Been doing some more work on this now I've finished Number Appearing. Toying with the title 'caedite eos' (slay them all), as this fits the idea to recreate a wide range of action media where the 'heroes' kill hordes of enemies but may well die themselves pretty well.
Right now my design principles are:
- No GM, because the type of game I want shouldn't need one. Plus I want to play.
- Flows like an action movie. So I have gone with Remember Tomorrow or Burning Empires style scenes.
- But you can die like an action video game. Tactical combat matters and death is very present. But also an option to turn this down to play things like Clone Wars.
- Emergent characters and character tension. So start quickly and flesh out the character as they survive. This means it has to handle both tensions between characters and with threats.
- As simple as possible.
UPDATED RESOLUTION MECHANIC
Principle is to reduce the complexity of rolls so you get back to the action faster but also that rolls spiral up the tension. So limiting addition required and cutting a separate damage roll or assessment. It looks like this at present:
Roll d12 and compare it to the relevant Stat:
- A roll of 1 to current HP total is a pushed success (two choices, so up to x2 damage, and +1 HP)
- A roll more than current HP and up to the Stat is a full success (one choice, so x1 damage)
- A roll of more than Stat is a miss (+1 HP, so your chance of pushed goes up)
- A roll of 12 is always a critical miss (roll to see if very bad things happen)
- If the action causes damage the roll also equals the damage dealt (and amount looted).
- Take +1 forward an +1 ongoing increase the Stat rather than the roll.
SCENES
I'm pretty happy with how these are coming along. Scenes will flow like in Remember Tomorrow, but you can't follow a scene with one of the same type.
1. Challenge (roll vs varies)
In this scene the player challenges another player's character with a situation that requires a roll. If they try and miss the challenge the Controller gets 2 XP.
- ... physical challenges: kicking doors, opening chests, swimming rivers, duels
- ...chase, climbing, picking pockets or locks
- ...social or intellectual
2. Conflict
This is where it will focus down into 3:16 type combat.
3. Escalation
Cut-away to Threat and announce future badness, like kidnapping someone or otherwise escalating the situation. Increase resources and experience value of the Threat. If an NPC significant to a PC is kidnapped or killed, they write down a Flashback Hook.
4. Preparation (roll vs varies)
A montage when you prepare, grab your gear or train roll vs any one Stat. Let's the characters heal, gain moves or otherwise prepare for tough fights.
5. Refresh
The Controller can choose two or more characters to have time together to" talk through an issue, bind each others wounds and make revelations. Have the characters talk, and when discussion is at a critical point of your choosing resolve. To resolve each player simultaneously points at a player (index cards with names for web game). For every player that points at you, you refresh -2 HP. if you point at yourself you refresh -1 HP. If no-one points at you, you get a Flashback Hook to this event.
This is not a scene itself, but an improvement on something I've posted before fits into scenes:
6. Flashback
If you don't like the result of die just rolled and you have a relevant unused Flashback Hook you can immediately interrupt the action with a Flashback scene. Once you have played out the Flashback scene you re-roll the die. During the Flashback go back to event and recreate it. If the event was resolved previously because it was played out in the game, just relive it quickly and use it to fuel a re-roll. If the event was not resolved because it was not played out in the game work it through it with other players taking on the role for their characters or NPCs as necessary. For these unresolved events, the re-roll is used at it pivotal point to resolve the result of the Flashback (benefits not accruing, just success or failure for the character) and the current scene. You can't follow a Flashback with another Flashback to get a third roll of the dice.
More soon.
But in the meantime if you like the concept but think my rules suck, check out Tactical Ops (
http://psychosys-rpg.blogspot.com.au/) I ran across today. It has a somewhat similar concept in GM-less tactical rules for special operations games but different rules approach.