Techno-Dungeon: The Looting
Techno-Dungeon is a game about going into technologically advanced ruins, exploring them, defeating the guardians and bypassing the security, and then taking the loot. The loot is then either used to make items and equipment, or it's sold for cash.
Where do I find this 'loot?'
There are two base settings for TD.
The first is restricted to a single world. An ancient civilization collapsed, leaving behind great technological fortresses and remnants of their knowledge. Society has advanced to the point where some of this technology may be understood and used in everyday life. A thriving market exists for Predecessor technology--a market lucrative enough to send many a treasure hunter down into the ruins--despite the fearsome robotic guardians.
The second is much the same--except it's set in space, and there are many more ruins--and one must deal with local wildlife as well as the security.
The System
TD is based around the d6. The most dice you should have to roll is 5d6--conveniently, the same number that can be found in a game of Yahtzee.
Characters have two Attributes: Body and Intellect. Each Attribute has two Main skills and two Lesser skills.
The Body skills are: Ranged Combat, Melee Combat, and Toughness, Resilience, Movement, Acrobatics, Stealth, and Dodge.
The Intellect Skills are: R&D, Use Technology, Tactics: Offensive, Tactics: Defensive, Insight, Notice, Persuade, and Charm.
A skill can have a maximum of ranks equal to double its attribute, also capped by Level +10.
Character Creation
At 1st level, a character has 5 Attribute points (he must have at least 1 point in an attribute). He also gets 50 skill points. Each time he gains a level, he gets 1 Attribute point and 10 skill points to add onto what he pleases.
A character may also specialize in a skill (more on that later).
Techno-Dungeon: The Looting
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Techno-Dungeon: The Looting
Last edited by Maxus on Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Flashing lights, whirring generators: The Worlds of Techno-Dungeon
The more I think about this, the more I'm sure that society is at least modern, and probably pretty normal.
Exploring ruins can be a business. Exploration teams can also get the rights to any discoveries they turn up. They can store money at banks, sell the rights to big companies, get royalties for discoveries, and go to cities to shop and/or sell.
Economy
I'm still working on this, but right now I think I'm going for decimal-based currency. In fact, I'll even call it the c.
I think 1 c might be enough for a bought meal. Other than that, I get to make this up...
Loot
This is the reason for the dungeon crawling. The ruins contain devices, schematics, and artifacts, and the guardians themselves are made up of useable--and therefore valuable--parts.
Generally, what sells well are the power sources, components, and discoveries.
Power sources are things like batteries and the generators. Batteries produce a certain amount of power for a certain length of time. Generators produce a power level, but do so indefinitely. There's always a demand for power sources, so they sell quite well.
Components is a general term for the many pieces of technology from which many kinds of machines can be constructed. The specifics of a component aren't too important--what's more important is what it does, and how it's connected to other components. The various components have various demands, but there's a steady market for them.
Discoveries are the big money and, to be honest, probably work best as plot devices. A design for a better flying machine? A new kind of generator? A device which causes ripples in gravity? The plans to a massive cannon whose range is more easily calculated in kilometers than meters? Even finding the schematics for a better flashlight can lead to the exploration team getting a steady flow of cash from the royalties.
The more I think about this, the more I'm sure that society is at least modern, and probably pretty normal.
Exploring ruins can be a business. Exploration teams can also get the rights to any discoveries they turn up. They can store money at banks, sell the rights to big companies, get royalties for discoveries, and go to cities to shop and/or sell.
Economy
I'm still working on this, but right now I think I'm going for decimal-based currency. In fact, I'll even call it the c.
I think 1 c might be enough for a bought meal. Other than that, I get to make this up...
Loot
This is the reason for the dungeon crawling. The ruins contain devices, schematics, and artifacts, and the guardians themselves are made up of useable--and therefore valuable--parts.
Generally, what sells well are the power sources, components, and discoveries.
Power sources are things like batteries and the generators. Batteries produce a certain amount of power for a certain length of time. Generators produce a power level, but do so indefinitely. There's always a demand for power sources, so they sell quite well.
Components is a general term for the many pieces of technology from which many kinds of machines can be constructed. The specifics of a component aren't too important--what's more important is what it does, and how it's connected to other components. The various components have various demands, but there's a steady market for them.
