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A new Twilight:2000... how would you do it?
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<blockquote data-quote="ddougan" data-source="post: 1497302" data-attributes="member: 11480"><p>Thanks <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As interesting idea, but I'm not sure this really resolves it to my likeing.</p><p></p><p>TW2K's task difficult levels are definetly not a linear approach - its a</p><p>stepped approach.</p><p></p><p>For a Formidable (x1/2) task, the steps are 2:1 ratio (asset increase:</p><p>chance of success increase), ie</p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Total Asset Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 </span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Chance of Success: 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4</span></p><p></p><p>etc</p><p></p><p>(Note the effect of the "1 is always a success" rule - a character with</p><p>a total asset of 0 has the same chance of success as one with a total</p><p>asset of 3). If as you suggest, we round up, then we'd get:</p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Total Asset Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 </span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Chance of Success: 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5</span></p><p></p><p>This doesn't really do much other than shift the start of the "ladder"</p><p>(to keep with the step terminology!). In other words, instead of a</p><p>character with asset total 3 losing out over a character with asset</p><p>total 2, we have a character with asset total 4 losing out over a</p><p>character with asset total 3.</p><p></p><p>The problem is more apparent in Impossible tasks (x1/4), where the ratio</p><p>becomes 4:1.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Using a linear approach (eeek, and I've just realised, I've gone back to</p><p>how 2300AD does it!), every increase in asset total gives an increase in</p><p>chance of performing the task, regardless of how hard the task is. </p><p></p><p>So we could say (as an example):</p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Task Level DC</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">---------- --</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Easy 5</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Average 10</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Difficult 15</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Formidable 20</span></p><p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">Impossible 25</span></p><p></p><p>(Off Hand, IIRC, 2300AD used Task levels of: 4, 9, 14, 19, 24 - but used</p><p>D10 rather than D20. So my perfect TW2K task system would probably opt</p><p>for more granularity in the task levels - perhaps increase the number of</p><p>task levels to 7, and reduce the increase in DC between task levels)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure - though I'm not sure if you mean the 2300AD damage model, or my house rule on Spycraft, so here's a summary of both <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>For 2300AD, you start by rolling Hit Location (D10).</p><p></p><p>Each Hit Location has a Severity Modifier (Head Shot is more likely to</p><p>result in a kill than a Lower Leg Shot)</p><p></p><p>Roll Potential Severity (D10), modified by above Severity Modifier. This</p><p>will result in a Potential Kill, Potential Serious Wound, Potential</p><p>Light Wound.</p><p></p><p>Roll Actual Severity (D10). This roll is made against the damage of the</p><p>weapon - a weapon doing 0.7 points of damage has a 70% chance of</p><p>inflicting the potential severity. If the roll is equal to or under the</p><p>damage value, then the potential severity is inflicted. If the roll is</p><p>greater than the damage value, then the potential severity is decreased</p><p>by 1 (ie Potential Kill becomes Actual Serious, Potential Serious</p><p>becomes Actual Light, Potential Light becomes No Effect). Any weapon</p><p>doing 1.0 or more damage points automatically inflicts the potential</p><p>damage.</p><p></p><p>As 2300AD a house rule, we deemed that an additional -1 to the Severity</p><p>(an increase on the potential seriousness of the wound) would be applied</p><p>for every 2.0 points of damage - which meant getting hit by heavy</p><p>weapons was a rather nasty experience <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>There's therefore no need for a quick kill rule in this situation,</p><p>because effectively every round that penetrates has the potential to be</p><p>a quick kill (ie roll for a potential kill, and roll for actual kill <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)</p><p></p><p></p><p>For Spycraft, I have Vitality Points on each hit location, and a common</p><p>pool of Wounds. Whenever any hit location exceeds its Vitality Points,</p><p>additional damage is applied to the Wounds. Critical hits do double</p><p>damage, and the Wounds Capacity is double the norm (ie 2 X CON).</p><p></p><p>Each hit location starts off at the maximum for the character at level 1</p><p>(ie CON + either 8, 10 or 12 based on whether or not they have a D8, D10</p><p>or D12 hit die).</p><p></p><p>At each additional level, characters get extra VP per hit location,</p><p>based on their hit die:</p><p></p><p>D8 == 1 hit point per hit location per level</p><p>D10 == 1 hit point per hit location per odd level (1,3,5 etc), and 2 per</p><p>even level (2,4,6 etc)</p><p>D12 == 2 hit point per hit location per level</p><p></p><p>Head and Heart shots do not require an action die to convert to a</p><p>critical hit (in Spycraft, a potential threat is not confirmed by a</p><p>second die roll, but by spending an action die).