I'm sure you've all read Doc M's two story hours about the bost gamedays. FENG SHUI: SIX IN THE CHAMBER and it's sequal, awesome little reads. If you haven't get off your butt and read them! NOW!
Okay, now that you've done that, you'll probably know that Feng Shui is a method of arranging furniture and stuff to enhance your flow of chi. It also happens to be an action movie role playing game. In this sereis of threads I'm attempting to convert the fast furiousness of FENG SHUI to the d20 system. Part One, the Basics.
I'll adopt the Poor/Working Stiff/Rich wealth system of FS. It's simple, it's easy, it's all good.
Characters are assumed to start at Working Stiff. For 2 skill points, they can be Rich. If they decide to be Poor, they gain an additional two points to spend on skills.
We need a Base Defense Bonus. Period. Since, in Feng Shui, a character's Dodge value is equal to their highest offensive action value, I think it is appropriate to have High, Medium, and Low defense progressions, which share the progressions of BAB. For instance, a lv.5 character with Medium defense would have a BDB of +3.
I'll make all attack rolls be Dex-based, like they are in Feng Shui. I think that's more realistic, anyway.
One problem with the d20 system is the concept of the damage roll. This makes the attacker's skill almost irrelevant when considering the amount of damage dealt, requires an extra die roll, and types of dice other than the d20. M&M does something to fix this, but the damage save still requires another roll, and takes time. Again, I'll just directly adopt the Feng Shui mechanic: damage = degree of success (difference between attack roll and Defense value) + weapon's damage value.
To calculate a weapon's damage value, figure half the maximum of a weapon's damage dice. Then subtract one. For melee weapons and mighty composite bows, add your Strength modifier. Thus, a katana would be DV +4 in the hands of a Str 10 character. (incidentally, this coincides with the DV of a katana in Feng Shui. I wonder how that happened? *smirk*)
Obviously, critical hits will need to be altered a bit. Instead of rolling damage again, add double the weapon's critical multiplier to damage on a successful crit hit. For instance, you roll a nat20 with your crossbow, so you add 4 to the damage dealt.
One major factor in any good (or bad, for that matter) FENG SHUI game are the mooks. The little guys that the big guys send against the PCs to break like waves against the shore, and provide target practive. Mooks should be rated by a single number, generally between 0 and 5. When an attack roll would hit an AC of this number + 15, the mook is out of the fight. This number is also used as the mook's bonus on attacks, saves, and checks, and it also serves as the Damage Value of whatever rating they happen to use.
So, that's a wrap for part one. Any and all feedback (except for "you're stupid. go away" and similar sentiments) is appreciated! Be on the lookout for FENG SHUI Conversion: Part Two, Magic.
-Jeph
Okay, now that you've done that, you'll probably know that Feng Shui is a method of arranging furniture and stuff to enhance your flow of chi. It also happens to be an action movie role playing game. In this sereis of threads I'm attempting to convert the fast furiousness of FENG SHUI to the d20 system. Part One, the Basics.
I'll adopt the Poor/Working Stiff/Rich wealth system of FS. It's simple, it's easy, it's all good.
Characters are assumed to start at Working Stiff. For 2 skill points, they can be Rich. If they decide to be Poor, they gain an additional two points to spend on skills.We need a Base Defense Bonus. Period. Since, in Feng Shui, a character's Dodge value is equal to their highest offensive action value, I think it is appropriate to have High, Medium, and Low defense progressions, which share the progressions of BAB. For instance, a lv.5 character with Medium defense would have a BDB of +3.
I'll make all attack rolls be Dex-based, like they are in Feng Shui. I think that's more realistic, anyway.
One problem with the d20 system is the concept of the damage roll. This makes the attacker's skill almost irrelevant when considering the amount of damage dealt, requires an extra die roll, and types of dice other than the d20. M&M does something to fix this, but the damage save still requires another roll, and takes time. Again, I'll just directly adopt the Feng Shui mechanic: damage = degree of success (difference between attack roll and Defense value) + weapon's damage value.
To calculate a weapon's damage value, figure half the maximum of a weapon's damage dice. Then subtract one. For melee weapons and mighty composite bows, add your Strength modifier. Thus, a katana would be DV +4 in the hands of a Str 10 character. (incidentally, this coincides with the DV of a katana in Feng Shui. I wonder how that happened? *smirk*)
Obviously, critical hits will need to be altered a bit. Instead of rolling damage again, add double the weapon's critical multiplier to damage on a successful crit hit. For instance, you roll a nat20 with your crossbow, so you add 4 to the damage dealt.
One major factor in any good (or bad, for that matter) FENG SHUI game are the mooks. The little guys that the big guys send against the PCs to break like waves against the shore, and provide target practive. Mooks should be rated by a single number, generally between 0 and 5. When an attack roll would hit an AC of this number + 15, the mook is out of the fight. This number is also used as the mook's bonus on attacks, saves, and checks, and it also serves as the Damage Value of whatever rating they happen to use.
So, that's a wrap for part one. Any and all feedback (except for "you're stupid. go away" and similar sentiments) is appreciated! Be on the lookout for FENG SHUI Conversion: Part Two, Magic.
-Jeph
