Royal Mouse: minimum Magic of 1d6, maximum Brawn of 2d6. Status of +2d6 (adds to tests where rank is important). Suffers a Penalty Die in bright light due to albinism.
White Mouse: Status of +1d6. Maximum Brawn of 3d6.
Common Mouse: Gain an extra Knack Point to spend on a common laborer or craftsman career. Maximum Magic of 3d6, Maximum Brawn of 3d6.
Jumping Mouse: their jumping distance is on a higher scale than other races. If a Jumping Mouse has to roll to cover the distance, another race can't even roll... if another race could pull it off, the Jumping Mouse doesn't have to roll. Maximum Magic of 3d6.
White Rat: Status of +1d6. Maximum Magic of 4d6. Minimum Brawn of 2d6.
Common Rat: Minimum Brawn of 3d6, Maximum Magic of 3d6. Gain an extra Knack Point to spend on a common laborer or craftsman career.
Wild Rat: Minimum Brawn of 4d6, Maximum Magic of 2d6. Status -1d6. Gain an extra Knack Point in Wilderness or Brawling.
Small Magic examples:
Let's see... if a 5 or a 6 is a success... then the average # of successes and the chance of 0 successes would be...
If I do go with 1/3, then "rolling over successes" should probably either add straight successes or add 2d6 per success. Otherwise, you'd need to roll over 3 extra successes to have decent odds of getting +1 more on your final roll.
Each character can take at most 1 Signature Knack... some special, unique advantage like "rune-carved cat-tooth sword" or ...
Hm. Why just one? Maybe there should just be an option to take an Artifact Knack... a Knack that depends on the use of a particular item and can be transferred with that item. The primary advantage is that the Artifact Knack, when in the possession of the person who owns it, wins ties against non-Artifact Knacks, scoring a single success.
Maybe a general rule... Artifact Knacks win ties against regular Knacks, which win ties against people rolling their straight stat.
I might ought to restrict it to just having one at a time, though... a magic item should be a signature thing, not a knick-knack.
Scoring a success can (instead of doing damage) be used to remove an advantage for the rest of the fight if it seems reasonable. For example, you could disarm a foe with a superior weapon. Two successes could be spent to gain a +1d6 advantage for the rest of the fight instead.
Ties on opposed tests generally result in both characters taking a point of damage, although this can be forgone if both characters agree that they would prefer not to.
Royal Mice have a minimum Magic rating of 1d6 and a Maximum Brawn rating of 3d6. Jumping Mice sacrifice a Knack point, but their jumps are measured in feet instead of inches... a jump that a normal mouse could make a Jumping Mouse doesn't need to roll for.
It might be better to just let each character declare exactly one Signature Knack. When people tie, if only one used a Signature Knack, they win the tie with 1 success. If neither did, whoever used a Knack instead of just raw skill wins the tie. Otherwise it's a regular tie (either they both take a point of damage or neither).
If you have a Magic rating at all, you can attempt Small Magics. These normally require a fair bit of concentration and time, so you'll take a Penalty Die if you try to cast one really quickly (say while dodging someone's attacks). If time is no issue, you can spend lots of extra time and get an extra die, as per normal.
Spells require a certain number of successes to pull off. If you get no successes, you are liable to take a point of Magic damage.
The effect of being defeated in Magic is not being able to cast spells except by becoming Hollowed as you lose some of your innate magical ability semi-permanently. Seriously unbalancing High Sorceries and permanent Small Magic enchantments often cause you to become Hollowed as well.
Being Hollowed is a point of semi-permanent Magical Damage. It takes months to go away and you can only have one at a time. Until you recover, you can't cast a spell that would Hollow you again (okay, in theory you could, but you'd probably become Forsaken; a GM who allows this should inflict a permanent mental impairment on the mage... losing a die of Magic works, but it's not as interesting as something like violent mood swings whenever the moon is in the sky).
High Sorceries require a Knack of at least 1d6 to cast them at all and they require at least 2 successes to work. You take a point of Magical Damage for each success you fell short plus one more... If you get extra successes, you can sacrifice one to ignore that damage.
High Sorceries, on the other hand, can be used to attack folks directly. Some might even get special rules like "this paralysis spell does double damage, but if this isn't enough to take the target out, the target just takes 1 point of Athletics damage instead."
Stats: Athletics, Brawn, Cleverness and Determination.
Optional Stat: Magic.
Allocate 12d6 between them. Only Magic can have a rating of 0d6. The maximum rating for any stat is 5d6. We recommend 4d6, 2x3d6 and 2d6.
Damage is applied to a specific stat. When the total damage for that stat exceeds your Determination (note that Determination is how much damage you can take to ANY stat), you are defeated in that area and can no longer use that stat offensively. If forced to use it defensively, drop a die.
