Yeah, I placed the word
progress in quotes because in reality, I have been working on my current game system in some iteration for about six years now. What follows is just an excerpt of what I have been working on in its current form, dumped onto the interwebz for perusal, completely out of context without the rest of the system...
GIFTS = What would be Edges, Feats, or Talents in most other systems. Nyah...
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Gifts
Gifts are qualities that help further define a character and make him different from others. Gifts range from simple things from literacy or the ability to swim to more specialized traits like ‘mad Bo Staff skills’.
Gifts are listed in a very simple format: name, description, and cost in option points. Some Gifts have other prerequisites as well, but these are laid out in the description. Any Attribute-based prerequisites are based upon the unadjusted rating of the Attribute.
Ambidexterity – Decrease the penalty for off-hand skill usage from two die steps to one die step. Prerequisite: AGL +1 or better; Cost: 5 Points
Ambidexterity, Improved – Eliminates the penalty for off-hand skill use. Prerequisite: Ambidexterity; Cost: 5 Points
Artful Dodger – Character’s Defense die is increased by one die step against all attack he is aware of. NOTE: This gift does not stack with the Nimble gift. Cost: 5 Points
Aware – Increases the die-type of any Perception-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: +1 PER or better; Cost: 10 Points
Blind Fighting – Character may now engage in melee combat with any invisible or darkness-obscured opponents with a reduced penalty to his Attack Action rolls. Reduce the Defense bonus of any invisible or darkness-obscured opponent by two points. Cost: 5 Points
Blind Fighting, Improved – As above, but Defense bonus of opponent is reduced by four points. Prerequisite: Blind Fighting; Cost: 3 Points
Blind Fighting, Complete – As before, but the Defense bonus of an invisible or darkness-obscured opponent is eliminated. Prerequisite: Improved Blind Fighting; Cost: 2 Points
Brawny – Increases the die-type of any Strength-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: +1 STR or better; Cost: 10 Points
Combat Reflexes – Increases the Initiative die of a character by one step. Cost: 5 Points
Connections – Character has friends in low-, mid-, or high-level places. Cost: 2, 3, or 5 Points
Cover Instinct – Increases a character’s Defense die by one step when using the Shield skill. Prerequisite: A rating of +2 or better with the Shield skill; Cost: 5 Points
Danger Sense – Increases a character’s Perception die by one step, but only for purposes of sensing incoming attacks to his person of which he is currently unaware. Cost: 5 Points
Extra Melee Attack – Allows a character to use an action die to make a second attack with his main hand during the same round. Prerequisite: A rating of +4 or better in the applicable melee skill; Cost: 5 Points
Extra Melee Attack, Improved – This gift bestows the character with the ability to make a third attack with his main weapon hand provided he has an action die to use. Prerequisite: Extra Melee Attack gift and a rating of +8 or better in the applicable melee skill; Cost: 5 Points
Extra Ranged Attack – This gift allows a character to use an action die to make a second ranged attack within a single round. Note that it may still take an action to reload and/or reset the weapon in use. Prerequisite: A rating of +4 or better in the Ranged Combat skill; Cost: 5 Points
Extra Ranged Attack, Improved – This gift grants the character the ability to make a third ranged attack within the same round provided the character still has an action die to use. As before, it takes an action to reload and/or reset the weapon in use. Prerequisite: Extra Ranged Attack gift and a rating of +8 or better in the Ranged Combat skill; Cost: 5 Points
Fast Healer – During the course of an epic adventure characters will most likely suffer a wound or two. When they do, those with this gift tend to heal faster than most. Fast Healer increases the die-type of any die used for a natural healing check by one step. If this bonus drives the die type above a D12, then add one point to the number of damage points healed by the roll instead. Prerequisite: CON +0 or better; Cost: 5 Points
Fleet-Footed – Increases any Action die used for movement by one step. Should this take the die step above D12, add 2” to the allowable moving distance for each step beyond D12. Cost: 5 Points
Fleet-Footed, Improved – Increases any Action die used by two steps. Should this take the Action Die level above D12, then add 2” to the maximum distance allowed for each step. Prerequisite: Fleet-Footed; Cost: 5 Points
Fortune’s Blessed – While the character will have his luck run out on him at times, he seems to replenish it a touch faster than most. Increase the character’s Karma Recovery by +1. Cost: 5 Points
Fortune’s Blessed, Improved – Faster luck still for the character that seems to have everything. Increase the character’s Karma Recovery by another point. Prerequisite: Fortune’s Blessed; Cost 5 Points
Fortune’s Favored – Character seems to have more luck than most, having an increased Karma maximum. Add +5 to the character’s Karma Maximum and starting Karma. Cost: 5 Points
Fortune’s Favored, Improved – Fate smiles on this character even more than usual. The character’s Karma Maximum and starting Karma is increased by another 5 points. Prerequisite: Fortune’s Favored; Cost: 5 Points
Fortune’s Hand – Fate seems to frown less upon this character. This gift allows the character to reroll any one die (including 1s rolled on skill checks), once per game session. If used, the character must abide by the results of the reroll. 5 Points.
