The_Squid
2010-05-19, 12:31 AM
Tower to Heaven is an idea that mostly stemmed from a few basic gripes I have with D&D, and D20 in general. Don't get me wrong, D20 is a great system, but some things just grate on me. They are as follows:
1. Characters go from 1 HP to 0 and go from perfectly functional to on the ground bleeding to death.
2. Getting the drop on an enemy is mostly unimportant; surprise rounds aren't good for much and it mostly lacks rules that allow a person to dispatch and enemy instantly unless they are trained for just that.
3. Players can let their dice do the talking; Charisma-based skill checks can often override actual role-playing, especially among the people I play with.
With these in mind, Tower to Heaven is an attempt at creating a fast, fatal (fatal, not FATAL mind you) combat system and associated setting that also presents a unique game setting that varies from the usual high fantasy that so many RPGs use.
The rules for Tower to Heaven are very much in the earliest drafting stages; what I have here is essentially nothing more than my main points and a few basic ideas. The setting, however, is fairly well developed.
The game takes place inside a massive structure known as the Spire. It is a huge metallic building piercing the sky, filled with the various levels of human society and technology. Outside is a perpetual twilight world with a poisonous, thick atmosphere; the very though of venturing out of the Spire fills even the most hardened criminal with dread. And hardened criminals are numerous in the Spire; though it was originally created as a home for humanity on a new world, contact with the mother planet was lost decades ago. Now the Spire is filled with criminals and vagabonds who the Spire police, the Praetoriate, can only struggle to keep out of the affluent (comparatively) Upper Spire.
Five races will be playable in Tower to Heaven. They are as follows:
Humans
Many ordinary enough people make their homes in the Spire, simply because they have nowhere else to go. Many take up honest, or somewhat honest, jobs to make a living; many turn to crime and violence, especially in the Lower Spire. The point when a human stops being a human and becomes one of the myriad other denizens of the Spire, though, is up for debate.
-Well rounded race with no real bonuses.
-Fit in anywhere in the Spire.
Angels
Humans modified with extensive genetic and cybernetic enhancements to create “perfect” beings, angels are essentially immune to disease and aging and physically tough, fast, and strong. Descending from wealthy settlers who could afford expensive modifications, angels are the elite of the Spire. The primary disadvantage of angels is the resentment that many of the inhabitants of the Spire feel towards them; they are jealous of the angels’ artificial perfection and, in lawless zones of the Spire, actively attack and harm angels. Angel characters are usually young (comparatively) adventure-seeking youths journeying out from the safety of their homes in the Upper Spire to experience the rest of the Spire.
-Bonus to Agility and Perception.
-Not accepted by many, even attacked on site in some extreme cases
-I need another penalty for Angels to help balance them out; any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Scrapheads
Srapheads are humans of the Middle and Lower Spire who seek to improve their bodies through augmentation with machines. For many scrapheads, this has taken on an almost religious meaning, with elaborate rituals for discarding biological organs and replacing them with mechanized replacements. What exactly a given scraphead’s augmentations do is entirely up to that individual; it can range from built-in tools and mind augmentations to armor plating, weapon compartments and stimulant injectors. Scrapheads commonly organize in groups known as “engines,” with each staking its claim on an area of the Spire and scavenging that area of spare parts, resources and sometimes even new recruits. Many scrapheads with computer-enhanced minds are at home in the net, easily interfacing with machines and devices and manipulating them to their will.
-Bonus to Endurance
-Choice of various augmentations: computer mind (bonus to Intellect), improved or armored limbs, inbuilt tools and weapons, augmented legs, etc.
Demons
Descend too low into the depths of the Lower Spire and eventually one will enter the region known as the Deep Green; here, the massive power generators that feed vital energy into the rest of the Spire also release a strange form of radiation known as mutewave that causes little cellular damage, instead promoting a rapid and drastic modification of chromosomes. Prolonged exposure to mutewaves, especially in unborn children, causes shocking mutations. Those afflicted are referred to as demons, counterparts of the noble angels. Demons display a staggering range of mutations, many simply causing death at a young age. However, the strongest, smartest and most brutal of the demons, blessed with the most advantageous mutations, survive to become important figures in the crime rings, some even becoming somewhat respectable and living in the Lower and even Middle Spire.
