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New system design: Ashkhar RPG
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<blockquote data-quote="Ashkhar Ben" data-source="post: 6167984" data-attributes="member: 6749162"><p>One of the core tenets or principles of Ashkhar, as a universe, is that the power of the body is directly related to the power of the mind and spirit. As such Resistance is a catch all for spiritual, physical, and mental resistances. In the complete version of the rules, this is expressed as Endurance, Health, and Willpower. Willpower is primarily the character's mental fortitude, which was something you were suggesting to become its own skill (or "Ability" as you called it). Health is truly a measure of an individual's physical abilities and Endurance is in between the body and the mind, within the spirit of the character.</p><p></p><p>In the Ashkhar basic rules this gets somewhat diluted, as we don't have those 3 sub-skills for each of the primary skills. It makes it a little bit more of a stretch to categorize it, and I can understand why a character would perhaps want to be exceptionally mentally resilient but not physically so. But again, I think that it falls perfectly in line with the concept in Ashkhar (and I personally believe it to be applicable in real life as well) that the core strength of an individual is based on their mental and spiritual fortitude rather than the crude matter that makes up their muscles. </p><p></p><p>That is a pretty whimsical or ephemeral explanation, but that's what I based my decision on and am unlikely to change it. </p><p></p><p>I originally didin't have Melee Combat and Ranged Combat as their own skills, instead those rolls would be comprised of a combination or the highest of multiple other skills. But, I think that, especially in Ashkhar and settings similar, that combat is definitely a skill and a talent that is learned and takes effort to master. Renaming it to something like "Might" pretty much eliminates all of the mental effort required to excel at combat. Nitpicky, sure, but I think that would cause other skills like Movement to become less unique. What would you use to lift something heavy? Right now, rules as written, I would use Movement, but why not Might instead? </p><p></p><p>You run into similar things with Ranged Combat; as it stands Ranged Combat can include even entirely mental calculations such as siege engines, ballistae, trebuchets, etc, so it is not simply just physical coordination. </p><p></p><p>I think what I'm going to do is create a mechanical system that may or may not be a part of Theme that is essentially the character's background. This background would give the GM some decent story hooks for that character, provide some flaws, and perhaps give them a reason to pick a particular theme or skillset. For example, a background could be "Scholar." The Scholar spent most of his childhood bent over tomes in libraries or studying botany in a university's garden. As such, the character gains a +1d6 bonus to Knowledge Rolls, gains the Specialist Trait (automatically gets 1 success for every odd level without having to roll within this specialty), as well as a -1d6 penalty to Melee Combat. </p><p></p><p>That was completely ad-lib, but that's sort of the preliminary thoughts that I'm working on. I'd like to incorporate Effort Tokens into more mechanical aspects as well. </p><p></p><p>Yeah, I think I will rename Fatigue to Stamina or something along those lines. </p><p></p><p>Thanks again, let me know how it goes with character creation, and I'd be happy to go over it with you publicly here in the forum.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ashkhar Ben, post: 6167984, member: 6749162"] One of the core tenets or principles of Ashkhar, as a universe, is that the power of the body is directly related to the power of the mind and spirit. As such Resistance is a catch all for spiritual, physical, and mental resistances. In the complete version of the rules, this is expressed as Endurance, Health, and Willpower. Willpower is primarily the character's mental fortitude, which was something you were suggesting to become its own skill (or "Ability" as you called it). Health is truly a measure of an individual's physical abilities and Endurance is in between the body and the mind, within the spirit of the character. In the Ashkhar basic rules this gets somewhat diluted, as we don't have those 3 sub-skills for each of the primary skills. It makes it a little bit more of a stretch to categorize it, and I can understand why a character would perhaps want to be exceptionally mentally resilient but not physically so. But again, I think that it falls perfectly in line with the concept in Ashkhar (and I personally believe it to be applicable in real life as well) that the core strength of an individual is based on their mental and spiritual fortitude rather than the crude matter that makes up their muscles. That is a pretty whimsical or ephemeral explanation, but that's what I based my decision on and am unlikely to change it. I originally didin't have Melee Combat and Ranged Combat as their own skills, instead those rolls would be comprised of a combination or the highest of multiple other skills. But, I think that, especially in Ashkhar and settings similar, that combat is definitely a skill and a talent that is learned and takes effort to master. Renaming it to something like "Might" pretty much eliminates all of the mental effort required to excel at combat. Nitpicky, sure, but I think that would cause other skills like Movement to become less unique. What would you use to lift something heavy? Right now, rules as written, I would use Movement, but why not Might instead? You run into similar things with Ranged Combat; as it stands Ranged Combat can include even entirely mental calculations such as siege engines, ballistae, trebuchets, etc, so it is not simply just physical coordination. I think what I'm going to do is create a mechanical system that may or may not be a part of Theme that is essentially the character's background. This background would give the GM some decent story hooks for that character, provide some flaws, and perhaps give them a reason to pick a particular theme or skillset. For example, a background could be "Scholar." The Scholar spent most of his childhood bent over tomes in libraries or studying botany in a university's garden. As such, the character gains a +1d6 bonus to Knowledge Rolls, gains the Specialist Trait (automatically gets 1 success for every odd level without having to roll within this specialty), as well as a -1d6 penalty to Melee Combat. That was completely ad-lib, but that's sort of the preliminary thoughts that I'm working on. I'd like to incorporate Effort Tokens into more mechanical aspects as well. Yeah, I think I will rename Fatigue to Stamina or something along those lines. Thanks again, let me know how it goes with character creation, and I'd be happy to go over it with you publicly here in the forum. [/QUOTE]
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