Minions and Monsters

One of the few things I did like about 4E is the streamlined purpose driven monster system. Because I don't wish to spend a ton of time creating monsters I will use something similar.

Minions will be the weakest of the bunch, expected to die in the dozens and only annoy the players unless of course they take on far too many. For level 1 their basic stats will be as follows:

HP: 10-14, Def: 10-12, Atk: 0-2, Damage: 4-6. Expose 20. Initiative 0. In addition they only get a single action and do not roll damage nor saves and do not get a turn in the first round.

 

Normal monsters will still be slightly weaker than the players but be able to actually put up a decent fight. These should be the bread and butter of combat creatures. In the end I would like to create 'roles' or classes for these to be chosen from with quick creation tables for rapid generation.

HP: 20-28, Def: 12-14, Atk: 2-6, Damage: d6-d10. Exploit: d4-d8 OR Expose 19, Perception 0, Initiative 0. They do get 2 actions but should not typically make two attacks.

 

Elite monsters will have higher raw stats than the players without containing as many of the special abilities the players would. They would be considered equal or slightly stronger than a PC.

HP: 50, Def: 16, Atk: 6, Damage: 2 dice. Perception +5, Initiative +5.

These bad boys though are going to require a template smashed on top to work properly such as:

Bruiser: +10 HP, +3 Fort, -2 Ref, -3 Will, +2 Melee Attack, -2 Ranged Attack, d6 ranged, d10 melee, exploit 1d6. Rager Special: Increase Melee attack by 2 and damage to d12 with -2 penalty to all defenses at half health.

Marksman: +3 Ref, -2 Fort, -1 Will, +4 Ranged Attack, d8 ranged, d6 melee, exploit 1d10. Aimed Shot Special: May make secondary special attack at +0 vs targets will defense. If successful target is exposed against marksman's first shot. May only use ability once.

Boss monsters are the biggest and the baddest. Each should be handmade for proper PC butt-whooping potential, but they should still follow some simple guidelines.

HP: 80, Def: 18, Atk: +8, Damage: 2 dice, Armor: 1, Gain extra secondary action. Luck Roll(s).

So the first encounter I intend to run will involve them breaking out of their bonds and facing a small group of mutated giant rambo chickens that intended to eat them.

6x Normal Chickens

Perception 0 / Initiative 0

HP: 22

Defenses: 14 Fort, 12 Ref, 12 Will

Claw Attack: +6 (1d8 damage) Expose 19

Stub Shotgun: +2 (1d10 damage) Expose 19

Bruiser Chicken

Perception +5 / Initiative +5

HP: 60 / At 30 HP or less enrages

Defenses: 19 Fort, 14 Ref, 13 Will / Enrage: 17 Fort, 12 Ref, 11 Will

Razor Claws: +8 (2d10 damage) Exploit 1d10 / Enrage: +10 (2d12 damage) Exploit 1d10

Stub Shotgun: +4 (2d6 damage) Exploit 1d6

They will get away of course, until they are ambushed(!) by the rambo chicken chief! And yes they all wear bandanas and warpaint.

2x Normal Chickens

Perception 0 / Initiative 0

HP: 22

Defenses: 14 Fort, 12 Ref, 12 Will

Claw Attack: +6 (1d8 damage) Exploit 1d6

Stub Shotgun: +2 (1d10 damage) Exploit 1d6

6x Minion Chickens

Initiative 0

HP: 10

Defense: 10 Fort, 12 Ref, 10 Will

Beak Attack: +0 (6 damage) Expose 20

Stub Pistol: +2 (4 damage) Expose 20

Rambo Chicken

Perception +20 / Initiative +10

HP: 80

Armor: 1

Defense: 16 Fort, 16 Reflex, 18 Will

Fortune: 2 / Luck: d6

Primary Attacks

Razor Claw Attack: +8 (2d8 damage) Exploit 2d6

Machine Gun: +8 (2d6 damage) Expose 17-20

Secondary Attacks

Bayonet: +5 (2d6 damage) Expose 20

Special Attacks

Charging Fire (once per encounter)

The rambo chicken charges toward you firing his gun until the last moment when he slams into you.

Type: Standard Action + Secondary Action

Against a target within 30 ft make a machine gun attack. Then move into melee range and make a bayonet attack with a +4 bonus on the attack roll if the ranged attack hit. If the bayonet attack hits the target is moved 15ft (3 squares) back and exposed with the rambo chicken directly infront of them.

Sweeping Fire (at will if 40 HP or above)

Type: Standard Action

Make a standard machine gun attack roll against all targets within 15 feet from each other with a -2 penalty on the attack roll. Deal damage as normal if you hit.

Blood Frenzy (once when below 50 HP)

The rambo chicken lets our a bloody scream and begins to frantically claw at you.

