Identity Crisis Flow Sheet

[Orion]

Name the PCs
In Identity Crisis, the PCs collectively form a "Tribe". This word translates a significantly broader Japanese concept that often means "gang," and indeed the PCs will generally but not exclusively operate as a criminal gang. The important point is that they depend on each other for sfaety from a hostile world.

Step 2: Write up a Six Person Party

Birdman: Birdman is a disgraced Bushi of the Raven Clan. He is sneaky and has no obvious weapons and spends most of his time jump kicking people with razor feet. He is also a doctor capable of both combat first aid and researching plot-level health problems.

Hendrix: An anemic fellow with a sacred lute, his music paralyzes peasants and charms shinto spirits.

Rose: A scarred shadow mechanic, she can fix anything. Contributes to fights by dropping bombs and poisons from a personal glider.

Johnny: sexy foreign chick rides around on a giant tigerhawk, lancing or swording things as appropriate. She can also navigate the shadowlands.

Rei: Dour sorcerer who nukes buildings, drains swamps, and flies around stabbing fools.

Tsukiko: If the information exists, this lowborn Seeress can access it. If she has to snap a few necks from behind first, so be it.

Step 3: Write up a Three Person Party

Party One: Johnny, Hendrix, Tsukiko

This party is focused on wilderness adventures. Tsukiko scries ahead and they fly around on Johnny's hawk. Hendrix neutralizes animal threats and is the trump card against big demons. Brigands get eaten or sneak attacked by tsukiko. If forced into an urban stealth adventure Hendrix can fast-talk or use contacts, Tsukiko can steal paydata or gather intel, and Johnny is... probably relegated to "create a distraction" or insurance against capture.

Party Two: Rose, Rei, Birdman

Focused on intrigue. They fly around on a clunky airbus doing B&Es. Rei demolishes obstacles, Rose disable security, and Birdman does stealthkills. They don't shine in social situations but can usually avoid them. In the woods, Birdman tanks big monsters while Rose takes them our with gadgets, and Rei mows down mobs. Or maybe Rose and Rei switch. Unclear.

Step Four: Outline an Adventure

The tribe finds themselves low on cash and supplies as they stagger into Raven lands. Staying at an inn that evening, they receive a messenger from the monastery: one of the surgeons wants a discrete favor from them. They meet up with her and are unnerved by her inhuman serenity. She explains that she is being stalked and wants you to look into it--quietly. She is obviously hiding something, and can potetnailly be pressured into giving up some spoilers.

They stake out the grounds and get to play a short stealth game or an awkward social scene to avoid working at cross-purposes with the monastery's guard. Eventually, shadow-altered beasts attack, lead by a possessed child. PCs can get as involved or uninvolved with the fight as they want, or focus on tracking/analysis.

Either by physical tracking or astral traces, they track the shadow creatures to the source, but it's a sacred building they can't enter. They can report this to the abbot if they want to piss off their sponsor. They can break in, stake out, or do whatever. Eventually they catch the bad guy doing his thing, probably in the middle of the night. He is a temple steward who was married to their employer before she took vows and had her emotions removed. His kung fu is strong, and their boss wants him taken out without killing him or causing a scene.

Eventually he's beaten, and there is maybe a disturbing confrontation between him and their employer. He pleads with her to acknowledge their bond, while she has him killed, exiled, or blackmailed.


Step Five: Write out a campaign

It turns out from reading his files that the demon he worked for claimed it could take him to an ancient holy site, which is where he was planning to run away with his kidnapped ex-wife. The PCs check it out by force or persuasion.

It turns out to be a half-functional pattern gate. There is a short dungeon crawl, after which they have a sporadic source of goods and services otherwide difficult to come by. They try to keep their new powerbased hidden while they hunt down some personal enemies and subtly drive off nearby Ox clan speculators. Eventually they declare themselves lords of the region and perhaps seek membership in a great clan, or not.

Advancement Arcs:

Birdman can pretty much just kick increasingly huge enemies so hard they go flying or catch fire. Meanwhile, his medical expertise has farther and farther reaching plot consequences.

Tsukiko can eventually open portals to strange hellscapes, see the future, and make combat illusions.

Rei can tear down and raise castles, mass produce consumer goods, and nuke armies.

Rose has a natural advancement track that begins with Refine Smoke Powder and ends with Construct Plot Device.

Hendrix: this guy eventually gets a spirit companion and a cult of followers. He probably picks up soft style martial arts as a second string schtick.

Johnny: Eventually rides a dragon and has a squad of apprentice hawkriders? I have trouble seeing the advancement on this one actually.

Step Six: Choose a Base System
Here's what I'm thinking:

I like both Focus and Line mechanics that Frank proposed, which we would call Yin and Yang and represent with white and black dice. I'm also interested in the 3d6-based CAN damage system.

