Seeking problems for my solutions (character traits and RPG design)

[Peter Knutsen]

Sometimes it just starts with an idea for a cool ability - perhaps a
very traditional one, one found in many works of fiction. The "Clear
Sight" ability, which I mention in the "Lethality of events" sub-thread,
is one such example. There are certain character concepts that ought to
have this ability. The workings of the ability also give themselves -
the character can see through illusions, trickeries and lies, whether
mundane or supernatural. The only problem lies in the implementation.

But at other times, I come up with a solution, for which I then need to
find some problems (or even to *create* some problems).

I enjoy creating and playing brainy characters, as a player, but I need
the braininess to be acknowledged by the game mechanics, so that it is
expressed within the reality of the game world, potentially visible to
other characters. I don't want it to be a delusion inside my skull, that
"my character is brainy". He has to *be* brainy. *For* *real*.

GURPS doesn't do this well at all, offering only a single attribute
(called IQ). That'd work tolerably for my first character, but what
about my second and third character? I'd end up re-creating the exact
same character again and again.

Sagatafl, which can fairly be described as my attempt to do GURPS the
way GURPS ought to have been, not only splits GURPS one attribute (DX)
into two (Dexterity and Agility). It also splits GURPS' other attribute
(seeing as it only really, truly has two attributes, each of which
affects roughly half the skills in the game) into several: Intelligence,
Perception, Willpower and Charisma (and a couple of supernatural ones:
Faith and Psyche).

Modern Action RPG almost attempts to be a reverse GURPS. Where GURPS has
three physical attributes and one mental, MA RPG has two physical
(Constitution and Reflexes) and three mental (Wits, Perception and Will)
attributes.

Even though MA RPG can fairly be described as my attempt to make
Spycraft 2.0 the way it should have been (among other things, without
that crappy twenty-sider, and without character levels and rigid
character advancement), the original inspiration was Feng Shui. The Feng
Shui character I made (Dr. Gerald Wong - I'm pretty sure he'll be a demo
character for MA RPG) was a brainy one. IIRC he had a 7 or 8 in the Mind
attribute, and a 10 (max) in the Intelligence sub-attribute.

But he didn't get anything for it. It was just noise on the character
sheet. Some of the other sub-attributes were usful, but Intelligence was
*never* useful. It didn't do *anything*. I ought to have spent the
attribute raise points on useful attributes, like Constitution (I did
actually spend points on Speed - Wong was a super-fast character) and
Strength.

To avoid that in MA RPG, I've included only those five attributes which
I believe the GM will frequently demand rolls for. To emphasize this, I
call them "saving throws" instead of attributes. Even if Wits will be
rolled for less often than the four others, it still serves as a
roleplaying guidelines, giving the player permission to play his
character as smart as the score indicates that the character is. So it
evens out. All five saving throws are useful. They will be used.

(Since then I've added a couple of secondary attributes, Agility and
Dexterity, which I'm not sure will be used at all. Yet it makes sense
for a stage magician, e.g., to be highly dextrous. The least bad
solution, which I've come up with, is to make them very cheap to "buy
up", and to (if I can) make above-average Dex/Agi values be
prerequisites for some binary skills.)

So far so good, but that still leaves me with only Wits for a "truly
brainy" character.

What to do?

One solution that occured to me, quite early in the process, was to
invent a couple of intellectual "maneuvers", called Concentration and
Observation. These will be required, in certain situations, by the
rules, when the character wishes to achieve something. He must then
Concentrate or Observe for a rules-specified period of time, e.g.
Observe for 2 minutes, or Concentrate for 1 hour.

characters can then have inborn Gifts which reduce either Observation
time or Concentration time to 1/3 normal, and can learn binary skills
which reduce either Observation time or Concentration time to 1/3 normal
(if a character has both, the rules says to "round down" to 1/10 normal
time, rather than 1/9 normal time).

So if a player wants to, he can pay points to make his character be able
to Concentrate quickly, or to Observe quickly.

My problem is that I have very few problems, so far, for which these
abilities are solutions. The GM might, of course, require player
characters to perform Concentration or Observation maneuvers, on an ad
hoc basis, in situations where the rules do not say that it is required,
and that is acceptable, but we can't rely on it occuring. It isn't safe
to assume.

Still, I like the idea, so it stays in the game. If I still have not
found sufficient uses for Concentration and Observation, when it becomes
time to playtest the system, I'll simply make those four time-reducing
abilities cheaper, and clearly state in the rule book text that they
aren't of much use in the current version.

