Alternate Core Documents
Re: Alternate Core Documents
In that case, regardless if you would use the race, do you believe it to be balanced? Again, I tried to aim for the gryphons in terms of power.
Bloody mess: The gift that keeps on gibbing.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
ATTENTION
Over the next several weeks, I hope to be working with everyone on fixes for a list of potential problems with the system compiled by Night Light. Open discussion and suggestions are encouraged. Keep an eye out here for rules changes.
Here are a few to start out. These changes are pending ratification.
Luck Rolls: Previously, several perks and spells allowed a character to gain an extremely powerful bonus with successful Luck check. This makes it possible to create a PC or villain with a Luck of 10 who is able to neutralize or kill opponents 90% of the time. To resolve this, I have altered the roll to have its effect unless the opponent makes a successful Luck roll. This way, since the minimum Luck score is 3, there is always at least a 30% chance of successfully avoiding the effect, and always at least a 10% chance the effect will occur. Perks and spells changed to this mechanic so far include: Lightning (Expert), Calamity's Might, Rampage's Wrath (Additionally, the requirements for those last two perks has been increased.)
One Trick Pony and Spread Thin: The amount of Strain you have is no longer doubled (for One Trick Pony) or halved (for Spread Thin). (Playtesting has revealed that this gets absolutely insane or effectively unplayable as is.) Also, I have specified that "a One Trick Pony may chose to cast a spell at normal potency or any level of Mighty Spell she has attained." New note: One Trick Pony, however, now gives you Mighty Spell (Rank 1) at sixth level for free.
Telekinesis: By popular demand (and to avoid enemies simply lifting up the party's zebra and floating them off the side of a cliff), all characters may now make an opposed test against the spell’s effective Strength using their (Strength -1) or (Agility -1) to break out of a telekinetic grip. (This is comparable to the already-existing rule for Telekinetic Grasp.) Characters with a means of propulsion (such as wings) gain a substantial bonus, and characters with projectile weapons may use the Strength requirement of the weapon for the check to kick themselves free. Heavy Weapons and Battle Saddles automatically succeed in kicking a character out of a telekinetic field.
Over the next several weeks, I hope to be working with everyone on fixes for a list of potential problems with the system compiled by Night Light. Open discussion and suggestions are encouraged. Keep an eye out here for rules changes.
Here are a few to start out. These changes are pending ratification.
Luck Rolls: Previously, several perks and spells allowed a character to gain an extremely powerful bonus with successful Luck check. This makes it possible to create a PC or villain with a Luck of 10 who is able to neutralize or kill opponents 90% of the time. To resolve this, I have altered the roll to have its effect unless the opponent makes a successful Luck roll. This way, since the minimum Luck score is 3, there is always at least a 30% chance of successfully avoiding the effect, and always at least a 10% chance the effect will occur. Perks and spells changed to this mechanic so far include: Lightning (Expert), Calamity's Might, Rampage's Wrath (Additionally, the requirements for those last two perks has been increased.)
One Trick Pony and Spread Thin: The amount of Strain you have is no longer doubled (for One Trick Pony) or halved (for Spread Thin). (Playtesting has revealed that this gets absolutely insane or effectively unplayable as is.) Also, I have specified that "a One Trick Pony may chose to cast a spell at normal potency or any level of Mighty Spell she has attained." New note: One Trick Pony, however, now gives you Mighty Spell (Rank 1) at sixth level for free.
Telekinesis: By popular demand (and to avoid enemies simply lifting up the party's zebra and floating them off the side of a cliff), all characters may now make an opposed test against the spell’s effective Strength using their (Strength -1) or (Agility -1) to break out of a telekinetic grip. (This is comparable to the already-existing rule for Telekinetic Grasp.) Characters with a means of propulsion (such as wings) gain a substantial bonus, and characters with projectile weapons may use the Strength requirement of the weapon for the check to kick themselves free. Heavy Weapons and Battle Saddles automatically succeed in kicking a character out of a telekinetic field.