Together that makes for 5 dice, which is the number of elements in Wu Xing. We have toggled feat-like abilities and scaling power levels, so my thought is to make the "core mechanic" for non-combat options a 5-die Shadowrun dice pool. You make players buy 1 black, white, yellow, green, and red die and count hits, with the added feature that you can add botch and crit effects at will by tracking individual dice.

(If the Fire die rolls 1, your prototype is unstable; if the water die hits, it has a longer duration, or whatever).

Character Creation would look something like:

1: Ask DM for Ashrama and Dharma. (Ashrama is the "tier" of abilities you have access to. Dharma is the level modifier to damage and resistances).

2: Choose varna (caste/class, unlocks "restricted" options down the road)

3: Choose Traits. These are boolean abilities which cover all noncombat applications. Each has an associated element.

4: Choose Talents. Often trait dependent, each talent is a "column" of winds of fate abilities.

5: Load Chakras: Each chakra is a column of "slots" in which one talent can be "set". You can re-set chakras frequently.

6: Record Chi: Your 5 resistances, or "chi", are each equal to Dharma plus a modifier. Find the element for which you have the most traits and talents. You get +2 resistance according to the generating cycle and -2 according to the overcoming cycle.

Done!

[K]

I'd play that. Of course, all the subsystems need to work and not get overly complicated.

[Username17]

That sounds really neat. One thing that I am concerned over is the idea that a poor result on the Fire or Wood die could have measurable effects. Because then you're basically going to a one d6 system. And that's extremely swingy.

I mean, you could have five stats, where lower was better, and that determined what you needed to roll on each die to get a hit - but that still means that improving one stat is still an awful lot like getting +1 on a d6, and that's very large.

-Username17

[Orion]

The idea is that noncombat abilities should mostly "just work," with the die results providing "color." For example, many "craft" skills probably have a threshold of ZERO but die-based effects.

So, if you're in the woods and you want to make an antidote for somebody, you roll the dice. You can make it no matter what, but

if you glitch wood, it takes 8 hours
if you glitch fire, you encounter a dangerous monster
if you glitch water, you stabilize rather than cure your patient.

And maybe you could have a card for your "medicine" skill that had all that printed on it.

[Username17]

I could see having some sort of system whereby "extra hits" could do something or other. So if you had an extra hit, and your Wood die had been a hit, you could announce that the Wood die was the "extra" hit and get some Wood-related special effect. That seems like it could be a flavorful way of handling a tightly closed RNG.

-Username17

[Lokathor]

I would also play this and I know several people who would play this.

[Orion]

Can someone break down for me the odds of getting n hits on 5 dice?

[Lokathor]

Code: Select all

C:\troll>troll.exe 0 srun.t n=5
  Value    % =                 % >=
     0 :   13.1687242798      100.0
     1 :   32.9218106996       86.8312757202
     2 :   32.9218106996       53.9094650206
     3 :   16.4609053498       20.987654321
     4 :    4.11522633745       4.52674897119
     5 :    0.411522633745      0.411522633745

Average = 1.66666666667    Spread = 1.05409255339  Mean deviation = 0.877914951989

As the output hints at:
First column is odds of getting exactly that number of hits
Second column is that many or more.

[TarkisFlux]

Exact Results version:

0 hits: 13.17%
1 hits: 32.92%
2 hits: 32.92%
3 hits: 16.46%
4 hits: 4.12%
5 hits: 0.41%

Cumulative Results Version:

1 or more: 86.83%
2 or more: 53.91%
3 or more: 20.99%
4 or more: 4.53%

Math available upon request, but it's just the binomial coefficient to count number of states multiplied by the odds of that state.

Edit - Fucking ninjas.

[Orion]

So, starting to think using "hits on 4+" is better for allowing a range of difficulties to be reasonable.

For the most part I want rolls only to happen when the odds of success are within a narrowish range, making auto-successes automatic. The trick is how to deal with opposed things like stealth/perception.

I'm inclined to actually steal the combat rules, and model infiltrating a building by having each room make a "perception attack" against you when entered, and having you accumulate exposure penalties like wounds.

[TarkisFlux]

Probabilities for hits on 4+

Exact Results version:

0 hits: 3.13%
1 hits: 15.63%
2 hits: 31.25%
3 hits: 31.25%
4 hits: 15.63%
5 hits: 3.13%

Cumulative Results Version:

1 or more: 96.88%
2 or more: 81.25%
3 or more: 50.00%
4 or more: 18.75%

Edit - If you're interested, I can also list odds for various numbers of successes coupled with various numbers of glitches (assuming glitches are rolling a 1 like described in the OP). Generally though you should expect to see exactly 1 glitch on about 40% of rolls, and 2 or more on another 20% of them, so glitches will not be uncommon.

