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.