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[Fniff]

Maybe I need to come up with a better term for this... I want gunfights to have as many options as melee fights.

[Harry Baldman]

Hell, melee fights are exciting because you can parry a sword, but you can't parry a bullet.

Wrong, it's improbable but you can do it. I kind of want to make that a thing now.

It's pretty much impossible to deliberately parry a bullet in a way that isn't equal to just taking cover or getting lucky while raising a metal plate.

Maybe I need to come up with a better term for this... I want gunfights to have as many options as melee fights.

Maybe you're thinking about this the wrong way. You can't really compare a gunfight with a melee fight on any reasonable terms because the mechanics of them are far too different. I mean, you could compare them with archery to a degree, but not melee combat. If you want to have options, you invariably have to incorporate cover, line of sight, that sort of thing and completely eliminate dodging from the thing.

EDIT: Had an idea. How about having a mechanic in the gunfight where it tracks how fast you are moving? The faster you move, the harder it is to hit you, but you also have a harder time aiming a weapon. For instance, a person can be standing, walking and running, plus additional levels that come with supernatural stuff if you feel like having that.

[monk12]

Hell, melee fights are exciting because you can parry a sword, but you can't parry a bullet.

Wrong, it's improbable but you can do it. I kind of want to make that a thing now.

It's pretty much impossible to deliberately parry a bullet in a way that isn't equal to just taking cover or getting lucky while raising a metal plate.

Maybe I need to come up with a better term for this... I want gunfights to have as many options as melee fights.

Maybe you're thinking about this the wrong way. You can't really compare a gunfight with a melee fight on any reasonable terms because the mechanics of them are far too different. I mean, you could compare them with archery to a degree, but not melee combat. If you want to have options, you invariably have to incorporate cover, line of sight, that sort of thing and completely eliminate dodging from the thing.

EDIT: Had an idea. How about having a mechanic in the gunfight where it tracks how fast you are moving? The faster you move, the harder it is to hit you, but you also have a harder time aiming a weapon. For instance, a person can be standing, walking and running, plus additional levels that come with supernatural stuff if you feel like having that.

This is interesting to me, since it makes me imagine crazy Parkour gunfights, and it's easy to handwave the increased miss chance as a combination of misleading movement and dynamic improvisation of cover. Mechanically though, as described it's a bit too simple; generally speaking (and all things being equal,) I find that the ability to murder trumps the ability to not die, since doing unto others eventually equals out to not being killed. In other words, assuming killing other people is the goal then it's still more advantageous to hunker down somewhere than to run around like a crazy person.

Possible solutions:

1) Parkour movement mechanics that allow you to set up better attacks via strategic movement or combos or something. The idea being that moving around makes you hard to hit, but if you satisfy preconditions you can mitigate/offset your own attack penalty. This concept can be further broken down into a more tactical map-based thing (so your movement is aimed at specific features of the map which will enable better shooting tricks,) or a more abstract system where pulling off particular Parkour stunts (either individually or as a combo or something) unlocks specific Martial Parkour attacks, the conceit being that you specifically build momentum/movement up and then trade it in for a directed attack (running off a roof, sliding down a guardrail, and then flinging yourself around a lightpost in order to throw yourself at the opponent from an unexpected direction, guns blazing.)

2) Make the goal not about killing people. The idea would be that going places and grabbing things is more important than direct elimination of opposition; thus, moving around is better than standing still because you can't accomplish any objectives if you stay in one place.

Note that for both of these, I'd definitely make reloading a thing, since that's an action that can be difficult to pull off on the run (especially when "on the run" involves some kind of crazy gymnastics.) Stop running for long enough to reload, or hope the one bullet in your clip will do the job? Added bonus, it makes attacking riskier, since if you waste your attack then it costs you time/movement.

[freeformschooler]

So I'm looking into a unique way to build a semi-classless game system. Essentially, it would be your standard RPG fare: either rolls or flat math on a stat/skill system. However, there's a twist: you build you characters with an Elematrix.

Spoiler: Elematrix basics (click to show/hide)

Sorry I couldn't come up with a better visualization of this tonight.

Base rules of the Elematrix

All player characters start with a 4x4 empty Matrix that looks a bit like this:

.1234
1....
2....
3....
4....

Each slot in the Elematrix may be filled with one "Element" to determine character's abilities. And by "abilities" I mean both attributes and active/passive skills. Elements count for both! Some example elements are as follows. We'll be using these for the simplified Elematrix examples in the rest of the explanation.

