Change Becomes Us

Well, we haven't even started gaming yet and things are changing. As I was writing up the information needed to play, I noticed that combat involved way too many numbers.

We're trying to keep it so that the Director need never roll, but rather leave all that up to the players.

So, the change we are looking into is to reduce baddies to a simple difficulty. BBEG's and the like will have an equipment "score," but all the others are a simple, flat number. We are dropping their fate/type/equipment scores. That difficulty score will be used on the to hit rolls in combat, as well as the avoid-being-hit rolls.

The underlying goal of this game is to be simple. A critical eye will be cast upon all of our rules, trying to cut out any bloat or other items that slow or complicate the game. There's a couple other things I think could be reduced, but I can't really see how to do it cleanly. We'll figure it out in playtest.

Let the games begin!

We've had a lot of discussion, both here on this blog, on our internal forum, and actual just plain chatting.

In addition to starting the actual writing on this, I've started to create a skeleton game that can be used for testing the rules and mechanics. We'll hopefully start taking runs at the game shortly. Let's see what breaks!

Meanwhile, on the Internet...

I had some downtime yesterday, and took a look through a few of the postings here.

We're getting pretty close to having the rules (rule?) defined, and probably in the next week or three I'll start some basic outlining and writing.

The question is, do we include a basic (or starter) setting in the main rulebook? I think it'd help, with regards to generating examples and basic fluff in the book.

If we create a setting, what should we go for? I don't believe that a Fantasy type setting should be the first, there are a ton of those out there. Modern settings have also been done quite a bit. A nice, pulpy setting taking place in the 30's or 40's could be fun - it'd fit the title of our game, but I'm not so up on my pulp lore.

Once we've determined if and what we'll have with regards to a setting, we also have to decide how in depth we'll be going. Part of me says "Go Crazy!" but, that's what Dystopia and the Bluestone Isle's are for. A basic shell of a setting would also probably fit the whole anything-goes rules-light game, as well.

As an ideal grab and go setting to include in the main rulebook, a modern day setting that we don't go too deep in describing would be best. No need to define the setting, we live it. I'm not sure if that's the best way to go, however.

Thoughts?

Your call is important to us, please stay on the line

I've been a little busy recently, and this coming month is going to consume a huge amount of my time, and so...I probably won't get a chance to post much about ExplorerMan!

That said...we are still here, we still are working, and we will prevail!

Stay tuned, the cinematic, light weight roleplaying system will be back, soon!

Quick thought...

We have our Primary/Secondary (possibly to be called Major/Minor) types. The score of the minor/secondary types must be less than the score of your primary/major type. The question is - through XP expenditure, should we allow a secondary type to become a primary type, relegating the current primary type to secondary status?

In movies, you sometimes have the geeky kid become an ass kicker. While they are still geeky, they have the ability to thoroughly lay down the law, physically. Alternatively, a person could suffer a crippling injury, and move from a physical type to a smart type.

This can be abused, but if we possibly limit the number of secondary types, and maybe limit the number of times you can do this to one, the effects would be mitigated. Making the XP cost something significant could also help.

Thoughts?

Whoops!

We'll be back soon, I promise!

Naming Things, Part I

So, we've been referring to stuff by temporary names. We should get around to actually naming them. Let's take a first pass at a handful of items:

Fate
Primary Type
Secondary Type
Scene Health
Adventure Health
GM (this can stay unless we come up with something good, Director?)
Resources
Cinematic Events

Okay, so that is the first bunch. This is a cinematic/fun/lighthearted/rules-light game, so keep that in mind when suggesting.

Health, Part II

Okay, so after some discussion it looks like your health stat will be equal to:
Fate + 2(Prime+Second). That is, your health is equal to your fate score plus two points for each point in your primary and secondary type.

If you have multiple secondary types, only the highest number counts. Also, if you lose points from your secondary score, and suddenly another secondary is higher, you still have to use the damaged one ;)

As every 2 points of health you lose, you still lose a point off of your rolls - starting with secondary, then through primary, and then it becomes one for one.

This will make the characters tougher, but still makes Cinematic Events DAMN scary.

Level Up!

Your character has completed a task, so now what? Well - he gets experience points. Duh.