Discoveries are the big money and, to be honest, probably work best as plot devices. A design for a better flying machine? A new kind of generator? A device which causes ripples in gravity? The plans to a massive cannon whose range is more easily calculated in kilometers than meters? Even finding the schematics for a better flashlight can lead to the exploration team getting a steady flow of cash from the royalties.
Last edited by Maxus on Sun Feb 08, 2009 7:09 pm, edited 3 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Skillz to Pay the Billz
Each skill has two sub-skills, which contain different areas of those skills. Characters can spend a rank to specialize in a subskill, at the cost of not gaining a rank in the other subskill. The most ranks one can use to specialize in something is 1/2 of total ranks (rounded up). If a skill is not specialized, both subskills are developed equally.
Body
Ranged Combat: Your Ranged attack score determines your effectiveness at hitting a target with a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons tend to do less damage than melee weapons, but on the plus side you don't have to get close to your enemy to hurt it.
Melee Combat: Your Melee attack score determines your effectiveness at hitting a target with a melee weapon. Unlike Ranged attacks, your Melee combat score also determines your Attack Rate (more on that in equipment.)
Resilience: Your ability to mitigate some damage, along with general endurance.
Hit Points: Each rank in Hit Points gives 4 HP. Hit points are reduced upon being damaged. Characters have at least 4 HP.
Movement: Each rank in Movement gives +1 meter further speed each turn, and increases your carrying capacity by 1.
Acrobatics: This determines your agility and ability to climb, jump, balance, and so on.
Stealth: Your ability to hide and sneak. It is opposed by the Notice subskill.
Dodge: Dodge represents your ability to evade attacks. It's opposed by Combat.
Intellect
R&D: Your ranks in this determine what devices you can understand, repair, replicate, and modify. Used for making equipment.
Use: The practical side of technology. This determines what devices you can use, and includes driving/piloting vehicles, operating computers, use devices and gizmos, and so on.
Tactics: Offense: This supplements your Combat score. It also is used when you're setting a trap or leaving a trap item. It is opposed by Tactics: Defense
Tactics: Defense: This is used to supplement Defense. It is also used to avoid traps and trap items. It is opposed by Tactics: Offense.
Notice: Your ability to notice what's around you. It is used to oppose Stealth, but also to notice things which are not readily apparent.
Insight: Your intuitive ability to understand things and jump to the right conclusion at a moment's notice. It is used to supplement Damage, and is opposed by Dodge. It is also used for hints about the surroundings.
Persuade: Your ability to convince people of things. Used for haggling and turning people around to your point of view.
Charm: Your ability to make friends and gain allies. It could be said that persuade is short-term cooperation, and charm is long-term cooperation.
Using skills
Your skill ranks determine the range of activities you can perform. Tasks have a skill level. You can attempt tasks whose skill level is no more than five ranks above your level. Other skills can be used to supplement your ranks; for example, when making a Combat check to hit, one can roll for Tactics: Offense and count the number of hits (4 or above on a six-sided die) to determine how many 'bonus' Combat ranks you have. However, your opponent is also allowed to supplement his Dodge with Tactics: Defense.
So supplement skills can give you a chance at tasks that would otherwise be beyond you.
The Difficulty
This is what you might call a gap in my knowledge--I don't know how to figure the probability of getting a certain result multiple times with 5 dice. So I'm going to put a tentative Difficulty list here, until someone can give me a pointer or two about how to make 5 target numbers for various, with 1 being only mildly challenging and 5 being pretty damn hard.
The difficulty is determined by how many ranks you are below the challenge.
So, an eroded and broken cliff face might require Athletics 4 to climb, while a smooth and high cliff might require Athletics 9. You can attempt the former with 1 rank in Athletics and have a Difficulty 3 target, but the latter requires you to have at least 4 ranks in Athletics, and, even then, you have a Difficulty 5 challenge to overcome.
For this, I divide up types of hits. An 'easy' hit is 4-6. A 'hard' hit is 5-6. Keep in mind that you're rolling 5d6.
Difficulty: Number of hits
1: 2 easy hits
2: 3 easy hits
3: 3 hard hits
4: 4 easy hits
5: 4 hard hits.
The Burden of Success
This is important. Supplement skills can, in fact, give you the edge and force the opponent to be the one to roll.
The Combat
Destroying the guards is an important part of exploring these ruins. Not only do you remove a threat, but you can collect their remains and sell 'em.
