[Föld] "moral inhibitions" system?
Thriff:
Cedric,
Awesome response! Very excited to get into these points…
Yes. Un-inhibiting is an English word.
I give PCs a fixed amount of XP before each session. I should have mentioned that earlier, but it just seemed so obvious to me because that’s how my system works. I’ve forgotten that most other systems don’t do that. So yea, I’d suggest giving them some quantity of XP to spend during the session. I find this way encourages players to explore the world and story as opposed to doing things for the sake of XP.
What do you mean “Ideally these virtual XP could come back with good roleplay”?
Possible interpretations.
1.) Good players will get extra XP in a session?
2.) Good role-play gives players extra XP in between sessions?
You have a very good point about the GM/player relationship when discussing transferring the characters from one “demonic” generation to another. For that reason (and your stated purpose of story first) I’d agree that XP shouldn’t be spent on gifts/knowledge.
However, I’ll maintain that more than 1 job would help diversify characters. Think: Tim wants to be a warrior and Pierre wants to be a warrior. They both choose warrior as their job. Pretty dull, huh?
Once you’ve read Ingenero’s solution I think you’ll like that approach. You could just have all characters have 2 or 3 jobs. Or 1 job with 2 specializations… or something.
Magic
I nearly shed a tear of joy when I read your magic “schools”. They are so elegant and effective! And so very very unique. You are a paradigm smasher, now aren’t you?
The difference between Forced and Induced is clever, and splitting the Body and Mind also makes sense (especially due to your mythology).
I really like that you melded excess heat and absence heat into Forced Szerv, it’s always bothered me (from a science perspective) that games segregate fire/cold despite them being two extremes of the same principle.
Induced Szerv also makes sense (and I like that it aligns with the idea of induction as opposed to force).
Forced Szerv: Heat Manipulation, Induced Szerv: Puppetry, Forced Elo: Mind-Writing, Induced Elo: Mind-Reading
That’s how I summed your four “schools”. I like that they are inclusive (they cover most magical spells I could think of) and elegant in that the system is self-consistent and easy to use.
I also use HP as “mana”. Biased, but I like your decision here :P.
Magic Resolution
I think this resolution mechanic is brilliant! It’s simple: 2 dice. And all of the significant variables for what you are trying to do (i.e. use magic) are covered. (1) Can I do it? And (2) can I control it?
Why do you say your resolution system doesn’t correspond with the Inhibition trait proposed on the last post (the 0-20 scale)? [Note: As you’ve not disagreed with my prior idea on the Inhibition trait I’ll assume that’s what we’re working with].
Just change the d10 (control dice) to a d20. It’ll do the same thing as a d10, just provide more room for earning CCC through gameplay. The characters will still only have a better chance of controlling the magic if their Inhibited Trait is low (roll high for success in this system). Every PC would begin with a control value somewhere between 15-18, and would have to become less inhibited to get a better chance of controlling the magic.
The d6 would remain unchanged. Health of 4 still makes sense so far as I can tell. What’s the difficulty scale for magic? 1-5? Well as long as it’s 1</ x >/ 5 it should work.
I really like the use of resolution die. It means the players won’t want to attempt magic when they have 1 health (fatigue) and that they’ll run consistently higher risks of harming themselves when they attempt more difficult magic.
Come to think of it, that’s similar to my system where motes (hp/mana) are expended to perform magic. My system is diceless so we don’t mesh completely there, but very similar nonetheless.
Magic/Tech. Awesome.
Immersion. Very detailed answer. I really like that the setting’s racism isn’t strong enough to limit a player’s choices at character creation “CC”. I like systems (like yours) that don’t force a player to compromise their desired aesthetic for a desired mechanic or vice versa.
Ex: I want this skill “underwater breathing”, but only the Amphibious race has it. But I want to be a cool Jungle Cat race because I like the look/mythology of them. I’m stuck in an unwinnable situation before the game even begins!
For your game the player can choose a race that has a deep mythology for their aesthetic without being limited mechanically. So, good job on that design choice!
Inhibition
Tracking failures certainly seems like it would be a lot of work. I agree that it would be subjective to determine and all around too much work.
I’m itching to keep revising this Inhibition system because of all this new information but I know I should wait for your input. It’s your game and your ideas and your goals. You tell me what you need once you’ve weighed the options.
