Players' Guide, revised 7/7/98
This guide is a rough description of the system I created for the Lopsoland: Asyncrony game. It is intended for players (not GM's) and contains quite a bit that is specific to my game... perhaps, someday, I'll have a general guide to the system up here along side of this, but for now, this'll have to do. A good portion of this was written under the impression that I would be around to answer the players' questions
Name: Lopsonian names always alternate consonant - vowel -- make a name based on this and the alphabet (the alphabet).
Background: This is the color that will appear in the negative space behind the character, in the format #RRGGBB :) well, you know what the background is. Be sure to mention where you're from and give a little blurb about your character's education.
Character Type: This is what your character does. At this point in Lopsoland's history, pretty much everyone is some sort of scientist, engineer, or artist, and most people like to give themselves lengthy titles-- you'll find lots of equivalents to modern-day Earthling occupations, such as mechanized design and construction specialists (mechanical engineers), atomic and subatomic observation specialists (particle physicists) and interpretive three-dimensional modeleling specialists (sculptors). You won't find simple warriors or mages around, but you might run into an archaic weaponry usage specialist or general magical energy harnesser. (Just to restore a little respect for the Lopsonians of this time, these titles do translate into Lopsonian to be significantly shorter).
Base Abilities: Start off with 1 for all abilities except Knowledge, which starts at 2 due to the nature of the age.
Species Bonuses: (Species Descriptions)
Aisved: +1 Coordination
Slenooth: +1 Knowledge
Palotaur: +1 Magic
Tiltai: +1 Strength
Liiko: +1 Constitution
Chalin: +1 Perception
Before proceeding any further, make sure you understand this: Skills are recorded as bonuses to the Base Abilities (e.g., Knowledge ability of 3 and history skill of +1 giving a total of 4), and futher, base Abilities can be divided into ninths and Skills can be divided into thirds. For instance, someone could have a Magic ability of 1 7/9 and a control fire skill of +2 2/3, combined to be 4 4/9. Got it? Then, choose one of three paths for the rest of the character creation - specialized, rounded, or in between (you don't need to write down which of these you pick, it doesn't matter after character creation.), and after that skip to the Skills section.
Specialized Characters
Base Abilities: Choose one base ability to add +1 to and a second to add +4/9 to.
Skills: Choose 21 points to allocate amongst skills (points can be divided into thirds). A minimum of 18 points must be directly related to your character type - for instance, a Specialized Chronodynamicist (time traveler) would have most of his skills in, say Time Acceleration, Past Observation, and Projection, and perhaps a little dabbling in Quantum Theory.
Possessions: Specialized characters would start out with an impressive display of the tools of their trade - for instance, the Chronodynamicist would probably start out with a really nice watch and (if not magically inclined) a Past-O-Scope and a stopwatch that actually stops other people's watches. He would probably have access to (but not own) some of the more expensive equipment such as a full-fledged time machine.
Rounded Characters
Base Abilities: Distribute an additional 9/9 among the six base abilities.
Skills: Choose 15 points to allocate amongst skills (points can be divided into thirds). There is no restriction on how they are distributed - for instance, a well-rounded Chronodynamicist (time traveler) would have some skills in, say Time Acceleration and Past Observation, and also a bit in, say, Quantum Theory, and also some more general useful things like Cooking or Geography.
Possessions: Rounded characters would start out with most of the basic tools of their trade - for instance, the Chronodynamicist would probably start out with a really nice watch and maybe a Past-O-Scope or two, but would probably be a few tools short of that show-off Chronodynamicist with everything who sat next to him in class.
In-Between Characters
Base Abilities: Give an additional +4/9 to one ability, and then distribute and additional 6/9 among the other five base abilities.
Skills: Choose 18 points to allocate amongst skills (points can be divided into thirds). At least 9 must be directly related to your type. If you want a nice example about a Chronodynamicist, read the ones for the Well-Rounded and Specialized characters and interpolate.
Possessions: In-Between characters would start out with the basic tools of their trade and a couple of the fancier ones.
Skills
The following is a list of general skills only (things that all characters might use) - feel free to deviate from this list a little. After this list there is an example of more specific skills, but that's only for one character type, every one is different, so just ask me about your skills pertaining to your specific type.... see the example below for a rocket scientist.
Strength:
Climbing
Lifting
Blocking
Coordination:
Acrobatics
Brawling/Wrestling
Dodge
Running
Lockpicking
Pickpocket
Knowledge:
Geography
Current Events
History
Streetwise [Specific city]
Survival [Specific environment]
Computer Operation
First Aid
General Science [Specific branch of science]
Perception:
Bargain
Forgery
Search
Sneak
Enhanced Sense [specific sense]
Tracking
Constitution:
Stamina
Adapt to climate
Pain Tolerance
Magic Stamina
Magic:
Magic resistance
Simple healing
Type-specific skills: As an example of type-specific skills, I'll use skills typical to an Interplanetary Propulsion Systems Specialist (rocket scientist).
