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[scapheap]

Pre-in because I'm going to sleep now.

[freeformschooler]

SIXTH PRE IN!

[IronyOwl]

There are no pre-ins, only Zuul.

Although it's up now anyway, so hurry. :3

[lawastooshort]

Oh freeform, please do Roll to Drop Til You Stop.

It reminds me, oddly, that I was wondering if it would be possible to, after my previous Python inspired success, make an RtD inspired by Life of Brian, where you... um... and then... er...

I mean, it would entirely be possible, but I'm not sure yet how I would go about it.

[IronyOwl]

The players are disciples. Trouble is, it's hard to figure out which Messiah is the real one, get his message out, codify his message, deal with magistrates going on about cabbage, that sort of thing.

[freeformschooler]

Oh freeform, please do Roll to Drop Til You Stop.

The only winning move is not to play.

[monk12]

So yeah, I ended up putting a fair amount of thought into this at work today.

Mountain of Madness

High in the mountains lies an alpine resort- its name changes every time a new company purchases the property, but the locals refer to it as the Mansion. During the summer, it is a popular retreat for wealthy individuals and corporate groups seeking to escape the heat on the coast. During the winter, however, the Mansion lies empty, cut off from civilization by heavy snowfalls that arrive early and linger late.

Empty except for the caretaker, that is.

During the winter, the property is maintained by a man who appreciates the solitude and ample free time afforded him- his main responsibilities are to prevent and minimize damage that can occur during the harsh mountain storms. Unfortunately, it seems that the isolation drove him mad in the end, and he killed himself in a spectacularly gory way. The locals whisper that the Mansion is cursed, but the psychologists agree that man was simply not meant to be so isolated, especially not in this day and age.

Acting on the recommendations of those psychologists, the Weatherford Group (investment company and current owner of the Mansion) selected the new caretaker with one important criterion added to the job description- the caretaker must be a family man willing to bring them with him for the winter. A small, nuclear family should provide plenty of social interaction to maintain the mental health of the caretaker- the psychologists say so.

Spoiler: General Mechanics (click to show/hide)

The standard action is simply as follows:

1 and lower- Critical Failure- Your action fails, and your situation worsens as a result.
2- Failure- Your action fails, but you suffer no other special penalty.
3- Partial Success- Your action succeeds, but perhaps not to the degree you might have wished.
4- Success- Your action succeeds as planned.
5- Critical Success- Your action achieves the best possible result.
6+ - Overshoot- You succeed, and as a result of that success your overall situation changes unexpectedly.

Circumstances may modify this roll, as well as traits and ability use. Characters may expend AP to add 2 to any action, as described under the Characters spoiler.

Spoiler: GMWS (click to show/hide)

aka "GM Wound System" aka "Gatleos/Monk Wound System"

HP, Unconsciousness, and Death

HP represents the ability of a character to be not-unconscious. HP commonly represents (but is not limited to) the blood, adrenaline, or sheer willpower of a character. By the same token, HP is commonly depleted by blood loss, morale failure, and severe pain. Many weapons/attacks deal direct HP damage.

When HP reaches 0 or less, the character has taken as much as they can stand. They must immediately make a Roll to Dodge Unconsciousness. If they succeed, they remain upright but must continue to roll if they take any HP damage at all, whether from further attacks, bleeding, etc. If they fail, they immediately pass out, with all that implies. This often means that they cannot defend themselves from attacks or have any meaningful impact on the waking world until they wake up. Players may regain consciousness by rolling to Wake Up, receiving medical attention, or having positive HP.

Negative HP means a character is dying. Characters take a -1 penalty to all actions (including dodges for death and dying) for every -10 HP they have. If a character is unconscious and at negative HP, then they must make a Roll to Dodge Death every time they take HP damage. On a 1, they die. On a 2-3, they lose 10 HP. On a 4-5, nothing happens. 6, regain consciousness.

Injuries

An Injury is a status effect suffered by a character in certain situations. Injuries often result in HP loss for a character, or may impose a penalty to certain actions. Injuries have two stats- how much damage is taken per turn until medical attention is received, and how long it takes until the wound is fully healed. Below is a list of common injuries.

