Alternate Core Documents

[Ilushia]

[*]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

Maybe. But that is still consuming one of the only three Effort you have, which runs out pretty quick since it doesn't regenerate every session. We'll see how it goes, maybe tone that back somehow.

[*]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.

[/quote]

I'm not really sure how it's more asking for trouble in combat than out. The only situation I can think of where it'd be really abusable is with automatic weapons due to the way the full auto attack rules work. Which I -still- don't like and still recommend changing for other reasons as well. I'm curious why you think it's particularly problematic during combat, though.

[Kkat]

Minor change to the Tiered Weapons List:

As a lot of games have moved to using uSea's excellent revisions and expansions of the weapons system, the tabs have been re-ordered so that the revised weapons and mods tabs are in front for easier access. Some tabs have been renamed so that more tabs can be seen without scrolling.

[Viewing_Glass]

After re-reading through the story, I realized a few potions were missing from the story. Thus, I am posting a few suggested changes for Alchemy (as well as to three unicorn spells) to help the system better mesh the story.

Advanced Alchemy:

Minor Flame Bane Potion (Requirement: Survival 60, 2 Green Herbs, 2 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to fire. It grants 25% resistance to damage caused by fire (such as the burning effect of a flamer). Lasts 4 minutes.

Minor Grounding Potion (Requirement: Survival 60, 2 Green Herbs, 2 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to electricity. It grants 25% resistance to damage caused by electricity (such as the effect of a pegasus's Lightning Kick). Lasts 4 minutes.

Minor Warming Potion (Requirement: Survival 60, 2 Green Herbs, 2 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to Cold. It grants 25% resistance to damage caused by cold (such as the effects of a weapon imbued with a Spirit of Hate). Lasts 4 minutes.

Potion of Spirit Renewal (Requirement: Survival 75, 3 Blue Herbs): This potion, while useful to Shamans, is prized by Unicorns. Anyone who takes this potion and has taken damage to the soul (CHA damage) recovers 1 point of CHA. Unicorns who have experienced burnout are no longer burnt out (though they recover no strain from this potion) (NOTE: This potion was used on Littlepip to recover her from burnout after rescuing Xenith from Fillydelphia).

Expert Alchemy:

Major Flame Bane Potion (Requirement: Survival 90, 3 Green Herbs, 3 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to fire. It grants 50% resistance to damage caused by fire (such as the burning effect of a flamer). Any effect that causes the character to be lit on fire no longer functions. Lasts 4 minutes.

Major Grounding Potion (Requirement: Survival 90, 3 Green Herbs, 3 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to electricity. It grants 50% resistance to damage caused by electricity (such as the effect of a pegasus's Lightning Kick). Any additional effect of taking the electrical damage no longer functions. Lasts 4 minutes. (NOTE: This potion was used to allow Little pip to continue to fly the Sky Bandit even after it was hit directly with a lightning bolt).

Major Warming Potion (Requirement: Survival 90, 3 Green Herbs, 3 Blue Herbs): This potion makes the user to be more resistant to Cold. It grants 50% resistance to damage caused by cold (such as the effects of a weapon imbued with a Spirit of Hate). Any additional effect caused by the cold damage no longer functions. Lasts 4 minutes.

Potion of Weathering (Requirement: Survival 100, 3 Green Herbs, 3 Blue Herbs, 3 Red Herbs): This potion protects the caster from normal weather and environmental conditions. The character will not suffer frostbite or heatstroke in severely cold or hot environments, etc. The character will be comfortable in such environments and take no penalties from them. Lasts 1 day.

Elixer of Spirit Renewal (Requirement: Survival 100, 4 Blue Herbs): This elixir, while useful to Shamans, is prized by Unicorns. Anyone who takes this potion and have taken damage to the soul (CHA damage) recovers 3 point of CHA damage. Unicorns who have experienced burnout are no longer burnt out, and recover POT*10 Strain.

In addition to these suggested potions, I would like to put forward that the Dangerous and Deadly poisons be available to be produced by ALL races, but that they require anyone without Basic/Advanced Alchemy to have a Survival 30 points higher than is listed. In addition, I would like to add the following racial perk for Zebra:

Potent Poisons: Level 8, One Rank, Requires Survival 50. Whenever you brew a poison, you know how to make it effect even the most resistant of Wastelanders. The poisons brewed by you reduce poison resistance of your opponent by (Survival/10, round up)*2.

