Sorting Powers

Since I posted the sample character sheet for Goran, I've been trying to sort out the chapter on Powers so that I can do a sample character that uses them. I've been struggling to organize all my ideas. I've got a lot of ideas for how different things can interact but I wasn't sure where to start. After all, there has to be a starting point before all the tweaks and adjustments. I think I've finally settled on a solution.

The base cost of a power will be based on it's duration: Instant (one quick effect that won't last into the next round), Focus (lasts as long as the caster maintains it as an action each round), and Scene (lasts for the rest of the scene). This base cost will be the basis for the target number of the casting roll and the cost to learn the power. The cost to learn the power will also be modified by a multiplier based on versatility and power compared to mundane options. In a wuxia game for example, if everyone has access to super-powered kung fu, then it doesn't matter how much the powers cost because everyone has them. On the other hand, in a fantasy setting with a mundane/magic divide, that cost is more important. If the powers are too cheap, you get D&D where casters can do anything and other characters are just along for the ride.

There are three rough categories of powers: Limited, Flexible, and Unlimited. For the sake of simplicity, this will be set according to each power source (i.e. arcane magic, super kung fu, etc.) instead and not per power. Powers can be limited in various ways. A flexible wizard who wants to blast things with fire and lightning can learn one expensive spell that can be cast as either fire or lightning; a limited wizard would have to learn two separate spells (the same Power twice with different special effects each time). There are several ways to limit powers, but I can't really make a GURPS style point break down for them. I can't say things like "requiring material components is a 5 point disadvantage" or "spells that drain the Body facet instead of the Magic facet are worth a 50% discount on cost" because the actual value of limitations like that will vary from setting to setting or campaign to campaign. I'm just going to provide the 3 categories and a list of ideas for limitations and some thoughts on their potential value in different situations. It will be up to GM in each group to decide how many limitations are needed to count as "Limited" and which limitations are actually limiting. I had already planned to include several examples of power sources to show how the generic powers could be used to represent different things. I think I'll tweak those examples to also show how powers can be limited for a given setting's tone.

When balancing powers, you need to consider not just how powerful they are, but also how powerful other options are. In a world with no ranged weapons, being able to telekinetically punch a dude is pretty useful. If everyone is carrying an AK-47, then it's not so powerful. In a primitive stone age tribe, being the shaman who can magically summon handfuls of salt makes you a handy guy to have around when it's time to make mammoth jerky, but it's hardly an overpowering ability. When your primitive stone age world is being invaded by the hyper-slug empire from space, being the guy who can magically summon handfuls of salt makes you a god on the battlefield and the savior of your planet. I can't foresee everyone's campaign for them, and I'm not going to try. I'm just going to try to make a checklist of things for GMs to consider when designing their own settings so that powers are as limited as they want them to be.

Because honestly, sometimes you want things to be overpowered. If you're running a Star Wars game set during the original trilogy, the Force is fairly understated: a little telekinesis, some telepathy, and a lot of intuition. You don't need a lot of powerful abilities and a blaster at your side is just as good. If you're playing in a setting like the prequel trilogy or the video games, you'll want the Jedi to be over the top and you don't want them to break a sweat when they use their powers in extreme ways.

After taking my latest thoughts about scale and using Facets to fuel powers into account, I can see that some of the powers are really redundant. Some are no longer needed as separate powers because they can be modeled as one power on different scales; some are redundant because they refer to the old preliminary damage system that I had penciled in back when I started working on the system (before I decided on using Facets). For example, "Bolt" is just "Strike" with range; "Blast" is just a scaled up "Bolt"; and, "Energy Drain" is just a "Blast" that targets a different Facet. I think I can easily shorten the list of Powers, which is good because it still looks a little long to me.

Simple is hard

I'm still in the process of trimming the system down and editing my writing for clarity. Unfortunately, I only have a little time every day to spend on this project. Over the past two or three weeks, I've trimmed the combat section down a lot. I always try to make things too complicated, so most of my writing is actually just re-writing for simplicity. I had so many specific rules for combat situations that were really not necessary. To be honest, most of them were just examples of how to use the standard task resolution rules for combat. I struggled to figure out ways to represent things that I suddenly realized I had no interest in playing anyway, so I cut them. It's really hard to make these cuts, because I liked making the fiddly little details, but they're actually useless and need to go.

I've got the combat stuff trimmed down to a reasonable level and I decided how I want to do damage and healing issue. This week, I've been revisiting the Social Conflict chapter to bring it more in line with the revised skill list and combat rules. I've decided that I don't want to have separate "combat" and "social" rules. I want them both to be handled as "conflict". Today, while I was cleaning up the social conflict section, it occurred to me that I really need to tie it in with the damage system.

The damage system isn't particularly revolutionary, but I decided to track damage for physical, mental, and social values in addition to other things (although not every campaign or setting will need to use all of them). I originally planned for the Social damage track to relate to your position in society. If someone causes Social damage to you, it's because they humiliate you or make you look foolish in front of everyone and cause you to lose face (for settings where that matters). It occurred to me today that I need to actually talk about how this works in the social conflict section on an individual scale too.

The guiding principle here is "social skills are not mind control". Mind control can make a character do something that the character doesn't want to do; however, social skills can make a character do something that the player doesn't want. Characters only have so much willpower. I know from personal experience that baser instincts can win over better judgement. Just because the player knows that it's probably a trap when the sultry femme fatale invites him up for coffee, that doesn't mean the character will refuse. Just like I know I shouldn't eat a second piece of cake, but sometimes I do it anyway.

