The Campaign that Runs Itself

April 11, 2022

samhaine Game Design , Comments Off on The Campaign that Runs Itself

I’d like to drill down on a couple of things in the investigation system I posted last week that have had a somewhat unintended effect: this campaign basically runs itself.

By that I mean that the players are specifically driving their own play most of the time, and are extremely happy to dither over day-to-day (sometimes hour-to-hour) activities. I only have to inject new planned content every few sessions to keep things lively, and otherwise my players seem perfectly pleased to spend most of their time on self-directed goals (mostly involving training, research, and improving their relationships with NPCs).

This engine has three major pieces, spelled out in more detail in last week’s post:

  • Spending XP costs an action block per XP, so the players need to plan their training time against their available XP and which traits they want to improve (and when, if they need, say, to improve their magic casting stats before an upcoming event).
  • New spells have become one of the major types of “loot,” and research rolls take up time blocks.
  • Perhaps the biggest factor is the Persona 5-inspired NPC relationship system. Each NPC has a 10-step track of benefits gained by improving the PC’s relationship with them, and players must plan their hangouts and make sure to include NPCs in their investigation actions if they want to be able to allocate relationship points.

That last bullet has proven to be key. This obviously wouldn’t work in a game with a lot of travel, but for a city-based game it’s really interesting. There need to be a lot of interesting NPCs around that the players can choose to spend time with. As I mentioned in my long-ago Technoir review, the easiest way to get players to invest in an NPC relationship is to have them quantify it on their character sheets (so the NPC effectively just becomes another of their own statistics). Since I implemented this system, the players have been turbo-charged in wanting to get to know the various NPCs.

An important factor in this is to be able to generate a bunch of interesting NPCs. The trick I used for this was actually pretty simple: I semi-randomly combined skills, qualities, and drawbacks from the system in a spreadsheet, then used that as a seed for the NPC. Each NPC is essentially the exemplar of three or four traits. For skills, that means that the NPC has it at a very high rank. For qualities and drawbacks, they’re either the only known NPC with that trait, or they have it at the highest rating.

For example, I wound up with one NPC that was really good at Science, had the Superscience quality, but had Depression. It was a short walk to Darwin, the senior class’ physics genius.

Since Buffy comes with plenty of each type of trait, I was able to generate 24 students and a similar number of adults (the adults have two signature skills, and reuse the pool of qualities and drawbacks from the students). That’s a lot of seeds for content generation.

It also proved useful in coming up with a ten-step relationship progression. Since three of the steps are pre-defined (Acquaintance, Friend, and BFF) and one or two are Good Example (with their signature skill or skills), I only had to come up with five or six unique relationship rewards for each character.

Playing on Roll20 helps with all of this. I’m able to just make all of this information public on the NPC’s journal entry, so players can see what every NPC they know is basically about and what they’ll get be becoming better friends with them. It might be harder face-to-face.

Also, I make the players keep personal track of their progress toward each new rank of an NPC (and on their XP spends, incidentally). I only update NPCs when the player moves up a rank and tells me (moving their name next to the new relationship rank). This reduces my bookkeeping to a manageable amount.

Below are several example NPCs.

Angelina Pierce                Yearbook Photographer

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Wild Card (Animal Handling), Artist, Misfit

A girl with a lot of interests, but not a lot of luck talking to people, Angelina seems happiest when hiding behind a camera or working with animals. It’s dealing directly with people that gives her problems. She’s the main yearbook photographer for Eastbend High and works part time at the Pet Resorts and Vet with Agnes. Danny knows she’s clued-in to the supernatural, having seen some of her photos of vampires using a telephoto lens that she tried to pass off as art photos.

Everyone has discovered that Agnes is a werewolf. She locks herself in a cage she got from the vet’s office on full moons.

Relationships (Temperance)

  1. Acquaintance (Anthony, Danny)
  2. Angelina will tag along to photographically document dangerous or strange situations
  3. Friend (Agnes)
  4. Animal Magnetism: Animals won’t attack you unless ordered or supernaturally manipulated
  5. Good Example: Animal Handling
  6. Crying Wolf: You gain a +2 modifier to Influence rolls to convince people they’re in danger
  7. Candid Camera: Spend a Drama Point to retroactively declare that Angelina was hiding and taking pictures of a scene you were in where that would be reasonable
  8. BFF
  9. Counter surveillance: You have learned to hide your features so it’s nearly impossible to get pictures/video proving you were doing something
  10. Wolf Whisperer: You can verbally control Angelina while she is transformed into a werewolf

Darwin Jackson                  Physics Genius

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Science, Sorcery (Superscientist), Emotional Problems (Depression)

Darwin’s parents have a love of science that they imparted to their boy, though he wound up favoring the hard sciences rather than biology, which is a bit of an embarrassment since his dad is the high school bio teacher, Cody Jackson. But he’s a genius at physics, and there are rumors that he’s built some gadgets that might get him into MIT on a scholarship, if the Army doesn’t notice first and snap him up for DARPA.

In the meantime, science doesn’t pay the bills or instill a work ethic, so he has a part time job at Gold’s Gym.

Relationships (The Hermit)

  1. Acquaintance (Pete)
  2. Darwin may cut you in on his projects, allowing you to learn Superscience
  3. Friend
  4. Newtonian Physics: +2 modifier when making trick shot attacks
  5. Good Example: Science (Anthony)
  6. Astrophysics: +4 modifier on investigation rolls where celestial events are involved
  7. Research Encouragement: Darwin gains +1 Superscience for each PC at this level
  8. BFF
  9. Just the Thing: Darwin will often provide you a Superscience gadget that’s surprisingly helpful in the current crisis
  10. Job Connections: Darwin gets a job somewhere high-tech and can provide you access

Dienarr Prins                     Siobhan’s Girl Friday

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Driving, Good Luck, Mental Problems (Reckless)

Dienarr’s family is Dutch, and owns High Street Clothing. She doesn’t have much of an accent, the Prinses have been here so long. Other than her work for the family business and her bizarre devotion to Siobhan Faobhar, her great love is driving. Her family got her a sporty purple coupe for her 16th birthday, and it’s only through her insanely good luck that she hasn’t wrapped it around a phone pole or killed someone yet, the way she drives.

She’s not super bright, but she’s pretty well off and lucky so that accounts for a lot.

Relationships (Wheel of Fortune)

  1. Acquaintance (Anthony, Danny)
  2. Dienarr will drive you around, if it’s not too much trouble
  3. Friend
  4. Lucky Charm: You can ignore your bad luck, Pete, or act as if you have a 1 point Good Luck
  5. Good Example: Driving
  6. Halvsies!: Dienarr will pay for half of a major purchase if she expects to get to use it a fair amount
  7. Cab Service: Dienarr will drop most things to pick you up and drive you across town (Pete)
  8. BFF
  9. The Zen of Recklessness: Dangerously risky actions you take have a +1 modifier to succeed
  10. Charmed Life: Dienarr gains an additional +2 Good Luck for each PC at this level

Eve Doyle                            Scary Girl

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Wild Card (Demolitions), Jock, Mental Problems (Delusions)

Pete’s friend Eve is trouble. One of the town’s many military brats, her father does something with ordinance and she’s learned way too much about it. She got dragooned onto the track team last year after training herself to run away from fuses she’d lit. She’s medicated for schizophrenia, but sometimes forgets to take a dose and that’s a bad weekend if she has some thermite mixed up. Most of the time she knows to ignore the voices telling her to blow things up.

If she’s not in school (which is more often than most teenagers aren’t in school), she can often be found at Sid’s Junkyard, making pipe bombs.

Danny, Pete, and Agnes have some sway with Mrs. Doyle regarding informing her when Eve is off her meds.

Relationships (The Tower)

  1. Acquaintance (Shannon)
  2. Eve will provide you small amounts of minor explosives/incendiaries (Anthony, Danny)
  3. Friend (Agnes)
  4. Eve will help you on demolitions crafting, doubling your output
  5. Good Example: Demolitions
  6. Eve will provide you small amounts of the kind of things that would get you on a watchlist (Pete)
  7. Don’t blow your hand off: +3 modifier to avoid damage from explosions/fire
  8. BFF
  9. Outrun the Explosion: Increase your running speed by +2 in dangerous situations
  10. The Voices are Real: Eve gains a spirit-related power for each PC at this level

Jamarion Barrera             Latin Club President

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Languages, Photographic Memory, Covetous (Lecherous)

Jamarion “Jams” Barrera has mastered all the languages taught at the high school. He was already fluent in Spanish when he got there, and his excellent memory made it easy for him to pick up Latin and French. He’s looking for something new and interesting to pick up.

