Still here...

I've been incredibly busy with my day job for the past couple months but things are under control now. I've started getting more development done but I've met a new setback. My computer's hard drive has mysteriously disappeared. Luckily I keep my files backed up by Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) and my Dropbox folder is backed up by Ubuntu One (one.ubuntu.com), so I didn't lose anything. For the past few days, I have been continuing work on the game by booting my computer by using my Ubuntu 11.04 installation cd and running Ubuntu entirely in RAM. I used the included Firefox and Libre Office suite to get my files from Dropbox, edit them, and re-upload the changes. I took the computer to the service center today (Saturday) since this is the only day they are open outside of my working hours. They are going to send it out to get fixed by the manufacturer and I should have it back in about a week. In the meantime, I'm online with my iPod Touch and making notes and sketches on paper. This afternoon, I started sketching out some ideas for page layouts. When I get my computer back, I'll try using Inkscape and Scribus to do a few sample pages to learn how those programs work. I learned how to do layout back when "cut and paste" referred to actual scissors and glue, so this will be a new experience for me.

Example Powers 13: "I sense a presence I've not felt since..."

Whether it's called "detecting magic", "feeling a disturbance in the Force", "aura sight", "scanning with a tricorder", "using a PKE meter", or just "waving the timey-wimey thingy to check for stuff", detecting (or obscuring) the presence of Powers is a staple of many genres. To account for that, I've included the "Detect/Conceal Aura" power which can be used in settings where it's useful but not automatic. In settings where it would be possible but rarely used (or useful), I wouldn't require casters to expend resources on acquiring the ability as a separate power; instead, I would say that it could be done simply as a normal casting skill roll boosted by Advantage from a Notice or Stealth skill roll (to detect or obscure, respectively). Likewise in settings where this power is used all the time by default, such as Jedi and Sith in Star Wars who are constantly aware of the Force and can detect when others are using it in the same way that normal people are aware of blasters being fired in their vicinity.

Divination and Example Power 12: See the Past

Many GMs are wary of allowing divination powers in their games because divination can neutralize mystery plots. It is true that magic or psychic powers or other divination methods might reveal clues about a mystery that ordinarily would have gone unnoticed by conventional investigation, but that doesn't necessarily invalidate the conventional investigation techniques. For example, if a psychic detective is investigating a series of murders, his special abilities may tell him that the killer is the brother-in-law of the mayor. That's a helpful piece of information but the case isn't solved yet because most settings don't allow psychic hunches or cosmic “vibes” as admissible evidence in a court of law. That poor psychic detective can't arrest the killer without real tangible evidence and a judge won't issue a warrant based solely on the detective's word or gut instincts.


Divination powers alone won't solve the case for you (unless you're a vigilante who acts as judge, jury, and executioner). On the other hand, they can save a lot of time by letting you avoid red herrings and dead end leads, because you can focus the investigation on the guilty party and spend your time gathering evidence that links them to the crime. Divination can tell you the answer to a mystery, but if you want anyone else to believe you, you'll still need to prove it. The key to running a good mystery game with divination powers is to ensure that the PCs don't live in a vacuum. PCs who have the ultimate authority to act on their information and answer to no one can just say "Oh, the mayor's son-in-law is the killer? I waste him with my crossbow. Case closed." In a campaign structured like that, you'll either need to disallow divination for PCs or be comfortable with the fact that mysteries aren't going to provide much challenge in themselves. On the other hand, PCs who live in a society with laws and public opinion that matters will still need to find real evidence. Just think of all the police dramas that feature detectives investigating someone that they know is guilty but they can't find the evidence they need to convict him. With that in mind, the first divination power is after the jump.

I'm still here

I just want to make a quick update to let everyone know that I'm still here. I had to make an emergency trip to the US (nothing serious, just an urgent business matter that couldn't wait) and then when I got back I went for an interview for a new full-time job that I've been doing for a few weeks now in addition to my regular part-time work. For the first week, I had a cold so I was either at work or unconscious. My laptop began to disintegrate so I had to get a new one and I've been busy installing new software and transferring my files. I think I've only managed to do a couple paragraphs in the Powers chapter for the Impressionist system since my last update. I'll try to get something posted soon.

I've been working on the divination powers, so I'll try to put up a post soon about those. As a GM, I was always leery of allowing useful divination powers to PCs because they can ruin mysteries and spoil surprises, but I've had a realization that things don't have to be that way. That will be the topic of my next post. I going to risk setting a date here and say that it will be posted in the next 30 to 72 hours.

Example Powers 11: Intangibility

Kitty Pryde walking through walls, vampires turning into mist, sci-fi tech that makes things "out of phase" with the rest of the universe, and other powers that allow similar "here but not solid" abilities are covered by this power. 

Example Powers 10: Dispel ("I cast magic missile!" "Nuh-uh!")

The Dispel power is used to cancel another power. Classic examples include opening a magically sealed door by turning to the nearest magician and asking "Can't you wizard it open?" Or, turning to your Chief Engineer when faced with an enemy ship with powerful shields and asking "Can you re-modulate the frequency of our gigionic torpedoes to penetrate their plasmonic shields?" (The answer is yes because anything with that many made up technical words is bound to work!)

Example Powers 9: Deflection ("Not in the Face! Not in the face!")

This power is called Deflection. It's a defensive power that makes it harder to attack a character. Like Armor, this power could be replicated with a more generic power to alter a character's traits (such as boosting Defense), but I'm setting it aside as a common application for ease of reference.

Example Powers 8: Armor

This example power is called Armor and, as you would expect, it makes it harder to hurt a character under its effect. This power is basically a specific form of another power that alters a character's attributes (in this case, Toughness), but I'm making it a separate power because I think it will be a common application in most settings so I'm separating it for ease of reference.

Example Powers 7: Puppet

Today's power is called Puppet and represents a wide variety of ways to control another character through super hypnosis, telepathic suggestion, magical enchantment, or just physical force. 

Example Powers 6: Push (a.k.a. "Get over here!")

This power is used to move a target from one Area to another. Some examples of this in action are Mortal Kombat's Scorpion using his whip to pull enemies to him, Jedi knights using the Force to telekinetically knock battle droids aside, or tractor beams in various sci-fi media.

Example Powers 5: Energy Drain

This is another example of a power and how it can be adapted to represent different things. This power is called Energy Drain and it inflict Strain damage. Strain is a more generalized form of damage that covers things like drowning, thirst, exposure, exhaustion, and other environmental penalties. If you're engaged in a sword fight in a sauna, your opponent's sword will deal normal damage to your Health, but the sauna will inflict Strain on you. I enjoy a nice sauna, but it's not a comfortable place for strenuous physical activity and I wouldn't want to live in one.

Example Powers 4

Here's another installment of specific implementations of a generic power. In this case, it's the classic "Fireball".

Blast: This power allows its user to deal 3D damage to every target in an area. Advantage can be spent to increase the damage by +1D or to exclude a target in the affected area (to avoid friendly fire or self-inflicted injury).