Last edited by Kkat on Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:16 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
Ilushia said:
Definitely an option. Opposed rolls could also work, and would fit a lot of the other rules, but would add a level of complication that could seriously slow down gameplay. It may be better to just remove the perks altogether. What does everyone else think?Looks pretty good. I'm not sure I like the Luck Rolls change (not because I think the other way was better, but rather because I don't like the idea that your effectiveness depends upon the stats of an opponent). I'd suggest just stripping Calamity's Might and Rampage's Wrath out of the game entirely. Sniper and Slayer (The perks they were based on) are hideously broken to begin with.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
You know, I actually agree with Ilushia, but at the same time, we have to have something cool to look up to at the end levels. Thoughts, Kkat?
Re: Alternate Core Documents
I always thought that Calamity's Might/Rampage's Wrath were a bit on the ridiculous side in terms of power. The luck counter-roll seems like it would balance them out somewhat, but I can't shake the feeling that there's a more elegant solution to it. Perhaps a roll modifier of +3, to make the roll sufficiently difficult to pull off?
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SilverlightPony
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Re: Alternate Core Documents
As someone with a character whose main combat tactic involves creative application of invisibility and telekinesis, I'm not sure I like the changes to telekinesis. Need more details.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
Ghouls: The perks Ghoul and Radiation Child now include additional text regarding bleeding off radiation when not healing and some more details on the dangers of prolonged lack of exposure to radiation. These rules are still not complete, however. New note: after some discussion, we will be testing Puppysmiles' suggested formula for ghoul deterioration. Please let us know how it works! Also, note some new ghoul perks!
Phase The duration of Phase may be ended early with a successful Science skill check at a penalty equal to -5 * (remaining turns).
The rules don't affect what a telekinetic can do with objects other than characters, and shouldn't curtail telekinetic ingenuity.
New note: In order to keep the mechanics consistent with Fallout: Equestria (in particular, the Littlepip vs hellhounds scene in Chapter 39), the new roll for avoiding Telekinesis has been changed to an opposed test against the spell’s effective Strength using the target's Strength or Agility at a penalty equal to the degrees of success on the caster’s Science roll (up to a maximum penalty of -3, this cannot reduce the target’s effective Strength or Agility below 1). (Note: Characters with a means of propulsion still have the superior roll of (Strength +2) with no penalty.) Furthermore, the new rulings have necessitated the following modification of telekinetic effective Strength: The caster's Potency for calculating effective Strength is not modified by any ranks of Mighty Spell; however, she gains a +1 bonus on opposed rolls for each rank.
Phase The duration of Phase may be ended early with a successful Science skill check at a penalty equal to -5 * (remaining turns).
The change just gives everypony a chance to break out of telekinesis if a caster tries to levitate them. This is to prevent a lot of abuse.SilverlightPony wrote:Need more details.
The rules don't affect what a telekinetic can do with objects other than characters, and shouldn't curtail telekinetic ingenuity.New note: In order to keep the mechanics consistent with Fallout: Equestria (in particular, the Littlepip vs hellhounds scene in Chapter 39), the new roll for avoiding Telekinesis has been changed to an opposed test against the spell’s effective Strength using the target's Strength or Agility at a penalty equal to the degrees of success on the caster’s Science roll (up to a maximum penalty of -3, this cannot reduce the target’s effective Strength or Agility below 1). (Note: Characters with a means of propulsion still have the superior roll of (Strength +2) with no penalty.) Furthermore, the new rulings have necessitated the following modification of telekinetic effective Strength: The caster's Potency for calculating effective Strength is not modified by any ranks of Mighty Spell; however, she gains a +1 bonus on opposed rolls for each rank.
Last edited by Kkat on Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
An excellent series of updates! Awesome.
On the radiation note. We have rules for how ghouls interact with radiation but what about normal ponies? I had a look but I couldn't find rules for the effects of radiation poisoning on normal ponies or for how fast they lose radiation naturally. Not urgent, but it's been on my mind.
Keep up the good work, this is fast becoming one of my favourite systems to use.
On the radiation note. We have rules for how ghouls interact with radiation but what about normal ponies? I had a look but I couldn't find rules for the effects of radiation poisoning on normal ponies or for how fast they lose radiation naturally. Not urgent, but it's been on my mind.
Keep up the good work, this is fast becoming one of my favourite systems to use.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
Right now, we don't have rules written up for environmental hazards such as radiation. With the exception of a rate of natural bleed-off, however, radiation is easy: we can just follow the mechanics used in the recent Fallout games.
Additional note for One Trick Pony: One Trick Pony now gives you Mighty Spell (Rank 1) at sixth level for free. This is to make the trait useful before 12th level.