Another ability, or maneuver if you will, did come up while I were
writing the Mystic Gifts, especially Metabolism Control: Meditation.

In order to re-configure his Metabolism (to chose new effects), a
character with the Metabolism Control Mystic Gift must enter a
Meditative trance, which requires a dice roll to see whether it
succeeds. If it doesn't, the character has wasted time and must try
again. Then it is obvious, at least to me, to introduce a binary skill
that enables the character try to Meditate in the first place, another
binary skill that makes the character better at it, and an inborn Gift
which also makes the character better at it (and a special ability which
makes the character better at Meditating when he is in his Native
Terrain - and also reduces Concentration time (see above)).


Likewise in combat. I quickly created rules for how a character could be
rendered Bleeding (it has to do with being dropped to below-zero hitpoints).

Once I had this un-desirable state, "Bleeding", I could create some
game-mechanical infrastructure around it: Use of the First Aid sub-skill
to stop bleeding (and naturally a binary skill to make you able to do
this quicker!). A Metabolism Control effect that makes your Bleeding
wounds coagulate fast, and a stronger effect that makes them coagulate
instantly (so that you basically don't bleed at all). One of many
Berzerk abilities (inspired by the character Gwalchmai in Gillian
Bradshaw's "Hawk of May") is similar: The character is immune to
bleeding, while Frenzying.

A problem I've had in several other RPG systems, as a player, is that
medical skills aren't made useful by the rules. You pay a lot of points
for abilities which can do nothing. First Aid for bleeding is one good
thing (to the point where one can say that probably in many systems, the
Bleeding rules exist primarily in order to make the First Aid skill
useful, rather than due to any desire to realistically simulate combat).

Could I do more? Introducing states of "Sprained" and "Fractured", to
represent limb injuries, with the primary purpose being to make the
First Aid subskill (or other subskills of the Medical skill) useful,
might be a good idea.

One problem, and a fairly big one, is how to change the combat mechanics
so that these states can occur naturally. It is quite easy to make a
rule saying that if you have successfully Grabbed another character, so
that you have a hold on him, and you can maintain this hold for X combat
Rounds (i.e. without your victim succeeding in getting free), then you
can freely inflict a Sprain on him (at a cost of a few Action Points),
or if you can maintain the hold for 4X combat Rounds, you may instead
inflict a Fracture upon him.

The problem with this is that many campaigns will feature little unarmed
combat (everything being about firearms, melee weapons, or both). In
such campaigns Sprains and Fractures will practically never occur, which
makes it problematic to introduce binary skills that makes a character
better at treating characters who are in those states (because then
players can waste points on useless abilities).

Also, Bleeding differs in that once you have stopped it, it is over
(we'll ignore the effect of blood loss here). A Sprain will require time
to heal. At best, treatment speeds up healing. At worst, lack of
treatment prevents the Sprain victim from continued adventuring. And a
Fracture is worse. A Sprain heals naturally in days (even if un-treated,
provided the victim rests the sprained body part), but a Fracture
requires *weeks*.

If possible, I'd like to maintain the rules in a state of agnosticism,
in terms of what part of the character has been Sprained or Fractured.
And only assume that it is a limb (rather than, say, a skull fracture,
or perhaps a neck sprain (if such a thing is possible)).

But can I do that? It seems to me that a Sprained ankle (or - ouch! -
knee), or a Fractured leg, will take you out of adventuring, forcing you
to retire from the party for some days or weeks, whereas with a Sprained
wrist (or elbow? Or shoulder?), or a Fractured arm, you can still
continue, even if your capability is diminished.

Sprains and Fractures could be neat and simple (even simplistic) World
of Warcraft-style de-buffs. Something which you can inflict on others,
something which these others may have defenses against (even a Rapid
Healing inborn Gift should speed up Sprain/Fracture recovery, and not
just affect hitpoint regain), and something which others again can heal
(slowly via medical skills, or quickly in a fantasy genre game via magic
spells).

Perhaps just have a simple Limb Damage "state", without specifying what
it is? It could give some penalty to attack rolls, or to movement speed
(reducing Walking speed by 1 hx, and preventing Jumping, Running and
Charging), depending on whether one desires the "feel" of an arm injury
or a leg injury.

"Arm Damage" for the attack roll penalty, and "Leg Damage" for the
movement penalty?

