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Jormengand
2012-12-09, 06:15 AM
Right, this is me trying to make a new game system. While hardly a GitP veteran, I've been doing RPGs for a while, and want to make a relatively simple but (I hope) fun RPG system.

The problem with a lot of roleplaying systems is that they're really hard to learn. Having spent a fair bit of my childhood playing the Neverwinter Nights games - D&D 3.5 on a computer - and also having played Pathfinder, I almost have the hang of them. Almost. The problem that I find is that it takes so long to learn these systems that many people don't actually ever get to playing them.

The entire ruleset as it stands is laid out before you:

Statistics:
These don't work the same way that your attribute scores do in D&D, or most other games - imagine a hit point or mana point bar, but neither regenerates on its own. Normally, you have 400 points to share between your stats.

Sanity: Your sanity is measured out of 100. As you start to lose sanity, you become less effective in combat as delusions appear and you waste your time fighting them. Those with high sanities are more effective in combat, as they fight more efficiently and don't waste time working out whether or not they're completely insane. There is no particular effect of having 0 sanity.
- The mask of sanity: The mask is measured out of 200. It is never less than your sanity, nor more than double it, and always starts as double it (thus you need not spend points on it). It essentially represents how sane you look. A score over 100 means that no-one suspects anything. This does, of course, mean that you can be a good half way to losing the plot entirely and no-one bats an eyelid. There is no particular effect of having 0 mask.

Health: Your health is measured out of 100. Health is basically your hit points. All those in the 18 constitution club, hold your horses. You might not want to stack all your points in here, as if you have 20 health and 100 sanity you are still probably more effective than someone with the converse. That said, it is quite important; at low health you become less effective. Any character with 0 health is dead.

Intellect: Your Intellect is measured out of 100. Your Intellect can help you stave off the effects of madness in early stages (For example, "I know humans can't jump that high, so he didn't just jump that high.") Conversely, a low Intellect may make you disbelieve things on the grounds that you don't believe they can happen, or make your delusions seem like more blindingly obvious truths. Any character with 0 Intellect is comatose.

Will: Your will is measured out of 100. Your will stops your character giving up and turning suicidal - or in less extreme incidents simply giving up at the task at hand. Your will can also allow you to ignore delusions. Any character with 0 will is comatose.

Initiative: Your initiative is measured out of 100. Your initiative allows you to move faster, and also make decisions faster. Initiative is perhaps the least dangerous statistic to have 1 of; it doesn't make you kill all your friends, it doesn't make you bleed to death or kill yourself - accidentally or otherwise. However, your team might have better things to do than wait for you. Any character with 0 initiative is immobile.

Example: Pedro Ignacio has 400 points. Being an intelligent but weak boy, sharp but on the verge of mental breakdown, he has the following statline:
Sanity: 64
Mask: 128
Health: 61
Intellect: 97
Will: 83
Initiative: 95
Stat tests:
At certain points in the game, you may be called upon to make a test upon a certain statistic. It will be given a difficulty number, which you must beat to pass the check, and a characteristic such as your initiative or will. You roll a d100 and add the result from your relevant stat.

Example: Pedro manages to walk into a trap. D'oh. The trap is fairly well-made, and so has a difficulty of 120, and works against his Initiative. Which is kinda fortunate for Pedro, really. Pedro rolls a 59, and so his total result is (95+59=)154. Which means that he has passed the test by a lot. Pedro is fine, the trap does nothing.

If you are called upon to make a check against another check, then your opponent (usually the one who is not acting) makes the check. The result then becomes the acting character's difficulty.

Here is a table of example actions - the GM (See "The Gamesmaster") will have to think of more, of course.