Skills are what you do.

In working on the skills this week, I've decided to make some minor cosmetic changes and a fundamental mechanical change. First, I've decided to make all skill names into verbs for consistency. Secondly, I've eliminated some skills. I made an earlier post about how I thought "Notice" was unnecessary and counterproductive as a skill. I've made the same decision in regards to "Investigation" and "Survival". Investigation should be pursued through the use of other skills that are appropriate to the situation; survival can be replaced by a setting-specific knowledge (the Know skill) or talent.

The big change is that I've decided to cut the association between skills and attributes. I was trying to arrange the skills so that they wouldn't all be concentrated under Cunning and Finesse and I finally decided that there were too many justifications for placing a skill under one attribute or another. Is intimidation a product of projecting a strong personality to socially dominate someone? Or, is it more important to have a powerful physical presence? Could you intimidate someone by simply being clever enough to know which psychological buttons to push in order to manipulate them? Instead of choosing one "right" way to use a skill by tying it to an attribute, I've decided to just cut them all loose.

This loses the effect of some skills being easier to learn for characters that have good attributes in that area, which I liked. However, I think this will cut down on bookkeeping questions like "If I raise an attribute first, the skill will be cheaper. If I raise the skill first then the attribute, can I get the points back?" I don't really want the order to matter that much, because I don't want to encourage "character building" like that. Designing a character should be a matter of choosing what skills and attributes they have and not what order is the most efficient to learn them in. That way lies the madness of D20 arguments about whether your rogue/fighter should take rogue first for the extra skills at first level or take fighter first for the immediate use of the weapon and armor proficiencies (and never mind the fact that either combination is inferior to just playing a spellcaster).

I liked that skill discount but I don't think it would be missed in actual play, so I'm happy to cut it out to options more versatile.

Designing from the sheet

I've heard people say that the character sheet is one of the first things they look at in a new game. I agree with that sentiment. When I first started playing RPGs back in 19*cough*, there weren't any character sheets. My friends and I spent a lot of time trying different arrangements of information on notebook paper. Some tried for thoroughness and completeness of information. Some tried to be succinct. I liked the big complicated sheets in theory, but found them confusing in practice. I still distinctly remember trying to fit an AD&D character with all the gear and powers on a 3x5 inch index card. I managed it for my thief, but not a wizard. (Looking back on it, this may be why I rarely played wizards: too many things to track.)

In my recent revisions of the skills list, I decided to redesign the character sheet I had thrown together. I want everything on the sheet to be meaningful but easy to see and understand without a lot of calculating. It occurred to me that I should clean up the character sheet as a tool to aid me in cleaning up the system. I think the best way to explain the system to new players is to show them a good character sheet and tell them what all the parts are and how they are used.

When I'm reading a new game, I usually find myself flipping back to the sheet as I read anyway, so I might as well build the explanation around the sheet. I remember how easy the Call of Cthulhu game (don't recall which edition we used but it was after the 1st) made character creation. The double page spread explaining the steps of character creation in relation to the parts of the sheet really made it simple to understand. A picture is worth a thousand words and I'm hoping the sheet will help me trim a few thousand words of explanatory text.

It should also help me tighten up the game in general. I have a tendency to start simple and then add bloat fairly quickly, which I have to trim out later. I'll have a cool idea and toss it in and later I'll take it out when it doesn't fit. Arranging the elements on the sheet should help me realize what is important to keep and what I can toss out. Focusing on what the finished sheet should look like and be used in actual play is a good easy to keep the development focused. Once I get things sorted out, I'll make a nice looking version in Inkscape and post it for comment.

(In blogging news, it seems that blogspot is blocked here again. I can see my dashboard and visitor traffic, but not the actual posts. That's why I haven't posted in the past few days. Once again, I'm posting from my phone so kindly overlook any bizarre phrases that may result from auto correction.)

Scissors and Glue

Wow! Has it really been three months since I last updated this blog? The time really flew by. I was too busy with my regular job to do much work on the game, but in the past three months I have managed to get a few pieces of art together (although still quite short of what I'd like to get for a final product). I also have a week off and a few leads on where to get more art, so hopefully I'll have some good news on that front soon.

Today I also fired up my copy of Inkscape and played around for a while to test different layout patterns. This is going to be a digital release so landscape orientation might be easier to read on a monitor (especially on a laptop), but portrait orientation feels more like a book to me. One thing that always bothers me about reading PDFs on a laptop is when the page is laid out for reading when you see the whole thing at once. I hate having to constantly scroll up and down to follow the text down one column and then back up to the top of the page for the next column. If you zoom in (or fit the page width to the window), you usually have to do that and I want to avoid that. I think I've settled on a three section page that seems to avoid all that scrolling up and down.

The typical page will be divided horizontally into three sections each about 10 cm high. These sections will be used in various ways to break up the block of text:

• two columns of text for easy reading
• a chart
• a callout box with commentary on the rules
• examples of the rules in use
• illustrations
• one column of text and a small illustration or graphic
• Etc.

Tomorrow, I'll get my copy of Scribus out again and review some tutorial videos on how to use it, then I'll try putting together some "lorem ipsum" pages to see how well the format works.

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?

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.

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.