So, I've been quiet for a while. Apologies. But Elements Eight continues to be written.
Mostly, I've been struggling with rules. Particularly combat. And I need some feedback, I think.
So I've attached an excerpt from the current rulebook. This contains attributes, skills and combat. If anyone feels like taking a look, I'd be very grateful. Unfortunately, this isn't a finished product, so apologies if it's difficult to figure out the rules (but please get back to me on what's hard to understand).
It's all based on attacks and defences. Some defences you can only use a limited number of times per round. If you're a lightly armoured fighter, you'll probably rely on more agile defences like Dodge and Avoid. If you're heavily armoured, you'll probably have Parry and Deflect.
The problem for lightly armoured fighters is that they can only use Dodge once per round, and if they are forced to use avoid (i.e. are attacked twice in one round) then they lose their attack.
Generally, this means that heavily armoured fighters do much better against multiple opponents.
It also opens up the possibility of catching a lightly armoured fighter with Counter Attack. Usually, you only get one attack per round, but Counter Attack allows you to attack a second time if you successfully Parried an attack.
There are no critical hits. Instead, there are Consequences. These are specific effects which can improve your circumstances. You have a certain amount of control over what Consequences come from attacking because the Consequence is defined by the weapon you are using.
Anyway, take a look at the attached excerpt if you have time, and any feedback is welcome. Click here to download it.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
10 Tips for Amateur RPG Writers
Mostly I write about my game. But I thought I'd try and do something helpful.
So here's 10 tips for amateur RPG writers. Not a definitive list, and I'm sure there's room for disagreement, but hopefully all three of my readers will find something useful.
1) Divide sections into their own separate word documents.
Rule books are long documents. When complete, they are often in excess of a hundred pages. Add on to this the copious notes, half baked ideas, scraps of information, beefy tables and a lot of 1 line paragraphs... the document quickly becomes unwieldy. Breaking it up into separate documents means much less scrolling.
2) Format it
Once you've got something substantial down, format it properly. Put in a background colour, choose a font pattern, add in a contents page, and most of all put in some pictures. It's often difficult to see just how far you've come with your game. This really helps to keep you inspired.
Additionally, use columns. Like dividing sections into their own documents, this helps reduce the scrolling. But it also allows you to look at more information at once, giving a better sense of your own progress. And it makes it look like a rulebook.
4) Use benchmarks
It's easy to become overwhelmed with vague, indeterminate numbers. A difficulty roll +10. Skill 64. Get around this by listing some benchmarks. These can be determined by level (e.g. a level 1 character, a level 5 character etc.), or by word (e.g. novice, heroic, divine). Either way, this really helps nail the numbers down to something meaningful, which in turn lets you keep track of what the numbers are really doing.
5) Chop and change
Don't stick resolutely to one section. Settle on a section, say combat, add a bit here, and then the moment you run out of steam switch to something different. Such as magic.
6) Use versions
Sometimes you realise something's not right and you want to make massive changes. Start a new version. Probably you'll have a folder... let's say your game is called "Hogan's Run". So you have a folder "Hogansrun" with all the documents and things in. Create a new folder within that one. "Hogansrun2". Copy the old documents into the new folder and start ripping it to shreds. And when you need another new version, create a new folder within "Hogunsrun2" called "Hogansrun3". This gives you a clear history of your progress. Everything is preserved, nothing is lost, it's easy to go back a step or to import something from the version before last.
6) Keep it simple
It's tough to get anyone to play a game you've written. It's even tougher if it requires a graphical calculater or lots of writing down numbers. Try and avoid using fractions or decimals. At the same time, the lower you can keep the numbers, the easier it will be to grasp.
7) Don't become fixated with the past
A lot of times, when writing a background, I've started off by inventing a Creation Story, and then attempted to write a complete history from that point on. You know, how the gods came to be, and so forth. This is a mistake. Firstly, lore is like a tree. You start with a trunk and the further you branch out through the timeline, the weaker the branches become. The players (probably) won't be playing at the time of creation. They'll be playing thousands of years later. You want your strongest plot elements to be in the present, not the past. While they may believe in a creation myth, they won't know the truth of it from the get go. In fact, you may choose to always keep it ambiguous. So why spend all that effort nailing it to a post?
Instead, start at the present, and then go backwards. If the distant past is vague, that's okay. In fact, usually that's very helpful. I have wasted a lot of time trying to artificially blur the past in my background.
8) Create a character sheet
Format it properly. Revise it periodically. Make sure it fits neatly on a page (or possible two). This helps you monitor your progress, and also serves to warn you when things are getting too complicated.
9) Give everything a name
Never just have "+2 bonus to skill". Have "skill mastery" and then indicate that this gives a +2 bonus to skill. This is one of the most endearing elements of D&D 3rd Edition. The feats, suitably named, give all those little bonuses a concept, a solid basis that makes them add to the spirit of your character as well as his underlying mechanics.
10) Buy Roget's Thesaurus
For when you need to break "wizard" down into 8 sub-categories or need 5 words for "skill".
So here's 10 tips for amateur RPG writers. Not a definitive list, and I'm sure there's room for disagreement, but hopefully all three of my readers will find something useful.
1) Divide sections into their own separate word documents.
Rule books are long documents. When complete, they are often in excess of a hundred pages. Add on to this the copious notes, half baked ideas, scraps of information, beefy tables and a lot of 1 line paragraphs... the document quickly becomes unwieldy. Breaking it up into separate documents means much less scrolling.
2) Format it
Once you've got something substantial down, format it properly. Put in a background colour, choose a font pattern, add in a contents page, and most of all put in some pictures. It's often difficult to see just how far you've come with your game. This really helps to keep you inspired.
Additionally, use columns. Like dividing sections into their own documents, this helps reduce the scrolling. But it also allows you to look at more information at once, giving a better sense of your own progress. And it makes it look like a rulebook.
4) Use benchmarks
It's easy to become overwhelmed with vague, indeterminate numbers. A difficulty roll +10. Skill 64. Get around this by listing some benchmarks. These can be determined by level (e.g. a level 1 character, a level 5 character etc.), or by word (e.g. novice, heroic, divine). Either way, this really helps nail the numbers down to something meaningful, which in turn lets you keep track of what the numbers are really doing.