The kid is really hard up for sex. It’s likely that he only worked so hard to be president of the Latin club since that means more time around Ms. Houghton. That doesn’t stop him from taking a shot at asking out most of the other girls at school, though. At least he tends to let it go once shot down.

He works part time as a stock boy at Rose’s department store.

Relationships (The Lovers)

  1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony)
  2. Jams will help you with translation research (Danny)
  3. Friend
  4. Jams will let you use his employee discount at Rose’s
  5. Good Example: Languages
  6. Modern Cyrano: You gain a +2 modifier on Influence rolls to Woo
  7. Memory Training: +1 modifier to investigation rolls when remembering details would be useful
  8. BFF
  9. Cultural Immersion: You understand the gist of foreign languages, even if you don’t speak them
  10. Quick Occult Study: Jams gains +2 Occultism for each PC at this level

Oliver Brown                     Most Likely to Do Hard Time

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Crime, Resistance, Bad Luck

Clearly just waiting until he gets kicked out of school to really ramp up his criminal enterprises, Oliver is always hustling. He’s the guy you go to if you want to buy something that “fell off a truck,” though he doesn’t really seem to have the hookup for drugs. Maybe it’s just that he knows his own bad luck and reputation, so it’s not worth the risk for him to be holding. He can be found lurking around the old mill warehouses when he’s not in school.

Relationships (The Hanged Man)

  1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Pete)
  2. Oliver will sell you his illicit goods (Shannon)
  3. Friend
  4. Oliver will alert you of upcoming criminal enterprises, and serves as a criminal Contact (Anthony)
  5. Good Example: Crime
  6. Oliver will sell you his illicit goods at a 20% discount
  7. You can send Oliver to do a minor crime for you on his own time
  8. BFF
  9. Business Partner: You make $100 a week in illicit income
  10. Phantom Thief: Oliver gains +1 “Sorcery” for each PC at this level, useful for spell-like abilities that let him “steal” supernatural items and features

Siobhan Faobhar              Local Colonel’s Daughter

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Gun Fu, Attractiveness, Mental Problems (Cruelty)

Daughter of the commander of Fort Blake, Siobhan pronounces her last name like “Fire” and is considered  both extremely cool and unbearably hot by most of the student body at Eastbend High. She does target shooting competitively, and would be training for international competitions if she wasn’t set on going into ROTC and then into the military when she graduates (Eastbend High isn’t big enough for JROTC).

Most of the school misfits are sad that she’s so pretty, talented, and undeniably badass, because she’s also a sadist that uses her influence against those that are safe targets for her. Like, those she’s picked on are honestly afraid that she might shoot them if they were alone in the woods and she thought she could get away with it. Cognizant of her reputation even if she is a sociopath, she limits her bullying at school to social torments.

Strangely, she doesn’t date. Anyone who’s asked her gets brushed off as neither attractive nor awesome enough to date her.

When she’s not at school, she can often be found at the Espresso Pump holding mean girl court.

Relationships (Strength)

  1. Acquaintance (Shannon, Anthony, Pete)
  2. Siobhan will try to avoid being mean to you at school
  3. Friend/Frenemy
  4. Siobhan will show up to shoot things for you if it’s convenient (Agnes)
  5. Good Example: Gun Fu
  6. Siobhan will use her military connections to help you
  7. Angel of Death: Spend two Drama Points to have Siobhan show up, guns blazing, if you’re in trouble (Danny)
  8. BFF/Best Frenemy
  9. Siobhan will “borrow” military-spec hardware for you
  10. High Functioning: Siobhan will become literally like 20% less terrible for each PC at this level

Zara Wright                        Out and Proud Witch

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Occultism, Occult Library, Humorless

Danny’s friend Zara is about what you’d expect from a small, slightly-gothy Wiccan girl in a small southern town: totally serious about her faith and ready to fight you about it. While she’s never been very good in a brawl, at some point a lot of the school bullies became convinced that she could “get” them (possibly with some kind of curse), and started leaving her alone.

She works at Party Town for the discount on Halloween props.

She lives in one of the smaller little communities up the interstate that doesn’t have its own high school. Thus, she did not meet everyone until freshman year, when she got bussed in (having attended elementary and middle school at her home town).

Relationships (High Priestess)

  1. Acquaintance (Anthony)
  2. You can use Zara’s +2 Library and she’ll assist with research
  3. Friend
  4. Zara will provide ritual casting assistance (Pete)
  5. Good Example: Occult
  6. Zara will research spells for you on her own time
  7. Warding Buddy: You benefit from a +1 Will of the Coven at all times (Agnes, Danny)
  8. BFF 
  9. Ingredients Shopper: Zara can provide a free Rare casting component 1/week
  10. Witch awakening: Zara gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Casey Harris                       High School Principal

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Getting Medieval, Science; Photographic Memory; Bad Luck

A former science teacher and nationally ranked fencer, it’s unclear how Casey Harris wound up being principal of a large rural high school. It’s likely due to his well-known bad luck. Between being an actual decent educator, his impossibly good memory for student details, and his willingness to beat the living shit out of anyone that pushes him, he’s managed to gain a grudging respect from the student body.

Relationships (King of Swords)

  1. Acquaintance
  2. Getting called to the principal’s office is a lot less scary (Shannon)
  3. Friend
  4. Fencing Practice: Use a full relationship action with Harris AND allocate Getting Medieval XP
  5. Good Example: Getting Medieval
  6. Princi-Pal: Remove one free level of Delinquency (or Dereliction if you work for him) each week on Sunday
  7. Good Example: Science
  8. BFF
  9. The Good Equipment: Harris gifts you a very nice combat-ready rapier or saber
  10. Castling: If you get in a fight in the school, Harris shows up to assist

Alexander Jenkins           Superstitious Boys’ Football Coach

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Occultism, Sports; Occult Library; Covetous (Ambitious)

The Jenkins family owns and runs D’Antonio’s pizza, but Alexander was interested in teaching. With a special interest in the secret history of the world, he got a degree that let him teach social studies, but he was always good at sports so also wound up coaching the school’s football team. 

Pete knows he’s clued-in to the supernatural, after some of the football team got into his special collection of occult reference books three years ago and wound up summoning some kind of entity to possess them. Mr. Jenkins was briefly caught up in the ambition of how supernaturally-empowered teens were finally having a winning season, and let it go on for far too long before they got dangerous and violent, forcing him to exorcise them and resulting in permanent damage that left them benched. But at least Pete got to start from his sophomore year on.

Mr. Jenkins has been a lot more careful about his occult collection and dabbling since then, but grudgingly allowed Pete and his friends to use it after Danny offered to share some of his family’s own tomes and a promise that they wouldn’t summon any demons.

Relationships (King of Rods)

  1. Acquaintance (Shannon)
  2. Jenkins will let you use his gym-based library (Agnes, Anthony, Danny)
  3. Friend (Pete)
  4. Jenkins will help you do spell research if it’s something that might be useful for football
  5. Good Example: Sports
  6. Blitz: Double teamwork bonuses when charging at the same target
  7. Good Example: Occultism
  8. BFF
  9. Sack: +2 modifier on Slam Tackle maneuvers.
  10. Wizard awakening: Jenkins gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Lucy Burns                          Wiccan High Priestess

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Driving, Occultism; Sorcery; Mental Problems (Zealot: Wicca Pacifist)

Rumored to be the town’s Wiccan High Priestess (if that even means anything in a place that’s 99% some denomination of Christian), Lucy Burns is British and nobody is really sure why she’d go to school in such a small little town so far away from her home. She’s outspoken about her faith to those who are interested, and follows a particularly pacifistic praxis where she considers any kind of willful violence as an affront against the Goddess. She works at Daily Grind, the coffee shop, as a barista when she’s not in class.