Our experience system is a hybrid point buy/milestone system. Experience points are spent to allow a character to increase his Primary and Secondary Type scores (maybe other stats?). As he hits certain amounts of XP spent, his Fate score increases. So, a starting character with 5 Fate has spent 10 XP increasing his Type scores, and has spent enough to earn a 6th point in Fate. Tada!

The Characters Primary Type must ALWAYS be greater than his Secondary Type - if the Prime is 5, the Second may go no higher than 4.

I'm also throwing around the idea of allowing the character to purchase additional Secondary Types. Perhaps a Smart, Sly character has taken up body building, he can add Strong to his template. For the purpose of calculating health, only the highest ranked Secondary Type is used, and only one Secondary Type may be used at a time for the purposes of rolls.

As just a first pass idea, additional Secondary Type points would cost 2, Primary Type points 3 or 4, and if we go with the idea, new Secondary Types would cost 5, and would start at 0 points.

Experience is earned in smaller amounts - completing the mission would get each character a couple, maybe certain harrowing encounters could get a point, surviving a Cinematic Event could add a point or two.

In case you couldn't tell, we like small numbers.

Types, Types, Everywhere

Now, to take a crack at a few of the types that will be available to players. These may be chosen as a Primary Type, or Secondary Type

-Strong: These characters are good at lifting heavy things, or hitting really hard, or looking muscular. Levels up by becoming more muscular. Think body builder, or early days Arnold.

-Fast: A fast person can run like the wind! After time, they learn to run even faster. Gump didn't start running that fast, but when he started running, he became awesome at it!

-Nimble: Good at doing dexterous tasks, like running through those tire things, or freerunning. Not as fast as a fast character, but less likely to faceplant. Experience gained allows them to become even more nimble, eventually rivalling that Faith chick from Mirror's Edge.

-Tough: Good at taking a beating. We might want to add rules about shrugging off blows. The more experience, the tougher they are, until they are like the guys in the Demolition Men reality show, smashing through walls with their face.

-Hot: A hot character is...well...hot. This goes both ways, male and female. It might be strange to think that you can level up your hotness, but hotness goes beyond the physical, it is a state of mind, a state of dress. Think of the sexy librarian, who gets contacts and lets down her hair, or Anne Hathaway in a bunch of her movies, or Olivia Newton John in Grease.

-Social: Good at mingling in crowds, or talking to new people. Levelling up makes the character even more of a social butterfly. Um...think of...yeah, I'm drawing a blank. A social person. Any jock in one of those teeny movies.

-Sly: This character excels at trickery, or plays on words to get what they want. As they gain experience, they learn more about how to play people. This would be your stereotypical fantasy thief, good at talking himself into, and then back out of, trouble.

-Smart: Reads a lot, knows a lot, these characters have obtained a lot of book knowledge, and know how to piece it together to get new ideas. Through their travels, they learn more and gain additional information for their ideas. Tolkien's Wormtongue knew exactly what to say to get himself into a position of power.

-Wise: While they may not have a lot of book knowledge, these characters are aware of the world, and generally apply good judgement when acting. As they gain levels, their experience in the world increases, and they can make even better choices. Think of Gandalf, or Allanon.

So...those are the core types I can think of, right now. There might be more in the starter set, and we'll add additional ones that are specific to the different Genre books, later.

Cash, Moola, Money, the Green Stuff

How will we be handling money in ExplorerMan!?

Well, I'll tell you.

Every character has a number of points in "resources" (we should change that name). He may spend those points on stuff he wants to buy. For instance, if the character has 10 resource points, he might buy a pistol at 1 point, a kevlar vest at 2 points, a car at 6 points, and still have 1 point left over to spend later. It's assumed (unless the GM specifies otherwise, per adventure) that the character has some cash on him, and can buy little things like food and drink, or other relatively inexpensive items (within reason).

This has a number of advantages. For one, no one cares, rules-wise or cost-wise, whether that pistol he bought was a 9mm or a .45 - they both cost the same, and they both deal the same amount of damage. The cost of a pistol in a setting that has such things (pretty much anything from the Wild West up to near-mid future) is the same throughout, and they'll cost the same as a laser pistol in a Future setting. It also keeps the numbers small, and small is simple. It gives the GM a wide fudge factor when determining the price of something, especially since players are known to come up with all sorts of weird things to buy (Hey, how many points to buy a Dyson?).

