"The strength of the Emperor is Humanity, and the strength of Humanity is the Emperor. If one turns from the other, we shall all become the Lost and the Damned."
- The Sermons of Sebastian Thor, Vol. XXVII Ch. LXII
It is the 41st millenium, and there is no part of the galaxy that is free of war.
The enemies of Mankind are without number, from the savage and bestial orks...
...the perfidious Eldar, whose all but human guise serves but to mask their limitless capacity for deceit and treachery...
...the ever hungering Hive Fleets of the Tyranids, who devour whole worlds for their unspeakable purposes...
but worse of all...the invisible blight upon the galaxy that defiles everything it touches, whether that be Man, beast, or building...
Chaos.
The forces of the Archenemy seek to inflict a fate upon Mankind far worse than any xenos foe could even imagine.
And when the day begins to slip into night, they seem at their strongest...is there anything that can be done?
Are we doomed?
No, loyal citizens of the Imperium! For if we look to the Emperor, He will provide!
It is not guns alone we need, but faith! For to speak of our Emperor's Holy Name is fire to the daemon and the heretic, and under the shadow of His mighty wings shall we be sheltered from their impotent fury!
Take up the sword of righteousness and the armor of contempt and stand against these foes of Man!
For the Emperor is with us, and with Him, we shall not be defeated!
Forward, in the Emperor's Name! For death and glory!
In the Emperor's Name!
Moderator: Moderators
In the Emperor's Name!
Last edited by Elennsar on Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:17 am, edited 9 times in total.
Trust in the Emperor, but always check your ammunition.
No offense taken. What I meant was, anyone who has anything to include that would be fun, useful, worth looking at, etc.
Sample advantages, talents, perks, disadvantages, weapon stats (relative to each other), expected level of lethality from a given hit, anything that you'd feel would be worth weighing and considering.
Sample advantages, talents, perks, disadvantages, weapon stats (relative to each other), expected level of lethality from a given hit, anything that you'd feel would be worth weighing and considering.
Trust in the Emperor, but always check your ammunition.
(Stuff about games and roleplaying we all know)
In The Emperor's Name (ITEN) is based on the premise that the Imperium of Man is a fundementally functional state. It has plenty of fundementally not functional leaders and corruption you don't want to
think about, but the fundemental principles are as solid as anything Mankind can trust in this grim future.
As such, things are slanted towards the Imperial side of things very strongly.
In addition, ITEN is a human scale game. Guard are playable (and the basic lethality is based on what you can reasonably expect to survive as a Guardsman), and Inquisitors and Sisters of Battle are as well (though don't expect the same lethality with Sisters in Power Armor...this is intentional.)
Space Marines, on the other hand, are unplayable. The things that superhuman soldiers with better gear can do are deliberately emphasised as unfair (Dorn's quote on "give me a hundred Space Marines or failing that a thousand other soldiers" is perhaps a bit more generous than accurate.)
ITEN uses 3d6+attribute+attribute or skill. A character may have any attribute between 1 (below the human norm) and 10 (borderline superhuman). 8 is the usual cap, however.
The attributes are as follows:
Dexterity: Agility, physical reaction time, physical coordination. Nothing surprising here.
Strength: How strong you are. Primarily useful for wearing heavy armor (which is quite a pain even with high Strength but is at least bearable with it) and hurting people with muscle powered attacks.
Fortitude: Stamina, toughness, and good health. Or lack thereof.
Alertness : Intution and keen perception. Someone who is well aware of his surroundings and a good judge of character has high Alertness. Someone like me, who looks like they have their nose in a book even when they don't, doesn't.
Sagacity: Your mental strength. Smart people have high Sagacity. Contrary to GW's "we can be incoherent because you think our product is awesome" crap, the Imperium does value brainpower. It does, however, distrust it as well. The line between vigilance and paranoia is fine indeed...
Willpower: Your determination, resolve, and ablity to keep your wits (such as they are) about you when really shitty things are happening.
People with high Willpower usually have an easier time forcing their will on others with less Willpower.
In The Emperor's Name (ITEN) is based on the premise that the Imperium of Man is a fundementally functional state. It has plenty of fundementally not functional leaders and corruption you don't want to
think about, but the fundemental principles are as solid as anything Mankind can trust in this grim future.
As such, things are slanted towards the Imperial side of things very strongly.
In addition, ITEN is a human scale game. Guard are playable (and the basic lethality is based on what you can reasonably expect to survive as a Guardsman), and Inquisitors and Sisters of Battle are as well (though don't expect the same lethality with Sisters in Power Armor...this is intentional.)
Space Marines, on the other hand, are unplayable. The things that superhuman soldiers with better gear can do are deliberately emphasised as unfair (Dorn's quote on "give me a hundred Space Marines or failing that a thousand other soldiers" is perhaps a bit more generous than accurate.)
