Pirates vs. Ninjas

[dentrag2]

Both, actually.

[Darksword]

I would love to see them. Also for the monsters I take it that the abilities are one that all monsters of that type have. Otherwise I like this system and I might give it a go during a gaming secsion.

[Dairun Cates]

I would love to see them. Also for the monsters I take it that the abilities are one that all monsters of that type have. Otherwise I like this system and I might give it a go during a gaming secsion.

Typically, yeah. If you don't feel like making your own monsters for the players, that's what they're there for.

You can feel free to use them as a basis and mold encounters from there though. I realize there's a lot of different zombies (determined on size and whether they sprint or are even sentient) and bears (black to grizzly to ninja bear) out there. So, there's nothing wrong with giving them extra abilities. There's no CR system here. So, the only rationale for encounter difficulty is them being as hard as you want them to be for your players. Considering the strong possibility of a couple of bad rolls in a row and the typical length of combat once someone throws a level 5, I recommend erring on the side of caution unless your group likes constant character death.

I'll probably post the example characters later after some slight adjustments to powers and life costs (so I don't have to update them again later).

Also, I should PROBABLY make the Kraken immune to Infinitesimal Blade. It'd be a bit silly if someone actually managed to 1-shot it (although, at a 10 body, it's not likely, even with an auto-hit. It's a 16 body check max and that's not hard for the Kraken to make).

[Dairun Cates]

Here's some sample characters. They don't have much in the way of cross faction abilities but show how a character can look when built.

Deadly Death
Side: Ninja
Faction: Hitinja
Age: 14

Life: 50
Reaction: 6

Body 3
Agility 4
Precision 7
Will 2

Abilities:
Level 1:
Water Walking (Ninja, Cost 1/turn): Walk on Water as if it were solid.
Like the Wind (Ninja, Passive): +2 to Stealth Checks
Keenest Eye (Ninja, Passive): +2 to Notice Small details

Level 2:
Delaying Fall (Ninja, Cost 4): Delay the damage of any attack.
Deadly Discord (Ninja, Cost 4): 10 Damage, -1 to hit. 12 precision to see where it came from.

Level 3:
Justice Barrage (Ninja, Cost 15): 3 hits at -4 to hit for 15 damage each.

Level 4:

Level 5:
Infinitesimal Blade (Ninja, Cost 1 Awesome Point, 30 Life): Hit at a -6 to hit. If the opponent fails a dodge and body check equal to the roll. He immediately goes unconscious.
Cost of Power (Ninja, 1 per 5 damage): Sacrifice -2 on a hit to get a +5 to damage for each -2 sacrificed.

Description: Deadly Death is a young ninja just starting out in the Hitinja trying to make a name for himself. His best friend, a Shoninja, taught him a cool move so he can do some more damage with his Hitinja training. He also practices Guitar on the side but isn't very good at it. He hates pirates with a passion, and wants to take down a big pirate so he can prove himself to his teachers. Deadly Death is a 40-point starting character.

[Dairun Cates]

Captain Killshot
Side: Pirate
Faction: Gunnar
Age: 30

Life: 60
Reaction: 6

Body 4
Agility 6
Precision 6
Will 2

Abilities:
Level 1:
Double Tap (Pirate, Cost 4): Two shots. 20 square range. One to hit roll. 5 damage each.
Tactical Genius (Pirate, Passive): +2 to Tactical rolls

Level 2:
Triple Tap (Pirate, Cost 12): 3 shots. 20 square range. One to hit roll 10 damage each.
Keep Your Grip (Pirate, Cost 6): -6 to hit to disarm an opponent.

Level 3:
Cross Arm Draw (Pirate, Passive): Go first in first combat round
Bullet Dance (Pirate, Cost 12): -2 to hit. Number of hits equal to agility score. 5 damage each.

Level 4:
Point Blank Shotgun (Pirate, Cost 8): Melee range shot. 20 damage.
Submachine Fun (Pirate, Cost 10): Range 10, 4 square radius, 15 damage

Level 5:
Crackshot Trickshot (Pirate, Cost 20): 1 Shot. 30 damage. 20 range. Delays damage until next hit. Both stack as one hit.
Rollin' Thunder (Pirate, Cost 20): Do 5 damage for every 2 squares moved. Take half damage on a miss.

Description: Captain Killshot is the captain of a successful naval vessel. He's one of the few Captains out there that isn't a Charrismatic Lord. He's an expert Gunnar, but doesn't have much time for that mechanical stuff all the other Gunnars are into. He hates Ninjas with a passion. Captain Killshot is an experienced character at 80 points.

[Dairun Cates]

Black Cat
Side: Wanderer
Faction: Lucky
Age: 25

Life: 100
Reaction: 5

Body 5
Agility 5
Precision 5
Will 5

Abilities:
Level 1:
Beginner's Luck (Wanderer, Passive): +2 to one skill roll a day.
What Goes Around... (Wanderer , Cost 1): If lucky is hit, +1 to hit that opponent next turn.
...Comes Around (Wanderer , Cost 1): +1 to hit each time the same attack misses the same target.
WATCH OUT! (Wanderer, Cost 3): Lucky trips and takes a -2 to all rolls. However, opponent of choice takes -1 to all rolls until Lucky's next action.

Level 2:
One in a Million (Wanderer, Cost 4): -8 to hit. 10 square range. 30 Damage.
Second Chance (Wanderer, 1 Awesome Point): Spend an Awesome Point to roll 2 defenses and take the better one.

Level 3:
Trip and a Miss (Wanderer, Passive): Once a day, take back an attack that missed and don't spend the Life cost.
Lucky Guess (Wanderer, 1 Awesome Point): Guess the most right outcome in a choice.
Second Wind (Wanderer, Passive): Gain 20 life once a day.

Level 4:
Path of Least Resistance (Wanderer, Cost 6): Do nothing for a turn. Gain a +4 to hit on the next turn.
Chance for a Big Reversal (Wanderer, Cost 20): 20 damage + half the damage dealt to the Lucky when a Lucky is hit.


Level 5:
Awesomer than Awesome! (Wanderer, Passive): Gain an addition Awesome point when you gain at least 2.
Turn of Luck (Wanderer, 1 Awesome Point and 20 Life): Treat all minuses as a bonus for one round.
Luck of the Ancients (Wanderer, 3 Awesome Points and 40 Life): +4 to hit. 40 damage to all enemies. 20 healing to all allies.

Description: Black Cat is a natural born lucky and is known by his name for the bad luck that occurs when others cross his path. Not much is known about him other than he's a laid back guy that wanderers from town to town. Black Cat is an extremely powerful character at 120 character points and is the kind that would make for a boss for beginner players.

[Dairun Cates]

Some slight changes to life costs on some abilities (and a little bit to damage).

The cost of learning abilities has been changes (specifically reduced for other sides).

Sample characters posted.

Ties on dice rolls verified in The Dice.

[Cieyrin]

Here I was thinking a beginning character probably wouldn't have much in the way of high level abilities, having level 3s at most. Guess I was wrong in this instance.

[Dairun Cates]

Here I was thinking a beginning character probably wouldn't have much in the way of high level abilities, having level 3s at most. Guess I was wrong in this instance.

Well, some will and some won't. Honestly, I did Deadly Death because I needed examples for the Beta and these ones were easy to type up and I had 10 more pages to finish before the night was done. I could make a lot more complex character given about 15 minutes now. But yeah, you can focus in a high level skills. It's not always a good idea though.

In case you haven't noticed, Level 5's are funny in that they're VERY life inefficient and often require a bunch of a path's lower level skills or high attribute scores to be effective.

For instance, Rollin' Thunder (Arrcrobat) is really only effective with either at least an 8 agility or Rub some Cheetah's blood on it, and enough creativity to make a huge several meter stunt. Me and My Shadow (Shoninja) requires high life and several GOOD low level skills to utilize effectively. Infinite Sword Jobs (Craftsmen) requires someone be in your store or forge for it to work.

Deadly Death is probably not too typical of a character. He's just one possibility.

I envision characters having multiple build set-ups. Some will try to be nuke bots and focus on their attributes and high level skills and others will focus on a lot of low level skills and having the right one for the right occasion.

The nuke bots will take guys down in a hit but will burn through their life fast and often have trouble dealing with groups without the use of an AoE while the people with a lot of low level ones will burn through their own Life a lot more efficiently while they whittle their foe down.

Really, the biggest separation is that agility based characters will tend to dodge more and hit less and want to focus on lower level abilities so they don't knock themselves unconscious and the nuke bots will want to be accurate and have high precision. Characters with high Body and Will will want a lot of supplemental abilities to buff themselves up like mad (bonuses to hit, bonuses to dodge, higher Damage reduction, etc.) since they have the Life to keep it up consistently.

Ask yourself. Do you want to be crafty, powerful, or hard to kill?

So yes. Deadly Death's got them, but he's not very good with them... YET.

So yeah. You're allowed to have level 5's early on, but it's not wise to focus entirely in them. They're your nuke buttons and your last minute saves. If you miss with them, the Life cost is DEVASTATING. On the other hand, some of the lower level skills can do decent damage for significantly less drain when comparing drain versus damage as a percentage.

Still, it's a legitimate build, and it's probably the better one for Hitinja since they focus in hitting foes accurately. Deadly Death just REALLY shouldn't underestimate that Pirate with something like 10 level 1 and 2 skills each and a couple of level 3's. Those guys can be ridiculous if done right.

Sorry for the long explanation for such a simple statement, but I thought I'd give some explanation into my design process.

[Dairun Cates]

Here's an example of a starting character that DOESN'T start with a level 4 or 5 skill and chooses for focusing on more small level skills. It's also a test of the new costs for cross-side skills and how they work out. He doesn't have quite as much damage potential as some of the earlier characters, but he's still very flexible. He's also an incredibly skill based character and would shine in times where a group needs to do some research.

Although, considering that AVERAGE starting Life is supposed to be 80, I probably should make some meatier characters. Probably just means I should finish up the Drunkarrds for Pirate's next faction. That should guarantee a nice 100+ life character.

Clockwork Brew
Side: Wanderer
Faction: Alchemist
Age: 19

Life: 60
Reaction: 5

Body 2
Agility 3
Precision 7
Will 4

Abilities:
Level 1:
Dihydrogen Monoxide Expert (Wanderer, Passive): Gain a +2 to all chemistry checks
Mistarr Good Wrench (Pirate, Passive): Gain a +2 to all mechanics checks
Keenest Eye (Ninja, Passive): Gain a +2 to Notice Small Details.
Appraiser's Eye (Wanderer, Passive): +2 to identify quality of an item. +1 if it has a Craftman's seal.

Level 2:
Burn Baby Burn (Wanderer, Cost 4): 3 range, 10 damage, element type of Alchemist's choosing
Triple Tap (Pirate, Cost 12): 20 range, 3 shots, 10 damage each.
Mechanical Genius (Pirate, Passive): Reverse engineer and create technology

Level 3:
Hammer Meet Nail (Wanderer, Cost 6): Destroy items how you want with a precision check.
Here! Drink This! (Wanderer, Cost 10): Either gain +2 body/will or precision/agility at the cost of -2 to the other set.
KABOOM! (Wanderer, Cost 8): 10 damage, 8 range, 5 square radius AOE.

Level 4:
N/A

Level 5:
N/A

Description: While most Alchemists are men of Science, Clockwork Brew (or C.B. for short) takes it more seriously than most. He believes in a standard he calls "The True Science", a mix between all Scientific disciplines that will lead to the ultimate secrets of the universe itself. C.B. found research with his fellow Alchemists a little restrictive and chose to move out on his own. After opening his own lab in the small port town of Grogston, he became acquainted with the local Gunnars who agreed quite a bit more with his own theory of Science. They taught him the way of machines and their repair. Since then, he's been trying to get his hands on a powerful local artifact called the Realm Core that he believes will propel his research forward. While not the most hardened adventurer, his incredible eye for detail and mechanical AND chemical skills could prove valuable to an adventuring party.

Clockwork Brew is a basic 40 point starting character. While skilled and educated, he still has a bit to learn and lacks the knowledge of history that some older Wanderers do. He lacks a level 5 skills but makes up for it in strong skill training and a small variety of support and ranged skills. His Gunnar skills give him some significant damage output when he needs it. Worse comes to worst, he can use Here! Drink This! to give him 40 more hp at the cost of his agility score and some of his accuracy.

[Dairun Cates]

Huge ability update for Shoninjas, Rokinjas, and Gunnars. Check their posts for at least 1 new skill added to each level. Charreographers, Alchemists, and Wandering Minstrels updates coming later tonight. Some new factions even later tonight if I have the time.

[Milskidasith]

I don't see the point of the rule of 10 with abilities. Why do all that complicated math? Make the stats naturally cap at 10, fine, but if it's an attack with +4 precision and you have 10, just have it be a 14 instead of giving an equivalent penalty. It's exactly the same either way (a -4 on the enemy or a +4 on you averages out to the same) but is less complicated to explain.

Then again, your system seems to make it nearly impossible to actually get high stats, so the rule of 10 would probably never come up anyway.

EDIT: Also, Tinkarran fool (is that how it's spelled?) is somewhat overpowered, considering you can get any pirate 5 ability you want with it, so it's basically like being able to change your abilities on the fly.

EDIT X2: Also, in response to damage efficiency, in combat damage ratio is irrelevant. It's damage spread that matters. A 50 damage 30 cost power is more effective in combat than a 10 damage 2 cost power, because the spread is so much more (+20 compared to +8). Because it's all about getting your opponent to zero as fast as possible, it doesn't matter if you are efficient about it, because if he's dead, you're not.

To use an analogy (and the reason I recognized this), if you are playing an FPS, and one teammate goes 50 kills and 20 deaths and another goes 5 kills and no deaths, the 50/20 player is better because he provides a much better buffer if the enemy is killing the rest of his teammates. The same applies here. If you and your opponent both have 80 health, then dealing 50 damage at the cost of 30 means he is down 20 compared to you, rather than being down by less if you use a more efficient power.

[banthesun]

I love this system so friggen much! Is there any chance of getting it set up on these forums at any point?

Also, you reffered to Arrcrobats as ninjas in the first line of their description.

[Dairun Cates]

I don't see the point of the rule of 10 with abilities. Why do all that complicated math? Make the stats naturally cap at 10, fine, but if it's an attack with +4 precision and you have 10, just have it be a 14 instead of giving an equivalent penalty. It's exactly the same either way (a -4 on the enemy or a +4 on you averages out to the same) but is less complicated to explain.

It caps specifically because a 1 (minimum) can beat a 10 (maximum) on a 1 in 1296 chance before awesome points are applied. Not likely to happen at all, but still a chance.

Also, capping it help keep things from getting TOO buff heavy and makes balancing easier on this end. The buffs become unimportant after a certain statistical number.

Then again, your system seems to make it nearly impossible to actually get high stats, so the rule of 10 would probably never come up anyway.

It can happen with enough buffs to a stat. Evadinja can easily get over a 10 dodge, but it costs a lot of Life to do it. If the opponent has a low precision, it could easily come up. You're right. It's not going to happen often, but there should be a rule for when it does.

EDIT: Also, Tinkarran fool (is that how it's spelled?) is somewhat overpowered, considering you can get any pirate 5 ability you want with it, so it's basically like being able to change your abilities on the fly.

It also specifically says that it creates an ITEM, and the rules on using abilities off of items is a bit different (Ie. It costs twice as much to use without character points put in it). You could train in it, but those points are essentially a waste if the Gunnar tears the item down. I'll look at it though and at least clarify that.

Edit: Yeah. I see where the confusion on that was. Fixed.

EDIT X2: Also, in response to damage efficiency, in combat damage ratio is irrelevant. It's damage spread that matters. A 50 damage 30 cost power is more effective in combat than a 10 damage 2 cost power, because the spread is so much more (+20 compared to +8). Because it's all about getting your opponent to zero as fast as possible, it doesn't matter if you are efficient about it, because if he's dead, you're not.

To use an analogy (and the reason I recognized this), if you are playing an FPS, and one teammate goes 50 kills and 20 deaths and another goes 5 kills and no deaths, the 50/20 player is better because he provides a much better buffer if the enemy is killing the rest of his teammates. The same applies here. If you and your opponent both have 80 health, then dealing 50 damage at the cost of 30 means he is down 20 compared to you, rather than being down by less if you use a more efficient power.

You're forgetting one small thing. Missing. It happens. High level characters still miss equal level characters FREQUENTLY.

If two people miss each other on an attack and 1 does 0 damage for 30 life and one does 0 damage for 1 life, the guy with the 1 life drain is a lot better off. That's what I mean by efficiency. If you're only hitting someone half the time, Spending 60 life to do 50 damage is not feasible. He's down to 30 and you're down to 20. The opponent can then take you out with a lower level skill.

The other thing to consider is multiple opponents. If you're fighting 4 opponents at 40 Life each. Using that level 5 4 times will knock them all out, but it would require 120 life to do so. On the other hand, if you abuse their lower to hit and use low level abilities to take out the first couple of guys before they're likely to hit you and choose to take them out with 2 attacks that do 25 each for 10 Life, you can take them down for 20 life each. Assuming you nuke the last 2, you've only spent 100. Take it down to 3 attacks that do 15 each for 5 each. It goes down to 80.

Finally, there's no point to spend 30 life on a 50 damage attack when the opponent has 10 life left. You're just damaging yourself more than the opponent.

I've run some test combats, and this is a lot different from D&D's mentality. Muscling your way through can end a combat in 1 turn, but it can also screw you over entirely.

In other words, yeah. The level 5's are awesome, but you BETTER make sure you hit when you use them.

I love this system so friggen much! Is there any chance of getting it set up on these forums at any point?

Also, you reffered to Arrcrobats as ninjas in the first line of their description.

I'll actually be asking people to test this in the next couple of weeks. So yeah. Absolutely.

Also, thanks for the grammatical catch.

[Milskidasith]

It caps specifically because a 1 (minimum) can beat a 10 (maximum) on a 1 in 1296 chance before awesome points are applied. Not likely to happen at all, but still a chance.

Also, capping it help keep things from getting TOO buff heavy and makes balancing easier on this end. The buffs become unimportant after a certain statistical number.

Buffs still matter just as much. If you have 10 in a stat and your opponent has 10, getting a +9 to you or a -9 to your enemy is the same, it's just more complicated to subtract. Furthermore, the design concept of "it's possible, but really rare, to have a newbie hit a master" is a bad one, and should be discarded. Your method of game design is confusing for no mechanical benefit that couldn't be accomplished with "base stats don't go above 10 or below 1, buffs can raise them above that, and if one player rolls a 2 and the other rolls a 12, the 12 wins." There, a newbie can win and the math is now a lot easier.

It can happen with enough buffs to a stat. Evadinja can easily get over a 10 dodge, but it costs a lot of Life to do it. If the opponent has a low precision, it could easily come up. You're right. It's not going to happen often, but there should be a rule for when it does.

The problem is your rule is overtly complex for the same thing as just allowing buffs to stack like in most games.

It also specifically says that it creates an ITEM, and the rules on using abilities off of items is a bit different (Ie. It costs twice as much to use without character points put in it). You could train in it, but those points are essentially a waste if the Gunnar tears the item down. I'll look at it though and at least clarify that.

Ah, that makes it less broken.

You're forgetting one small thing. Missing. It happens. High level characters still miss equal level characters FREQUENTLY.

Does not matter, I'll explain why in a second.

If two people miss each other on an attack and 1 does 0 damage for 30 life and one does 0 damage for 1 life, the guy with the 1 life drain is a lot better off. That's what I mean by efficiency. If you're only hitting someone half the time, Spending 60 life to do 50 damage is not feasible. He's down to 30 and you're down to 20. The opponent can then take you out with a lower level skill.

Actually, you're wrong here as well. If you are hitting somebody half the time, you're still looking for the better spread, not better efficiency. Granted, one example I gave had a worse spread, but a 50 damage 20 cost move that hits half the time is still better than spending your HP on a 20 damage 8 cost move that hits half the time (+10 compared to +4 spread.)

The other thing to consider is multiple opponents. If you're fighting 4 opponents at 40 Life each. Using that level 5 4 times will knock them all out, but it would require 120 life to do so. On the other hand, if you abuse their lower to hit and use low level abilities to take out the first couple of guys before they're likely to hit you and choose to take them out with 2 attacks that do 25 each for 10 Life, you can take them down for 20 life each. Assuming you nuke the last 2, you've only spent 100. Take it down to 3 attacks that do 15 each for 5 each. It goes down to 80.

So you're argument for why efficiency is better is if you use massive overkill? That's fallatical logic; by the same reasoning, I could say that if the enemy had DR 40, there's no point in using anything but the big hitting skills. The edge case where you are fighting a bunch of mooks doesn't change that, in general, spread is always better than efficiency.

Finally, there's no point to spend 30 life on a 50 damage attack when the opponent has 10 life left. You're just damaging yourself more than the opponent.

Did I ever say there was? Please don't use the strawman fallacy. I simply stated that if you were fighting an opponent with the same amount of health as you, it is always better to use your bigger moves with more spread, while you seem to think slow and efficient pays off. (Slow and efficient would pay off if you never got hit, but as long as you are, you want the spread.) If you are hitting somebody for overkill, you aren't getting the same spread as if your attack does full damage.

To put it simply, the argument you are presenting here is like saying that level 1 spells are better than level 9 spells in D&D because you get more of them and if you fight level 1 goblins they're dead with no save either way, but you don't have as much power if you use your 9th level spells. While that's true, it's an edge case that shouldn't be considered.

I've run some test combats, and this is a lot different from D&D's mentality. Muscling your way through can end a combat in 1 turn, but it can also screw you over entirely.