{table=head]Action|Difficulty|Stat

Climb over a large gate|
120|
Initiative

Make magic mind attacks|
Opposed|
Intellect/Will

Escape combat|
Opposed|
Initiative/Initiative|

Pick lock|
80-120 depending on lock quality.|
Intellect|

Attack undriven car|
130|
Health or Initiative|

Sleep|
70|
Sanity|[/table]
Combat:Everyone loves combat, don't they? Well, okay, not everyone. I don't really like combat much, but there we go. In combat, follow this sequence:

Everyone takes a sanity test (Difficulty 100) or their initiative is 1 for step 2.
Everyone takes an initiative test. The highest roller acts first. In case of a tie, randomise between the tying players.
The player wishing to act must take a sanity test (Difficulty 90).
They may now act normally if they passed.
The character with the next highest initative test result goes to step 3. If there is none, then return to step one.

Example: Pedro is, for some reason (I can't be bothered to make another character), fighting himself. Pedro A rolls his sanity test and gets 64-11=53, which is positive and therefore a pass. Pedro B rolls 64-67=-3, which is a failure as it is negative.

Moving onto step 2, A takes his initiative test and gets 95+36=131. B gets 1+66=67, as his initiative became 1. A takes his second sanity test, and rolls a 64+32=96. He can then act normally.

To attack, the attacker takes a test of health, opposing the defender's test of initiative. These are inverted with a ranged weapon. If the attacker succeeds, the defender immediately loses an amount of health equal to the difference between the two scores.

The defender must then take a will test with a difficulty equal to the amount of damage dealt plus 100. If they fail, subtract the number by which they failed from all their ability scores for the duration of the next round.

Example: A uses his action to attack B. B rolls 95+28=123, and sets the difficulty for A's check to 123. A rolls 61+74=135. A thus inflicts 12 damage on B. B must then make a will test with a difficulty of 112, and rolls 83+21=104, failing the check by 8. When B acts, all of his stats count as 8 lower.
The gamesmaster:
In Descend Into Madness, one player becomes the gamesmaster, and orchestrates the game. The main responsibilities of the gamesmaster are:

Plot: The gamesmaster creates the world for the players, and comes up with the main storyline. He also decides upon the setting - will it be a medieval setting, or will it be in modern times?

Checks: A lot, and I mean a LOT of actions don't have specific checks to them. Intellect, the Mask, and for the most part Will have no use. The gamesmaster decides upon an appropriate stat and difficulty level for each action, though he should tell the player at least which stat he's using first. Most likely, jumping around will be initiative, picking locks will be intellect... use your imagination!

Equipment:Define which weapons are go and which weapons aren't. same goes for armour, and any other equipment that a character might have. Grenades are probably a no in an 11th century setting, for example.

Character points: 400 is the normal number of points to spend, but why now 300 for a more evil campaign? Or if you're feeling nice, give out 450. Other options include making mask equal sanity, but you can pay one point to get two extra mask. You decide!

Opponents: The gamesmaster has to work out who the characters arre going to fight. They'll need to write up stats, not neccesarily with the same points you give your characters.

Equipment:
Generally speaking, equipment gives a bonus to some stat for some check, like a gun giving you a bonus to Initiative for ranged attacks. Also, it is impossible to do certain actions without the correct equipment - you cannot make a ranged attack with nothing but your fists, after all!

Below are some example peices of equipment - you can make your own, of course!
{table=head]Item|Bonus|Stat|Action|Special

Short Sword|
+5|
Health|
Melee attacks|None

Long sword|
+10/+2|
Health/Initiative|
Melee attacks/defences|None

Dagger|
+2/+2|
Health/Initiative|
Melee/ranged attacks|Allows ranged attacks, lose it if you make one.

Plate mail|
+10|
Health/Initiative|
Defences|Requires seven rounds to equip. -3 to all other initiative rolls.

Spear|
+5/+4|
Health/Initiative|
Melee/ranged attack rolls|Allows ranged attacks, lose it if you make one.