ITEN uses 3d6+attribute+attribute or skill. A character may have any attribute between 1 (below the human norm) and 10 (borderline superhuman). 8 is the usual cap, however.
The attributes are as follows:
Dexterity: Agility, physical reaction time, physical coordination. Nothing surprising here.
Strength: How strong you are. Primarily useful for wearing heavy armor (which is quite a pain even with high Strength but is at least bearable with it) and hurting people with muscle powered attacks.
Fortitude: Stamina, toughness, and good health. Or lack thereof.
Alertness : Intution and keen perception. Someone who is well aware of his surroundings and a good judge of character has high Alertness. Someone like me, who looks like they have their nose in a book even when they don't, doesn't.
Sagacity: Your mental strength. Smart people have high Sagacity. Contrary to GW's "we can be incoherent because you think our product is awesome" crap, the Imperium does value brainpower. It does, however, distrust it as well. The line between vigilance and paranoia is fine indeed...
Willpower: Your determination, resolve, and ablity to keep your wits (such as they are) about you when really shitty things are happening.
People with high Willpower usually have an easier time forcing their will on others with less Willpower.
Last edited by Elennsar on Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:12 am, edited 5 times in total.
Trust in the Emperor, but always check your ammunition.
Skills (and specialities)
Note: Other specialties than those listed below may exist.
Animal Handling: Animal training, riding, veterinary, zoology
Artistry: Appraisal, cooking, forgery, painting, photography, poetry, sculpting, writing
Athletics: Climbing, contortion, dodging, juggling, jumping, riding, running, swimming
Note: If you have the Athletics skill (with the dodging speciality if applicable) at a higher level than your Dexterity you may use it instead of Dexterity when Dodging (usually rolled as Dexterity+Alertness).
Bureaucracy: Bribery, commerce, bending rules, illegal business, the Administratum
Command: Coordination, disciplining others, imposing order, giving orders
Craft: Architecture, blacksmithing, carpentry, metalworking, cooking, etc.
Decieve: Con games, bluffing, disguise, politics
Engineering: Warships, tanks, guns, etc.
Guns: By type
Heavy Weapons: By type
Intimidate: Battlefield, Coercision, Interrogation, Torture
Investigation: Library research, conducting interviews, finding concealed objects, reconstructing events.
Larency: Bribery, lock picking, cheating (at gambling), fencing stolen goods, disguise, scoring drugs, organized crime.
Leadership: Inspiration, oratory, teamwork
Lore: Many specializations.
There is no such thing as generic lore. One must specialize similar to the example below:
Lore: Science (Biology)
Martial Arts: By weapon, unarmed, by fighting style.
Mechanics: Creating mechanical devices, machinery maintance, mechanical repairs, fixing mechanical security systems, etc.
Medicine: Disease, injuries, poisons, psyk-healing
Persaude: Barter, conversation, counseling, interrogation, marketing, politics, seduction.
Perception: Deduction, empathy, gambling, hearing (etc.), investigation, search, tracking.
Performance: Acting, dancing, costuming, by instrument
Pilot: Civilian aircraft, military aircraft, civilian spacecraft, military spacecraft, or by ship type.
Planetery Vehicles: Cars, canoes, equestrian, ground vehicle repair, horse drawn conveyenaces, hovercraft, industrial vheicles, land navigation, large ground transports, military combat vehicles, powerboats, sailing.
Ranged Weapons: Bows, crossbows, darts, grenades, javelins, slings, throwing knives...
Resistance: Poisons, disease, enivronmental, fatigue, privation
Strategy: Logistics, long term planning, military campaigns.
Survival: By terrain/environment type, navigation
Tactics: By unit type or situation
Note: Other specialties than those listed below may exist.
Animal Handling: Animal training, riding, veterinary, zoology
Artistry: Appraisal, cooking, forgery, painting, photography, poetry, sculpting, writing
Athletics: Climbing, contortion, dodging, juggling, jumping, riding, running, swimming
Note: If you have the Athletics skill (with the dodging speciality if applicable) at a higher level than your Dexterity you may use it instead of Dexterity when Dodging (usually rolled as Dexterity+Alertness).
Bureaucracy: Bribery, commerce, bending rules, illegal business, the Administratum
Command: Coordination, disciplining others, imposing order, giving orders
Craft: Architecture, blacksmithing, carpentry, metalworking, cooking, etc.
Decieve: Con games, bluffing, disguise, politics
Engineering: Warships, tanks, guns, etc.
Guns: By type
Heavy Weapons: By type
Intimidate: Battlefield, Coercision, Interrogation, Torture
Investigation: Library research, conducting interviews, finding concealed objects, reconstructing events.
Larency: Bribery, lock picking, cheating (at gambling), fencing stolen goods, disguise, scoring drugs, organized crime.
Leadership: Inspiration, oratory, teamwork
Lore: Many specializations.
There is no such thing as generic lore. One must specialize similar to the example below:
Lore: Science (Biology)
Martial Arts: By weapon, unarmed, by fighting style.
Mechanics: Creating mechanical devices, machinery maintance, mechanical repairs, fixing mechanical security systems, etc.
Medicine: Disease, injuries, poisons, psyk-healing
Persaude: Barter, conversation, counseling, interrogation, marketing, politics, seduction.
Perception: Deduction, empathy, gambling, hearing (etc.), investigation, search, tracking.
Performance: Acting, dancing, costuming, by instrument
Pilot: Civilian aircraft, military aircraft, civilian spacecraft, military spacecraft, or by ship type.
Planetery Vehicles: Cars, canoes, equestrian, ground vehicle repair, horse drawn conveyenaces, hovercraft, industrial vheicles, land navigation, large ground transports, military combat vehicles, powerboats, sailing.
Ranged Weapons: Bows, crossbows, darts, grenades, javelins, slings, throwing knives...
Resistance: Poisons, disease, enivronmental, fatigue, privation
Strategy: Logistics, long term planning, military campaigns.
Survival: By terrain/environment type, navigation
Tactics: By unit type or situation
Last edited by Elennsar on Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Trust in the Emperor, but always check your ammunition.
I've never had much love for specialisation in skill sets; at least, not the way most games have done them. It always ends up working one of two ways.
First way, I spend less points than normal to get more dice on something I will always be using. Let's say, for instance, that I buy 3 levels in Firearms. Then I buy 3 specialty levels (which, out of fairness, are cheaper) in Pistols. For something like 50-75% of the normal XP cost, I'm rolling six dice on my weapon skill, because I'm always going to be using Pistols.
Second way, I spend experience points on something that is almost never used, and I end up wasting XP. Let's say I buy 3 levels in Perception, and take 3 specialty levels in Read Lips. This is something done during character creation, and the truth is, I have no way what-so-ever of knowing whether or not that skill will ever actually be useful. I could very well be wasting my XP entirely, and that's just not cool.
Still, specialties aren't impossible to do, just really tough. I have two suggestions to help make them work.
First, if you're going to have specialties, don't ever make your players buy them; when they reach so many levels in a skill, just let them pick a specialty.
Say for a moment that we take Shadowrun as an example and have a maximum skill rating of 6, and having a specialty gives you two extra dice when using that specialty. Instead of making players buy specialties, for every two levels they have in a skill, simply let them take a specialty that they want.
So, if I have a Firearms rating of 2, I get one specialty. I pick Pistols. Yes, I'm probably going to use pistols a lot from this point on. But I won't always go headfirst into battle with a pistol when I could use a sniper, because it wouldn't be a total waste if I didn't go all Christian Bale on someone's ass. At rating 4, I take another specialty, and decide to go for rifles. Now I'm equally useful shooting someone from beyond their reach as I am fending off an ambush at close range.
My second suggestion is to balance your system based on the assumption of specialties. Because most systems make people buy specialties, the system itself is not balanced against it. But when you give specialties out for free, you can assume people have them, and balance the game accordingly. For this to be feasible, all specialties have to be equally useful, and any given specialty be useful on a fairly regular basis.
That is to say, if I can reliably go into combat using the weapon of my choice 80% of the time, and the game is balanced assuming I have that specialty, then if Read Lips is a specialty option, I should reliably be able to use that specialty in 80% of social situations to the same effect I would use my specialised weapon in combat.
Obviously, the exact numbers there are a fairly complicated bit of math, but a decent approximation should be feasible.
And that's what I have to say on the matter. Take it or leave it.
First way, I spend less points than normal to get more dice on something I will always be using. Let's say, for instance, that I buy 3 levels in Firearms. Then I buy 3 specialty levels (which, out of fairness, are cheaper) in Pistols. For something like 50-75% of the normal XP cost, I'm rolling six dice on my weapon skill, because I'm always going to be using Pistols.
Second way, I spend experience points on something that is almost never used, and I end up wasting XP. Let's say I buy 3 levels in Perception, and take 3 specialty levels in Read Lips. This is something done during character creation, and the truth is, I have no way what-so-ever of knowing whether or not that skill will ever actually be useful. I could very well be wasting my XP entirely, and that's just not cool.
Still, specialties aren't impossible to do, just really tough. I have two suggestions to help make them work.
First, if you're going to have specialties, don't ever make your players buy them; when they reach so many levels in a skill, just let them pick a specialty.
Say for a moment that we take Shadowrun as an example and have a maximum skill rating of 6, and having a specialty gives you two extra dice when using that specialty. Instead of making players buy specialties, for every two levels they have in a skill, simply let them take a specialty that they want.
So, if I have a Firearms rating of 2, I get one specialty. I pick Pistols. Yes, I'm probably going to use pistols a lot from this point on. But I won't always go headfirst into battle with a pistol when I could use a sniper, because it wouldn't be a total waste if I didn't go all Christian Bale on someone's ass. At rating 4, I take another specialty, and decide to go for rifles. Now I'm equally useful shooting someone from beyond their reach as I am fending off an ambush at close range.
My second suggestion is to balance your system based on the assumption of specialties. Because most systems make people buy specialties, the system itself is not balanced against it. But when you give specialties out for free, you can assume people have them, and balance the game accordingly. For this to be feasible, all specialties have to be equally useful, and any given specialty be useful on a fairly regular basis.
That is to say, if I can reliably go into combat using the weapon of my choice 80% of the time, and the game is balanced assuming I have that specialty, then if Read Lips is a specialty option, I should reliably be able to use that specialty in 80% of social situations to the same effect I would use my specialised weapon in combat.
Obviously, the exact numbers there are a fairly complicated bit of math, but a decent approximation should be feasible.
And that's what I have to say on the matter. Take it or leave it.
Last edited by ZER0 on Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Absentminded_Wizard wrote:Yes, according to 4e RAW, you are your own enemy.4e PHB, p. 57 under "Target" (bolding mine) wrote:When a power’s target entry specifies that it affects you and one or more of your allies, then you can take advantage of the power’s effect along with your team-mates. Otherwise, “ally” or “allies” does not include you, and both terms assume willing targets. “Enemy” or “enemies” means a creature or creatures that aren’t your allies (whether those creatures are hostile toward you or not). “Creature” or “creatures” means allies and enemies both, as well as you.
Pretty much assuming that's the case. Once you get past 4 (which is pretty proficient), you're picking "Okay, I intend to focus on this." So costs for specialization are based on that.
Specialities listed are "all things you could specialize in." Not all of which are equally useful (shotguns, for instance. Not useless, but don't expect to benefit as much from a shotgun as a bolt pistol.)
So the game assumes that anyone with 5+ is saying "What I wanted to buy is Pistols." Or whatever.
So if you want to have +6 (from skill) with a pistol or anything else, you have to buy it from the assumption that "Guns" is too broad.
Naturally, you can buy as many specialities as you want. If you have the points, you can be both sniper rifle, pistols, and shotguns with Guns.
Prior to skill level 4, I may just say "No specialities for you." to avoid the issue of balancing them...they're supposed to mean that after you get proficient, you focus on something in particular.
If you pick a speciality and it turns out to suck, you can change it. Provided you have access to the environment to switch.
Learning that it would be really handy to have picked "Rifles" and you didn't and there's no time to learn (or way to explain that you really learned that instead)...tough. Get back to me ASAP.
Wasting points is not cool.
Not sure how much of this came out at all clear, but I'm not interested in anyone suffering for their choices other than just plain picking stuff that's not as useful and called out as such.
Specialities will be adjusted to ensure as many as possible are as close to even as possible and as stated the game is intended to have specialization at 4+ in a skill, so costs are set up trusting that you'll pick what you use most of the time for your speciality or specialties.
Specialities listed are "all things you could specialize in." Not all of which are equally useful (shotguns, for instance. Not useless, but don't expect to benefit as much from a shotgun as a bolt pistol.)
So the game assumes that anyone with 5+ is saying "What I wanted to buy is Pistols." Or whatever.
So if you want to have +6 (from skill) with a pistol or anything else, you have to buy it from the assumption that "Guns" is too broad.
Naturally, you can buy as many specialities as you want. If you have the points, you can be both sniper rifle, pistols, and shotguns with Guns.
Prior to skill level 4, I may just say "No specialities for you." to avoid the issue of balancing them...they're supposed to mean that after you get proficient, you focus on something in particular.
If you pick a speciality and it turns out to suck, you can change it. Provided you have access to the environment to switch.
Learning that it would be really handy to have picked "Rifles" and you didn't and there's no time to learn (or way to explain that you really learned that instead)...tough. Get back to me ASAP.
Wasting points is not cool.
Not sure how much of this came out at all clear, but I'm not interested in anyone suffering for their choices other than just plain picking stuff that's not as useful and called out as such.
Specialities will be adjusted to ensure as many as possible are as close to even as possible and as stated the game is intended to have specialization at 4+ in a skill, so costs are set up trusting that you'll pick what you use most of the time for your speciality or specialties.
Trust in the Emperor, but always check your ammunition.