[TavishArtair]

Just throwing ideas at a dartboard, feel free to disregard.

You should try to have the number of chakras end on five (a nice direct link to the elements involved) or seven (the elements + one for yourself [inner universe] and one for the world [outer universe] I suppose?), if only because those are commonly recognized numbers of chakras/energy systems in the body. That said, there are traditions which have even more chakras, so it's not a big deal either way.

Do chakras determine where talents are set, or does loading a talent into a chakra modify the talent/chakra? For an example of the latter, maybe this one talent gets a bonus for being loaded into your throat chakra, or an alternative bonus for being loaded into your navel chakra, let's say it being an Awesome Voice, modifying whether it makes people understand (and love?) you or fear you, because you're either speaking either from the center of communication or (basically) shouting, and you can load it into another chakra but only those two places get a bonus, so if you have a competing navel chakra thing maybe you have to settle for throat even though you do kind of want people to be terrified, or if you're a super-face you'd actually have both of those chakras loaded up with communication bonuses and you'd just throw it somewhere else.

For obvious reasons, resetting your chakras should be some kind of meditative exercise. You can sit with your legs crossed, do kata, rock out, take a nap, or have sex, but it's probably not going to be very productive. Except maybe in the literal sense of procreation (if you go that way).

[TarkisFlux]

Given the regularity with which people are going to roll 1s on a pile of d6, task resolution may take on a "how are the dice going to screw me now?" feel as opposed to something more positive. You might want to set all base successes for abilities to the worst successful outcome instead, and then go with Frank's suggestion that you allow people to spend extra hits on bonus effects. So, using your medical example, 1 hit would get you a completed potion or whatever that takes 8 hours and they're stabilized but not recovered and whatnot, but you could spend your extra hits (that you're likely to have) on boosting that result in ways that you wanted / were available to you. So if you hit fire, wood, and water, you could choose any two of "don't meet a monster during the downtime, shorter downtime, patient healed instead of merely stable", with the last hit going towards your base level of success. Then the dice aren't screwing you on any given roll, they're assisting you in somewhat random ways.

This has the added benefit of not making you look through your pile of dice for 2 types of things.

[Orion]

Okay, going with the "spending hits" model. Now, the big questions:

How do I make the stealth/infiltration minigame interesting? I've been thinking about how to keep everyone involved, allow for a variety of interesting outcomes, and the like, but for now I'm going to just make a list of the obstacles a zoku needs to watch out for so I can make sure to write rules for all of them.

--Human guards, to sneak by our kncok out
--alarm systems with classic stuff like pressure plates
--gene scanners from Gattaca. Not sure whether they should be able to scan a whole hallway or only be there for attendants to wave you through.
--magic surveillance. The shadowlands is constantly dumping flying camera drones into our air which onmyouji can tap into.
--guard monsters with unusual senses.
--computerized locks to bypass
--crazy architecture to navigate, possible space-bending baba yaga houses.

An I forgetting anything?

[Orion]

Is there some way I can avoid having any numbers at all on a character sheet? I wanted to do a no-skills all-powers system, but I'm not sure how granular to get. Do I end up needing to explicitly write in a power for every type of gadget that can be built/hacked/operated? How do I draw the line between powers that are "background" and powers that are "real?" Or am I looking at some kind of (gag) point system?

[fectin]

What if you bumped the dice up to d10s? That normalizes your roles a bit.
Also, it depends on your players, but I would tend to avoid consulting five lookup tables for results every time you resolve an action. Maybe instead decide that medicine is wood and water, and those are the only two you care about as special dice?

Come to think of it, that could solve both issues: Stick with d6s and pick two elements for an action. If they both come up 1, the action gas adverse results. Not sure what your hit threshold is though.

[TarkisFlux]

I don't know what numbers on a sheet would even do in the current setup, since they wouldn't be modifying thresholds or causing you to roll more dice. It looks like you already have a power only setup honestly, though one where each power might work better on a card to make the die result lookup faster.

[TavishArtair]

Is there some way I can avoid having any numbers at all on a character sheet? I wanted to do a no-skills all-powers system, but I'm not sure how granular to get. Do I end up needing to explicitly write in a power for every type of gadget that can be built/hacked/operated? How do I draw the line between powers that are "background" and powers that are "real?" Or am I looking at some kind of (gag) point system?

Yes, and no.

You can write powers that are fairly "broad", that let you "do X kind of thing" and you're fine. For instance a power could be a Neo Space Swiss Army Knife that gives any kind of tool you can fit in the palm of your hand and not extending more than a half-foot past it with the only limitation being that if you use it for a weapon it has the following stats.

You can make the real vs. background powers by deciding on a dividing line, accepting that it won't be perfect, and giving currencies that are spent on different sides of the dividing line, with no overlap. These can be 1:1 currencies like feats or 5:1 currencies like GURPS points tend to be.

[Username17]

One thing you definitely don't want is to end up like Cthulhutech and have a bunch of arbitrary words that mean numbers. Because that is really annoying. Don't tell me whether something is "skillful", just tell me that it is a 3.

-Username17

[Orion]

Ashramas Your Ashrama is your station in life. Unlike your Varna, which has to do with what kind of things you do, and is fixed, your Ashrama has to do with the scale on which you work, and is expected to improve. Here are the Ashramas

Ashigaru
--Lowborn Individuals
--Roll 1 die per action
--Vulnerable to mind-affecting powers, especially those that subdue, rather than incite, action.
--Draw from a generic power list, no specialized training
--5 Ashigaru can form a squad, which has a 5-die pool and the powers of all its members
--Karma (CAN) of 0-2

Examples: Team of Bodyguards, Exorcists, Mechanics, “Readers.”

Ninja:
--A ninja is an experienced Ashigaru whose behavioral inhibitors have been loosened
--Rolls 5 dice
--Uses Ashigaru Powers
--No mind-control vulnerabilities
--Karma 1-4

Examples: Ninja Assassin, Chief Priest, Mutant Visionary, Possessed Thug

Ronin:
--A Ronin may be a disgraced highborn, or a ninja with unusual training and resources.
--rolls 6 dice
--Uses Ashigaru powers, plus Ronin powers from a clan list. Ronin powers tend to “trump” ashigaru powers in direct conflict, or in superior convenience, but tend to be of a scale limited to personal endeavors.
--Karma 3-5

Examples: Hevezda Hawkmaster, Raven Surgeon, Ox Security Expert

Samurai
--Samurai tier characters have ronin-level training, and access to substantially greater resources
--roll 6 dice
--Samurai powers break down by clan and have “big” effects useful for ruling territory or directing large enterprises
--Karma 4-6

Lion Prophet, Tiger Necromancer, Patalan Record-Keeper

Bodhi Tier
--Bodhi are Ronin-level characters who have transcended their humanity and gained earthsaking personal power
--rolls 6 dice
--Bodhi powers facilitate rapid travel, fighting giant monsters, immunity to ordinary attacks, and extraordinary information-gathering.
--Karma 4-8

Examples: Army-Slaying warrior, ethereal pattern-mage, S2-EVA pilot.

Imperial Tier
--Imperial Tier characters are as powerful as a bodhi and as connected as a Samurai.
--rolls 6 dice
--imperials have bodhi and samurai powers; there are a few imperial tier powers, but only those needed to simplify the interaction between the two spheres of influence.
--karma 6-8

Examples: The Chrome Bodhisattva; The Carp Mainframe, a shadow dragon.

The "default" starting player character would be a Ronin with Karma 3 and 4 Chakras.

[TarkisFlux]

Since you previously said you were going with a 5-die system where each die corresponded to one of the elements, what happens when you roll more or less dice?

[Orion]

When you roll less dice, you're missing one or more elements. Usually 5 people will work in a squad that rolls a normal dicepool. The idea behind 6-die pools was to give character 2 dice in their favored element, but on reflection that's probably a stupid idea.

[TarkisFlux]

It's not a stupid idea. It makes people more likely to have hits in their favored element, and thus get the bonus (or the option for the bonous) for their favored element. If they get it twice they just spend one of them on the activation and then get the element bonus on top of it, along with every other element bonus they rolled up. It doesn't have to be an elemental bonus die though. If it was neutral, it would only exist so you could spend it on activation and get more elemental bonuses, and that's not a bad upgrade on its own.

For the Ashigaru, I'm not sure what you're going for. Right now it looks like they're as effective as PCs initially but fall apart pretty fast as you start murdering off their captain planet teamup. If you wanted them to be less effective more consistently, you might be better off having them roll 5 dice just like most other people and just require more hits before activation.

[Orion]

The original idea behind giving out an elemental bonus die, (or maybe just a re-roll of the favored elemental die), was to give easier access to the elemental bonus. (It also makes you more vulnerable to the associated glitch, if you play with glitches.) The problem is that the incentive is TOO good. The effectiveness differential between getting, say, a stunlock 1/3 of the time or 5/9 of the time just makes balance impossible.

EDIT: Re Ashigaru, this is not a bug but a feature. Ashigaru squads lose members when Ninjas would take non-crippling wounds; thus you are incentivized to attack mooks first.

[TarkisFlux]

If every element has similar effect magnitudes it's not a big deal, though initiative does matter more. If only some of them have that potential, then it's either an issue with the power itself (i.e. don't use things that you don't want hitting 5 in 9 for some characters) or a mechanics incompatibility. It could be made to fit either way really, depending on which one you wanted to keep more.