So, the basis of combat is the Combat Skill vs. the Dodge.
There's a modifier though. If you have a tactics skill, you can roll 1d6 to add that many "effective" ranks to the appropriate main skill--unless you have a Tactics score with a difference of more than 5 compared to your opponent's. If you're the one who's 6 or higher, you get a full tactics bonus to your stat. If you are the one who's below, you get no tactics score. It may be quicker to have the player and the GM roll a d6 and compare, the higher roll gets its owner the difference onto their side of the attack.
Each skill has two sub-skills, which contain different areas of those skills. Characters can spend a rank to specialize in a subskill, at the cost of not gaining a rank in the other subskill. The most ranks one can use to specialize in something is 1/2 of total ranks (rounded up). If a skill is not specialized, both subskills are developed equally.
Body
Ranged Combat: Your Ranged attack score determines your effectiveness at hitting a target with a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons tend to do less damage than melee weapons, but on the plus side you don't have to get close to your enemy to hurt it.
Melee Combat: Your Melee attack score determines your effectiveness at hitting a target with a melee weapon. Unlike Ranged attacks, your Melee combat score also determines your Attack Rate (more on that in equipment.)
Resilience: Your ability to mitigate some damage, along with general endurance.
Hit Points: Each rank in Hit Points gives 4 HP. Hit points are reduced upon being damaged. Characters have at least 4 HP.
Movement: Each rank in Movement gives +1 meter further speed each turn, and increases your carrying capacity by 1.
Acrobatics: This determines your agility and ability to climb, jump, balance, and so on.
Stealth: Your ability to hide and sneak. It is opposed by the Notice subskill.
Dodge: Dodge represents your ability to evade attacks. It's opposed by Combat.
Intellect
R&D: Your ranks in this determine what devices you can understand, repair, replicate, and modify. Used for making equipment.
Use: The practical side of technology. This determines what devices you can use, and includes driving/piloting vehicles, operating computers, use devices and gizmos, and so on.
Tactics: Offense: This supplements your Combat score. It also is used when you're setting a trap or leaving a trap item. It is opposed by Tactics: Defense
Tactics: Defense: This is used to supplement Defense. It is also used to avoid traps and trap items. It is opposed by Tactics: Offense.
Notice: Your ability to notice what's around you. It is used to oppose Stealth, but also to notice things which are not readily apparent.
Insight: Your intuitive ability to understand things and jump to the right conclusion at a moment's notice. It is used to supplement Damage, and is opposed by Dodge. It is also used for hints about the surroundings.
Persuade: Your ability to convince people of things. Used for haggling and turning people around to your point of view.
Charm: Your ability to make friends and gain allies. It could be said that persuade is short-term cooperation, and charm is long-term cooperation.
Using skills
Your skill ranks determine the range of activities you can perform. Tasks have a skill level. You can attempt tasks whose skill level is no more than five ranks above your level. Other skills can be used to supplement your ranks; for example, when making a Combat check to hit, one can roll for Tactics: Offense and count the number of hits (4 or above on a six-sided die) to determine how many 'bonus' Combat ranks you have. However, your opponent is also allowed to supplement his Dodge with Tactics: Defense.
So supplement skills can give you a chance at tasks that would otherwise be beyond you.
The Difficulty
This is what you might call a gap in my knowledge--I don't know how to figure the probability of getting a certain result multiple times with 5 dice. So I'm going to put a tentative Difficulty list here, until someone can give me a pointer or two about how to make 5 target numbers for various, with 1 being only mildly challenging and 5 being pretty damn hard.
The difficulty is determined by how many ranks you are below the challenge.
So, an eroded and broken cliff face might require Athletics 4 to climb, while a smooth and high cliff might require Athletics 9. You can attempt the former with 1 rank in Athletics and have a Difficulty 3 target, but the latter requires you to have at least 4 ranks in Athletics, and, even then, you have a Difficulty 5 challenge to overcome.
For this, I divide up types of hits. An 'easy' hit is 4-6. A 'hard' hit is 5-6. Keep in mind that you're rolling 5d6.
Difficulty: Number of hits
1: 2 easy hits
2: 3 easy hits
3: 3 hard hits
4: 4 easy hits
5: 4 hard hits.
