A Break for z10: Apocalypse

Unfortunately, work on the d10: Visceroth Cluster game has been on hold so I can develop the z10 system and campaign setting more fully.  Once I have the beta test I'm about to start on its way, I'll come back to d10 to finish up some of the systems and make it more presentable.

Until then, check out z10: Apocalypse - The StoneBridge Residents(the system is z10: Apocalypse, The StoneBridge Residents is the campaign setting).

Dude, No Edge.

'Til Next Time,
Alturiigo

Setting Info

I recently came across some general timelines I jotted down for the setting, helping to give it a little more depth and structure.  I plan to also work on getting these up for view, either from the scanned pages or by typing them up.

Also, I'm still working on better tables for the gear and equipment, but I do have images of the original sheets I wrote up for my binder posted in the concept gallery and on my personal Google+ page

An Overview of Character Creation

As explained, character creation covers three categories, Attributes, Skills, and Talents.  Since I went with a build-by system, the player allots starting points for the character.  For beginning point totals for each category I've given both Skills and Talents 20 points.  For Attributes, I've played around with both 15 and 17.  I would also like to add that as a GM or Player limiting yourself from capping things from the start is a good idea.  So maybe limit 3 or 4 points to any one given attribute or skill to begin with.

A lot of my uncertainty towards this is the based on a lack of playtesting.  With 15 Attribute points to begin with, it's a very flat starting character(which sounds good in some rights).  Though in a combat setting of guns and such, and character HP and Standing DC usually staying in the smaller ranges(by comparison to other RPG's), it almost gives way to the character being slightly developed or realized to begin with, so that they can reasonably achieve their goals.

For the Skills, I went with 20 to encourage the player to select varied skills without making most negligible.  I suggest limiting any given skill to 3(for starting), and maybe costing 2 additional points to raise it to 4(again, starting only).  My personal thoughts: Try a skill set with one or two "attack" skills, one defensive skill, one movement skill, and two trade-profession skills.

Talents are where there's a lot of play in the character development, and gives a lot more depth to the system.  Talents cost various increments of 5 points, and they're laid out in "Trees" based on play-impact.  It's still being developed further, but the existing Talents already give more growth potential than can be achieved in any small amount of play, and that's still in keeping with a cohesive character concept.

It's looking like my next focus is going to need to be posting and updating gear and equipment...

A Mission Statement of Sorts

d10: Visceroth Cluster is a project I've been working on over the course of a few years now, and yes, it's still incomplete.  My current work on this blog and the site are an effort to help put it all together better, as well as begin to edit through the system.

Part of what makes it incomplete in my eyes is that there's a lot of setting and society that hasn't been written down and laid out.  My original vision for this was a multitude of settings to support most types of stories, as well as support a large number of players.  This isn't to say I want to lay out every detail, but I'd still like to give enough for GM's to work with.

Point is, this is like a Dev Blog of sorts, as I'm working towards making d10 into a more finished product.  Choosing to put it online had the most to do with getting feedback, advice, and searching for people interested in using such a system.  Also, I'm not opposed to the finalization of d10 being a collaborative process if there were people interested in working on the system or creative aspects.

-Alturiigo

Class Concepts

I think it's safe to say that The Elder Scrolls series has demonstrated the capacity for a class-free "perk" system to make an excellent RPG device, and while I began development of this system prior to my introduction to TES, it's still an excellent influence and example the system's functionality.  I bring all this up as reference for the fact that I've designed the d10 system to be a class-free system.  And if I should clear up my terminology, class-free is to say that you do not select fighter, or mage, nor mercenary or techie as a core character statistic.  Yes I encourage it for flavor, almost to the point of wanting to require it, but I want players to have that freedom to explore how they can use the system in various ways.

Now, to sound almost like a hypocrite then try to save myself:
Classes help give an overarching concept to the character, and set up an infrastructure for growth that is geared towards the manner in which the player wishes to play.  Having a class also helps to give more context to the character, and it makes it easier(opinion) to visualize and conceive the character in action.  If you choose to play an engineer, and you've played other sci-fi games with engineer-type classes, you'll already have a frame of reference for your character.  Classes are also great tools for gauging and properly pacing character development as well encouraging a party of characters playing different roles(and roleplaying... pun?).  I've also recently begun to dabble in MMO's, and found bits of inspiration that works best with a class type of structure.