Relationships

  1. Acquaintance
  2. You can go to the Wicca meetings (Agnes, Danny)
  3. Friend
  4. Lucy will help you do spell Research
  5. Good Example: Occultism
  6. Draw Down the Goddess: You have a 50% chance of immediately recovering a Drama Point spent to cast a white magic spell
  7. Good Example: Driving
  8. BFF
  9. That It Harm None: Starting each fight, you have a +5 bonus to defense rolls until you attack someone in combat.
  10. Protector: Automatically benefit from a powerful protective spell that Lucy casts for you on the regular

Dane Petty                         Auto Shop Repair Guy

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Acrobatics, Mr. Fix-it; Hard to Kill; Werewolf

Dane Petty is the cousin of a pretty famous race car driver who just happened to be going to Riverview when the owner of Sid’s Auto Repair needed new help. Fortunately, Dane is good at fixing cars, having learned something working the pit crew as a teen. He’s also pretty fast, and can frequently be seen out training for some ultra-marathon or triathlon.

Relationships

  1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Pete)
  2. Dane will let you fix stuff in the shop, no questions asked
  3. Friend (Danny)
  4. Dane will fix minor things for you in the shop without you taking the time
  5. Good Example: Mr. Fix-it
  6. Car Surfing: Halve penalties from maneuvers on moving objects
  7. Good Example: Acrobatics
  8. BFF
  9. Those Pettys: Gain access to NASCAR-grade racing parts and cars
  10. Wolf Whisperer: You can verbally control Dane while he is transformed into a werewolf

Molly George                    Getaway Driver and Smuggler

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Crime, Driving; Fast Reaction Time; Talentless

Parents Clara and William run Sid’s Barbershop (Sid was Clara’s father). Works as a barber (too unartistic and annoyed to give anything but a basic trim). Fiery.

Relationships

  1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Pete, Danny)
  2. Crime Taxi: You can pay Molly $50 an hour (min one hour) plus 5% to be your getaway driver
  3. Friend
  4. Molly will give you a free haircut (you get what you pay for)
  5. Good Example: Driving
  6. Ride Along: Use a full relationship action with her AND allocate Driving XP
  7. Good Example: Crime
  8. BFF
  9. Hell on Wheels: Spend a Drama Point when near a road to have Molly arrive in her car to cause a distraction or help you escape
  10. Muse: Molly loses the effects of Talentless for you (the haircuts are pretty good!)

Mia Thompson                 Antiques Store Owner

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Art, Getting Medieval; Watcher; Love

Mia Thompson is a British woman who recently opened Thompson’s Treasures, the antique store. She seems to be a single mother, though some think that she might just be fostering or have adopted young Rona, and she looks pained and changes the subject if anyone brings up a husband. She’s extremely knowledgeable about all varieties of antique art.

Relationships

  1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Danny, Shannon)
  2. Sword Art Online: Mia will use her museum and Watcher connections to order you basic monster-fighting weapons and gear with minimal markup. (Pete)
  3. Friend
  4. That Kind of Watcher: Mia will assist with Art-based Research rolls.
  5. Good Example: Getting Medieval
  6. The Cavalry: Spend a Drama Point to have Mia and Rona show up in town to assist in a difficult fight.
  7. Good Example: Art
  8. BFF
  9. And ALSO a Fighter: You have a 30% chance of regaining a Drama Point spent to protect someone you love with self-sacrifice or violence.
  10. Witch awakening: Mia gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Buffy: Revised Investigation System

April 4, 2022

samhaine Game Design Comments Off on Buffy: Revised Investigation System

This is a revised, updated, and expanded version of my Great Conflicting Responsibilities post. It’s tuned to work for the Cinematic Unisystem version of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (see last week’s post for more information on spells and next week’s for more about NPC relationships). In rough essence, player characters get up to 4 time blocks per day that represent 3-4 hours (several of which are usually pre-spent on going to school/work, sleeping, and doing homework). These can be used for on-camera activities, or “downtime” activities such as investigating, patrolling, researching, training, and hanging out with friends (in practice, most of the gameplay is “downtime” that drifts in and out of roleplay).

Investigation Cycles

You gain one free investigation cycle per weekday and three free per weekend day (or 11 per week). You may take up to 4 cycles total per day (including the free ones), representing either staying up late or skipping school/work. If you stay up late to get another cycle, you gain a point of Stress. If you skip school/work, you gain a point of Delinquency/Dereliction.

Stress

Your total level of Stress is effectively an opposed roll for every task (within the investigation system or outside of it). If your roll total is equal to or lower than your Stress, the roll fails even if it is not opposed by any external force. Get some sleep and chill.

Delinquency/Dereliction

Your total level of this trait functions as stress for all interactions with teachers (Delinquency) or managers (Dereliction) (Stress takes precedence, if higher). You may trigger scenes with authority figures as it rises to convince them not to assign penalties for all your skipping school/work. But, as a bonus, detention totally counts as Recovery if it uses up your investigation cycles!

Types of Investigation Action

Patrolling

Patrolling is the general choice of active investigators to keep an eye on the safety of the town. In general, it means walking or driving around the town and noting potential issues. Most white hats on patrol will not actually attempt to engage with monsters unless they see targets of opportunity, but will instead attempt to figure out their hunting area and locate their base/nest. Skilled fighters (or groups of white hats) might actually attempt to fight minions deliberately to cull their numbers, attempting to escape if there are too many to fight easily.

Roll Perception + Notice to map minions. 10 successes identifies the location of a base/nest.

Compare Minions combat rating to Dexterity + Combat Skill.

  • If minions have higher combat, roll Constitution + Acrobatics, Driving, or Sports to avoid group minion encounters. Minions total reduced by 1 per 2 successes.
  • If minions have equal or lower combat, roll Dexterity + Combat Skill. Minions total reduced by 1 per success.
  • You take damage equal to the Combat Rating of the strongest minion defeated. You may take half this by halving the total minions defeated for the action. If multiple people go on patrol, rather than rolling individually, you can have a primary with a bonus modifier equal to the successes of the secondary helpers and distribute the damage across all patrollers (rather than each taking the full damage).

Add levels of Income to patrolling rolls to represent car and better gear. This cannot be shared. Drawbacks that limit perception or mobility (e.g., Impaired Sense or Physical Disability) may penalize these rolls.

Once a base/nest has been located and Minions total reduced to 0, the group can trigger a combat scene to attempt to clear out the location. If the location is attacked before the Minions total is reduced, that number of enemies will be added to the fight (e.g., if there are half a dozen vampires minimum in a nest, there will be 10 there if Minions was at 4 when it was attacked).

Researching

Non-active investigators can usually help by doing research. General research can be attempted at any time, and involves combing occult and historical texts for elements of interest to share with allies. This is usually particular weaknesses of various demons to make them general knowledge, or unique identifiers and limitations of problems that may be relevant to the local town. Once a threat is actually identified, specific research must be done to find the creature’s salient details (whether that be weaknesses of the demon type or just background about the target that will help when fighting it).

Roll Intelligence + Knowledge for general research. Each success adds to the general research pool. These points can be spent on patrolling or specific research rolls, after rolling, to retroactively increase the result on a one-for-one basis (e.g., spend 3 general research points to add +3 to a Perception + Notice roll when mapping minions).

Roll Perception + Art, Languages, or Occult (depending on subject) to turn up information on specific monsters. Monsters typically require successes equal to their life points to fully research, though some information may be revealed at milestones along this track.

Add modifiers from Occult Library to rolls. Researchers in the same place can share an occult library. Drawbacks that reduce the ability to focus on work (e.g., Emotional or Mental Problems) may penalize these rolls.

When researching spells, make the same roll as when researching a specific monster. A spell generally has “life points” equal to its level x 10, but this may be increased if the spell is obscure or being modified/invented from other principles.

Networking

Roll Intelligence + Computers or Influence to gather information from people. This is usually reactive, looking for a specific piece of information (known by a contact and/or in a hackable database). Each roll takes a full investigation cycle and has plot-related results.

Add quality points in Contacts to rolls. This cannot be shared. Drawbacks that cause difficulty with others (e.g., Emotional Problems, Mental Problems, Minority, Misfit, Nerd) may penalize these rolls.