The Burden of Success
This is important. Supplement skills can, in fact, give you the edge and force the opponent to be the one to roll.
The Combat
Destroying the guards is an important part of exploring these ruins. Not only do you remove a threat, but you can collect their remains and sell 'em.
So, the basis of combat is the Combat Skill vs. the Dodge.
There's a modifier though. If you have a tactics skill, you can roll 1d6 to add that many "effective" ranks to the appropriate main skill--unless you have a Tactics score with a difference of more than 5 compared to your opponent's. If you're the one who's 6 or higher, you get a full tactics bonus to your stat. If you are the one who's below, you get no tactics score. It may be quicker to have the player and the GM roll a d6 and compare, the higher roll gets its owner the difference onto their side of the attack.
Last edited by Maxus on Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:04 pm, edited 17 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Equipment
Going into a ruin populated by robots designed to forcibly eliminate intruders has its dangers. That's why people tend to bring some gear along with them. Weapons are popular, as are devices design to help one do things better. Sacks and containers are also popular--after all, your profit is directly related to how much you can carry out.
Weapons
Weapon Properties
Weapons have three main properties. These properties are Damage, Range, and Rate.
Damage is how much HP it takes away upon a successful hit.
Range is its maximum range. It is measured is M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The ranges are:
Rank: Distance
M: Melee (1 or 2 meters)
1: 10 meters
2: 25 meters
3: 100 meters
4: 400 meters
5: 1600 meters
Rate is the number of times the weapon can attack in a round. Caps out at 7. Rate is figured by rolling a d6 and comparing the result to the table below.
Rate: Results
2 1-3 is one hit, 4-6 is 2 hits
3 1-2 is one hit, 3-4 is two, 5-6 is three.
4 1-2 is one hit, 3-4 is two, 5 is three, 6 is four
5 1-2 is one hit, 3 is two, 4 is three, 5 is four, and 6 is five
6 The number you roll is the number of attacks.
7 1d6 + 1.
Melee Weapons
Melee weapons tend to do more damage, but require you to be closer to the enemy. Melee weapons depend on your ranks in Combat: Melee, divided by their ease of use, to determine your rate.
Easy--divide the ranks by 4 and round up.
Normal--Divide ranks by 5 and round up.
Unwieldy--Divide ranks by 6 and round up.
Ranged weapons
Ranged weapons have all three stats in and of themselves. They tend to be weaker than melee weapons, but, hey, they're ranged!
Modular upgrades
The modular weapon upgrades can be added on and switched out to enhance damage, range, and rate.
Ranged Weapon Upgrades
Condenser: A condenser intensifies the energy generated by the weapon, giving it more penetrating power. Increases damage, to a maximum of +8.
Stabilizer: A stabilizer focuses the energy burst and delays the inevitable dissipation. Increases range, at most to a +2
Mini-generator: Mini-gen for short. These also generate energy bursts, and relieve the strain from the weapon's main generator, allowing the weapon as a whole to generate more energy bursts in a period of time. The upshot is they increase the firing rate, to a maximum of +2.
Building a Better Life By Making Weapons of Awesome Attributes
It wouldn't be much of a sci-fi techie game if you couldn't put that loot to personal use, would it? Therefore, characters who have ranks in Technology (specifically the R&D subskill) can use pieces they find to make things.
Most devices require a power source of some kind. Power sources, as stated in the Loot section, are batteries and generators.
Once you have a power source, you can take other components to make devices.
Components have grades, based on their size and/or quality. Those grades are, from lowest to highest, E, D, C, B, A, and S.
The same type of component may vary in size from grade to grade. An E-grade generator, for example, is small enough that you may hold two on the palm of your hand. A C-grade generator, however, would require both hands to carry--and even then, it might be tough for you. An A-grade generator would require the combined efforts of several people, or possibly a couple of people and a transport of some kind.
Here's some common components (more thorough descriptions to be filled in later:
Generators
Batteries
Condenser
Stabilizer
Mini-generator
Focusing Array
Alloy
Hydraulics
Electronic Brain
Laser Light
Thruster
Fan
Cooling system
Shock Absorber
Sensor (includes various kinds; auditory, visual (of whatever spectrum), pressure, motion, olfactory, temperature)
Transceiver
There's also a generic component--Scraps. It's all the little wires and doolies that are used to connect parts.