Not if you can do the math, which I've done. Efficient moves are, barring edge cases where you don't have an AoE attack fighting multiple enemies and/or the enemies have such low HP that your high power moves are overkill, the higher spread moves beat efficiency every time. Efficiency doesn't matter in combat; speed does.

In other words, yeah. The level 5's are awesome, but you BETTER make sure you hit when you use them.

As long as you aren't absurdly inaccurate and you aren't fighting absurdly inaccurate foes, the higher spread powers will always beat the more efficient, slower powers.[/QUOTE]

[Dairun Cates]

On the Rule of 10 Thing:

Buffs still matter just as much. If you have 10 in a stat and your opponent has 10, getting a +9 to you or a -9 to your enemy is the same, it's just more complicated to subtract. Furthermore, the design concept of "it's possible, but really rare, to have a newbie hit a master" is a bad one, and should be discarded. Your method of game design is confusing for no mechanical benefit that couldn't be accomplished with "base stats don't go above 10 or below 1, buffs can raise them above that, and if one player rolls a 2 and the other rolls a 12, the 12 wins." There, a newbie can win and the math is now a lot easier.

The problem is your rule is overtly complex for the same thing as just allowing buffs to stack like in most games.

Let me try this again. There's multiple design reasons for the rule of 10.

For the most part, getting over a 10 is pointless, as you've said. However:

1. It's there to give a bonus to someone who does decide to get a stat over 10. If a character uses accurate abilities and focuses in them, it's possible to get the difference between the two rolls to be more than 10. A Hitinja with a 7 precision using Fate-bending slice versus an opponent with a 2 agility is hitting at a 15 versus a 2. The character gets a bonus 15 damage for exceeding this. Admitedly, the dodge bonus is substantially less. Take an Evadinja with a +8 to dodge on top of their 7 agility because they REALLY don't want the guy with a 4 precision to hit him with his Doom move. It's a bit overkill in this case, but if the opponent decides to spend 4 awesome points to raise his hit back up to a 5 or just spend the last point and auto-hit, he has a conceivable chance to hit even that 10, but the Evadinja is getting 10 DR from the attack for it.

2. It keeps skills from getting too high up. Part of the problem with some skill based systems is that someone with too many skill checks eventually can get so good at a skill that there's no way to ever conceivably fail. There's some things that no amount of training is going to prepare you for. That's what the 18-20 DC skill checks are for. The chance of a 12 making a 20 is significantly better than a 10 making it.

3. As said, there's a small chance of a 1 hitting a 10. It keeps someone from being completely invincible without putting in Critical auto hits. The 1 in a lot shot adds some flavor. There's a 1 in 8000 chance of a triple 20 in D&D too, but there's still a rule for it (even if it's mostly just homebrewed by every GM in the universe). The big deal is though that if you NEED to hit that guy, you can spend awesome points. A +3 to hit from awesome is enough to make it conceivable to hit (4 vs. 10), but if you do the opponent takes a little less damage if he really is that dodgey. There's little reason for the opponent to spend Awesome points when rolling unless he either wants to absolutely ensure success by breaking to 11.

4. If you don't cap things, players will do what they can to push it. This is more of why the 10 cap exists for stats in general though.

5. It also means that there's always a chance of a 13 failing. This is about the skill level where I wanted there to always be a chance of failure.

6. The 10 gives a nice even number to balance things around for bonuses and penalties. A 1 is a minor effect without being insubstantial, a 2 is a moderate one, a 3 is a major one, and 4+ is incredibly severe and should only be necessary in severe cases.

7. If a team REALLY works together on 1 guy and manages to get a lot of buffs on one guy, and a lot of debuffs on the other one, it comes ups even WHEN the Kurosawa Corollary is in effect.

There's a couple of other reasons, but I don't have my notes with me.

Honestly, as you said, it won't come up often in basic Pirate vs. Ninja combat. It's there for when it does an things with really uneven stats like monsters (who DO have 10's).

So, the short of it is, a newbie can hit a master on either a REALLY small chance after spending awesome. It keeps characters from completely forgoing precision and just using auto-hits to hit dodgey opponents. And it's somewhat important in fighting some of the higher level monsters and REALLY high level human campaign bosses.

This isn't much advantage, but it also doesn't come up often, like you said. For 95% of play, you just need to roll your numbers. It's there for when it does.

Besides, subtracting the amount over 10 from the other guy or subtracting the difference when both go over 10 isn't THAT complex. You're just subtracting instead of adding. That's just an opinion though. It's my design choice, and until some beta-testing shows that it's too complex for a large number of people, I like how it is.

On the Damage thing:

As for the second point about damage, I won't go quote by quote on this one, but...

Also, in response to damage efficiency, in combat damage ratio is irrelevant. It's damage spread that matters.

This quote gave me the impression that you believed that using higher damage moves is ALWAYS the best choice. That's mostly what I was refuting here. There are absolutely reasons to have lower level attacks and to use them.

I'm not saying that you should use high level moves sometimes. If you're almost guaranteed to hit (you have a high precision and the opponent has a low agility), then it definitely is better. However, if the two are similar (like a 4 vs. a 4) there are certain times where it is better to do the high level attack and certain times where it's better to do the low level attack. It depends on the opponents other stats.

DR is actually a good reason to go higher damage, but there's levels of it. The typical 2 DR that most characters are going to have is insubstantial for most non level 1 attacks. Currently, the best DR someone can get without artifacts and items (which can be disarmed and removed) is around 15 (5 from body and 10 from the Craftsmen buff and the generic wanderer buff). This is nice, but the person DOES have to spend Life to maintain it. So, this should be calculated in. Still, I agree, generally, you should blast the big DR guys for 3 reasons. You do more damage past the DR, they likely have way higher Life than you, and they likely have a low agility which means they're easy to hit. The highest possible DR will get higher. If someone manages to put up 50 DR SOMEHOW you should either let them burn their Life stopping your attacks or BLAST them with a 100 damage Rollin' Thunder (there's a way to do it) or a DR penetrating super attack.

On the other hand, if you're a character with a high agility and a low precision (like 2), you won't hit the 4 average guy quite as often. The guy probably wasn't going to hit you with his 4 precision versus your 7 or 8, but you blow through most of your Life by using the big guns and not hitting. You may hit less with the lower damage abilities, but you won't burn yourself out so much that you WILL fall down when the 1 hit does get you.

Let's say you're high Body or Will and have a massive Life but a subpar Agility AND Precision (2 each). You'll still hit decently, and you'll probably be better off using high damage abilities again the average guy, but you're never going to hit the dodgey guys. Even a character with 140 Life isn't going to be able to stand up much longer than 3 turns if he blows his Life on his super attacks. So, you're probably better buffing your DR so the enemies have to use their level 5 to hurt you significantly. They'll burn through their Life, and you can use an accurate low level attack that will likely either knock them out by the time you hit because they're low on life from nuking you, or will keep them from using another Level 5 and keep them from doing any significant damage.

Let's say you're REALLY dodgey AND precise (6/6 and 2/2). Well, you'll have less Life. 30 Life on one attack is a GOOD portion of your life. The enemy is draining himself from his own attacks, but 50 damage puts you at 10 hp (killable by most level 2 and 3 abilities) after 1 attack that you probably WILL hit with, but it's far from guaranteed. However, you can use winning the reaction roll to your advantage and use it to get out of the way of someone's attacks before they swing meaning they can't even hit you. Then they either have to use their ranged attacks (which cost more Life) or wait until they manage to win reaction. Even then, they're likely to hit you once in maybe 5 turns. You save Life by using cheaper moves so you CAN stay up when that 1 hit DOES come in, and you can whittle them down slowly as their own attacks drain them from missing and you do around 10 damage a round to them. After 5 rounds, they may have done more damage to you in their 1 attack that hit, but you'll be using less life. So, they may do 20 to you from a level 4 over and over, but they've burned 32 drain while you've only burned 10. Assuming you hit 3 out of 5 times. They're at 1/10th (8) of their life while you're at 1/4th (10). One more hit from you, and they go down. They'll need an average of 5 to take you down though. On the other hand, if you blasted that 50 damage from the beginning, you only have 10 hp left to deal with. You have to manage to do 30 damage with 10 life in an average of 4 turns before the other guy hits you again. Not impossible, but unlikely.

And then there's stuff like the debuffs from some of the lower level skills (like the Arccrobat debuffs on some of their lower level attacks) and the defects with higher level attack (going unconscious with Pirate Ninja Form, Taking half damage on a miss with Rollin' Thunder, 1 Turn of Focus for LAHLA).

You can build a character that SHOULD be using high level attacks all the time, and every character SHOULD be using them at least some of the time, but not every character is going to want to forgo all low level skills for the high level ones, and that's what I intended from the start. There's multiple ways to build the characters. Either taking more damage per point of damage you do but taking guys down fast or taking guys down by forcing them to wear themselves out and using lower cost abilities to do similar damage over a larger number of turns. Both sides have their risks. The blaster guy is screwed if he misses with his big nuke and the dodgey guy is screwed if he gets hit twice in a row. Both are possibilities you'll need to deal with though.

That's what I mean by the moves being more efficient. You take less damage per damage you deal from using them than the higher level techniques. I never said they were BETTER. There's definitely times to use Level 5's and there's a reason they cost 5 times level 1 skills.

One More Question:
You obviously read through MOST of the system though. So, what do you think about it otherwise? Like it? Hate it? Is it something you would play if the rule of 10 wasn't as complex? There's some things I'm not going to change because I know some of the other abilities that are coming up and how they balance with other things, but I still appreciate the feedback even if I don't sound otherwise. It gives me a different viewpoint.

[Milskidasith]

On the Rule of 10 Thing:



Let me try this again. There's multiple design reasons for the rule of 10.

For the most part, getting over a 10 is pointless, as you've said. However:

1. It's there to give a bonus to someone who does decide to get a stat over 10. If a character uses accurate abilities and focuses in them, it's possible to get the difference between the two rolls to be more than 10. A Hitinja with a 7 precision using Fate-bending slice versus an opponent with a 2 agility is hitting at a 15 versus a 2. The character gets a bonus 15 damage for exceeding this. Admitedly, the dodge bonus is substantially less. Take an Evadinja with a +8 to dodge on top of their 7 agility because they REALLY don't want the guy with a 4 precision to hit him with his Doom move. It's a bit overkill in this case, but if the opponent decides to spend 4 awesome points to raise his hit back up to a 5 or just spend the last point and auto-hit, he has a conceivable chance to hit even that 10, but the Evadinja is getting 10 DR from the attack for it.

2. It keeps skills from getting too high up. Part of the problem with some skill based systems is that someone with too many skill checks eventually can get so good at a skill that there's no way to ever conceivably fail. There's some things that no amount of training is going to prepare you for. That's what the 18-20 DC skill checks are for. The chance of a 12 making a 20 is significantly better than a 10 making it.