Forensics

Roll Perception + a relevant skill to analyze different scenes:

  • Crime for crime scenes
  • Doctor for dead (or infected) bodies
  • Mr. Fix-it for machines
  • Science for most substances

Each roll takes a full investigation cycle and has plot-related results. Drawbacks that would make it difficult to interact with the subject of study (e.g., Mental Problems) may penalize these rolls.

Add levels of honors (for students) to represent school resources.

You can also use Forensics to invent new Superscience assemblage recipes or back-convert a known magic spell into a recipe for an assemblage. Make a relevant Forensics roll, and accumulate successes similar to magical research. Inventing a totally new assemblage involves suggesting the general effect and the GM giving it a level, effect, and drawbacks; it then takes 20 successes per level to invent the assemblage. Converting an existing magic spell instead requires only 3 successes per level and access to an annotated and assembled version of the ritual text (i.e., it has to have been successfully researched as a spell already).

Training

You can spend up to 10 XP/week on skills you could learn in school (Acrobatics, Computers, Doctor, Driving, Languages, Knowledge, Mr. Fix-it, Science, Sports) or attributes. If you are an adult, you can instead learn skills relevant to your job. This 10 XP is reduced by levels of Delinquency or Dereliction you take for the week.

For each investigation cycle you spend on training, you can allocate 1 point of XP on qualities or other skills that you must learn in your own time.

Recovery

For every two investigation cycles you spend, you can reduce your Stress or Delinquency/Dereliction by one level.

Relationships

You may build your relationship with an NPC. Most NPCs have a 10-step meter. You must accumulate points equal to the next level of the meter to improve your relationship (e.g., 5 points to go from step 4 to 5). Most NPCs have various benefits awarded for being at that step or higher. Track your points on your sheet notes. You can accumulate points by:

  • School/Work Hangout: Each day, assign one point toward a single NPC you saw during the day (a teacher whose class you have, student you have a class with, or coworker) and made an effort to be friendly with.
  • Incidental Hangout: You may invite one NPC to your normal investigative duties (e.g., spending XP, patrolling, researching) and assign a point toward that NPC if they hang out with your for the duration. Multiple PCs can “share” the same NPC (e.g., if Danny and Agnes research with Zara, both can assign a point to Zara).
  • Dedicated Hangout: You may invite one NPC to do something actually intended to be fun for that NPC (and do not use this time for other investigative actions). Roll Perception + Influence, and assign points based on your successes (minimum 1). You may gain a modifier from gifts or choosing something super fun to do. As with Incidental Hangouts, multiple people can share an NPC for a Dedicated Hangout.

The following are common relationship benefits:

  • Acquaintance: The NPC doesn’t think unkindly of you, and might consent to further interactions if it’s not too much bother
  • Friend: The NPC thinks of you as a friend, and will regularly choose to hang out with you without special reason (you can generally chose to start dating the NPC at this level, if appropriate)
  • Good Example: Once per day, you may add a +5 modifier to a roll you make using that NPC’s signature skill
  • BFF: The NPC considers you their best friend, and will generally drop anything that’s not life-or-death to come help you out on short notice (if you have been dating, you can decide that this means you’re in love; take the Love drawback if you do not already have it, and immediately gain the relevant XP)

New Buffy Spells

March 28, 2022

samhaine Game Design , Comments Off on New Buffy Spells

I’ve been running the old Cinematic Unisystem Buffy: the Vampire Slayer game weekly (online) for most of a year now. We mostly settled on it because it had the best character sheet on Roll20 of the systems I was considering for my next game, but I’m finding it holds up surprisingly well.

One of the things I like most about it is that it has a simple yet comprehensive spell-creation system, which is always a plus for a game featuring magic. Unlike so many other such systems, the game has an inbuilt limitation to keep the players from inventing an optimized, OP spell. Half of that is that it’s key to getting the level (and, thus, difficulty) of a spell down to assign fairly significant limitations (either a material cost or GM-controlled event or mystical resource), so if something proves way too powerful, the GM can just reduce access to the components. The other is that all casting has a compounding penalty within the same day (with an additional penalty for casting the same spell repeatedly). Magic is, thus, either useful for utility/prep or as a one-shot big gun in a fight, which has so far been fine in my campaign.

And it’s fun to make up the new spells for the players to find.

Below are several of the new spells I’ve created for the campaign. Note that when it lists a dollar value, that’s meant to be a real cost: in my game I’ve limited access to the Resources quality and we handwave incidental lifestyle money as being spent on incidental lifestyle stuff. Thus, the only money they have to spend on spell components (and other things with a game effect) is money earned as “treasure” on camera, either looting or selling off loot.

Spells

Fury of the Moon (Level 2)

fury-of-the-moonThis spell only functions outdoors at night, drawing down a bolt of radiant moonlight that burns the target. It is particularly effective against vampires, forging moonlight into a brand almost as potent as the sun.

Source: Books

Quick Cast: Yes

Power Level: 2

Requirements: Valuable moon-themed talisman (not consumed on casting), moonlit night while outdoors, miscellaneous minor spell components (that are consumed), a few-minute ritual for non-Sorcerers

Effect: The spell deals 3x Willpower damage per Success Level on a gibbous moon. This increases to 4x on a full moon, but decreases to 2x on a quarter moon, and 1x on a crescent moon. It deals +1x to vampires and other entities vulnerable to sun or moonlight. For example, it would deal 5x Willpower per Success Level to a vampire under a full moon. This damage is spread out evenly over the course of ten rounds, and ends early if the target can get under cover from the moonlight.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), Ritual (0), Quick Cast (+1), Noticeable Scope (+1), Slow Effect (-1), Rare Ingredients (-2), Major Harm (+3)

Invocation of Vengeance (Level 1)

invocation-of-vengeanceThis ritual beckons a vengeance demon to appear. The demon is not bound on arrival.

Source: Books (Episode 3.9)

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 1

Requirements: Golden bowl, various herbs, short ritual including the correct form of invocation for the specific desired vengeance demon

Effect: The named vengeance demon appears nearby.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), Ritual (0), Minor Scope (0), Limited Target Selection (-1), Unusual Ingredients (-1), Major Summoning (+3)

Lantern of Revealing (Level 2)

lantern-of-revealing-2This spell empowers a jack o’ lantern to reveal and solidify spirits caught in its light. It is a form of the Solidify Spirit spell that can only be used on All Hallows Eve.

Source: Books

Quick Cast: Yes

Power Level: 2

Requirements: Jack o’ lantern with rune-etched candle and particular carvings taking 20 minutes or so to create (or, if quick-cast, simply the incantation “Spiritum revela” with the light emanating from the caster’s eyes)

Effect: The spirit become corporeal within the light of the spell, gaining physical attributes equal to its mental attributes, and Life Points equal to three times its Brains score. If reduced to 0 Life Points, it is banished back to the underworld for another year or more.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (+0), Ritual (less than half an hour) (+0), can be Quick Cast (+1), noticeable scope (one being) (+1), long duration (+1), restricted use (-4), major effect (+3).

Reveal the Quiescent Beast (Level 2)

reveal-the-quiescent-beastThis spell reveals if a subject is a werewolf or other kind of animal shapeshifter.

Source: Books

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 2

Requirements: Wolfsbane, silver, and other relatively challenging components, as well as a couple minutes of chanting

Effect: Nearby werewolves glow with a lambent flame

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), recitation time (+1), noticeable scope (+1), short duration (-1), unusual ingredients (-1), severe effect (+2)

Cross Reference: The research used to unearth this spell suggested the following other lycanthrope-related spells. You have +2 successes toward researching them:

  • Blessed Silver Shot: Enchants a silver bullet or arrow/bolt to strike true against lycanthropes
  • Fury of the Moon: Attack spell useful in the moonlight
  • Seal the Virulent Bite: Keeps you from being infected by lycanthropy or similar afflictions (or keeps a lycanthrope from being infectious while transformed)
  • Soothe the Savage Beast: Pacifies or puts to sleep animals and bestial monsters
  • Wear the Beast Skin: Magical ritual to become effectively a werewolf (without the forced transformation)

Seal the Virulent Bite (Level 1)

seal-the-virulent-biteThis spell protects the target from the bite of a lycanthrope or similar types of infectious monster bite. If cast on an infectious monster (including a lycanthrope in human form before transforming), it instead renders that target not infectious for the duration.