-Bonus to Endurance
-Choice of various mutations with larger effects than the scraphead's augments but with associated penalties and side effects.
Sprites
Sentient AI programs designed originally by the first settlers to aid in organizational and logistical tasks are referred to as sprites. Sprites primarily operate in the net, but all are present in a physical capacity in some way or another; the more wealthy, powerful and influential reside in hidden, guarded memory cores. This, however, requires large amounts of resources to maintain; purchasing the power necessary to run a mainframe computer off the Deep Green generators and their owners can be expensive and even dangerous. Roving sprites, the less wealthy of these electronic organisms, circumvent this through use a bizarre method of parasitic transplantation to control organic bodies, inhabiting the corpses of dead inhabitants of the Spire and taking over their destroyed nervous systems. The exact processes of this transplantation are unknown to many, but bodies used are almost always in decent condition, and are preserved and freshened to prevent a noxious odor and further decay. At a distance, it is impossible to tell a sprite from another member of its host species, but on closer examination their jerky movements, pale skin and cold, shrunken skin becomes obvious.
-Bonus to Intellect and Endurance.
-Penalty to Agility and Power.
-Increased resistance to bleeding and nearly immune to pain.
So far, I have five classes. Suggestions for new classes are more than welcome. The ones I have now are:
Warrior
Whether trained in the vicious maelstrom of fighting that constantly wracks the Lower Spire and the Deep Green or the academies of the Praetoriate, individuals trained in the arts of combat are everywhere in the Spire. Though pistols, knives and other small, concealable weapons are the most common, many employ rifles, swords, lasers and even heavier weapons and equipment. Warriors are adept at dealing high amounts of damage with high accuracy using any weapons available.
Balanced combat.
-Pistols, carbines, rifles, melee, explosives, heavy weapons, unarmed.
Vanguard
Brutal specialists in close-quarters fighting, vanguards commonly employ pistols, shotguns and a wide variety of melee weapons, including their own bodies. This specialization in fast-paced, lethal combat makes vanguards capable of both tying up longer-ranged fighters in melee brawls and also gives them a high capacity for ignoring pain and injury.
Close-range combat.
Pistols, carbines, melee, explosives, unarmed.
Bonuses to pain, bleeding and injury resistance.
Shadow
Some fighters specialize in fast, lethal strikes rather than all-out combat, preferring stealth and the element of surprise to superior firepower or durability. These deadly agents are often employed as spies, assassins and saboteurs, usually using pistols and knives but also using explosives of all types to destroy machines and structures.
Stealth combat, some technical skills.
Pistols, melee, explosives.
Technician
Rather than training in weapons and the arts of combat, technicians train in operating, repairing, and disabling machinery and electronics. They work with all sorts of tools and devices as well as vehicles and other sorts of heavy machinery. Another useful talent of technicians is their capacity for handling larger weapons.
Technical skills, support combat.
Pistols, carbines, melee, explosives, heavy weapons.
Brainwave
Brainwaves are trained in the use of specialized implants which allow their personality to detach from their physical body and exist as a net presence. Sprites excel in this capacity, as their personality is already a separate entity from their physical body. Brainwaves can use this net-self to enter electronic devices, including the electro-chemical device inside every human: the brain, their namesake. Though most are incapable of anything other than basic manipulation of urges and emotions, some can compel poor souls to obey their every whim.
Electronics and manipulation skills.
Pistols, melee.
Keeping with my established number here, there are five statistics that define a character's basic traits:
Endurance
Endurance (En) represents an individual’s capacity to endure pain, bleeding, and the elements. Characters with high Endurance are capable of taking heavy wounds before collapsing, remaining active for long periods of time without rest, food or water and surviving exposure to hazardous chemicals such as poisons or radiation.