3. As said, there's a small chance of a 1 hitting a 10. It keeps someone from being completely invincible without putting in Critical auto hits. The 1 in a lot shot adds some flavor. There's a 1 in 8000 chance of a triple 20 in D&D too, but there's still a rule for it (even if it's mostly just homebrewed by every GM in the universe). The big deal is though that if you NEED to hit that guy, you can spend awesome points. A +3 to hit from awesome is enough to make it conceivable to hit (4 vs. 10), but if you do the opponent takes a little less damage if he really is that dodgey. There's little reason for the opponent to spend Awesome points when rolling unless he either wants to absolutely ensure success by breaking to 11.

4. If you don't cap things, players will do what they can to push it. This is more of why the 10 cap exists for stats in general though.

5. It also means that there's always a chance of a 13 failing. This is about the skill level where I wanted there to always be a chance of failure.

6. The 10 gives a nice even number to balance things around for bonuses and penalties. A 1 is a minor effect without being insubstantial, a 2 is a moderate one, a 3 is a major one, and 4+ is incredibly severe and should only be necessary in severe cases.

7. If a team REALLY works together on 1 guy and manages to get a lot of buffs on one guy, and a lot of debuffs on the other one, it comes ups even WHEN the Kurosawa Corollary is in effect.

There's a couple of other reasons, but I don't have my notes with me.

Honestly, as you said, it won't come up often in basic Pirate vs. Ninja combat. It's there for when it does an things with really uneven stats like monsters (who DO have 10's).

So, the short of it is, a newbie can hit a master on either a REALLY small chance after spending awesome. It keeps characters from completely forgoing precision and just using auto-hits to hit dodgey opponents. And it's somewhat important in fighting some of the higher level monsters and REALLY high level human campaign bosses.

This isn't much advantage, but it also doesn't come up often, like you said. For 95% of play, you just need to roll your numbers. It's there for when it does.

Besides, subtracting the amount over 10 from the other guy or subtracting the difference when both go over 10 isn't THAT complex. You're just subtracting instead of adding. That's just an opinion though. It's my design choice, and until some beta-testing shows that it's too complex for a large number of people, I like how it is.

Subtraction instead of addition is generally a bad thing when dealing with bonuses. Turning bonuses into debuffs on the enemy is more complicated that strictly necessary. Still, it seems as if you won't change your mind. However, I will point out that Awesome Points are way too weak for being called awesome. Getting a +1 to hit isn't really all that awesome, and even a +4, which you get for doing an earth shatteringly awesome move, is only a slight increase in your chance to hit if you can't hit already; a lucky person would be able to make up for not having awesome points just by sheer luck.

This quote gave me the impression that you believed that using higher damage moves is ALWAYS the best choice. That's mostly what I was refuting here. There are absolutely reasons to have lower level attacks and to use them.

They are always better when the damage spread is better. Damage ratio is utterly unimportant unless the opponent is not fighting back at all.

I'm not saying that you should use high level moves sometimes. If you're almost guaranteed to hit (you have a high precision and the opponent has a low agility), then it definitely is better. However, if the two are similar (like a 4 vs. a 4) there are certain times where it is better to do the high level attack and certain times where it's better to do the low level attack. It depends on the opponents other stats.

The better damage spread is always better. What that is depends on the situation, but efficiency is entirely irrelevant (when you have an extremely low chance of hitting, efficient attacks give the best spread, but that is correlation, not causation.)

DR is actually a good reason to go higher damage, but there's levels of it. The typical 2 DR that most characters are going to have is insubstantial for most non level 1 attacks. Currently, the best DR someone can get without artifacts and items (which can be disarmed and removed) is around 15 (5 from body and 10 from the Craftsmen buff and the generic wanderer buff). This is nice, but the person DOES have to spend Life to maintain it. So, this should be calculated in. Still, I agree, generally, you should blast the big DR guys for 3 reasons. You do more damage past the DR, they likely have way higher Life than you, and they likely have a low agility which means they're easy to hit. The highest possible DR will get higher. If someone manages to put up 50 DR SOMEHOW you should either let them burn their Life stopping your attacks or BLAST them with a 100 damage Rollin' Thunder (there's a way to do it) or a DR penetrating super attack.

Yes, DR values aren't that high, but they are still high enough to negate even the efficiency advantage of many weaker attacks if you stack it, let alone the spread issue.

On the other hand, if you're a character with a high agility and a low precision (like 2), you won't hit the 4 average guy quite as often. The guy probably wasn't going to hit you with his 4 precision versus your 7 or 8, but you blow through most of your Life by using the big guns and not hitting. You may hit less with the lower damage abilities, but you won't burn yourself out so much that you WILL fall down when the 1 hit does get you.

This is actually a problem with the system: if you massively boost your chance to dodge, then you can't hit and it's literally better to sit around and do nothing (or throw a regular attack; there has to be something that doesn't cost life to use, but I don't recall seeing it. Since when were ninjas winded by just punching people?). If you massively boost your chance to hit, then it's always better to use your high power moves (unless they can't hit for full damage). The system is too granular; unless you are average and fighting average opponents, you're either going to be blasting away with bug guns or waiting around because you'd kill yourself faster than the enemy can by attacking.

That's what I mean by the moves being more efficient. You take less damage per damage you deal from using them than the higher level techniques. I never said they were BETTER. There's definitely times to use Level 5's and there's a reason they cost 5 times level 1 skills.

The problem is that being efficient doesn't necessarily mean your enemies will get killed faster. Spread is still king, because if you have low HP and use low spread attacks, you'll get whittled down by high accuracy attacks (which, against dodgy characters, have a better spread).

One More Question:
You obviously read through MOST of the system though. So, what do you think about it otherwise? Like it? Hate it? Is it something you would play if the rule of 10 wasn't as complex? There's some things I'm not going to change because I know some of the other abilities that are coming up and how they balance with other things, but I still appreciate the feedback even if I don't sound otherwise. It gives me a different viewpoint.

It looks good, but it's even more granular than Dungeons and Dragons. You're either always hitting or always missing, and it's rarely inbetween.

[Dairun Cates]

It looks good, but it's even more granular than Dungeons and Dragons. You're either always hitting or always missing, and it's rarely inbetween.

Yeah. I am trying to avoid that, and we seem disagree on some basic design philosophy, but that's fine really. I haven't been seeing as much granularity with the tests and numbers I've been running, but I may be off. That's entirely why I'm testing this over the next few months and doing this as the final workshop project for my MFA. It gives me the time and extra viewpoints to fix things like this. There's bound to be some things that aren't going to work in practice and some things that will work better in practice.

To cover a few things you brought up though...

Awesome Points: There's a lot of other things they do. These are generally the more powerful uses of them. The base to hit is more of a desperation move than anything. The ability to crit, go first in a turn, edit scenes, and such are a bit better. Still, I might improving the roll bonus to a +2 that caps at 3 awesome points (so it doesn't remove the effectiveness of the auto-hit). A 7 versus a 10 is definitely a little more fair though. If memory serves, that gives you a roughly 30% chance to hit a foe like that.

Base Damage: It's half your body stat rounded up (covered in attributes). It's not a whole hell of a lot and gets negated by most body based DR, but it's there, and it helps in tight situations. You can also have a bunch of attack buffs to help it that might be cheaper than actually using a level 1 if you did it right.

Also, what do you think of the reaction mechanic?

And of course, is there any faction you'd like to see?

Edit: AH! The Base damage was actually in Combat. No wonder you were confused.

Double Edit: And I slightly missed this statement, but the idea between having too much dodge and having too much precision is entirely the point. Having a stat that's so high almost no one can resist you in that stat comes with the consequences of being incredibly weak in something else. Because of this, a 7 is generally the highest you have a stat at start and be practical without spending starting points on attributes, and even then, the average starting hero score of 4 isn't going to be impossible to beat you. Also, there's a reason there's a few abilities that use will and agility as the to hit stat.

[Dairun Cates]

The Dr. Inja:
Summary: The Dr. Inja are masters of studying the human body and the inner workings of every living thing. While not as precise as their Hitinja brethren, they make up for it in a better knowledge of where to strike for the most damage. Even better than that, Dr. Inja not only know how to break the human body, but how to fix it as well and even make it better than it was before.

High Level Dr. Inja can heal wounds, remove crippling debuffs, add their own powerful debuffs and buffs, and hit an opponent in just the way to make them feel it.

History: The Dr. Inja started out as a necessity in the realities of war and ended up as some of the most educated and influential Ninjas out there.

The Dr. Inja have been around since anyone still alive can remember and the true histories of their origins have long been lost to various lost archives and the treasure hordes of many a pirate. The most popular theory is that the Dr. Inja started out as Hitinja and decided to push their craft to the next level. It's not hard to see why. While they lack some of the impossible accuracy of the Hitinja, the Dr. Inja have numerous techniques that even the Hitinja can only dream about.

Still, it's not hard to imagine why they exist. With the average Ninja's squishy exterior compared to the average pirate, having someone around that can fix those wounds is a valuable ally indeed. Because of this, the Dr. Inja have always been quite influential in Ninja circles. However, one thing truly keeps the Dr. Inja from being the most powerful Ninja faction. A pesky little thing called the Dr. Inja Oath.

Sometime at the beginning of the creation of the Dr. Inja, someone decided that the powers of the Dr. Inja were too great to be abused and created an oath to bind this. It was declared that a Dr. Inja would not harm an innocent bystander in combat, would only kill an opponent out of self-defense and necessity, and would heal those that needed it. The Dr. Inja's role was to heal, not destroy.

Of course, since Pirate's sometimes need healing too, this causes a bit of trouble in some Ninja circles. Nowadays, not everyone obeys the Dr. Inja Oath, and despite the typical Ninja belief of honoring codes, most Ninja prefer it that way. Still, there are quite a few that keep the true tradition of the Dr. Inja alive, and even though their views could be seen as treason, a number of these people have found themselves in seats of power nonetheless.

One such man is the current leader of the Dr. Inja, Surgical Precision. A calm and methodical man, Surgical Precision abides entirely by the Dr. Inja Oath and will only fight an opponent when it is absolutely necessary. Even then, he has never killed a foe, and he intends to keep it that way.

Surgical Precision is also one of the most lenient Ninja leaders. He has been known to help anyone that has entered his office doors that truly desire help, Pirate or not. Ironically enough, he's also one of the Ninja leaders least likely to reveal the secrets of his higher level techniques. The true powers of the Dr. Inja are indeed powerful and should not be used in the hands of one that cannot be completely trusted with them.

Attribute Scores: As expected, Dr. Inja require a certain level of Precision to pull off some of their best abilities. Seeing as they lack the accuracy of the moves of the Hitinja, some might even argue that they need it MORE than the average Hitinja. Dr. Inja are also known for having perfect physical and mental health as well though. So, Dr. Inja with high Body and Will scores are far from uncommon.

Level 1:

Spoiler

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Take the Oath!
Ninja 1
Cost: Passive
Dr. Inja understand the inner workings of the bodies and its every intricacy. Dr. Injas use this ability to help heal their patients. Any Dr. Inja with this ability gains a +2 on all checks involving medical procedures or understanding the human body.