Healer's kit|
+5|
Intellect|
Healing|Lost if you succeed the check.[/table]

Grod_The_Giant
2012-12-10, 05:06 PM
Hmm. Some interesting ideas, but... well... it's a bit inconsistent, in places/

First of all, the basic mechanic here is... not presented clearly. I think you roll a die of varying size, subtract your statistic, and if the result is positive, you succeed?

If so, it's a bit clunky. Subtraction takes more time than addition, generally, and I'm really not sure how you'd roll something like a d120-- d12 and d10? I'd highly recommend making the "difficulty die" standard-- maybe a d100.

On a similar note, you should probably standardize your statistics, so that they're all out of 100-- it's simpler to keep track of, more consistent, and the math doesn't get silly.

The system for determining who goes first is... wow. I'm sorry, but I've read it three times now and I can't really tell how it works... which is not a good sign. Why not have everyone just roll initiative and be done with it?

Actual attacks... opposed rolls, OK. Damage equals the difference, OK. Will test... the DC is based on the damage, and if you fail, your stats go up? Why? What does that represent? Building inner resolve when you get hit doesn't seem appropriate for a horror game (as I assume this is supposed to be, from the title).

I'm assuming this is a pretty early draft, since you don't have guidelines for character creation, uses for sanity or intellect, or the like. How do different weapons work differently? How do investigations work? Are there skills?

tl;dr-- stats should be more consistent; basic mechanism is confusing; initiative requires far too much rolling to be practical.

Jormengand
2012-12-10, 05:19 PM
Hmm. Some interesting ideas, but... well... it's a bit inconsistent, in places/

First of all, the basic mechanic here is... not presented clearly. I think you roll a die of varying size, subtract your statistic, and if the result is positive, you succeed?

Unless it's opposed, yes.



If so, it's a bit clunky. Subtraction takes more time than addition, generally, and I'm really not sure how you'd roll something like a d120-- d12 and d10? I'd highly recommend making the "difficulty die" standard-- maybe a d100.

Mhm. Makes sense.


On a similar note, you should probably standardize your statistics, so that they're all out of 100-- it's simpler to keep track of, more consistent, and the math doesn't get silly.

Fair enough.


The system for determining who goes first is... wow. I'm sorry, but I've read it three times now and I can't really tell how it works... which is not a good sign. Why not have everyone just roll initiative and be done with it?[QUOTE]

I'm not sure what's so complex about "Take a madness check. If you fail, you're initiative one for the initiative check."

[QUOTE]Actual attacks... opposed rolls, OK. Damage equals the difference, OK. Will test... the DC is based on the damage, and if you fail, your stats go up? Why? What does that represent? Building inner resolve when you get hit doesn't seem appropriate for a horror game (as I assume this is supposed to be, from the title). If the result is NEGATIVE, ADD the result = REDUCE their stats.


I'm assuming this is a pretty early draft, since you don't have guidelines for character creation, uses for sanity or intellect, or the like. How do different weapons work differently? How do investigations work? Are there skills?

I was going to have stat tests basically be "If the DM thinks it's a blah check, it's a blah check". Different weapons and armour I was going to assign an attack or defence bonus which you just add to the result of your attack/defence roll.


tl;dr-- stats should be more consistent; basic mechanism is confusing; initiative requires far too much rolling to be practical.

Going to sap the 50 IQ out of it and call it intelligence so that the characters don't look like total idiots, the mechanism can be cleared up, and... come on, was two rolls to work out who goes first too much to ask?

Grod_The_Giant
2012-12-10, 07:15 PM
I'm not sure what's so complex about "Take a madness check. If you fail, you're initiative one for the initiative check."[QUOTE]
Ah, ok. That makes sense. Wording issue, then.

[QUOTE] If the result is NEGATIVE, ADD the result = REDUCE their stats.
That makes more sense. You might try to be a bit more clear there.


I was going to have stat tests basically be "If the DM thinks it's a blah check, it's a blah check". Different weapons and armour I was going to assign an attack or defence bonus which you just add to the result of your attack/defence roll.
You should probably specify that in the rules, somewhere.