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth know two spells that use this power. The Western Rite necromancers use a Scene spell they call “The Dholian Maw”, which causes a black pool of oil to seep up from the ground and extend a swarm of gnashing black blade-like pseudopods that glisten like oily teeth. Anything on the ground (or within a few feet of it) will be repeatedly savaged by the blades that swirl and strike like a frenzied school of piranha. The Eastern Rite necromancers use a Focus spell called the “Convulsions of Rahng Nang”, which summons a cluster of greenish-brown spikes like giant porcupine quills that erupt from the earth then retract again. The quills randomly erupt from the ground every round the spell is maintained and are accompanied by the hellish tortured squealing of an apparently very large creature which is being wracked by spasms just below the surface of the ground. Perhaps it is fortunate that nobody has yet seen the body of “Rahng Nang” in its entirety.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is very popular and comes in many varieties. Most of them are Instant powers that take the form of an explosion of elemental energy or shrapnel. The most popular spells include “Ball of Fire”, “Meteor Storm”, “Avalanche” (which actually causes the ground in an area to overturn rather than fall from above as the name implies), “Rain of Ice Daggers”, “Acid Deluge”, and “Wrath of Lightning”.
• Aetheric Engineers and Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create a wide variety of bombs, rockets, and grenades. Hermetic Dynamicists tend to focus on variations of thermal detonators and plasma grenades while Cryobionicists use this power to create frost flak cannon, flash freeze grenades, and bombs that project icy shrapnel. The so-called “void cannons” of Planet X that annihilate matter in a spherical area around the point of impact are also based on this power (Instant, 4D damage).
• The most powerful Ma Quy sorcerers have been rumored to use this power to create “Storms of Hatred”, a wild wide-scale version of the “Fires of Hatred” power. “Storm of Hatred” is a Scene power that deals 5D damage (difficulty 5: Scene 3 +2 for extra damage) and continues to burn even if the caster is dead, unconscious, or leaves the area. It is not unheard of for casters to be destroyed in their own conflagrations.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood use this power when facing many enemies single-handed. They call it “One Light Against the Darkness” or “Rage of Solitary Justice”. Their version of this power cannot be used at range: it can only be used against the Area the Tyrian Knight is in. Upon casting the power, the knight swirls through the area like a mad dervish cutting down every foe with broad weapon sweeps and swift strikes with elbows, knees, head, and feet.

Example Powers 3

Here's an example of how our sample groups would use another power.

Strike: This power allows its user to deal 4D damage to a target in the user's Area. Advantage can be spent to boost the damage or to affect additional targets.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth know two spells that use this power. The Western Rite necromancers use an Instant spell they call “Tsathic Flames”, which summons a fan-shaped spray of green flames from the caster's hands. The Eastern Rite necromancers use a Focus spell called the “Chant of Vajra Leng”, which summons a purplish-red streak of lightning that arcs from the caster's forehead and jumps from one target to another in a chain of electrical agony.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. Most of them are Instant powers that take the form of a fan- or cone-shaped spray of damaging energy. Some of the more common spells include “Dragon's Breath”, “Cone of Frost”, and “Acid Spray”. The earth elementalists have two common variations: “Gravel Burst” is an Instant spell that creates a shotgun like blast of jagged gravel; “Scouring Sands” is a Focus spell that can eventually strip flesh from bone or whittle trees to kindling.
• Aetheric Engineers and Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create plasmathrowers, directed-blast energy mines (labeled “This side toward enemy”), or even an irradiator with a nozzle choke to spread the beam. The effects of these weapons are generally horrific and diplomats are trying to limit their use in warfare by treaties such as the Luna Convention. The Cryobionicists use this power to generate blasts of icy shrapnel or rapid-fire frost needlers that can quickly spray an area with slivers of frozen death. The most hideous weapons to use this power are the close assault weapons of the Invaders from Planet X: they appear to use short range tractor/repulsor beams that alternate hundreds of times a second to shake targets apart. The gruesome effects of these weapons are evident from nicknames like “jelly guns” or “liquifiers”.
• Templars usually use the Bolt power to telekinetically crush or pummel targets, but several Ma Quy have been known to use the Strike power to generate blasts of purplish flame called the “Fires of Hatred”. It is extremely rare for Dai Zha templars to use this power, but very few have been known to use the Astral Source to mimic the effects of “Fires of Hatred” without using negative emotions. The Astral version of this power is called “Luminescent Judgment” and manifests as white lightning.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood use this power when faced with demons or undead. They call it “Glorious Light” because it summons a brightly shining aura that burns such creatures of unnatural evil. It has no damaging effects on living creatures, but the “damage” roll of the power can be used for Advantage on a Command roll (to rally allies) or Duel of Wits roll (to cow enemies).

Example Powers 2

Here is another power with specific examples of how it can be used by different groups and power sources.

Bolt: This power allows its user to make a ranged attack for 3D damage with a basic success. Advantage can be spent to generate additional bolts or add +1D to a bolt's damage.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth call this spell “The Breath of Choth Ka”. It is a Focus power (difficuly 2) that causes the caster to exhale a long tendril of greenish black smoke that lashes out to strike like a serpent each round for as long as the caster maintains the spell. The caster must make a Cunning roll to hit with it. Its touch burns like acid but no scientific analysis of the wounds has ever revealed the presence of any chemical agents.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. Most of them are Instant powers that create some sort of projectile: Pyre Lance, Frost Missile, Acid Jet, Lightning Bolt, and so on, but there are exceptions. The Stone Talons spell causes spikes to erupt from the ground to skewer its target. Chant of Ignition is a Focus power that allows the caster to burn targets within line of sight with a Shooting roll each round the chant is maintained. The Frost Scorpion spell is a difficulty 4 (Scene duration 3 +1 for extra damage die) power that generates a large cloud of shimmering ice crystals vaguely shaped like a siege engine; it floats around the caster, who can use it to deal 4D damage to a target every round with a Shooting roll.
• Aetheric Engineers use this power to create a variety of death rays. The most common types are disintegrators that pervert tractor beam technology to rip targets apart on the molecular level, irradiators that bombard a target with highly energetic particle beams, or disruptors that use pulsing waves of energy to break down the atomic bonds in the target's molecules. Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create lasers and heat rays and Cryobionicists from Neptune have been known to use it to give their war creatures the ability to extrude and launch ice missiles.
• Ma Quy Templars use the Cthonic Source to focus their hatred and anger to telekinetically crush and choke their enemies. Dai Zha templars sometimes use this ability against inanimate objects or to indirectly strike a foe by telekinetically flinging an object as a projectile, but such things are usually frowned upon by their order. In either case, this "Telekinetic Bolt" is a Focus power that can be used with a Concentration roll every round that the power is maintained. 
• The Tyrian Brotherhood does not use this power.