Now that I know body/soul is important to your mythology I would lean heavily towards using those two traits in the Inhibition system. Somewhere somehow. We can figure that out later when you let me know where you’re at.
I really respect your design choices and would feel honoured to play this game. Looking forward to seeing where you take it!
Summary
Please clarify that quote.
(More than 1 job :P) but XP can't be spend on jobs so XP at death is a non-issue.
How does mundane resolution occur? You’ve explained the magic resolution mechanic, but how about picking locks, swimming, swrord-fighting, singing, lying…? The difference between Tasks (PC vs. environment) and Conflict (PC vs. PC/NPC)?
Great Magic schools/resolution.
What do you think of the CCC proposition?
T
Cedric:
Mmm... what does 'Thriff' stand for? I should rename you 'Thrill', because that's what happens when I read your posts ;-)
Ingenero:
I read Ingenero, great piece of work and lots of good ideas in there. Where I shall write my feeling on the proper thread, a few words pertaining to what I'd like to achieve with Föld.
- I love the Body and Soul stats, also because one shall distribute a fixed amount of points between the two.
- The Plays and Signature Plays look really nice, I also liked the idea to attach Plays to McGuffins. There might be some space for reuse and for making shallow characters a bit more special (well not too much :p)
- I don't buy the whole concept of letting the PC making suggestions to the GM (e.g. 'the treasure was a hostage and not gold') namely because non-creative PC will be lost.
- I like the split between Story and Challenge phase, but would do it differently. In my system so far, 'challenge' starts as soon as anyone rolls a die. The guy also gains initiative. Suffice to have the GM playing with a die when the story gets hot for putting the PCs on nerve and maybe trigger a conflict in a preventive way...
What I don't like in Ingenero is that dice are rolled when a Goal is near - and when that's a great mechanism for distributing rewards, it forces the GM to deal with 4 to 6 goals for each PC at any time (that's what I understood, I should read again this part probably)
- The Story Seeds table is a Must Have (too bad I don't understand some of them - "Waiting for the other shoe to drop"? - but that's off-topic)
Bottom-line: great inspiration, I still need to let it sink but I'll probably adopt some of the mechanics.
The CCC:
Ok, now I got it. So, time for remarks and questions !
- The idea is that Chores and Consequences 'count' as much as Conditions. In essence, this potentially permits a character to be an accomplished magic user, without suffering any mental disorder. What works well here is that the Élus are basically stuck into this Chores stuff, making it better aligned with the initial settings of the world. Conditions 'should' primarily be for the guys playing with 'demonic' magic, so this can work.
- Now, about Chores and Consequences, can we justify that these come into play only if a roll is missed and an XP is spent? For Chores, I can imagine this to work in the mid-term ('my spell failed, next time I should draw a pentacle before casting') but in an immediate reaction, I don't see. Unless this new chore is a Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but that's another Condition? Last, why should Consequences only happen if the roll success is forced? Should not these be systematic?
To sum it up, I'd see Consequences as happening in a systematic way; Conditions remaining the same; Chores should add a bonus on the Inhibition roll for a specific action (chore can also be placebo effect or self-suggestion through superstition rituals)
Do you agree with this? Because if yes, then we're back to square one (with a unique Inhibition trait on a D20 scale ;))
Actually, what do you think is broken with the Courage (pain) / Esteem (ego) / Integrity (social) idea? I'm wondering whether when becomming less inhibited, this works for everything or only on one domain - is a guy which gains self-confidence with girls also becomes less afraid of swearing at his boss? I'm still sticking to this idea of 3 scales and only Conditions, can you help persuade me that it's a crappy idea or help identify how to fine-tune it?
Now for some off-topic stuff which helps with context and which helps me build the rest of the system:
XP coming back to PC: I've thought about this. I thought about giving XP to PC who is playing a Condition going against his own interest, for example.
But maybe I've found something better:
- XP is represented with dice
- A pool of dice is made available to the Players. At session start, the pool is filled-in with 3 dice per Player
- Any Player can use one of these dice for e.g. forcing a dice roll (any roll, not just Inhibition ones - might not force a success but can simply add a bonus or allow for a reroll, to be defined)
- The GM can also use a die for forcing a success or for activating a PC Condition. When doing so, he *adds* the die to the pool
- The pool dice can also be used when a PC dies: the GM assigns him a new PC; the Player can spend one die for changing something - for example, the race of the newly assigned Character.