5) Chop and change
Don't stick resolutely to one section. Settle on a section, say combat, add a bit here, and then the moment you run out of steam switch to something different. Such as magic.
6) Use versions
Sometimes you realise something's not right and you want to make massive changes. Start a new version. Probably you'll have a folder... let's say your game is called "Hogan's Run". So you have a folder "Hogansrun" with all the documents and things in. Create a new folder within that one. "Hogansrun2". Copy the old documents into the new folder and start ripping it to shreds. And when you need another new version, create a new folder within "Hogunsrun2" called "Hogansrun3". This gives you a clear history of your progress. Everything is preserved, nothing is lost, it's easy to go back a step or to import something from the version before last.
6) Keep it simple
It's tough to get anyone to play a game you've written. It's even tougher if it requires a graphical calculater or lots of writing down numbers. Try and avoid using fractions or decimals. At the same time, the lower you can keep the numbers, the easier it will be to grasp.
7) Don't become fixated with the past
A lot of times, when writing a background, I've started off by inventing a Creation Story, and then attempted to write a complete history from that point on. You know, how the gods came to be, and so forth. This is a mistake. Firstly, lore is like a tree. You start with a trunk and the further you branch out through the timeline, the weaker the branches become. The players (probably) won't be playing at the time of creation. They'll be playing thousands of years later. You want your strongest plot elements to be in the present, not the past. While they may believe in a creation myth, they won't know the truth of it from the get go. In fact, you may choose to always keep it ambiguous. So why spend all that effort nailing it to a post?
Instead, start at the present, and then go backwards. If the distant past is vague, that's okay. In fact, usually that's very helpful. I have wasted a lot of time trying to artificially blur the past in my background.
8) Create a character sheet
Format it properly. Revise it periodically. Make sure it fits neatly on a page (or possible two). This helps you monitor your progress, and also serves to warn you when things are getting too complicated.
9) Give everything a name
Never just have "+2 bonus to skill". Have "skill mastery" and then indicate that this gives a +2 bonus to skill. This is one of the most endearing elements of D&D 3rd Edition. The feats, suitably named, give all those little bonuses a concept, a solid basis that makes them add to the spirit of your character as well as his underlying mechanics.
10) Buy Roget's Thesaurus
For when you need to break "wizard" down into 8 sub-categories or need 5 words for "skill".
Monday, 21 July 2008
Elements 8 Update
I've been quiet recently. For the couple of people who read this blog with interest (as opposed to dismay), I thought I'd better provide an update. Just so you know I haven't disappeared into the ether.
My silence has been caused by three things.
i) Work has been keeping me busy
ii) I've been revamping various rules (often in light of feedback on this blog)
iii) I've been working to get the rules into a publishable state (which will assist playtesting)
Regarding the first, work sucks. Here's hoping I can one day quit my job and write games instead.
Regarding the second, here's an overview of the changes I've been making.
Regarding the third, I've done a lot of formatting work, and added a bunch of pictures snaffled from the interwebs. The artwork is all provisional, all uncredited, almost certainly in breach of copywrite were it to be distributed. Nevertheless, it's really helped me get a sense of what the rulebook could (will) look like. The artwork will be removed (or replaced if I can find a friendly artist) prior to any significant distribution. As it stands, it's likely the rules will consist of 5 booklets, each of about 20 pages. Four of these booklets will cover Basic Rules; Characters; Magic; Bestiary. The final booklet will have various tables consolidated into reference sheets as well as blank character sheets and similar useful things.
Here's some screenshots so you can see how it's coming along:
My silence has been caused by three things.
i) Work has been keeping me busy
ii) I've been revamping various rules (often in light of feedback on this blog)
iii) I've been working to get the rules into a publishable state (which will assist playtesting)
Regarding the first, work sucks. Here's hoping I can one day quit my job and write games instead.
Regarding the second, here's an overview of the changes I've been making.
- Skills can now be trained. Although this increases the time needed to create an NPC (adding ~six words to the description), the system is now much more flexible, allowing specific skills to be better than usual. It still isn't absolutely flexible - you can't make a character with no martial talent who is a dab hand at parrying. But you can make characters whose training makes up for their lack of talent, or make characters whose training allows them to take full advantage of their talent.
- Rolls are now 3d6 instead of 1d20.
- Spells no longer fail. It is possible for them to be so weak as to be essentially useless, but your spell won't just fizzle. Spells are still managed via Aspects, and Aspects are still generally added one per round, however there are two mechanisms that can be used to speed up casting. One is "Hasty casting". This reduces the power of the aspect in exchange for being able to cast more than one aspect in a round. The other is "Manifold casting". This allows you to "save" Aspects, allowing for the fast repetition of a spell. So you can cast a spell in one round, and you can cast a spell more slowly, but once it's complete repeat it every round. Or both if you're a very skilled mage and the spell isn't too demanding.
- Interactions have been slightly simplified, and the rules surrounding Motivations clarified. Altruism has been added as a Motivation.
- Combat has been simplified and rebalanced slightly. Rules for monks are now in. Rules for manoeuvres (jumping behind tables) and formations (fighting back to back) are now in.
- Skills have been slightly condensed.
- Benchmarks have been added for skills, talents and attributes. This has enabled proper adjudication of starting stats and helped to consolidate the system.
- Spells have undergone first proper draft for 5 of the 10 magic areas. Current favourites: "Lichedom" which allows you to turn your character into a liche and "Frozen Scabbard" which prevents weapons being drawn unless the targets pass a Heave check.
- Damage resistance has been simplified. Initially, this was very complex, since it was hard to treat "Suffocation" in the same way as "Immolation". With a few liberties, the damage system now works rather well. There are still 11 types of damage, which is a pain in some ways. But I couldn't quite bring myself to remove any. Fortunately, at any given time, you will only tend to be dealing with a few damage types.