Finally, spells. I would like to make the suggestion that Energy Strike: Fire, Lightning, and Cold have the damage they do be reduced by 5 at basic, 10 at Advanced, and 15 at Expert. In exchange, they deal elemental damage that is not affected by DT. This fits with the story (Energy Strike: Lightning affected everyone in the Sky Bandit when it was hit, after all), and the damage reduction for those energy strikes ALONE keeps them from being any more powerful with the change.

In addition, I would like to have the same change applied to Storm Cloud. It does 5 less damage at basic, 10 less damage at advanced, and 15 less damage at Expert. In exchange, the damage dealt is electricity damage. I would also suggest a note that a Pegasus can use a storm cloud, conjured by a unicorn, in conjuction with Expert Pegasus Trick Storm Master. Any bolts of lightning discharged by the Pegasus lowers the number of bolts the unicorn has to use. This also has the advantage of allowing a Pegasus to use a Unicorn's storm cloud against the Unicorn.

[uSea]

Minor change to the Tiered Weapons List:

As a lot of games have moved to using uSea's excellent revisions and expansions of the weapons system, the tabs have been re-ordered so that the revised weapons and mods tabs are in front for easier access. Some tabs have been renamed so that more tabs can be seen without scrolling.

Oh my. I fixed a few things that hadn't made it into the live doc from the revision doc (mainly shotgun stuff and special ammo types), so it should all be up to date now. The changes from the previous version should be highlighted with a yellow cell to make them stand out for a bit.

Check here for a detailed list of changes which includes the reasons why the various changes were made. Also included are links to docs that show in simple terms how the weapons stack up against each other Vs DT.

As always feedback, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated!

To avoid cluttering this thread you can also post stuff about the weapon doc here.

[Dance_Explosion]

After a little look, i have to say, i feel super positive about the changes so far! i cannot wait to give these a test run!

[Ghostpony]

The lack of a well defined system for Zebra martial arts lead to some work on my part. I mostly was looking to see how I could work them into my game. This is what I have come up with.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... GSUE#gid=2

It should be noted that some effects are more powerful than others because they are situational. Dragon Slayer style is very powerful but only against creatures of size +2 or more to the user. Ironhoof is very powerful but it is an Earth pony only style and limits the choice of perks they can take as it is an expression of EP magic. With that in mind I would like to know peoples thoughts on the system I created.

[Night Light]

Definitely seconding Dance Explosion here, looks like a lot of great changes. I've got a few comments for consideration.

Note that the Enchanted rule has now been clarified so the 2d10 fire damage for 3 turns stacks per bullet.

Do we really want that damage stacking? I mean, I'm not strictly against it, that can just make for an absolutely insane fire DoT, especially at higher levels where it's very unlikely you're going to miss. Doubly especially if you have multiple people in the party using Flame Enchanted weapons. Just food for thought.

Poison: A roll of 01-30 to hit causes the target to lose 1 STR and 1 AGI unless it passes an END check with a +1 for every 10 points of Poison Resist the target has.

Should probably note it either as damage or a penalty with a duration.

Poison Critical: Living Biological opponents automatically fail their attempt to resist the Poison's effect and suffer a -10 to all skill checks until the end of their next turn.

Auto-failing is kind of crazy, especially given they're also suffering a -10 to all skill checks. Might I suggest a penalty on their check (-3, perhaps) instead of auto-fail?

Force/Impact: A roll of 01-30 to hit knocks the target back 1 yard per 10 damage unless it passes a STR check. Knockback(s) happen after all your attacks are finished.

Seems to have two names, not sure if that's intended. I like the concept, but I think the execution needs some tweaks. What if knockback triggers on my first attack but I whiff on all my other attacks, they just fly away at the end of my turn? And what if I attack someone, trigger knockback, then go attack a different opponent? When does knockback trigger? Perhaps giving an option to attempt to either knock them back or knock them down? It should probably also noted "per 10 damage dealt" to clarify it's post DT/DR and it could possibly look to be changed to a Str or Agi check. Size limitations should also be noted.

