 November 29, 2008 - 2:45pm | This discussion began in the general game mechanic thread found here but deserves its own treatment. The current idea forwarded by SmootRK and discussed is as follows: A character has four primary abilities. You roll for each of these abilities, which represents a categoric spread of basic ability. For example, a character with a high Physique score is strong, has appreciable endurance and tolerance to pain, heals quickly, etc. However, players who roll these four abilities can, if desired, provide further definition of the subabilities that comprise those abilities. For example, your character might have an average Physique, but may be slightly above average in muscles (strength) while having a slightly lower endurance (representing lower tolerance to infection perhaps?). The list below represents the ability scores proposed so far: Physique (represents the aspects Strength and Endurance) Dexterity (represents the aspects Agility and Coordination) Intellect (represents the aspects Reason and Wisdom) Personality (represents the aspects Leadership and Willpower) Each of these four ability scores will be rolled in some way. After rolling, players wanting to specialize in one or more aspects of their abilities may do so by shifting +/-10 percentage points among those ability aspects. For instance, a character who has a Dexterity of 55 will have a base 55% chance to succeed in any roll involving agility or coordination. However, the player may envision a character whose agility is average but whose coordination is quite impressive. That player may shift up to 10 points from the agility aspect of Dexterity to the coordination aspect, meaning when rolling against Dexterity when the action involves agility, the chance of success might only be 45%, but when rolling against the coordination aspect of Dexterity the chance of success might be 65%. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
November 30, 2008 - 9:21am | I like it. Well written. Perhaps we can use a couple of alternate terms though. Reaction Speed comes to mind because it is two words while all the rest are singles. Intuition also comes to mind because of its 3-letter abbreviation... to those who do multiple games, it looks at first glance to be INTelligence. Of course Endurance could easily be a synonym for STA, and it eliminates the two Physique related terms starting with the same letter. I'm a little torn on this idea and would like to hear the opinions of others? Certainly we can rename some if the community wants to further differentiate ourselves from SF. I personally wouldn't mind keeping them as-is. But if it helps us to maintain our "inspired by" status rather than some perceived "copied from" status, why not? I'm very against one-letter abbreviations (imagine it... "make an I check"... doesn't read well) but maybe we could either 1) eliminate abbreviations and just always use the whole ability name or 2) use two-letter abbreviations (several games do this, but no pure sci-fi games that I'm aware of). If we choose well, we could get the abbreviations down to 1 letter, which would be yet another way to make the game 'seem' different.... just words and abbreviations anyhow, why not change to add yet another layer of 'how we are doing a different game'. I guess it really doesn't matter to me what we call them, as long as they are intuitive when you look at them. Since I always describe (to my kids) the difference between Personality and Leadership is like the difference between a charming person and a person with a lot of commanding presence, I would support using Charm and Presence or even Charm and Willpower. And since Intuition is supposed to represent both physical senses and gut instincts, I think we could call it anything related to either: Instincts, Perception, Senses, etc. Some suggestions: Physical Abilities Original: Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Reaction Speed Idea 1: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Reactions Idea 2: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Speed Idea 3: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Reflexes Mental Abilities Original: Intuition, Logic, Personality, Leadership Idea 1: Instincts, Logic, Personality, Leadership Idea 2: Perception, Logic, Charisma, Willpower Idea 3: Senses, Reason, Charm, Presence 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 November 30, 2008 - 9:57am | All very reasonable choices. Also, please bear in mind that I limit myself to offering suggestions, not demands... so when I voice something, it need not actually happen when the consensus decides. But, I do want this project to work in terms of being safe from ANY infringement risks. A game that can truly belong to the audience, completely Open Source, so that anyone can use it freely, print it freely, and share it freely. Which is why I tend to bring up changes whenever we can, while still preserving what we all love about the original. - self-disclaimer over Anyhow, I will be fine with whatever is decided. <insert witty comment here> |
November 30, 2008 - 10:43am | All very reasonable choices. Also, please bear in mind that I limit myself to offering suggestions, not demands... so when I voice something, it need not actually happen when the consensus decides. I both understand and appreciate!But, I do want this project to work in terms of being safe from ANY infringement risks. A game that can truly belong to the audience, completely Open Source, so that anyone can use it freely, print it freely, and share it freely. Which is why I tend to bring up changes whenever we can, while still preserving what we all love about the original. - self-disclaimer over Anyhow, I will be fine with whatever is decided. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
November 30, 2008 - 10:52am | I created a system by which this project can have polls. It's not working yet for all projects, just this one. Please go vote on an ability score set or suggest your own in the form of comments on the relevant poll. Refer to: Which mental ability set do you prefer? 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
December 2, 2008 - 11:43am | Any comments or discussion? 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