Source: Books

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 1

Requirements: Glyphs painted onto the skin in a few-minute ritual from a mixture of wolfsbane, powdered silver, and other ingredients which become temporary tattoos once the spell is cast

Effect: For the duration of the effect, the target cannot be infected/cannot infect others. The spell lasts one hour per Success Level, and, if at least 5 successes are gained, it lasts until the next moonset if that would be longer.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 2 casters (-1), ritual time (0), noticeable scope (+1), long duration (+1), unusual ingredients (-1), noticeable strength (+1)

Soothe the Savage Beast (Level 3)

soothe-the-savage-beastThis spell calms an animal or bestial monster, and may even put the target to sleep.

Source: Books

Quick Cast: Yes

Power Level: 3

Requirements: A heaping handful of powdered opium poppies (highly illegal!), which are tossed into the air in front of the target while chanting the spell

Effect: The target beast is calmed for one minute per Success Level. Most creatures will stop attacking under this effect, but even those under strong rage or orders subtract the Success Levels from their attacks while under the effect. If the Success Levels are greater than the target’s Willpower doubled, they usually go to sleep and will remain asleep until woken, even after the spell expires.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), instant cast (+2), noticeable scope (+1), medium duration (0), rare ingredients (-2), severe effect (+2)

Thermite Fireball (Level 1)

thermite-fireball(This spell was haphazardly generated by Agnes, Danny, and Zara with help from Eve and Anthony. It started at 3 but will reduce in difficulty to 0 as the kinks are ironed out when cast as a full ritual, but remains 2 for quick-cast by a single caster.)

Source: Invented

Quick Cast: Yes

Power Level: 0 (Quick Cast 2)

Requirements: 16 fl oz of thermite (a Sprite bottle’s worth), a similar amount of distilled water, and various other mystical components, included in an approximately hour-long ritual (Witches and Warlocks need only combine the ingredients with some properly-conjugated Latin said over the effect)

Effect: The caster throws a silvery, white-hot fireball at a single target that does Willpower (Doubled) times success levels fire damage.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 3-9 casters (-2), a lengthy ritual (-1), noticeable scope (+1), instant duration (+0), unusual ingredients (-1), and severe harm (+2) (single caster when quick cast for +3)

Walk a Mile (Level 5)

walk-a-mileThis invocation of the goddess can only be used when the walls of reality are thin, and causes the casters to disappear and enter a dreamlike fugue where they inhabit the body of their worst enemy or someone they otherwise hate until the following midnight. The inhabited target cannot be magical, supernatural, or even completely aware of the supernatural or will shrug off the effect (forcing the caster into their next-biggest enemy). Otherwise, the possessed individual is still semi-conscious, will resist strong out of character actions, and may ultimately treat the whole thing as a strange dream or unusual psychiatric event.

Source: Reverse engineered from accidental casting

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 5

Requirements: Short ritual and invocation of the goddess for empathy and seeing behind the masks others create; auspicious date such as Halloween

Effect: Everyone involved in the casting immediately falls unconscious and then disappears the next time they are unobserved. The next time their possessed target wakes, the caster is in control of their actions, but uses their character statistics. The spells ends the following midnight, but exorcism effects may eject the caster earlier. The caster reappears in the original casting location asleep, and wakes there the next morning or when woken.

Aspect Analysis: Requires one caster (+0), Ritual casting (+0), Major scope (+4), Very long duration (+2), Restricted use (-4), Major mind/emotions (+3)

Will of the Coven (Level 1)

will-of-the-covenThis spell was an old protective ritual, usually cast before delving into magics that affected the mind.

Source: Grimoire of the Vestals

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 1

Requirements: A half-hour long ritual, including glyphs painted on the forehead of all to be protected

Effect: The success levels, minus the number of people to be protected, minus the number of hours the spell will be active, is the effective rank in the Resistance: Demonic Powers quality that all subjects have for the duration. The subjects must all be present for the full ritual casting, but do not all need to participate in the ritual.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 3-9 casters (-2), a lengthy ritual (-1), severe scope (+2), long duration (+1), no special requirements (+0), and noticeable mental effect (+1)

Assemblages

Forge Logs (Level 2)

forge-logsThis assemblage creates highly compact flammable chemicals packed around an electronic mechanism that can semi-miraculously control their ignition rate without melting until the object is fully consumed. It is intended, though the use of a synched radio controller, to make a specially-constructed forge burn hotter and better for the purposes of forging and smelting metals.

Source: Invented by Anthony Hollinger

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 2

Requirements: Half a unit of thermite powder, misc other chemicals available in a well-stocked science lab but costing about $30 if ordered, $100 of electronics, and over half an hour of tinkering

Effect: One log is produced for every three successes on the Superscience roll, and they remain viable for at least a month if stored in a cool, dry place. Logs can be used in three distinct ways:

  • If used in its standard function, it improves and normalizes the heat generated by a standard gas forge, allowing a single crafting action using the forge to accomplish twice as much progress as normal (i.e., two crafting checks if rolling).
  • It can also be used by a skilled smith (particularly an enchanter or superscientist) to briefly heat the forge to temperatures sufficient to liquify iron, allowing the production of alloys. This use can produce one ingot of alloy per log.
  • Finally, it can be remotely ignited outside of the forge to produce either several hours of heat sufficient to campfire through to a one-round effect comparable to igniting a unit of thermite.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), ritual (0), magical item (+1), noticeable scope (+1), long duration (+1), unusual ingredients (-1), noticeable transforming (+1)

Ghostagons (Level 2)

ghostagonThis assemblage causes a gauntlet to temporarily emit an electric field that interacts with the ethereal: to wit, you can punch ghosts.

Source: Invented by Anthony Hollinger

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 2

Requirements: A Power Glove or similar electrical glove device and misc circuitry upgrades (representing about $300 of electronics) and over half an hour of tinkering

Effect: After being created, the glove can be powered on any time within an hour per success, starting its timer. While powered on, the glove has enough energy for one minute per success or one successful hit per success (whichever comes first). The wearer can use the Punch attack with the gloved hand against normally-incorporeal opponents. Warning: There is some chance of a small capacitor explosion if all the power is expended through punching.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (0), ritual (0), noticeable scope (+1), medium duration (0), unusual ingredients (-1), noticeable harm/manipulating/summoning (+1)

Maglite of Revealing (Level 2)

maglite-of-revealingThis assemblage loads a maglite with etheric resonators to reveal and solidify “spirits” caught in its light. Due to various environmental effects, this version only works on October 31st.

Source: Converted by Anthony Hollinger

Quick Cast: No

Power Level: 2

Requirements: Maglite loaded with miscellaneous materials (no significant electronics cost), an hour or so to create

Effect: The spirit become corporeal within the light of the device, gaining physical attributes equal to its mental attributes, and Life Points equal to three times its Brains score. If reduced to 0 Life Points, it is banished back to the underworld for another year or more. After being created, the assemblage will last up to several months if kept in a cool, dry environment; it does not begin consuming its duration until initially switched on.

Aspect Analysis: Requires 1 caster (+0), Ritual (less than half an hour) (+0), magic item (+1), noticeable scope (one being) (+1), long duration (+1), restricted use (-4), major effect (+3).

Great Conflicting Responsibilities

June 24, 2013

samhaine Game Design , , Comments Off on Great Conflicting Responsibilities

This system was inspired rewatching Buffy: the Vampire Slayer. It’s intended primary for modern occult heroes or detective superheroes, but works for any game where the PCs have to balance a normal life (including school or a day job) with the need to investigate in order to find and stop opponents. Virtually all scenarios should involve enemies that grow in power and get further towards fruition of schemes as time passes, granting big rewards to the players for constantly working to curtail their activities, get wind of their plots, and quash their plans early.

The examples below are system-agnostic but assume something with difficulties on roughly a ten-point scale and low-granularity experience points (like oWoD). Adjust values accordingly for other systems.