As soon as I no longer try to relate the condition to a medical
phenomenon (such as a Sprain or a Limb Fracture, both of which - I'm
sure - can be looked up in English Wikipedia, and possibly in Britannica
as well) I'm free of the constraints of realism expectations, and can
introduce binary skills that enhances the First Aid subskill so that it
can cure the character of Limb Damage, fully, in a few minutes.


A third example is Parkour, also called Free Movement. I've long known
that I wanted Parkour as a Martial Art in MA RPG, alongside such better
known Arts as Karate, Judo, Ninja Taijutsu, Taekwondo, Krav Maga,
Pankration, Capoeira and Boxing. I knew that I wanted each Martial Art
to be a "recipe", a list of binary skills which enhances the character
in specific ways (e.g. "to make a character trained in Karate, purchase
these binary skills"), usually relating to combat, although obviously in
the case of Parkour they would all relate to movement instead.

But I had no specific ideas for binary skills for Parkour. Then recently
I watched "Casino Royale" (great movie! In spite of a weak, overlong
ending, it gets to be included in the MA RPG bibliography - the only
Bond movie, apart from "From Russia with Love", that gets this honour),
and early in the movie there's this really good chase sequence. A bit
like a car chase, except without cars or any other vehicles.

Perhaps my problem, or at least the work I'll have to perform, is
obvious. I need to invent some problems which can be "solved" by these
Parkour binary skills (solutions), and I need said problems to be ones
that will occur (emerge) naturally throughout the campaign, meaning when
the GM draws improvised battlefield maps.

I'll thus need to define some fairly commonly occuring terrain features
(or terrain shapes), along with formal symbols to mark what and where
they are. Secondly I need to define the game-mechanical penalties for
moving through hexes containing these features/symbols (this could be
that Running is impossible, or both Running and Charging, so that you
are forced to use the less efficient Walk maneuver, or that moving
through said hex simply costs more Action Points, or that moving through
it is flat out impossible - you'll have to move around it). Thirdly I'll
need to invent binary skills to let characters ignore these penalties.

The challenge is to find a compromise between simplicity and variety.
I'd say that 3 or 4 Parkour-themed binary skills is ideal, and that I
could live with 2 or 5, but no more than 5 and not with only one.


The last example is fairly simple.

One of the subskills of the Medical skill is Anatomy. I've watched a lot
of action movies recently (research, you know...), and often there is a
problem with a character fearing that he'll be recognized by a guard who
has seen his face. That is a legitimate concern (see "Heist" with Gene
Hackman, e.g.), but it occured to me that a sufficiently knowledgeable
character should be able to whack the enemy's skull, in such a way as to
scramble the enemy's short-term memory while rendering him unconscious.

Thus was born the Memory Tap binary skill.


The above is meant as a little insight into how my approach to game
design works, but comments and questions are of course welcome.

[gleichman]

I don't really have anything to add to this Peter.

I lump Intelligence mechanics in with personality mechanics in my own
worldview, so they arent' something I consider in depth. My advice is
to remove Intelligence mechanics (other than something to goven skill
learning) from the game completely.

As for the medical skills, I wonder why such detail? The campaign of
cancer research you mention gives part of that answer, but I have to
wonder if even that would need such a breakdown as you describe. So
not understanding the drive, I'm left on the sideline cheering you on.

[Peter Knutsen]

Post by gleichman
I don't really have anything to add to this Peter.
I lump Intelligence mechanics in with personality mechanics in my own
worldview, so they arent' something I consider in depth. My advice is
to remove Intelligence mechanics (other than something to goven skill
learning) from the game completely.

Making the player purchase an Intelligence attribute value, for the
character, serves as an indicator for how intelligent the player intends
to play the character. Also, it's a "maximum". If you want to create and
play a smart character, then you have to pay for the privilege. Brains
are a ressource. Or to put it another way, you're paying for greater
freedom.

Post by gleichman
As for the medical skills, I wonder why such detail? The campaign of
cancer research you mention gives part of that answer, but I have to
wonder if even that would need such a breakdown as you describe. So
not understanding the drive, I'm left on the sideline cheering you on.

Not really.

The cure-for-cancer campaign was an example of what Sagatafl can do,
because it has no built-in bias *for* violent conflicts, or *against*
other types of conflicts, as there is in most other RPGs (even,
explicitly, in Modern Action RPG).

