They'd age about twice as fast as humans, hitting physical maturity around six years. They didn't need milk, but took meat even shortly after birth. Invariably flat-chested, of course, but for them the breasts were vestigial even in the females. Tended to be vicious and feral.
Their Gun and Tech skills were crippled and their Unarmed Combat and Endurance skills were superior.
With their long, blade-like fingers they were invariably armed.
They were still somewhat human, though, and the few folks who tried to raise orphaned feral babies found that they'd bond rapidly to whoever brought them food. Their intellects were mildly impaired by their additional combat instincts but not majorly. Stat-wise, I'd give 'em Agility +2, Int -1, Cha -1.
Short red hair was common in them, at least in the dream.
Hm. I'd put post-apoc humans, feral humans (improved unarmed, inferior tech and item use), and talking dog/wolves in there.
I really like the addition of the "What it can do" and "What it can't do" sections. That makes it very clear that these are open-ended powers. And while I didn't end up splitting up the spells into sub-powers, seriously thinking about those divisions gave me a better grasp of what I want each power to be able to do and what things each entry should mention.
]]>Compare caster's roll to target's resistance skill. If a Small Magick, it can only work against indirect resistance.
Magic that inflicts damage does 1d3+Magic damage, plus crits. Trivial and Small Magicks cannot inflict damage.
Compel:
Lethargy
Fear
Rage
Attraction
Spark:
Inflict damage with a burst of fire at close range. Crit is On Fire.
So... more rough guidelines. TK is Brawn Magic-5 if Small Magick, Brawn equal to Magic if Large Magick or High Sorcery.
Describe what sort of things are possible (and what's not) first, then go into specific examples. Ideally there should be less need for detailed, spell-specific rules.
Example character- priest of Zakarvus with Whispers magic instead of regular sight. Blind would probably be a -2 Flaw, -4 if you don't have Whispers magic.
The simply named art of Tug encompasses what humans might call telekinesis. The mage tugs at physical objects with invisible tendrils of mystic energy, moving them with their magic alone. Wizards have also experimented with the art of animating inanimate objects by insinuating a tendril into them, which makes the effect more limited in scope but stronger.
If you need to know the effective Brawn rating of a Tug spell, it's normally equal to the caster's Magic rating and their effective Feats of Strength check is the spell-casting roll. For Small Magicks, apply a -5 penalty to this rating; Small Magicks can't exert much force.
Delicate Manipulation: the caster's effective Brawn rating is Magic-5 and their effective Agility rating is their Magic rating. Delicate spells are Small Magicks.
Brute Force: the caster's effective Brawn rating is equal to their Magic rating, while their effective Agility rating is their Magic-5. These spells cannot exert any kind of fine control and are Large Magicks.
Animation: animating an inanimate object requires the mage to touch it and spend at least one round pouring magical energies into it. Thereafter the object moves as they direct so long as they remain in contact within arm's reach of at least one part of it. The object moves with a Brawn rating of the caster's Magic-5 and an Agility equal to their Magic+2 for Small Magicks, Magic+2 and Magic-5 for Large Magicks.
The object does not become any more flexible than normal, so animating a rock won't really do anything. The best targets are flexible things like water, rope or jointed dolls. The object animated must be something that you could lift with its effective Brawn rating.
The art of Compelling others involves manipulating their emotional states along two axis. Lethargy to Rage and Fear to Attraction.
Compel: Lethargy, Rage, Fear and Attraction.
Guise: Phantasm, Disguise and Concealment.
Shaping: Healing and Sculpting.
Spark: Fire and Light.
Tug: Motion and Animation.
Whispers: Divination, Spirits and Thoughts.
Hm. Healing & Sculpting always seemed like a poor mix. How about putting it in Tug? Eh. No, fixing wounds seems much like Sculpting.
I'm not sure Compel really needs the restrictions. I like the High Sorcery level having access to actual compulsions like Geas. But those four make good example emotions.
There are six magical arts, each of which has a separate skill.
Trivial Spells: tiny demonstrations of your power. Limited to working within arm's reach, easily disrupted by any serious opposition. EASY difficulty and does not cost Focus or Fatigue.