Going to sap the 50 IQ out of it and call it intelligence so that the characters don't look like total idiots, the mechanism can be cleared up, and... come on, was two rolls to work out who goes first too much to ask?
Sorry, that was a reading comprehension fail. My bad.

Sherishade
2012-12-11, 03:38 AM
First isn't there a similar systems with a similar name built around the C'thulu mythos?

I like alot of the system it was confusing at first and took a few reads to grasp it, but i'm tracking now. Also I LOVE combat . . . I get bored when the game turns into a novel reading or when becomes a game of clue. Don't get me wrong one DM I know could spin a yarn.
Any ways it seems like from your current stats that no matter what weapon you use your stats determine the damage but i'd imagine a shotgun would give you a bonus or something over a pee shooter.

Jormengand
2012-12-11, 11:42 AM
First isn't there a similar systems with a similar name built around the C'thulu mythos?

I like alot of the system it was confusing at first and took a few reads to grasp it, but i'm tracking now. Also I LOVE combat . . . I get bored when the game turns into a novel reading or when becomes a game of clue. Don't get me wrong one DM I know could spin a yarn.
Any ways it seems like from your current stats that no matter what weapon you use your stats determine the damage but i'd imagine a shotgun would give you a bonus or something over a pee shooter.

You mean Call of Cthulu? It works on a vaguely similar basic idea with Sanity, but I made the rules having heard very little about CoC.

For confusion, remind me how many times you had to read D&D before it made sense? How many times did you then look back to remind yourself exactly how the grapple system worked, or how many points each ability score level cost, or what the hell the barbarian's eighth level class features were?

For weapons and armour, I'll write rules in.

CarpeGuitarrem
2012-12-11, 12:12 PM
I like the core mechanic, rolling a die according to the degree of difficulty, and rolling under your stat. It's like Cortex+, but flipped. However, I'd much rather see more standard dice used, i.e. scaling the numbers down somewhat.

For instance, you could start with 8 in a stat (16 for Mask), and the highest difficulty die would be a d12. That gives a decent change of failing at hard stuff. And that's a pretty simple mechanic to understand. You don't even need to throw in the subtraction, unless you need to see if there's a Margin of Success.

If you want granularity, you could have a "stress track" for stats. It's, say, 6 or 7 boxes long, and when you check all the boxes, you lose a point in the main stat.

I think the Initiative sequence can be cleaned up a bit. Here's how I'd streamline it (and cut out an extraneous roll)...

Step 1: everyone rolls Initiative.
Step 2: in initiative order, players may act. At the start of their turn, they roll a Sanity check. If they fail it, they drop to the bottom of the Initiative. If they fail it by a lot, they lose their action.

It feels a lot cleaner, though to be honest, I'm really gravitating away from this style of initiative in favor of other systems, like Old School Hack (http://oldschoolhack.net)'s "phase initiative" or Apocalypse World (http://apocalypse-world.com/)'s "run it as you see it" combat.

Jormengand
2012-12-11, 12:23 PM
I like the core mechanic, rolling a die according to the degree of difficulty, and rolling under your stat. It's like Cortex+, but flipped. However, I'd much rather see more standard dice used, i.e. scaling the numbers down somewhat.

For instance, you could start with 8 in a stat (16 for Mask), and the highest difficulty die would be a d12. That gives a decent change of failing at hard stuff. And that's a pretty simple mechanic to understand. You don't even need to throw in the subtraction, unless you need to see if there's a Margin of Success.

If you want granularity, you could have a "stress track" for stats. It's, say, 6 or 7 boxes long, and when you check all the boxes, you lose a point in the main stat.

I think the Initiative sequence can be cleaned up a bit. Here's how I'd streamline it (and cut out an extraneous roll)...

Step 1: everyone rolls Initiative.
Step 2: in initiative order, players may act. At the start of their turn, they roll a Sanity check. If they fail it, they drop to the bottom of the Initiative. If they fail it by a lot, they lose their action.