Heart (H)

Each primary level of Heart grants your character a point of HP. Secondary levels of Heart determine how much HP is regenerated each turn (1/2 secondary level). When your character reaches 0 HP, they're Knocked Out.

Soul (S)

Each primary level of Soul grants your character a point of SP. Secondary levels of Soul determine how much SP is regenerated each turn (1/2 secondary level). To activate active abilities, you must have at least as much SP as the ability requires.

Fire (F)

Fire represents your character's burning soul and physical combat prowess. Characters with high secondary levels of Fire gain fire-based abilities depending on their combat style, but characters with high primary levels of Fire deal more damage with swords, lances, bows and other similar weaponry.

Ice (I)

Ice represents your character's cold, unrelenting confidence. High primary levels of Ice increase your character's resistance to physical damage and other ill minor ill effects, but high secondary levels of the same element grant protective and tactical abilities based on the coldness of winter.

Lightning (L)

Lightning represents your character's unstable, unconstrained talent. High secondary levels of Lightning are extremely useful as they grant your character a wide array of quick, unpredictable spells, but high primary levels of Lightning grant potency with all magical abilities across the board.

Earth (E)

The counterpart to Lightning, Earth represents your character's softer, more in-tune-with-nature side. Characters with high primary levels of Earth are more easily able to predict and defend against discrepancies in the natural world, shielding them from damaging effects of magic. High secondary levels grant nature-based abilities that aid both the user and their allies.

So what's all this Primary and Secondary business, then?

There are two basic rules when placing Elements on the Elematrix.

2: An element's Primary Level is multiplied by the number of rows downward it is placed (with the bottom row being a 4x modifier).
1: Similarly! An element's Secondary Level is multiplied by the number of columns to the right it is placed (with the rightmost column being a  4x multiplier).

Let's look at a few examples.

.1234
1H...
2....
3....
4H...

This character has five Primary Levels of Heart (and thus five HP). They also have two Secondary Levels of Heart, meaning they will regenerate one HP per turn because they have two Secondary Levels of Heart. In stat sheet terms:

HP: 5 (1/turn)

This would be an example of metagaming:

.1234
1H...
2.H..
3..H.
4...H

This character has 10 HP and regenerates 5 per turn. See that? But, by placing Heart in the four most balanced slots in their Elematrix, they have locked themselves off from perhaps more useful stats. Let's take another example, this time with two opposing stat sheets.

Character one:

.1234
1HE..
2....
3H...
4F...

This dashing newbie has the following stats. Note that most elemental abilities require four or more Secondary Levels in those elements at least, so this character has none.

HP: 4 (1/turn)
Flame: 4 (1 secondary)
Earth: 1 (2 secondary)

.1234
1...F
2I...
3H...
4L...

This second character has instead chosen to go the path of a newbie mage. Let's take a look.

HP: 3 (0.5 becomes 0 here, so no HP regen)
Lightning: 4 (1 secondary)
Fire: 1 (4 secondary)
Ice: 2 (1 secondary)
Abilities: Firebolt (Lightning primary vs Earth primary)

Let's say that, on the first turn, Character One makes an unarmed strike against Character two. It's their Fire versus their foe's Ice, so 4-2=2 and Character Two takes two damage, being reduced to one HP.

However, Character Two, a competent tactician, casts Firebolt (the full quirks of which are here not revealed). As magical attacks are Lightning primary versus Earth primary here, Character One takes three damage, also being reduced to one HP.

Obviously you don't have to use actual Magical Elements to use the Elematrix. They may be called anything and repurposed to fit any concept. The point is to provide a broad, fast, fun way to generate a mechanically-distinct character without much additional effort on the player or GM. Sorry if this explanation feels rushed and incomplete. It's late out and I'm tired.

[monk12]

Came up with a magic system that seems like it has potential; I don't have time to do anything with it now, but maybe some other enterprising individual will adopt it.

1- All magical incantations are done in strict 5-7-5 haiku format.

2- The effects of these incantations are based on keywords within the haiku. Thus, spellcrafting involves forcing a keyword or two into the same haiku.

3- Nobody knows all the possible keywords, which naturally leads to spell failure and shenanigans.

Obviously, the brute force way to accomplish this would be to map out a million different keywords before the game starts, but that'd be a pain and unnecessarily restrictive. Rather, to simulate the unpredictable nature of haiku magic the GM rolls a d6 with every spell, and on a 1 there is a new keyword in the spell! The GM then randomly selects a word and comes up with an effect/modifier for it to have.