Regarding the third, I've done a lot of formatting work, and added a bunch of pictures snaffled from the interwebs. The artwork is all provisional, all uncredited, almost certainly in breach of copywrite were it to be distributed. Nevertheless, it's really helped me get a sense of what the rulebook could (will) look like. The artwork will be removed (or replaced if I can find a friendly artist) prior to any significant distribution. As it stands, it's likely the rules will consist of 5 booklets, each of about 20 pages. Four of these booklets will cover Basic Rules; Characters; Magic; Bestiary. The final booklet will have various tables consolidated into reference sheets as well as blank character sheets and similar useful things.
Here's some screenshots so you can see how it's coming along:
Monday, 30 June 2008
The Problem With Elves
Introduction
These articles primarily concern things about my game, Elements Eight; but mostly the things that I think are different or unusual. The idea is that you, the reader, get a different take on something conventional, and hopefully that interests you. If it inspires you to do something similar, then great, but if you do not, it's no great shakes.
There's a few unusual things about the background that I'd like to write about. To be honest, the background I use is too deep to tackle more than one thing in a single article. But a bit at a time, a bit at a time...
First, some disclaimers:
1) The background in Elements Eight is optional. I designed it to meet a very specific feel I was after, a world that was on the surface fairly mundane, but had many underlying terrors, many looming threats, many forgotten secrets and a sense of impending doom.
2) The background in Elements Eight really is optional! There are a couple of aspects which are going to be controversial, which some people really will not like. I am certainly not decreeing how things should be. I just want to explain in this article why I've made a certain unusual choice.
The Problem With Elves
I'll be lucky to escape hate mail for this one.
I think there's too many elves. I recall the anecdote about Tolkien, and he was reading the Lord of the Rings to his fellow writers, and someone (rumoured to be C.S. Lewis, but actually was some other fellow) uttered the words "Not another fucking elf!"
Elves should, to my mind, be exceptional. I don't particularly like it when three out of four characters is an elf. Don't get me wrong, I like elves. I just think they should be rare. Otherwise their wonder is diminished.
At the same time, there's not enough humans. Because, after all, humans aren't that interesting...
So what I did was I tried to take some of the qualities that elves had and shift them over to humans.
What I came up with was the High Kindred and the Grey Kindred. Essentially, these are High Elves and Dark Elves. But without the pointy ears. I also made them a little more mundane and a little less monolithic in alignment. Elves still exist, but are restricted to the wood elf variety.
If all this appals you, you should probably stop reading. It is quite acceptable to ignore this. It is also quite possible to use the Elements Eight background, but house rule High and Grey Kindred as High and Dark Elves. They aren't that different.
But if this idea isn't sacrilege to you, you may be interested to know something of their histories.
The High Kindred and the Grey
It all goes back to when the world was young. The Lord of the Pale (who heads up the Spirit element) send the Pale Kindred (spirits, or ghosts, from which all the Kindreds spring) to invade the realm of his arch rival (Elsivere, Lady of the Wood, who heads up the Nature element).
The first invasion was a disaster. Elsivere got trapped all the spirits in physical form, and they became the beasts of the world; wolves and bears and such.
The second invasion was more successful at first, but in the end it too faltered. This time, Elsivere had some pity. As before, she trapped the spirits in physical form, but this time left them with their senses. The physical form protected them from forests (the touch of living wood being fatal to a ghost) and they lived freely and peacefully in her realm.
These were the High Kindred, and their element was Life. They hoped never to return to the Lord of the Pale, for they feared he would punish them for making peace.
But after a time, trouble brewed. Some of the High Kindred felt they had betrayed the Lord of the Pale in making this peace. And they saw the beasts and felt it was a torturous cruelty, and they took to slaying as many beasts as they could, to try and free the spirits inside, which would eventually find their way back to the Lord of the Pale. And, in time, they came to view their own bodies as a prison.
These were the Grey Kindred, and their element was Death. They wanted to honour their oaths to the Lord of the Pale, they wanted all the spirits to return to the Lord of the Pale, and that meant slaying their brothers. The Grey Kindred were also the first necromancers. They sought ways of slaying themselves, yet retaining physical form, so that in death they could still freely pursue the living.
The conflict has never been resolved. The Silver Gate only opens one way, so no tidings reach the living as to what the Lord of the Pale truly commands. And, with the rise and fall of empires, the death worship has been pushed underground. But still, it's a brave person who wanders in certain places at night. Isengoth, Tirigoth and Morghred are all known for their death cults, and though they fall within the boundaries of the Anoril Empire, the Imperial grip is tenuous. The Legions are vastly outnumbered by the rebellious locals. Peace balances upon the edge of a sacrificial dagger. In darkened cloisters, whispers are heard about a new bloodhunt that will free all the people of the world from their fleshy prisons...
A Less Random Brutality
If you've ever played Morrowind, you'll know the atmosphere I've been aiming for. The Grey Kindred are menacing, suspicious - but have a noble streak. They are highly principled, but these principles (that all people must die) are in direct conflict with the principles of most other people. They are not comic book evil. There are evil Grey Kindred, to be sure. And there are Grey Kindred who, seduced by the new Empires, have abandoned their heritage. There may even be Grey Kindred who believe in the principles of Death, but who take a pragmatic view, and manage to blend in with society.
These Dark Elf equivalents are still the ultimate emo characters, full of conflicting emotions, swanning about in long shirts and asking questions of the stars; passionately pursuing revenge for deeds thousands of years in the past; having strong associations with vampires and doomsday cults. But now they have a little more depth, and are a little less randomly brutal, and (partly because of the need for secrecy) are much less over the top.
And Finally
Apotheon has a nice little article about ethics in RPGs. I wonder what the censors would make of elements 8 with it's theological justifications of death...
These articles primarily concern things about my game, Elements Eight; but mostly the things that I think are different or unusual. The idea is that you, the reader, get a different take on something conventional, and hopefully that interests you. If it inspires you to do something similar, then great, but if you do not, it's no great shakes.
There's a few unusual things about the background that I'd like to write about. To be honest, the background I use is too deep to tackle more than one thing in a single article. But a bit at a time, a bit at a time...
First, some disclaimers:
1) The background in Elements Eight is optional. I designed it to meet a very specific feel I was after, a world that was on the surface fairly mundane, but had many underlying terrors, many looming threats, many forgotten secrets and a sense of impending doom.