Investigation

All investigation attempts take an hour or two and can include:

  • Patrolling: Both superheroes and monster-hunters tend to get their first leads by running or flying around the city looking for heads to crack and vampires to stake. In addition to keeping an eye of the streets for anything big or weird, this tends to reduce the number of minions available for bigger capers.
  • Research: Less formidable characters can keep an eye out for upcoming occult junctures or attractive targets of crime in order to get a clue that something might go down soon. Once someone has a name or description of a threat, research involves cracking books, trawling the internet, or hitting up periodicals looking for patterns, secrets, or weaknesses.
  • Forensics: Sometimes, the villains leave a crime scene that our heroes can get to (ahead of or with the blessing of the police). Going over the scene can yield clues, as can taking away any material or mystic traces left behind for evaluation in the lab.
  • Gathering Information: Sometimes, your more gregarious characters can get word that something is up by keeping up with contacts. Once a threat has presented itself, hitting up known informants can be the best way to find exactly what’s going on and where it’s going on at.

Depending on how you like to run mysteries, you can either give out fixed successes based on relevant skill totals every time a player takes an investigation phase or have players make rolls and track margin of success for relevancy. You can track accumulated successes toward a conclusion where they know everything they need to pursue the endgame or have various pieces of information available to various types of investigation with the players trusted to decide when to act upon them. The important thing is that investigation is a time-consuming process that feels like building up information toward a goal rather than just following pre-scripted encounters.

In the background, the villains should always have their own progress bar toward some goal. Patrol might set their progress back by defeating minions and capturing materials, but ultimately their plan is proceeding toward some hidden end in an unknown place, and the job of the players is to ascertain both in time to stop it.

Each day, every player character gains one free “investigation point” that can be spent to:

  • Make one attempt at patrolling, research, forensics, or gathering information
  • Train non-job/school skills (see below)
  • Lower either Stress or Delinquency/Dereliction by one point (see below)

This represents using free time to pursue the investigation, train, or catch up on relaxation or work.

Additional Points:

  • Each player can choose to gain one additional point per day by taking on either a point of Stress or Delinquency/Dereliction. This represents either staying up late for another round or cutting class/skipping work for a couple of hours.
  • Each player can choose to take up to two more points, but each point past the second represents majorly ditching out of school/work and the stress this entails, essentially spending all day on extracurricular activities.
  • On weekends, the GM may choose to just award three points for free (with the fourth point available for a single point of Stress or D/D, representing the stress of blowing off a whole day of free time or not doing homework).

Needless to say, most villainous plots should proceed fast enough that the PCs won’t be able to stop it with just the one free investigation point each day. The point of the system is that stopping the bad guys involves having to make cuts to free time or slack off at school/work.

Training

Players have to spend investigation points (on a one-for-one basis) to spend experience points on any skills that can’t be justified being learned from normal school classes or on-the-job skills. If you want to get that 4 exp upgrade to Getting Medieval, you need to spend time on weapons training that you’re not spending on investigating. Training is a major downtime activity, ensuring that players may not totally zero out Stress and D/D between stories (but also see Long Downtimes, below).

Stress

Stress represents exhaustion, lack of concentration, and just general frustration at spending all one’s free time on the mission. Stress becomes the minimum difficulty for all rolls. In a system like Unisystem with a fixed DC, your stress total is similar to an opposing roll on every task (i.e., stress grants a success penalty equal to the margin of success it would achieve if it were a roll on that result). The intention with either version is that Stress shouldn’t become much of a problem until it gets fairly high. Players should be tempted to throw some points into it for extra investigation points because it’s not a big deal… until it is.

Stress has a practical cap at the maximum reasonable difficulty for the system (or the result of a really good roll, for fixed DCs). At this point, the character is so exhausted that even the simplest tasks are huge efforts.

Delinquency/Dereliction

Delinquency represents skipping classes at school, while Dereliction represents taking long breaks, getting in late, or leaving early at work. Both are the kind of thing that eventually get you in a lot of trouble. A student whose Delinquency reaches the same number as the practical cap for Stress is visited with whatever punishments seem warranted (suspension, detention, or even expulsion, plus likely grounding by parents). An adult whose Dereliction reaches this number is fired. Additionally, it works like Stress to set a minimum difficulty for all interactions with school officials and parents (for students) or employers (for adults); since Stress is a minimum difficulty for ALL rolls, it takes precedence if higher. Once it gets fairly high, the GM may initiate scenes with the PC having to talk officials, parents, or employers out of assigning more onerous tasks, with failure resulting in some responsibility that will gain an additional point of Delinquency/Dereliction if skipped.

Students can take a trait called “Honors” that represents being good at school and having easy access to school resources like the goodies in the science labs. Adults can take a trait called “Income” which works like wealth traits do in any system. Both of these traits are “free,” but essentially set a higher starting value for Delinquency or Dereliction (e.g., if you have Income 4, two points of Dereliction raises you to 6). The students with the brightest futures have more onus on them to live up to expectations, and the adults with the best jobs have more people that will notice if they skip out of work too much. These traits should scale so their maximum is about half the cap for Delinquency/Dereliction.

Players can purchase levels of “Gifted” or “Idle Rich” with character points as normal advantages, representing access to Honors or Income without the associated responsibilities. For example, if you have Gifted 3, you could choose to have a total Honors of 5 while only starting at 2 Delinquency.

Long Downtimes

This system assumes that there will be fairly limited downtimes. Stories represent an active few days or weeks, and then the next story starts only a week or two after the last one. In this case, there are no need for modifications; players will use the time to buy down Stress and D/D earned during the last story or spend points on Training, but will probably not have time to accomplish all their goals before the next story starts unless they ended the last one with very low totals.

If your game includes longer downtimes, simply allocate as many points as they spent on training minus 1d6 to their choice of Stress or D/D. This represents other life stuff coming up; either adventures too minor to note, or home events that made a nuisance of themselves.

System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Conclusion

December 8, 2010

samhaine Review , , 1 Comment

Perhaps I’ve been remiss in that my review of Cinematic Unisystem does not contain any true understanding of regular Unisystem. I played Witchcraft for one session, made a mundane character with GM assistance, and don’t recall rolling anything except maybe Alertness (that GM rarely calls for rolls that aren’t Alertness; building a character is very easy). Otherwise, I know it as the game that’s doing a lot of the same stuff as White Wolf, but in a different way.

And it works for them. While I haven’t actually gotten around to using Cinematic Unisystem for anything but Buffy and Angel, I’ve been sorely tempted a number of times (and mainly only stopped because running modern day games always winds up becoming more work than I expected, and D&D is a much easier sell anyway). It’s a less daunting system for the task of running a modern game than, say, White Wolf’s. It has a small list of skills and minimal balance problems adding or changing a few. It has concrete but simple guidelines for making traits that can be anything from a good sense of direction to fire breath. It’s a toolkit system that basically solves character stats and conflict resolution so you can get back to your game. Kitbashing White Wolf into another setting is more work: you have to decide what to do with the typical 30 skill list, you have to make up backgrounds, you have to make up powers, and you have to figure out what kind of tempers you’re using (e.g., do you need a Humanity trait? A magical power stat like Gnosis?). Once you’ve done the work, you gain the advantage that the game plays like a White Wolf game (if you like White Wolf games), but it’s significantly more work. Sometimes you just want enough stats to give the players something to look forward to raising with experience and to lend a veneer of credibility to conflicts.

That’s what Cinematic Unisystem excels at. It’s unabashedly just good enough to emulate a wide variety of genres set on a basically human power scale. It’s not trying to do something deep with the system influencing play (though drama points trend in that direction). It’s not trying to present a million player options (though you can certainly go crazy with advantages if you’d like). It’s a simple system that can basically fade into the background and, if you have a strong idea for a mortals-level, probably-modern setting, it’s a fine solution to serve as the engine for your game and let you tell the story you want.

Just remember to pre-calculate your maneuver bonuses.

System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Part 3

December 1, 2010

samhaine Review , , 1 Comment

Innovations: Drama Points and Fixed NPC “Rolls”

Drama Points

Cinematic Unisystem was not the first system to use dramatic editing. The first system that I saw with this idea was Adventure!, which came out a year before, and it might have been included in other systems even earlier. Nonetheless, the Buffy RPG was likely one of the first to come up with something that has become a staple in a lot of games, even getting included as Action Points in d20.