We've been going through the documents, fixing typos and adding clarifications this weekend. Most are trivial. Here are the ones that you might want to note:
Telekinetic Grasp: The spell's range is short, as per its use in Lesson Zero.
Combat Precognition: The spell now clarifies that it ends at the end of combat.
Wings: The following has been added to the Wings spell to put some mechanics behind the description as "fragile": Treat the subject as a pegasus for hit locations. Wings made from this spell have half the normal health of a limb, rounded down, and are destroyed if crippled.
New Additions:
Tails: The following has been added to the Crippling Limbs and Hit Locations section: A tail may be targeted for circumstantial effects (such as disarming a character using Tail Trick), but attacks to the tail do not cause any loss of health and the tail is not a normal hit location.
Matrix Casting: The question has come up as to whether perks such as Mighty Spell or Zen Casting may be used with Matrix Casting. The answer is "yes, but only if all of the casters involved have the perk." Likewise, it has been clarified that the 12 casting actions necessary to create a Spell Matrix must be divided evenly amongst the casters involved.
Failsafe: The spell Failsafe has been substantially clarified and now includes a resistance roll. Note: per the section below, expert-level Failsafe is an example of a spell which can reduce a SPECIAL to an effective rating of 0 for purposes of a roll.
Alter Physiology: The spell Alter Physiology now includes rules on how high or low the spell may alter a target's SPECIALs.
Gas Grenades: The rules for these grenades now includes a recovery time.
Additional note for One Trick Pony: One Trick Pony now gives you Mighty Spell (Rank 1) at sixth level for free. This is to make the trait useful before 12th level.
We've been going through the documents, fixing typos and adding clarifications this weekend. Most are trivial. Here are the ones that you might want to note:
Telekinetic Grasp: The spell's range is short, as per its use in Lesson Zero.
Combat Precognition: The spell now clarifies that it ends at the end of combat.
Wings: The following has been added to the Wings spell to put some mechanics behind the description as "fragile": Treat the subject as a pegasus for hit locations. Wings made from this spell have half the normal health of a limb, rounded down, and are destroyed if crippled.
New Additions:
Tails: The following has been added to the Crippling Limbs and Hit Locations section: A tail may be targeted for circumstantial effects (such as disarming a character using Tail Trick), but attacks to the tail do not cause any loss of health and the tail is not a normal hit location.
Matrix Casting: The question has come up as to whether perks such as Mighty Spell or Zen Casting may be used with Matrix Casting. The answer is "yes, but only if all of the casters involved have the perk." Likewise, it has been clarified that the 12 casting actions necessary to create a Spell Matrix must be divided evenly amongst the casters involved.
Failsafe: The spell Failsafe has been substantially clarified and now includes a resistance roll. Note: per the section below, expert-level Failsafe is an example of a spell which can reduce a SPECIAL to an effective rating of 0 for purposes of a roll.
Alter Physiology: The spell Alter Physiology now includes rules on how high or low the spell may alter a target's SPECIALs.
Gas Grenades: The rules for these grenades now includes a recovery time.
Last edited by Kkat on Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Alternate Core Documents
Major Rules Update:
SPECIAL Rolls: The following has been added to this section: No character may succeed on a SPECIAL roll for a SPECIAL that has been reduced to 0. SPECIALS may be reduced to 0 through damage (such as poisons) or through penalties from sources that specify that they can reduce the SPECIAL to an effective rating of 0 for purposes of a specific roll.
New Spell: Speed Recovery (Advanced)
This spell allows a patient to regain points of SPECIALs lost from a single source so long as the source of the damage is no longer present. (This does not aid in cases where the points of SPECIAL are lost because the source of the damage is still present, such as rads or poison.)
Advanced (Cost 25): Duration is (Potency) hours. Patient recovers damage to SPECIALs at double the normal rate for the duration of the spell.
Expert (Cost 50): Patient recovers damage to SPECIALs at double the normal rate. The spell lasts until the patient has recovered.
New Rules Section: SPECIAL and Skill Enhancement and Damage:
Unless otherwise stated, any perk, spell or other effect that directly increases or decreases a SPECIAL cannot increase that SPECIAL higher than 10 or lower than 1. Poisons, some attacks, and environmental hazards can reduce a SPECIAL to 0.