Power
Power (Po) represents an individual’s pure physical strength. It affects how much a character can lift, throw and carry, as well as their damage with melee weapons and unarmed attacks.
Agility
Agility (Ag) represents an individual’s quickness, dexterity and mobility. It affects a characters movement speed as well as their reflexes and dodging abilities. It is used to attack with melee weapons and pistols.
Perception
Perception (Pe) represents an individual’s senses and intuition, including all the five major senses. It is used to detect what is going on near a character and on attack roles with carbines, rifles and heavy weapons.
Intellect
Intellect (In) is an individual’s capacity for analytical thinking and skills requiring concentration and memorization. It is used for technical and electronic skills as well as defending against intrusion by net-personas.
Combat is by far the roughest aspect of the system so far. Essentially all I have are basic ideas. They are as follows:
There will be no HP value. Injury is instead represented as wounds on various parts of the body, with effects varying on the location and severity of the wound. These will include stat penalties (to be decided when I determine what stat scores will be like) and bleeding, pain and dazing effects.
Bleeding will slowly drain a character, resulting in eventual death. Bleeding is still a very WIP concept so far and the only idea I have so far is that various levels of bleeding subtract a certain amount of Blood Points from a stockpile whose size depends on a character's Endurance.
Pain will force a character to pass Endurance-based saves or lose actions during their turn. Dazing is essentially the same but caused by head wounds and proximity to explosions and the like.
The extremely basic combat mechanics I have mapped out only apply to hitting a target; I have yet to determine how determining the severity of an injury will work. What I have so far is this:
Attacking
To make an attack, a character rolls a d20, then adds ½ (rounding down) of the related stat value to the attack. Most attacks use either Agility or Perception, though on some occasions Intellect or Power may be used. The 1/2 value I'm using now is something of a placeholder; depending on the range that stats fall into, it is subject to change. But I don't want super high modifiers on everyone's rolls, as often happens in D&D; it should be more up to chance.
Dodging
A character being targeted by an attack can attempt to avoid the attack, providing they have the ability and space to move one meter in any direction. A Dodge roll is equal to d20 + ½ character’s Agility score (rounding down). If this result is higher than the attacker’s Attack roll, the attack is successfully avoided. Note that some equipment can reduce a character’s Dodge roll.
Melee Attacks
A melee attack is different from a normal attack in that it incorporates other values and rolls. One of these is the Counter roll. A normal Dodge roll is made, but if the defender wins, he can immediately roll an attack of his own, against his enemy’s normal Dodge roll. Only one attack can be Countered by any character between his turns, but making a Counter does not affect the character’s ability to attack on his own turn. A character may also make a Grab attack as his counter instead of a normal melee attack. Characters engaged in close combat with an opponent can also make several special action:
Attack of Opportunity
A character armed with a melee weapon may make a free attack against any adjacent enemy who attempts to fire a two-handed weapon or attempt any action that requires them to direct their attention away from their aggressor. They may only make one between any two of their turns.
Grab
A character can attempt to grab and hold an enemy. First, make a normal attack roll using Agility, opposed by an enemy’s Dodge roll. If this fails, the enemy may make a Counter attack as usual. If the attack hits, the attacker and defender make opposed Power-based rolls. If the attacker wins the roll, he can perform one of several actions:
Shove the enemy to the floor. The enemy falls prone and must get back up on their turn, risking an Attack of Opportunity by the enemy.
More Grab actions coming soon.
So there you have the basic, raw-bones outline of my idea. I would love any suggestions, complaints, compliments and ideas. If you'd like to contact me on Steam, my name is Squidus_III or Seventeenth Squid. Before suggesting anything, keep these basic concepts of the system in mind:
1. Wounds will affect characters beyond simply determining when they die.
2. Roleplaying will play a heavy part in this game. Charisma is not currently, and never will be, a stat. It will be up to the players, and maybe their guns, to persuade and barter with NPCs and each other.