</p><p></p><p>Vitality Points recovers on a per-hit-location-per-hour basis.</p><p></p><p>The resulting gameplay experience is very satisfying - characters can</p><p>still play the hero, and recover quickly between fights (unless they are</p><p>physically wounded), but are now worried about facing a number of guards</p><p>- because even high level characters cant afford to take a couple of</p><p>hits on the same hit location without becoming wounded (ie no more</p><p>"there's 3 guards with weapons - even if they all hit me, and roll</p><p>maximum damage, I will still have enough hit points to stay standing"). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't see a problem with the level/feat/class/skill approach D20</p><p>takes, if its applied correctly. (Have you seen any of the special forces prestiege classes from Blood and Guts by RPGObjects? Damn good...)</p><p></p><p>If you think about it, weapon specialisation in TW2K v2.2 is pretty much</p><p>feats (3 levels of weapon specialisation - reducing the auto-miss roll,</p><p>adding to Strength for recoil determination etc). There's no reason this</p><p>couldn't be expanded to allow greater degrees of weapon specialisation,</p><p>or extended to allow specialisation in other skills. That sounds like</p><p>feats and/or class abilities to me <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>I certainly think the default range of D20 skills needs to be expanded</p><p>though to account for the fact TW2K is a skills-driven game system.</p><p></p><p>Also, if you think about NPC levels - Green, Regular, Veteran etc,</p><p>aren't these really Levels? (Green: lvl 1-3, Regular, 4-5, Veteran 6-9,</p><p>Crack 10-12, Elite 13-15 as an example).</p><p></p><p>I actually think "Infantryman 3/ Ranger3" isnt a bad description for a</p><p>character in TW2K. How far off is it from "3 terms as Ground Infantry, 3</p><p>terms as Ranger"? If you view it as a Traveller career description, then 3 terms of a Range and only being Level 3 is rather poor - so having Ranger 3 with only a single term is like "hey, this guy really had some field time in that term".</p><p></p><p>I would like to see the Base Attack Bonus drop off a bit in importance</p><p>though. Given the number of weapon based skills, plus the limit on Skill</p><p>Level vs Class, I think BAB increases could be lowered to highlight the combat skills more. If we describe</p><p>BAB advancement as Good, Average and Poor (reflecting DnD Fighter,</p><p>Cleric and Wizard rates of advancement), then we might have:</p><p></p><p>Good: +1 every 2 levels (0, 1, 1, 2 etc) == +10 at Level 20</p><p>Average: +2 every 5 levels (0, 1, 1, 1, 2) == +8 at Level 20</p><p>Poor: +2 every 7 levels (0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2) == +5 at Level 20</p><p></p><p>This would mean non-military characters could still have good weapon</p><p>skills if thats how they chose to spend their skill points, whilst</p><p>military based characters get an inherent class bonus to all forms of</p><p>attack - whilst still requiring them to spend skills in whatever form of</p><p>weapons they want to use (small arms pistol, rifle, machinegun, grenade</p><p>launcher etc) regularly. </p><p></p><p>So "worthless" military/civilian ranks could easily be modelled by</p><p>having the likes of 3 or 5 level classes - which would have Poor BAB</p><p>bonus, and class skill lists limited to what you describe as "worthless"</p><p>(which may be a good description - I doubt there's much room for MS</p><p>Project or Excel goons in the aftermath of a nuclear war <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ddougan, post: 1497302, member: 11480"] Thanks :) As interesting idea, but I'm not sure this really resolves it to my likeing. TW2K's task difficult levels are definetly not a linear approach - its a stepped approach. For a Formidable (x1/2) task, the steps are 2:1 ratio (asset increase: chance of success increase), ie [FONT=Courier New]Total Asset Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Chance of Success: 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4[/FONT] etc (Note the effect of the "1 is always a success" rule - a character with a total asset of 0 has the same chance of success as one with a total asset of 3). If as you suggest, we round up, then we'd get: [FONT=Courier New]Total Asset Level: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Chance of Success: 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5[/FONT] This doesn't really do much other than shift the start of the "ladder" (to keep with the step terminology!). In other words, instead of a character with asset total 3 losing out over a character with asset total 2, we have a character with asset total 4 losing out over a character with asset total 3. The problem is more apparent in Impossible tasks (x1/4), where the ratio becomes 4:1. Using a linear approach (eeek, and I've just realised, I've gone back to how 2300AD does it!), every increase in asset total gives an increase in chance of performing the task, regardless of how hard the task is. So we could say (as an example): [FONT=Courier New] Task Level DC ---------- -- Easy 5 Average 10 Difficult 15 Formidable 20 Impossible 25[/FONT] (Off Hand, IIRC, 2300AD used Task levels of: 4, 9, 14, 19, 24 - but used D10 rather than D20. So my perfect TW2K task system would probably opt for more granularity in the task levels - perhaps increase the number of task levels to 7, and reduce