Fortune’s Hand, Improved – Fate smiles more as the character is granted a second reroll to be used during the game session. As before, the character must abide by the new hand that fate deals him and keep the results of the re-roll. Prerequisite: Fortune’s Hand; Cost 5 Points
Fortune’s Hand, Complete – Fate does nothing BUT smile upon this character as he is allowed three rerolls per game session AND he may keep the better of any result he rolls. Prerequisite: Improved Fortune’s Hand; Cost 10 Points
Group Fighter – Allows a character to ignore the defensive penalty incurred when fighting multiple opponents. Cost: 10 Points
Hardy – The character is able to shrug off and make minimal damage that otherwise might be fatal. Increase the character’s Shock total by five points. Prerequisite: CON +1 or WIL +1 (or better); Cost: 5 Points
Hardy, Improved – This character just has more flesh to wound than others. Increase the character’s Shock total by another 5 points. Prerequisite: CON +1 (or better), WIL +1 (or better), and Hardy; Cost: 5 Points
Healthy – Increases the die-type of any Constitution-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: +1 CON or Better; Cost 10 Points
Increase Ability – All Ability dice start at a rating of d4. Increasing these dice with Option Points is relatively simple, but subject to one major guideline. The first is that no die type may be of a greater rating than the one that precedes it. In short, a character’s Tertiary Ability may not have a greater rating than his Secondary Ability, nor may his Secondary Ability have a rating greater than his Primary Ability. The ratings for each of these abilities may be equal to their precedents, however.
To increase a character’s Primary Ability costs a number of Option Points equal to half of the ability’s old rating added to half its new rating. Example: Bob wants to increase his Primary Ability from a rating d4 to a rating of d6. To do this, Bob spends five Option Points. [(4/2) + (6/2) = 2 + 3 = 5 Option Points]
To increase a character’s Secondary Ability costs a number of Option Points equal to the ability’s old rating added to its new rating. Example: Bob wants to increase his Secondary Ability from a rating d4 to a rating of d6. To do this, Bob spends ten Option Points. [4 + 6 = 10 Option Points]
To increase a character’s Tertiary Ability costs a number of Option Points equal to one and a half the ability’s old rating added to one and a half its new rating. Example: Bob wants to increase his Tertiary Ability from a rating d4 to a rating of d6. To do this, Bob spends 15 Option Points. [(4 x 1.5) + (6 x 1.5) = 6 + 9 = 15 Option Points]
To make things easier, we’ve included this handy table.
D4 to D6 D6 to D8 D8 to D10 D10 to D12
Primary 5 points 7 points 9 points 11 points
Secondary 10 points 14 points 18 points 22 points
Tertiary 15 points 21 points 27 points 33 points
Increase Attribute – To start, a player adjusted the seven Attributes of his character to better fit the profile of the chosen direction of ability. By taking this gift a player can now spend Option Points to boost the balanced Attributes to an unbalanced, positive standard. In order to increase a selected Attribute, spend a number of Option Points equal to 10 plus the Attribute’s new level. NOTE: These increases are applied to the base ratings of the Attributes, not the ratings achieved by racial adjustment.