Unlike Adventure!, in Cinematic Unisystem, Drama Points are explicitly an out-of-character mechanic. Rather than being a resource available to characters specifically because they are larger than life (and used also to fuel their powers), Buffy turned this idea on its head by primarily giving them to lower powered characters. In another system included for genre emulation, Drama Points were there to mimic how non-powered friends could manage to hang out with the Slayer without it being a terrible risk. Spending them functionally represented the story writers on the show giving the weaker characters more lucky breaks.

This conception has become the de facto standard for all later games that allow a point-based player impact on the flow of the game independent of innate character abilities. As mentioned, Action Points in D&D work similarly, and Fate points in FATE are directly inspired by this notion (up to and including giving characters with fewer powers more Fate points in the Dresden Files RPG). Effectively, giving players a systematized and resource-based control over the story that is actually outside the scope of their characters can be used as a balance mechanism to ensure even players of mechanically weaker characters have fun.

In its original conception, Cinematic Unisystem even nailed most of the uses for dramatic editing that are still used in the most modern systems: Minor causality declarations, increased potency at a certain action, increased resistance to a certain attack, and managing to survive when it looks like the character would die.

Fixed NPC “Rolls”

In Cinematic Unisystem, GMs are encouraged not to roll for NPCs in most cases. Most creatures are statted with three scores that are functionally an average combat roll, and used as such. In contested rolls, you try to beat the NPC’s score with your result. In combat, the NPC automatically does a set amount of damage each turn (possibly varying based on tactical choices) unless you roll against its score to dodge.

The upshot is that this probably greatly reduces the swinginess of contests in the system, for much the same reason as I like to simply set the defender in d20 games to 10 or 11 + score instead of d20 + score. In practice, this may reduce some of the tier benefits I mentioned in my first post (as these were basically predicated on the idea of the higher-ranked character rolling a 1 while the lower-ranked character rolls a 10).

Like Drama Points, “only the players roll dice” has become popular in certain games since Cinematic Unisystem was developed, and it was the first system I’m aware of that made a big deal about this. It’s an interesting concept that can increase player agency, reduce GM work, and reduce swinginess in flat-roll systems. Though I’m not sure if it completely works in Unisystem (consistent damage output being a bit weird).

Conclusion

System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Part 2

November 24, 2010

samhaine Review , , Comments Off on System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Part 2

The Conundrum

It would be remiss for me to talk about Unisystem without mentioning the Current Level Conundrum. It’s one of the chief offenders for this problem. Specifically:

  • During character creation, skills and attributes cost 1 point of the appropriate type, qualities cost a fixed amount, and skills or qualities can be purchased with the same points from drawbacks.
  • During play, skills and attributes cost new level x2 exp and qualities cost the same fixed amount in exp.

For example, the Sorcery quality can be purchased multiple times, with each instance giving a bonus to magic rolls. Magic rolls are based on the Occult skill. During character creation, each +1 to magic rolls costs 1 point to raise the Occult skill or 5 points to raise the Sorcery quality. It’s a no brainer to max out Occult before buying Sorcery. During play, raising Occult higher than 2 will cost increasingly more than the cost of buying more Sorcery (6, 8, 10, or 12 exp vs. 5). A character that starts out intending to become good at magic can do it drastically more cheaply than someone who decides to do it in play (unless “becoming good at magic” means taking Sorcery at character creation, when it is more expensive).

It tends to lead to characters min-maxed all to hell at character creation, and I’m not a fan of it, but I’ve said more than enough on that front.

I’ve been damaged!

The hit point (or, “life point”) system for the game is somewhat unusual. A character’s total HP is equal to (Str + Con) x 4 + 10. Effectively, characters have a minimum of 10 HP, and each point of Str and Con increases this by 4. Character on a human scale will range from 18-58 HP (and can buy a few more via the Hard to Kill quality).

During the game, each attack does ([a calculated amount of base damage] + successes – armor) x multiplier. The calculation is generally some multiplier of the character’s Str: Kicking is (Str + 1) x 2, an Axe is Str x5, etc. The multiplier is mostly used to make blades and guns more dangerous than blunt trauma.

This has two major results:

  • It’s nearly impossible to figure out maneuvers on the fly. Players are encouraged to do the math on their sheets for any maneuvers they intend to use, and in-game modifications to Str score will require recalculating all of these. In general, success-based-damage will be dwarfed by base damage and a high roll mostly serves to make it more difficult to dodge the attack.
  • Combat maneuvers do have a more interesting spread than in a less granular system. In the next most similar system, White Wolf, it’s very hard to make more than a few tiers of damage: if a punch is Str + 0  and a Sword is Str + 3, there’s little wiggle room to differentiate things in between. Meanwhile, Unisystem can cleanly differentiate a punch from a kick from a jump kick without making any of them on par with various types of weapon.

Hit points work mostly like in D&D or the like: effectiveness isn’t impacted until they drop very low. Once a character gets below 10 HP, he or she gets penalties and eventually makes rolls to avoid death.

I’m not convinced that the added granularity makes the system better. It’s effectively fake granularity: small numbers are multiplied and modified various ways to create more variation, and the calculation time required is probably more complicated than the system otherwise supports. A character really has HP equal to Str + Con, with some math done on both ends to make it easier to reduce that by fractions. But in an otherwise rules-light, low-granularity game, that degree of math is somewhat glaring.

Ultimately, the combat system for Unisystem feels like the designers were not able to effectively model the variety of tactics used in Buffy and Angel on the default scale of the system, and resorted to some ungainly math to create the necessary granularity. They did succeed in creating a wide variety of attacks, but at the cost of inelegance and increased time at the table. I’m not sure it was the best way to go.

Also, dodging does absolutely nothing if you can’t beat the attacker’s roll. What’s up with that?

Part 3

System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Part 1

November 17, 2010

samhaine Review , , Comments Off on System Review: Cinematic Unisystem, Part 1

In the Silver Age of Licensed Games…

Licensed RPGs have been around virtually since the beginning of the hobby. Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Marvel, Star Wars, and many more all got treatments during the 80s. Each had its fans, and many are still fondly remembered, but in an era both dominated by D&D and lacking an internet for communication about niche markets, these licensed games seem more popular after the fact than they were at the time. That is, people on RPG forums profess to being huge fans of these systems, but the actual utility of them, even amongst serious hobbyists at the time, seems like it might be somewhat less.

Today, the licensed game market seems primarily filled by Margaret Weis Productions, who have recently produced a whole slate of film-and-TV-inspired games: Serenity, BSG, Supernatural, Smallville, and Leverage. Several of these games have quickly become favorites not only with RPG-playing fans of the properties, but with systems aficionados interested in some of the tricks the games have used to better recreate the feel of a TV show or movie.

However, it’s probably very safe to say that MWP is walking a trail initially blazed by Eden Studios in the late 90s. As the licensed games of the 80s had been primarily small publisher affairs, production values often suffered in a climate where desktop publishing wasn’t cheap and easy and license fees ate up operating budget. Eden Studios, who had a few modest successes in making RPGs with their own IP (i.e., Witchcraft), decided to make high-production-quality licensed games, starting with the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer universe. Their books featured full color throughout, decorated with screencaptures and production photos from the show. It wasn’t just a book for RPG players, but something that actually might attract casual fans of the show.

While the cost of renewing the license (and probably higher production values than the sales could support) eventually caused Eden to stop pursuing the licensed game market, leaving it to MWP, it’s pretty safe to say that the Cinematic Unisystem’s games set the new standard for a licensed RPG product.

My experience with the system in actual play is far less than either of the previous system entries. I played for several sessions of a Buffy game, ran a couple of sessions of Angel, and considered starting several other games using the system. Unlike some of the latest stuff from MWP, the interesting thing about Cinematic Unisystem is that, at heart, it’s a simulationist, universal engine with some minor tweaks to fit the genre. You could run pretty much anything with it, provided you were willing to leave the genre simulation up to the actions of the players and GM and rely on the system to handle the physics of the world. It’s a toolkit system, and, thus, I’m inclined to be favorable.