Small Magicks: useful but minor spells. Easily defeated by any active opposition and even unsuspecting foes still get a resistance roll. TYPICAL difficulty and does not cost Focus or Fatigue. They can be subtle, but not complicated or powerful effects.
Large Magicks: more powerful spells. These can overcome even active resistance but cannot be subtle or refined in effect. TYPICAL difficulty and costs 1 Fatigue.
High Sorceries: particularly complicated and difficult spells. HARD difficulty and 1 Fatigue or VERY HARD and 2 Fatigue for 2-point Powers.
Compel: mental compulsions laid upon others. Resisted with Courage.
Guise: Resisted with Alertness.
Shaping: Resisted with Endurance.
Spark: Resisted with Dodge.
Tug: Resisted with Feats of Strength.
Whispers: Resisted with Leadership.
Hm. How about...
Compel: Resisted with Leadership (Cleverness & Perception)
Guise: Resisted with Insight (Perception)
Shaping: Resisted with Endurance (Brawn)
Spark: Resisted with Speed (Agility)
Tug: Resisted with Feats of Strength (Brawn)
Whispers: Resisted with Sixth Sense (Magic)
Add a Resolve skill for withstanding temptation as opposed to Fear?
Compel: either subtle emotional manipulation (resisted with Insight/Psychology) or outright attacks (resisted with Bravery).
Guise: resisted with Alertness for subtle disguises and Insight for psychic attacks?
I'd like for each art to have exactly one resisting stat BUT that may make those stats/skills that much more important.
Feats of Strength: used to resist Tug, obviously.
Compel: resisted with Bravery or Insight.
Spark: light vs fireball
Compel: suggestion vs paralyze
Guise: alter self vs invisibility
Tug: weak TK vs powerful shove
Shaping: sculpt material vs shatter things
Whispers: short range telepathic messages vs long-range broadcasts.
6 spells vs 6 combat ratings sounds cool but doesn't work so hot. What's resisted with Brawn+Perception (Throwing)?
4 non-magic stats.
Spark resisted with Dodge. Speed?
Tug with Feats of Strength.
Compel with Insight/Psychology. Get rid of true paralysis-style effects.
Guise with Alertness.
Shaping vs Dodge? Parry? Or just Endurance? (get rid of the touch requirement for Shatter).
Whispers: Sixth Sense.
Hm. Effects I need:
Hm. 1 point powers?
TK: weak but controlled or powerful shoves. [levitation, paralyze]
Spirits: speak with spirit or try to drive it away. [bind into object to animate it or perhaps command it instead]
Healing: speed up healing or save a dying character. [revive a "dead" character if fast enough, cure illness?]
Shaping: sculpt material or shatter it.
Senses: sense surroundings or see through an object [see invisible creatures/spirits]
Emotions: manipulate emotions subtly or powerfully but obviously. [geas]
Guise: hide while immobile or turn invisible momentarily [turn invisible maintainable]
Disguise: make object appear as something/someone else or distract a foe with a sudden illusion.
Fire: light a fire, throw a burst of flame [aura of fire]
TK2: animate rope weakly, animate something powerfully but briefly. [animate doll]
This basically has 2 per existing art except for Compel and Spark.
Disguise I'm iffy on, anyway. Looking like someone else isn't very Conan-esque except for dark sorcerers. Hm. Could add a dark god of illusions/phantasms.
Could also throw in a terror power that's spirit based, like Fiver.
Y'know, emotional manipulation is somewhat iffy, too. I like lull to sleep and possibly paralyze as mental effects and maybe make-target-angrier. Could split emotions somehow. Like Lassitude vs Choler. Could also add a mage-light split off for Spark.
Lassitude: lull to sleep or paralyze with weakness [lull to trance]
Choler: make target subtly angry or unleash brief rage. [rage at X?]
Light: conjure mage-light, flare of mage-light. [enchanted lights]
Hm. 12 single column powers instead of 6 full-pagers? Maybe I should try it. Put a 1-point and a 2-point HS each?
Paired powers? Buy either and you get the skill which is used for both, encourages anyone who has power X to also have power Y.
Scrying: none? Seer trait instead?