Examples of Powers in Use

I've promised that my next post would include examples of how to use the generic powers to make specific powers, so here are some examples with one power. First, let me introduce our example power users.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth, a dangerous cult that worships pre-human deities in a 1920s pulp adventure world. They have cells hidden all over North America, Europe, and Asia and are doing their best to infiltrate all levels of society. Their ranks include socialites, politicians, captains of industry, longshoremen, fishermen, and lumberjacks (although rarely in the same cell together). Their cells go by different names and appear to worship different gods but they all ultimately serve the pantheon of Taj Neroth in various guises. For example, Nai Ctagn, may be worshiped as the Great Buck by lumberjacks in the north woods while urban middle-class businessmen worship it as the Black Stag in their local lodge hall and the idle rich worship it as Naitan, a hedonistic satyr-like figure, in wild debauches in swank hotel ballrooms.
• Elemental Magic, a loosely organized tradition of wizards in a medieval fantasy world. These wizards rarely convene in one place, but sages often communicate with each other to exchange advice and information. More adventurous wizards who travel the world in search of knowledge also seek out their more sedentary brethren to learn new spells and share the knowledge they have gathered in their travels. Some specialize in a particular element while others are generalists.
• Aetheric Engineering, an exciting field of scientific endeavor which is as much art as it is science in a "sword and planet" setting. Aetheric Engineering is used by all the great powers in the Solar System from Venus to Uranus to design and construct their advanced technology which is powered by nuclear reactors and aetheric power transmitters. The Mercurians and Neptunians both use some kind of psychic amplification technology which is not yet well understood (or functional) for the other peoples of the Solar System. Mercurian ascetics use technology based on the field of Hermetic Dynamics (which seems to allow them a greater degree of control over thermal and kinetic energy) and the mysterious Neptunian priesthood uses technology based on Cryobionics (which allows them to create pseudo-living machines of icy crystal). The piratical invaders from Planet X use a previously unknown type of power but reports are still too sketchy to speculate on what it might be.
• The Source, a mystical energy field that permeates the galaxy and can be harnessed for telepathic, clairvoyant, and telekinetic abilities in a space opera setting. The Dai Zha Templars use the positive Astral Source to defend justice and peace in among the worlds of the Galactic Confederation. The Ma Quy use the negative Cthonic Source to service their own ambitions of conquest and empire-building.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood, an order of holy knights whose signature purple tabards and standards have come to represent honor, courage, and goodness throughout all the known kingdoms. They travel the world righting wrongs and correcting injustices. They lead armies against the forces of evil and stand as a shining beacon in the darkness. They possess miraculous powers, but perhaps the greatest is the infectiousness of their incredible courage.

Powers can be used with one of 4 durations: Instant (has an effect one time, usually immediately), Focus (can be maintained from round to round but maintaining it counts as an action), Scene (effects last for the entire scene), and Permanent (effects continue indefinitely). The base difficulty to use these powers is 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively (although Permanent powers may incur an additional cost). Using powers at range also increases the difficulty by 1 per Area (just like Shooting attacks). 

Now, let's take a look at a power and how it is used by these different groups and power sources. 

Enhance Weapon: This power adds +1D to a weapon's damage (including unarmed attacks) or other qualities for each point of Advantage. For example, a blade enchanted to guide its wielder's hand could be given the Precise quality (+1D to attack rolls), one given preternatural sharpness can be given the Brutal quality (+1D to damage rolls), etc.

• The Arrows of Nai Ctagn: Among the Necromancers of Taj Neroth, this Instant spell is used to temporarily enchant ammunition with a powerful corrosive venom. It grants a single shot the Brutal (+1D damage) and Armor-Piercing (+1D damage against armored targets) qualities. The difficulty to cast it is 2 (Instant power plus an extra point of Advantage for a second quality).
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. They are all  Scene powers that add one quality to a weapon. The Burning Blade sheathes the weapon in a halo of fire that grants the Brutal property. The Diamond Edge spell supernaturally hardens a weapon's striking edges to give it the Armor-piercing quality. The Fluid Weapon spell gives a weapon the flexibility of a rivulet of water which gives long weapons the Short quality and short weapons the Reach quality. The Storm Blade spell grants the Precise quality by surrounding a metallic weapon with crackling arcs of lightning; these arcs jump to foes on a near miss and help to draw the weapon into the foe.
• Aetheric Engineers use this power to create many upgraded melee weapons such as vibroblades (Brutal, Armor-piercing), shocklances (Armor-piercing, Tricky), and force field generating batons (Parrying, Shielding). Hermetic Dynamicists also use this power to boost the speed of their melee and ranged weapons (Quick, Sweeping).
• Templars use the Source to enhance their fighting abilities with an energy blade by using the Blade Focus Meditation, a Focus power that they use to give their blades a variety of weapon qualities as they need them (most commonly Parrying, Quick, and Sweeping). When targeted by blasters, they use the Shielding weapon quality to deflect the shots with their blades.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood knows this power as Reaping the Unrighteous, a Focus power with difficulty 3 that grants their weapons Sweeping and Brutal to allow them to mow through evil hordes.

Power Summary

This is my most recent trimmed down version of the powers list. It could be trimmed down further because some of them are just specific uses of other powers, but I'm going to keep them separate for now. The categories are just for ease of reference and don't really have any effect.


Attack Powers
Enhance Weapon: This power adds damage and/or weapon qualities. A specific form of Instill Traits.
Bolt: This power makes a ranged attack for 3D damage with a basic success.
Strike: This power allows its user to deal 4D damage to a target in the user's Area. (This includes short range attacks that can hit multiple opponents in other systems, like spray or "cone" area effects.)
Blast: This power allows its user to deal 3D damage to every target in an area. (This is the usual area effect attack like the fireball spell, grenades, etc.)
Energy Drain: This power causes Strain in an area.
Push: This power moves a target from one area to another.
Puppet: Take control of someone with an opposed roll.

Defense Powers
Armor: This power increases a character's Toughness. (A specific form of Alter Attributes, but I think it will be commonly used so I'm leaving it as its own power for easier reference.)
Deflection: This power misdirects attacks. (A power that could be done with Enhance Skill but this specific form will probably be commonly called for in many settings.)
Dispel: This power negates another character's power.
Intangibility: This power allows its user to become ethereal and insubstantial.

Divination Powers
See the Past: This power allows the user to see the past of an object, person, or place.
Detect/Conceal Aura: This power reveals or hides the presence of powers. (Also useful for realizing when Obi-Wan Kenobi is on your battlestation...)
Analysis: This power identifies important information about people, places, or things.
Locate: This power is used to find something specific.
Mind Probe: This power is used to find, hide, or implant information
Clairvoyance: This power senses places and events beyond normal limits.
Major Divination: This power determines the circumstances of a future event.

Utility Powers
Communication: This power communicates with entities normally unable to. (Speak to animals, plants, etc.)
Environmental Protection: Immunity to the background hazards for a particular environment.
Healing: This power restores wounds and treats afflictions like poison and disease.
Environmental Control: This power alters ambient environmental penalties such as light/darkness etc. Specific examples would be creating light, darkness, gusts of wind, etc. (probably as separate powers in most settings).
Telepathy: communication at a distance

Skill Powers
Alter Attributes: This power allows its user to modify the target's attributes by rearranging, adding, or subtracting dice.
Instill Traits: Gives the target a Talent or Drawback.
Enhance Skill: This power grants a bonus to a skill or gives a skill to someone who doesn't have it.
Incite/Still Passion: Double up or forbid uses of Passions.
Skill Swap: Use one Attribute or Skill in place of another. (For example, telekinesis is using Will instead of Might to move things around.)