2) The background in Elements Eight really is optional! There are a couple of aspects which are going to be controversial, which some people really will not like. I am certainly not decreeing how things should be. I just want to explain in this article why I've made a certain unusual choice.
The Problem With Elves
I'll be lucky to escape hate mail for this one.
I think there's too many elves. I recall the anecdote about Tolkien, and he was reading the Lord of the Rings to his fellow writers, and someone (rumoured to be C.S. Lewis, but actually was some other fellow) uttered the words "Not another fucking elf!"
Elves should, to my mind, be exceptional. I don't particularly like it when three out of four characters is an elf. Don't get me wrong, I like elves. I just think they should be rare. Otherwise their wonder is diminished.
At the same time, there's not enough humans. Because, after all, humans aren't that interesting...
So what I did was I tried to take some of the qualities that elves had and shift them over to humans.
What I came up with was the High Kindred and the Grey Kindred. Essentially, these are High Elves and Dark Elves. But without the pointy ears. I also made them a little more mundane and a little less monolithic in alignment. Elves still exist, but are restricted to the wood elf variety.
If all this appals you, you should probably stop reading. It is quite acceptable to ignore this. It is also quite possible to use the Elements Eight background, but house rule High and Grey Kindred as High and Dark Elves. They aren't that different.
But if this idea isn't sacrilege to you, you may be interested to know something of their histories.
The High Kindred and the Grey
It all goes back to when the world was young. The Lord of the Pale (who heads up the Spirit element) send the Pale Kindred (spirits, or ghosts, from which all the Kindreds spring) to invade the realm of his arch rival (Elsivere, Lady of the Wood, who heads up the Nature element).
The first invasion was a disaster. Elsivere got trapped all the spirits in physical form, and they became the beasts of the world; wolves and bears and such.
The second invasion was more successful at first, but in the end it too faltered. This time, Elsivere had some pity. As before, she trapped the spirits in physical form, but this time left them with their senses. The physical form protected them from forests (the touch of living wood being fatal to a ghost) and they lived freely and peacefully in her realm.
These were the High Kindred, and their element was Life. They hoped never to return to the Lord of the Pale, for they feared he would punish them for making peace.
But after a time, trouble brewed. Some of the High Kindred felt they had betrayed the Lord of the Pale in making this peace. And they saw the beasts and felt it was a torturous cruelty, and they took to slaying as many beasts as they could, to try and free the spirits inside, which would eventually find their way back to the Lord of the Pale. And, in time, they came to view their own bodies as a prison.
These were the Grey Kindred, and their element was Death. They wanted to honour their oaths to the Lord of the Pale, they wanted all the spirits to return to the Lord of the Pale, and that meant slaying their brothers. The Grey Kindred were also the first necromancers. They sought ways of slaying themselves, yet retaining physical form, so that in death they could still freely pursue the living.
The conflict has never been resolved. The Silver Gate only opens one way, so no tidings reach the living as to what the Lord of the Pale truly commands. And, with the rise and fall of empires, the death worship has been pushed underground. But still, it's a brave person who wanders in certain places at night. Isengoth, Tirigoth and Morghred are all known for their death cults, and though they fall within the boundaries of the Anoril Empire, the Imperial grip is tenuous. The Legions are vastly outnumbered by the rebellious locals. Peace balances upon the edge of a sacrificial dagger. In darkened cloisters, whispers are heard about a new bloodhunt that will free all the people of the world from their fleshy prisons...
A Less Random Brutality
If you've ever played Morrowind, you'll know the atmosphere I've been aiming for. The Grey Kindred are menacing, suspicious - but have a noble streak. They are highly principled, but these principles (that all people must die) are in direct conflict with the principles of most other people. They are not comic book evil. There are evil Grey Kindred, to be sure. And there are Grey Kindred who, seduced by the new Empires, have abandoned their heritage. There may even be Grey Kindred who believe in the principles of Death, but who take a pragmatic view, and manage to blend in with society.
These Dark Elf equivalents are still the ultimate emo characters, full of conflicting emotions, swanning about in long shirts and asking questions of the stars; passionately pursuing revenge for deeds thousands of years in the past; having strong associations with vampires and doomsday cults. But now they have a little more depth, and are a little less randomly brutal, and (partly because of the need for secrecy) are much less over the top.
And Finally
Apotheon has a nice little article about ethics in RPGs. I wonder what the censors would make of elements 8 with it's theological justifications of death...
Friday, 27 June 2008
Spells
Ah, magic! It's what makes fantasy RPGs fun. And it's what makes them hard to design.
I never liked resting in D&D. It had to be done, of course. Couldn't have wizards blasting everything in sight 24/7. All the same, it strongly discouraged me from playing caster classes.
Wizards of the Coast recognised this flaw and have attempted to fix it in 4th Edition (and a limited fix via warlocks in 3.5). Now, I can't say for certain, but my assumption is that magic has been weakened as a result.
There's something else I didn't really like about magic in D&D and that's how casting was an automatic process, with no real input from the player and no particular risks or challenges associated.
What I did like about D&D was the spellbook. So many spells, so much variety. Allegedly, somewhat curtailed with 4th Edition.
The Magic of Elements Eight
In Elements Eight, magic has Aspects, such as "Area", "Range", "Damage" and so forth.
And then there are the spells themselves. Each spell has an effect (for example, "cause fire damage") and a number of Aspects (say, Area, Range, Damage) which are required components of the spell.
The caster, then, begins by choosing a spell to cast. Each round, they get to roll their skill and add an Aspect. Just one though. They choose the aspect (e.g. Damage), they choose the level they want to try for, and they make their skill roll against the difficulty for the Aspect of that level.
The more Aspects a spell has, the longer it will take to cast. Once all the Aspects are complete, the caster can launch the spell.
Spells, then, scale up as caster skill improves, in the sense that the caster can cast higher level (or more reliably cast lower level) Aspects. With the exception of Rituals (see later), there are no restrictions on casting a spell. The weakest caster can cast the most powerful spell. However, said weakest caster is unlikely to get a high enough roll for the Aspects for the spell to have an effect (for example, a fire ball dealing zero damage).