Bleeding: Caused by stab wounds, deep cuts, etc. Requires medical attention and 20 healing points. [-5 HP per turn]
Heavy Bleeding: Caused by significant wounds, such as large gashes and deep punctures. Requires medical attention and 30 healing points. [-10 HP per turn]
Mangled: Results from major bodily harm, such as impalement or severed limbs. Requires extensive medical attention in the form of lotsa bandages, and 30 healing points. [-20 HP per turn]
---------
Burn: Caused by tissue damage. Requires medical attention and 20 healing points. -1 to afflicted area.
Fracture: Caused by moderate blunt trauma. Requires extensive medical attention in the form of a splint and 20 healing points. -2 to afflicted area.
Broken Bone: Caused by heavy blunt trauma. Requires extensive medical attention in the form of a cast and 40 healing points. -3 to afflicted area.
Missing Limb: Never heals, obviously.

Healing

Injuries can be cured once a player receives medical attention. When treated, bleeding injuries no longer inflict HP loss, and structural injuries impose half the penalty (rounded down.) However, treated injuries are still a weak spot- any attack that would hit the injured area may reopen the wound, causing immediate HP damage from the pain, restarting the HP loss and possibly worsening the severity of the injury. If a wound requires extensive medical attention, then that wound requires additional resources to cure- splints, painkillers, or something else more involved than a ragged cloth bandage. Treatment cannot begin until such resources are found- improvised materials impose a -2 penalty to the treatment roll.

Players make a healing roll [1d6] for each treated injury they currently possess, starting on the turn after they receive treatment. This roll is made at the end of the player's turn. The amount rolled is added to the wound's healing points, and the wound disappears when the points max out. Whenever a player goes one full turn without taking damage, they regain 5 HP.

Spoiler: Combat (click to show/hide)

A player or creature attacks by rolling 2d6 against the target's Defense score- if this value exceeds it, then the attack hits. Wound severity is gained by rolling a random body part, then rolling 2d6 against the following table.

1 and lower: Deal 1 HP damage
2-4: Deal 5 HP damage
5-7: Bleeding
8-9: Heavy Bleeding
10: Fractured
11: Mangled
12: Broken
13+: Severed

Spoiler: Characters (click to show/hide)

Role: This describes your role in the family, giving you some basic abilities ans well as defining some of your personal objectives.
AP: AP stands for Action Points, which can be used at any time to give a +2 bonus to your next roll, virtually guaranteeing success. AP is also used to fuel any special abilities you may possess. AP supplies are limited, but can be regenerated through sleep or certain items.
Wounds: In short, how hurt you are. Also lists status effects and mental damage.
Traits: A list of abilities, passive bonuses, and similar mechanics available to your character.


The Dad: The man of the house. The keeper of the family. Brings home the bacon, is most suited to defend his home from invaders.
AP: 2/2
Wounds: [HP: 70/70]
Traits: Man of the House, Papa Wolf, Obvious Threat


The Mom: the lady of the house, the person who runs the family, essentially. Will do anything to protect her children.
AP: 2/2
Wounds: [HP: 70/70]
Traits: Mom's Healing Kisses, Mama Bear, Where's My Baby!?!


The Teenager: the eldest child, has the fresh outlook on life and open mind needed to calmly evaluate and potentially exploit the situation, but is mentally vulnerable as a result!
AP: 3/3
Wounds: [HP: 50/50]
Traits: Open Minded,  Unbarred Mind


The Little Kid: the youngest child and the most vulnerable of the family!
AP: 4/4
Wounds: [HP: 30/30]
Traits: Kid Sized, Luck of the Innocent, A Mighty Warrior Indeed


The Family Dog: the animals, they know! They know things and they can see and smell the evil!
AP: 4/4
Wounds: [HP: 30/30]
Traits: Evil Detecting Dog, Carpe Jugular, Stupid Barky Dog

Things to do: actually map the Mansion (Observatory, Library, Kitchen, Dining Hall, Bedrooms... more stuff!) figure out what's going on in the game when not confronted by horrible evil, figure out what I'm doing with death/waitlisters, and THINK OF A THIRD ABILITY FOR THE TEEN. It's bugging me.

In particular, I'm thinking I might want to keep the same cast of characters for each encounter (same family, same winter,) which necessarily means downgrading "death" to "incapacitated," with a player losing their turn if things get that bad for them. On the other hand, it could be that each year it's a new family, in which case I get to kill people off willy-nilly but then have to give up on character progression even if there are returning players. I've been going back and forth on that one all day.

Any comments/suggestions?