Movement Powers
Barrier: This power creates a barrier (i.e. a wall or gap) to impede movement between Areas.
Portal: This power penetrates barriers and crosses gaps (i.e. makes bridges and doorways).
Jump: Rapid movement across short distances, including short teleportation hops.
Entangle: This power hinders or stops movement.
Petrify: This power puts a character in stasis. (Medusa, Han Solo in carbonite, etc.)
Fly: This power ignores movement penalties.

Summon Powers
Creation: This power produces mundane items. (Although they might not look that mundane if you're creating them temporarily with something like a Green Lantern power ring, but they are still just equipment and gear to be used by characters and don't have their own attributes.)
Summoning: This power summons another character, creature, vehicle, etc. (These are things with their own attributes.)

Are there any important powers that I'm missing?

Power Taboos continued

Ok, it's later. So, I was watching the Clone Wars cartoons and thinking about the Sith/Jedi division. The Sith favor passion and believe that the best way to use the Force is through emotion, while the Jedi prefer to keep their cool and remain free from attachments. So the Sith use the Dark side to gain power more quickly, but then they always seem to pay a price for it. Some Star Wars games use Dark Side Points to represent the accumulation of corruption. If a character gains too many, they fall to the Dark side. I never really liked this because it feels too much like hit points in D&D, but instead of "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm dead", it's "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm evil". I want to see more of a slippery slope.

For the "Source" sample power set that I wrote up, I divided the Source into two sides: Astral and Cthonic. The Astral Source can only be accessed in a calm and peaceful state of mind, which prohibits using it with the character's Passions or any emotional Talents (like being a berserker or something). Calling upon the Cthonic Source can be done with Passions, but when you do so, you gain an emotional or psychological Drawback (such as "vengeful", "jealous", "paranoid", etc.). These Drawbacks don't apply when calling on the Cthonic Source, but they do hinder accessing the Astral Source. "Falling" is what happens when you accumulate so many penalties that you can no longer access the Astral Source. The Cthonic Source is a faster route to power because you can use it with large bonuses ("free" Drama Points from the character's Passions), but as you draw upon the Cthonic Source, you become more and more hateful and fearful until finally you lose access to the Astral Source. So, turning to the "Dark Side" is a faster route to power, but the power you achieve leaves you more limited in what you can do. If you just want to be an evil jerk, then it won't matter so much. But if you try to turn to the dark side with good intentions (like Anakin trying to save his wife's life), you'll end up being the kind of person who won't pursue those good intentions (like Anakin becoming so angry and paranoid that he killed his wife in a jealous rage). It's sort of a Catch-22: the Dark side can give you the power to do good things, but once you have achieved that power you will no longer be the kind of person who wants to use that power for good.

The Passions can also be used to tie other types of powers to the setting. For example, a classic fantasy paladin or cleric who gains power from a deity but must maintain a strict code of conduct. Their powers may be limited by their adherence to the code or you can take things a step further and require that they define their passions in terms of their deity. Paladins are usually presented as being much more focused and zealous than clerics, so that could be a distinguishing feature. Both are required to follow their deity's code of conduct, but the Paladin must go a step further and have all their Passions defined in terms of their deity. The cleric of a god of justice may have a Noble Passion of "Let Justice be done" and then Rage and Fear Passions unique to himself. But the Paladin would have a Rage Passion of "Injustice must be punished" or "My wrath undoes the wicked" and a Noble Passion of "Let Justice be done though the Heavens fall!" and a Fear Passion of "None". Passions are fairly useful and powerful resources, so giving one of them up is a notable sacrifice that really sets the paladin apart from the priests.

This idea of using Passions and mental Drawbacks can also be applied to powers that are described as leading to a degradation of the user's humanity. There are numerous examples of this in games and fiction. In some (non-Transhumanist) cyberpunk, characters who get a lot of cybernetic parts in their bodies worry about whether or not the cyberdocs will eventually take out the soul and replace it with a computer chip. In some horror stories (particularly those inspired by Lovecraft), acquiring knowledge of "things man was not meant to know" can lead to madness and loss of one's morality and humanity. In "sword & sorcery" fiction, magic is often depicted as one of those things that corrupts men and turns them into inhuman sorcerers.

In the early stages, this could be represented by adding phobias and quirks in the form of Drawbacks. When the character starts to feel crippled by too many Drawbacks, they could "compile" their Drawbacks into a new Passion. For example, a Lovecraftian sorcerer who has accumulated several psychological quirks such as phobias of right angles, furry things, or the dark, could get rid of those phobias by compiling them all into a new Fear Passion like "Aspects of the Hounds of Tindalos". For very severe cases, such as S&S fiction where sorcerers develop inhuman mentalities, they could actually lose their Passions completely as they gain in their magical knowledge. The order in which they lose them could be a character defining trait as well. A sorcerer with more curiosity than sense will probably lose Fear first, while one with ambition and lust for power at any cost will probably lose Noble first, for example. Once they've lost all their Passions, they are cold and inhuman like the reptilian sorcerers of the ancient Snakemen civilization that always seems to be hiding somewhere in the jungles of these S&S worlds.

Power Taboos

Just a quick update before I run out the door. The Powers chapter is coming along nicely. I did another round of revisions on the sample power sources to trim them into a shape more suitable for the game table. This morning I also spent some time writing up an example power source that I'm calling "The Source". It's a mystical energy field that has two sides that are--shall we say--"light" and "dark". This has helped me to consider some classic restrictions on the use of powers in RPGs. For example, taboos such as "the Force can't be used in anger or out of hate without falling into the grip of the Dark Side" or "a paladin who commits and evil act will fall from grace". While writing up the "Source", I thought an interesting and simple way to incorporate that into the Impressionist system. I'll add more about that later, but for now I'm running late for an appointment so I have to go.

Using Powers

While I wait for my lunch to cool down enough to eat it, I thought I'd post some quick thoughts about ways to limit the use of Powers. In some settings, you don't want powers to be used all the time. In a fantasy campaign where one PC is a wizard and the others are warriors and thieves and other mundane archetypes, you don't want the wizard to be dominating every scene with powerful spells. On the other hand, if it's a high fantasy setting where everyone knows some magic, then you don't want it too be too difficult to use minor spells. Thinking about Star Wars, I think it would be stupid to say that Jedi or Sith can only use telekinesis X times per day or something like that.

One option of limiting power use is a system of "Mana" or "Power Points" but I don't want to do that. I don't want to keep track of how many points have been used or how many are left. Above all, I don't want to keep track of how quickly they recharge. The option I chose to use by default is to make more potent powers more difficult to use. Instead of saying a power costs 3 Mana to use, it will be cast with a difficulty of 3. This isn't a very onerous limit. A wizard could use a spell every round to blast his enemies with a lightning bolt or something, but the mundane characters could match his output with a (much less flashy and mystical) bow or gun. In fact, the mundane characters might have the advantage because their difficulties may be lower.

In campaigns where magic needs to be rarer and more limited, there are other options. One is the Vancian Magic option: spells must be prepared in advance. If using powers is slow and must be done in advance, the effects aren't limited but the uses of them are. There is also diminishing returns: if the powers become increasingly difficult the more you prepare, there will be an upper limit to the number that can be ready for use at one time. Another option is resource expenditure. A warrior who can put everything into one Fighting skill will be able to do his thing for less cost than a wizard who needs to use Knowledge: Magic, Shooting, and Concentration skills to fully use all of his powers. In settings where powers are common, they can be used with less resources (like one skill) and in settings where they are less common, they may require more skills to fully use so it takes more character resources to get good at them.