Spells take time to cast. Spells usually have three to five Aspects, and failures will lengthen the spell casting time still further. This gives plenty of time for Duelling to take place.
Spell Skills and Duelling
When rolling for Aspects, casters make use of one of two skills, depending what the Aspect is. Spell Energy (based on Intellect) handles general oomph of a spell; while Spell Finesse (based on Coordination) is used for more subtle qualities such as Persistence.
There's one other magical skill. Counter Spell (based on Perception) allows the caster to remove Aspects from (or even sometimes add Aspects to) a spell that someone else is casting.
This will, I hope, make for exciting magical duels. I envisage that, as the melee rages, two casters battle for supremacy. Evil wizard begins to cast a fireball. Good priest tries to counter the aspects as they are cast. Evil wizard perseveres and is winning the back and forth. But then good priest gets lucky and has an opportunity to add an Aspect to his enemy's spell. He sabotages it so that it will only hit the evil wizards friends. The evil wizard curses. Not only is his spell countered, but he needs to roll high on the Range aspect in order for it land far enough away that it won't hit his allies.
A Spellcasting Example
Jerik the Necromancer is having trouble with a local noble. Jerik doesn't want to antagonise the authorities, but his attempts to intimidate the noble haven't been working. Fortunately, Jerik has the solution.
Jerik the Necromancer is going to cast the spell "Mortality". The description summary for the spell reads as follows:
Changes target's Acting Motivation to Survival. The Target can Resist Charm to negate this effect.
Jerik starts with the Range Aspect. Range Level 3 is plenty (50 metres). This has a difficulty of 17. Jerik rolls 1d10 and adds his Spell Energy skill of 15. Almost certain to succeed. Sure enough, Jerik rolls a 4 and the Aspect is set.
Next round, Jerik tries to add the Defend Aspect. When the Target attempts to resist the spell using their Resist Charm skill, they will be opposed by the Defend Aspect. It's an important Aspect. Fortunately, it's based on the Spell Finesse skill, and Jerik's Spell Finesse is 19. Furthermore, the +1 in the spell summary indicates that the Level of that aspect is treated as one level higher. Jerik decides that a Defend Level 5 is good enough. Because of the +1 Defend Level, Jerik only needs to cast a Defend Level 4. The difficulty for this is 22. Jerik rolls 1d10 and addes his Spell Finesse of 19 and successfully completes the Aspect.
Next round, Jerik adds the final aspect; Persistence. Now, Persistence determines the percent chance of the spell disappearing, check once per hour as per the spell summary. But if Jerik can get the Persistence to Level 7, the spell will be permanent! The Difficulty for this is 36. Such a spell is too hard for most casters, and even Jerik's 19 Spell Finesse won't get him there. Time to use some Wonder (one of the Gifts, see earlier articles). Jerik rolls 1d10 and adds his Wonder of 31. He rolls a 6. The final Aspect is complete and the spell is cast. The noble fails to resist the spell and is now permanently saddled with Survival as his Acting Motivation (unless some kindly priest comes along to heal him of his curse). Jerik's Wonder is reduced to 30.
Jerik cackles evilly.
Some Last Bits and Bobs
You're possibly wondering... is it really possible to describe the infinite possibilities of spells with a finite number of Aspects? It turns out that it is. There are about ten Aspects, and one of them is a catch-all "Magnitude", the specific impact of which is detailed in the spell description.
I have tried my best to create spells which are more than just a set of numbers. I love the idea of a druid casting a spell which will set the will of the countryside against his pursuers (reducing their Stride skill); or a Magician stopping the rain; or a Sorcerer coaxing a guard into a new frame of thought; or a Priest blessing a weapon. These are the sorts of spells that really grab the imagination.
Hopefully, you have read my earlier article about character progression in Elements Eight. I won't describe Gifts all over again, but in case you haven't read it, essentially the more powerful Aspects are near impossible to cast without using up your limited resource of Wonder.
There's an additional restriction associated with the Ritual aspect. The Ritual aspect takes time to cast; hours instead of a round; and, depending on the Ritual level needed, may have other costs such as components, acolytes, requiring an altar and so forth. This is for the truly awe inspiring spells; spells such as Lichedom (turns caster into a Liche), Awaken Forest (creates an army of walking trees) and so on.
I've yet to see how the system works in practise, but I'm expecting it to be adequate - yet not ideal. It does have some advantages:
An Alternative Magic System
The name of Elements Eight derives from the main schools of magic; Life, Death, Spirit, Nature, Fire, Water, Earth and Air. An earlier incarnation had a slightly different system of magic. I abandonded it, in the end, but I'd like to mention it because as a system it still intrigues me.
In this earlier incarnation, all spells required a component of the element that the spell was associated with; and more difficult to obtain components allowed more powerful spells to be cast. For example, the components for fire spells were "Flicker", "Flame", "Fire" and the most powerful "Brimstone"; while the components for air spells were (from memory) "Breath", "Wind", "Storm" and "Sky". The idea I had was that, instead of carrying around a bag full of batwings, casters would draw the components for the spells from the surrounding environment. I had an idea in my head of a caster snatching the flame from a torch and turning it into a bolt of fire. This was restrictive enough that spells could be suitably powerful.
The reasons I abandoned it:
I never liked resting in D&D. It had to be done, of course. Couldn't have wizards blasting everything in sight 24/7. All the same, it strongly discouraged me from playing caster classes.
Wizards of the Coast recognised this flaw and have attempted to fix it in 4th Edition (and a limited fix via warlocks in 3.5). Now, I can't say for certain, but my assumption is that magic has been weakened as a result.
There's something else I didn't really like about magic in D&D and that's how casting was an automatic process, with no real input from the player and no particular risks or challenges associated.
What I did like about D&D was the spellbook. So many spells, so much variety. Allegedly, somewhat curtailed with 4th Edition.
The Magic of Elements Eight
In Elements Eight, magic has Aspects, such as "Area", "Range", "Damage" and so forth.
And then there are the spells themselves. Each spell has an effect (for example, "cause fire damage") and a number of Aspects (say, Area, Range, Damage) which are required components of the spell.