Ability to engage successfully in non-violent conflict is as expensive
in Sagatafl as ability to engage successfully in violent conflict, in
terms of character creation currency.

In addition to that, there is basic rules infrastructure for long-term
projects, which can handle, even if simplistically, anything from
laboratory research and to the creation of artificial languages
(Tolkien-style). It's just a bunch of skill rolls, where you accumulate
Progress, interspersed with attribute checks (to represent the need for
raw talent), but with the GM deciding which skills and which attribute
checks are required (unless the system specifies this, which it will do
when it comes to spell invention, since that is a major part of how Ärth
works, with characters inventing their own spells when they percieve a
strong enough need).

Modern Action RPG is explicitly a system for "traditional" campaigns,
meaning some amount of investigation/footwork, and then a much larger
amount of combat (and physical action).

It divides skills into three categories: Combat skills, Non-Combat
skills and Fluff skills, in descending order of cost.

Science and knowledge are two examples of Fluff skills, and they are
very cheap.

Thus if you try to use MA RPG for a "cure-for-cancer" campaign, the
players will be able to buy absurdly high levels in the Science skill,
at very little cost - they'll even have plenty of points left over to
buy skills that are outside of the campaign scope, such as Combat skills
(as if their characters were former Green Berets, KGB assassins, or
martial arts champions).

With so absurdly high levels in the Science skill, the campaign would
also be *boring*, in that even a small 3-man group would be able to find
the cure in a matter of weeks, without any challenge or excitement,
whereas a potentially interesting campaign should feature 5-6 scientists
(all merely cinematically skilled, rather than absurdly skilled) and
should take anywhere from a couple of years to a decade, of in-world time.

MA RPG is only for "traditional" campaigns.

I'd guess that the basic assumption, for a campaign with a "moderate"
amount of combat, is one major fight per session, and one minor fight
(and also several violent incidents, each resolved in a few minutes of
real-time).

There are vague character creation guidelines for giving each player
character a "Combat Effectiveness rating" (CE), ranging from 0 to 6.

One extreme (CE 0) means that none of the character creation points were
spent on combat abilities. The other extreme (CE 6) means that all of
the points were spent on combat abilities. Both are cause for immediate
GM rejection - it is *illegal* for players to create such characters.

In a campaign intended to be "moderate combat", any CE value from 1 to 5
is acceptable, although the players would be making a collective mistake
if they all cluster around either 1-2 or 4-5. Everyone around 3, or most
around 3 with one high and one low, makes for a better party. Also, the
GM is entitled to forbid specific players from creating CE 1 or CE 5
characters, in an attempt to push them to try something different (e.g.
if one player always makes CE 5 characters, the GM is allowed to tell
him that in this new campaign, he can not go above CE 4).

In a campaign intended as "heavy combat", CE 1 is automatically illegal,
and in a campaign intended as "light combat", CE 5 is automatically
illegal. A campaign might have the "War" modifier. In that case, it is
usually also "heavy combat", but the "War" modifier makes a couple of
the character subtypes illegal (Skilled/Charm and Skilled/Chameleon),
because they focus on social skills, which is an inappropriate focus for
a war-themed campaign.



Now, on to the skills:

The two Combat skills which are available to all characters are Melee
Combat and Ranged Combat. Four of the character subtypes get access to
cheaper and highly specialized Custom Combat skills: Archaic, Basic,
Swashbuckler and Unarmed. Basic contains "basic" ability with Dodge,
Shortarm, Brawling and Wrestling - enough to let the character
participate in combat, while still having many points left over for
purchasing something else.

One design decision I'm proud of is the division of Non-Combat skills
I've made. There are six: Charm, Investigative, Medical, Military,
Stealth and Technical.

I believe this division to cover pretty much everything needed in
"traditional" RPG adventuring, except of course the Fluff skills, which
are presumed to be almost entirely useless, such as Knowledge, Science,
Crafts, Music, Art, Sports, Profession and Games.

The Military Non-Combat skill deals with "non-combat military skills"
such as Leadership, Parachuting, Strategy, Tactics and Training, and
also with wilderness skills such as Survival, Swimming and Tracking.

Interestingly, the Medical skill contributes to a character's CE rating
(along with, obviously, all the Combat skills), whereas the 5 other
Non-Combat skills do *not* contribute to CE. The reason for this is that
many of the Medical subskills are highly useful after combat, to heal
and aid the wounded - the more combat-heavy the campaign is, the more
you'll need a Medic PC.