3. Combat should be lethal and promote using clever strategies and setups rather than door-kicking and gun-blazing.
Thanks in advance to anyone who drops a comment or even just reads this.
1. Characters go from 1 HP to 0 and go from perfectly functional to on the ground bleeding to death.
2. Getting the drop on an enemy is mostly unimportant; surprise rounds aren't good for much and it mostly lacks rules that allow a person to dispatch and enemy instantly unless they are trained for just that.
3. Players can let their dice do the talking; Charisma-based skill checks can often override actual role-playing, especially among the people I play with.
With these in mind, Tower to Heaven is an attempt at creating a fast, fatal (fatal, not FATAL mind you) combat system and associated setting that also presents a unique game setting that varies from the usual high fantasy that so many RPGs use.
The rules for Tower to Heaven are very much in the earliest drafting stages; what I have here is essentially nothing more than my main points and a few basic ideas. The setting, however, is fairly well developed.
The game takes place inside a massive structure known as the Spire. It is a huge metallic building piercing the sky, filled with the various levels of human society and technology. Outside is a perpetual twilight world with a poisonous, thick atmosphere; the very though of venturing out of the Spire fills even the most hardened criminal with dread. And hardened criminals are numerous in the Spire; though it was originally created as a home for humanity on a new world, contact with the mother planet was lost decades ago. Now the Spire is filled with criminals and vagabonds who the Spire police, the Praetoriate, can only struggle to keep out of the affluent (comparatively) Upper Spire.
Five races will be playable in Tower to Heaven. They are as follows:
Humans
Many ordinary enough people make their homes in the Spire, simply because they have nowhere else to go. Many take up honest, or somewhat honest, jobs to make a living; many turn to crime and violence, especially in the Lower Spire. The point when a human stops being a human and becomes one of the myriad other denizens of the Spire, though, is up for debate.
-Well rounded race with no real bonuses.
-Fit in anywhere in the Spire.
Angels
Humans modified with extensive genetic and cybernetic enhancements to create “perfect” beings, angels are essentially immune to disease and aging and physically tough, fast, and strong. Descending from wealthy settlers who could afford expensive modifications, angels are the elite of the Spire. The primary disadvantage of angels is the resentment that many of the inhabitants of the Spire feel towards them; they are jealous of the angels’ artificial perfection and, in lawless zones of the Spire, actively attack and harm angels. Angel characters are usually young (comparatively) adventure-seeking youths journeying out from the safety of their homes in the Upper Spire to experience the rest of the Spire.
-Bonus to Agility and Perception.
-Not accepted by many, even attacked on site in some extreme cases
-I need another penalty for Angels to help balance them out; any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Scrapheads
Srapheads are humans of the Middle and Lower Spire who seek to improve their bodies through augmentation with machines. For many scrapheads, this has taken on an almost religious meaning, with elaborate rituals for discarding biological organs and replacing them with mechanized replacements. What exactly a given scraphead’s augmentations do is entirely up to that individual; it can range from built-in tools and mind augmentations to armor plating, weapon compartments and stimulant injectors. Scrapheads commonly organize in groups known as “engines,” with each staking its claim on an area of the Spire and scavenging that area of spare parts, resources and sometimes even new recruits. Many scrapheads with computer-enhanced minds are at home in the net, easily interfacing with machines and devices and manipulating them to their will.
-Bonus to Endurance
-Choice of various augmentations: computer mind (bonus to Intellect), improved or armored limbs, inbuilt tools and weapons, augmented legs, etc.
Demons
Descend too low into the depths of the Lower Spire and eventually one will enter the region known as the Deep Green; here, the massive power generators that feed vital energy into the rest of the Spire also release a strange form of radiation known as mutewave that causes little cellular damage, instead promoting a rapid and drastic modification of chromosomes. Prolonged exposure to mutewaves, especially in unborn children, causes shocking mutations. Those afflicted are referred to as demons, counterparts of the noble angels. Demons display a staggering range of mutations, many simply causing death at a young age. However, the strongest, smartest and most brutal of the demons, blessed with the most advantageous mutations, survive to become important figures in the crime rings, some even becoming somewhat respectable and living in the Lower and even Middle Spire.