It feels a lot cleaner, though to be honest, I'm really gravitating away from this style of initiative in favor of other systems, like Old School Hack (http://oldschoolhack.net)'s "phase initiative" or Apocalypse World (http://apocalypse-world.com/)'s "run it as you see it" combat.

Right now, I'm rewriting the system so that it can be done with nothing but a D10. The initiative is very similar to the system you have, only easier to handle. I don't like the idea of starting with 8 in all stats, it makes the characters too much the same.

Anyway, rewrite is happening. Hold ye horses!

Grod_The_Giant
2012-12-11, 01:08 PM
For confusion, remind me how many times you had to read D&D before it made sense? How many times did you then look back to remind yourself exactly how the grapple system worked, or how many points each ability score level cost, or what the hell the barbarian's eighth level class features were?

There's a significant difference between "looking back to reference a particular item" and "rereading because you don't understand how it works." The first is a memory issue; the latter is a comprehension one. Grapple in D&D is clunky, sure, but if you have the rules open in front of you, not a confusing thing to run.

CarpeGuitarrem
2012-12-11, 03:19 PM
As far as simplicity goes, I think that D&D is a relatively poor measuring stick for "simple", because it's anything but.

Yitzi
2012-12-11, 06:48 PM
As Grod_The_Giant said, subtraction is a bit clunky. Instead of subtracting your die roll from your stat, add it to your stat, and add 101 to all flat difficulties for the same effect. (Or you can add 100 to make things simpler, if your difficulties weren't precisely calibrated anyway.) Opposed rolls then just stay as opposed rolls (make sure to put rules for ties; the way you wrote it, it looks like a tie means the acting character wins), and initiative is just a multi-person opposed roll.

You're putting a lot on the GM, far more than in something like D&D. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but make sure that's what you want to do, as it's a lot more vulnerable to less-capable GMs.

Jormengand
2012-12-12, 12:21 PM
As Grod_The_Giant said, subtraction is a bit clunky. Instead of subtracting your die roll from your stat, add it to your stat, and add 101 to all flat difficulties for the same effect. (Or you can add 100 to make things simpler, if your difficulties weren't precisely calibrated anyway.) Opposed rolls then just stay as opposed rolls (make sure to put rules for ties; the way you wrote it, it looks like a tie means the acting character wins), and initiative is just a multi-person opposed roll.

You're putting a lot on the GM, far more than in something like D&D. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but make sure that's what you want to do, as it's a lot more vulnerable to less-capable GMs.

I cannot believe that I didn't think of doing that. Good job.

The idea is that the GM comes up with stuff to fit the setting. However, it's not that difficult to go "Okay, mind bullets are Intellect to attack and will to defend, and damage goes to your sanity." I'm probably going to make an example list of actions, and a list of equipment.

Now, anyone have any good ideas for vehicle rules? Obviously, vehicles can't be statted like people because 6 of the 7 stats make no sense, but they could have their own stat bonuses.

scarmiglionne4
2012-12-12, 07:16 PM
Right now, I'm rewriting the system so that it can be done with nothing but a D10. The initiative is very similar to the system you have, only easier to handle. I don't like the idea of starting with 8 in all stats, it makes the characters too much the same.

Anyway, rewrite is happening. Hold ye horses!

I was just about to suggest making this base 10 instead of base 100. If you are going for pick-up-and-playability smaller numbers will definitely be better. I think using subtraction will be fine if you are working with nice, small numbers.

I also do not think sanity should be part of your standard combat progression. I think sanity should only be rolled when something happens that may affect it, like taking a large amount of damage or seeing someone transform into a werewolf. Simply being confronted with combat should not have chance of making you freeze. I can understand being confronted by a Xenomorph would make you freeze, however. I would maybe go so far as to make Sanity or some other stat represent how sanity-shaking something is. You mentioned mind-bullets affecting Sanity. I think that's a good idea. If we are talking about powers, certain creatures would just have "mind-bullets" that were part of transformations or just them taking an aggressive stance against a character.