Each skill divides into multiple subskills, but you don't buy those, you
only buy the "parent" skill. Then you assign skill levels to the subskills.

As an example, the Medical skill divides into these 14 subskills:

Anatomy, Biochemistry/Genetics, Diagnosis, Drugs, Exotic Life Science,
First Aid, Herbalism, Medical Rank, Medical Tricks, Pathology, Poisons,
Psychology, Surgery, Veterinarian.

(I'm thinking about re-naming Biochemistry/Genetics to just Genetics,
though, and then moving Chemistry from the Science (Fluff) skill to the
Medical (Non-Combat) skill. After all, every MacGyver fan knows that
Chemistry is *useful*.)

Now, if I purchase a level of 8 in the Medical skill, I get to assign a
level of 8 to one subskill, 7 to another, 6 to a third, and so forth,
down to one.

I might pick Poisons at 8, Psychology at 7, Drugs at 6, Surgery at 5,
First Aid at 4, Chemistry at 3, Veterinarian at 2, and finally Medical
Rank at 1 to indicate that my character is a former medical student who
dropped out (and acquired his knowledge informally), but who still has a
little clout within the medical community because he knows the informal
protocols, the heraldry, and so forth.

Herbalism is a Difficult subskill, for non-Primitive characters, and
thus the final subskill level is halved - that's why I didn't pick it.
First Aid is an Easy subskill, so the final value is doubled. That's why
I didn't feel the need to assign a higher level to it. 4 should be enough.

Every skill divides into many subskills, usually from 8 to 15, although
Fluff skills can contain even more subskills (the list of subskills for
Fluff skills also aren't finite - GMs and players are free to propose
additional subskills, e.g. exotic musical instruments).


I like the idea of playing a character with medical training, but in
order for it to be fun, the system needs to support it, so that's
something I strive for. I also do think that there's a lot of potential
for a medic adventurer.

For instance, the Anatomy subskill (which the above character,
incidentally, does not have) can give knowledge of vulnerable body parts.

In Sagatafl, you need the Anatomy skill in order to learn the Critical
Hit skill (Critical Hit can never be higher than Anatomy x2). In MA RPG,
a certain level in the Anatomy subskill is a prerequisite for those
binary skills which increases your unarmed or melee weapon damage.

My idea about changing Chemistry from a Science subskill to a Medical
subskill is also grounded in this desire, to make the Medic a viable
adventurer. And I'm also a little bit proud of the inclusion of
Psychology as a Medical subskill - that helps a lot to make Medical more
desirable, and more versatile.


... Actually, there's an even finer breakdown than just these subskills!

Last month, I decided that it was game-mechanically viable to allow each
character to have one subskill specialization for each skill. Each
subskill should have from 3-8 legal specializations, with the GM needing
to approve any player suggetions outside of those lists.

I really like the idea that Gambler Fred, for instance, can specialize
his Mathematics subskill in Probability Theory. And that he can
specialize his Sleight of Hand subskill (under the Stealth skill) in
Game Cheating, whereas Terry the Magician has his Sleight of Hand
subskill specialized in Stage Magic. It's just a minor thing, a +3 bonus
to one usage of a Non-Combat subskill, or a +5 bonus to one usage of a
Fluff subskill, but it adds a lot to the characterization.

The limit of one specialization per skill is partly in order to keep
things simple, and partly in order to know how much room to reserve on
the character sheet. For instance, I know that there are 15 Medical
subskills (if I move Chemistry, as outlined above), and so if I give
Medical 16 lines for skills there is room for the specialization on a
separate line, below its "parent" subskill, like this:

L Medical
-- -------
Anatomy
3 Chemistry
1 Diagnosis
6 Drugs
Exotic Life Science
4 First Aid (x2 difficulty mod.)
Genetics
4 Herbalism (1/2 difficulty mod.)
4 Medical Rank
7 Medical Tricks
10 (Spec +3: Placebo)
Pathology
5 Poisons
9 Psychology
Surgery
Veterinarian

9 levels in Medical: 9 in Psychology, 8 in Herbalism (a hobby of his,
apparently), 7 in Medical Tricks (specialized in Placebo), 6 in Drugs, 5
in Poisons, 4 in Medical Rank, 3 in Chemistry, 2 in First Aid, 1 in
Diagnosis.

No skill in Anatomy, Exotic Life Science, Genetics, Surgery or Veterinarian.