The caster, then, begins by choosing a spell to cast. Each round, they get to roll their skill and add an Aspect. Just one though. They choose the aspect (e.g. Damage), they choose the level they want to try for, and they make their skill roll against the difficulty for the Aspect of that level.
The more Aspects a spell has, the longer it will take to cast. Once all the Aspects are complete, the caster can launch the spell.
Spells, then, scale up as caster skill improves, in the sense that the caster can cast higher level (or more reliably cast lower level) Aspects. With the exception of Rituals (see later), there are no restrictions on casting a spell. The weakest caster can cast the most powerful spell. However, said weakest caster is unlikely to get a high enough roll for the Aspects for the spell to have an effect (for example, a fire ball dealing zero damage).
Spells take time to cast. Spells usually have three to five Aspects, and failures will lengthen the spell casting time still further. This gives plenty of time for Duelling to take place.
Spell Skills and Duelling
When rolling for Aspects, casters make use of one of two skills, depending what the Aspect is. Spell Energy (based on Intellect) handles general oomph of a spell; while Spell Finesse (based on Coordination) is used for more subtle qualities such as Persistence.
There's one other magical skill. Counter Spell (based on Perception) allows the caster to remove Aspects from (or even sometimes add Aspects to) a spell that someone else is casting.
This will, I hope, make for exciting magical duels. I envisage that, as the melee rages, two casters battle for supremacy. Evil wizard begins to cast a fireball. Good priest tries to counter the aspects as they are cast. Evil wizard perseveres and is winning the back and forth. But then good priest gets lucky and has an opportunity to add an Aspect to his enemy's spell. He sabotages it so that it will only hit the evil wizards friends. The evil wizard curses. Not only is his spell countered, but he needs to roll high on the Range aspect in order for it land far enough away that it won't hit his allies.
A Spellcasting Example
Jerik the Necromancer is having trouble with a local noble. Jerik doesn't want to antagonise the authorities, but his attempts to intimidate the noble haven't been working. Fortunately, Jerik has the solution.
Jerik the Necromancer is going to cast the spell "Mortality". The description summary for the spell reads as follows:
Changes target's Acting Motivation to Survival. The Target can Resist Charm to negate this effect.
- Defend; +1
- Persistence; 1 hour
- Range
Jerik starts with the Range Aspect. Range Level 3 is plenty (50 metres). This has a difficulty of 17. Jerik rolls 1d10 and adds his Spell Energy skill of 15. Almost certain to succeed. Sure enough, Jerik rolls a 4 and the Aspect is set.
Next round, Jerik tries to add the Defend Aspect. When the Target attempts to resist the spell using their Resist Charm skill, they will be opposed by the Defend Aspect. It's an important Aspect. Fortunately, it's based on the Spell Finesse skill, and Jerik's Spell Finesse is 19. Furthermore, the +1 in the spell summary indicates that the Level of that aspect is treated as one level higher. Jerik decides that a Defend Level 5 is good enough. Because of the +1 Defend Level, Jerik only needs to cast a Defend Level 4. The difficulty for this is 22. Jerik rolls 1d10 and addes his Spell Finesse of 19 and successfully completes the Aspect.
Next round, Jerik adds the final aspect; Persistence. Now, Persistence determines the percent chance of the spell disappearing, check once per hour as per the spell summary. But if Jerik can get the Persistence to Level 7, the spell will be permanent! The Difficulty for this is 36. Such a spell is too hard for most casters, and even Jerik's 19 Spell Finesse won't get him there. Time to use some Wonder (one of the Gifts, see earlier articles). Jerik rolls 1d10 and adds his Wonder of 31. He rolls a 6. The final Aspect is complete and the spell is cast. The noble fails to resist the spell and is now permanently saddled with Survival as his Acting Motivation (unless some kindly priest comes along to heal him of his curse). Jerik's Wonder is reduced to 30.
Jerik cackles evilly.
Some Last Bits and Bobs
You're possibly wondering... is it really possible to describe the infinite possibilities of spells with a finite number of Aspects? It turns out that it is. There are about ten Aspects, and one of them is a catch-all "Magnitude", the specific impact of which is detailed in the spell description.
I have tried my best to create spells which are more than just a set of numbers. I love the idea of a druid casting a spell which will set the will of the countryside against his pursuers (reducing their Stride skill); or a Magician stopping the rain; or a Sorcerer coaxing a guard into a new frame of thought; or a Priest blessing a weapon. These are the sorts of spells that really grab the imagination.
Hopefully, you have read my earlier article about character progression in Elements Eight. I won't describe Gifts all over again, but in case you haven't read it, essentially the more powerful Aspects are near impossible to cast without using up your limited resource of Wonder.
There's an additional restriction associated with the Ritual aspect. The Ritual aspect takes time to cast; hours instead of a round; and, depending on the Ritual level needed, may have other costs such as components, acolytes, requiring an altar and so forth. This is for the truly awe inspiring spells; spells such as Lichedom (turns caster into a Liche), Awaken Forest (creates an army of walking trees) and so on.
I've yet to see how the system works in practise, but I'm expecting it to be adequate - yet not ideal. It does have some advantages:
- custom spells
- nice mechanics for magical duels
- no resting
- I've a feeling that the ability to customise spells, while theoretically good, might in practise be counter-productive. Players may not fully explore their options, instead just sticking with a few particular techniques. I'm reminded of that fellow crying "Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!"
- I'm also not satisfied with its complexity. Because of the flexibility of the system, it's hard to intuit how difficult a spell is to cast, and balancing the spells is even harder.
An Alternative Magic System
The name of Elements Eight derives from the main schools of magic; Life, Death, Spirit, Nature, Fire, Water, Earth and Air. An earlier incarnation had a slightly different system of magic. I abandonded it, in the end, but I'd like to mention it because as a system it still intrigues me.
