Sometimes it just starts with an idea for a cool ability - perhaps a
very traditional one, one found in many works of fiction. The "Clear
Sight" ability, which I mention in the "Lethality of events" sub-thread,
is one such example. There are certain character concepts that ought to
have this ability. The workings of the ability also give themselves -
the character can see through illusions, trickeries and lies, whether
mundane or supernatural. The only problem lies in the implementation.
But at other times, I come up with a solution, for which I then need to
find some problems (or even to *create* some problems).
I enjoy creating and playing brainy characters, as a player, but I need
the braininess to be acknowledged by the game mechanics, so that it is
expressed within the reality of the game world, potentially visible to
other characters. I don't want it to be a delusion inside my skull, that
"my character is brainy". He has to *be* brainy. *For* *real*.
GURPS doesn't do this well at all, offering only a single attribute
(called IQ). That'd work tolerably for my first character, but what
about my second and third character? I'd end up re-creating the exact
same character again and again.
Sagatafl, which can fairly be described as my attempt to do GURPS the
way GURPS ought to have been, not only splits GURPS one attribute (DX)
into two (Dexterity and Agility). It also splits GURPS' other attribute
(seeing as it only really, truly has two attributes, each of which
affects roughly half the skills in the game) into several: Intelligence,
Perception, Willpower and Charisma (and a couple of supernatural ones:
Faith and Psyche).
Modern Action RPG almost attempts to be a reverse GURPS. Where GURPS has
three physical attributes and one mental, MA RPG has two physical
(Constitution and Reflexes) and three mental (Wits, Perception and Will)
attributes.
Even though MA RPG can fairly be described as my attempt to make
Spycraft 2.0 the way it should have been (among other things, without
that crappy twenty-sider, and without character levels and rigid
character advancement), the original inspiration was Feng Shui. The Feng
Shui character I made (Dr. Gerald Wong - I'm pretty sure he'll be a demo
character for MA RPG) was a brainy one. IIRC he had a 7 or 8 in the Mind
attribute, and a 10 (max) in the Intelligence sub-attribute.
But he didn't get anything for it. It was just noise on the character
sheet. Some of the other sub-attributes were usful, but Intelligence was
*never* useful. It didn't do *anything*. I ought to have spent the
attribute raise points on useful attributes, like Constitution (I did
actually spend points on Speed - Wong was a super-fast character) and
Strength.
To avoid that in MA RPG, I've included only those five attributes which
I believe the GM will frequently demand rolls for. To emphasize this, I
call them "saving throws" instead of attributes. Even if Wits will be
rolled for less often than the four others, it still serves as a
roleplaying guidelines, giving the player permission to play his
character as smart as the score indicates that the character is. So it
evens out. All five saving throws are useful. They will be used.
(Since then I've added a couple of secondary attributes, Agility and
Dexterity, which I'm not sure will be used at all. Yet it makes sense
for a stage magician, e.g., to be highly dextrous. The least bad
solution, which I've come up with, is to make them very cheap to "buy
up", and to (if I can) make above-average Dex/Agi values be
prerequisites for some binary skills.)
So far so good, but that still leaves me with only Wits for a "truly
brainy" character.
What to do?
One solution that occured to me, quite early in the process, was to
invent a couple of intellectual "maneuvers", called Concentration and
Observation. These will be required, in certain situations, by the
rules, when the character wishes to achieve something. He must then
Concentrate or Observe for a rules-specified period of time, e.g.
Observe for 2 minutes, or Concentrate for 1 hour.
characters can then have inborn Gifts which reduce either Observation
time or Concentration time to 1/3 normal, and can learn binary skills
which reduce either Observation time or Concentration time to 1/3 normal
(if a character has both, the rules says to "round down" to 1/10 normal
time, rather than 1/9 normal time).
So if a player wants to, he can pay points to make his character be able
to Concentrate quickly, or to Observe quickly.
My problem is that I have very few problems, so far, for which these
abilities are solutions. The GM might, of course, require player
characters to perform Concentration or Observation maneuvers, on an ad
hoc basis, in situations where the rules do not say that it is required,
and that is acceptable, but we can't rely on it occuring. It isn't safe
to assume.
Still, I like the idea, so it stays in the game. If I still have not
found sufficient uses for Concentration and Observation, when it becomes
time to playtest the system, I'll simply make those four time-reducing
abilities cheaper, and clearly state in the rule book text that they
aren't of much use in the current version.
Another ability, or maneuver if you will, did come up while I were
writing the Mystic Gifts, especially Metabolism Control: Meditation.
In order to re-configure his Metabolism (to chose new effects), a
character with the Metabolism Control Mystic Gift must enter a
Meditative trance, which requires a dice roll to see whether it
succeeds. If it doesn't, the character has wasted time and must try
again. Then it is obvious, at least to me, to introduce a binary skill
that enables the character try to Meditate in the first place, another
binary skill that makes the character better at it, and an inborn Gift
which also makes the character better at it (and a special ability which
makes the character better at Meditating when he is in his Native
Terrain - and also reduces Concentration time (see above)).
Likewise in combat. I quickly created rules for how a character could be
rendered Bleeding (it has to do with being dropped to below-zero
hitpoints).
Once I had this un-desirable state, "Bleeding", I could create some
game-mechanical infrastructure around it: Use of the First Aid sub-skill
to stop bleeding (and naturally a binary skill to make you able to do
this quicker!). A Metabolism Control effect that makes your Bleeding
wounds coagulate fast, and a stronger effect that makes them coagulate
instantly (so that you basically don't bleed at all). One of many
Berzerk abilities (inspired by the character Gwalchmai in Gillian
Bradshaw's "Hawk of May") is similar: The character is immune to
bleeding, while Frenzying.