Characters can earn resource points by completing missions, robbing banks, earning a paycheck, selling stuff, or anything else that might give money.

I think that 10 points is a good start, maybe a little less. That'll let them buy the basics they'll need for a mission. That'll get firmed up when we get the cost of items ironed out.

Another Look at Health, and Your Core Numbers

So, we had a brief discussion about the health stat and an idea to change it slightly. Rather than have 2 separate things, you'll have 1. The amount of health you have is equal to your Fate score + Prime Type score + Second Type score.

As you take damage, your scores lower. Let's assume that you have 5 Fate, 2 Prime, 1 Second. You have 8 total health. In combat, you take 1 point of damage. This damage is applied to your Second Type score. Until healed, you are now have 7 health remaining, and a Second Type Score of 0! Damage will be applied to Secondary Type, then Primary Type, then Fate.

Damage to the types will heal at the end of each scene. Deep damage to your fate score will require normal healing methods, I'm thinking 1 point per 3 days if active, 1 point per 2 days if resting or with medical care, 1 point per day with medical care and rest.

I'm still unsure how to correlate this new idea with the Cinematic Events - possibly have damage during those events just bypass the Type scores, so they'll never take damage in that scene.

As for the core numbers themselves - I like 5 as a start point for Fate, then 2 for Prime, and 1 for Second. Die roll would be a d20, roll under your total score. Figure 3 or so points due to equipment, a starting character would have a 50% chance of hitting, assuming it falls under his/her Prime Type and the equips allow. It'd also give the character room to grow.

What say you?

Character Creation

So, you want to make a character in ExplorerMan!? (Side note: The 'official' exclamation point, when combined with a query, makes the statement appear incredulous.)

Well, it's pretty darn complicated, so hold on to your hat.

First, pick a Primary Type from the list. Next, pick a Secondary Type from that list. Third, name your character and come up with a concept. Fourth, equip your character. Last, fill in the character sheet. You don't even have to do it in that order, though I'd recommend filling in the character sheet last or, at least, concurrently.

Got that?

The Character Sheets aren't incredibly complicated. The characters aren't incredibly complicated. The most complicated part is probably equipping your character. I'm not sure how that'll work, it might involve rolling for starting cash, it might involve a set amount of cash, or it might involve saying "Don't go nuts."

That's it!

Equipment Spotlight: The Red Shirt

Look! A glimpse at an item that is going to show up in the Space Genre book!

The Red Shirt is a peculiar item. The Red Shirt actually reduces the Fate score (and, maybe, the number of Health Levels) of the wearer. They become less effective in combat, and easier for the bad guys to dispatch.

Why would anyone want to wear this? Well, if the wearer is killed in combat, the party leader is suddenly driven with a burning resolve, and his Fate Score increases.

Effects from this item might stack, but if so, they amount of the increase will decrease dramatically each time - our Hero will eventually become steeled to all of his friends kicking the bucket, and it won't effect him as much. The effects also will only be temporary, probably for a scene or two at most.

I just had a fun idea for an adventure using this item...

Anyway, look for more fun tidbits like this in the future!

The Golden Rule

A very important idea that most game groups utilize is the Golden Rule, also known as Rule 0 and a myriad of other things. Essentially, the game is your game - if something doesn't work the way you want it to, or you think adding something will make the game better for your group, change the game. House rules are a perfectly valid, and expected, concept. ExplorerMan!, and indeed, any RPG, is a game, and games are created for people to play and have fun. The more fun you have, the more you'd like to play it. At Omniscient Projects, we encourage house ruling. I'm thinking that something to that effect will even be placed into the book.

If you don't like it, change it!

We'll have to discuss it, but I'll just throw the idea out there now, we might also take submissions of house rules. Depending on the quantity and quality we receive, we can either release a "House Rule Book," as an added supplement, or possible even roll the most popular changes into ExplorerMan! 2.0. Maybe both.

Initial Book ToC

I know, jumping the gun, the mechanics aren't even ironed out, yet. However, here's a tentative look at the contents of the first book.

I. Introduction
II. Character Creation
III. Primary and Secondary Types
IV. Equipment
V. The Core Mechanic
VI. Bad Guys
VII. Index/Glossary

We might throw a "generic setting" in there, as well. Possibly a modern thing. That might get split off, along with an intro adventure, as a free or super cheap additional book.