the increase in DC between task levels) Sure - though I'm not sure if you mean the 2300AD damage model, or my house rule on Spycraft, so here's a summary of both :) For 2300AD, you start by rolling Hit Location (D10). Each Hit Location has a Severity Modifier (Head Shot is more likely to result in a kill than a Lower Leg Shot) Roll Potential Severity (D10), modified by above Severity Modifier. This will result in a Potential Kill, Potential Serious Wound, Potential Light Wound. Roll Actual Severity (D10). This roll is made against the damage of the weapon - a weapon doing 0.7 points of damage has a 70% chance of inflicting the potential severity. If the roll is equal to or under the damage value, then the potential severity is inflicted. If the roll is greater than the damage value, then the potential severity is decreased by 1 (ie Potential Kill becomes Actual Serious, Potential Serious becomes Actual Light, Potential Light becomes No Effect). Any weapon doing 1.0 or more damage points automatically inflicts the potential damage. As 2300AD a house rule, we deemed that an additional -1 to the Severity (an increase on the potential seriousness of the wound) would be applied for every 2.0 points of damage - which meant getting hit by heavy weapons was a rather nasty experience :) There's therefore no need for a quick kill rule in this situation, because effectively every round that penetrates has the potential to be a quick kill (ie roll for a potential kill, and roll for actual kill :)) For Spycraft, I have Vitality Points on each hit location, and a common pool of Wounds. Whenever any hit location exceeds its Vitality Points, additional damage is applied to the Wounds. Critical hits do double damage, and the Wounds Capacity is double the norm (ie 2 X CON). Each hit location starts off at the maximum for the character at level 1 (ie CON + either 8, 10 or 12 based on whether or not they have a D8, D10 or D12 hit die). At each additional level, characters get extra VP per hit location, based on their hit die: D8 == 1 hit point per hit location per level D10 == 1 hit point per hit location per odd level (1,3,5 etc), and 2 per even level (2,4,6 etc) D12 == 2 hit point per hit location per level Head and Heart shots do not require an action die to convert to a critical hit (in Spycraft, a potential threat is not confirmed by a second die roll, but by spending an action die). Vitality Points recovers on a per-hit-location-per-hour basis. The resulting gameplay experience is very satisfying - characters can still play the hero, and recover quickly between fights (unless they are physically wounded), but are now worried about facing a number of guards - because even high level characters cant afford to take a couple of hits on the same hit location without becoming wounded (ie no more "there's 3 guards with weapons - even if they all hit me, and roll maximum damage, I will still have enough hit points to stay standing"). I don't see a problem with the level/feat/class/skill approach D20 takes, if its applied correctly. (Have you seen any of the special forces prestiege classes from Blood and Guts by RPGObjects? Damn good...) If you think about it, weapon specialisation in TW2K v2.2 is pretty much feats (3 levels of weapon specialisation - reducing the auto-miss roll, adding to Strength for recoil determination etc). There's no reason this couldn't be expanded to allow greater degrees of weapon specialisation, or extended to allow specialisation in other skills. That sounds like feats and/or class abilities to me :) I certainly think the default range of D20 skills needs to be expanded though to account for the fact TW2K is a skills-driven game system. Also, if you think about NPC levels - Green, Regular, Veteran etc, aren't these really Levels? (Green: lvl 1-3, Regular, 4-5, Veteran 6-9, Crack 10-12, Elite 13-15 as an example). I actually think "Infantryman 3/ Ranger3" isnt a bad description for a character in TW2K. How far off is it from "3 terms as Ground Infantry, 3 terms as Ranger"? If you view it as a Traveller career description, then 3 terms of a Range and only being Level 3 is rather poor - so having Ranger 3 with only a single term is like "hey, this guy really had some field time in that term". I would like to see the Base Attack Bonus drop off a bit in importance though. Given the number of weapon based skills, plus the limit on Skill Level vs Class, I think BAB increases could be lowered to highlight the combat skills more. If we describe BAB advancement as Good, Average and Poor (reflecting DnD Fighter, Cleric and Wizard rates of advancement), then we might have: Good: +1 every 2 levels (0, 1, 1, 2 etc) == +10 at Level 20 Average: +2 every 5 levels (0, 1, 1, 1, 2) == +8 at Level 20 Poor: +2 every 7 levels (0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2) == +5 at Level 20 This would mean non-military characters could still have good weapon skills if thats how they chose to spend their skill points, whilst military based characters get an inherent class bonus to all forms of attack - whilst still requiring them to spend skills in whatever form of weapons they want to use (small arms pistol, rifle, machinegun, grenade launcher etc) regularly. So "worthless" military/civilian ranks could easily be modelled by having the likes of 3 or 5 level classes - which would have Poor BAB bonus, and class skill lists limited to what you describe as "worthless" (which may be a good description - I doubt there's much room for MS Project or Excel goons in the aftermath of a nuclear war :) ) [/QUOTE]
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