dreadnaught diceless rpg, magic

I’m particularly happy with this part of Dreadnaught – the magic system. There is a very clear and powerful divide between arcane and divine magic (which originally was formulated to control the use of healing spells).

Arcane magic typically isn’t as powerful as in DnD, but in exchange it is largely free to cast it. Costs are only incurred to increase the potency of magic. Generally the application of magic itself is free. In game terms that means that arcane magic usually requires expenditure of EPs (so whenever an arcane spell is cast the caster is assumed to have “2 * BP + level” in EPs available (as if she started her round of combat). In a non-combat situation that usually means that she has all her EPs available for casting spells – in combat her EPs are additionally spent on movement, defense, etc.

Divine magic is typically very expensive, more so than in DnD, but in exchange it tends to be more powerful. In game terms that means that divine magic usually requires expenditure of daily APs.

Whenever a character levels she may chose to obtain the “arcane caster proficiency” or “divine caster proficiency” feats (no limit to the number of times they are obtained). The effect of the feat is that it gives “spell buying” points equal to the character level of the character (minimum 2). Spells are bought according to their level, so a level 3 spell costs 3 spell buying points. Additionally before a spell of greater than level 1 can be bought, the character must possess at least 2 spells of the level directly below the desired spell’s level. (So you need 2 level 2 spells before you can purchase a level 3 spell, but subsequent level 3 spells do not require additional level 2 spells.)

An additional effect of “arcane caster proficiency” and “divine caster proficiency”: each time the respective feats are acquired they raise the Arcane Level (AL) and Divine Level (DL) of the character as appropriate. The AL and DL typically control the maximum power level of a spell.

The basic framework above would allow relatively few spells to be known to a character, so to that end additional feats and templates that help specialize in spell casting are available as well – which may cheapen the acquisition of spells, or increase the spell buying pool. Furthermore magic is a more role-playing friendly aspect of Dreadnaught, the GM may quite happily award a magic-playing character with an encounter with a powerful mage that would be willing to part with some spell knowledge.

(Design philosophy of spells, the nature of the distinction between Divine and Arcane magic is to enforce a bigger decision in following either divine or arcane paths – since they are somewhat synonymous in DnD; furthermore to allow for a clear distinction in powerlevel for using APs and EPs for magic. In other words, as a rule arcane magic is EP based and divine magic is AP based – correspondingly arcane magic is much more freely available compared to divine magic – spell creation needs to keep this in mind when creating spells. To some extent this paradigm can be understood as a innate shift of arcane magic to the “Warlock” class in DnD, whereas divine magic tends to be a powerful form of classic DnD magic.)

Example spells (incomplete list)

Spells, arcane

** Invisibility, minor **
Type: arcane, full-round action
Minimum requirement: character level 3
Minimum cost: all EPs in possession
Range: self
Effect: caster turns invisible for a number of rounds equal to arcane level, any non-movement action reveals the caster. However, while a defender cannot see an attacker, the defender takes a -2 penalty to defense
Additional: –

** Magic Missile **
Type: arcane, standard action)
Minimum requirement: character level 1
Minimum cost: 0 EPs
Range: 20 feet + 5 feet per character level
Effect: deals physical damage to target equal to a half of EPs spent on spell
Limitation: can only invest EPs upto two times AL of the character
Additional: a “0″ cost Magic Missile is effectively a pretty, albeit ghostly light that flies towards a target at some speed. The target will become aware of the hit of the Magic Missile, but not be hurt. It could thus be used to get the attention of a character, or to distract him.

Spells, divine

** Divine Eye, anger **
Minimum requirement: character level 8
Minimum cost: 4 AP
Range: 10 feet
Effect: turns target to stone unless it can make a Fortitude save vs invested spell cost. The target has a number of rounds equal to its BP before the petrification is complete – if the caster is killed (or choses to relinquish the spell) before petrification is complete then the petrification is undone. The target takes a penalty of -1 to all actions per round until its complete petrification or the petrification is undone.

