Undead Presidents Press presents a shiny new Ability Scores Design Diary for Summa Fantasia. This design diary gives an overview on how Summa Fantasia handles ability scores.
Ability scores weren't something we thought we would need to modify from their standard OGL form for Summa Fantasia. Our goal was to create a game in which characters were lightning fast to create, newbies were easy to teach, and gameplay was fast and exciting. The only things we thought we would change with regards to abilitys cores, then, were dropping bonus spells based on high scores and streamlining the carrying capacity rules (both of which we did). The Soak system forced us to rethink this fundamental element of the game.
The Soak system uses the idea of blow-through: the amount by which the attack roll succeeds is added to the Damage DC against which the target must make his Soak check. Obviously, then, we could not allow Strength to add to attack rolls, since it would then add to damage twice- once for the attack bonus and once for the Damage bonus. A natural alternative seemed to be Dexterity. However, this made Dexterity too good: it would effectively have added to Defense, Soak (by lowering margins of success and thus Damage DC's!), attack, and damage. Constitution, normally a powerhouse stat in other OGL games, became extremely second-rate.
Since attack and Defense bonuses had suddenly become twice as good as Damage and Soak bonuses, we had to rethink what kind of bonuses to give. We decided that we should have three physical scores, and that each should effectively add to two combat scores. Thus, the physical ability scores fell out as follows:
Strength: Constitution has been folded into Strength, which now adds to both Damage DC's and Soak checks, as well as Fortitude saves.
Dexterity: Dexterity adds to Defense. Consequently, it not only decreases the frequency with which a character is hit but also reduces the Damage DC's of successful attacks. Reflex saves have been eliminated, because attack rolls now operate on the same scale as spell DC's and Defense is based entirely on avoiding attacks rather than armor bonus.
Perception: Perception, measuring the ability to notice things as well as depth perception and hand-eye coordination, adds to attack rolls, and thus Damage on successful attacks.
Because of the introduction of Perception, we were able to eliminate Wisdom entirely; it always was a composite score of common sense (roleplaying), perception, and willpower. Will saves are now modified by Charisma. Wisdom-based skills were divided up as appropriate: Listen to Perception, Heal to Intelligence, etc.
Intelligence and Charisma are the two spellcasting ability scores in Summa. Players choose one at character creation. Intelligence affects most spellcasting-relevant skills, but Charisma modifies the social skills (among the most powerful in the game) and Will saves.
Finally, we decided that, despite the weight of tradition, it would just be easier to eliminate the distinction between ability scores and ability modifiers. Thus, rather than a 14 Strength with a +2 modifier, a character in Summa would simply have a +2 Strength. Since we had long ago decided against score randomization (like rolling dice to determine ability scores), this was a simple move to make.
NINJAS!!
Let us suppose that Steve Son of Jack wants to make a ninja. He'll obviously need to be sneaky and aware of his surroundings. Using the standard array option, he gives himself the following scores: Str +0, Dex +2, Per +1, Int +1, and Cha -1. The Dexterity will help his sneaking and make him hard to hit, while the Perception and Intelligence bonuses will give him bonuses to several skills important to not getting caught (Listen and Spot), attack rolls (for flipping out and killing people), and skills for getting into places where he isn't supposed to be. He opts to not have a Strength bonus, since he uses speed and accuracy to dispatch his unworthy opponents. He accepts a Charisma penalty because a wide variety of sharp objects convey all the meaning that he needs to.
If you have any questions, comments, raves, etc... please contact me at:
washington@undeadpresidentspress.com
Undyingly Yours,
Ability scores weren't something we thought we would need to modify from their standard OGL form for Summa Fantasia. Our goal was to create a game in which characters were lightning fast to create, newbies were easy to teach, and gameplay was fast and exciting. The only things we thought we would change with regards to abilitys cores, then, were dropping bonus spells based on high scores and streamlining the carrying capacity rules (both of which we did). The Soak system forced us to rethink this fundamental element of the game.
The Soak system uses the idea of blow-through: the amount by which the attack roll succeeds is added to the Damage DC against which the target must make his Soak check. Obviously, then, we could not allow Strength to add to attack rolls, since it would then add to damage twice- once for the attack bonus and once for the Damage bonus. A natural alternative seemed to be Dexterity. However, this made Dexterity too good: it would effectively have added to Defense, Soak (by lowering margins of success and thus Damage DC's!), attack, and damage. Constitution, normally a powerhouse stat in other OGL games, became extremely second-rate.
Since attack and Defense bonuses had suddenly become twice as good as Damage and Soak bonuses, we had to rethink what kind of bonuses to give. We decided that we should have three physical scores, and that each should effectively add to two combat scores. Thus, the physical ability scores fell out as follows:
Strength: Constitution has been folded into Strength, which now adds to both Damage DC's and Soak checks, as well as Fortitude saves.
Dexterity: Dexterity adds to Defense. Consequently, it not only decreases the frequency with which a character is hit but also reduces the Damage DC's of successful attacks. Reflex saves have been eliminated, because attack rolls now operate on the same scale as spell DC's and Defense is based entirely on avoiding attacks rather than armor bonus.
Perception: Perception, measuring the ability to notice things as well as depth perception and hand-eye coordination, adds to attack rolls, and thus Damage on successful attacks.
Because of the introduction of Perception, we were able to eliminate Wisdom entirely; it always was a composite score of common sense (roleplaying), perception, and willpower. Will saves are now modified by Charisma. Wisdom-based skills were divided up as appropriate: Listen to Perception, Heal to Intelligence, etc.
Intelligence and Charisma are the two spellcasting ability scores in Summa. Players choose one at character creation. Intelligence affects most spellcasting-relevant skills, but Charisma modifies the social skills (among the most powerful in the game) and Will saves.
Finally, we decided that, despite the weight of tradition, it would just be easier to eliminate the distinction between ability scores and ability modifiers. Thus, rather than a 14 Strength with a +2 modifier, a character in Summa would simply have a +2 Strength. Since we had long ago decided against score randomization (like rolling dice to determine ability scores), this was a simple move to make.
NINJAS!!
Let us suppose that Steve Son of Jack wants to make a ninja. He'll obviously need to be sneaky and aware of his surroundings. Using the standard array option, he gives himself the following scores: Str +0, Dex +2, Per +1, Int +1, and Cha -1. The Dexterity will help his sneaking and make him hard to hit, while the Perception and Intelligence bonuses will give him bonuses to several skills important to not getting caught (Listen and Spot), attack rolls (for flipping out and killing people), and skills for getting into places where he isn't supposed to be. He opts to not have a Strength bonus, since he uses speed and accuracy to dispatch his unworthy opponents. He accepts a Charisma penalty because a wide variety of sharp objects convey all the meaning that he needs to.
If you have any questions, comments, raves, etc... please contact me at:
washington@undeadpresidentspress.com
Undyingly Yours,