Going into a ruin populated by robots designed to forcibly eliminate intruders has its dangers. That's why people tend to bring some gear along with them. Weapons are popular, as are devices design to help one do things better. Sacks and containers are also popular--after all, your profit is directly related to how much you can carry out.
Weapons
Weapon Properties
Weapons have three main properties. These properties are Damage, Range, and Rate.
Damage is how much HP it takes away upon a successful hit.
Range is its maximum range. It is measured is M, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The ranges are:
Rank: Distance
M: Melee (1 or 2 meters)
1: 10 meters
2: 25 meters
3: 100 meters
4: 400 meters
5: 1600 meters
Rate is the number of times the weapon can attack in a round. Caps out at 7. Rate is figured by rolling a d6 and comparing the result to the table below.
Rate: Results
2 1-3 is one hit, 4-6 is 2 hits
3 1-2 is one hit, 3-4 is two, 5-6 is three.
4 1-2 is one hit, 3-4 is two, 5 is three, 6 is four
5 1-2 is one hit, 3 is two, 4 is three, 5 is four, and 6 is five
6 The number you roll is the number of attacks.
7 1d6 + 1.
Melee Weapons
Melee weapons tend to do more damage, but require you to be closer to the enemy. Melee weapons depend on your ranks in Combat: Melee, divided by their ease of use, to determine your rate.
Easy--divide the ranks by 4 and round up.
Normal--Divide ranks by 5 and round up.
Unwieldy--Divide ranks by 6 and round up.
Ranged weapons
Ranged weapons have all three stats in and of themselves. They tend to be weaker than melee weapons, but, hey, they're ranged!
Modular upgrades
The modular weapon upgrades can be added on and switched out to enhance damage, range, and rate.
Ranged Weapon Upgrades
Condenser: A condenser intensifies the energy generated by the weapon, giving it more penetrating power. Increases damage, to a maximum of +8.
Stabilizer: A stabilizer focuses the energy burst and delays the inevitable dissipation. Increases range, at most to a +2
Mini-generator: Mini-gen for short. These also generate energy bursts, and relieve the strain from the weapon's main generator, allowing the weapon as a whole to generate more energy bursts in a period of time. The upshot is they increase the firing rate, to a maximum of +2.
Building a Better Life By Making Weapons of Awesome Attributes
It wouldn't be much of a sci-fi techie game if you couldn't put that loot to personal use, would it? Therefore, characters who have ranks in Technology (specifically the R&D subskill) can use pieces they find to make things.
Most devices require a power source of some kind. Power sources, as stated in the Loot section, are batteries and generators.
Once you have a power source, you can take other components to make devices.
Components have grades, based on their size and/or quality. Those grades are, from lowest to highest, E, D, C, B, A, and S.
The same type of component may vary in size from grade to grade. An E-grade generator, for example, is small enough that you may hold two on the palm of your hand. A C-grade generator, however, would require both hands to carry--and even then, it might be tough for you. An A-grade generator would require the combined efforts of several people, or possibly a couple of people and a transport of some kind.
Here's some common components (more thorough descriptions to be filled in later:
Generators
Batteries
Condenser
Stabilizer
Mini-generator
Focusing Array
Alloy
Hydraulics
Electronic Brain
Laser Light
Thruster
Fan
Cooling system
Shock Absorber
Sensor (includes various kinds; auditory, visual (of whatever spectrum), pressure, motion, olfactory, temperature)
Transceiver
There's also a generic component--Scraps. It's all the little wires and doolies that are used to connect parts.
Last edited by Maxus on Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:26 pm, edited 7 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Characters:
Dag Heimacher
Level 3
Attributes:
Body 4
Intellect 3
Skills:
Combat 8
-Ranged 10
-Melee 6
Toughness 7
Athletics: 4
Grace: 1
Technology: 4
-R&D 2
-Use 6
Tactics: 5
Perception 3
Social 3
Equipment
Starshot-model Handgun.
Damage 2
Range 1
Rate 2
Special: 2 mod slots.
Shortblade
Damage 4
Range: 1 meter
Rate: 2 (6 ranks/ 3)
Condenser +1
Stabilizer +1
Mini-gen +1
Light armor (Reduce damage by 1/4)
A "Track" transceiver and four relays.
Three day's rations.
