More "Progress" Made...

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

An Extended Weekend...

Hey all... This was an extended weekend for most folks, and for once, me included!

On Saturday, I ended up going over to Terre Haute to check out ISU-Con. It's a small convention put on by the Indiana State University Gaming Guild as sort of a recruitment drive function. The price was free, so even if the convention seemed a tad ill-organized, I sort got what I paid for. I was there for Saturday afternoon, and there were about 100 people milling about. I played in a Call of Cthulhu game and had some fun there. I had intended to stay for the evening session, but my intestinal tract got the best of me and I bailed a bit early. Overall, not bad. With some actual organization behind it, they have the foundation to be a fairly good regional convention. We'll see where it goes.

Sunday night I got to hang out with some friends, one I hadn't seen in 25 years. That was fun. Much reminiscing over pizza was had and it did make me long somewhat for the "good old days". Thing is, my good old days never really stopped so much as evolved. Friends have left the area, but new friends have been acquired in an ever revolving circle. Owning the store has made that happen as much as anything else because running the store sort of forces me to meet new people as they walk into the shop. Thinking about it, my life isn't so bad friend-wise.

Labor Day, Loq and I went out and had lunch. We had more planned, but her feet and my back conspired to cut our day short. I'm really kind of sorry about that, because it cut our t8ime together short, and I need to find a way to make that up.

That's it for now... Off to the store to place orders and hold down the fort...

-- GopherDave

I'm Late... I'm Late...

Okay, this is going to b a quick entry as today is Friday Night Magic and an anticipated release for a limited availability product. Oh, and it's shipment day as well, with ANOTHER limited availability product that goes on sale tomorrow. Plus there are errands to run...

Yep, my life is not complicated at all. It's also never complicated when I oversleep by ninety minutes...

Energizer bunny time, folks... You have yourselves a good one.

-- GopherDave

Seriously... No Pressure...

I just looked at the calendar and then at the work schedule I had planned back in June to make all of the preparations for Winter War happen without a hitch...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Yep... not behind at all... (snicker)... Aw Hell, I can't even type that with a straight face. Right, so I am about a month behind where I want to be with this work, but I am not so far behind that I cannot catch up. Given that actual progress was made last night, there is hope that I can actually do so.

Looking over most of the rules, I am actually closer that I thought to being done with the base, generic rules. There are definitions to do, but most of hard stuff is in place. Now I just have to work on the genre-specific stuff. With the genres I'm covering with games at Winter War (Western, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy, Space Opera, and Modern-Day Paranormal), most of that should be knocked out of the park in short order, as well.

On the lack of pressure side, just got a visit from an old friend whom I hadn't seen in 25 years. That was cool. It looks like he, I, and few other old friends are trying to get together Sunday evening to hang out, maybe have some dinner, and just catch up. It'll be good... =)

Until then, though, there's work to be done...

-- GopherDave

Progress Is Made...

Been doing some work on the skill list for Dicebag tonight. Just started working on minimal definitions, and have spent the last few nights refining the skill list, trying to trim it down to what I consider the bare essentials for the system.

Anything that is "genre-specific" like "spellcasting", "psionics", or "computer hacking" will be included in the setting documents meant to add to and/or modify the base rules for campaigns that use those elements.

The generic, master skill list..? Here ya go...

• Animal Handling
• Art/Craft (Specify)
• Barter/Trade
• Carousing
• Climbing
• Combat, Armed
• Combat, Ranged
• Combat, Unarmed
• Deception (Specify; Fast Talk, Disguise, Mimicry, Acting, Forgery)
• Deduction
• Demolitions
• Dodge
• Escape Artist
• Gambling
• Healing
• Interrogation
• Intimidation
• Knowledge (Specify)
• Leadership
• Lip Reading
• Public Speaking
• Repair
• Research
• Security
• Seduction
• Shield
• Sleight-of-Hand
• Stealth
• Survival (Specify; Urban, Outdoor, Social)
• Swimming
• Throwing
• Tracking

Looking at the list, a couple more may get trimmed, but I think it is pretty solid as it stands.

-- GopherDave

Odd... But Good...

Things have been moving right along here, with me falling back into good habits that I had dropped for a bit. The one habit I need to pick back up though is working out. I have not done so for a bit, and I need to make that happen once again. Two or three times a week should be more than doable, I just have to carve it out of my schedule, which seems to have become clogged once again.

Not much is happening beyond that. The AC at the store is fixed, so my sweater vest-wearing self is happy on that front. I have been looking at game stuff and gearing up to run a game to find no spots on the store schedule that would be conducive to my doing so. I find that odd, but encouraging.

This Saturday I am thinking about making a short drive to Terre Haute to ISU-Con, just to check it out. It's not that far away, and I have the day off. Then again, I might check out some other area stores just to see what they are doing well that we might be able to implement at the Gopher.

Or I might just stay home and endure the remnants of Hurricane Isaac if it heads this way and hits us about that time...

-- GopherDave

Mental Flattulence...

Okay... I am currently sitting in GopherSemi-Inferno. The air conditioning gave up the ghost Sunday night. Calls were made Monday morning. Technician came out Monday afternoon and proclaimed things "not broken". I came in last night to work on things and found that is was 73 degrees in the store. I came back this morning to find it was 76 and climbing. More calls have been made. I have managed to coax SOME cool out of it, but I am still waiting for a technician to come out and actually do their job of repairing an item instead of fiddling with it enough to get it to "work" and leaving.

Game-wise, not much work got done, but I do have a more focused plan of attack. Going over my convention blurbs gave me some ideas on where to direct some of my work effort and things are being put into place to allow me to actually do some of that work. Talking with Skribl last night also has me a bit jazzed. I know he's biased, and his experience is somewhat limited, but he honestly believes that my Tai'eres (post-apocalyptic fantasy) setting is one of the best settings he's ever played in. That actually has me a more than a bit amped to work on things.

Loq and I also went and viewed the Expendables 2 last night. It's a fun popcorn movie, not quite as good as the first, with some memorable lines and a way-too-difficult-to-track body count. Definitely worth at least a rental.

Anyway, off to do work...

-- GopherDave