** Healing Touch **
Type: divine, full-round action
Minimuum requirement: character level 1
Minimum cost: 1 AP
Range: touch
Effect: heals damage to target equal to 10 times APs spent on spell
Limitation: must touch the target directly, skin-to-skin; can only invest APs upto DL of character
Additional: –

Dreadnaught diceless RPG – Gameplay (combat)

Each entity in combat receives encounter action points (EPs) equal to twice their BP, plus one additional EP per level of that entity, every combat round. Additionally, on the first round, each entity that is not surprised, flat-footed or otherwise distracted receives an additional 4 EPs. For the purposes of clarity the “Combat Potential” (CP) is defined at this point. Without the effects of feats, templates or abilities the CP is simply equal to the BP.

Combat, essentially, boils down to a secret bidding war. Characters and monsters secretly invest EPs into actions and the GM resolves the actions as appropriate. Naturally this means that the GM needs to determine NPC/monster EP-investments before he sees player EP-investments. To facilitate the bidding war, a large number of combat options are made available to the PCs and NPCs.

In many ways combat in Dreadnaught is similar to the DnD 3.5 combat mechanics. Each character gets a turn per combat round and they can spend this time doing a full-round action, or a standard action with a movement action, or two movement actions. The free 5-foot-step doesn’t exist in Dreadnaught.