Dag Heimacher
Level 3
Attributes:
Body 4
Intellect 3
Skills:
Combat 8
-Ranged 10
-Melee 6
Toughness 7
Athletics: 4
Grace: 1
Technology: 4
-R&D 2
-Use 6
Tactics: 5
Perception 3
Social 3
Equipment
Starshot-model Handgun.
Damage 2
Range 1
Rate 2
Special: 2 mod slots.
Shortblade
Damage 4
Range: 1 meter
Rate: 2 (6 ranks/ 3)
Condenser +1
Stabilizer +1
Mini-gen +1
Light armor (Reduce damage by 1/4)
A "Track" transceiver and four relays.
Three day's rations.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Now that I at least have the posts reserved and most of them with some meat in them, I'm working on the items and economy a bit at a time.
What do you think?
What do you think?
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
When you're limiting yourself to 16 skills, made in 8 pairs, and trying to make a skill-based combat system that doesn't eat up huge amounts of time...Well, you tend to write down what looks workable and then iron out the wrinkles afterwards.zeruslord wrote:Dodge and Resilience do precisely the opposite of what every human being ever, except you under the influence of whatever drugs you were on when you wrote them, expects them to do.
Where did I go wrong on Dodge and Resilience? Or what other names *should* I call them? What should they do? I don't mind being accused of doing hard drugs, as long as the accuser tosses in some suggestions of how a person fully in possession of their brain processes would approach it.
Offhand, I can think that if I switched Resilience and Toughness (Resilience is the main skill, Toughness is the sub-skill), the name might be a fit better. Or switch out the functions of Resilience and Dodge. Whatever.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
It swaps it up a little bit, but it makes a defensive specialist have to focus on two skills. Or they could both be used for the same thing, and give someone two options for defense.zeruslord wrote:Swapping the functions of Dodge and Resilience would make them actually match the names, but it may not actually be balanced with the rest of your system.
I'll work on it.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Username17
- Serious Badass
- Posts: 29894
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
If you are going to make a distinction between avoiding damage and reducing incoming damage, calling the thing where you avoid the damage "resilience" and the thing where you reduce the damage "dodge" is entirely unacceptable.
It would be like making a distinction between attacking more often and having your attacks do more damage. And then calling the thing where you do more damage "Rate of Fire" and thing where you get more attacks "Attack Power."
To a certain extent, calling your game terms "foo" is OK so long as they are consistent. But swapping names around like that so that they are deliberately counterintuitive is an unnecessary barrier to entry of play.
-Username17
It would be like making a distinction between attacking more often and having your attacks do more damage. And then calling the thing where you do more damage "Rate of Fire" and thing where you get more attacks "Attack Power."
To a certain extent, calling your game terms "foo" is OK so long as they are consistent. But swapping names around like that so that they are deliberately counterintuitive is an unnecessary barrier to entry of play.
-Username17
Okay, I began revising the skill systems.
Instead of eight skills broken into two parts, I'm just going with sixteen skills. Pretty soon, I'll be mapping out the skills and their supplements.
Instead of eight skills broken into two parts, I'm just going with sixteen skills. Pretty soon, I'll be mapping out the skills and their supplements.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
I've played a bit of Metroid lately, and I feel inclined to write up some gadgets. What sort of limits do you want to put on low-to-mid level gear?
I'm thinking things like shrink rays, antigravity disks you clip onto things to reduce their weight by increments of 5 pounds, temporary invisibility spraypaint, and bizarre drug cocktails that turn your saliva acidic (with some measure of protection from the whole "melt all your own organs" problem. Maybe an acid that only works on inorganic materials. Say it's nanites and shout down anyone who starts to get logicky.).
I'm thinking things like shrink rays, antigravity disks you clip onto things to reduce their weight by increments of 5 pounds, temporary invisibility spraypaint, and bizarre drug cocktails that turn your saliva acidic (with some measure of protection from the whole "melt all your own organs" problem. Maybe an acid that only works on inorganic materials. Say it's nanites and shout down anyone who starts to get logicky.).
This is what's gotten me hung up lately.Avoraciopoctules wrote:I've played a bit of Metroid lately, and I feel inclined to write up some gadgets. What sort of limits do you want to put on low-to-mid level gear?