- At session end, the pool (what remains of it) is split among the Players, any way they want.
Here, no reward for good roleplay (unfortunately), but a way for the GM to activate Conditions any time he likes - the Player will not be really cheated since an XP will come back in the pool. Having a pool has one advantage (Players might be reluctant before burning the XP of the *group*) and one disadvantage (one Player can effectively use all XP selfishly). Not sure what is best.
Mundane resolution: here I tried to come-up with something simple, well let's see. Maybe Ingenero could come to the rescue with this system?
- The resolution die is a D6, but a bit special. I call it the +-D6. It does not go from 1 to 6 but like this: -2, -1, 0, 0, +1, +2. So you get a 0 on average, and a 67% chance to roll at least 0.
- An action in the scope of the PC's job yields a +2 bonus
- ND is the difficulty level as set by the GM
- Simple action succeeds if (current) HP + job bonus + +-D6 > ND
So bad health leads to poor results, hence initiative is important in battle...
- Opposed action is done the same way, only both protagonists roll, highest wins.
- For battles, it goes like this, imagine A attacks B. Possible scenarios:
- A attacks, B defends actively. Both roll. A hits if he beats B's score.
- A attacks, B defends passively. A rolls, must beat B's passive ND.
- A attacks, B attacks. Both roll against the other's passive ND. May lead to damage to both sides.
- There is also a token system to limit the number of actions per round and to give a disadvantage to an outnumbered side, but maybe this starts again to make things complex...
- In all cases, the score difference (roll minus ND or roll minus roll) is supposed to have some impact, but here again it's a bit heavy and relies on tables (I hate tables).
- Last, the Player can actually choose his die. The standard one is the +-D6, but if he decides to play it risky, he can use the +-D8 (-3, -2, -1, 0, 0, +1, +2, +3) which can yield a +3 (but which has a 62% chance only to roll at least 0, and which can yield a -3) and if he decides to play it safe, he can use the +-D4 (-1, 0, 0, 1). Playing safe means going slowly and playing risky means going fast, but the exact gameplay effects are not defined yet.
Actually, I'm not sure whether I need these +-D8 and +-D4 at all. I threw them in because I wanted to give some liberty to the players, especially since I did not think about 'signature plays' (I had heavy 'specializations') and thought that yes, having a bunch of 4 HP 'fighter' PC as a party would be dull...
I came-up with the +-D6 because I don't like it when pure randomness is at work. In D&D, you roll D20 + skill, where usually your skill is around 5 points. That leads to score between 6 and 25, the difference is just huge ! Here, a competent guy at full health will almost always win against a non-competent guy or against a hurt guy. Unless he uses the +-D8 and gets lucky, that is. But this is a calculated risk here, not a game mechanic...
Oh and I found a solution to my demon-character connection issue: (actually I thought about it when coming-up with the idea, then forgot) Both demon and character are linked by a mental link, as the demon can read the character's mind (and see via his eyes). But since this is a link, it goes both ways. As the character becomes stronger in magic, he begins to receive information from the demon's mind as well. Maybe he will see through the demon's eyes for a moment or capture some memories. Case for extra nightmares I guess :)
I also thought that XP could be spent for reading in the demon's mind, searching for info...
Summary:
- XP pool system
- I should give a go at signature plays and maybe keep one job
- +-D6 system for mundane resolution
- Still not sure about the Inhibition system, one unique scale or 3 scales?
- Chores as roll bonus instead of consequence of forced roll result?
stefoid:
Cedric, thanks for the Ingenero-related feedback, I have responded in my own thread.
Thriff:
Cedric,
Apologies for delayed response. I’ve been focusing on getting my own game online.
[Which it now is btw: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=32007.0]
I’m really glad to know what I know about your system—it truly would be very fun to play!
"Waiting for the other shoe to drop" means "nervously expecting something bad to happen".