Power Sources

I've been working on the powers chapter this week. It's probably the hardest one in the whole book for me. I want to keep things simple, because I don't like to use complicated rules in play. Unfortunately, my natural inclinations are to make things complicated and detailed when designing. I think my typical pattern with this chapter has been to spend a few hours writing one section, then look at it a few days later and think "Why did I write all this? I don't want to deal with all these details!" Then I spend more time trying to trim the excess away. I wish I could write the simple version the first time, but they say "90% of writing is re-writing".

The powers are all those special abilities that go above and beyond the mundane effects of skills and standard equipment. They may be called magic, divine blessings, mutations, secret martial arts techniques, psychic powers, mad science, prototype gadgetry, hypertrained skills, or any of dozens of other things. I'm providing a list of generic powers as a toolkit to make the specific powers needed for a particular setting. I'm also including a few examples of specific power sources, including Vancian "fire and forget" magic, Mentalism/Psionics, Infernalism (trafficking with demons), Shamanism (asking spirits for favors), alchemy/strange science (creating items that have powers), Miracles (to get powers granted by a god in exchange for obeying taboos, following a code of conduct, and promoting an ideology), Superpowers (for mutants in spandex), and supernatural martial arts (for punching through ninjas).

I need to make a quick reference page for the list of powers, so I'm going to do that here to give you an idea of how things are broken down.

Enhance Weapon: Add damage or other weapon qualities to an attack

Bolt: Make a ranged attack (lightning bolts, etc.)

Strike: Make an attack against one or more targets in the same Area (a fan of flames, cone of cold, etc.)

Blast: An area attack that hits everything in one Area, like the classic fireball spell

Energy Drain: Creates an area effect that deals Strain damage (clouds of choking smoke, sleep spell, etc.)

Push: Forcibly moves a target from one area to another.

Armor: Add a bonus to Toughness.

Deflection: Makes the target of the power more difficult to hit (a magical shield, or knowing how to parry gunfire with your laser sword, etc.).

Dispel: This power negates another power.

Intangibility: This power allows its user to become ethereal and insubstantial.

See the Past: This power allows the user to see the past of an object, person, or place.

Detect/Conceal Aura: Reveals the presence of powers (a wizard casting a detect magic spell, mad scientist with a high-tech unobtainium scanner locating the energy signatures of other high-tech devices running on unobtainium power sources).

Analysis: Identify important information about people or things.

Locate: Find something specific.

Mind Probe: Find information from a character's mind or implant new information.

Clairvoyance: Sense places and events beyond normal limits.

Major Divination: Determine the circumstances of a future event.

Communication: Talk with entities normally unable to communicate (animals, plants, rocks, etc.).

Environmental Protection: Immunity to the background hazards for a particular environment (breathe and endure pressure and cold underwater, etc.).

Healing: Restores wounds and treats afflictions like poison and disease.

Light: Creates a light source to allow the user to see.

Obscure: Makes everything in an area harder to see.

Telepathy: Communication at a distance.

Alter Attributes: Rearrange the target's attributes (shapeshifting, etc.)

Enhance/Diminish Attributes: Add or subtract attribute dice or points of static attributes.

Instill Traits: Gives the target a Talent or Drawback (dozens or hundreds of powers can be made from this one).

Enhance Skill: Another power that can be used to represent dozens of other powers. It grants a bonus to a skill, even if the target of the power does not have the skill. Can be used for Invisibility (super Stealth), Fear (super Intimidate), Disguise (super Bluff), etc.

Incite/Still Passion: Forces or prevents a character from using their passions. 

Skill Swap: Use one Attribute or Skill in place of another. Telekinesis by using Will for Might, casting a lock opening spell by using Knowledge: Magic to pick the lock, etc.

Puppet: Take control of someone temporarily with an opposed roll.

Barrier: Make walls or chasms to limit movement.

Bridge/Door: Cross a gap or make an opening in a wall.

Jump: Rapid movement across short distances (teleporting, jumping really far in one bound, etc.)

Entangle: Hinders a character's movement.

Petrify: Puts a character in stasis, essentially frozen in time.

Fly: Adds more dimensions to movement.

Creation: Produces items (including food and water)

Summoning: Summons another character, creature, vehicle, etc.

So far, every effect that I can think of (that I would actually want to use in a game) can be covered by one of these. Some of them are even a little redundant. For example, Armor could just be a specific use of Alter Attributes. These powers are very broad, but in actual play I expect them to be used in a more limited way. A wizard will probably have many different spells that are all based on the same power instead of one spell that does everything the power does.

Powers coming together.

Just a quick update before heading to bed. I spent some time slogging through the powers chapter today. I think almost all of the powers are in a first draft stage now. Just a few more powers that need details added. Most of the time I spent today was on the beginning of the chapter about different power sources like magic, psionics (and its little brother, mentalism), supernatural martial arts, alchemy, etc. I wrote up Vancian Magic and Mentalism/Psionics today. I also started thinking about super science, mad science, and alchemy: the kind of power sources that put powers into a device or potion to use them and had an interesting idea.

If a mad scientist knows how to make a death ray, he could make an energy pistol with cool rings and tail fins. What if he built the same thing but much bigger and mounted it on his rocket ship? It would be simple to say that it just works on the larger scale. He won't be able to use it to hunt Venusian tigerphants on safari, but if he runs across any Venusian warships on his way then he could shoot at them (just as he could use his pistol against the Venusian marines that try to board his rocket). It occurred to me that the same "scaling up" could be applied to the other power sources too. A wizard who can teleport himself short distances with a few seconds of mumbling and handwaving  could cast a scaled up version of that spell to teleport vast distances by using a much longer ritual. Why do powerful wizards live in big towers? Because a wand or a dagger or a staff is a sufficient focus for a small scale spell, but if you want to be a spellcaster on the international stage then you'll need a much bigger phallic object as a focus. A diviner with a dowsing rod can find a lost item in his village, but if he has a big wizard tower then he can find it anywhere in the whole country or even in neighboring countries. If you lead a group of soldiers to attack a wizard out in the world, he'll blast one of your spearmen with a lightning bolt or hit a handful of them with a fireball. If you lead your army against his tower, he'll blast a whole unit of spearmen with lightning and then devastate your left flank with a blazing inferno. Of course, while he's operating on that larger scale, he suffers the Death Star vulnerability: a small single-man fighter could get through the defenses and strike a vulnerable spot.You can't swat insects with a cannon, so it's a trade-off.

Talents and Drawbacks

I've been feeling rather unmotivated recently. I meant to post the Talents and Drawbacks section about a week ago, but I've been putting it off. I've also been very slowly working through the Powers chapter. I've had that file open but minimized for the past few days but I only occasionally look at it and work on it. I usually do some work on it late at night before going to sleep. I start to make some progress then decide to go to bed and continue the next day, but then I wait until late at night again. The Powers chapter is still a monstrous hodgepodge of abilities that I'm struggling to trim into shape. When I'm actually working on it, it doesn't seem so bad. When I'm not working on it, I have the idea in mind that it's going to be really hard so I procrastinate working on it. The Talents and Drawbacks chapter used to be a similar monstrosity but I've finally cut it down to size. 