The nature of the age being such that it is, most character types need a good knowledge base:
Kno: Basic Physics
Kno: Basic Chemistry
Kno: Dynamics
Kno: Propulsion Systems
The basics of rocket science, of course, would be among your repretoire:
Kno: Rocket Design
Per: Rocket Assessment
Coo: Rocket Repair/Construction
And some more things that would come in handy to a rocket scientist:
Coo: Rocket piloting
Kno: Planetary navigation
And as I said before, because I haven't tried to forsee every possible character type, I haven't tried to forsee every single skill, so you'll just have to ask me about it.
Magic Skills: I haven't been very clear as to how this works, but you get magic just as normal skills (like Harness Fire or Create Matter), and magic works much the same way normal skills do (There are no specific spells, no spell progressions, no spell levels, none of that jazz). There are some other things that go along with magic, but that's all you need to know for now for character creation.
This system is driven primarily by conflict resolution. In a nutshell, to resolve a conflict, you take into account all the modifiers to the situation to determine the target roll, then roll one twelve-sided die and determine the results according to the roll. Examples follow....
Example 1: A Basic Conflict
Say a character (Let's call him Quagdo) comes across a 10 foot chasm, and wants to jump across it. Here is how you go about it (it may seem lengthy but once you get the hang of it, it will flow rather smoothly.):
The base difficulty for any conflict is 0. Then, refer to the modifier tables for jumping:
Simplicity: +12
Distance: - 2/3 per foot
Coordination: + ability x 1
Jumping skill: + skill x 1
Running start: - 2 if stopped, 0 if walking, + 1 if running, + 2 if sprinting
Winds: from -2 to +2, (strong tailwind to strong headwind), +1 for a crosswind
Then, figure out what this means for the situation.
Base difficulty is 6, start with that as your difficulty.
Add 6 for simplicity -- anyone can jump (diff = 12)Base difficulty is 6, start with that as your difficulty.
The chasm is 15 feet wide, so subtract 10 from the difficulty (diff = 2)
Quagdo's Coordination is 2, so add 2 to the difficulty (diff = 4)
Quagdo's jumping skill is 1 2/3, so add that to the difficulty (diff = 5 2/3)
Quagdo has a running start, so add 1 (diff = 6 2/3)
There is a light headwind, so subtract 1 (diff = 5 2/3)
The final difficulty is 5 2/3. This may seem like a lot of lookups, but this modifier table is just an example to illustrate conflict modifiers. Chances are, most conflicts you run into won't even have pre-made tables (at least not unless someone pays me to write a full-fledged book on this game).
Next, roll the dice. If the roll is below or equal to the difficulty, it is a success; if it is above the difficulty, it is a failure. It is not a black and white issue, there can be near-successes and near-failures. If we were to make a success chart (don't ever do this in an actual game, the players would grow hideously bored, you'd go through a lot of paper, you'd get writers cramp and require expensive surgery later in life, and the players would probably plot to kill you, and I'd encourage them to, for the good of gaming everywhere), it would look like this:
1 : Lands on other side, doesn't miss a beat
2 : Lands on other side and loses a little momentum
3 : Lands on other side and loses a little momentum
4 : Lands on other side but loses momentum and balance
5 : Lands on other side but loses momentum and balance
--------------- Difficulty 5 2/3 ---------------
6 : Lands on other side but loses all balance, must roll for coordination or fall flat on his face
7 : Misses ledge, grabs on to the edge
8 : Misses ledge, grabs on to the edge
9 : Misses ledge, plummets to his doom
10 : Misses ledge, plummets to his doom
11 : Misses ledge, plummets to his doom
12 : Misses ledge, plummets to his doom
So what happens to poor Quagdo if he rolls a 6 or above? Well, that leads us into the third example (I know, the suspense is killing you...)
Example 2: Compound Conflicts
Remember, back in character creation, those three associated abilities for a rocket scientist? This is where they come in. Suppose some other random character (let's call this one "Eefie") is riding along in her spacecraft, and hears a clanking noise. This would call first for a rocetry assessment roll, to see if she realizes there is a problem. If she succeeds, she would then need to make a rocetry knowledge roll to see if she knows what the problem is (if she failed the rocetry assessment roll, she might be able to figure out what the problem is if it is pointed out to her, but if she's unaware that there is a problem in the first place, she can't determine what it is). Then if she wanted to fix the problem, it would need a rocetry repair roll. Should she fail this roll, she still detected the problem and knows what is wrong; she just can't fix it. She could still point the problem to another, less aware but handier companion, who would have a fair crack at fixing the problem.