Sum up the Patient
Ninja 1
Cost: Passive
The Dr. Inja knows how to compare the health of patients to each other. Once a round, by spending his attack action to observe, the Dr. Inja can observe a target and compare one attribute of that score to another living target (including possibly the Dr. Inja). So, a Dr. Inja can see whether a specific enemy has a higher or lower attribute than another. This should also give a general idea to severity. If a Dr. Inja compares a character with a 2 body to a character with an 6 body, he or she should analyze the target with 2 body as having a much lower body stat.

Identify the Faults
Ninja 1
Cost: 2
The Dr. Inja is an expert at spotting weaknesses in even the most fit individuals. By spending a turn observing the motions of a target and not using his attack action, the Dr. Inja can gain 10 damage on his next attack against that target by aiming for a slight weakness in their motions. Pay the cost before taking the turn off. If the process is interrupted, the life must be paid again and another turn must be spent observing.

An Apple a Day
Ninja 1
Cost: 2
What started as a joke on an old phrase turned into a legitimate attack. The Dr. Inja pulls an apple out of his coat and pelts and opponent up to 6 squares away with it for 5 damage.

Level 2:

Spoiler

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Know the Form
Ninja 2
Cost: Passive
The Dr. Inja have mastered the body and know its various injured states in every frame. A Dr. Inja with this ability can look at one opponent a turn and determine if that person is above half Life, below half life, or below a quarter of his or her life maximum life total.

The Strength of a Doctor
Ninja 2
Cost: 3
The first step to learning the body's secrets is to master one's own body. Dr. Injas are in the pinnacle of health. By focusing their energies, they can become super strong for a short period of time. When a Dr. Inja uses this ability, he or she gain a +4 to Body for the purposes of feats of strength until his or her next turn.

Unlocking Potential
Ninja 2
Cost: 6
The Dr. Inja can unlock possibilities in himself or others. By taking an attack action to strike a power point, the Dr. Inja raises 1 attribute of his choice by 1 for the remainder of combat. This can be used on a target once for each attribute.

Perfect Bill of Health
Ninja 2
Cost: Passive
Dr. Inja have to keep their bodies in perfect shape to ensure that they do not become ill in the process of helping their patients. Dr. Injas with this ability gain a +2 on body checks to avoid debilatating effects like loss in attributes and blindness.

Level 3:

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Hypersensitive Pressure Point Touch
Ninja 3
Cost: 10
The Dr. Inja know how to inflict the most pain on their foes. When a Dr. Inja hits an opponent with a Precision roll, they hit a nerve cluster on the opponent that makes them hypersensitive to pain. Until the end of combat, this opponent takes a -5 on all Damage Reduction. This cannot reduce Damage Reduction below 0.

Disabling Nerve Strike
Ninja 3
Cost: 20
The Dr. Inja understand the nervous system's connections to each muscle in the body. By striking a specific pressure point, the Dr. Inja can render a body part incapable of use for a short period of time. Roll precision at a -4 against the target's body score. If the attack hits, a limb of the user's choice is disabled for the remainder of combat. If a leg is disabled, the attacker can only move and jump at half speed and their agility is reduced by 2 for the sake of dodging (this cannot lower it below 1). If both legs are disabled, the opponent can only move 1 square around and only by dragging their body by their arms their agility is reduced by another 2 for the sake of dodging (if it goes down to 1 the opponent does not go unconscious). Disabling an arm removes that arm as being usable. Heavy two handed weapons can no longer be wielded and they take a -1 to hit with any physical attacks. Furthermore, the character's body is reduced by 2 for the purpose of strength checks. If both arms are disabled, the opponent cannot wield any weapons, is at another -2 to body for strength attacks, and often can no longer attack unless they have moves that allow them to kick, headbutt, or sing their opponent into submission. Further penalties should be assessed by the GM. If all body parts are disabled, the opponent should consider surrender.

Restorative Nerve Strike
Ninja 3
Cost: 8
The Dr. Inja that knows how to break the body also knows how to fix it. By striking a nerve on a willing ally, the Dr. Inja can remove 1 debilatating effect off the target. This can include any penalties to attributes, disabled limbs, blindness, deafness, or the like but cannot remove death or unconsciousness. This can also be used to remove one buff off of an enemy at a -2 to precision.

Daily Check-up
Ninja 3
Cost: 8
The Dr. Inja can quickly patch up moderate wounds in battle. When the Dr. Inja uses his attack action to do this action, the target heals 15 Life. This CAN be used on the Dr. Inja.

Stupefying Kick
Ninja 3
Cost: 16
Many people are often shocked how little they are prepared to get punted in the head by the Dr. Inja's heavy boot. By kicking the opponent just right, the Dr. Inja literally knocks the sense out of them. This attack rolls at a -2 to precision and only does 10 damage, but also knocks off 1 Precision and Will from the opponent until the end of combat.

Level 4:

Spoiler

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Five-fold Crippling Palm
Ninja 4
Cost: 20
This is an attack made with a -4 to Precision against a targets Body roll. If the Ninja successfully exceeds the Pirate's body roll, then the Pirate's Body and Agility score are reduced by 2 for the remainder of combat. This makes the Pirate, among other things, lose 20 maximum Life, 1 damage reduction, 2 dodge, and 1 reaction. This effect cannot stack with itself, but can stack with other similar effects.

Empathic Treatment
Ninja 4
Cost: Passive
The true Dr. Inja will do anything to help the patient, even if it means taking on the burden of the injury itself. By taking on the responsibility of the problem, the Dr. Inja gets to know it and knows better how to cure it. Using this ancient technique that swaps the Life energies of the Dr. Inja and his patient, the Dr. Inja can heal the wounds of an ally by taking them instead. This can be done for any injury short of Death. So, a Dr. Inja with this ability can take away Life drain, debuffs to stats, and even things like blindness. This technique requires the Dr. Inja to be able to touch the patient and take the attack action for the turn.

The 1,000 Pressure Points
Ninja 4
Cost: 9
The Dr. Inja knows the location of all 1,000 of the bodies pressure points. Attacking these can cause immense pain and damage to the victim even with something as small as a needle. Roll precision at a -2 to hit. This attack does 25 damage.

Blinding Temple Strike
Ninja 4
Cost: 15
The Dr. Inja can give a powerful blow to the opponent's temple that temporarily blinds the foe. Roll precision at a -4 against Agility. If the target can then not make a 15 body check, they are blinded for a number of rounds equal to how much they failed the Body check by. While blinded, an opponent is at a -4 to agility to dodge and precision to hit or recognize stealth checks and cannot take any actions that require sight. Targets can only target squares they've perceived by their sense of hearing or by instructions from allies. When in doubt, make a precision check of 12 to hear the location of a foe.

Level 5:

Spoiler

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The Ripple of Life
Ninja 5
Cost: 15
The Dr. Inja knows that life spreads like a ripple in the pond. The slightest vibration can cause a meltdown of the body. Dr. Inja with this technique are capable of hitting enemies by merely hitting an object they are touching without harming the object. Whether it's punching a tree their foe is standing on or punching them through a hostage or even harming their foe from behind a steel wall or even smashing a rock without harming a fly in the way of the attack, the power of the ripple will find them. The ground, air, and water don't count as objects for the sake of this ability, but everything else is fair game. There are 3 major effects of this attack. First, if the opponent is wearing some kind of armor or item to give him or her damage reduction, this is negated. Second, if the "opponent" to be hit is an inanimate object that is not indestructible quality or better, it is destroyed. Third, only the target of the attack is harmed by the attack no matter how many objects the attack goes through (hitting the last man in a chain of people holding hands does not hurt anyone else in the chain). Resolve the hit at a -2 to precision. This attack does 30 damage.

Surgical Precision
Ninja 5
Cost: 20
The true believer of the Dr. Inja Oath does not believe in killing his or her foes. Surgical Precision invented this attack to ensure that he would never have to kill a living thing. This attack can only be used when the Dr. Inja has been challenged to a Death Duel or is fighting a monster that intends to kill him. This attack hits at a -2 to precision and does 50 damage. However, the Dr. Inja takes special care to hit his foe without hitting any vital parts of the body. While the wounds still take a while to heal, the damage from this attack cannot kill an opponent. This can also be used on monsters (since monsters always mean to kill) but only does 40 damage as their physical bodies are different from humans.

Perfect Form
Ninja 5
Cost: 1 Awesome Point and 10 Life
The Dr. Inja is the pinnacle of physical and mental health, and his body and soul can snap back from anything. When the Dr. Inja activates this ability, any and all debilitating effects on the Dr. Inja's person go away. This cures everything from illness to attribute debuffs to effects like deafness and blindness. This cannot help Life drain or the effects of the Kurosawa Corollary. Effects that come from artifacts or unnatural means (such as engineered diseases or alchemist poisons) may not be cured by this.

Lightspeed Metabolism
Ninja 5
Cost: Passive
Dr. Injas have learned to recover fast from the damages they cannot instantly cure. By keeping their bodies in peak condition, the Dr. Inja have gained the ability to regenerate 4 Life automatically each round in combat. This effect is slower out of combat at a mere 5 Life a minute. The Dr. Inja can of course just rest to re-energize outside of combat, but it comes in handy for those times when the Dr. Inja needs to do something while his allies rest. The Dr. Inja must be conscious for this ability to work.

No Wound Too Great
Ninja 5
Cost: 10
The Dr. Inja knows that his allies are relying on him to get them out alive. So, the Dr. Inja have developed a technique for patching up their allies quick. This action takes both the move and attack action for the Dr. Inja this round and the Dr. Inja must be able to touch the subject (The Dr. Inja can be the subject). However, the recipient heals 30 life. This can only be used on each target once before they rest to heal their Life. This cannot speed up the after battle healing process of Lethal wounds from a Death Duel. Those need proper care and first aid. Although, it can be used to keep someone alive in that Death Duel.

[banthesun]

The Strength of a Doctor
Ninja 2
Cost: 5
The first step to learning the body's secrets is to master one's own body. Dr. Injas are in the pinnacle of health. By focusing their energies, they can become super strong for a short period of time. When a Dr. Inja uses this ability, he or she gain a +4 to Body for the purposes of feats of strength until his or her next turn.

'cos you're totally not encouraging us to be Dr McNinja...

[Dairun Cates]

'cos you're totally not encouraging us to be Dr McNinja...

Hey. I mentioned somewhere that 90% of these abilities are some subtle reference to something. It wouldn't be a very good Medical style ninja ability if there weren't SOME Dr. McNinja references in there. I was serious though. If you want to make Dr. McNinja (although, I support making new characters), you will have to look for a sizeable amount of abilities not taught by this faction. Most of his actual Ninja stuff is regular or Hitinja style stuff. There's only a handful of times where his Doctor training gets used to amplify his Ninja abilities (like a certain poor Zombie or said vending machine).