I'm thinking things like shrink rays, antigravity disks you clip onto things to reduce their weight by increments of 5 pounds, temporary invisibility spraypaint, and bizarre drug cocktails that turn your saliva acidic (with some measure of protection from the whole "melt all your own organs" problem. Maybe an acid that only works on inorganic materials. Say it's nanites and shout down anyone who starts to get logicky.).
I have decided to go a steampower-like-route on making your own gear. Quite a lot of ancient technology was made out of modular components--individual items which could be combined to produce bigger effects.
With ranks in R&D, you can build your own gizmos, given a bit of time and some tools.
Also, components are very common--you can destroy the security 'bots in a dungeon, take them apart, pick out undamaged components, and then sell or use those.
The items you describe belong in the Device class of loot--stuff that doesn't use components (and are therefore much less understood than the component-based stuff) and is generally more powerful and valuable.
I haven't thought of any wealth-by-level, but there is an upper limit to how complex your gadgets are (one component per rank in R&D).
Out of curiosity, which Metroid have you been playing?
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
Fusion now. I tried out Zero Mission, but I decided I wanted to play something a bit more story-heavy. I got a used copy of Metroid Prime 1 relatively recently, so I plan to try that out next.
Actually, I was just reminded of another game. Have you ever played Dark Cloud 2? They had a pretty interesting crafting system in that. First you take pictures of various creatures and objects, then you combine them to get ideas for inventions. After you have the idea, you need to gather the components, which you can then turn into an item.
Some examples:
Cannon Ball Arm
(requires pictures: Manhole, Old-Style Robot, Post)
15 x Scrap of Metal
2 x Rolling Log
1 x Destruction Crystal
Cannon Ball Arm III
(requires pictures: Constructor, Moon Crystal, Post)
10 x Silver Ball
20 x Hunk of Copper
2 x Destruction Crystal
Grenade Launcher
(requires pictures: Chimney, Egg, Fountain)
2 x Gunpowder
2 x Bomb
4 x Rolling Log
Ruler's Sword
(requires pictures: Figure, Iron Maiden, Paznos)
20 x Holy Element
10 x Silver Ball
20 x Light Element
There seem to be a few similarities, so it might be nice source of ideas.
Actually, I was just reminded of another game. Have you ever played Dark Cloud 2? They had a pretty interesting crafting system in that. First you take pictures of various creatures and objects, then you combine them to get ideas for inventions. After you have the idea, you need to gather the components, which you can then turn into an item.
Some examples:
Cannon Ball Arm
(requires pictures: Manhole, Old-Style Robot, Post)
15 x Scrap of Metal
2 x Rolling Log
1 x Destruction Crystal
Cannon Ball Arm III
(requires pictures: Constructor, Moon Crystal, Post)
10 x Silver Ball
20 x Hunk of Copper
2 x Destruction Crystal
Grenade Launcher
(requires pictures: Chimney, Egg, Fountain)
2 x Gunpowder
2 x Bomb
4 x Rolling Log
Ruler's Sword
(requires pictures: Figure, Iron Maiden, Paznos)
20 x Holy Element
10 x Silver Ball
20 x Light Element
There seem to be a few similarities, so it might be nice source of ideas.
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks.
Looking at those lists...Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Sometime--maybe this weekend--I'll get up what I have on components so far.
I can tell you that a basic handgun has only three or four components, whereas a more heavy ranged weapon could be eight or ten.
Looking at those lists...Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Sometime--maybe this weekend--I'll get up what I have on components so far.
I can tell you that a basic handgun has only three or four components, whereas a more heavy ranged weapon could be eight or ten.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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JonSetanta
- King
- Posts: 5580
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: interbutts
Well, not unacceptable as much as just plain confusing. It's like a mirror land of what most gamers would expect, which leads to lag when they do terminology swaps in their heads.FrankTrollman wrote:If you are going to make a distinction between avoiding damage and reducing incoming damage, calling the thing where you avoid the damage "resilience" and the thing where you reduce the damage "dodge" is entirely unacceptable.
I call them "Avoid" (the dodge, save, armor, whatever) and "Resist" (the soak).
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
I'm guessing components would be more like this, then?Maxus wrote:Thanks.
Looking at those lists...Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Sometime--maybe this weekend--I'll get up what I have on components so far.
I can tell you that a basic handgun has only three or four components, whereas a more heavy ranged weapon could be eight or ten.
