Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="catastrophic" data-source="post: 5636437" data-attributes="member: 81381">Yeah but just because a mechanic is unified, doesn't mean it has to be uniform in use.  All the systems could use the same basic skill resolution system say: you have DC's, aplicable skills, successes needed, and i'd add, stakes, and 'Points usages', both optional and compulsory.  Then, each subsystem takes that broad resolution mechanic, and specialises it to the task at hand.  Piloting a pirate ship through a hurricane is a high stakes, high DC event with a limited number of successes needed, and no compulsory points, but options for burning say, action points and wound points to keep the ship afloat. The time frame is in minutes, maybe hours at most. Building a castle is a medium stakes (making your castle fall over is harder than letting your pirate ship sink), medium DC event, with a large number of successes needed, but interum goals (like building various structures) during the process. You would need to spend resource points and possibly magic points to make progress, and without those points, you don't have the resources to proceed. Spending optional points would be optional based on GM taste, and really based on the style of the PCs, and might depend for instance, on wether they are epic enough to carry around huge bits of stone, or use magic to halt wall collapses. Time frame would be in months. Casting a grand magical ritual would be a high stakes, low DC event, with a medium number of successes needed. Magic points would be compulsory to spend on a grand ritual, but other settings in the campaign might allow pcs to say, use necromancy to channel their Life Points as Magic points. OTOH a gm (and an optional subsystem) might get even more detailed and require specific spell components- but these components would still be valued in Magic Points, this value then deterimining the level of challenge needed to recover them. That would set the stakes for an encounter based around say, getting griffon's feathers*, or the blood of a dragon. And in all these cases and many more, there would be various other sub rules as well, advice on storylines based around the subsystem, and probably a mod of the combat system for say, battles on the high seas, sieges or mass combat, and mighty spell duels. So a rules based suplement, but a broader suplement as well. But the core mechanics would be the same for each.   *As an aside, this would also allow for varying levels of complexity in tasks to serve double duty. After all, getting Griffon's feathers (3 Magic Points, hence perhaps a 'CR' 3 encounter or challenge) would take a while scene for a bunch of level 3 heros, whereby they would scale a mountain with ropes and pittons, struggle to the nest of a mighty griffon, and ward it off long enough to grab a single feather. OTOH, for a group of level 12 paragons, such a task could be as simple as a group skill check, or even a single hero making a skill check, describing them zooming to the top of the mountain using their flying hook, punching a griffon in it's beak, and grabbing a handful of feathers- and if he fails the roll, he gets bitten, and loses a Wound Point,while still achieving the goal. Or perhaps less boisterous narrative, if need be. Either way, the point is that a CR3 encounter for a 3rd level party, could easily be comparable to a CR12 skill roll or simpler event resolution for a 12th level party. And this doesn't plreclude those simpler resolution methods being used for say, the CR3 party- it would just be a mtter of changing the stakes. A higher stakes roll could fail, while a lowe stakes roll might at worst cost you a Point on a failed roll, with the task still being a success. This is also part of why stakes would be a useful addition to such a system- it allows the GM to contextualise harder and easier tasks, and use them as he sees fit.</blockquote>

Verification