EDIT: Besides, if every reference was me telling you to play a character, you'd have to be playing the Guy about a minute into this trailer every time you used The Ripple of Life.

[banthesun]

I never said there was anyting wrong about it...

[Dairun Cates]

Dr. Injas are finished for now. Now to move onto Drunkarrds. Here's a fun faction. Buff your body stat into oblivion and laugh like a lunatic with your crazy high Life total. They also have probably the most abilities of any faction, but a good number of them are variations on other skills.

Next up are Drunken Master, or as I like to call them, Finesse Drunks.

The Drunkarrds:
Summary: The Drunkarrds are the muscles and brute force of the Pirate Kingdom. Drunkarrds take their love of ridiculous feats of strength and Mead and use it to push their power to new levels. On a Pirate ship, Drunkarrds often do all the heavy lifting.

High Level Drunkarrds can drink quickly, buff themselves with their favorite drink, lift heavy objects, and resist damaging attacks with increased Damage Reduction.

History: All Pirates love Mead to some extent. Drunkarrds don't just love Mead though. They cannot thrive without it. It is the very essence of their being. A number of opponents have learned the hard way not to take a Drunkarrd's brew.

The Drunkarrds aren't exactly an organized faction. Even if half of them were smart enough to stay organized, they could never stay sober long enough to do it. Thus, the Drunkarrds rival the Luckies for most unconnected faction. Drunkarrds often develop techniques on their own, and what they do learn from better Drunkarrds, they usually learn in the bar by complete accident.

That's not to say that the Drunkarrds don't have figures of significant note like the Luckies though. Far from it. While Drunkarrds are horrible leaders, Drunkarrds are excellent soldiers and fighters. A number of Drunkarrds have managed to take on hundreds of skilled opponents at once with their powerful builds and ridiculous resilience.

Once such figure of note is Steel Liver Scott. Steel Liver first gained infamy by not only winning the drinking contest at a local festival, but drinking the entire festival out of Mead entirely. Needless to say, taverns soon learned to fear him as he would manage to drink their entire inventory. Also needless to say, Steel Liver Scott is a powerful opponent who is rarely sober enough to tell the difference between friend and foe. Some have even gone as far as to call him a force of nature. On the rare occasions where he is sentient enough to think though, he has proven a valuable ally to the Pirate war. His most famous accomplishment being when he ripped a town's clock tower out of the ground and beat down 100 foes with it in 1 swing.

Attribute Scores: There's one stat that ALL Drunkarrds at least need a decent score in, and that's Body. Constant alcoholic abuse can become quickly hazardous to the Drunkarrd's health, and they need to be able to withstand constantly poisoning themselves on a day to day basis to be able to survive. Still, until before they picked up the style of the infinite refilling mug, every Drunkarrd was a normal person. Their remaining attributes could be anywhere else.

Level 1:

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Stone-Cold Sober
Pirate 1
Cost: Passive
Years of alcoholic abuse has made the Drunkarrds resilient to all sorts of chemicals. The Drunkarrd with this ability has a permenant +2 to resist all kinds of poisons and foreign agents in his or her body. This DEFINITELY includes alcohol.

The Mead of Staggering
Pirate 1
Cost: 5
The Drunkarrd keeps a number of brews on him at all times. Some of these give special effects to the Drunkarrds when he or she consumes them. The Drunkarrd can drink 1 drink a round. This does not use an action. The Mead of Staggering gives the Drunkarrd a +2 to body at the cost of a -2 to Agility. The Drunkarrd must have at least a 3 agility to use this.

The Mead of Blurred Vision
Pirate 1
Cost: 5
The Drunkarrd keeps a number of brews on him at all times. Some of these give special effects to the Drunkarrds when he or she consumes them. The Drunkarrd can drink 1 drink a round. This does not use an action. The Mead of Blurred vision gives the Drunkarrds a +2 to body at the cost of a -2 to precision. The Drunkarrd must have at least a 3 precision to use this.

The Mead of Dull Wits
Pirate 1
Cost: 5
The Drunkarrd keeps a number of brews on him at all times. Some of these give special effects to the Drunkarrds when he or she consumes them. The Drunkarrd can drink 1 drink a round. This does not use an action. The Mead of Dull Wits gives the Drunkarrd a +2 to body at the cost of a -2 to Will. The Drunkarrd must have at least a 3 will to use this.

Spit In Their Face!
Pirate 1
Cost: 1
As an attack action, the Drunkarrd sprays alcohol all over an adjacent opponent. This attack causes the opponent to take 5 damage from the next fire attack that hits them.

Level 2:

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Speed Chugger
Pirate 2
Cost: Passive
Drunkarrds have learned to drink super fast. This ability allows the Drunkarrds to do two drinking actions a turn. This can include an alchemist's potions.

Stumbling Punch
Pirate 2
Cost: 4
Drunkarrds are rarely graceful, but this fact can catch many opponents off guard. The Drunkarrds that uses this ability attacks with an unbalanced punch that catches the opponent off guard. Roll at a +1 to hit. This attack does 10 damage.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot!
Pirate 2
Cost: 5/turn
The Drunkarrds love to show off. When a Drunkarrd activates this ability, he gains 5 damage reduction for remainder of the turn.

Let's Find a Rock
Pirate 2
Cost: 6
The Drunkarrd finds a big object and chucks it at one opponent. The damage of this attack is based on the size of the object. This attack does damage equal to the check required to lift the object. The Object can be thrown a distance equal to the number of squares the Drunkarrd exceeded the check to lift it (minimum 1). If the object is bigger than 1 square, give the attack a +1 to hit from the pure size of it.

Bar Fightin' Genius
Pirate 2
Cost: Passive
Drunkarrds are at home in the tavern. Whenever a Drunkarrd is in a bar fight, he gains a +1 to hit and dodge rolls.

Level 3:

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Liquor Rain
Pirate 3
Cost: 10
The Drunkarrd DEFINITELY brought enough to share with the class. The Drunkarrd explodes on of his precious kegs of alcohol into a fine mist. Anyone within 10 squares of the Drunkarrds is automatically effected. Everyone in this field (including the Drunkarrd) takes 5 more damage from fire based attacks until the end of combat.

Arm Wrestle the Kraken
Pirate 3
Cost: 3/turn
The Drunkarrd have great and powerful bodies, but even greater than their resilience is their unexplainable strength. While a Drunkarrd has this ability on, he or she can break the rule of 10 for the purposes of strength checks to lift objects. This means that his or her effective body score for lifting can go over 10.

Take a Cannonball to the Gut
Pirate 3
Cost: 2/turn
The Drunkarrds have amazing and superhuman resilience. While the Drunkarrd has this ability on, he or she can break the rule of 10 for the purpose of body score to determine natural Damage Reduction.

Punch a God
Pirate 3
Cost: Passive
The Drunkarrds are amazingly potent at their attacks. With this ability, the Drunkarrd can break the rule of 10 for the purpose of body score to determine raw damage of natural attacks.

Molotov!
Pirate 3
Cost: 6
The Drunkarrds hate to waste booze, but they will if they have to. The Drunkarrd makes a quick and dirty Molotov Cocktail and throws it at 1 target up to 6 squares away. That target takes 15 fire damage. This also burns anything in the square.

I'm Gonna Bop You Good!
Pirate 3
Cost: 6
The Drunkarrds put all their weight into their attacks. When a Drunkarrd uses this ability to punch his foes, he also throws his own natural strength into it. This attack does 10 damage PLUS the Drunkarrd's natural damage on an attack (half their body score, rounded up).

Quite the Kick!
Pirate 3
Cost: Passive
Drunkarrds are quite the retainers of spare energy. Whenever a Drunkarrd with this ability uses an awesome point to gain life back, he gains back 15 life instead of 10.

Molasses Strawman
Pirate 3
Cost: 10
Drunkarrds are so hardy that otherwise awesome attacks may get lost in their bulk. When a Drunkarrds prepares this as his attack action for the turn, the Drunkarrd can choose to activate this after being successfully hit with a melee attack. The Drunkarrd then makes a Body Check versus the foe's agility or body (keep in mind Body is capped at 10 in this case without awesome points). If successful, the opponent is grabbed by whatever they used to attack this foe. Furthermore, until they make an opposed agility or body check versus the Drunkarrd's body, the Drunkarrd holds on for dear life and the target cannot move, takes a -2 to dodges, and cannot attack with whatever was grabbed. The Drunkarrd can move, but the target comes with them. If the Drunkarrd grabs a weapon, the target can choose to drop it. However, the Drunkarrd is not obliged to give it back. While grappling a foe, the Drunkarrd can only attack this opponent with basic attack (half body, rounded up), but gains a +2 to hit. Teleportation can escape this.

Level 4:

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The True Mead
Pirate 4
Cost: 10
The Drunkarrd always has a favorite Mead that they are immune to the adverse effects of. This Mead gives a +2 to Body for the remainder of combat without any penalties. This does not give the extra +20 life for gaining 2 body.

At Least It Came Out His Mouth
Pirate 4
Cost: 6
The Drunkarrd's breath is so saturated with Mead that he can light a match and belch into it for a giant fireball of death. This hits 5 squares around the Drunkarrd and does 15 fire damage to everyone in the blast. Roll +2 precision to hit. The Drunkarrd is counted as in the blast for this attack.

Drink to Your Health
Pirate 4
Cost: Passive
The Drunkarrds gain nourishment from their alcohol. Once a battle, the Drunkarrd can spend a drinking action to gain back 15 Life.

Level 5:

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Perfect Physical Clarity
Pirate 5
Cost: 15
The Drunkarrd's body has become so resistant that they can, with a bit of focus shut their bodies out entirely from altering factors. When a Drunkarrd spends a full turn to use this ability, the Drunkarrd removes all positive and negative modifiers to his attribute scores (including the ones from his own drinking skills). Until the end of battle, the Drunkarrd cannot be effected by ANY modification to his raw attribute scores at all. He can still gain bonuses and penalties to things like hit and dodge, but his raw attribute scores cannot be changed by any means. Furthermore, the Drunkarrd gains 10 life anytime while this is active when someone tries to debuff his attributes.

Healthy as a 10 Story Ox
Pirate 5
Cost: Passive
Drunkarrds have managed to put so much poison in their bodies over the years that their bodies have actually become even more healthy than they initially seem from fighting it. Drunkarrds with this ability gain 20 more max Life.

Steel Liver and Steel Body
Pirate 5
Cost: 12/turn
Invented by Steel Liver Scott himself, this technique makes the Drunkarrd an indestructible force. When activated, the Drunkarrd's body becomes resistant to all outside physical presences. The Drunkarrds gains a 15 Damage Reduction until his next action.

The Grand Slam
Pirate 5
Cost: 30
This is the Drunkarrd's ultimate display of Strength. The Drunkarrd summons all of his Super Strength to lift things he could not previously lift and swings this object around effortlessly to hit his foes. The Drunkarrd can now lift an object that is up to his current effective body score for lifting in length (in squares) and swing it at all his foes like an AoE. This attack hits all opponents within Melee range of this weapon as the Drunkarrd swings it around. This attack hits at a +2 from its sheer size and does 30 damage. The Drunkarrd drops the item after this attack if it did not shatter.