The problem with that approach is that the new keyword may have already shown up in a previous haiku spell. One solution is to keep a txt file with all spells in it for easy searching, and disregarding potential keywords that have already shown up. Another solution would be to make the selected word a special modifier, in that it only has an effect when used with another keyword; thus, the spell in question can be justified if the modifier appears with a keyword, and that combination has never appeared before.

I'm also interested if anyone has better ideas than those!

So I'm looking into a unique way to build a semi-classless game system. Essentially, it would be your standard RPG fare: either rolls or flat math on a stat/skill system. However, there's a twist: you build you characters with an Elematrix.

Spoiler: Elematrix basics (click to show/hide)

Sorry I couldn't come up with a better visualization of this tonight.

Base rules of the Elematrix

All player characters start with a 4x4 empty Matrix that looks a bit like this:

.1234
1....
2....
3....
4....

Each slot in the Elematrix may be filled with one "Element" to determine character's abilities. And by "abilities" I mean both attributes and active/passive skills. Elements count for both! Some example elements are as follows. We'll be using these for the simplified Elematrix examples in the rest of the explanation.

Heart (H)

Each primary level of Heart grants your character a point of HP. Secondary levels of Heart determine how much HP is regenerated each turn (1/2 secondary level). When your character reaches 0 HP, they're Knocked Out.

Soul (S)

Each primary level of Soul grants your character a point of SP. Secondary levels of Soul determine how much SP is regenerated each turn (1/2 secondary level). To activate active abilities, you must have at least as much SP as the ability requires.

Fire (F)

Fire represents your character's burning soul and physical combat prowess. Characters with high secondary levels of Fire gain fire-based abilities depending on their combat style, but characters with high primary levels of Fire deal more damage with swords, lances, bows and other similar weaponry.

Ice (I)

Ice represents your character's cold, unrelenting confidence. High primary levels of Ice increase your character's resistance to physical damage and other ill minor ill effects, but high secondary levels of the same element grant protective and tactical abilities based on the coldness of winter.

Lightning (L)

Lightning represents your character's unstable, unconstrained talent. High secondary levels of Lightning are extremely useful as they grant your character a wide array of quick, unpredictable spells, but high primary levels of Lightning grant potency with all magical abilities across the board.

Earth (E)

The counterpart to Lightning, Earth represents your character's softer, more in-tune-with-nature side. Characters with high primary levels of Earth are more easily able to predict and defend against discrepancies in the natural world, shielding them from damaging effects of magic. High secondary levels grant nature-based abilities that aid both the user and their allies.

So what's all this Primary and Secondary business, then?

There are two basic rules when placing Elements on the Elematrix.

2: An element's Primary Level is multiplied by the number of rows downward it is placed (with the bottom row being a 4x modifier).
1: Similarly! An element's Secondary Level is multiplied by the number of columns to the right it is placed (with the rightmost column being a  4x multiplier).

Let's look at a few examples.

.1234
1H...
2....
3....
4H...

This character has five Primary Levels of Heart (and thus five HP). They also have two Secondary Levels of Heart, meaning they will regenerate one HP per turn because they have two Secondary Levels of Heart. In stat sheet terms:

HP: 5 (1/turn)

This would be an example of metagaming:

.1234
1H...
2.H..
3..H.
4...H

This character has 10 HP and regenerates 5 per turn. See that? But, by placing Heart in the four most balanced slots in their Elematrix, they have locked themselves off from perhaps more useful stats. Let's take another example, this time with two opposing stat sheets.

Character one:

.1234
1HE..
2....
3H...
4F...

This dashing newbie has the following stats. Note that most elemental abilities require four or more Secondary Levels in those elements at least, so this character has none.

HP: 4 (1/turn)
Flame: 4 (1 secondary)
Earth: 1 (2 secondary)

.1234
1...F
2I...
3H...
4L...

This second character has instead chosen to go the path of a newbie mage. Let's take a look.

HP: 3 (0.5 becomes 0 here, so no HP regen)
Lightning: 4 (1 secondary)
Fire: 1 (4 secondary)
Ice: 2 (1 secondary)
Abilities: Firebolt (Lightning primary vs Earth primary)

Let's say that, on the first turn, Character One makes an unarmed strike against Character two. It's their Fire versus their foe's Ice, so 4-2=2 and Character Two takes two damage, being reduced to one HP.

However, Character Two, a competent tactician, casts Firebolt (the full quirks of which are here not revealed). As magical attacks are Lightning primary versus Earth primary here, Character One takes three damage, also being reduced to one HP.