You mentioned players can pay XP to allow them to see through their demon’s eyes. This is a useful feature that will help explore the setting while also giving the GM a tool to support/guide/direct the PCs. It’s basically a way to give extra information to the PCs. Cool.
Comments
An observation: you seem to emphasize a GM-driven game over an emergent/creative free-for-all. That's fine, this style carries many advantages.
One advantage of this GM-centric style is that the GM can ensure the characters are receiving enough Conditions to keep them as crazy as you (the designer) want characters to be. This can be made into a written rule if desired (such as a ratio where half of the CCC must be Conditions).
Chores and Consequences don't have to be immediate. You can have them take effect later in a scene or session. Perhaps even the next session... or many sessions later. You've said this game is non-finite (on-going campaign), so Chores and Consequences don’t have to take effect immediately.
Haha. The characters will be "waiting for the other shoe to drop" ;)
I don't know what this means "Last, why should Consequences only happen if the roll success is forced? Should not these be systematic?". I think you were asking “why can Consequences only happen when someone forces a success?” Answer: you could introduce Consequences at any time... but it'd be best (considering they are, effectively, punishments) to not use them too often.
You wouldn't need to give a bonus on Inhibition rolls for Chores. Simply by gaining the Chore the PC's Inhibition value has dropped, which directly increases their magic power.
Note
From here on I’ll be framing this post as “Knowing what I know about your intentions for your game, these are the changes I would make in your position”. This way I don’t have to preface everything with “Well I think you should…”.
I will still try to design a new (ish) system that fits with your stated objectives. You may like it (if so, take it) or you may not. Either way I’ll be glad to have created a new system (always fun for me).
XP as dice pool
Your XP as dice pool idea sounds similar to a game called "The Pool" by James V. West. Not sure if that's where this idea was sparked. (I also read that game early in my design phase).
Warning bells go off when you suggest a resource shared by all people at the table. It'd likely cause strife. Not in the obvious way of one person using it all the time. But such that all players will want to use it (but won't) but they’ll then resent whoever uses it. Perhaps I’m being cynical… but I don’t think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks
I really don’t think there’d be anything left in this pool by the end of the session.
This is a cool idea that could be made workable. But I think the current mundane and magic systems are excellent as is. No need to complicate the math with more potential modifiers being thrown it. Simply put: different die sizes produces the same result as a shared dice pool but it is far easier for the designer and players.
Mundane Resolution
Is super awesome. It’s simple (again) and produces a very manageable spread. I very very much like the different die sizes.
I like the 66% success ratio of your +-D6. Your +-D6 sounds similar to Fudge dice which are -, -, +, +.
I like that you’ve included health as one of the determinants for mundane resolution.
Conflict: is there a benefit for exceeding the opponent’s score? You mention tables but I don’t know what’s in them so it’s difficult to tell. Could you let me know what these tables say? And why you chose them in the first place?
I really like that damage can only be inflicted upon oneself. Is there any other way for PCs to take damage? Any way for them to deal damage? (Forced Fluxes I would imagine…)
Definitely use different die sizes. From designer’s Point-of-view “POV” this allows you to force characters to take big risks to achieve specific goals. From a player’s POV this allows me to choose how much I am willing to risk. Not the GM. Not my Class. Nothing else. Me. I like that kind of control over my character. This will help keep players focused and immersed.
I would definitely use D4, D6, D8, and D10. Yes, introduce the D10 as a as -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 0, 1, 2 3, 4. With a job giving a +2 this provides an ultimate spread of -3 through 10. All tasks can be scaled along a 10-point continuum. So to perform a 10-point difficulty the player will have to use a D10 (and assume all of its risks). Any time a character reaches 0 they are unable to influence the fiction for a time (probably a scene).
It bears repeating: your not-die-at-zero decision is great! Really focuses the game on narrative control (in a survival-ish world) over a “can I kill it?” perspective.
I didn’t do all the numbers but under a worst case scenario (1 health and no job) A character is taking the risk of being knocked unconscious if they use anything other than a D4. Under these situations they can at best get 2 points.
Best case scenario (4 health and a job) means a character can use a D4, D6, or D8 without any risk of being knocked out. And at best they can get 10 points.