Events and actions in combat

• Moving (cost: movement action) – characters may move up to their speed in 5 foot increments (thus a speed of 4 allows 20 feet distance to be covered by a character). Movement costs no inherent EPs, but EPs can be spent on movement in two ways: firstly, every two EP spent can increase the defense against Attacks of Opportunity (AoO) by 1 (this defense bonus applies to all AoOs that the particular movement action may provoke) – in the case of an AoO a defender can still spend additional EPs to further increase her defense against that attack. EPs can also be spent to increase the movement rate of a character for that turn – each EP spent allows an additional 5 feet of movement.
• Single attack (cost: standard action) – an attack always costs at least one EP, the attackers CP is added to the attacks AT (and additionally feats, templates, abilities, items and circumstance bonuses may be added if appropriate).
• Full attack (cost: full-round action) – the attacker may make a number of attacks equal to his or her CP / 2 (minimum 1). Each of these attacks gains a bonus of +1 to the attack (not the damage). Each attack requires a minimum investment of 1 EP.
• Additional attacks (cost: EPs) – any character that is performing a full round attack may add additional attacks after the normal set of attacks from the full round attack are completed. An additional attack costs the corresponding amount of EPs to initiate (the first additional attack costs 1 EP, the second additional attack costs 2 EP, etc) – the additional attacks do not require a minimum EP cost (apart from having to be bought) but if no EPs are invested in the attack itself the damage is halved. A player may buy additional attacks on a single standard-action attack as well. In this case, however, the costs of additional attacks is doubled. The “additional attacks” mechanism allows feints in combat.
• Damage (cost: none, event) – should an attack hit, then the damage is equal to the CP (though note the “Defense” and “Targeted attack” descriptions below) – the player may chose to spend additional EPs up to the value of the EPs spent on the attack itself to increase the damage by the corresponding amount. Naturally templates, feats, abilities and items can increase the damage.
• Defense (cost: none, event) – whenever a character is attacked the attack’s AT must equal or exceed the ST of the defense to deal damage. The ST is equal to the defender’s CP plus any EPs spent by the defender (as well as the effects of feats, templates, abilities, items and circumstance bonuses). Should the AT equal but not exceed the ST then damage does not include the CP bonus, though the attacker can still push damage using EPs.
• Active defense (cost: movement action) – a character may chose to be in “active defense”, he may invest any number of EPs but give up a movement action for his turn. The invested EPs are added as a bonus to his defense whenever appropriate until the start of his next turn.
• Total defense (cost: standard action) – a character may chose to be in “total defense”, she may invest any number of EPs but give up a standard action for her turn, additionally for that round the character’s speed is halved. The invested EPs are added as a bonus to her defense whenever appropriate until the start of her next turn, and additionally any combat damage dealt against the character is reduced by the number of EPs invested into total defense.
• Flanking (cost: none, event) – when a character is flanked he receive a -1 penalty to all his defense actions. This penalty is increased to -2 if he’s flanked by two more enemies (being flanked twice but one flank position is shared by the same enemy does not qualify in this case) – though the penalties do not subsequently increase with additional flanking.
• Grapple (cost: attacks) – any attack within touch range of the defender may be declared to be a grappling attack. Should the attack succeed then no damage is dealt but the attacker and defender are considered to be in grapple and the attacker is considered dominant. Should the attack fail then the defender has the choice to allow the grapple to happen (but then the defender is dominant) or simply to prevent the grapple. A dominant grappler may abort a grapple at the cost of a move action, or at the cost of an attack (that succeeds automatically). A dominated grappler can escape the grapple by succeeding on an attack against the dominant grappler. Alternatively a dominated grappler can attack to achieve dominance in the grapple. Entities in a grapple can only direct attacks at each other, furthermore grapplers receives a -2 penalty to defense against attacks from entities *not* participating in the grapple. The dominant grappler may chose to use attacks to deal damage against the dominated grappler, these are resolved as normal attacks. (Note though that some weapons and items may be unusable in a grapple, and some weapons and items may infer bonuses or penalties in grapples.)
• Charge (Cost: full-round action) – the attacker may chose to charge at least 10 feet in a straight line towards an enemy, followed by an attack that gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage – though the attacker takes a -1 penalty to defense until the start of his next turn.
• Targeted attack (Cost: full-round action) – the attacker may move a single 5-foot step (provoking AoO as appropriate) and deal an attack against a target. EPs invested into the attack count double for the purpose of determining the attack’s AT. Should the attack succeed the damage does not receive the CP bonus, instead all damage needs to be bought using additional EPs.
• Sunder (cost: attacks) – any attack may be directed against an item, the item breaks provided the AT equals or exceeds the item’s ST. If the item is wielded or worn by an opponent then the CP of the opponent is added to the item’s ST (as well as any EPs that the opponent may spend on keeping his item intact). If the AT is less than the ST, but within one or two points of the ST, then the ST is reduced by 1 for subsequent sunder attempts; typically this is known to the GM but not necessarily the players – though maybe they do notice cracks appearing or some material fatigue.
• Knockback (cost: attacks) – any attack may be declared as a knockback attempt – on success no damage is dealt, instead the “damage” is reduced by the Fortitude or Reflex of the target (whichever is better) as well as any EPs the target may spend to resist the knockback. For each point of “damage” that is not resisted the target is shoved 5 feet backwards (should an obstacle impede further motion than the remaining “damage” is dealt in damage. If the knockback attempt fails then the defender receives an AoO against the attacker where each EP spent by the defender counts double for the purposes of attacking and dealing damage.
• Trip (cost: attacks) – any attack may be declared as a trip attempt, the defender may chose to use either Reflex or Fortitude as a basic bonus to defense against the trip attempt (rather than his CP). On a trip success the defender falls prone, no damage is dealt. On failure the defender receives an AoO against the attacker where each EP spent by the defender counts double for the purposes of attacking and dealing damage. A prone character receives a -1 penalty to all actions except defence vs ranged attacks. A prone character can spend half his movement action to stand up.
• Disarm (cost: attacks) – any attack may be declared as a disarm attempt, the defender may chose to use either Reflex or Willpower as a basic bonus to defense against the disarm attempt (rather than her CP) – on success the defender’s weapon (or shield) is dropped to the ground on the same square as the defender. On failure the the defender receives an AoO against the attacker where each EP spent by the defender counts double for the purposes of attacking and dealing damage.

Gameplay, combat, magic

In combat whenever magic is cast it provokes an attack of opportunity from enemies that threaten the caster, provided the attacker recognizes that magic is being performed. If the caster can cast without verbal, material and motion components than it is not obvious to enemies that do not some innate way of knowing magic is performed.

Casting magic normally requires a time component (usually a standard action), details are provided per-spell.

Casters can “cast defensively” by making use of the “active defense” and “total defense” options. (The later requires feats.)