I also don't like how mask of sanity works. I think it should be a stat all to itself and work like all the others ie not be 200, or 20. Right now it reminds me of AD&D Exceptional Strength and that is anything but simple. Maybe call the stat Composure.

On to vehicles. Since vehicles are going to be driven by characters just base it off of their abilities. Treat vehicles like "moving equipment" which is what they are. What is a tank but a suit of armor that gives you a set amount of movement before it expires with a big weapon sticking out of the front?

PEACH Exchange: In my signature

TheWombatOfDoom
2012-12-13, 08:50 AM
I was going to suggest a similar idea as scarmiglionne and apparently yourself suggested. Instead of making things out of 100, make them out of 10. So you have 40 Points to deal with instead of 400, and you have simpler math, and so on.

I find the idea very intriguing! I find the whole system with your stats interesting, but I think I'd like to see more explaination on gameplay based on those things before I can decide what needs to be tinkered with. The mask of sanity thing I find kind of confusing, and don't see anywhere else it is used...

However, if you are redoing this right now, can I ask why you're asking for PEACH? I guess to get more feedback about what you should work on while you're changing it?

One thing that struck me is in a battle, if I'm attacked and loose health, then when it's MY turn to attack, I'm going to be weakened. Further, say I fail my sanity check in the beginning of battle - when I make a ranged attack it's going to be severely nerfed and people would be able to attack me easier because apparently when being attacked by melee, inititive is my stat to defend with. It also seems like things like armor which improve your health will also make your damage heavier, and that concerns me.

How long is a round?

So from what I understand, this game supports any setting? Medieval, modern, post modern, you name it? As of now I'd say stick with a "time period", or make certain rules apply to one or the other. Vehicles, equipment, monsters, are going to be vastly different in stats. Maybe have a recommended build for different settings? Platemail is going to be much different than kevlar. Tank much different than a chariot. Horse much different than a car.

With vehicles, they'd certainly have health (how much they can withstand) and inititive (how fast they go). You could have intellect be how hard it is to function.

There should at least be more check examples for easy versus difficult. I think you could still keep the skill check system imaginative if you give more examples of checks so that a GM isn't having to test out different ranges a whole heck of a lot before playing the game. That's the systems job to work out, not the GM.

Also, I'm curious, why is it that no where in your description do you tie in why it's called descend into madness. What makes the setting the way it does that its a constant strain on the sanity?

I heard the use of magic mentioned a few times, but I don't see it explained anywhere...

Hanuman
2012-12-13, 08:58 AM
I'm interested in collab developing a sanity re-work for pathfinder or 3.5.

Here's the basis of SAN, you may want to read up before attempting a re-hash.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm

Jormengand
2012-12-13, 12:32 PM
I was going to suggest a similar idea as scarmiglionne and apparently yourself suggested. Instead of making things out of 100, make them out of 10. So you have 40 Points to deal with instead of 400, and you have simpler math, and so on.

I prefer the d100 system because you can do more with it. Think about my combat mechanics: With only a d10 one person can easily slaughter another in one attack. Also, it means that equipment doesn't give such massive bonuses if you don't want it to - if a dagger gives a +1 on your base ten system, then surely a short sword will give more, a longsword even more and a greatsword more still - it's basically so we can have small increases.

And decreases too. During the game, your stats can change, such as health as an obvious example. With a d10 system, even a single point is a lot to be losing.

I find the idea very intriguing! I find the whole system with your stats interesting, but I think I'd like to see more explaination on gameplay based on those things before I can decide what needs to be tinkered with. The mask of sanity thing I find kind of confusing, and don't see anywhere else it is used...

Yeah, I need to make the mask do something.

