is a stretch, and you certainly can't take a sword blow any better because of it.  Stamina, which is what I use here, is even farther removed from health.  The upshot is that in Synergy, health is basically static, unaffected by either character advancement or abilities (though in Synergy, those are the same thing).  You can learn to defend yourself better, but if you get stabbed, you are in as much trouble as the baker's apprentice.  Such is the fragility of life.

Breath, as I mention, is a setting-specific concept.  You can read more about it in the thread/wiki, but in CJ the Breath is both the "life force" of the world and the actual, physical wind that living things breathe.  This leads to some rather interesting situations (for instance, you can't use magic if you're drowning).  Aside from being a "mana pool" of sorts, Breath points function a bit like Action Points, allowing even non-spellcasting characters to get some mileage out of them.

Breath advancing with attributes seems like a curious choice, but it works in the context of CJ.  In the setting, though all living things have the Breath within them, the truly great are believed to be more strongly imbued with it.  Mastery is intimately connected with mysticism '" the legendary blacksmith is not just legendary because of technical merit, but because the quest for mastery over metal has also yielded mastery over the self, and no true legendary feat can be accomplished without self-mastery.  Anyone who is good at anything is considered to be more strongly imbued with the Breath than a novice, even if they've never studied the control of the Breath formally.  That control is called Channeling (basically, CJ spellcasting), and it's a skill that uses Breath points.  Those who have no points in the skill can still have a strong life-force, they just don't have the expertise to do anything more with it than augment their mundane efforts (what the "focus" mechanic is supposed to represent).

So do you see mastery in one skill allowing a person an easier path to mastery of the breath?

[Polycarp]

So do you see mastery in one skill allowing a person an easier path to mastery of the breath?

One skill, or many skills.  Once nice thing about it is that channelers can't be all-powerful.  A channeler must make a trade-off between power and resources; if he specializes in channeling to the exclusion of everything else, he'll be able to do a lot with Breath but will run out of it very quickly.  A more broadly skilled channeler won't have access to the same high-level forms, but will be able to use more forms and for a much longer period of time (and will have other skills to fall back on if channeling is ineffective).

The whole Breath thing is better covered in fluff terms here.

[Superfluous Crow]

First off, like everybody else here I like the idea behind this system. I have been interested in the concepts behind game systems and that mythical "ultimate system" for some time. Yours is a very elegant one, and the synergy feature is interesting and, I think, fun.
Are there any limits to how far you can take your synergy though? It might balance itself out over time, but is there an actual limit to how far an ability can go? Also, it's difficult to relate the ability scores to the actual physical capabilities of a character. What is the average of a person? Is a person with 4 in str strong and muscular or just somewhat well-trained?
I'm not sure about your arguments on the whole getting-stabbed thing. While I agree that you shouldn't let it scale with some ability (as you'll risk ending up with some kind of unkillable character), there must be some factors which have an influence on whether you'll die from getting stabbed, be they high pain tolerance, strong bones, or a vestigial kidney.
Will all character modification and advancement be in terms of skills/abilities? Or will you implement "feats" or something akin to that.
But looking forward to where you're taking this :)

I love how you can't use magic in CJ while drowning by the way; it's fun when there are some unforeseen consequences of your own design decisions.

[Polycarp]

First off, like everybody else here I like the idea behind this system. I have been interested in the concepts behind game systems and that mythical "ultimate system" for some time. Yours is a very elegant one, and the synergy feature is interesting and, I think, fun.

Are there any limits to how far you can take your synergy though? It might balance itself out over time, but is there an actual limit to how far an ability can go? Also, it's difficult to relate the ability scores to the actual physical capabilities of a character. What is the average of a person? Is a person with 4 in str strong and muscular or just somewhat well-trained?[/quote]kinds[/i] of strength people have is needlessly simulationist for me; I consider that something that can fall under roleplaying.  A system is needed only to determine the outcome of attempts, not to reflect a character's physique in every detail.

I'm not sure about your arguments on the whole getting-stabbed thing. While I agree that you shouldn't let it scale with some ability (as you'll risk ending up with some kind of unkillable character), there must be some factors which have an influence on whether you'll die from getting stabbed, be they high pain tolerance, strong bones, or a vestigial kidney.

prevention[/i] - if you're skilled, whether in fighting, sneaking, or talking, hopefully you can avoid getting stabbed in the first place.  Once you are stabbed, it's the first aid/healing skills of your allies you must rely on.

Will all character modification and advancement be in terms of skills/abilities? Or will you implement "feats" or something akin to that.

I love how you can't use magic in CJ while drowning by the way; it's fun when there are some unforeseen consequences of your own design decisions.[/quote]
It also means that when against a powerful channeler, your best bet might just be to grab his neck - strangling works equally well.

I'm not sure I've fully grasped all the implications of this - for example, does that mean that fish aren't really living because they don't breathe air?  I suppose water-breathing creatures must have some means of taking the Breath even through water; I haven't thought of it much.  It gets especially weird for the Umbril, who don't have lungs - they breathe through their skin.  It's not possible to strangle them, but presumably one could drown them so long as they are fully submerged.  And how much skin is necessary?  If an Umbril can just stick its arm out of the water, can it still breathe?  What about a single tendril (finger)?

[Superfluous Crow]

Well, then this might be the "ultimate system" for you :)
Don't you think there'll be a lack of advancement options if you can only really upgrade your skill? You could have certain "milestones" appear when your level in certain skills or abilities reaches certain levels.
if you can grab his throat you might as well perforate his lung with a knife i guess ^^ But true, if it comes to stopping him from throwing some nasty spell at your face strangling might be better than, for example, keeping him from gesturing with his hand.

[Polycarp]

Don't you think there'll be a lack of advancement options if you can only really upgrade your skill? You could have certain "milestones" appear when your level in certain skills or abilities reaches certain levels.

if you can grab his throat you might as well perforate his lung with a knife i guess ^^ But true, if it comes to stopping him from throwing some nasty spell at your face strangling might be better than, for example, keeping him from gesturing with his hand.[/quote]Well, channeling right now requires only breathing - there are no gestures, no words, and no material components.  If the form that you're using has no obvious effect (most don't), there's no way for people to know that you're channeling unless they themselves are skilled channelers (in which case they may sense the Breath being used) or if they're close enough to you to hear that you're breathing rather strangely.  The only outward evidence of a powerful form might just be a deep, slow exhale.  Again, Umbril are weird here, as you can't really tell when they are breathing - Umbril channelers can be super-secret about it (but this skin breathing thing does have a downside - they can't just stop breathing like we can, so they automatically breathe in poison gas and other such nasty airborne things that you or I could just hold our breaths and run through).

This may sound powerful, but magic is pretty low-power in CJ.  There are virtually no flashy or direct-damage forms (and certainly no "save-or-die" kinds of forms).  Most create subtle effects or confer bonuses that, while useful, aren't overwhelming.

On a note unrelated to this discussion, but relevant to this thread, I hope to post the beginnings of a combat system soon.

[Superfluous Crow]

Looking forward to the combat system! Usually one of the more complex parts of system design; of course depending on what way you take it.