Poisons can be resisted with a Poison Resistance roll. Each administering of the poison is resisted separately. If the resistance roll succeeds, the poison has no effect.
In some cases, having a SPECIAL reduced to 0 has a unique effect. (For example, a spirit may have a spirit power which drains Charisma, and when the character’s Charisma reaches 0, the character becomes “Discorded”.) Otherwise, the following effects apply: if a character’s Strength, Perception or Agility is reduced to 0, the character is paralyzed; if her Charisma or Intelligence is reduced to 0, the character ceases to be a playable character; and if her Endurance is reduced to 0, the character dies.
Unless otherwise noted, enhancements or damage from spells end when the spell’s duration ends. The recovery time for SPECIAL damage depends on the source of the damage. Most poisons and attacks have damage that recovers over time. If the recovery time of a poison or similarly damaging attack is not stated, use the following guideline:
Weak: recover one lost SPECIAL point every ten minutes.
Moderate: recover one lost SPECIAL point every hour.
Strong: recover one lost SPECIAL point each day. With a full day of rest, she may recover all lost SPECIAL points if she makes a successful END check at a penalty of -1.
Deadly: point once a day, the character may recover one lost SPECIAL if she makes a successful END check at a penalty of -3.
Radiation builds up in a character’s body. For every Exposure Interval (EI) that the character is exposed to radiation, she absorbs an amount of rads equal to the amount of rads the hazard inflicts reduced by her radiation resistance. The length of an EI is determined by the hazard. Passing through a warehouse of seeping barrels of glowing goo will likely inflict Rads every turn, while passing near a megaspell crater will probably only inflict Rads every hour. Rad-inflicting consumables, such as irradiated food, inflict their radiation only once. (Note: the boost to radiation resistance from equipment such as radiation suits do not reduce rads from consumed sources, but the radiation resistance boost from magic or chems will.)
Rads are cumulative. When a character’s rads increase beyond certain levels, she takes damage to her SPECIALs according as below, reducing the SPECIALs affected to a minimum of 1. This damage remains until her accumulated rads are reduced to a lower level.
0-199____No Effect___________________No Damage
200-399__Minor Radiation Poisoning_____-1 END
400-599__Advanced Radiation Poisoning._-2 END, -1 AGI
600-799__Critical Radiation Poisoning____-3 END, -2 AGI, -1 STR
800-999__Deadly Radiation Poisoning____-3 END, -2 AGI, -2 STR
1000+.___Fatal Radiation Poisoning______Death
Many other environmental hazards will have Exposure Intervals and may offer resistance rolls to avoid damage.
(Example: A Crimson Caravan detachment traveling in the Frozen North finds themselves facing extreme cold which deals -1 AGI damage (minimum 0) then -1 END (minimum 0) with an EI of one hour and an END roll to resist with a bonus of +1 to +3 for suitable winter barding. Fortunately, huddling together in shelter around a campire will allow them to regain lost SPECIALs.)
Some sources of SPECIAL damage, such as Pink Cloud, may only be healed through magic. And a few rare sources, such as Taint, are permanently debilitating.
Any perk, spell or other effect that directly increases or decreases a skill cannot increase that skill higher than 100 (or 115 in the case of the tagged skill related to the character’s Special Talent) or lower than the character’s critical success threshold. However, increases or decreases beyond these limits still counteract penalties or bonuses.
(Example: Viewing Glass casts expert Soft Light on Red Button, granting her a +40 bonus to her Speech. However, Red Button’s Speech is already 80, so the spell only raises it to 100. The last 20 points of bonus have no effect. However, if Red Button was suffering a -20 penalty because she was trying to be diplomatic in a language she barely knew, those 20 extra points would cancel out her penalty.)
SPECIAL Rolls: The following has been added to this section: No character may succeed on a SPECIAL roll for a SPECIAL that has been reduced to 0. SPECIALS may be reduced to 0 through damage (such as poisons) or through penalties from sources that specify that they can reduce the SPECIAL to an effective rating of 0 for purposes of a specific roll.
New Spell: Speed Recovery (Advanced)
This spell allows a patient to regain points of SPECIALs lost from a single source so long as the source of the damage is no longer present. (This does not aid in cases where the points of SPECIAL are lost because the source of the damage is still present, such as rads or poison.)