Knacks are skills, special abilities and areas of expertise. They can be added to any stat test that fits in their area. Knacks are rated from 1d6 to 2d6 but can go as high as 3d6.
Drives are personal motivations that push your character along. They are normally rated at 1d6 but can be as high as 2d6. They get added to any test that aligns with the drive... but if you're attempting something that's against your drive, you subtract that many dice instead. Note that Drives also apply to your Determination stat to determine what your Defeat Threshold is... so during a fight where your Drive applies, you can actually take more damage... but will be defeated as soon as the Drive stops applying, usually when the fight ends.
Advantage Dice are claimed whenever your character has a substantial advantage over any opposition in the current test. So if you have better weapons and armor, or really good equipment, you get either 1d6 (for a major advantage) or 2d6 (for an overwhelming advantage). Similarly Penalty Dice are the same thing, but get inflicted when you have major disadvantages. Generally only the PC's dice get modified, although there isn't a significant difference to rolling one extra die for an NPC vs rolling one fewer die for the PC.
Note that the Advantage Dice cover a pretty small range... even an overwhelming advantage is only +2d6... that means that the typical person (2d6) vs one of the greats (5d6) may still not win with an overwhelming advantage. The source material is full of folks whose amazing skill saves them from situations where a normal person would just be defeated.
For extended contests, the winner of each round inflicts damage on his opponent based on the difference in the number of successes rolled.
Every 5 or 6 rolled is a success. Successes can be rolled over to other contests instead of inflicting damage, if you choose (sometimes you won't have a choice, but can only get extra dice that way).
Okay, so the stats are Athletics, Brawn, Cleverness, Drive and Magic. A rating of 2 is typical... 1 is bad, 0 is abyssmal. A rating of 5 is the normal max. Skills/knacks are rated from 0 to 3 and add to ANY stat when its area of expertise shows up.
Magic is rolled normally to resist spells and to sense spells. Actual spell-casting costs you 1 die for Small Magics and 2 dice for High Sorceries. Well, I'll have to tweak these numbers. Perhaps most stats should be base 2, minimum 1, whereas Magic is base 0? Not sure... If Magic isn't used to resist spells (use Drive for mental effects), then Magic could be base zero and only mages have a rating.
Okay, the basic stats are Athletics, Brawn, Cleverness and Determination. These are typically rated from 1d6 (Abyssmal) to 2d6 (Typical) to 3d6 (Good) to 4d6 (Great) to 5d6 (Awesome). You get 12d6 to split up between the four, picking ratings from 1d6 to 5d6 for each. So you could specialize with 5d6 in two areas at the cost of having only 1d6 in the other two or just take 3d6 in all 4.
Magic is an optional 5th stat... it starts at zero and only mages normally have a Magic rating. It represents your ability to direct the magic that makes you intelligent towards other things.
Normally you roll the most appropriate stat to perform an action. If you have a Knack that applies, it will give you from 1 to 3 additional dice. Drives are similar, but are based on emotions and motivations, not training. Drives are limited to adding 1 or 2 dice.
Damage is applied to a specific stat. When your damage to that stat exceeds its rating, the number of dice you get to roll for it is halved (round down). When it's double that stat, you're out of action? Hm. 2 wounds to take out a Brawn 2 character seems a bit harsh... you'd skip from "fine" to "out" in one go. Perhaps the damage capacity should be 2+stat or something. And I'm not sure I want a "halved" segment... maybe you should just be defeated.
If you have a Knack or Drive that applies to the current action, your effective stat goes up... this includes damage resistance, which does mean that you can be much harder to take out. This might only apply to Drives, really.
Okay, first the kinds of harm you can take...
Physical (injury).
Mental (fatigue).
Social (scorn/disgrace).
Magical (magic points exhausted).
Now... the question is, should everyone have a Magical pool, indicating that it covers even being hit with spells, or should it be a mages-only thing indicating that it only covers exhausting your powers? Or should I just set up the system so that only folks with a high Magic rating can really pull off any spells?
I could also see Energy (exhaustion) to cover agility-type actions.
The normal range is 4d6 (worst 2) < 3d6 (worst 2) < 2d6 < 3d6 (best 2) < 4d6 (best 2) < 5d6 (best 2) < etc.
"Restricted" skills work slightly differently, with the range being 0 (impossible to use) < 1d6 (utter crap) < 2d6 < 3d6 (best 2) < 4d6 (best 2) < 5d6 (best 2) < etc.
The resistance stats (assuming a tSoY-style thing) would have to be Fortitude, Drive and... Charm (Integrity?). I'm not sure I need separate resitance skills, really, but they could be useful for balancing purposes.