In this earlier incarnation, all spells required a component of the element that the spell was associated with; and more difficult to obtain components allowed more powerful spells to be cast. For example, the components for fire spells were "Flicker", "Flame", "Fire" and the most powerful "Brimstone"; while the components for air spells were (from memory) "Breath", "Wind", "Storm" and "Sky". The idea I had was that, instead of carrying around a bag full of batwings, casters would draw the components for the spells from the surrounding environment. I had an idea in my head of a caster snatching the flame from a torch and turning it into a bolt of fire. This was restrictive enough that spells could be suitably powerful.
The reasons I abandoned it:
- Too much hassle to keep track of all the candles in a room, all the branches of wood on the ground (for nature spells) and so on.
- There were some rather barren spots for casters. If you're in a desert, you're not going to come across much water for water spells, and other similar things.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Simple Skills
Some Other Skills Systems
When writing the skills table, I added a couple of skills that will perhaps be unfamiliar to roleplayers, or made them do slightly different things.
Stride is one of these skills. In some systems, this is fairly represented by a "Wilderness Lore" or something similar. But in Elements Eight, Stride specifically means your ability to travel long distances. I had Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in mind when I created this skill; the way he lead the hobbits across country to escape from the Black Riders. You'll see later how I've made spells which can enhance or restrict this skill; setting the will of the countryside against someone, causing it to rain or snow. Think of how the mountain passes were closed to the Fellowship.
You may notice that Grapple is an analytical skill. Grapple is a last ditch defence. When you have no other choice, you drop your weapons, grab hold of the enemy and don't let go. What's interesting about this is that it is often the first resort of casters and other non-combat types. This means that casters aren't sitting ducks with low hit points. They can hold the enemy off. But just one enemy, and in a very limited way, and a more melee orientated character can choose their weaponry and skills such that they become caster killers.
There are lots of interaction skills. In the same way as melee combat is based on an attack and a defence, so is diplomacy. There are three diplomacy defences; Stoicism, Guile and Insight; and each defence is better against certain diplomatic "attacks".
Stealth is handled in a similar way. You have Sneak versus Spot, and Hide versus Search. However, Search will always beat Sneak; and Spot will never beat Hide. So why bother with the Spot skill? The answer is that Spot is passive.
There's a skill called Omens. This has yet to be fully fleshed out. But I was always struck in Lord of the Rings how certain, more powerful characters just seemed to know more than other characters. I can't remember if it's in the books, but in the third film Legolas has that speech about "The stars are veiled; the eye of the enemy is moving". And he didn't cast a spell. I wanted to include some mechanics for this; using the Lore and Omens skills; but it remains to be seen whether there will be a practical way of implementing them. If anyone has any brainwaves, I'd be delighted to hear them.
If you've read my previous posts, you'll have seen the word "Skills" crop up. And possibly you've been filled with dread.
The lack of any real skills system was the bane of 2nd edition D&D and a prime target for improvement. The D&D designers dutifully churned out a comprehensive but mundane skills system for the 3rd edition.
Hold on a minute though... ever played Rolemaster? That had a skills system too. My, that was complicated! Writing a character sheet was a bit like filling in a tax return. And when you went up a level, all of it had to be updated. A good game, Rolemaster, but excessively complex.
So back to 3rd edition D&D. The designers were sensible. They didn't go to crazy. But still, there was a fair amount of annoying upkeep, and complications such as skill synergy, and the irritation that although your rogue could sneak about pretty well, there was no point in anyone else even trying.
Another problem was the infinite number of possible skills. The designers fudged this with generic skills like "Knowledge" which you would then choose a knowledge area. But it was a bit iffy.
With 4th edition, the designers obviously wished to remove the drag of all these different skills having all these different values, and probably also wanted to allow the whole party to sneak a bit, if not as well as the rogue. Laudible, but I'm not hearing good things about it. As I understand it, you pick a few skills to be "trained" in, and you are thus better at those skills by a set amount. And skills are tied directly to level too. Which does save you the time of writing them down, I suppose..
There's one more game I'd like to mention in relation to skills. You've guessed it - Star Wars 2nd Edition! This had a number of attributes (Physical, Mechanical, Technical etc) and skills were added to those. But if you didn't have, say, the Mend Droid skill, you could use your Technical attribute instead. Neat, eh?
You have to have a skills system. It has to have a lot of skills. But at the same time, I personally dislike having to keep track of so many numbers and so many modifiers.
Elementary, My Dear Watson
Elements Eight includes a lot of new-ish ideas. Some are good, some are bad, most the jury is still out on. This is, in my opinion, one of the good ones.
In Elements Eight you have 5 Attributes (Strength, Fitness, Coordination, Intellect and Perception); and you have 5 Talents (Practical, Martial, Analytical, Emotional and Magical).
Attributes and Talents each range from roughly 1 to 10.
Each skill is composed of an Attribute and a Talent added together. So the Jump skill is your Fitness + your Practical; whereas Balance is Fitness + Analytical. And Wit is Intellect + Emotional, while Intimidate is Strength + Emotional.
Here's an example of how this looks:
The Skills Table
I made a table with the Talents down one axis and the Attributes down the other. It took a few tries to get the right Talents and Attributes, but with the set described above, the skills fit pretty neatly. All the skills are described by just 10 numbers (5 Attributes and 5 Talents).
Note that that's not a final list of skills; there are some skills that are in there for development purposes, some which may be changed, renamed and so forth.
Combat in Elements Eight is based on five offensive and five defensive skills, scattered across the Practical and Martial talents (and one Analytical, which is a favourite for casters). Different types of melee class are formed fairly intuitively. You have your duellist type, your agile type, your knight type... all depending on what your Attributes and Talents are.
The lack of any real skills system was the bane of 2nd edition D&D and a prime target for improvement. The D&D designers dutifully churned out a comprehensive but mundane skills system for the 3rd edition.
Hold on a minute though... ever played Rolemaster? That had a skills system too. My, that was complicated! Writing a character sheet was a bit like filling in a tax return. And when you went up a level, all of it had to be updated. A good game, Rolemaster, but excessively complex.
So back to 3rd edition D&D. The designers were sensible. They didn't go to crazy. But still, there was a fair amount of annoying upkeep, and complications such as skill synergy, and the irritation that although your rogue could sneak about pretty well, there was no point in anyone else even trying.