Obviously you don't have to use actual Magical Elements to use the Elematrix. They may be called anything and repurposed to fit any concept. The point is to provide a broad, fast, fun way to generate a mechanically-distinct character without much additional effort on the player or GM. Sorry if this explanation feels rushed and incomplete. It's late out and I'm tired.

Your ideas are interesting to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Especially since I'm in my summer RPG mood. It would be particularly neat if new Elements are gained as loot; namely, you get some of them as random drops, some as predetermined quest rewards and some you just buy to properly customize your character. Bonus points if a mechanic exists to free up used slots in the Elematrix (at some cost, of course.)

[Fniff]

I want to make a forum game about criminals. I'm thinking it's going to be a quite open RPG, and I haven't worked it all out yet, but I've come up with a few ideas.

There are two meters: Luck and Money. Luck runs out is when you fail certain rolls that could lead you into danger. If you get shot, you lose a luck point, but if you fail to hack into the CIA database then you'll lose a luck point too. Money is the amount of cash you have on hand, and it's lost when you buy stuff or at the end of a few turns as part of "living expenses" like food and electricity. When both meters run out, you're out of the game as you're either made bankrupt, killed, or arrested. Naturally as time goes on, things get riskier, but also living expenses go up, meaning the players can't just farm jobs until they've got infinite money.

There is another two meters that are more wanted levels: Heat and Notoriety. Heat is the active persuing by the law you're getting, while Notoriety is your long-term reputation. Heat will have you being actively hunted by the cops with the only way to stop it would be hiding or losing them. Notoriety is more subtle; it's a tracker for what the cops know about you. If you're a drug dealer, except more cops to turn up if you roll a bum roll on dealing, or if you're a bank robber expect the banks to be more heavily armed. If you want notoriety to go down, do something different in order to throw them off the scent: they won't think it's you because it doesn't match your M.O. You could also wear a mask instead, but that's rather suspicious on it's own and they can identify you if your notriety gets high enough.

The final idea I had was for gang warfare. As most of the mechanics I've come up with implies the average player is probably a single crim who cares more for mercenary jobs then supporting any gangs, a good way to involve gangs would be this. Every so often, a certain district is embroiled in a gang war. This means the streets are not safe (Meaning the player could get into combat while within the zone) and the customers do not want to hang around there (meaning lower profits for black market players). However, the advantage to gang wars is that players can join on the side of a certain gang to do hostile activities against the other gang. The other gang will get very angry, but the reward will be double the usual cash. The problem is, gang wars don't last forever and when the war ends, the source of money is gone too.

[Nerjin]

There are two meters: Luck and Money. Luck runs out is when you fail certain rolls that could lead you into danger. If you get shot, you lose a luck point. Similarly if you fail to hack into the CIA database then you'll lose a luck point too.

Sorta fixed that for you. BUT it seems like Luck is just a modified health roll. But for the most part I dig the idea. I sorta... Well I think the gang war thing should be a bit more of a benefit. Something like access to the various gangs you help power and wealth with the downside being that you piss off other gangs.

[Fniff]

Maybe you could get free items and supplies from the gangs without having to spend money? Also, Luck is kinda meant to be a health roll, if a bit more expanded upon.

[Parsely]

Maybe you could get free items and supplies from the gangs without having to spend money? Also, Luck is kinda meant to be a health roll, if a bit more expanded upon.

How do you recover luck? What happens if you run low on luck? Do you just keel over, or is the next bullet that comes near guaranteed to blow your brains out the back of your head?

[kj1225]

You seem to for get that most people who have never taken a bullet tend to do things that let them get caught. One bullet is enough to let you get arrested or worse in almost all scenarios if you don't get shot a lot.

[kj1225]

Just have teams that go out at different times. If you give everyone a set amount of crazy allowed in the hub then you just need to pay attention to the guys on the mission.

[freeformschooler]

Just have teams that go out at different times. If you give everyone a set amount of crazy allowed in the hub then you just need to pay attention to the guys on the mission.

Wrong thread, but see my edit.

[Parsely]

You seem to for get that most people who have never taken a bullet tend to do things that let them get caught. One bullet is enough to let you get arrested or worse in almost all scenarios if you don't get shot a lot.

I'm having a really hard time understanding what you were trying to get across there.

[kj1225]

Bullets really hurt.

[Parsely]

Bullets really hurt.

What does that have to do with fniff's luck mechanic, which I was talking about? And that still doesn't make sense in relation to your previous comment?? D: