From: hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall)
Subject: net.rpg - back seat driver
Organization: Boeing
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 00:15:59 GMT

Here's my two-bit rambling observations on the net.faq:        

 > Q5.	What will the one game mechanic be?

 > One large dice seems to be the most practical, either d20 or d%. This
 > will then be modified by the skill or task used. Either you roll and
 > then add the skill and see how high you get, min. 100 for a marginal
 > success, or you roll and try to get below your skill.

 > Q6.	What does the result of the game mechanic tell us?

How is the action 'difficulty' handled? This can determine the dice are
used for skill checks. Some common techniques I've seen:

  1. Dice modifiers are added to the roll.

     This is too linear. A highly skilled individual should not have
     their skill level reduced as much for a more difficult task.

  2. More dice roll checks are allowed for easier tasks.

     Inconvenient, since you will often be making multiple rolls for
     each attempt.

  3. Different sized (or numbers of) dice are used.

     My personal favorite, but you are pretty much stuck with gaussian
     distributions, or whatever sized dice you have available.

  4. Each skill has different levels for various difficulties.

     Each skill with Easy/Average/Hard/... Too many numbers to track.

  5. The difficulty multiplies the skill level.

     Don't much care for this one. Too much mental arithmetic.

Other possibilities?

  6. Different scores for skill and difficulty, depending on the type
     of dice. The roll is compared to both scores:

       a. Roll > skill: automatic failure.

       b. Roll <= skill but > difficulty: try again.

       c. Roll <= skill and <= difficulty: success.

     Note that if the skill level is below the difficulty, there is
     no way to succeed. If the result was a success, the character can
     try yet more skill checks for improved success.

     Problem: Chance of success is always the same.

Others?

 > Q7.	Combat; detailed or streamlined?

The time scale is a key factor. If the time is too short (1 second), you
get bogged down in details. If too long (1 minute), the finer nuances of
combat are lost.

 > The combat system has to be scalable, so you can calculate results on
 > whatever level you want, from armies vs. armies to units vs. units to
 > team vs. team to person vs. person.

Combat will inevitably become more simplified at strategic levels.
Better to work out the low-level combat first, with occasional reality
checks at a higher level.

For scalability, you probably will need to use something like activity
points. The more points you spend at a task, the greater the odds of a
success during a combat round. The character can then pick and choose
which operations to perform: 5 separate attacks using 1 point each, or
a single attack using all 5 points (for example.)

 > Q9.	Hit points or wounds?

 > Q10.	Hit locations?

I think it is a good idea to keep in mind that the wound system will
have to cover a wide variety of creatures, including humans. A wound
that could kill a human may have no effect whatsoever on an
amorphous blob. How do you handle the enormous range of possible
damage types for all the different beings?

One way is you could divide the bodily functions into different
categories. For example:

   Mobility (Legs)
   Weapons  (Arms)
   Command  (Nerves)
   Sensors  (Eyes/Ears)
   Energy   (Lungs/Heart/Stomach)
   Shields  (Bone/Hide)

(Yes, I know, it looks much like SFB. We're all machines really. ;)
Each creature can have different ratings for each category - number of
hits, difficulty to hit, amount of protection, etc.

 > Q15.	Are there any attributes yet?

However this is decided, the skills and attributes will almost
inevitably be tied together in some manner. Once you select the
attributes, you have to decided how the skills are related to those
attributes. Hence, a change in a freeform tree will inevitably
define how the skills are defined. This forces you to choose a set
of attributes - almost certainly by the time when you pick a genre.

The question then becomes: do you choose the widest possible set of
attributes, then limit the list for each particular genre? Or do
you choose a limited set of attributes and try to force the genre
to use that set?

 > Q12.	How do I improve?

 > A12.	All characters in a party get the same amount of experience
 > from each adventure/part - then they can distribute them to any
 > skills used during that adventure. There seems to be a strong
 > majority for skill advancement vs. levels.

I like the Karma approach used by Shadowrun - the points can either
be spent on skills and the like, or they can be used to save your
ass on a key roll. It may not be all that realistic, but it does
add flavor to the game.

Perhaps there could be two types of points awarded: flat experience,
and brownie points for good role-playing. The experience points
will be as realistic as possible, while the brownie points will be
like time off for good behavior - spend it as you like. :-)

--

Finally: how long until this get's it's own group? (No need to get all
steamed up over this last remark. I'm only curious. Heaven forbid that
I should ruffle somebodies feathers.)
 
-- 
 Bob Hall                   |  if [ -bs message ]; then
 Boeing Computer Services   |      mv message /compost/heap/$$
 root@chicken.ca.boeing.com |  fi