Emotional effects: lassitude, choler, fear. I could even see dropping choler- it's useful to be able to make people angry sometimes, but still... instead, we could do lassitude/alertness and fear/anger as it can push you either way.
Perhaps keep it simple at first.
Lassitude: lull targets into sleep or even momentary paralysis [trance]
Fear: make targets hesitate or flee in terror. [oppressive, ongoing terror]
Telekinesis: move objects gently or shove them away [levitation]
Animation: make object animate slowly or strongly but briefly [permanent]
Spark: start small fires or create a fire-burst [electricity]
Mage-light: conjure light or make a dazzling flash [permanent]
Healing: speed healing or revive dying [revive recently dead]
Spirits: communicate or drive away [dark bargain]
Senses: see without sight or see through objects [borrow senses]
Shaping: sculpt or shatter [shape metal]
Invisibility: hide or vanish [full invisibility]
Disguise: disguise as something similar or terrify with images [hallucination]
Lassitude: help target sleep, lull unsuspecting target into sleep, paralyze alert target [they can't act until you release the spell, dispelled if they get attacked], lull unsuspecting target into hypnotic trance.
Fear: frighten away bugs, make unsuspecting target hesitate, make alert target flee, conjure ongoing feelings of dread.
Tug: levitate tiny object, telekinetically move object weakly, sudden strong push/pull/catch, levitate self.
Animate: make tiny object dance, animate rope or other object touched weakly, animate touched object strongly, animate doll as enchantment.
Hmph. Do I really want mages to be able to throw around Fire but not conjure light? Or instill fear but not sleep? Healing but not Shaping makes sense...
People who choose to malinger reduce the difficulty by 3, those choosing to showboat bump it up by 3.
Everyone makes four rolls- each failed roll inflicts 1d6 damage on you, with a further +1d6 if you critically fail. Botches add an additional roll of an appropriate non-combat skill like Acrobatics. Characters who take damage may choose to surrender to the enemy afterwards, rather than continue rolling. Might lower that to d4s if it seems too harsh. YOu could take 4d6 or so generally go negative.
The base rolls are an attack for your weapon of choice (generally Melee, Thrown, Ranged or your most effective combat Spell) then Dodge and Courage. If you are leading the fight, then roll Leadership first, either vs the same diff or the Leadership of the enemy leader... on a Crit everyone gets a +2 bonus per crit, on a Crit Failure everyone is at -2 as you lead them into trouble.
Snappy Patter lets you do Taunt as a free action too.
Add Seal spell that holds a door shut (Tug). Counterspell to an Open/Shove spell.
Use of Charm as a Focus Action to try and charm your opponent, making them -2 to attack you?
Combined action rules- character with highest Feats of Strength total rolls, everyone else adds Brawn as bonus. +0 Brawn adds 1/2 point, -1 adds 1/4, -2 adds 1/8, etc. Round final total down.
Charge Primary action- full run combined with all-out attack. Only works in straight line.
What's the typical increase for rolling 2d6 twice and taking the higher pair? Any bonus that requires you to give up your action should be at least that good. Otherwise you're mathematically better off swinging twice and hoping one of them rolls high. Okay, did the program- it's 8.37... only +1.37, so a +2 bonus is better.
]]>Trick/Distract: using tricksy maneuvers. Not sure what skill. Vs Leadership.
Look at what Savage Worlds offers.
Acrobatic Maneuver: duck, weave and tumble behind obstacles. Can only be used when there ARE obstacles in the immediate area. Makes it hard for them to hit you (-2 to attacks). Roll Acrobatics vs their Dodge.
Intimidation: growl, sneer and make aggressive moves that force your foe to concentrate on their defense (-2 to attacks). Roll Intimidate vs their Courage.
Bluff: roll Acting to feign a weakness. Leaves them -2 to defend themselves against your next attack.
Can blow Focus to do these without using up your action for the turn.
Called Shots: you can declare (before rolling) that if you hit, you ONLY want to claim a specific Combat Bonus. You don't inflict regular damage nor can your Combat Bonus inflict damage, but you get it on a regular success.
]]>Jump Attack (Jumping Mice only): if you spend Focus and leap to the attack, you can roll Acrobatics (Jumping) as your attack roll instead of Melee. Do not apply your +5 bonus. [possibly impaling weapons only? Roll the jump separately and apply bonuses to hit and damage if you succeed?]
Thunderstorm's Curse should cost 4 Fatigue.
Mousy lord who insists on eating predator hearts, eyes, etc. pays good wages for people to retrieve them.
A Power that lets you use Cleverness for Carousing and Intimidate and probably one other non-Cleverness skill.
A Power that lets you use Agility in place of some non-Agility skills like Perform.
A Power that lets you substitute Perception for some skills? It would be cool to have 3 Powers that each swap 3 skills, but that might not be doable or desirable.
Might change the blinding flare into the Burst spell I was thinking about. It's a little more appropriate, I think, than allowing a mouse to produce a magnesium flare-light burst of light.
]]>First you roll Melee Combat to grab a foe. Then, on later rounds, you can roll Feats of Strength to try and inflict a Grapple Effect on them. A critical hit lets you roll Feats of Strength vs theirs now.
Needs rules for grabbing on to a larger creature's back, too.
Riding on a creature's back trying to stab it to death should be a reasonable strategy, if a risky one.
So, 2 sorts of grabs. One to just hold on, one to grapple. Perhaps the initial grab (a melee attack) is sufficient to grab on, then you can either try for a Grapple Effect or just try to hit them.
Jumping attacks- rolling Acrobatics to hit instead. Ride to stay on?
Hm.
Jumping attack: roll Acrobatics vs appropriate difficulty... usually the target's melee defense. If you're trying to jump up onto a bigger creature, you'll be penalized by the difference in Size ratings. If you succeed, you get to make a Melee Grab attack at +2. If you crit, the Melee Grab is at +4. These bonuses will also apply when trying to resist being thrown off. If the jump check fails, though, you miss automatically.
Once you've grabbed a foe, you can attempt to wrestle them by matching your Feats of Strength vs theirs OR you can just take a +2 to attack. You'll be at -4 to defend, though, so this is best done by a bunch of people all grabbing the same foe, or by grabbing a foe from a side where he can't readily attack you back.
The target can spend their action trying to shake off ALL grapplers. They roll Feats of Strength. Anyone else must at least tie that or go flying off. If they just tie, they must give up their next action or fall off. Success or better, they're fine.
]]>Combat is almost done. Setting info is almost done. Sure, I could use more powers and some reformatting (in particular, I want to change Weapon Specialization to be "you get a crit per 4 you win by, not 5")... the big area left is the bestiary. I lack monster stats.
I could finish it this year. Yeesh, how pathetic that sounds. I'd love to finish it this month, but I don't expect my burst of productive energy to last that long.
Addenda 8/19- put up a copy of the PDF on the site and posted about it on RPG.net. So far the feedback has all been encouraging but very vague. Hopefully it'll help motivate me to finish it, though.
(cutting down on syllables)
Speed & Cunning work well together. Aim seems odd, but is quick to say. Cunning could be hard to abbreviate, though, and, like BRAWN, would probably be spelled out a lot.
]]>Does HMice support that?
Well, a rogue-type would be a high Agility, low Brawn character.
That gives them a bonus to hit in melee and ranged combat as well as dodge. So while they don't do as much damage, they are good at both defenses (Parry and Dodge) rather than just Parry.
High Brawn, low Agility gives +melee, +throwing, +courage. So they're more vulnerable to huge, unparryable attacks. There should be a note someplace that monsters of Size 4+ are unparryable by mice and rats.
Damage-wise, though... I like the idea that a +Agility character should be able to inflict as much damage as a +Brawn character, they're just more fragile (and probably do it with lighter weapons).
Possible implementations for that:
Manslayers: cult that believes that human civilization was evil and brought all of this destruction down on themselves (they're probably right). They destroy human records lest they contaminate Beast society and believe that they are operating under orders from Eve herself... she told the Beasts that they were to find their own path and to not try to emulate the ways of Man lest they make the same mistakes.