Gameplay, combat, aiding

Similar to the non-combat form of aiding, a character may chose to use EPs to help another character. Again the total limit of aiding is a bonus of 2 to the action – while the cost is double the bonus. Again it is up to the DM’s discretion to allow cases of aid that exceed the normal limits of aiding.

Gameplay, combat, damage types

Combat will typically generate the “physical” damage type – this is not innately resisted in any way, but feats, templates, abilities and items may reduce (or increase) the damage taken.

Additional types of damage exist – usually conveyed through magical means. Any of these may be reduced/enhanced through feats, templates, abilities or items, the descriptions below assume the least complex situations:

• Spiritual and mental damage – passively reduced by Willpower
• Elemental and magic damage – passively reduced by Fortitude

Reflex is the only save that doesn’t reduce a damage type innately – but it is also the most likely save to avoid damage types entirely: various spells or effect may allow a Reflex save to avoid taking damage.

Gameplay, combat, example

Dunder (CP 4, EP 7) is facing a goblin (CP3, EP 6) in combat – he decides to charge it and invest a single EP into the attack, the goblin, expecting to capitalize on reduced defense in his turn, uses 4 EPs to defend against the attack (the attack’s AT of CP + EP + chargebonus = 6 clearly fails to meet the defense’s ST of CP + EP = 7); however Dunder’s charge and attack was a feint, he proceeds to use 2 EP to buy himself another attack (additional attacks rule, cost based on non-full-round attack) and uses another 2 EP to increase the attack’s AT to a total of CP + EP = 6 that exceeds the desperate goblin defense (who invests all remaining EP) of CP + EP = 5. Dunder additionally invests his remaining 2 EP to increase the damage he deals to CP + EP = 6. This is enough to slaughter the little goblin.

dreadnaught diceless rpg – gameplay (non-combat)

Before getting into more depth on creation and leveling (the feats and templates in other words), first a word on the basic gameplay mechanic:

Most actions can be performed for “free”, requiring nothing of the player apart from stating that he or she wishes to pursue a particular action. However, in the face of adversity or challenge players make use of their action points to sway the fates.

Actions of all players and NPCs may be awarded a “role-playing” bonus of +1 by the GM. This bonus is only appropriate if the entity in question adds a significant circumstantial spin on the action; accompanied by an “Aha!” moment. Simply performing a run-up to a jump is not sufficient for this role-play bonus (rather the lack of a run-up would incur a circumstantial penalty). The final decision regarding this bonus rests, as always, with the GM.

In non-combat situations such as searching a door for traps, or attempting to decipher a message, a character attempts to equal or exceed the Success Threshold (ST) of the task using his or her skills. An Action Threshold (AT) is provided by the character – provided no feats, templates or abilities modify this step the basic AT for any action of a character is equal to his or her Base Potential. If the player feels it is necessary, the character can use some of his or her daily action points to enhance the action in the hopes of meeting or exceeding the Success Threshold.

The Success Threshold of an activity depends on the difficulty of the task at hand, naturally the ST is determined by the GM and is not generally made known to the players. The ST can be modified by circumstance, as well as roleplaying (or the lack thereof) of characters and NPCs. The ST of a non-living thing (such as a trap, or an encrypted message) is fixed and set appropriately by the DM. The ST of a living entity is typically set to the BP of that entity – barring feats, templates or abilities that modify the ST for specific tasks.

Example 1

Thorst is furious with anger and attempts to break down the door of a local casanova to exact vengeance for an indiscretion. His BP of 3 and the additional 3 daily action points spent by Thorst are, unfortunately, not enough to break down the reinforced oak gate that has a ST of 7.

Example 2

Barli (BP equal to 3) is down on her luck and attempting to rectify this by picking the pockets of a likely looking drunk (BP equal to 4) in the local inn. She’s distracting him with her feminine wiles (+1 to her AT) and waits for the victim to become quite well inebriated (-2 to the ST). Finally Barli attempts the pickpocketing, she adds no additional action points, trusting in her well thought-out staging of the scenario, and given her total AT of 4 (Barli BP + roleplay) that easily exceeds the ST of 2 (victim BP – circumstance) she finds herself a few gold richer.

dreadnaught diceless rpg – character leveling

Characters gain XP and levels in the same manner as in DnD, it is up to the players to decide if they want to follow the DnD 3.5 or 4th ed level progression.