Advanced (Cost 25): Duration is (Potency) hours. Patient recovers damage to SPECIALs at double the normal rate for the duration of the spell.
Expert (Cost 50): Patient recovers damage to SPECIALs at double the normal rate. The spell lasts until the patient has recovered.
New Rules Section: SPECIAL and Skill Enhancement and Damage:
Unless otherwise stated, any perk, spell or other effect that directly increases or decreases a SPECIAL cannot increase that SPECIAL higher than 10 or lower than 1. Poisons, some attacks, and environmental hazards can reduce a SPECIAL to 0.
Poisons can be resisted with a Poison Resistance roll. Each administering of the poison is resisted separately. If the resistance roll succeeds, the poison has no effect.
In some cases, having a SPECIAL reduced to 0 has a unique effect. (For example, a spirit may have a spirit power which drains Charisma, and when the character’s Charisma reaches 0, the character becomes “Discorded”.) Otherwise, the following effects apply: if a character’s Strength, Perception or Agility is reduced to 0, the character is paralyzed; if her Charisma or Intelligence is reduced to 0, the character ceases to be a playable character; and if her Endurance is reduced to 0, the character dies.
Unless otherwise noted, enhancements or damage from spells end when the spell’s duration ends. The recovery time for SPECIAL damage depends on the source of the damage. Most poisons and attacks have damage that recovers over time. If the recovery time of a poison or similarly damaging attack is not stated, use the following guideline:
Weak: recover one lost SPECIAL point every ten minutes.
Moderate: recover one lost SPECIAL point every hour.
Strong: recover one lost SPECIAL point each day. With a full day of rest, she may recover all lost SPECIAL points if she makes a successful END check at a penalty of -1.
Deadly: point once a day, the character may recover one lost SPECIAL if she makes a successful END check at a penalty of -3.
Radiation builds up in a character’s body. For every Exposure Interval (EI) that the character is exposed to radiation, she absorbs an amount of rads equal to the amount of rads the hazard inflicts reduced by her radiation resistance. The length of an EI is determined by the hazard. Passing through a warehouse of seeping barrels of glowing goo will likely inflict Rads every turn, while passing near a megaspell crater will probably only inflict Rads every hour. Rad-inflicting consumables, such as irradiated food, inflict their radiation only once. (Note: the boost to radiation resistance from equipment such as radiation suits do not reduce rads from consumed sources, but the radiation resistance boost from magic or chems will.)
Rads are cumulative. When a character’s rads increase beyond certain levels, she takes damage to her SPECIALs according as below, reducing the SPECIALs affected to a minimum of 1. This damage remains until her accumulated rads are reduced to a lower level.
0-199____No Effect___________________No Damage
200-399__Minor Radiation Poisoning_____-1 END
400-599__Advanced Radiation Poisoning._-2 END, -1 AGI
600-799__Critical Radiation Poisoning____-3 END, -2 AGI, -1 STR
800-999__Deadly Radiation Poisoning____-3 END, -2 AGI, -2 STR
1000+.___Fatal Radiation Poisoning______Death
Many other environmental hazards will have Exposure Intervals and may offer resistance rolls to avoid damage.
(Example: A Crimson Caravan detachment traveling in the Frozen North finds themselves facing extreme cold which deals -1 AGI damage (minimum 0) then -1 END (minimum 0) with an EI of one hour and an END roll to resist with a bonus of +1 to +3 for suitable winter barding. Fortunately, huddling together in shelter around a campire will allow them to regain lost SPECIALs.)
Some sources of SPECIAL damage, such as Pink Cloud, may only be healed through magic. And a few rare sources, such as Taint, are permanently debilitating.
Any perk, spell or other effect that directly increases or decreases a skill cannot increase that skill higher than 100 (or 115 in the case of the tagged skill related to the character’s Special Talent) or lower than the character’s critical success threshold. However, increases or decreases beyond these limits still counteract penalties or bonuses.
(Example: Viewing Glass casts expert Soft Light on Red Button, granting her a +40 bonus to her Speech. However, Red Button’s Speech is already 80, so the spell only raises it to 100. The last 20 points of bonus have no effect. However, if Red Button was suffering a -20 penalty because she was trying to be diplomatic in a language she barely knew, those 20 extra points would cancel out her penalty.)
Last edited by Kkat on Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:41 am, edited 7 times in total.