So, next up is to hash out and get definites on the exact numbers we'll be using, and the exact terminology we'll be using, and then basically it is writing time. Then in-house Alpha, small beta release, then to print! Oh, yeah, and that whole "art" thing.

We plan to release this (as well as the Deminar books) as a pdf on DriveThroughRPG, or similar. There might be a print release someday, but that'll depend on sales and demand.

The Enemy

Every roleplaying game needs someone to beat up! Let's take a peak at the bad guys you'll be facing over the course of your games.

A hallmark of videogames and movies are the hordes of ineffective minions that provide tension, prove the badassery of the protagonist, and even possibly injure/kill/slow down the good guys. These cannon fodder will be the meat and potatoes of the game. They will have a fairly low Fate score, and do not have a Primary or Secondary Type score. They'll also only have a single Health level, so while they can hurt you, they might go down pretty easy. These baddies will range from pure ground meat, with a super low Fate score, to a nasty baddie with a higher (and more threatening) Fate score.

More threatening than the fodder is the Lieutenant. These are effectively the same thing as the tougher fodder, but have the additional boost of a Primary Type score, giving them an edge over their companions when attempting to gun down a PC.

Moving up the food chain, we run into the Captain type. These guys are similar in stats to the Lieutenants, but have an additional Health Level or two, making them tougher still to kill. They'll represent the tougher guys that the protagonists run into on occasion, not quite a miniboss, but still something that'll slow down the Inevitable Wheels of Destruction.

Above Captains are your Bosses and Minibosses. These characters are made identical to your regular PCs, though they might have higher stats to account for the fact that they are standing alone against the party (well, aside from the fact that they have all their minions and secret tricks). A Boss will be slightly tougher than a Miniboss, and will have the additional edge of a shiny new Mechanic (thanks to the brain of my cohort-in-crime).

Bosses have a new ability - the Escape Clause. Just when it looks like the PCs are about to defeat the Boss, he can activate his Escape Clause and make a dashing getaway. It might be a well-timed airstrike by the BBEG's Air Force, giving him the chance to run for the hills, it might be a Ninja Smoke Grenade, a clever hidden door, whatever. These Escape Clauses are one and done - once he uses it, he can't use it again. A Boss can, however, have multiple ECs, the GM just has to be careful not to overuse this idea and make it frustrating for the players. Remember, the idea here is to have fun. Utilizing the ECs, a GM can have the players fight the Boss, or encounter him throughout the game, and give them that "rats, nearly got him that time" feeling, along with protecting the game from the inevitable "first level characters somehow managed to kill the Big Bad Evil Guy early on" thing...

That seems like a lot of different bad guys, but since basically anything can be made using those categories, it really isn't all that much. It'll get a bit clearer when we get specifics, and examples, of each.

A look at Health

In any game, there is a chance of losing. In RPGs, one way to lose is to die. A dead character can't complete his mission (though, we have some ideas for mechanics that could allow a dying character one last shot at victory, despite kicking the bucket). So, in order to know when you die, you need to know how much damage you can take before you head towards the light.

Enter our health stats. Yes, plural. There are some cinematic elements being incorporated into the game, and in the movies, a character can take a pummelling and keep on kicking, and even appear to be fine in the very next scene. This introduces our first Health Stat, Scene Health.

Of the two health scores, this is the highest. It represents damage taken in ordinary combat, through ordinary events. Most of the damage a character takes in the game will effect his Scene Health. If the Scene Health ever reaches 0, the character dies. At the end of the scene, however, the Scene Health regenerates back up to 100%! This represents the cinematic characters ability to shrug off damage and (while looking bloody and bruised) be a-ok for the next scene.

The second, and significantly lower, health score is the Adventure Health. Damage taken on the Adventure Health scale must be healed through a normal manner, be it doctors, rest or healing-tech. A character who takes damage on this scale is hurting, it sticks around between scenes, and they can soak up less damage in this manner before croaking. AH damage is serious stuff. Only certain, special situations, however, can allow a character to take damage in this manner. We're calling these Cinematic Events, for now, and they'll be covered in a later post.