[Harry Baldman]

Maybe you can divide the game into Day Turns and Night Turns? On Day Turns, the family begins by acting much as an ordinary family would in their case, but later it would be a time to build up defenses, treat wounds, sleep and generally prepare for the terror that happens in the Night Turns. At night, weird stuff would begin to happen at first, followed by more overt supernatural phenomena, followed by very, very real danger. For instance, you would get a "long" Day Turn, during which you can perform any number of actions, followed by several more Night Turns (as many as it takes to take care of the things happening or, at first, merely ignore them). When not confronted by terrible evil, the family members could explore the house, search for something useful or just amuse themselves in some way.

On death - I am a firm believer in the principle of death being a necessary part of the game. Without it, the game kind of loses some of the meaning. Well, unless it's permanent insanity. But you also need death. Otherwise there's no threat. Besides, who in their right mind would return to a mansion that is obviously haunted and full of various evil things? Changing the families every winter would be necessary, considering that if someone dies (except maybe the dog), the family would either fall apart or be scarred for life. And the main goal of character progression would be to allow family members to better survive the mansion.

Finally, maybe the Teenager could choose his or her third ability? To me, it wouldn't make sense to have a football player and a social outcast to have exactly the same stat advantages. So maybe they can choose a single skill they excel at?

[IronyOwl]

In particular, I'm thinking I might want to keep the same cast of characters for each encounter (same family, same winter,) which necessarily means downgrading "death" to "incapacitated," with a player losing their turn if things get that bad for them. On the other hand, it could be that each year it's a new family, in which case I get to kill people off willy-nilly but then have to give up on character progression even if there are returning players. I've been going back and forth on that one all day.

Any comments/suggestions?

I wish. That's always a difficult decision, and there isn't necessarily a right answer.

A middle ground could be persistent, very difficult to remove injuries, though. If you "die," you survive but gain an injury that haunts you later.

...of course, in some cases that could be worse than dying, since at some point you've got a -3 to every action you can think of and are basically just a scarred slab of hamburger meat dragging itself around and hurling itself down staircases at the slightest provocation.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Finally, maybe the Teenager could choose his or her third ability? To me, it wouldn't make sense to have a football player and a social outcast to have exactly the same stat advantages. So maybe they can choose a single skill they excel at?

Even though I'm not going to be running it, I just want to say I think this suggestion is a good one and I'd run with it - if I were GMing, which I'm not. As for my own suggestions, I can only think of doing it in rounds much like Alter Someone's Life. Five people get to play and after a certain amount of time/turns has passed, if at least one person is still alive they win. If the whole family dies, time to move on to the next one. Perhaps you could also give the winners something fun to do, like suggest the next setting with its own particular hazards and whatnot. Hell, give the losers something fun to do too; if everyone dies, let them stick around for the next round (as ghosts, perhaps) with the catch they only get one action the whole round, and can use it to give someone a boost or a penalty to any one action.

[Harry Baldman]

The previous family haunting the mansion would be pretty interesting, both in the helper and antagonist sense. For the first round after they die, they get to still haunt the mansion, getting absorbed into the more general "evil" afterwards. I do think that the system of rounds would work - that way, the RTD would take on the properties of a horror movie series.

[OREOSOME]

Just had an Idea for a RTD.
Basically, there is some sort of accident wherever the game is taking place. In addition to unleashing a rift to another dimension that threatens the space-time continuum, Some of the survivors have become mutated by whatever macguffin caused the rift to be created. They now can Turn their limbs into weapons. So that means, you could have a person with a Minigun for an arm, or a katana in place of a hand.
Any other ideas?

[freeformschooler]

I would like to take a moment to commend TCM for his excellent RTD that began and ended a few minutes ago.

Everyone here can learn from an RTD like that.

[Tiruin]

My action was best action though

I would like to take a moment to commend TCM for his excellent RTD that began and ended a few minutes ago.

Everyone here can learn from an RTD like that.

* Tiruin joins the commendation party.

[Doomblade187]

Finally, maybe the Teenager could choose his or her third ability? To me, it wouldn't make sense to have a football player and a social outcast to have exactly the same stat advantages. So maybe they can choose a single skill they excel at?

Well, there's either that ('Side Hobby') or alternatively, we could go slightly more stereotypical and do 'saw it on TV', like a untrained skill usage thing. Mind you, I'm very much aware not every teen watches TV, so I kind of like the 'Side Hobby' one.

Also, TCM, that was an amazing RTD. Seriously- the ending fit perfectly.