Alternate Core Documents

A place to discuss any PnP (Pen and Paper) role-playing games you are working on.
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Viewing_Glass
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Viewing_Glass » Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:04 pm

So, I noticed an interesting oddity. Bonds of Friendship allows a caster to cast Perception, Defense, and Medical sets on another pony as if they were adjacent to you, and spells that you normally couldn't cast on them. The Expert level spell Power of Friendship only allows you to cast Defense and Medical spells using it. Why is the perception set attached to Power of Friendship?

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Rabbs
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Rabbs » Wed Aug 28, 2013 5:41 am

I have another house rule I want to share regarding burst and full-auto.

Select Fire: Many weapons are capable of several different fire modes. May fire burst for +10 AP or full-auto for +15.

I would have to drop the AP of all the burst and full-auto weapons though, probably by 10 AP across the board. This would give a few more options to automatic weapons as it makes firing a single shot viable.
So what do we think?

I also have a set of "wound" rules in the works. Similar to Dark Heresy's system, with a character rolling on a chart every 50ish HP lost (still VERY WIP)
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uSea
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by uSea » Wed Aug 28, 2013 8:55 am

Rabbs wrote:I have another house rule I want to share regarding burst and full-auto.

Select Fire: Many weapons are capable of several different fire modes. May fire burst for +10 AP or full-auto for +15.

I would have to drop the AP of all the burst and full-auto weapons though, probably by 10 AP across the board. This would give a few more options to automatic weapons as it makes firing a single shot viable.
So what do we think?
As I said before I'd love for the different firing modes to have different AP costs. It's what I wanted from the start. Making Automatic weapons a blanket 30ish AP to fire never sat right with me so I am in full support of making this change.

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Viewing_Glass
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Viewing_Glass » Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:38 pm

I have no problem with the reduced AP/additional AP change. Its something that has worked really well for the service rifle.

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Viewing_Glass
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Viewing_Glass » Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:59 pm

In regards to Virtue Documentation:

I love the scaling changes. However, I do have some suggestions:
  • Starting with 10 Integrity (12 with Dashite or Stable Dweller) is too good. The options for spending effort are quite powerful, and I feel that if you start players with a lower amount of integrity and have them work to get to those levels, they will value them more. I would suggest starting the average player at 7 integrity, with a Dashite or Stable Dweller starting at 8.
  • 2-4 Integrity: Gaining a bonus of 2*Integrity is too powerful (giving a bonus of +30 for a point of effort while your Integrity is at level 15). Lowering it to 'Integrity' feels about right.
  • 5-7 Integrity: The first option is awkwardly worded. If I may suggest the following: 'Spend a point of effort to remove 2*Integrity worth of penalties.' I think that's what you were going after?
  • 5-7 Integrity: The second option is far, far too powerful. If you spend a point of effort and get to go first you are gaining the effects of an expert level spell AND can easily end an encounter. Yikes!
  • 8-10 Integrity: Spending a point of Integrity to act for one round after being dropped to 0 HP is a bit too powerful. I would remove it, as it can be easily abused (Spend a point of effort, drink ALL THE HEALING POTIONS!).
  • Regaining Effort: Regaining effort when ever you perform a critical success is a bit too good. "I sneak in and attack! I crit, because a sneak attack gives me a +20% chance to crit!" To solve this potential problem, I would suggest making the following change: 'Whenever a character gains a non-combat critical success'.
I am really enjoying these rules, and will be testing them in my game.

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Ilushia
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Ilushia » Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:12 pm

Viewing_Glass wrote:[*] 2-4 Integrity: Gaining a bonus of 2*Integrity is too powerful (giving a bonus of +30 for a point of effort while your Integrity is at level 15). Lowering it to 'Integrity' feels about right.
You are aware that one degree of difficulty is 15 points, right? At just Integrity unless you're at 15 Integrity then you'll not even be able to gain a single degree of ease worth of check-value. 15 is the standard "This check is a bit harder/easier" modifier.
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]5-7 Integrity: The first option is awkwardly worded. If I may suggest the following: 'Spend a point of effort to remove 2*Integrity worth of penalties.' I think that's what you were going after?
The idea here is to ensure that a character reduced to the point where they're rolling against a super-low number (Their crit chance or less, basically) can have a shot at succeeding. Removing penalties might also work I suppose.
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]5-7 Integrity: The second option is far, far too powerful. If you spend a point of effort and get to go first you are gaining the effects of an expert level spell AND can easily end an encounter. Yikes!
Remember you can only spend Effort when acting in-line with your Virtue or Connections, meaning this isn't something you can do whenever you want. And you've only got three points of Effort to spend. It is pretty strong, but to be honest in my experience it's only when the entire party gets to move first that things become really, really problematic. Still I'll cut it back a bit.
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]8-10 Integrity: Spending a point of Integrity to act for one round after being dropped to 0 HP is a bit too powerful. I would remove it, as it can be easily abused (Spend a point of effort, drink ALL THE HEALING POTIONS!).
Again, it's important to remember you can only take these actions when something is happening your character is invested in. And yes "I drink a healing potion" as part of that one-turn effect is useful. But it's also consuming some of your AP you could be spending doing whatever it is your character is caring about doing enough to burn Effort on it.
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]Regaining Effort: Regaining effort when ever you perform a critical success is a bit too good. "I sneak in and attack! I crit, because a sneak attack gives me a +20% chance to crit!" To solve this potential problem, I would suggest making the following change: 'Whenever a character gains a non-combat critical success'.
Changed the wording to this to be whenever you roll below your Luck on a skill check.