So, as you can see, a character can shrug off a ton of normal damage and keep on kicking, but in certain special events, his mortality is seen!

The names of both of these stats will probably change later, 'cause they're kind of lame.

One Roll to Rule Them

This game is formed around one simple concept: Have Fun, and don't let the rules get in the way.

Let's have a look at the single roll that is needed to do anything and everything in the game.

Each and every character has three basic stats. The first is their "fate" score. This is the fundamental stat that will be used for everything, and represents how good a character is at things in general and how lucky they are in general. This increases with level. Until we get hard numbers figured out, let's assume, for the purposes of easy examples, a characters Fate number starts at 5.

The next stat a character has is their Primary Type score. A Primary type is a descriptor, like Strong, Fast, Smart or Wise. This is a single word that best describes the character. When a character performs an action that can be described as something that Type of character can do (for instance, a Strong character lifting something heavy), the Primary Type score is added to the Fate score for the purposes of the roll. For the purposes of our examples, let's assume a character starts with a PT score of 2.

The final stat is the Secondary Type score. This is the same thing as the Primary Type score, but is something the character isn't quite as good at. If the character performs an action that is described by that type, add the score to your fate roll. In our examples, a character will start with a ST score of 1.

So, now for the game mechanic. Add up your Fate score and an applicable Type score (if any). Roll a d20 (for now, this die might change). Did you roll under your Fate+Type? You succeed!

I know, that means at best a starting character will succeed less than half the time (35% of the time, on average, if my math is correct). That's okay! For one, once we get rolling we may find that number is horrendously low, anyway. Second, you only have to roll for something above and beyond. A Strong character might lift a desk, or the back end of a car, with no roll needed. He's strong, he can do it. However, holding the door closed as the room beyond it floods is something extreme, so a roll would be required. Where that boundary lies is up to GM discretion.

In addition to your pure stats for the roll, equipment and special abilities can effect the required roll. For instance, a exoskeletal suit might increase a persons strength, so on a Strong Roll, the character could get a bonus added to the target number, making it easier to succeed. In addition, if a GM feels that something is a little too difficult to do without a roll, but not by much, then the GM can grant bonuses to the target number, again making it easier. On the other side of that coin, something that the GM feels is exceptionally exceptional might earn NEGATIVES to the target number, making it all that much more difficult.

The final way a Fate roll can be modified is with an AWESOME Bonus. If the player describes the action in a particularly cool way, or comes up with an elegant or entertaining, or even says or does something particularly apropos, the GM can opt to grant a one-time bonus to the relevant roll. A particularly devious GM might even decide to do the opposite - if a situation begs for something super awesome to occur, and the player totally fails to catch on and fails to do anything even remotely awesome, the roll might take a negative!

So that, my friends, is the fundamental mechanic behind the game. Fate + Type + Bonuses - Difficulty, roll under. Later, we'll see how this ties into combat.

Let's travel...Beyond Deminar

While the Deminar Projects have always been the primary focus of Omniscient Projects, we have in the past dabbled in side projects, like adventures and even other settings. I forsee Deminar/Dystopia to continue being our flagship product, even once we become a multi-billion dollar mega corporation. That said, everyone needs a vent for OTHER avenues of creativity, especially to prevent them from creeping into the main project.

So - I'm hereby announcing the construction of the underlying infrastructure of a new game, new system, new everything. Tentatively entitled "ExplorerMan, " primarily because that was what came into my head when describing it earlier, we plan it to be a rules- and reality-light game system, with a variety of settings. Early considerations include space, jungles, under the sea, cave diving, ancient ruins...maybe more or less, depending if this actually gets off the ground. It's still in the VERY raw planning stages. This post is about the fourth thing ever said about it.

The rules system will be pretty basic. You'll have a "fate" stat, perhaps "cinematic" would be the better way to describe it. This will be the foundation of every roll. As a wild, I-just-made-this-up-now idea, each character will have a "type" that gives them a plus to that roll if the action falls in the same category as the type (i.e., a "Strong" type character gets a bump for lifting), maybe we can add negatives for going against type (A "Nerdy" type character lifting the same object). The types are yet to be defined, since I just made it up. You'll have some sort of target to beat. Look for more definition, or total eradication, of this idea later.

Anyway, that's what we have as the beginnings of this. Let's the games begin!