A problem I've had in several other RPG systems, as a player, is that
medical skills aren't made useful by the rules. You pay a lot of points
for abilities which can do nothing. First Aid for bleeding is one good
thing (to the point where one can say that probably in many systems, the
Bleeding rules exist primarily in order to make the First Aid skill
useful, rather than due to any desire to realistically simulate combat).
Could I do more? Introducing states of "Sprained" and "Fractured", to
represent limb injuries, with the primary purpose being to make the
First Aid subskill (or other subskills of the Medical skill) useful,
might be a good idea.
One problem, and a fairly big one, is how to change the combat mechanics
so that these states can occur naturally. It is quite easy to make a
rule saying that if you have successfully Grabbed another character, so
that you have a hold on him, and you can maintain this hold for X combat
Rounds (i.e. without your victim succeeding in getting free), then you
can freely inflict a Sprain on him (at a cost of a few Action Points),
or if you can maintain the hold for 4X combat Rounds, you may instead
inflict a Fracture upon him.
The problem with this is that many campaigns will feature little unarmed
combat (everything being about firearms, melee weapons, or both). In
such campaigns Sprains and Fractures will practically never occur, which
makes it problematic to introduce binary skills that makes a character
better at treating characters who are in those states (because then
players can waste points on useless abilities).
Also, Bleeding differs in that once you have stopped it, it is over
(we'll ignore the effect of blood loss here). A Sprain will require time
to heal. At best, treatment speeds up healing. At worst, lack of
treatment prevents the Sprain victim from continued adventuring. And a
Fracture is worse. A Sprain heals naturally in days (even if un-treated,
provided the victim rests the sprained body part), but a Fracture
requires *weeks*.
If possible, I'd like to maintain the rules in a state of agnosticism,
in terms of what part of the character has been Sprained or Fractured.
And only assume that it is a limb (rather than, say, a skull fracture,
or perhaps a neck sprain (if such a thing is possible)).
But can I do that? It seems to me that a Sprained ankle (or - ouch! -
knee), or a Fractured leg, will take you out of adventuring, forcing you
to retire from the party for some days or weeks, whereas with a Sprained
wrist (or elbow? Or shoulder?), or a Fractured arm, you can still
continue, even if your capability is diminished.
Sprains and Fractures could be neat and simple (even simplistic) World
of Warcraft-style de-buffs. Something which you can inflict on others,
something which these others may have defenses against (even a Rapid
Healing inborn Gift should speed up Sprain/Fracture recovery, and not
just affect hitpoint regain), and something which others again can heal
(slowly via medical skills, or quickly in a fantasy genre game via magic
spells).
Perhaps just have a simple Limb Damage "state", without specifying what
it is? It could give some penalty to attack rolls, or to movement speed
(reducing Walking speed by 1 hx, and preventing Jumping, Running and
Charging), depending on whether one desires the "feel" of an arm injury
or a leg injury.
"Arm Damage" for the attack roll penalty, and "Leg Damage" for the
movement penalty?
As soon as I no longer try to relate the condition to a medical
phenomenon (such as a Sprain or a Limb Fracture, both of which - I'm
sure - can be looked up in English Wikipedia, and possibly in Britannica
as well) I'm free of the constraints of realism expectations, and can
introduce binary skills that enhances the First Aid subskill so that it
can cure the character of Limb Damage, fully, in a few minutes.
A third example is Parkour, also called Free Movement. I've long known
that I wanted Parkour as a Martial Art in MA RPG, alongside such better
known Arts as Karate, Judo, Ninja Taijutsu, Taekwondo, Krav Maga,
Pankration, Capoeira and Boxing. I knew that I wanted each Martial Art
to be a "recipe", a list of binary skills which enhances the character
in specific ways (e.g. "to make a character trained in Karate, purchase
these binary skills"), usually relating to combat, although obviously in
the case of Parkour they would all relate to movement instead.
But I had no specific ideas for binary skills for Parkour. Then recently
I watched "Casino Royale" (great movie! In spite of a weak, overlong
ending, it gets to be included in the MA RPG bibliography - the only
Bond movie, apart from "From Russia with Love", that gets this honour),
and early in the movie there's this really good chase sequence. A bit
like a car chase, except without cars or any other vehicles.
Perhaps my problem, or at least the work I'll have to perform, is
obvious. I need to invent some problems which can be "solved" by these
Parkour binary skills (solutions), and I need said problems to be ones
that will occur (emerge) naturally throughout the campaign, meaning when
the GM draws improvised battlefield maps.
I'll thus need to define some fairly commonly occuring terrain features
(or terrain shapes), along with formal symbols to mark what and where
they are. Secondly I need to define the game-mechanical penalties for
moving through hexes containing these features/symbols (this could be
that Running is impossible, or both Running and Charging, so that you
are forced to use the less efficient Walk maneuver, or that moving
through said hex simply costs more Action Points, or that moving through
it is flat out impossible - you'll have to move around it). Thirdly I'll
need to invent binary skills to let characters ignore these penalties.
The challenge is to find a compromise between simplicity and variety.
I'd say that 3 or 4 Parkour-themed binary skills is ideal, and that I
could live with 2 or 5, but no more than 5 and not with only one.
The last example is fairly simple.
One of the subskills of the Medical skill is Anatomy. I've watched a lot
of action movies recently (research, you know...), and often there is a
problem with a character fearing that he'll be recognized by a guard who
has seen his face. That is a legitimate concern (see "Heist" with Gene
Hackman, e.g.), but it occured to me that a sufficiently knowledgeable
character should be able to whack the enemy's skull, in such a way as to
scramble the enemy's short-term memory while rendering him unconscious.
Thus was born the Memory Tap binary skill.
The above is meant as a little insight into how my approach to game
design works, but comments and questions are of course welcome.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
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