When do you use one conflict and when do you use two? As a rule of thumb, each skill that is used is a seperate conflict to be resolved. Sometimes this is not the case, for instance, a general physics skill could be used in conjunction with a rocketry design skill in the same conflict, and sometimes the same skill could be used in two separate conflicts, for instance, jumping off of a moving vehicle and grabbing onto a tree branch would be two separate conflicts that use acrobatics.
Example 3: Failure
Suppose Quagdo rolled a seven in the first example. He now needs to make a roll to pull himself onto the other side of the chasm. For the first roll, say the difficulty is 7, and he rolls a 12. Nothing dire would come of this roll, at least not right away. Quagdo is still holding fast to the cliff, but he has expended some of his energy. Now he needs to make a stamina check, difficulty of 7. Should Quagdo roll a 10, he would be fatigued, and would be able to try again, but with a penalty. After a time of these attempts, however, Quagdo will need to make a stamina roll, just to hold his grip, and at that point, something dire would happen if he failed... so chains of conflict resolutions after a failure can build up fast, it would not be unheard of to roll 10 conflicts right in a row (which is another reason that the modifier charts should be used sparingly).
Example 4: Magic
Some abilities require that conflict checks be made after the conflict has already succeeded, for instance, casting magic spells. Say some wizard (he's named "Uu'uu'uu'uu") casts a rather impressive spell. Regardless of whether it succeeded or failed, Uu'uu'uu'uu would have used up his own energy to cast it, and thus would need to make a magic stamina check. If he succeeded, he would take minimal or no decrease in magical energy; if he failed his magical energy would go down a level (remember that success and failure is not black and white; some rolls would have a negative target number (if the spell took a lot of energy), and the roll would instead be to check if Uu'uu'uu'uu suffered light or heavy energy drain).
An Aside: Health, Stamina, and Magic Stamina
This seems like an appropriate time to talk about the three gauges at the bottom of the character sheet. Health, Stamina, and Magic are all one of the following values: Full, High, Medium, Low, Weak, Exhausted. These values, of course, affect everything related to them -- Stamina for physical activity, Magic for magical activity, Health for everything (but does not have as much weight on rolls as stamina or magic). Stamina and Magic are recovered by resting. When Magic is exhausted, you cannot use magic at all. When Health is exhausted, the character is non-functional (it's up to the GM whether they're dead or not, they could merely be teetering on the brink of death, only to recover miraculously at the St. Protagonist's Hospital down the street after the battle's over).
Example 5: Man vs. Man
Man vs. Man conflicts are not very different, just that abilities from two characters are used. 'Success' is always for the offensive character (in other words, all of the attacker's skills are positive numbers, and all of the defender's skills are negative numbers). Only one roll is made, there is no separate roll for attacker and defender (unless, of course, a Man vs. Man conflict turns into a normal conflict). Say "Fufu" and "Rexorg" are in a brawl, and Rexorg attacks Fufu while she is casting a spell. Rexorg's bonuses to hit would be added and Fufu's bonuses to dodge would be subtracted. Say that he succeeds and hits Fufu -- she now needs to roll to keep spell concentration (actually, first there would be another man vs man conflict for dealing damage, but I'm ignoring that for now). This is a separate roll, made by Fufu, which is modified by the results of the previous roll (whether it was a solid hit or just a nick).
Combat is essentially nothing but several people acting (and conflicting with each other) at the same time, so that's how it's acted out.
A combat session is broken down into rounds... pick an appropriate length of time for one round -- normal combat would probably have 10 second rounds, a war might have one hour rounds, and automated computer battles could have 5 nanosecond rounds, any way, it doesn't matter for the system. Each action would take so many rounds to complete, for instance, turning around and attacking someone could be done in one round, running across a room behind someone and attacking them could take five rounds, casting a moderately complex spell could take 15 rounds, fixing an automatic weapon could take 50 rounds, etc, etc, etc.
Keep track of what round it is, and what's going to happen each round. There is no initiative, although characters with low perception or surprised characters might have to wait a few rounds before acting; otherwise, any two things that happen at the same round happen simultaneously (for instance, if two people are shooting at each other, and the person who rolls first successfully hits and kills the second, the second person's action for the round still goes through). Under most circumstances, characters in the middle of something can choose to change their actions each round (a mechanic fixing a weapon for 50 rounds isn't left defenseless for all 50 rounds, he can drop the gun and run if attacked).
Of course, the characters will advance after doing all the stuff we talked about above. These would be given out, at the end of the adventure, at the GM's discresion, usually in the form of skill points or possibly ability points (points to be added to your skills and abilities, respectively). The GM can also place limits on how to use those points, for example, if the character relied mostly on brute strength for the adventure, he could require that most of the skill points be given to strength abilities.
Any questions, feel free to ask me... mail me at idhop1@tursiops.cc