Introducing, Class Talents.  "Mid-level" Talents which increase a character's synergy within their concept's specialization, Class Talents often use the new Momentum Charge system, which employs stacks of various types of charges that build over a combat instance and cause various effects.  I'm still unsure how far into development they should be, so the required Talents, Skills, and Attributes are unset.  This approach to the class system is in a way backwards of the norm, being something that the character builds towards.  It's not something that limits what your character can do, but rather demonstrates further realization of the character's  identity.

Clarification: Talents

Of the three categories of character statistics, Attributes and Skills were easy to label.  The third concept, which up to this point I've been referring to as Abilities and Qualities, I've decided to go with Talents for as a label.  It's a term common in character information, isn't too wordy, and I feel it generally captures the idea.

Now to get a little deeper into why I feel terminology is somewhat important.  Character development really takes off as you delve into the Talents aspect, with a lot of various effects and a suggestible prerequisite tree.  By structuring these more clearly, it helps make it more evident how the traits are designed to work for the character and with each other.  This gives us minor labels such as Active or Passive, and Class(a newer concept to the system).

I've designed the system around a build-point system in which the character spends the Experience they earn to improve their character, whether by buying new Talents or increasing Attributes or Skills.  Like previously stated I suggest a prerequisite tree for them and I will work it into the system once it's restructured and core completed.  That being said, it is designed to be a class-free or free-class system(it really does work both ways), the prereqs are to help set proper growth patterns and also represent the necessary groundwork needed for such a Talent.

I feel a new post coming on...

Vrox, Cloress System

First I'd like to state that I've yet to put together a draft sheet for this planet, so this is like a draft of sorts

Vrox is the third planet in the in the Cloress system, and is almost completely oceanic, save several large island chains.  The planet is populated rather densely, referencing Japan seems somewhat appropriate, giving me thoughts of tightly packed cities with tall buildings.  Tech fields have a strong prominence on Vrox, and it is known for droid and robotics development.  

I guess that's as far as I've laid it out in my head.  I've had thoughts of Narina also being native to or well established on this planet, though since their civilization on either planet doesn't have anything close to space-travel, I struggle with accepting the idea.  Despite that, I still enjoy the thought of a different strain of Narina with it's own unique culture.  

A Lucky Hand

The story begins with the player sitting with some buddies at a table in the bar, enjoying a few drinks after a long day's work.  The four of them are enjoying a "friendly" card game, which progresses until one of the npc's put the title of a ship on the table.  The player wins the ship, and is finally closer to leaving this rock behind.  I enjoyed using this intro because it also help me establish some of the social nature of Antemadus as a setting.

Antemadus is a mineral-rich volcanic planet, with an insufficient and semi-toxic atmosphere, dotted with mining outposts.  Typical outposts may house several hundred people, and are supplied by regular runs from merchant guilds and the like.  The people who live there as miners get paid a pretty good wage doing such work, in some sense like oil-line workers in Alaska can make pretty good money.  But the cost of living there is also higher, so there's a bit of off-set too.  With the limited amount of space and other factors, entertainment can be hard to come by.  I fell back on the blue-collar staple of the bar-pub-tavern, as probably the most common means to pass the time or try to enjoy it.  So for miners making more money than they have decent things to spend it on might be likely to gamble with each other much more freely.

I used this to introduce a driving story device: the player/character's ship.  This represented the character's freedom to "leave this boring rock behind" and explore what the Cluster has to offer.  It also gave me an interesting character origin as a miner, encouraging me as a game designer to make it also an effective and plausible aspect of gameplay and story.  Now of course every good game needs an introduction, and I also didn't want to open everything up without exploring Antemadus and who the character is to begin with, so the ship was in a state of disrepair.  This gave me most of the tools I needed to start playing, and I feel by working with a more general idea of critical moments it allowed me to better roll with how the players wanted to achieve their goals or find solutions.

And I think it's a fun notion to try to make a solid campaign around a Miner character who runs a crew.  That's not to say it hasn't been done or the idea is original(the movie Armageddon is an example of a high-profile mining situation), but I think that if pulled off well it would create an original-feeling and cohesive experience.  And as a crew/team-building experience as well, which is something I think Bioware has done a pretty good job of in their games.  But enough references and ramblings.

d10: Visceroth Cluster is a work-in-progress, and while my opinion is obviously biased I believe it has potential.  Feedback would be appreciated, as well as I love tabletop games and gaming in general so input about that is also welcome

Paragon Character: Elara T'Surin

Note: As a Paragon Character, this character's stats are considerably high, making them one of the most skilled NPC's found in the Visceroth Cluster