Hm...
How about...
Athletics (covers Agility, Speed and Endurance): takes Fatigue
Brawn (covers Brawling, Strength and Toughness): takes Injury
Cleverness (covers Charm, Knowledge and Wits): takes Scorn
Drive (covers Willpower, Leadership and Stubbornness): takes Weakness (Ennui? Despair? Apathy?)
Magic (covers Intuition, innate Magical Power and Aptitude): takes Hollowing.
The damage names don't really matter... it's just when the total Harm on that stat exceeds its current rating, you suffer the consequences. Note that special ratings like "Protective of Comrades" can temporarily bump a stat up as long as the circumstance applies. I could also see dumping Drive... although that might leave Cleverness as too powerful, forcing me to break it up into Charm and Knowledge or somesuch.
Okay, with 2d6 being normal for all stats... Magic. Roll at normal value for purely sensory stuff, drop a die for small magics, drop two for high sorceries. Of course, if you took a non-magical race, maybe I could penalize you further. Give commoners a -1d6 and wild rats a -2d6. Then White Mice would have +0 and Royal Mice would get +1d6.
Except that you can add a die by concentrating a lot... I want magic to be hard enough that only mages actually try spells. A general rule could just be that you can't cast an active spell if you have any Penalty dice.
As a theme thing, perhaps mouse-magic should be small magics.
Some additional suggestions for Small Magics that I liked:
In a simple system, a mage would probably have a Magic rating that they could apply to small magics (and possibly a magical "knack" or two where their skills were higher for certain kinds of effects). High Sorceries would be rare and most mages would only know one or two.
Only High Sorceries can beat direct opposition. Small magics can slip past someone's notice or help/hinder tasks, but always lose against a direct attempt to oppose them (by anything meriting mouse-level stats, anyway... a spell to slay a flea outright would work, just because the flea isn't powerful enough to merit any real defense dice). High Sorcery is draining... the caster takes 1 point of magical "harm" per spell cast (assuming a tSoY-style loose definition of harm). Some High Sorceries:
But what you fight for.
That was the Mouse Guard slogan. It's kind of appropriate for an RPG, too.
So in addition to picking from a small list of skills, you can take Drives... extra dice that combine with skills when the drive is at stake.
In ages long past, the first White Lords came to the Fallows and found her gentle fields inhabited by feral, mindless mice little better than animals. They went among them and raised them up and taught them to speak and think and to walk upright. They led them in wars against the Great Beasts and drove them out. The First Ones ruled over them as kings and later, as gods.
Those were the days of plenty, when every burrow was filled with grain and every mouse knew his place. Before the dark gods came and the outer edge of the Empire regressed to brutal barbarism and piracy.
[Hm. Needs work.]
In the wilderness, life is constantly threatened
by an army of terrible predators;
in the cities, there are no such beasts...
so one's fellow mice take up the slack.
--- Mouse Poet on living in Haven.
Let's redo that with an eye on the number of syllables per line.
In the wilderness, life is constantly threatened (5,8)
by an army of fierce predators; (9)
in the cities, there are no such beasts (4,5)
so one's fellow mice take up the slack (9)
Out in the wilds, we are threatened (4,5)
by an army of fierce predators; (9)
in the cities, there are no such beasts (4,5)
so one's fellow mice take up the slack. (9)
"Out in the wilds, we are threatened
by an army of fierce predators;
in the cities, there are no such beasts...
so our fellow mice take up the slack."
---- Osten Sparrowflight, Poet of Haven
So, if I go with something simple like the Advantage System, how would you do races?
Royal mouse: two bonus dice for magic, two bonus dice for status, one penalty die for anything involving physical exertion, one penalty die for anything done in bright sunlight.
White mouse: one bonus die for magic, one for status.
Common mouse: one bonus die for agility, one for keen senses.
Jumping mouse: two bonus dice for agility tests that involve long jumps and all jumping distances are halved for purposes of determining difficulties. One bonus die for agility.
White rat: one bonus die for size and strength, one for status.
Common rat: one bonus die for size and strength, one for keen senses.
Wild rat: two bonus dice for size and strength, one for keen senses and one for willpower. A penalty die for status and scholarly pursuits. Or I could drop the Willpower bonus and the Scholarly penalty.
Options:
The system could use set stats (put into big, appropriate groups so that there were relatively few of them) or freeform ones (like "Travelling Hero" and somesuch).
Rather than using a weapon-specific system, just keep it loose... folks can buy "Style" Advantages... like "Expert with two weapons" that gives them a bonus die when they fight with two weapons. Most styles also include common bonuses or penalties like knives being good in close combat but lousy against foes with reach.