With 4 different dice, 4 different starting healths, and 2 different job (job or no job) statuses the game will have 32 different probability spreads. But they’ll all be within a small range and well within the players control as calculated risks. Variety and control, great! Also, these different spreads don’t need to be listed anywhere in the game. So no tables! Even better :)
Jobs
The +2 from a job will make a big difference. So deciding on how to define a job will be very important. A Job (for +1) and Specialization (for an additional +1) would work… but I’d prefer simply granting players more than one job and each job gives +2. How many? Not sure, that’ll require playtesting.
Instead of “job” I’d use Identities from my game, ASH. I have 4 categories of resource (special item: map, gun, telescope), relationship (lover, pet, patron, slave), experience (war veteran, prize-winning author, retired priest), and style (good memory, strong, classy).
Identities are much broader in scope than jobs could ever be. Jobs will likely end up being archer or fighter. Perhaps farmer, blacksmith, prince, sailor… may come up.
But again, not enough variety. Only one Identity can be used per conflict and it will always give +2. Variety and Simplicity.
Perhaps force characters to choose 3 Identities but they must all be from different categories. This will encourage a structured game (as you seem to like, which is fine) but also give players opportunities for customization. [I wouldn’t bother with this requirement, just let them choose 3 from any categories].
Identities don’t always have to be positive either. They could be “negative” and still benefit the character through a Compulsion system. Refer to ASH or the game Fate. I can describe this more later if you’d like. It could be used as a way to regain XP during the session.
Initial ideas on Inhibition Trait
I would rather have 2 stats instead of 1 for the Inhibition mechanic. Especially since Body/Mind are so important to your mythology. I think these two are much easier to track than CIE would be. In the latter system you have to decide which type of danger is most imminent (or important… or likely…?).
Having 2 stats makes the game much more customizable as players can choose to have a character less inhibited by physical or emotional issues. As opposed to one universal term.
I read your comment in Ingenero’s thread. I really like the suspense that is created by granting initiative to whoever rolls first. Heightens tactics, psychology between players, and focus of the group.
So. The System.
New: Character Creation
1.) Choose race.
2.) Characters choose (say) 3 Identities at creation. A short phrase will suffice for each.
3.) Characters have two Inhibitions of Body and Mind. Sometimes they want to do/should do something, but can’t because of an inhibition they’ve been raised with. The less inhibited the better—because the character has more options to choose from.
The player chooses whether their character is less inhibited by Body or Mind. Each exists on a 10-point scale. Characters either begin as 9/8 or 8/9 for Body/Mind.
4.) The player takes on 3 Conditions, 1 for each point of Inhibition lost. Each Condition must be specific to Body or Mind.
5.) Backstory.
Add some backstory/aesthetic.
Wow, that is blisteringly fast to do. This could be done in less than 20 minutes. Really impressive (the mechanics you have).
New: Inhibition Resolution
Player wants to do something. GM decides if the character would be inhibited (based on backstory, race, current Conditions…). If no, then the character proceeds with intended action.
If yes, then the character must roll a d10. The GM/player selects the appropriate Inhibition stat of Body or Mind. Choose and roll Body if failing the action would (primarily) result in negative physical effects. Choose and roll Mind if failing the action would (primarily) result in negative non-physical effects. Simple.
Note: This is remarkably similar to CIE, just simplifies it down to 2 things: Body and Mind—akin to your mythology.
Ex:
If the stat is 6 then the player must roll above 6 to succeed. If they roll less than 7 they fail and the (GM I think you’d say) narrates the result. The character can spend 1 XP (use physical tokens to aid visualizing how many are left) to force a success.
Forcing a success means that the character is performing Magic. All characters must always have at least 3 Inhibitions, explaining how it possible for them to perform magic. Forcing a success is the result of a character distorting their own Szerv or Elo flux—changing their fundamental composition for a moment.
The Distortion can either be a permanent change to their Szerv or Elo flux (Condition), slow decay of their Szerv or Elo flux (Chore) or a temporary distortion of the Szerv or Elo flux (Consequence).
A Condition would be the result of one’s Cristal being fundamentally altered. This extremely unnatural event would result in a physical or non-physical (as determined by the relevant stat) Condition. [this justifies physical Conditions such as weakness, chronic illness…].