Caretakers: secret organization with cybernetic implants. Serve the Goddess, probably a surviving AI. Her location is kept well-hidden and may actually be erased from the memories of the rangers when they get their brain implants. The inner cadre have the implants and receive mental orders from the Goddess... they have an outer cult of recruits (Rangers) that get minimal cyberware but don't get to hear the Goddess's voice. Only the ones with implants are allowed to actually go anywhere near the shrine; others get put into a drugged sleep and taken there and brought back.
They Who Hear: dangerous cult that believes that the world-pain in the Anomalies is sentient and attempt to serve it. They may be right, because Anomaly Guardians generally spare them (killing them only if they are actively trying to fight the guardian) and while the anomaly's effects may sicken or mutate them, it never outright kills them. Beasts that go mad and wander into an anomaly often become convinced that the anomaly is speaking to them and wants them to punish the regular Beasts. The cult has been wiped out repeatedly, but appears spontaneously around major anomalies. Once in a great while, One Who Hears will encounter an anomaly that wants to be healed or at least changed and be encouraged to interact with it. Such anomalies tend to become different sorts of anomalies afterwards, often larger, too.
Purifiers: cult that considers the twinned and similar mutations to be sicknesses. They insist that such mutant Beasts never breed, lest the mutations accumulate. This is very true, but since most Beast towns have stopped enforcing those old rules, the ones who still believe in them have become more and more dogmatic about it. Purifiers tend to really hate hostile mutant creatures and are often the most determined to wipe out the enemies of the Beasts... it's just that they also pick on the Twinned and other people with birth defects and deformities.
Anomaly Guardians: anomalies are scars in space-time left by the most terrible of the ancient weapons. The world's pain is so great that something always finds an expression there, basically being "possessed" by the forces on the other side. This is the anomaly's guardian, basically a big monster or group of monsters. It generally needs to be slain before the anomaly can be healed via psychic powers. The distortions tend to create areas of mist or smoke that make it difficult to see very far. But you have to find the heart of the anomaly and repair it. This is time-consuming (days) and, yes, the guardian(s) will respond with murderous fury as soon as someone starts.
Mechanical Horrors: as before, but distorted enough that some folks think that the horrors are being manufactured by an AI factory that was turned into an anomaly guardian.
The Blight: alien ecosystem slowly spreading and poisoning the regular world. Rooting it out is dangerous but necessary. If you ingest any of it by mistake, you take damage... if this kills you, you tend to turn into a fungus-encrusted monster that spreads the parasitic growths further. It's all technically one organism, but it has multiple stages from the ground plants to the bubble spores to the wolf-like reapers and the larger hive-beasts which have vicious bird-things nesting in their backs.
Sentinels: huge ancient robot guardians still on patrol. Inescapably locked into their current programs... attempting to order them to do otherwise requires encrypted pass-keys, matching passwords and DNA/optical scans that are impossible because everyone on the list has been dead for centuries. Many carry nukes. Once in a great while, a Sentinel will be seen moving on a mission to a foreign nation. Generally if a foreign Sentinel reaches this area, it gets nuked by the local ones. Some have exhausted all weapons but can still squish people if antagonized. Equivalent of Death Machines, really.
Harpies and Dragons: as before. Lost clans of Beasts that are at war with the mammals and have their own legendary origins. Speak completely different languages (although some may know a smattering of common speech) and have different religious beliefs. The harpies scorn all cybernetic-style stuff, whereas the dragons have a lot of it and may not truly be free-willed.
The Twelve Voices: the Caretakers say that there are twelve ancient AIs left on this continent and all of them are mad. If you get a radio working, you'll hear them speaking. They argue, but it's not a human argument; they play ancient recorded orders, snippets of music, or even just staticky noises intended for other machine ears. This is apparently a war, as these signals are invariably loaded down with encoded viruses and Trojan programs. Each lives in a factory-fortress guarded by robots. The Caretakers say that all of them must be silenced, but sometimes the robot guardians seem to be semi-friendly towards Beasts. Only a handful of the 12 have actually been located and one of them detonated a nuke, destroying the surface area above it so that the Beasts couldn't get close anymore.
Twinned: term for Beasts who were born with doubled-limbs and such. These are realistic birth defects like having two paws at the end of your leg or a shriveled extra limb. These Beasts suffer physical penalties but get a mystical boost and are regarded as sacred by most.
]]>