Example #1: Bob wants to increase his Agility from a rating of –1 to 0. To do so, he spends 10 Option Points. [(10 + 0) = 10 Option Points]
Example #2: Bob wants to increase his Strength from a rating of +1 to +2. To do so, he spends 12 Option Points. [(10 + 2) = 12 Option Points]
Example #3: Bob wants to increase his Charisma from a rating of –2 to –1. To do so, he spends 9 Option Points. [(10 + (-1)) = 9 Option Points]
Language – Character can speak a language other than his native tongue. Cost: 2 Points
Linguist – The character has an affinity for spoken languages. With this gift, any subsequent Language gifts are purchased at half cost. Cost: 3 Points
Lip Reading – This gift governs the ability to discern someone’s words from a distance without being able to hear them. The character must be able to see the mouth of the speaker with an unobstructed point of view and make a Difficult Perception check in order to mentally reconstruct the words being spoken. In order to actually understand what is being said, the reader must also be able to speak the language being “read”. Cost: 3 Points
Literacy – Character has ability to read any one language he can speak. Cost: 2 Points
Melee Shot – This gift reduces the penalty (from 2 die steps to 1 die step) for using a ranged weapon while engaged in melee combat. Cost: 5 Points
Melee Shot, Improved – Eliminates the penalty for an attacker using a ranged weapon while engaged in melee. Prerequisite: Melee Shot; Cost: 5 Points
Nimble – Increases the die type of any Agility-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: AGL +1 or better; Cost: 10 Points
Off-Hand Melee Attack – This gift allows a character to use an action die to make a melee attack with a weapon in his off-hand. The off-hand use penalty applies unless compensated by other gifts. Cost: 5 Points
Off-Hand Melee Attack, Improved – This gift grants the character the ability make a second melee attack with his off-hand provided he has an action die to use. As before, the penalty for off-hand use applies unless compensated for by other gifts. Prerequisite: Off-Hand Melee Attack, Extra Melee Attack; Cost: 5 Points
Pack Mule – This character’s Strength is effectively one better for purposes of determining his Load Increment and Maximum Load. Cost: 5 Points
Parry – Allows a character to use his Armed Combat skill as a defensive bonus (in place of Dodge or Shield) as long as he has a weapon in hand. Cost: 5 Points
Patient – A patient character may set aside up to four dice for any continuous action that they attempt to do. Cost: 10 Points
Personable – Increases the die type of any Charisma-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: CHA +1 or better; Cost: 10 Points
Preemptive Strike – Allows a character to attack an approaching character out of turn by prematurely burning or splitting his Action die. Prerequisite: PER +0 or better; Cost: 5 Points
Quick Draw – May draw one item (usually a weapon) as a free action. This gift may only be used once per round. Cost: 5 Points
Range Finder – This character is more accurate at long ranges than others. Reduce any bonus to the target Defense roll for range by two. Cost: 5 Points
Reach Weapon Specialist -- This character knows how to use weapons with a Reach rating greater than one better than most other people do. With this gift he is able to nullify the one die step penalty for attacking a target within a weapons optimum reach. Prerequisite: a rating of +2 or better in the Armed Combat skill; Cost: 5 points
Skill Training – This gift allows a character to roll an extra die when making a skill check with one specific skill. This skill must be specified at the time this gift is purchased. The extra die rolled is of the same die type as allowed by the allocated ability and the applicable gifts. Once rolled, the character takes the better result of the two dice, and applies that result to the skill check. Prerequisite: +4 or better rating in the applicable skill; Cost: 8 Points
Skill Training, Improved – As with Skill Training above, but the character is now allowed to roll three dice for the applicable skill check and take the best result of those three dice. Prerequisite: +8 or better rating in the applicable skill; Cost: 7 Points
Smart – Increases the die type of any Intelligence-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: +1 INT or better; Cost: 10 Points
Steady Shot – This reduces an attacker’s penalty for attempting a ranged attack from an unstable platform for –2 die steps to –1 die step. Cost: 5 Points
Steady Shot, Improved – Eliminates the unstable platform penalty for an attacker while making ranged attacks. Prerequisite: Steady Shot; Cost: 3 Points
Steady Steel – Eliminates the attack penalty for melee attacks while fighting on an unstable platform. Cost: 5 Points
Strong-Willed – Increases the die type of any Willpower-based Action or Defense die by one step. Prerequisite: WIL +1 or better; Cost: 10 Points
Sweep – Allows a character to attack every viable target (friend and foe) within his melee range in the span of one attack, at the penalty of two die steps to the attack Action die. Note that only one sweep may be performed in any given combat round. Prerequisite: +1 STR or better, +4 or better rating with the Armed Combat skill; Cost: 5 Points
Sweep, Improved – Reduces the normal Sweep penalty to only one step. Prerequisite: Sweep; Cost: 5 points
Swimming – Character has the ability to keep himself afloat in water. Cost: 2 Points
Toughness – Increases a character’s natural Toughness by one point. This gift may only be taken once. Prerequisite: CON +1 or WIL +1; Cost: 8 Points
Toughness, Improved – The character is phenomenally resistant to damage. Increase the character’s natural Toughness by another point. Prerequisite: CON +1, WIL +1, and Toughness; Cost: 7 Points
Wealthy – Character starts with twice the starting cash than is usual for the setting. Cost: 8 Points
Wealthy, Really – The character begins the game with four times the starting cash than is usual for the setting. Cost: 7 Points
Weapon Specialization (specify) – This Gift increases the Action die by one step when using a specific weapon. Cost: 5 Points
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There... Just a taste of what goes through my head...
-- GopherDave