-Bonus to Endurance
-Choice of various mutations with larger effects than the scraphead's augments but with associated penalties and side effects.
Sprites
Sentient AI programs designed originally by the first settlers to aid in organizational and logistical tasks are referred to as sprites. Sprites primarily operate in the net, but all are present in a physical capacity in some way or another; the more wealthy, powerful and influential reside in hidden, guarded memory cores. This, however, requires large amounts of resources to maintain; purchasing the power necessary to run a mainframe computer off the Deep Green generators and their owners can be expensive and even dangerous. Roving sprites, the less wealthy of these electronic organisms, circumvent this through use a bizarre method of parasitic transplantation to control organic bodies, inhabiting the corpses of dead inhabitants of the Spire and taking over their destroyed nervous systems. The exact processes of this transplantation are unknown to many, but bodies used are almost always in decent condition, and are preserved and freshened to prevent a noxious odor and further decay. At a distance, it is impossible to tell a sprite from another member of its host species, but on closer examination their jerky movements, pale skin and cold, shrunken skin becomes obvious.
-Bonus to Intellect and Endurance.
-Penalty to Agility and Power.
-Increased resistance to bleeding and nearly immune to pain.
So far, I have five classes. Suggestions for new classes are more than welcome. The ones I have now are:
Warrior
Whether trained in the vicious maelstrom of fighting that constantly wracks the Lower Spire and the Deep Green or the academies of the Praetoriate, individuals trained in the arts of combat are everywhere in the Spire. Though pistols, knives and other small, concealable weapons are the most common, many employ rifles, swords, lasers and even heavier weapons and equipment. Warriors are adept at dealing high amounts of damage with high accuracy using any weapons available.
Balanced combat.
-Pistols, carbines, rifles, melee, explosives, heavy weapons, unarmed.
Vanguard
Brutal specialists in close-quarters fighting, vanguards commonly employ pistols, shotguns and a wide variety of melee weapons, including their own bodies. This specialization in fast-paced, lethal combat makes vanguards capable of both tying up longer-ranged fighters in melee brawls and also gives them a high capacity for ignoring pain and injury.
Close-range combat.
Pistols, carbines, melee, explosives, unarmed.
Bonuses to pain, bleeding and injury resistance.
Shadow
Some fighters specialize in fast, lethal strikes rather than all-out combat, preferring stealth and the element of surprise to superior firepower or durability. These deadly agents are often employed as spies, assassins and saboteurs, usually using pistols and knives but also using explosives of all types to destroy machines and structures.
Stealth combat, some technical skills.
Pistols, melee, explosives.
Technician
Rather than training in weapons and the arts of combat, technicians train in operating, repairing, and disabling machinery and electronics. They work with all sorts of tools and devices as well as vehicles and other sorts of heavy machinery. Another useful talent of technicians is their capacity for handling larger weapons.
Technical skills, support combat.
Pistols, carbines, melee, explosives, heavy weapons.
Brainwave
Brainwaves are trained in the use of specialized implants which allow their personality to detach from their physical body and exist as a net presence. Sprites excel in this capacity, as their personality is already a separate entity from their physical body. Brainwaves can use this net-self to enter electronic devices, including the electro-chemical device inside every human: the brain, their namesake. Though most are incapable of anything other than basic manipulation of urges and emotions, some can compel poor souls to obey their every whim.
Electronics and manipulation skills.
Pistols, melee.
Keeping with my established number here, there are five statistics that define a character's basic traits:
Endurance
Endurance (En) represents an individual’s capacity to endure pain, bleeding, and the elements. Characters with high Endurance are capable of taking heavy wounds before collapsing, remaining active for long periods of time without rest, food or water and surviving exposure to hazardous chemicals such as poisons or radiation.
Power
Power (Po) represents an individual’s pure physical strength. It affects how much a character can lift, throw and carry, as well as their damage with melee weapons and unarmed attacks.