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Components
Negative Resister
When energy passes through this black tube, more comes out than goes in. Scientists still debate over how exactly it works, but the fact that it does allows for small devices to have effectively unlimited power so long as they aren't completely discharged. Battery recharge rates vary depending on the device the N-resister is integrated into.
Nano-Circuitry
A collection of nanites that form different types of circuitry in response to electric signals. If damaged, they will quickly reform into the current designated shape. Reprogramming them takes some work in a lab, but when properly programmed they allow for internal electronics to be both extremely precise and quite durable.
E-M converter
Generally used in tandem with N-Resisters, the E-M converter transforms energy into hydrogen atoms. These can be burned for fuel or used by nanites as raw material, depending on the function of the device.
Rifle Chassis
Ancient factories would often create large numbers of tools in a partially complete state where they could be easily assembled in combination with other components. This is a rifle chassis, but the kind of rifle has yet to be determined.
Power Cell
A rechargeable battery. It is armored and protected from surges, but it won't do much on its own. Has decent capacity, but more will be required to power larger or more energy-intensive devices.
Plasma Generator
If given hydrogen fuel and hefty amounts of power, this component can create low-intensity plasma. You'll need some way of projecting it if you want much more than a super-hot torch, though.
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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CatharzGodfoot
- King
- Posts: 5668
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: North Carolina
Wait, what?CatharzGodfoot wrote:Maxus, I thought the Blame game was below you.
No, really, I have no idea what you're talking about.
I've been taking a break from TD to concentrate on all these tests these whip-cracking slavedrivers are making me do. Trying to write out a bunch of components and determine what each one does and how they'd interact would take more time and brainsweat than I can invest right now; and even when I do do that, I'd like to look at it before I put it on here to make sure I'm not going crazy.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
-
Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:48 pm
- Location: Oakland, CA
?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame! (hyperlink leaves off the exclamation point.)
"Blame! (ブラム! Buramu!?), pronounced "blam", is a ten-volume cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei. The tagline for this manga is "Adventure-seeker Killy in the Cyber Dungeon quest!" or "Maybe on Earth, Maybe in the Future"."
"Killy, a silent loner possessing an incredibly powerful weapon known as a Gravitational Beam Emitter, wanders a vast technological world known as "The City". He is searching for Net Terminal Genes, a (possibly) extinct genetic marker that allows humans to access the "Netsphere", a sort of computerized control network for The City. The City is an endless vertical space of artificially-constructed walls, stairways and caverns, separated into massive "floors" by nearly-impenetrable barriers known as "Megastructure". The City is inhabited by scattered human and transhuman tribes as well as hostile cyborgs known as Silicon Creatures. The Net Terminal Genes appear to be the key to halting the unhindered, chaotic expansion of the Megastructure, as well as a way of stopping the murderous horde known as the Safeguard from destroying all humanity.
Along the way, Killy meets and joins forces with a resourceful engineer named Cibo and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers. They are pursued by the Safeguard, who view any human without Net Terminal Genes as a threat to be extinguished on sight."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blame! (hyperlink leaves off the exclamation point.)
"Blame! (ブラム! Buramu!?), pronounced "blam", is a ten-volume cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei. The tagline for this manga is "Adventure-seeker Killy in the Cyber Dungeon quest!" or "Maybe on Earth, Maybe in the Future"."
"Killy, a silent loner possessing an incredibly powerful weapon known as a Gravitational Beam Emitter, wanders a vast technological world known as "The City". He is searching for Net Terminal Genes, a (possibly) extinct genetic marker that allows humans to access the "Netsphere", a sort of computerized control network for The City. The City is an endless vertical space of artificially-constructed walls, stairways and caverns, separated into massive "floors" by nearly-impenetrable barriers known as "Megastructure". The City is inhabited by scattered human and transhuman tribes as well as hostile cyborgs known as Silicon Creatures. The Net Terminal Genes appear to be the key to halting the unhindered, chaotic expansion of the Megastructure, as well as a way of stopping the murderous horde known as the Safeguard from destroying all humanity.
Along the way, Killy meets and joins forces with a resourceful engineer named Cibo and a tribe of human warriors called the Electro-Fishers. They are pursued by the Safeguard, who view any human without Net Terminal Genes as a threat to be extinguished on sight."
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:02 am, edited 2 times in total.