A Chore would be a character’s attempt at re-stabilizing their flux by performing a chore or consuming a certain substance at frequent intervals. Their flux is permanently decaying but the Chore is like a “medicine” that brings them back to normal.
A Consequence leaves no permanent effect on the character’s Cristal—but it will always be sensed by another magic-user. That other magic user will seek out the character and ultimately complicate the character’s life. (being hunted to be murdered, enslaved… or even engaged to a powerful—and insane—witch).
As a designer and player I think I find Consequences to be the most fun.
Task and Conflict Resolution
Task: Character wants to do something. GM decides if it needs a roll. If no, then it happens. If yes, then the character chooses a D4, D6, D8, or D10. They then add their current health and any one applicable Identity to the result. Same as you stated before.
Conflict: Same as Task except two players roll dice. Whoever is higher wins. The difference is scores does… something. Not sure yet, need to know what you put in your tables.
Magic Resolution
No different from last post except you add two D10s to get the value, as opposed to 1 D20.
Character Sheet
Do you have a character sheet yet? I was just wondering what traits would need to go there. Here is what I’ve thought of so far.
Space for name, physical description, unused XP of current session, 3 Identities and their descriptions, Body/Mind stats, space for purchased Relationship Identities (with XP), and potentially 20 CCC.
Summary
Long (6 pages!). Again. Oh well. I think you’ve got an excellent game here. The system and setting are both so strong yet compatible!
No XP as dice pool.
What are in your Conflict tables?
More than 1 Job, (3?) Identities. No Specializations.
Add D10 to Resolution.
Fast CC (congratulations)
Use 2 Inhibition traits of Body/Mind on D10. Used for physical danger and non-physical danger respectively. (Effectively Courage, Integrity, Self-Esteem condensed into 2).
Tied in CCC to the setting.
Hope this helps,
T
Cedric:
Heh,
Seems you begin to understand how I'm working. You have a lot of good points here, and we're definitely making progress !
ASH: I read through your posts. Not yet read ASH itself but will definitely do it. I hope that our discussions so far had some positive feedback for your system as well !
XP as dice pool: ok, you suggest to drop these altogether. The initial reason I wanted this (or individual pools) was for allowing XP dice to come back to the players. But maybe we don't need this at all? I remember I liked it during my Legends of the Seven Sea sessions when I was getting a 'heroic die' when doing some dramatic action, I wonder whether something equivalent could be put into Föld. But it's maybe a bad idea, the 'virtual' starting XP are probably sufficient and the mood is not really on heroism here. So the following question is: can the GM force a Condition to be played? Or, what if the players don't play their Conditions?
Mundane resolution: glad that you like it.
- About the benefit of exceeding the required score: two options. One, no benefit. The issue is that failure is really hard (if you fail by one point, then you're screwed) also meaning that, since each point is so important, the difficulty assignment must be perfect. Two, some benefit. This is more forgiving to the player I assume since a failure by 1 point will be less horrible than a failure by 3 points.
What I defined so far (heavyweight incoming) was based on deltas, the deltas being attached to skills and objects (a bit like signature plays). A simple example: Alice knows how to use a dagger. She specialized in this skill and learned the specialization 'dance of blades'. This specialization is defined as follows: "Delta: 3 - Damage +1". During a battle it would materialize like this: if Alice lands a successful hit with a dagger, she will inflict 1 point of damage (base weapon damage). If she wins by 3 points or more, she will inflict 2 points of damage instead of one. If she wins by 6 points or more, she will inflict 3 points of damage (by stacking the delta effects).
And of course, the delta effects can be anything you can think of, including providing inflicting a penalty for the next roll of the target instead of extra damage, etc. And typically defensive delta effects would provide an advantage to the defender (like "snake escape: Delta: 2 - Bonus +1 on next combat roll").
Now what I dislike is that creating delta effects takes time and will be lost when the character dies... (the other shortcoming is that these effects will be awful to balance in terms of gameplay...) So I don't know what to think here. Ironically my system was originally called 'Delta system' because of this, and now this is the very part I dropped !