Another problem was the infinite number of possible skills. The designers fudged this with generic skills like "Knowledge" which you would then choose a knowledge area. But it was a bit iffy.
With 4th edition, the designers obviously wished to remove the drag of all these different skills having all these different values, and probably also wanted to allow the whole party to sneak a bit, if not as well as the rogue. Laudible, but I'm not hearing good things about it. As I understand it, you pick a few skills to be "trained" in, and you are thus better at those skills by a set amount. And skills are tied directly to level too. Which does save you the time of writing them down, I suppose..
There's one more game I'd like to mention in relation to skills. You've guessed it - Star Wars 2nd Edition! This had a number of attributes (Physical, Mechanical, Technical etc) and skills were added to those. But if you didn't have, say, the Mend Droid skill, you could use your Technical attribute instead. Neat, eh?
You have to have a skills system. It has to have a lot of skills. But at the same time, I personally dislike having to keep track of so many numbers and so many modifiers.
Elementary, My Dear Watson
Elements Eight includes a lot of new-ish ideas. Some are good, some are bad, most the jury is still out on. This is, in my opinion, one of the good ones.
In Elements Eight you have 5 Attributes (Strength, Fitness, Coordination, Intellect and Perception); and you have 5 Talents (Practical, Martial, Analytical, Emotional and Magical).
Attributes and Talents each range from roughly 1 to 10.
Each skill is composed of an Attribute and a Talent added together. So the Jump skill is your Fitness + your Practical; whereas Balance is Fitness + Analytical. And Wit is Intellect + Emotional, while Intimidate is Strength + Emotional.
Here's an example of how this looks:
The Skills Table
I made a table with the Talents down one axis and the Attributes down the other. It took a few tries to get the right Talents and Attributes, but with the set described above, the skills fit pretty neatly. All the skills are described by just 10 numbers (5 Attributes and 5 Talents).
Note that that's not a final list of skills; there are some skills that are in there for development purposes, some which may be changed, renamed and so forth.Combat in Elements Eight is based on five offensive and five defensive skills, scattered across the Practical and Martial talents (and one Analytical, which is a favourite for casters). Different types of melee class are formed fairly intuitively. You have your duellist type, your agile type, your knight type... all depending on what your Attributes and Talents are.
My big fear with this system was that characters would be too good at some things that they shouldn't be good at. For example, a rogue might have a high Perception attribute and a high Analytical talent and come out as being a strong tracker. This is a weakness, but not a critical one. You do indeed get some characters being good in skills that, in other games, might be more restricted. But said skills are not wholly inappropriate. Rogues being good at tracking isn't such a stretch.
Certain resistances are also on this table. Resist Fear, for example, is Emotional and Strength.
Any skill you can conceive of can probably be mapped onto this system.
There are some weak points. Not a lot of skills come under Martial and Intellect. But still, no Attribute or Talent can be ignored without drawbacks. There isn't really a "dump stat" in the same way as Charisma often was for D&D.
So there it is. Five Attributes, five Talents, six Gifts and three Motivations. There's some other bits and bobs on a character sheet... but, for the main part, a character is described with 16 numbers and 3 words.
To my mind, the absolute biggest weakness of this system is that I find it really hard to make characters that are very different, precisely because there's no dump stat. Being a cautious fellow, I end up with characters who are rather average. However, this can be resolved by the use of Class builds. Or just by not being such a wuss.
When writing the skills table, I added a couple of skills that will perhaps be unfamiliar to roleplayers, or made them do slightly different things.
Stride is one of these skills. In some systems, this is fairly represented by a "Wilderness Lore" or something similar. But in Elements Eight, Stride specifically means your ability to travel long distances. I had Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in mind when I created this skill; the way he lead the hobbits across country to escape from the Black Riders. You'll see later how I've made spells which can enhance or restrict this skill; setting the will of the countryside against someone, causing it to rain or snow. Think of how the mountain passes were closed to the Fellowship.
You may notice that Grapple is an analytical skill. Grapple is a last ditch defence. When you have no other choice, you drop your weapons, grab hold of the enemy and don't let go. What's interesting about this is that it is often the first resort of casters and other non-combat types. This means that casters aren't sitting ducks with low hit points. They can hold the enemy off. But just one enemy, and in a very limited way, and a more melee orientated character can choose their weaponry and skills such that they become caster killers.
There are lots of interaction skills. In the same way as melee combat is based on an attack and a defence, so is diplomacy. There are three diplomacy defences; Stoicism, Guile and Insight; and each defence is better against certain diplomatic "attacks".
Stealth is handled in a similar way. You have Sneak versus Spot, and Hide versus Search. However, Search will always beat Sneak; and Spot will never beat Hide. So why bother with the Spot skill? The answer is that Spot is passive.
There's a skill called Omens. This has yet to be fully fleshed out. But I was always struck in Lord of the Rings how certain, more powerful characters just seemed to know more than other characters. I can't remember if it's in the books, but in the third film Legolas has that speech about "The stars are veiled; the eye of the enemy is moving". And he didn't cast a spell. I wanted to include some mechanics for this; using the Lore and Omens skills; but it remains to be seen whether there will be a practical way of implementing them. If anyone has any brainwaves, I'd be delighted to hear them.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
An Update on Rules Availability
A number of people have expressed a desire to test out Elements Eight. Which is great!
However, I need to spend a day tidying up the rules document first.
Unfortunately, I have a nasty deadline with my real job, and I don't think I'll get the day I need for a week or two.
However, at the earliest opportunity I will clean up the rules and stick them up somewhere so that anyone who wants to test Elements Eight out can get hold of them.
In the meantime, I'll still be posting articles on sections of the rules, which will tell you a little more about how Elements Eight functions, and perhaps some ideas for your own games.
However, I need to spend a day tidying up the rules document first.
Unfortunately, I have a nasty deadline with my real job, and I don't think I'll get the day I need for a week or two.
However, at the earliest opportunity I will clean up the rules and stick them up somewhere so that anyone who wants to test Elements Eight out can get hold of them.
In the meantime, I'll still be posting articles on sections of the rules, which will tell you a little more about how Elements Eight functions, and perhaps some ideas for your own games.
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