[Dairun Cates]

Adding this at the recommendation, suggestion, and begging of some of my players. Besides, every good point buy system needs them, I suppose...

Flaws:
Sometimes, a character isn't just the sum of all of his awesome abilities. Sometimes, there's more to a character that can't be summed up as just a personality trait. Sometimes, a character is blind or missing an arm.

Still, the universe tries to make everyone equal and compensates these poor individuals for their suffering. The points given back usually don't anywhere near compensate for the flaw itself, but it's still a nice consolation. MOST flaws should range from 1-5 points. Only extreme cases should go over this (like blindness).

Characters can take flaws to gain extra character points they desperately need (or maybe they just like being flawed). Still, this can help flesh out a character and give them some interesting plot hooks. It should be noted that a flaw should give some kind of mechanical penalty. Anything else is just role-playing. So, having an old injury is a flaw. Hating Mead is not (unless it somehow keeps you from functioning properly in society).

The maximum number of points a character can get from flaws is equal to 1/4th their current character point total (before flaws). So, for most starting characters, this means 10 points.

Flaws are not sorted in any particular order for now. The points they give are in parenthesis. I'll add more as I think of them. If a flaw no longer suits a character, they can buy it back with the same number of points it gave. Although, some will need a good story reason to remove. Blindness doesn't just go away because you want it to.

Flaws List:

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Blind (10): Blind characters have learned to adjust to their blindness and don't take nearly the penalty everyone else does. However, for them, it is permanent. -2 to Precision for hit and Agility for Dodge. Immune to darkness and visual effects. +1 precision to listen checks.

Missing Eye (4): Characters with this flaw have lost an eye but not both. This gives a -1 to precision to hit and spot objects or people. This also generally prevents the use of abilities like Secret of the Patch since the character is blinded.

Deaf (5): -1 Agility for dodge. Auto-fail listen checks. Must make a 10 precision check to read lips. Immune to verbal or sound based effects. +1 to Spot checks.

Focused Attribute (2 or 4): Reduce an attribute by 2 for some MAJOR aspect of the ability (like spotting for precision, acrobatics for agility, resistance for body, or diplomacy for will). Reduce by 4 instead for 4 points. Ability must be at least one after the minus is added.

Missing Limb (5): See effect of disabled nerve strike. Adding a prosthetic requires buying back this defect.

Dim-witted (1): This character is a bit slow. The character may not even attempt knowledge based skills they are not trained in (ie. Have a skill bonus ability in).

Clumsy (2): This character is prone to horrible trips and falls. Once per session, the GM may make a character auto-fail some kind of agility check. This can either take the form of an inconvenient stumble that doesn't kill the player but puts them in a tough predicament (falling off a 40 foot high bridge or spilling a bar patron's drink at a bad time). Or this can be used to force a player to re-roll a dodge roll and take the worse result once a session (this cannot be negated with an awesome point reroll).

Greedy (1): Some characters lust after treasure way more than others. A character with this flaw takes a -2 to all will checks to resist Diplomacy, Bluffs, or otherwise when considerable wealth or an item of considerable power is offered or promised to the character.

Reckless (2): Your character is incredibly arrogant and refuses to back down from any fight. You character will never run from a fight by his own free will. Other characters will need to drag him after he or she is unconscious to get him or her away. This character gains a +2 to will to avoid fear. However, if this character should ever retreat for ANY reason, they immediately forfeit all awesome points and will need to do one stunt that would normally give an awesome point to start gaining them again.

Phobia (1): Your character is severely afraid of something. In order to attack it or move past the phobia, the character must make a 12 Will save every round. The character will also do anything to avoid their phobia even if they have a high enough will to frequently face their fears.

Addiction (2): Characters in Pirates vs. Ninjas are often characters of excess, but even some characters are worse than that. This character is addicted to some act or substance. If he or she goes prolonged time without it, they start taking penalties to all of their attribute scores. For instance, an Alcoholic that goes a couple of days without a drink suffers a -1 to attributes. Going a week without, he or she suffers a -2. Going 2 weeks and he's at a -3 and is likely a gibbering mess. Also, much like Greedy, characters suffer a -2 to will checks to persuade when offered their vice.

Extreme Honor (2): Your character doesn't believe in backing down and will ALWAYS accept a Death Duel or a challenge for a 1 on 1 Duel to negate the Kurosawa Corollary when given the chance. They can still run (unless they are reckless), but they cannot refuse the initial offer.

Code (1): Your character has a very strict Code of ethics that is not covered by another flaw. The character writes out this code. Should they ever willingly break it, they will take a -1 to all rolls until they fix their misdeed. Should they break it unwillingly or unknowingly, they still must try to make amends, if they can, at all cost.

[Dairun Cates]

Here's those finessed Drunks, I promised.

The Drunken Masters:
Summary: The Drunken Masters follow a similar theme to the Drunkarrds, but with different results entirely. While the Drunkarrds focus on their bodies, Drunken Masters focus on a more finesse and mental game. The alcohol, instead of being something to toughen the frame, is used as something to loosen it.

High Level Drunken Masters can buff themselves (trading their bodies score for other buffs, think effectively while drunk, and fight with a fighting style that is as unpredictable as it is ridiculous.

History: The Drunken Masters are an ancient brotherhood that believes that the path to true power lies somewhere in the mind and body loosening properties of Alcohol. Some people believe that by embracing a Pirate's Decadence and a Ninja's studious techniques, the Drunken Masters have become true Pirate Ninjas. Others just think they're Alcoholics with a really good excuse.

Drunken Mastery is as old as someone has been able to pick up a mug and drink from it. Some people just seem to do some tasks better while drunk. However, the official faction has amazingly only existed for around 100 years. This is mostly due to the fact that, much like the Drunkarrds, getting a bunch of alcohol addicts to organize is like Herding Cats (A popular Ninja Game of Skill infamous for its difficulty).

Drunken Mastery has gone through a lot of leaders. Unlike the Drunkarrds, Drunken Masters aren't really resilient to their favorite beverage, and years of Alcohol abuse generally catches up to them. This leads to a great deal of Drunken Masters dying at young ages.

The current Drunken Master leader is a man known as the Drunken Seer, trained by the previous master, Inebriated Baboon. He's gained his title for a certain amount of clarity and a great amount of wisdom that he shows while blind stinking drunk. No one's entirely sure where this comes from, but it's definitely there. On rare occasions, he's predicted important and disaster-ridden events. So, while he rarely says or does much, when he does, people tend to listen.

Despite a somewhat rocky reputation, some villages enjoy the employment of the Drunken Masters. Much like Drunkarrds, a lot of them are just willing to work for a bottle of the local brew, but unlike the Drunkarrds, a number of them are capable of actually accomplishing difficult tasks while Drunk. So, while a Drunkarrd is good for moving a boulder, a Drunken Master is good for building a house. The fact that they're Wanderers and naturally neutral also helps.

Attribute Scores: Unlike Drunkarrds, Drunken Masters often don't have the best body scores. Their constant Alcohol abuse without the steel liver of the Drunkarrds has made a number of them physically weak. However, Drunken Masters make up for this by being masterfully quick, willful, and precise. A Drunken Master could be a master of any of these or even all of them.

Level 1:

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Taster's Choice
Wanderer 1
Cost: Passive
Drunken Masters have discerning tastebuds and prefer to only drink the finest brews. Because of this, they've developed a natural talent for tasting. A Drunken Master can take a quick taste of a substance, food, or drink, and can tell certain details of it by the taste (where it's from, what it is, what it does, etc). The Drunken Master gains a +2 to precision for these checks.

Fist of My Head, Foot of my Crotch!
Wanderer 1
Cost: Passive
The Drunken Master has an impetuous style that doesn't care about appearances or conventions of fighting. While fighting with this ability, the Drunken Master can use any part of his body for an unarmed attack to replace any part of his body for an unarmed attack. So, what used to be a punch can now be done as a headbutt. While not often useful, this can catch opponents off guard or allow the Drunken master to attack in a grapple easily or whenever almost all his limbs are disabled.

I-KE!
Wanderer 1
Cost: 4
The Wanderer takes a free action to take a quick chug of his favorite drink and gains a +1 to either Will, Precision, or Agility at the cost of 1 Body for the rest of Combat.

Face to Foot Style
Wanderer 1
Cost: 1
The Drunken Master learns early on to improvise and learns this basic attack. By swinging up for a punch, but throwing his head forward, the Drunken Master delivers a deadly spinning headbutt that does 10 damage. However, the Drunken Master lands on the ground after using this attack. He or she must spend his or her move action next turn to get up.

Level 2:

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I'm Better When I'm Drunk
Wanderer 2
Cost: Passive
The Drunken Master has some skill or profession that he or she is trained in that he or she does better while hitting a perfect level of inebriation. Pick ONE skill the Drunken Master is trained in (ie. has an ability that gives a +2 bonus to a check). The Drunken Master has a further +1 to this check while Drunk.

Drunken Clarity
Wanderer 2
Cost: Passive
The Drunken Master is an unusual breed. While they are continually Drunk, they manage to maintain a level of clarity that others cannot. Their minds continue to work at full capacity. They may slur a bit, but the Drunken Master suffers no penalties to his knowledge or perceptions while Drunk.

Dirty Footwork
Wanderer 2
Cost: 5
The Drunken Masters don't believe in fighting fair. Once you're dead, you're dead. There's no honor in a corpse. The Drunken Master uses his feet to kick up a chunk of dirt into his opponent's eyes. Roll agility to hit with this attack at a -2. If this hits, the opponent is blinded until his next action as he attempts to get dirt out of his eyes.

KAMPAI!
Wanderer 2
Cost: 5
The Drunken Master learns to hone all 5 of his senses through the use of alcohol. When drinking this brew, the Drunken Master gain a +1 to Precision, Will, and Agility until the end of the battle at the cost of 2 Body.

Pop Goes the Master!
Wanderer 2
Cost: Passive
The Drunken Master knows how to catch his opponent off guard. Whenever getting up off the ground, the Drunken Master gains a +1 to hit for any melee attack made while getting up from the ground or a sitting position.

Level 3:

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Imperfect Balance
Wanderer 3
Cost: 4
The Drunken Master is a professional at misdirection. Make an opposed will check against an opponent when attack him or her in Melee. If you succeed, you gain a +2 to hit with that attack. If you fail, you merely lose the life spent to use the ability.

Ring the Barrel!
Wanderer 3
Cost: 6
The Drunken Master creates a ring around an opponent's head with his arms and spins them like crazy. This attack does 15 damage, hits at a -2 to hit, and gives the opponent a -1 to dodges for the rest of the turn if it hits.

