Arcanum as a PnP RPG - Possible?

Discussion in 'Roleplaying Forum' started by Wolfsbane, Jan 15, 2012.

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  1. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    So far, I'm compiling in-game fiction for the aspirant wizards.

    How does your dice system work?

    I can help with writing english instructions for the system too.
     
  2. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    The system basically works like this:

    Every skill and atribute check is done with D6. The goal is to get as many successful rolls as possible. A 4, 5 or 6 is a successful roll. The number of dice available are equal to the level of the tested skill or atribute +1 (to represent chance if you have no skill). The number of successes required to complete the test is determined by the DM.

    Example:

    Charlie wants to pick a lock. The DM decides that is takes 2 successes to open and asks Charlie to roll. Charlie has a lockpick skill of 3, which gives him 4 dices. He gets two threes, a four and a six, which equals success.

    In turn based situations (combat, hunt, brawl) the same system applies but with a twist. To determine who begins in a turn based situation, roll a 10 sided dice and add speed. The one with the highest result begins and everyone else follows in a descending order. You can only take active/offensive action during your own turn. When testing against another player, the DM does not set the number of required successes. Instead, both players roll and decide the outcome by comparing success rate. The one with the most successes wins. In the event of unstopable power vs immovable object (attack vs parry) the immovable object wins (attack 2s vs parry 2s = parry wins).

    How many dices you have available are determined by your skill(s) + your speed bonus (which derives from DXT). You get +1D for every 3 DXT you have.

    Example:

    Charlie and Jane are duelling with pistols. To determine who begins, both roll a D10 and add speed. Charlie rolls an 8 and adds his speed of 10. Jane rolls a 6 and adds her speed of 15. Jane gets the higher value and begins.

    As her first action, Jane decides to simply shoot Charlie. She has a Firearms skill of 3 and a DXT of 15, which gives her 9 available dice. She assigns 5 dice to her first shot (4FA, 1DXT) and rolls 3 successes. To avoid being damaged, Charlie must now roll a successful dodge. He has a Dodge skill of 2 and a DXT of 10, which leaves him with 6 available dice. He assigns 5 dice (3D, 2DXT) and rolls 4 successes. Charlie has dodged the attack.

    Jane presses on and decides to go all out and shoot again. She has 4 more dice and decides to use them all (4DXT) and rolls only 1 succes. Charlie decides to try his luck and assigns his last dice to dodge the incoming bullet. He rolls a succes and miraculously avoids damage.

    With no more dice to spend on actions, Janes turn is now ended and Charlies begin.

    Charlie decides to return fire. He has a FA skill of 3 and a DXT of 10, but he has used up all his DXT dice and must rely on his skill to succeed. He assigns 3 dice to the first shot and gets 1 succes. Luckily for her, Jane still has dice left because of her Dodge skill (of 1). She rolls both her dice and escapes harm with 1 succes. Charlie has 1 more dice, though, which he rolls and score 1 succes. With no more dice to use in her defence, Jane is hit and takes damage.


    This was a very repetitious fight, but you can probably imagine how such a system could be used. Having written the above example, I thought of a way to restrain unskilled but dexterious characters to many, but unskilled, actions. If you restrict the number of dice they can use per action to their Skill Value +1, a skilled opponent can outclass them simply by assigning more dice (at the cost of fewer actions, of course). A person with a skill of 5 can thus assign 6 dice to a roll whereas a person with a skill of 1 only can assign 2.

    If one wanted to, one could add all sorts of effects with or without costs to add to the system. Using cover, grappling, brawling, throwing, all moddable effects with + or - dice.

    How does that sound?
     
  3. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    In my humble opinion that sounds good, and like it would be fun to play. However, what kind of role would strength play in melee combat?
     
  4. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    Damage, of course. But I haven't developed that fully yet :p

    How does the STR-bonus go? I think it's 0 at 10 STR and +1 for every step up (-1 for every step down). Double at 20. So, what's the damage output of a broadsword, 1-16? That's roughly 2D8 or 1D20. Add DMG-bonus and you have either 22-36 or 21-40 dmg at 20 STR, or 4-19/3-23 at 12 STR. Pretty much the same as in the game.

    Strength also contributes to your health, along with your willpower. You get 2 hps for every 1 str and 1 hp for every 1 wp. For a common Joe with str and wp at 8 that's 24HPs (16+8). An ogre with the Circus background reaches 40-something HPs at level 1, no points spent.

    I think this could turn out really well.
     
  5. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    Sounds good to me.

    This is like the system I once used for tabletop arcanum, basing it loosely on shadowrun.
     
  6. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]

    4 - 16
     
  7. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Muro :)

    How do you like the system?
     
  8. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    Nonexistent PnP RPG experience makes it hard for me to estimate how good it is, sadly. After all, I have no comparison.
     
  9. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    So the broadsword would need to be 4d4, then? That's pretty cool.

    I think the system you're working out would be fun to play. I tried wrapping aspects of Arcanum into a D&D campaign, but I wasn't the DM and he had never played Arcanum, so the magick/tech aspect wasn't how I thought it would go. I figured each time a person would roll to attack with opposing aptitude to their weaponry (at 100 aptitude of either direction), an additional D20 would be rolled to determine the chance of failure weighed against the attack's accuracy. On a natural 20, it would've meant critical failure on the part of the attacker regardless of accuracy, with damage adjusted for just how accurate the attack was. It ended up being far less dangerous the way the DM worked it out :( .
     
  10. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    I was simply planning to implement D6 penalties to simulate aptitude. My system only punishes the one with lower aptitude, though. I need to look inte how this works in the actual system.
     
  11. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    Is it possible to do the whole system with only d6? I prefer it that way, because then there's less special equipment required.
    eg
    2d6 + speed = initiative
    3d6 = broadsword damage
    etc?
     
  12. ytzk

    ytzk Well-Known Member

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    For I have travelled into the wilderness and lo! I hocked my laptop for a week to buy cigarettes. Therefore I learned to knit, weave dreamcatchers, play hackey sack and, most importantly, created a working pencil'n' paper Arcanum game.

    I submit it here, in a rush, with a Japanese spellchecker underlining everthing I write on this hostel pc, so that Muro may pick the eyes out of the system, and for the general consideration of the House.

    Ability scores are 1 - 6, (cost 3 cp each)
    skill/spell levels are 1 - 5 = d6 (tg# 4) (cost 1 cp each)
    number of success add to damage or spell effect and can be opposed with dodge or spell resistance rolls (WP or CN).
    AC adds to attackers' tgn, where AC = [DX + armor -3] and armor is max 3.
    Apprentice = -1tgn, Expert =-2 and Master = -3tgn.
    Tech aptitude adds to spell roll tgns.
    Skill level = d6
    College level = d6 in that college alone.
    HP = 2ST + WP + Lvl
    FP = 2CN + WP + Lvl Spell cost = 1 FP per spell lvl per turn.
    A turn is six seconds long and initiative = speed = AP = DX.
    1AP = 2 simple actions or 1 complex action.
    Sixes explode.
    MA = 5n/100 where n = # of spells.
    [# of successes x MA = spell power].

    It almost sorta kinda works. The d6 can be skewed to fit the % system of the video game, but only beta testing can tell.

    Peace out, all.
     
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