Talents are like Edges in Savage Worlds, Feats in D20, or similar advantages in other systems. In my original draft of that section, every Talent was a special case with its own rules. As I had more and more ideas, it started to bloat out of control. It was turning into what I hated about those other systems. I needed to trim it back and get it under control. When I showed it to Mike Addison over at Zombie Dojo, he suggested that I give Talents a limited set of effects and then just vary the circumstances where they apply. In their new stripped down form, Talents essentially function like Fate's Aspects in the way they all provide the same bonus when they apply. However, unlike Aspects, there's no cost to invoke them: they apply whenever they are appropriate. I like the way this works because it means that the different Talents can still have their different descriptions of what they are and how they work, but the specific mechanical effects are easy to remember. You only have to read the Talent once and the name of it should be enough to remind you of when you can use it. I'm also hoping that Talents will provide another layer of description to  help define a character and differentiate one character from another. Rules and examples after the jump.

Social Conflict

These are the social conflict rules that were alluded to in the posts about using social skills in combat scenes. Those rules were an older version which referred to some stats that I've decided not to use. This version is a little better, I think.

Creative Combat Options

Han Solo screaming and chasing a bunch of stormtroopers down a hallway. Hobbits ducking through a troll's legs. Swashbucklers swinging on chandeliers. A fierce orc warrior bellowing a war cry to draw the attention of his gods and make his enemies freeze in terror for fatal fraction of a second. The comic relief con artist trying to fast talk his way out of a beating, then distracting the thugs so he can hit them over the head with a nearby blunt object before running away. There are so many interesting things that can happen in combat and I really want to encourage combat scenes to be more than just "I hit him". With that in mind, I made options to use other skills and abilities to boost combat skills (primarily using the concept of Advantage from the Detailed challenge in the core resolution mechanics).

Armor, Weapons, and Scale

One of the design goals that I had in mind for Van Gogh was that weapons would essentially do the same damage but they would be used in different ways. A warrior armed with a big two-handed sword should still have a reason to draw his dagger once in a while because sometimes the smaller weapon is the better choice.

Combat Sytem Basics

Combat

Combat is a great source of dramatic conflict and exciting action. Every Attribute and almost any skill can mean the difference between victory and defeat, but certain skills play a larger role than others.

Incoming!

It's rather late now so I can't write a long post, but I spent some time working on Van Gogh today. I finished the dueling rules I was working on and then started cleaning up the combat section. I think it's mostly finished. I'm still wrestling with the grappling rules (yeah, I know, I hate puns too), but I'll start posting some of the combat rules tomorrow or the next day. Just wanted to post a head's up for now. I'll probably split the combat stuff up into several posts.

I think my favorite part to write was the section on weapons. Weapons are essentially all the same: they let you fight armed and apply greater force than your bear hands. Ever since I first played AD&D 2nd Edition (more years ago than I like to think about) I never really liked the way you could stick 6 inches of dagger blade into someone and it's only 1d4 damage but sticking 6 inches of sword blade into someone was 1d8 damage. In Van Gogh a weapon is a weapon. Your choice of weapon will be based on it's qualities. Some hit a little harder, some are easier to use, some have more reach, some can be used in tight spaces, some make you look cool, some are just scary looking, some are more defensive, etc. Every weapon is different. You should choose a weapon based on what you want to do with it and not based solely on which one does the most damage. The part I really liked was that the exact same weapon might have different qualities in different settings based on the themes of that setting. Even in superficially similar settings.

For example, shooting zombies in the head. In Raccoon City, a pump action shotgun is just your basic, standard issue, zombie-popping boomstick. In Silent Hill, that reassuring K'CHAK gives you something to anchor your courage and help convince yourself that you're not a total coward.

Table of Contents (Tentative)

I haven't forgotten Van Gogh, but I've been rather busy with other things this past week. I've been working on a section about duels. I've covered a pretty good variety so far and I think the system can handle any of the types of duels I enjoy seeing. Dogfighting for battles with everything from biplanes to dragon knights to starfighters. "The Chess Match" for duels that go back and forth until one sudden finishing move ends everything like a "checkmate": good for those duels that end with one fighter suddenly disarmed and at the mercy of the other. "Raising the Bar" is a type of duel where competitors challenge each other to progressively more difficult tasks: like playing a game of "chicken" (with the Driving skill) or engaging in a round of "snaps" or "yo' mama" (with Taunt) or trading displays of fighting prowess by making impressive weapon flourishes or breaking bricks (with Fighting), etc. "Quick Draw" duels are for duels like old west gunslingers or (old east) samurai who stare each other down then, after a sudden blur of motion, one falls. I still haven't finished this section but I'm enjoying it. These tense scenes are some of my favorites in cinema and literature, so I like seeing how they fit into the Van Gogh resolution system. As much as I like fiddling with the dueling section, I really need to get to work on other sections to finish up the system. This is a list of the sections in progress, a sort of tentative table of contents:

• Core Rules: how dice rolls work and how they're used for skill challenges (95%)
• Attributes and Skills (95%, just needs some editing)
• Talents and Drawbacks (90%, rules are done but the examples need to be cleaned up)
• Gear (around 70% done, I'm not including a big list of equipment, but I'm going to explain how to choose gear and resources for characters. I've never cared much about encumbrance rules or counting pennies in the games I've played or run, so I'm not interested in writing such things. I care that Han Solo has the Millennium Falcon, but I don't need to know how many changes of clothes he has or how many ammo packs he has for his blaster.)
• Campaigning: rules for character advancement and running different kinds of sessions (80%)
• Minor Characters: Mooks, background extras, followers, cannon fodder, etc. All those characters that give the world depth and fullness while possessing little of their own.
• Powers: Unusual abilities like magic, psychic powers, hyper-science, supernatural kung fu, etc. This section has been a tangled mess since the beginning. I think I have all the powers covered that I want to cover, but I still need to consolidate things and trim the fat. I don't want a long list of specific powers. I want a short list of versatile powers that can be adapted to specific uses for different settings inspired by the "generic powers with specific trappings" from Savage Worlds (I think I saw this first in the Hero system, but Savage Worlds was the one that made me realize it could be done without a crazy level of math). I'd say this is about 40-50% done.
• Social Conflict: How to get the best use out of the social skills. (95%)
• Combat Rules: How to handle combat, including how to use the social skills, maneuvers, and other creative tricks for advantage to win instead of just saying "we need a bigger stick!" (About 85%, mostly done but in need of some cleaning up and better examples) 
• Mass Combat: How to use the skill challenges system to set up and run large scale battles. (About 75% done, needs some good examples.)
• Chases and Races: How to use the rules to handle chases and make them more interesting than just comparing movement scores. (I think it's about 95% done, but I'd like to provide some cool examples)
• Dogfighting and Dueling (About 85% finished. I'm still in the middle of writing up the Quickdraw duel)
• Environmental Rules: For storms, harsh deserts, and other situations where the setting itself is an enemy. Not started yet.
• Planning and heists: For running complex bank robberies and other infiltration schemes and cons without spending a lot of game time dealing with all the dull planning parts. Still in the brainstorming stages.
• Vehicles: Rules for handling vehicles. I have only got a paragraph or two on this but I'm expecting it to go quickly. I don't want to introduce a lot of special rules, so the vehicles will use the same rules as everything else. This section will be about how to recycle the rules for use with vehicles, rather than adding a lot of new rules.
• Organizations: Rules for handling the actions and interactions of organizations from street gangs to nations. Like the vehicle section, it's just barely started but it's going to be about how to use the existing rules for organizations instead of adding new rules.
• Optional Rules: An appendix of extra rules for things that some players might like to use, but which I don't want to include in the basic rules. For example, methods of random character generation (which will add randomness without turning character creation into a mini-game with "winners" and "losers") and a "wild die" like in the D6 System (with an explicit explanation that it's not a critical failure system). So far this is just a file of random notes and some pieces of scrap paper with notes sketched out.