Force/Impact Critical: Stores a critical amount of kinetic energy to send the opponent flying on the final attack. The target's STR check is automatically failed. Size 3 targets can be effected, but are knocked back half as far.

Auto-fail is, again, kind of intense. Might I against suggest a penalty on the check?

Lightning Critical: On living Biological opponents a Crit drains AP equal to half the lightning damage dealt (rounded up). On machines causes 3x listed lightning damage as AX damage.

Should probably be clarified similar to how the Spirit of Lightning is for purposes of duration and function.

All-in-all, gotta say I really like the elemental mods, great stuff and good alternatives to zebra enchanting.

My only other relatively minor concern would be the amount of Armor Piercing and Armor Piercing (Heavy) in the melee weapons and their special maneuvers (14 in all, including the 2 in thrown weapons), but I know that gets worked into your calculations so I'm sure you're more than on top of that.

As always, amazing work, uSea!

[uSea]

Do we really want that damage stacking? I mean, I'm not strictly against it, that can just make for an absolutely insane fire DoT, especially at higher levels where it's very unlikely you're going to miss. Doubly especially if you have multiple people in the party using Flame Enchanted weapons. Just food for thought.

I asked Kkat about how the Zebra Rifle enchantment should work. As Littlepip demonstrated it is quite powerful.

Poison: A roll of 01-30 to hit causes the target to lose 1 STR and 1 AGI unless it passes an END check with a +1 for every 10 points of Poison Resist the target has.

Should probably note it either as damage or a penalty with a duration.

A duration is now listed. Poison (and Force) crits now have a -3 penalty to the check instead of auto fail.

Force/Impact: A roll of 01-30 to hit knocks the target back 1 yard per 10 damage unless it passes a STR check. Knockback(s) happen after all your attacks are finished.

Seems to have two names, not sure if that's intended. I like the concept, but I think the execution needs some tweaks. What if knockback triggers on my first attack but I whiff on all my other attacks, they just fly away at the end of my turn? And what if I attack someone, trigger knockback, then go attack a different opponent? When does knockback trigger? Perhaps giving an option to attempt to either knock them back or knock them down? It should probably also noted "per 10 damage dealt" to clarify it's post DT/DR and it could possibly look to be changed to a Str or Agi check. Size limitations should also be noted.

Impact is the name of a Force E.mod. The effect is supposed to happen after your attacks so you don't have to run after a knocked back target in between each swing. This is just to make things easier. I've changed it to "Knockback(s) are worked out after all your attacks are finished" to hopefully make it clearer.

As suggested, the wording has been changed to "damage dealt" and the size limitations are now listed in the mod description.

Lightning Critical: On living Biological opponents a Crit drains AP equal to half the lightning damage dealt (rounded up). On machines causes 3x listed lightning damage as AX damage.

Should probably be clarified similar to how the Spirit of Lightning is for purposes of duration and function.

A duration is now listed (1 turn).


Thanks for your help Night Light!

[Dance_Explosion]

On the subject of the zebra martial arts.

Most of the styles were designed to be either, very powerful in some situations, or overall pretty good. Dragon Slayer is extremely powerful only in situation were a party would be fighting a kind of big boss monster, and that's when it shines very well, even a leviathan hide perk owning dragon will be weeping in close combat with a well built Master of the Dragon slaying style, for good reason. Not to mention, while lowering AP for melee weapon attacks [still min of 10ap to attack] is very small, but with a high speed weapon, like the cosmic knife, or the katana, will still gain an extra attack or two at the end of the round. It is worth mentioning that the bonuses carry over into attacking vehicles as well, giving a very real chance of a auto ax swing team of zebra commando's dropping onto a Raptor and starting to dissemble it in mid air.

link to martial arts here for connivance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jvn ... R5I7g/edit

Also: Enchanted crossbow still really needs a good boost to make it a T3 weapon, just adding +10 damage or +5 damage and another d10 is all it needs to compete on that level!

[Dance_Explosion]

Also i have to ask. are the Elemental mods supposed to be alternatives to enchanting a weapon? im unsure if it says any place that a E mod prevents enchantment? and I assume only one E mod per weapon?