Upon achieving a level the character gains 4 + “level achieved” skill points that can be invested in purchasing stats and feats – however only one stat may be increased per level gained, only half the available skill points may be invested in stat purchases, and if a stat point isn’t bought during a level, then that opportunity is lost. Additionally a stat may only be improved by 1 point per level.

Achieving extreme stat values (starting at 6) should additionally be accompanied by appropriate roleplaying that makes the increase plausable (attending a wizard’s academy, soul-searching meditation on a deserted island, etc) – such an endeavour should not be taken lightly, and a GM should typically only allow one such stat increase every 3 levels. On occasion this general rule may be broken as a special reward, for example a visitation by a PC’s god may awaken the potential in a hero such that he or she has the option to invest into a stat at the next level without special additional requirements.

Skill points can be saved over levels and invested at any time, though typically a sensible amount of in-game time should be dedicated to this process. Characters shouldn’t master the intricacies of trap disablement on the fly because they happen to have a trap in front of them and spare skill points. But, conversely, should the PC disable the trap successfully the GM may decide to give the player the option to gain the Trap Disabler feat at a slightly reduced cost at that point in time (it is then up to the player to decide to take the bargain, or save her points for something else).

Additionally, on leveling, a character gains the following:

+5 hitpoints, and an additional +5 for every point the Body stat exceeds 3. (Total of 10 hitpoints gained at Body stat 4, total 15 hitpoints gained with Body stat at 5, etc. The minimum hitpoints gained from a high Body stat is equal to 0.)

+1 skill point for every point the Mind stat exceeds 3. (Total of +1 skill point at Mind stat 4, +2 skill points at Mind stat 5, etc. The minimum skill points gained from Mind stat is equal to 0.)

The basic number of daily action points increases by 2 for each level the character achieves. An additional +1 action point is gained for every two points the Soul stat exceeds 2. (Total of +1 action point at Soul stat 4 or, 5; +2 action points at Soul stat 6 or 7. The minimum action points gained from the Soul stat is equal to 0).

dreadnaught diceless rpg – character creation

At level 1, each player is awarded a set of points with which to create their character. The scale rates from 24 point for an average human to 32 points for a heroic human. These are used to buy character stats and feats. Additionally the player may chose one or more templates for the character; additional templates may be bought, similar to feats, during character creation using points, but templates are typically not available during subsequent levels.

A character starts with a stat of “0″ for Body, Mind and Soul. Each stat point costs creation points equal to its value. Thus, increasing Body from 0 to 1 costs 1 creation point. Increasing from 1 to 2 costs 2 creation points, etc

Total point costs for core stats:
Core stat of 1 – costs 1 point
Core stat of 2 – costs 3 points
Core stat of 3 – costs 6 points
Core stat of 4 – costs 10 points
Core stat of 5 – costs 15 points
Core stat of 6 – costs 21 points
etc.

Human average is considered to be “3″ for each core stat.

The set of feats and templates will be described in a later post.

dreadnaught diceless rpg – character stats

The second installment of Dreadnaught describes the basic character mechanics.

Each character possesses 3 stats: Body, Mind and Soul. A number of derived stats follow from these core stats, namely:

• Base Potential: (Body + Mind + Soul) / 3
• Fortitude: (Body + Soul) / 2
• Reflex: (Body + Mind) / 2
• Willpower: (Mind + Soul) / 2
• Hit points: BP * 5
• Speed: 5
• Action points: 10

The Base Potential (BP) of a character describes his or her basic ability to perform any action. Whenever an action is performed by that character the basic action point potential for that action is equal to the Base Potential. Thus the character performs all his or her actions with at least the amount of skill that his or her Base Potential represents. Various character abilities and feats allow the character to change the emphasis of the core stats for specific tasks; for example: a character with the “agile attacks” feat uses (Body + Mind) / 2 as his or her basic combat bonus for attacks, rather than the Base Potential.