Elara T'Surin
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Race: Caucasian
Shoulder-Length Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
5'5", 130 lbs

Elara T'Surin is a skilled mercenary currently under the employ of the Marhill Mercenary Company, operating in Division 5, a special ops division which carries out high-priority and high-sensitivity missions for various clientele.  She joined Marhill at the age of 19, shortly after arriving on the hub space-colony Port, having left her home planet of Vrox to strike out on her own. 
She began as a scout, using a simple Kerstall Arms Defender and a monocular.  Establishing herself as an effective and talented mercenary, she soon went up in pay-grades within Marhill.  She was finally a member of Division 5 almost five years later, having shown great skill in CQC, Infiltration, and Reconnaissance.  She has competed in the Cluster Combat Tournament for the last 3 years with Division 5 and gave an impressive show each year.

STR:   3
DEX:  6
CON:  3
INT:     3
PER:  5
CHA:  2

Pistols:                     5
Automatics:              3
Running:                   5
Gymnastics:             4
Thrown Weapons:   3
Melee Weapons:     3
Stealth:                     5
Notice:                      5
Search:                     4
Navigate:                  3
Pilot(Groundcraft):   2

Deft
Quick Draw
Quick Attack
Reflex Attack
Nimble Hands
Situational Awareness
Nerves of Steel
Keen Eye
Athletic
Running Shot
Combat Mobility
Great Leap
Light Foot
Unstoppable Sprint
Finesse

Pistol:  Kerstall Arms Defender(w/ Extended Clip, Silencer, Laser-Sight)
SMG: Kerstall Arms Slinger(Custom)(w/ Acceleramp, Mid-Range Scope, Bayonet)
Grenades: Sticky Proximity Grenades
Shield: Prometheus Nimbus(w/ Quick Cool, Power Amp)
Combat Knife: Balanced Throwing Combat Knife(w/ Shoulder Sheath or Belt(x5))

Elara mostly keeps to herself, and even her comrades in Division 5 don't know much about her.  What they mostly could say about her is that she is what she does.  When on a mission she is focused, and doing recon she is often out on her own for days to weeks at a time.  While she may not be the friendliest, she is usually defined by her cool demeanor, as though she's already prepared to deal with anything.  Elara travels light, the largest and heaviest piece of equipment is her ScoutBox, which contains her recon tech(weighing in at 15 lbs).

Division 5 is currently hired by the Denoran Government to aid in the liberation from the Pirate occupation, and are presumably somewhere in the warzones of Denore...

The Guardian Class(Tank)

Guardian:

The "tank" class, the Guardian focuses on generating Threat Charges, which grant an HP pool that shields the active party, using the Guardian's HP to fuel it.  When the Threat Charge is built it takes 1 HP from the character and transfers it to the Threat HP Pool, which protects the Active Party.  The Guardian Trait sets the T-HP(Threat HP) to build 2 HP per charge, gives a bonus to max Threat Charges, and a bonus to max HP and max T-HP.  Max Threat Charges for the Active Party is default at 5.

Guardian(15):

- Threat Charges grant x2 T-HP

- +5 Max HP

- +5 Max T-HP

- +5 Max Threat Charges

Goad(5):

- Standard Action

- Builds 1 Threat Charge

Taunt(10):

- Full Action

- Target must make a Will Save to resist Target Change, vs CHA

- Builds 1 Threat Charge

Taunt+(5):

- Sustainable

- Builds an additional Threat Charge each Turn

- Target re-rolls Will Save each Turn

Discharge(10):

- Full Action(Consumes Full-Action attack ammo)

- Builds 2 Threat Charges

- Causes enemies within 10ft to make a Will Save to resist Target Change, vs CHA

Discharge+(5):

-Target Change radius increased to 20ft

Shield Other(10):

- Character takes 1 damage that the designated target would normally take(cannot shield from poison effects)

Shield Other+(5):

- Character takes 2 damage that the designated target would normally take(cannot shield from poison effects)

Active Again

I haven't been actively creating as much lately but I'm back to re-update things.  I've been working on a class-concept system, I've started to refer to Qualities and Abilities simply as Traits, and various other updates.

The system still needs a lot of work, such as planet design and creation, and I'm also always looking for characters to add into the world.  So if you like to come up with Sci-Fi characters, with back-stories and all, throw some ideas at me I'd love to hear them.  In fact any help or feedback would be helpful in getting this system further fleshed out.

-Alturiigo