Right now, I suppose I should finish up those sections that are almost done and then get to work on cleaning up the powers section, so I can move into the editing and layout stuff. I've got to rustle up some illustrations too. I'll start working on getting the illos together and start laying out sections as they get finished. If the powers section takes a while to sort out, maybe I'll save it for last and release a "light" version of Van Gogh without the powers section while I work on finishing it.

Wooden Pencil Sketches

This blog is called Wooden Pencil Sketches because I started it to chronicle the development of Van Gogh, a system designed to be "sketchy". It's supposed to have enough detail to give you a solid impression of the action without bogging everything down with minute details. At first I was just thinking of using this as a place to make quick development notes, like sketches of new ideas. I chose "Wooden Pencils" because I've been using a wooden pencil to make notes on scrap paper when I get an idea. I used to use a pen for everything, but I've been using some nice pencils that we had lying around the house. It reminds me of an old Ghanaian friend who used to write everything in pencil and he would say, in his booming African voice, "I love writing with a pencil! It feels so good!"

The blog's been up for a couple of weeks now and I've got only one official follower, but my "Stats" page tells me that I'm getting a lot of visitors from around the world: mostly the US and UK, but also Canada and Europe. It's a rather interesting feature that tells me a lot about the traffic to the blog, but it doesn't tell me the most important thing: What do you think of what you're reading? If you don't feel like leaving a comment, please just click the "thumbs up/down" buttons to give me a general idea of what you think. If you have more specific comments, that's great too.

Running and Gunning

I don't have much to post today. I've been a bit busy the past few days, but I have made some interesting progress on Van Gogh. I put together a "chases and races" subsystem for chase scenes. It isn't really a new system, so much as a detailed example of how to use the core resolution system for interesting chases. One of the biggest complaints that I've heard about combat systems is how they tend to devolve into "I swing, I hit, I dodge, I swing again." I haven't heard any complaints about chase rules. I suspect that that's because chase scenes aren't as common as combat in games. The chases I've seen tend to be very similar to the boring combat: "I move, he moves, I move again". I'm hoping the chase system will encourage more interesting tactics in chases than just "I try to go faster".

While I was doing the chase rules, it occurred to me that dog-fighting is also a cool kind of scene that never seemed to come up in my games as often as I'd have liked. I remember playing D6 Star Wars and feeling like we were missing out on a lot by not having a lot of cool starfighter engagements. So I started putting together a "dog-fighting" interpretation of the core resolution system. I started that because of fond memories of starfighters but while I was working on it, I mostly thought about SPADs versus Fokkers, aviation adventure from the time when radio was king (like "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"), and knights mounted on dragons.

While I was working on these rules for aerial duels, I realized that I should also include some commentary on other more formalized duels. I love samurai movies and westerns with their quick draw duels. Many types of duels could be played out as ordinary one-on-one combats, but those are kind of special. I also thought of some other unique duels that I'd love to play in a game, such as the duel between Nameless and Long Sky in "Hero" where they play out most of the battle in their heads while planning their strategy before actually moving. Or the battle between Nameless and Broken Sword, where Nameless studied Broken Sword's calligraphy in order to gain insight into his sword techniques. Since I have some chanbara and wuxia setting ideas in mind for Van Gogh in the future, I want to be sure that these things can be done by the rules now.

On Writing...

Thus far, all of my personal RPG projects have been done in paper notebooks or on scrap paper. All of my professional work for Privateer Press for the Iron Kingdoms setting was done in Microsoft Word. I did a bit of bit of consulting on the side for a few game companies. I was too busy at the time to produce any products for them but I brainstormed ideas with them over email. The last thing I put out was a free PDF called "From The Imperial Library", a magic supplement for "Warrior, Rogue & Mage". I wrote that after my hard drive got fried and I didn't bother to re-install Microsoft Office. I used the very nice (and completely free) Open Office suite.

For Van Gogh, I have been adding everything to one file which has been getting longer and longer as I add more information and examples. Today I finally split that big document into many smaller files. I gave each section its own document file. Then I opened them all in one Master Document. Master documents are an interesting feature in Open Office that allows you to view many documents together as one continuous file. It gives a little popup window with the names of all the component files and makes it very easy to shuffle them around or insert new files into the order. From now on, I will use the master document feature for all my projects that are over a few pages long because it makes it very easy to arrange sections of material. I also like to jump around the document a lot as I think of a new idea for one section while working on another and this feature saves me a lot of scrolling. The master document navigator window has just extended the life of my PgUp and PgDn keys.

While I'm talking about writing, I'd like to share a helpful bit of advice that I picked up a long time ago and which has helped my productivity since. When working on a creative project that may be susceptible to writer's block, don't stop working at a good "stopping point". Always leave in the middle of something. If you're writing a story and you want to call it a day, don't say "I'll just finish this scene and go to bed". Leave it unfinished. When you come back to it, you can pick up where you left off and jump straight back into writing. The beginning is always one of the hardest parts to write. If you finish a chapter or a major scene, then you'll be starting fresh at a new beginning when you come back. It's much easier to start a day's work in the middle of a scene (or a section of game rules explanatory text/examples). When you can see the first half and remember where you were going with it, it's much easier to finish it than to start something new. When you do finish it and need to start the next chapter or scene or whatever, you'll already be on a roll and your creative juices will be flowing. You won't be starting cold. It really helps to maintain momentum if you can jump right in without delay every time you return to the manuscript.

Drama Points

Ever since I first encountered "Force Points" and "Character Points" in the old D6 Star Wars game, I have loved the idea of a metagame resource that can be spent to temper the vagaries of chance. I like dice and randomness in RPGs, but sometimes you really don't want your larger-than-life, dragon-slaying hero to go out like a punk just because some random goblin got a really lucky jab with a spear. A lot of games have Fate Points, Drama Dice, Action Points, Bennies, Luck, etc. Van Gogh is going to use this mechanic in the form of Drama Points. Also, I'm including "Event Bounties" as an optional way to earn Drama Points in play. Event bounties are another of Levi Kornelsen's excellent ideas from Amagi Games and can be adapted to many other games. The rules for Drama Points in Van Gogh are after the jump.