Fortitude (For), Reflex (Ref) and Willpower (Wil) are the equivalent saves from the DnD game. Whenever an effect needs to be resisted, the appropriate derived stat is used to resist. Players may, naturally, chose to enhance the resistance by using action points.

Hit points determine the life of a character – without modification from feats or templates they are computed as BP * 5. Upon leveling additional

Speed is not properly derived, but its base value is 5 for all characters. Feats and templates may modify this.

At level 1, feats and templates aside, each character receives 10 action points (APs) as a basic daily alotment. At the start of the next day, provided the characters have opportunity to rest for 8 hours, they lose their old action points, but receive a fresh alotment of 10 action points.

The recovery of action points after resting has two cave-ats: should a character not have any action points remaining before resting, then he or she only recovers half the action points he or she would normally receive. This represents the effect of over exertion on the character. Secondly, when a character levels his action point pool increases – but the recovery of action points is still limited to 10 per rest (barring feats, templates, and so forth).

Dreadnaught diceless RPG – Introduction

Dreadnaught – a diceless RPG system

Ages ago I mentioned thoughts on a diceless RPGing system. Finally I figured it is time to quantify what I have done and post it on the blog. The entirety is pretty extensive, so I’ll post it in manageable chunks. This unfortunately also means that I’ll make forward references that aren’t vindicated til later posts are made. So… without further ado:

First-off, just because it is a diceless system, doesn’t mean it is a system without extensive number shuffling and keeping track of things. I enjoy rather complex designs, so you can expect a fair amount of intricacy. The overall design is something I like to think of as a streamlined implementation of DnD, but some might recognise the influence of BESM as well.

The random element of dice is largely removed from the design, instead the DM may chose to add a random (dice-based) touch to progress of the game – but this is entirely optional. Instead of dice the game allows players to influence the outcome of events by spending action points. Performing any given action does not inherently require the expenditure of action points, but using action points to enhance the activity performed greatly increases its efficacy. In essence using action points is a player’s way of praying to destiny to favor him or her.

Action points come in two varieties: an allotment of action points for the day, and a seperate set of action points for encounters. During an encounter a certain amount of action points is allocated per combat round. Similarily each player receives a certain amount of action points each day. More detailed rules later stipulate the mechanisms by which this works.

The core rule for rounding in Dreadnaught is that all fractions are ignored. In other words, whenever necessary the numbers are rounded down.

To dice or not to dice

in a recent comment i’ve highlighted the question of chat-based DnD (or other RPGing); which almost naturally led to a discussion between me and J regarding a dice-less RPG system. i have something in mind, and will describe it in more detail once i have all the rules down pat.

for now suffice it to say that it is, in essence, a D20-OSG a la DnD, but without the D20 (or d4, d6, .., d12, d100).

the basic premise is that players get Action Points (APs) for each day, and Combat Points (CPs) per round of combat. any action does not necessarily require spending of AP/CPs, but doing so helps increase the odds, efficacy, safety, etc of the action.

for example, searching a door for traps costs APs. depending on the Threshold (TH) of the trap more points need to be spent to find it (and players do not know in advance how many a given trap needs, or even if there is a trap). however, to facilitate the process – a “thief” class character would likely have the “Find Trap” feat and automatically gets “+2″ for free for any such action. thus the thief would be able to search for mundane and common traps without spending any additional APs. however, the thief may chose to spend additional APs on a trap search check if she feels that the trap TH exceeds her mundane check.

in combat, for example, armor might automatically lend “+2″ CPs for free for the purpose of defense.

combat as a whole is a secret bidding war: an attacker secretly bids how many CPs are invested into an attack, while the target secretly allocates CPs from its pool to defend. then afterwards the totals are revealed and the combat turn resolved as appropriate. since CPs are a limited resource, it is important that each player/monster carefully plan its CP allocations. it is possible to “move” in combat without spending CPs, but doing so is more risky than paying CPs (due to Attacks of Opportunity).

to summarise: APs (CPs) are your personal prayer to destiny.

i’ll have a more detailed explanation (or rather actual set of rules) up at some point

- trashy