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Dimestream
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by Dimestream » Wed Aug 28, 2013 6:22 pm

Ilushia wrote:
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*] 2-4 Integrity: Gaining a bonus of 2*Integrity is too powerful (giving a bonus of +30 for a point of effort while your Integrity is at level 15). Lowering it to 'Integrity' feels about right.
You are aware that one degree of difficulty is 15 points, right? At just Integrity unless you're at 15 Integrity then you'll not even be able to gain a single degree of ease worth of check-value. 15 is the standard "This check is a bit harder/easier" modifier.
Actually, no it's not, a degree of success or failure is only ten points on a skill check. Additional difficulty (easy vs normal, normal vs hard) is only a positive or negative ten to the skill, not fifteen, but the point stands. Effectively lowering a skill check's difficulty by a whole tier is doable at TEN integrity, without the multiplier.
Ilushia wrote:
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]5-7 Integrity: The second option is far, far too powerful. If you spend a point of effort and get to go first you are gaining the effects of an expert level spell AND can easily end an encounter. Yikes!
Remember you can only spend Effort when acting in-line with your Virtue or Connections, meaning this isn't something you can do whenever you want. And you've only got three points of Effort to spend. It is pretty strong, but to be honest in my experience it's only when the entire party gets to move first that things become really, really problematic. Still I'll cut it back a bit.
Actually, it's incredibly easy to act in line with one's virtue. A clever player can easily argue that just about anything they do falls in line with their virtue. A character whose virtue is Courage, and takes the lead in combat can argue that every roll they make is acting in line with their virtue. It's the same argument I make against gaining virtue points so quickly.

Ilushia wrote:
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]8-10 Integrity: Spending a point of Integrity to act for one round after being dropped to 0 HP is a bit too powerful. I would remove it, as it can be easily abused (Spend a point of effort, drink ALL THE HEALING POTIONS!).
Again, it's important to remember you can only take these actions when something is happening your character is invested in. And yes "I drink a healing potion" as part of that one-turn effect is useful. But it's also consuming some of your AP you could be spending doing whatever it is your character is caring about doing enough to burn Effort on it.
Yes but that way lies player immortality. As much as I'm in favor of making the system a wee bit less lethal, making it so all players who are any kind of smart about viertues are no longer ever threatened or knocked out by hitting 0 HP isn't exactly viable. While this level of dogged determination is kind of neat, I think there should be a better way to express it
Ilushia wrote:
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]Regaining Effort: Regaining effort when ever you perform a critical success is a bit too good. "I sneak in and attack! I crit, because a sneak attack gives me a +20% chance to crit!" To solve this potential problem, I would suggest making the following change: 'Whenever a character gains a non-combat critical success'.
Changed the wording to this to be whenever you roll below your Luck on a skill check.
Only if you add "non-combat" to the "skill check." Allowing this to work on combat skills, DURING COMBAT is asking for trouble.

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EDtiGron
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by EDtiGron » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:06 pm

Dimestream wrote:
Ilushia wrote:
Viewing_Glass wrote:[*]Regaining Effort: Regaining effort when ever you perform a critical success is a bit too good. "I sneak in and attack! I crit, because a sneak attack gives me a +20% chance to crit!" To solve this potential problem, I would suggest making the following change: 'Whenever a character gains a non-combat critical success'.
Changed the wording to this to be whenever you roll below your Luck on a skill check.
Only if you add "non-combat" to the "skill check." Allowing this to work on combat skills, DURING COMBAT is asking for trouble.
The problem with making it non-combat only is that you'll be punishing combat oriented characters that rarely, if ever, make non-combat skill checks.
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AffeTrollkarl
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by AffeTrollkarl » Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:29 am

I've just got a question concerning the trait Magic Knack.

It states that:
You must spend your first Advanced and Expert spells improving spells you possess in this set or collection (if possible) before gaining or improving other spells.
Does this mean that you can't learn any new spells until you've got the Advance and/or Expert level of your Magic Knack spell(s)?
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TyrannisUmbra
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Re: Alternate Core Documents

Post by TyrannisUmbra » Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:09 am

AffeTrollkarl wrote:I've just got a question concerning the trait Magic Knack.

It states that:
You must spend your first Advanced and Expert spells improving spells you possess in this set or collection (if possible) before gaining or improving other spells.
Does this mean that you can't learn any new spells until you've got the Advance and/or Expert level of your Magic Knack spell(s)?
If those spells are gained through the Advanced or Expert spells perk, then yes, that's what it means. Additional Spell Count still allows you to learn additional basic spells.
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