Exploits and Advancement

I'm really on a roll today. I cleaned up the section on experience and character advancement. The rules for exploits are one of my favorite ideas that I'm incorporating in Van Gogh. I wish I had thought of this many years ago when I was running D6 Star Wars and players complained about spending their character points in game to do cool things instead of saving them to raise their skills (so they can do cool things later). I liked the way character points (the experience points in D6) could be used to add a temporary boost in play, but I didn't like the way that characters who played it safe and didn't do exciting (dangerous) things would advance faster because they didn't "waste" their CP in play.


I also was never really satisfied with the way some games allow a character to earn experience points and then advance in skills completely unrelated to how they earned their experience. My favorite example of this was in a D&D3 game. My friend Mitch was playing a strictly pacifist wizard. He spent every combat hiding and casting defensive spells to protect himself and the party. He never did anything violent or aggressive. After he had gained a level and was adjusting his stats on his character sheet, the DM said "Don't forget to raise your attack bonus this level" and Mitch replied "Do I have to?" Systems that aren't class-based usually allow for more player choice in character advancement than that, but they still allow for advancement in completely unrelated areas.


Some systems attempt to get around this problem by having a "checkpoint" system in which skills that are successfully used get a check mark. Later, during advancement, the checked skills have a chance of being raised. The problem with this system is that it encourages players to try to use all their skills all the time even when it's inappropriate. I think the Exploits system that I'm using in Van Gogh avoids these issues. 


Exploits can provide a temporary bonus every session until you spend them for a permanent bonus. Exploits can only be used for skills that are related to them, but they aren't specific to one skill. Unlike the checkpoint system, an exploit isn't "successful use of Fighting skill" for example. It would be something like "decapitated an orc chieftain and scattered his warband", which could be used to boost the Fighting or Intimidation skills, or the Might or Finesse attributes, or to buy any Talents related to those things.


Also included in the Exploits and Advancement section is a rule for using the Exploits of dead friends. I got this idea from Levi Kornelsen's "Legacy Pool" option in his "Death Gift" plugin at Amagi Games. I thought it was a great idea in general and a great fit for Exploits in particular. More Van Gogh rules info after the jump.

The Core Resolution Mechanic

I finally got around to writing the core rules mechanic in detail. I had the basics scribbled down in my notes but I didn't write out the full details until last night. I originally started with the resolution system that I call "Detailed Challenges" below, but I later added Simple and Extended challenges. I particularly like the Simple Skill Challenge rule as a pacing mechanic. I was watching the rather lackluster "Solomon Kane" movie a couple months ago when I got the idea. 

In one scene, he's fighting a bunch of goons and trying to save a girl who is being kidnapped. It occurred to me that there is no doubt that he'll win the fight against those guys, but the dramatic tension was based on doubt about whether or not he could fight through them fast enough to save the girl before they rode away with her. I recalled the games I've played in before and thought, "If I were playing Solomon in a game, the GM would probably make me spend an hour rolling to fight and kill all those goons. Why do the exciting, fast-paced parts have to go into slow motion in tabletop RPGs?" Then I realized: they don't. The core rules of Van Gogh (including the Simple Challenge rule for fast forwarding the action) are after the jump.

Skills

These are the skills I decided to use for Van Gogh. This is kind of a lot of material, so I'm going to put a jump break here. 

Van Gogh Attributes

I was planning to write about dice pools today and why I chose them for the resolution mechanic, but it's been a long day. Tomorrow (actually now, it's late here) is the final day of the year on the lunar calendar so we had to get up early and clean the house thoroughly. Then we went out to buy flowers and decorative gold coins to hang in the house for luck. I'll talk about dice pools another time when I'm not so tired and can express myself more clearly. For now, I'll just transcribe some notes I made about Attributes.

Attributes

There are four attributes which determine a character's raw abilities: Might, Finesse, Cunning, and Will. Starting characters distribute 9 dice among the four attributes with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. The attributes cover a broad range of abilities that are often linked. For example, strength and endurance often go hand in hand so they are governed by one stat: Might. For unbalanced characters that can bench press a Buick but who have a glass jaw or wiry marathon runners who can’t lift a wet towel, a combination of Talents and Drawbacks can give them a boost in one area and a penalty in another.

• Might: This is the physical power and resilience of the character. It covers strength and endurance. It governs a characters ability to resist damage and disease as well as their ability to deal out damage in hand to hand combat and lift a lot of luggage. Athletics is the only Might based skill, but it's a useful skill. It covers running, jumping, throwing, swimming, and all kinds of other exciting actions. Might can be used in combat by itself for strength-based maneuvers like pushing a stack of crates onto someone or rolling a barrel into a crowd of thugs like bowling pins. Might is also useful because it is the basis of Toughness (the difficulty to damage the character) and melee damage.
• Finesse: This is the character’s balance, spatial awareness, coordination, and agility. Finesse skills include Driving, Fighting, Piloting, Shooting, and Stealth. It's understandably a popular attribute with PCs in action-oriented games. Finesse can also be used in combat for swashbuckler/monkey maneuvers like climbing up a bookshelf, swinging from a chandelier, or diving under a table to unexpectedly kick a foe in the shins like in a Jackie Chan movie.
• Cunning: This is the character’s mental abilities and includes logical reasoning, perception, common sense, intuition, and various types of “smarts” (street, book, people, etc.). Cunning has the most associated skills because it is the attribute that covers retention of knowledge and social perception and manipulation. I chose the name “Cunning” because I think it applies equally well to clever animals, Machiavellian politicians, or an innovative engineer. I don't like it when games use "Intelligence" or "IQ" for this stat and then have to explain how a non-sentient beast can still be really clever even if it's IQ is really low because can't read or speak or do arithmetic. Cunning skills include Bluff, Healing, Helm, Investigation, Knowledge, Notice, Repair, Social Circles, Survival, Taunt, and Wrangling. Cunning can also be used in combat for clever maneuvers like blasting the door control mechanism to make the door slam shut on the foe lunging toward you, smashing an oil lamp on the floor to create a slick spot (or a fire if the lamp was lit, or cutting the rope that holds a chandelier while an enemy is standing beneath it.
• Will: This is the character’s spirit, willpower, determination, and sense of self. Character’s who are exceptionally stubborn or devoted to a cause have a high Will. If you have a high Might, you can walk across a room full of broken glass like John McClane in "Die Hard", but if you don't have a Will, you won't want to. Will skills include Concentration, Intimidation, and Persuasion. Will is also used to resist compulsions like another character trying to intimidate, seduce, bribe, or otherwise tempt you. Opposing psychics staring each other down and engaging in a quick mental tug of war. Combat maneuvers relying on Will aren't as common as the other attributes because most active uses of Will are covered by the Intimidation or Persuasion skills, but some examples include: A warrior charging an enemy through a dangerous path for a surprise advantage (e.g. leaping over a fire instead of going around) or a berzerker pulling himself further onto the shaft of a foe's spear in order to get close enough to strike back. 

There are no "dump stats". Every attribute has useful skills and can contribute to a character's performance in combat. Outside of combat, Cunning and Will are even more useful due to their associated knowledge and social skills and Finesse is still useful for chases (with Driving/Piloting) or spying (with Stealth).  Might remains useful outside of combat thanks to the diversity of the Athletics skill and you never know when you might need to move a sofa. Tomorrow, I'll try to put up some notes about what all those skills are used for.