Note that mice will often nest in cramped, underground tunnels where knives have an advantage over longer weapons.
Common Modifiers:
Hm. If I used predefined tasks... let's see...
Agility, Strength, Fighting, Scholarship, hm.
Original stats: Agility, Brawn, Cleverness, Drive, Perception and Magic.
Magic could be a specialty stat (min zero instead of 1 or 2, probably).
Ratings: 0 normal (roll 2d6, no extra dice). -1 bad (3d6, take worst 2), -2 abyssmal (4d6, worst 2), +1 good (3d6, best 2), +2 great (4d6, best 2), +3 extraordinary (5d6, best 2). Hm.
Like OtE, you roll Xd6 for traits, except that you take the sum of the two highest rolls (unless you drop to rolling less than 2d6... then you roll extra dice and take the two worst so that you can continually get worse at something).
A Secret will often give you a Bonus Die during a specific circumstance. A Flaw will give you a Penalty Die during specific circumstances or (mostly for magic) prevent you from using that trait at all in a more narrow circumstance.
When you acquire a new Trait, you can choose to take a paired Secret and Flaw for free... these add flavor to the ability.
Combat: general fighting skill.
Knife-Fighting: a Combat variant. Add a die when fighting in narrow, confining quarters. Subtract a die when fighting a foe with a longer weapon and lots of room in which to use it.
Fire Magic: you can Create, Move and Extinguish Fire. Optional Pair: Gain a die when doing one of the three but either lose a die from the other two or lose one of the three completely.
Focus: if you've got plenty of time to psych yourself up and prepare, gain a Bonus Die for pretty much anything.
The Rule of 7: when using magic, you must roll a 7 or better to get the spell to work at all. Note that with a 1d6 trait (apprentice level), you'll only be able to work magic when you Focus.
Area Knowledge (Kingdom): gain a die when rolling any sort of lore about that kingdom, including navigating between cities.
Area Knowledge (City): gain a die when rolling any sort of lore, streetwise or navigation inside (or about) the city.
Note that you can take both Secrets for an overlapping area... so you might get +2d6 when discussing specific laws that effect Haven.
Hm. "Artha" in Burning Wheel has an interesting effect. Apparently it's basically Karma/Hero points, but when you spend it to boost a skill based on a particular stat, you mark an increase point for that stat. Get enough stat increase points and the stat goes up... so spending these hard-to-get Karma points all on one stat is the way to increase your stats... which is kind of nifty in a way.
What sort of mechanical advancement can you offer in a low-detail, low-stat range game like Over The Edge? Basically, what can you offer to let characters get better at things without being too unbalancing?
Bonus Dice add about a +1 on average when using Fudge Dice. They don't mess with your range technically, but in practice they do because the odds are really against your rolling max already. Unlike rolling the Xd10 (take best 2), where you only need to roll max twice... I wonder if roll Xd6 (take best 2) would make a decent resolution system? You could also say that every additional 6 adds a further +1 or something... dunno.
Hm. A Serenity-inspired system...
Stats: d4 to d12, d6 average.
Skills: - to d12, competent is d6.
Special Traits: same rating system as skills.
Note that acquiring a new Skill or Special Trait might cost twice as much as increasing one... you go from d0 to d2 to d4.
Resolution: roll Stat & Skill & possibly Special Trait... sum the two highest dice.
So it's like Ironclaw except that 2d6 usually gives you 7 instead of around 5. You can still combine traits at will and it just makes your average result a little better.
Every 5 points you beat the target by is a crit.
Losing causes you to take "harm" in one of several areas, a bit like tSoY.
Magic requires a minimum total of 7 to do anything. Each "strenuous" use inflicts a point of magical harm on you.
Each "permanent" use inflicts a point of Severance on you. When you're "defeated" by cumulative Severance, you can't cast any more severed spells without permanently dropping a Magic rating.
Should Magic be a special trait with the typical person have 0d in it? Dunno... if it's used to resist spells then it should probably be a standard one. If your ability to take magical harm depends on your Magic rating, crappy mages would probably be better off spending points elsewhere.
Harm levels: Normal, Bruised (flesh, ego or social standing, goes away rapidly), Hurt, Defeated (taken out; can still defend against further attacks, but can't initiate), Devestated (totally defeated/dead).
So, I don't really like the arbitrariness of saying that your first Extra buys you 3 magical spells, the second and third two.
How about this? Each Magery Extra grants you 3 picks from the Magery Bonuses list.
Magery Bonuses
So, 5 Extras to get access to all magic, although you'd still need to learn those 7 skills and train them to at least +5. That actually doesn't sound so bad...
Kenshar could be separated out by saying that the Extra gives you all 3 spells at +0 and there is no "mastery"... nor can they be taken any other way.