I seem to recall having read a discussion somewhere on an attempt at using dR as attribute stats (Str, Dex, etc). But I can't find it. I would like to hear your thoughts on it.
This evening, I got the idea to cross the Eldritch Horror boardgame (Lovecraft/Cthulhu) and risk dice to hack a small RPG using risk dice as attributes. No hp. You can act as long as your attribute risk dice do not go below dR4 (exhaustion/vegetable/will-less/etc).
Then I thought maybe someone here had tried something similar and had some experiences to share...?
I can only remember theoretical discussions about this. If someone has tried it, I'm interested in the results.
ReplyDeleteInteresting approach to damage, Jens Larsen. How would you handle a character losing say STR and WIS? Would there be fictional conditions to reflect that, or just the fact that they can't impact the world with their muscle and intuition?
This is somewhat similar to Traveller's damage system. When you take damage, it comes off the physical attributes.
ReplyDeleteEric Nieudan First, I wanted something to also cover task resolution for physical tasks not to do with physical strength and fortitude. So I added a “Dex” attribute called Finesse to the other five attributes in Eldritch Horror.
ReplyDeleteSecond, all ability scores are "hp" of a sort, and they are all a resource to be managed. The idea is that the players will watch their scores diminish as the scenario progresses, knowing that their ability to cope with the horrors in waiting may not be up to the task. But the only alternative is to give up and let the cultists win. This seemed fairly in the spirit of Lovecraft. Not sure it would work in non-Horror settings, but it might.
Third, I have given more than a nod to Dungeon World, making this a more narrative kind of game. So initiative is born of the fiction, just like in Dungeon World. Being a more narrative kind of game also means that the tasks that a character attempts can be more abstracted, or can cover more ground than the usual round-by-round action in fx MM. And that should mitigate the ability score attrition. One thing I am looking forward to is discovering how much task resolution the GM can push at the players before their characters become too crippled to do anything due to failed rolls and reduced dR.
With this in mind, my idea was that reducing "hp" of any sort should not have a direct detrimental effect above and beyond the lowering of the attribute dR. So the GM (or the player) will be describing the exhaustion that sets in (possible effect of Strength damage), and the increasing sense of futility (possible effect of Will damage) or how your reputation as a maniac increases and fewer people are willing to help or associate with you (possible effect of Influence damage), making it a part of the narrative. I think it fits a Cthulhu game to impress on the players that their character is suffering from the decision to join the lonely crusade for humanity against the Ancient Ones.
For more special things, I would borrow a mechanic from the board game and apply conditions that stay with the character. So you could get, say, "knee injury". As long as you have that, your Strength dR is reduced one step. If you get the required attention and rest described in the condition, the injury will be cured, and the dR be raised back up one step. Or you could get “Question everything you know” reducing your Lore dR by one step, since you have come to doubt the basis on which all your research is done. Or for the Influence dR, you could get “Scandal: criminal” for rumors that your character is connected with the Black Hand on Sicily, or “Scandal: sexual” for rumors that your character has been connected with a certain “tea house” in Hong Kong with exceedingly beautiful and "service-minded” employees. Etc.
I believe it becomes important to provide a sufficient opportunities for challenges for all attributes to balance the loss over the entire attribute spectrum. I know: more work for the GM, and I have no idea how hard it will be to create those. Time will tell. And besides, it should be somewhat governed by the decisions of the players anyway.
Conversely, “Healing” becomes many things. Strength and Finesse damage will require time and rest and access to proper medical care (or spells). Lore damage might require access to a library, time to study (a luxury), or time to review one’s own notes, or discussions with other learned people. Influence damage may require access to “civilisation” and time for spin doctoring and reaffirming connections with contacts and friends etc. Will damage will require time and possibly a chat with a psychiatrist, or some kind of therapy. Finally, Observation damage can cover anything from damage to an eye or ear to an unconscious unwillingness to notice that which man was not meant to know and thus curbing the curiosity required to be observant. This being the case, increasing the Observation dR becomes either a matter of time, rest and proper medical care as for Strength and Finesse damage, or a matter of time and possibly a chat with a psychiatrist, or some kind of therapy as for Will damage. It sounds like a lot to track, but I fervently hope it can be sort of hand-waved, most of it.
ReplyDeleteDamage for adversaries is handled differently (and mostly physical). All rolls are made by the players, Numenera-style. You are either attempting to attack and damage and adversary, or trying to avoid being hit and damaged by one. Flunkies go down after one hit, while smal bosses go down after two or three (Savage Worlds, anyone?). Major bosses can/will take more and may have other adventure goals for being defeated.
Like I said, I am looking forward to learning just how much task resolution the GM can push at the PCs before they will fail. It is kinda chancy though. Two bad rolls for a character with dR8 can quickly make it difficult to accomplish much. To mitigate that a bit, I am toying with a “short rest” that can be attempted once after every encounter to immediately increase one physical and one non-physical attribute dR by one step, if those have been reduced in the preceding encounter.
Ok, this turned into way more of a ramble than I intended. Sorry about that...
Looks like you have it pretty much figured out. Maybe write a good list of examples of conditions, and also let the players come up with new ones.
ReplyDeleteTo make it less swingy, a solution would be to go back to TBH and step down on a 1-2.
Good suggestion, I think, to try using the 2 range. Thanks. Why didn't I think of that? No don't answer... ;)
ReplyDeleteTonight: condition list examples!
Why the devil did strike through appear in my post? Did I use some typographic code that did that?
ReplyDeleteJens Larsen I suspect it's the negative sign before the 2 and the nose in your smiley face :)
ReplyDeleteAh, of course, thanks.
ReplyDelete