Core Mechanics

Unisystem uses a basic Attribute + Skill mechanic. Unlike White Wolf, instead of rolling the total as dice, it’s added to the result of 1d10. So a character with a 2 attribute and a 3 skill rolls 1d10+5. This has two interesting variations:

  1. Stats are scaled 0-5 for mundane characters, such that a completely untrained and untalented character will roll 1d10+1 and a master will roll 1d10+10 (or slightly higher, as some very exceptional skills can go to 6). Functionally, with the d10 randomizer, this means that a terrible roll for an expert can be equaled by an amazing roll by a beginner. Meanwhile, supernatural characters can go up to 10 on individual stats. This serves to break play into tiers of competency: a lucky beginner may roll better than an unlucky expert, and a lucky expert may roll better than an unlucky supernatural master, but a beginner will always be completely trounced by the supernatural master.
  2. The game isn’t directly difficulty based. That is, the GM doesn’t say: “roll Attribute X + Ability Y vs. Difficulty Z.” Instead, the result is compared to a chart to gather success level. For example, if the result was 15, looking on the chart this is described as 4 – Very Good. If the GM had set the task as a Very Good difficulty, this would have succeeded (and would have been, de facto, DC 15, but hey). The interesting thing about the chart is how it scales. Up to 4 successes, another success level is a 2 point increase on the roll. Then 5 successes covers a 4 point spread of results. After 5, each result covers a 3 point spread. Essentially, all results on the normal human skill level (up to +10), fall into a 5-success range, and 5 successes is twice as likely as any other result under 5. Then supernatural skill level is actually somewhat compressed: having a 10 point advantage on someone is less significant between supernatural and mundane masters than it is between mundane experts and beginners.

However, despite these interesting conceits of the dice mechanic, it’s fairly similar to any other roll-over system. The interesting parts of the system come, as usual, from elements I’ll discuss in the next few weeks.

Part 2

Fear Tests

June 1, 2009

samhaine Game Design , Comments Off on Fear Tests

Originally posted January 2008

I saw a post about fear tests and, still thinking about the Buffy RPG, that got me considering fear mechanics. I’m a big advocate of always retaining control of one’s PC, so I tend to dislike mind control mechanics. The standard fear test in games is, “succeed at this random roll or you lose control of your character’s decision.” I prefer systems that make certain actions advantageous or more difficult, but leave the ultimate decision up to the player. Harbinger helped me put together the following basic system idea.

  1. The fear-related stats normal to the system stay the same. If you would normally roll Wits + Willpower to resist fear, your fear resistance remains Wits + Willpower (we might call that the Courage rating or something).
  2. The fear difficulties are scaled to match the Courage ratings. If a PC with Wits + Willpower 10 could never fail an average fear test (except maybe on a botch), the average fear test difficulty should be 10 or less. Other difficulties are scaled to match.
  3. When there is a scary situation, the PC’s Courage rating plus applicable modifiers is compared to the fear difficulty.
  4. If the Courage rating equals or exceeds the fear difficulty, the PC is brave enough to choke back any horror and deal with the situation normally. If the Courage rating is much higher, there might be some kind of bonus awarded for the situation.
  5. If the Courage rating is less than the fear difficulty, the PC is shaken by the experience and finds it hard to focus and act past the fear. If he or she does not decide to flee, for the remainder of the situation (as long as the fearful source’s influence is felt), he or she is at a hit point penalty. This is phantom damage, but cannot be restored until after the situation (unless it’s appropriate for cures to remove fear). The damage is equal to the difference between the difficulty and the Courage rating (possibly multiplied by another number in the case of high hit point games; in Buffy, for example, I’d probably multiply the result by 5).If the damage is enough to drop the character to unconsciousness or death, the GM may rule that the PC is slain or paralyzed by fear (though this probably isn’t very fun) or may apply all applicable penalties but allow the PC to stay active until actually struck for damage.
  6. The lost hit points return after the fear source is removed, but in grittier games a character that dies partially due to phantom wounds is still dead. It will vary from game to game whether it is appropriate for characters in scary circumstances to wake up from unconsciousness after being dropped by horrors.
  7. In situations where the characters are only inclined to stay behind because the players don’t think they actually stand any chance if they run, the player can declare a fair escape at the cost of the phantom damage becoming permanent. This can be explained as the character taking risks and hurting him or herself, but somehow escaping. Whether the character escapes to a completely safe area or just a temporary respite is up to the genre of the game.

This system probably works best for survival horror or other genres where the choice is between fight or flight. It may not work well in systems where fear checks often occur in investigation or other non-combat situations, unless the system also includes a wound penalty mechanic that would affect applicable rolls.

What am I missing? Would this be a more fun system than stand or flee fear rolls?

RPG EXP: The Current Level Conundrum

May 25, 2009

samhaine Game Design, Meta , , , 2 Comments

Originally posted December 2007

I’d been thinking about this after playing Serenity, but reading through the Buffy books I got during the Eden $5 sale really drove home the problem. A lot of skill-based games have two different systems for character generation (the earliest examples of this I’m aware of are White Wolf games, but pretty much every game that isn’t level based or Chaosium-style use-based is like this now). During character creation, you buy all your statistics out of a pool of points, where the level of the trait doesn’t mean much (e.g., raising a skill from 1 to 2 or from 3 to 4 costs the same amount of points). This is probably done to speed an already slow character creation process.

But once you’re in play, you switch to a completely different system for raising traits with experience points. Almost always, it’s cheaper to raise low traits by a level than it is to raise higher traits by a level (it might cost 1 point to raise a level 1 skill to 2, but 3 points to raise a level 3 skill to 4). This seems to be done out of some combination of simulationism (it doesn’t make sense for it to be just as fast to master a knowledge as to learn the basics) and player gating (to discourage PCs from singlemindedly maxing out their traits rather than dabbling).

The problem with this is that it’s heartbreaking to systems-minded folks like me that want to buy traits appropriate to the character but don’t want to gimp our characters in the long term (okay, I admit it, I’m a power gamer in some respects, but it also means that hardcore power gamers have a dramatic advantage over casual players). Essentially, the character generation system makes it efficient to concentrate your points on maxing out your key traits rather than spreading your skills out:

In a simple current level system for skills, you could buy one skill at 5 and one skill at 1 or two skills at 3. Assuming you wanted to eventually max out both skills to 5 in play, it would cost 10 EXP in the first case (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 to raise one skill from 1 to 5) and 14 EXP in the second case (3 + 4 + 3 + 4 to raise two skills from 3 to 5). That’s a 40% difference in cost and that’s on the smallest scale.

In almost all cases, it’s drastically more cost-effective to take any low traits that you don’t expect to need immediately in play and move their points into traits that you’d eventually like to have high. Sure, you’re an idiot savant for a few sessions, but you can quickly round out your character with low levels of EXP. And it doesn’t help that most EXP guidelines seem to be written with the expectation of playing twice a week; for a less frequent game, it becomes more and more pressing to blow your EXP on low level skills, since it will take forever to save up enough to see any improvement buying up high-level skills.

And what’s really baffling me is the Buffy-specific EXP chart. During character creation, you can use freebie points from drawbacks to raise qualities or skills. In this case, qualities are radically overpriced: the major benefit of additional levels of the 5 point Sorcery quality is to give you a +1 to magic rolls (whereas those 5 points spent on skills could give you +5 to magic rolls). However, in actual play qualities cost a tiny fraction of skill points; I read a review pointing out that the Sorcery quality that’s overpriced during character creation is far more cost-effective to raise than the magic skill with EXP. This makes my head hurt.

Anyway…

The moral of the story is that I think I’m just going to stick with trait-level-agnostic freebie points for EXP in future skill-based games I run. (I’d use an exp-based system for chargen, but I think casual players would hide from a blank sheet and a huge pool of EXP.) If it costs the same to raise a trait from 1 to 2 as from 3 to 4 in character creation, it will cost that much with EXP too.

And if this encourages unrealistic or twinkish spending behavior, I’ll just ask the offenders nicely to stop it, and then everyone can benefit from consistent improvement at all skill levels to the traits they want to buy.

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