- About the different dice: ok for adding the +-D10, you convinced me ! I was afraid that people would go for the highest die in any case, but actually no. More control, less randomness, yet some possibility to 'go beyond' yourself by taking extra risks. Everything I like ;)
Jobs: I'm interested in the Identity concept, especially about the Compulsion part. I read the corresponding part in ASH, but I did not understand it fully. I find really interesting the idea of 'resisting' or 'accepting' the Compulsion, also because the very same approach could be used for the Conditions. But I understood that where the positive part could be triggered by the player himself, the negative part is being suggested by the other players? Or is it just suggesting, since the concerned player can always choose to resist or accept?
Last, how shall this combine with +2 bonus? Let's say that I have the 'Mon Pere Pistol' (let's reuse the french stuff ;)). So each time I roll a die where I use this pistol, I'll have a +2 bonus right? But here, where is the Compulsion? Is it that I can't resist the urge to use the pistol? And that when the GM tells: 'you wanna shoot', I can shoot and earn 2 XP or refuse by burning 1?
Inhibition traits: ok for 2 traits, one for body and one for mind. I admit I always try to put in there multiples of 3, be it only because 3 is the arc number of Föld but I like simplicity better ! So let's give it a try.
Character Creation: just a few remarks here. 1- Each race should have a little something special. I hesitate between giving a short list of reserved identities to each race, or to give an extra bonus if you pick an identity aligned with the race. The former looks biased and for the latter I'm not sure what the bonus should be. An extra +1 to the rolls looks quite powerful, a free re-roll per session arbitrary... (plus I already thought about offering a re-roll for 1 XP)
2- Wondering if the character should start with 10 and 9 as Inhibitions and just a minor phobia as Condition (which will be the link with "their" demon) ? 3- about the backstory, provided the GM does his job and creates the backstory for each NPC (a habit I have) even the character transition upon dying will be kept minimal. Yeap, I like that too. Congratz to you as well, we did this together !
New: Inhibition Resolution: well you convinced me. Because you tied the CCC with the mechanics of Föld. That's why I wrote that you begin to know me, I'm particularly receptive to explaining the rules in-universe and vice-versa...
I really like the part that forcing the success is basically performing a magical feat. That's really really neat ! It can also say that *any* person suffering from Conditions or bad karma has basically inherited from this because of his flux emissions. You do something you think should backfire. It backfires. Congratz, you actually created the situation yourself !
Permanent change of flux for Condition just works perfectly. Internal reorganization.
Chore means that you have found a way to improve control, but by doing so, you lock yourself in your own perspective. What I really like here is the idea of locking oneself, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve since this is a major paradigm of the settings. Humans fail to do magic because they don't think they can. There is a french saying which translates word-by-word as: 'the worst deaf is the one who refuses to listen', e.g. self-conviction is really hard to challenge from the outside ! So, thanks a zillion for that.
And Consequence are achieved by your unconscious emissions. You are so convinced that you'll get a karma backfire someday that it actually will materialize. Again, really nice.
So, it's now just a matter of balancing these and preventing a character goes away with Consequences only (even if yes, they are nice by what they add to the story). Shall this be decided upon die roll? Or upon choice of the player? Or on the context? Too many Conditions and the character becomes unplayable. Still they can generate XP by following your Compulsion idea. Chores are neutral for the character, we might transform these into superstitions and play them as compulsions as well. Too many chores and the character will be blocked in his magic skills because it will be too difficult to hold to these all. Consequences leave the character 'intact' and generates story. No real disadvantage since story is what the game is about ;)
Magic resolution: you wrote "No different from last post except you add two D10s to get the value, as opposed to 1 D20." I don't understand this sentence. Do you mean that the character must pass two inhibition tests? And this aside, if D4 D6 D8 and D10 are used for mundane resolution, maybe we should consider using D12 for Inhibition (and Control) rolls; so that they remain different, not for the sake of being different, but for enabling magic rolls where two dice are rolled simultaneously? Always easier than having two identical dice of different colors.
Character sheet: I have an old one, but definitely (and heavily !) outdated. For reference, it can be seen here: https://sites.google.com/site/foldjdr/feuille-de-personnage
Summary:
- We're getting there, I owe you a lot !
- Playing Conditions as ASH Compulsions?
- Do we need success margins, can Delta effects be made simple?
- Identities instead of jobs: details on Compulsion please?
- Races Specials?
- Distribution of C vs C vs C?
Thanks again for all your inputs,
Cédric
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