Monkey on your Back
Wanderer 3
Cost: 10 Life
The Drunken Masters are masters of grappling and holding their opponent in place. When they use this ability. Roll opposed agility rolls. If the Drunken Master wins, the opponent is grappled. While grappled, the Drunken Master can only attack with basic attacks while grappling for 5 damage. The victim cannot move and can only attack the Drunken Master with basic attacks while grappled for 5 damage as well. The victim is also at a -4 to all dodges. Any attacks aimed at the victim or Drunken Master by someone outside the grapple will hit both of them. Attacks that are thrown at the Drunken Master by the victim hit at a +4 to hit. Teleportation or spending a full turn to succeed in another opposed agility check can escape this.

Violent Awakening
Wanderer 3
Cost: Passive
Drunken Masters are somehow always on their guard, even when asleep. If someone tries to attack this character in their sleep, they wake up and attack out of reflex. Give the Drunken Master a surprise round against the opponent.

Level 4:

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Drunken Satori
Wanderer 4
Cost: 12
The Masters of the Drunken Arts push this abilities to one final level. The Drunken Master gains a Further +1 to Agility, Precision, and Will until the end of combat with no penalty to their body score. This does not give the extra 10 Life for the extra Will.

Quit Hitting Yourself!
Wanderer 4
Cost: 10
A nasty ability that Drunken Masters use. By using misdirection, a Drunken Master tricks his foe into hitting himself with a raw attack at full power. Roll Agility to hit at a -2. Do damage equal to the opponent's Body Score times 5 to the opponent.

Looking for Me?
Wanderer 4
Cost: 8
Drunken Masters are also Master Tricksters. A Drunken Master that uses this ability may use his or her Will at a -2 to dodge for the turn instead of his or her agility as they use their wits to dodge instead of agility.

THRUST OF VICTORY!
Wanderer 4
Cost: 15
This is an attack the Drunken Masters know that demoralizes their opponent like crazy. Roll precision to hit at a -2. If it hits, the opponent takes 20 damage and loses 1 Will.

Level 5:

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Monkey See, Monkey Do!
Wanderer 5
Cost: 1 Awesome Point
The final technique invented by the Inebriated Baboon. The Drunken Master has gained such mastery and flexibility with his body that he can mimic the attack of others effortlessly by seeing them. If anyone uses an attack in combat that the Drunken Master doesn't know, he can attempt to use this ability to mimic that ability for 1 attack. If the attack is level 4 or less, he can do this without problem. If it's a level 5 ability, it will require a 12 precision check to notice the nature of the attack. If it's a Level 6 ability, it will require a 15 check or higher to pull this off. This check is can only be done once per time the attack has gone off. The Drunken Master still has to pay for the cost of the ability and the cost of this ability for every turn he wants to use that technique, but he only needs to make the check once in combat. The Drunken Master forgets how he did this technique after the end of the combat.

*Hic* to the Future
Wanderer 5
Cost: 10
The Drunken Seer's famous technique. The Drunken Master, while in his Drunken stupor can perceive his opponents movement so fast that even he can know what the next attack is before even his opponent does. While in the portion of combat where characters are writing down their attacks for the round, the Drunken Master can activate this ability to look what an opponent has written down for his or her attack and exactly what it does. This doesn't give any bonuses, but can often let the Drunken Master set him or herself up in the right way to resist the attack. The Drunken Master cannot also be taken by surprise or be considered off his guard on this round or be interrupted on the reaction of his attack.

Monkey Gatling Assault
Wanderer 5
Cost: 1 Awesome point and 30 Life
The Drunken Master has learned to use his entire body as a weapon in a quick succession of blows that is as potent as it is frightening. The Drunken Master assaults his foe with a series of 6 blows (one for each arm and leg, his head, and his chest). This is landed in the time it takes to land 1 blow. Roll to precision to hit with each attack. Each hit does 15 damage each and is counted as a different attack for each hit. If every hit lands, the opponent is also dizzied and thrown off guard. As a result, the opponent is at a -2 to Agility for the rest of combat and loses their next attack action.

The Boat Floats in Water
Wanderer 5
Cost: Passive
The Drunken Master has achieved a form of perfection and strength through countless hours of training. The perfect balance between inebriation and sobriety has left the Drunken Master with an unpredictable amount of health. Drunken Masters with this ability have 20 more Max Life.

[Dairun Cates]

Had the first test session tonight. Some things to note for the future:

-Bullet #9 was too weak as a full turn delay. It now just takes up a Move Action to load. Otherwise, it works as expected.

-Drunkarrds with their high HP are incredibly hard to kill with damage. Both characters fighting were AOE heavy characters that are fairly inefficient in their Life usage, but the Drunkarrd nearly knocked out two character of equal point level with just the pure atrophy from hitting him. This is as expected but may have worked TOO well. The abilities may need a slight Life cost increase to compensate. May change when players use more debuff heavy things. Still, it's good to note. 160 Life is a LOT.

-Zombies worked beautifully. In large hoardes, they go down like dominos and make for stunting. However, they CAN wear the players down if they go for special attacks. One actually almost killed one player. Specifically, it was one of the last two zombies. Also, Zombies won't take damage from basic attacks from MOST characters. This is as expected, but it seems a bit silly at times.

-Guns should have a raw damage other than half of body score. Seems a bit weird that a gunner with low body does less raw damage.

-Bears hurt.

-High level Arrcrobats are pretty effective, but combat proves that some classes need more intermediate level attack abilities. Even as a 100 point character, he was forced to run because he could no longer do significant damage at 13 Life without knocking himself out.

-Setting fluff works well with characters. Players got well into character.

-Drain causes players to fall down a little quick for their own good. May just be because the 3 player characters were very heavy Life users though.

-2 vs. 2 combat ran decently well.

-Kurosawa corollary worked as intended and didn't feel too awkward. May change when players outnumber a character enough for a -3 though.

-Drunkarrds can hit to save their lives most of the time, even with a +2 boost to hit.

-Test town of Grogston is a good starting point for characters. May have to make official setting material.

-Turn-based buff abilities like Theme music drain a character REALLY fast. This was expected, but it wasn't expected to only take like 3 attacks.

-Eagle Eye doesn't mention that you need at least a 2 agility to use it. It's a minor effect though, and may stay as is.

-Bartenders should get their bars made by Craftsmen if they want to stay in business.

-Bullet #9 does not care for most petty obstacles.

-Literacy. Is it common or uncommon in Pirates vs. Ninjas. This question needs to be answered.

-Characters seem to average 2 actual attack abilities at 40 points. Even with flaws.

-Attributes seem to work well as is, although, might want to buff starting attribute scores to 5 each. Although, this would create a LOT of starting characters with 10's and this could be bad.

-Some factions are severely lacking in actual attacks.

-Writing down attacks before reactions was interesting and changed combat a few times. However, hard to tell full effect when TWO players have Call Your Shots and use it constantly.

-Character buffing seems to be balanced by the fact that fully buffing a character either takes more life than it's worth or takes too many turns. Drunkarrds seem to be an exception. However, Drunkarrds "Over 10" body abilities probably need to be buffed a bit. 3 extra damage on regular attacks and 2 extra natural DR isn't a lot. Lifting one works fine.

-Insert more skill checks in sessions.

-Combat is fun and decently fast paced. However, short-hand versions of high level character is absolutely required if you want their sheets to be under 3 pages long.

-Emphasize stealth in some upcoming test session to test how well or poorly it works.

-Create quick reference card for Awesome Points usages.

-+2 to rolls for awesome points feels about right.

[Moff Chumley]

Ah, so THIS is why there haven't been any new HtPBLaMs recently.

[Dairun Cates]

Ah, so THIS is why there haven't been any new HtPBLaMs recently.

Actually, that would be the conglomeration of all the projects I was working on. I had another one of those "10 hours in the lab a day" kind of semesters. But seeing as this was ONE of those projects, technically that's true.

[Dairun Cates]

Some More Notes from Another Play Session:
-Drunkarrds are working out fairly well they manage to keep their job of lasting long, but Stumbling Punch may need an increase in life cost or a decrease in accuracy.

-Evadinja are still a bit weak. Ebb and Flow may need to have no limit to the number of times it can go off, and agile rejuvenation may need to be buffed to 2 Life. They can still get hit by decently precise characters with accurate attacks frequently. This will need to be fixed.

-Gunnars have come out being glass cannons above anything else. This is about as expected. Point Blank Shotgun is nice.

-Artifact items work decently well at high levels. Opens up for some interesting play choices.

-Infinite Sword Jobs is EXTREMELY potent, but it needs to be for it to make sense as a skill.

-T-rexes work decently as bosses. 4 80 point characters exhausted MOST of their Life fighting 1. T-rex got Agility knocked down to 2. I have NO IDEA why it was a 6. I must've been drunk or something.

[Dairun Cates]

Yet more notes before a massive overhaul of skills, abilities, and such:
-Drunken satori needs adjustment. Should not give the extra Life from the extra will or should cost 20 instead.

-Nerf life on higher Life bad guys. 240 is decent for a boss, but not good for encounter monsters.

-Possibly nerf the life on the groupies for summon the groupies. This isn't definite yet, but 30 seems like a lot. Wasn't able to test them out too much.

-DR needs adjustment. 10 DR is a LOT for a monster to have without having life cost each turn. Nothing short of a level 3 hurts them and it's usually more life cost than it's worth. Nerf "natural" DRs a bit to maybe 2 per level. Drunkarrds is probably fine since it requires something like 24 Life a round to get his maximum DR up and working.

-Look at Life cost on Looking for Me? and analyze if it's too cheap. For some characters, this can be upwards of a +4-5 for dodges for a mere 5 Life a turn. Making it better than some Evadinja skills.

-Forgot to give Drunken Masters a Level 5 passive ability that gives them 20 extra Life. OOPS! Will be added in next skill update.

-Previous factions need more skills and attacks to differentiate each other. Also, Arrcrobats and Evadinja need more damage based moves.

-HUGE Loophole with Final Countdown and Damage boosting moves found that may need sealing in the future.

-Nightengale Requiem shouldn't have an awesome point cost and damage probably needs to be buffed up. Currently does too little damage.

-Rokinja blow through Life stupidly fast, but can be REALLY scary.

-Characters based on buffing other characters can be frightening.

-Add more turn long attribute buffing skills for buff maniacs. If someone let's you live the 5 turns to buff yourself to 11's, they deserve what's coming.

-Possible Life boosts and damage boosts from spending awesome points.

-Some level 5's need to cost less. They're just too expensive.

-Drunken Master Level 5 for anticipating moves might need buffing.

-Charreographers mostly work as expected.

-Gunnars need more agility based moves. Bullet dance is nice, but it's not enough to require a high agility.

-Attacks should do a minimum 1 damage when hit.

-Bullet Dance needs to be reduced in cost. Average damage per use is around 18 for agility based Gunnars. Kinda meh for 12 cost.

-Possibly some level 1 attack abilities need to cost 0 life. They're weak enough that they usually do 2-3 damage per hit.