Agility
Agility (Ag) represents an individual’s quickness, dexterity and mobility. It affects a characters movement speed as well as their reflexes and dodging abilities. It is used to attack with melee weapons and pistols.
Perception
Perception (Pe) represents an individual’s senses and intuition, including all the five major senses. It is used to detect what is going on near a character and on attack roles with carbines, rifles and heavy weapons.
Intellect
Intellect (In) is an individual’s capacity for analytical thinking and skills requiring concentration and memorization. It is used for technical and electronic skills as well as defending against intrusion by net-personas.
Combat is by far the roughest aspect of the system so far. Essentially all I have are basic ideas. They are as follows:
There will be no HP value. Injury is instead represented as wounds on various parts of the body, with effects varying on the location and severity of the wound. These will include stat penalties (to be decided when I determine what stat scores will be like) and bleeding, pain and dazing effects.
Bleeding will slowly drain a character, resulting in eventual death. Bleeding is still a very WIP concept so far and the only idea I have so far is that various levels of bleeding subtract a certain amount of Blood Points from a stockpile whose size depends on a character's Endurance.
Pain will force a character to pass Endurance-based saves or lose actions during their turn. Dazing is essentially the same but caused by head wounds and proximity to explosions and the like.
The extremely basic combat mechanics I have mapped out only apply to hitting a target; I have yet to determine how determining the severity of an injury will work. What I have so far is this:
Attacking
To make an attack, a character rolls a d20, then adds ½ (rounding down) of the related stat value to the attack. Most attacks use either Agility or Perception, though on some occasions Intellect or Power may be used. The 1/2 value I'm using now is something of a placeholder; depending on the range that stats fall into, it is subject to change. But I don't want super high modifiers on everyone's rolls, as often happens in D&D; it should be more up to chance.
Dodging
A character being targeted by an attack can attempt to avoid the attack, providing they have the ability and space to move one meter in any direction. A Dodge roll is equal to d20 + ½ character’s Agility score (rounding down). If this result is higher than the attacker’s Attack roll, the attack is successfully avoided. Note that some equipment can reduce a character’s Dodge roll.
Melee Attacks
A melee attack is different from a normal attack in that it incorporates other values and rolls. One of these is the Counter roll. A normal Dodge roll is made, but if the defender wins, he can immediately roll an attack of his own, against his enemy’s normal Dodge roll. Only one attack can be Countered by any character between his turns, but making a Counter does not affect the character’s ability to attack on his own turn. A character may also make a Grab attack as his counter instead of a normal melee attack. Characters engaged in close combat with an opponent can also make several special action:
Attack of Opportunity
A character armed with a melee weapon may make a free attack against any adjacent enemy who attempts to fire a two-handed weapon or attempt any action that requires them to direct their attention away from their aggressor. They may only make one between any two of their turns.
Grab
A character can attempt to grab and hold an enemy. First, make a normal attack roll using Agility, opposed by an enemy’s Dodge roll. If this fails, the enemy may make a Counter attack as usual. If the attack hits, the attacker and defender make opposed Power-based rolls. If the attacker wins the roll, he can perform one of several actions:
Shove the enemy to the floor. The enemy falls prone and must get back up on their turn, risking an Attack of Opportunity by the enemy.
More Grab actions coming soon.
So there you have the basic, raw-bones outline of my idea. I would love any suggestions, complaints, compliments and ideas. If you'd like to contact me on Steam, my name is Squidus_III or Seventeenth Squid. Before suggesting anything, keep these basic concepts of the system in mind:
1. Wounds will affect characters beyond simply determining when they die.
2. Roleplaying will play a heavy part in this game. Charisma is not currently, and never will be, a stat. It will be up to the players, and maybe their guns, to persuade and barter with NPCs and each other.
3. Combat should be lethal and promote using clever strategies and setups rather than door-kicking and gun-blazing.
Thanks in advance to anyone who drops a comment or even just reads this.