However, if you are redoing this right now, can I ask why you're asking for PEACH? I guess to get more feedback about what you should work on while you're changing it?

Essentially

One thing that struck me is in a battle, if I'm attacked and loose health, then when it's MY turn to attack, I'm going to be weakened. Further, say I fail my sanity check in the beginning of battle - when I make a ranged attack it's going to be severely nerfed and people would be able to attack me easier because apparently when being attacked by melee, inititive is my stat to defend with. It also seems like things like armor which improve your health will also make your damage heavier, and that concerns me.

Read again. Armour only increases your health for the purposes of defense, not attack. It states this clearly in the table. Also, your initiative is only reduced during combat step 2.

How long is a round?

If you need to know, assume 4 seconds.

So from what I understand, this game supports any setting? Medieval, modern, post modern, you name it? As of now I'd say stick with a "time period", or make certain rules apply to one or the other. Vehicles, equipment, monsters, are going to be vastly different in stats. Maybe have a recommended build for different settings? Platemail is going to be much different than kevlar. Tank much different than a chariot. Horse much different than a car.

It works on a "Scale" system. Essentially, even though a medieval knight has problems getting onto his horse and can't fire a bow to save his life, and a WH40K space marine can make really awesome jumps and is a god at shooting, they might both have an initiative around 65. Why? Because the knight is about 65% of the way to being the best given the setting, and so is the space marine. Of course, if the space marine ends up in the same setting as the knight, then their stats will be vastly different... but we're hoping the DM isn't that stupid.

With vehicles, they'd certainly have health (how much they can withstand) and inititive (how fast they go). You could have intellect be how hard it is to function.

Or perhaps, how easy it is. I'll think about it.

There should at least be more check examples for easy versus difficult. I think you could still keep the skill check system imaginative if you give more examples of checks so that a GM isn't having to test out different ranges a whole heck of a lot before playing the game. That's the systems job to work out, not the GM.

Fair do's.

Also, I'm curious, why is it that no where in your description do you tie in why it's called descend into madness. What makes the setting the way it does that its a constant strain on the sanity?

Well, the point was that you are fighting to keep your (mainly mental) stats up.

I heard the use of magic mentioned a few times, but I don't see it explained anywhere...

PCs aren't really supposed to use magic, that's why.
Right, that should answer some questions...

Jormengand
2012-12-13, 12:36 PM
I was just about to suggest making this base 10 instead of base 100. If you are going for pick-up-and-playability smaller numbers will definitely be better. I think using subtraction will be fine if you are working with nice, small numbers.

This is explained in the post above. Imagine playing D&D at high levels, and trying to rewrite the system so that you could never have more than 10 hit points.

I also do not think sanity should be part of your standard combat progression. I think sanity should only be rolled when something happens that may affect it, like taking a large amount of damage or seeing someone transform into a werewolf. Simply being confronted with combat should not have chance of making you freeze. I can understand being confronted by a Xenomorph would make you freeze, however. I would maybe go so far as to make Sanity or some other stat represent how sanity-shaking something is. You mentioned mind-bullets affecting Sanity. I think that's a good idea. If we are talking about powers, certain creatures would just have "mind-bullets" that were part of transformations or just them taking an aggressive stance against a character.

"Simply" being confronted with combat? YOU try being confronted with combat!

I also don't like how mask of sanity works. I think it should be a stat all to itself and work like all the others ie not be 200, or 20. Right now it reminds me of AD&D Exceptional Strength and that is anything but simple. Maybe call the stat Composure.

I might actually just get rid of it, it's no doing anything really.

On to vehicles. Since vehicles are going to be driven by characters just base it off of their abilities. Treat vehicles like "moving equipment" which is what they are. What is a tank but a suit of armor that gives you a set amount of movement before it expires with a big weapon sticking out of the front?

Fair point.

PEACH Exchange: In my signature

Ugh.

@Hanuman: This isn't 3.5 or PF. This is Descend.