Type: Standard Action

Make a razor claw attack as normal with a +4 bonus on the attack roll. If you hit deal damage normally and continue to make razor claw attacks and dealing damage with a cumulative -4 penalty to the roll each time until the target is unconscious or you miss.

Edits

I had to change a few things because of foreseen potential problems. I increased the base amount of hit points each character starts with, and added a flat bonus to the amount you heal from a vigor roll while removing one of the dice. Random is good, healing 3 hit points or 30 not so good and could cause many issues. Also, I removed one die from exploit damage at level one because I was a bit worried about the fact most of the characters could kill themselves in a single round, thats also why I increased base hit points.

Combat System Goals

    The two big goals I have for the combat system is to promote teamwork and to make positioning important. I want the players to feel rewarded for moving their character to the right place to get the flank, to expose an enemy, to protect a range guy from melee or to punish a ranged guy with melee. I want it to be similar in nature to a cover shooter where you can be punished hard for being caught in a bad position without being quite so boring. That is where the expose/exploit and posture mechanics come into play.

    In addition to that I did want to try and break the holy trinity of tank, damage, and healer. I don't want much healing to take place in combat in an effort to keep the tension always high. I do want roles however, and the four character classes will each have their own forte so to speak.

   Unstable Mutant: This dude is melee supreme. In addition he can take a beating and keep on trucking. Now while this may make him like a 'tank' he will need it to close with his enemies and survive. In addition his mechanics allow him to become really powerful but for a very random duration making him inconsistent in his performance which may be bad design but we shall see.

   Techno Marksman: His focus is on ranged damage, specializing in dealing additional exploit damage. His abilities also allow him to adapt to his enemies with bonus to hit, damage, etc. He uses the at will/encounter/daily ability system so he will burst early in the fights but his performance will taper off the longer it lasts.

   Telekinetic: This guy can bring the pain. Using special attacks he can target enemies weaker defenses, expose them, and weaken them while at the same time killing them. He just keeps going all day and with his secondary focus mechanic the longer the fight goes the stronger he gets. Bit squishy though.

   Combat Support Bot: Buffs? Check. Damage? Check. Trickery? Check. His auxiliary systems let him do some cool things like protecting the mutant before a deadly charge, or lighting up an enemy for the marksman to slaughter. And his primary systems give him some much needed, albeit limited, heavy hitting.

   So we have roles but not the typical ones. In addition everyone can deal good damage and take enough hits to do their jobs with luck. I have placed a very rough draft of the toons into the quickstart page but it needs refining and transferred onto a sheet.

It's getting there

The brainstorming is pretty much done, now its time to iron it into something worthy of a playtest and go from there. To that end I began to put together a quickstart combat rule page that will be a work in progress for now. With luck I can get the 4 character classes and character sheets put together and then it should make alot more sense.

Setting Change

I must say that my idea on the setting before was total garbage, I apologize. Shadows are cool but not really what I want to go for. Instead there shall be rifts, tears in reality that appear with monsters at times!

Down with Earth Prime!

Hail Sundered Earth!

So same as before, man manipulates gravitational forces on a global scale causing massive global devastation and tearing reality. This has the effect of distorting and changing everything on the planet. In addition the various realities, or dimensions, begin to crash into one another bringing even more devastation and craziness as they all begin to merge.

At these rifts, or tears, various things will be possible. The area connected to the rift can be stabilized so that other realities stop merging with it. Or it can be agitated into eliminating the area it is connected to. You could 'jump' from one possible version of it to another and possibly stabilize that alternate version.

In addition sometimes crazy monsters emerge from these tears for unknown reasons. Some are merely demonic in appearance and behavior, destroying everything nearby only to vanish soon after. Others are even worse.

Finally when approaching the outer edge of an area there is what appears to be a barrier separating it from the others. Sometimes the barrier is weak, things can pass threw it and you can even see on the other side although it does have some distortion. Other times it is completely solid and prevents anything from passing threw it, to everything between. Just like the rifts no one is exactly sure what they are or how they function, but at times they can be manipulated.

Reality Crystals and Shards will be what are used for manipulating the rifts and barriers. They were formed when the earths were sundered and contain the very essence of reality. These will be valuable, and difficult to obtain.

I think this will work much better, all the organizations I spoke of before will still exist aside from the 'shadow' creatures.

Gear Talk

One of the major focuses on a dungeon crawler RPG and most RPGs in general is the gear. It can also be difficult to design so that the gear is interesting and powerful without breaking the game.

Weapons

As I stated before I want a normal weapon to deal d8 damage. So a standard one handed weapon's stats should look like this:

Damage: d8, Hit Bonus: +0, Expose 20 OR Exploit 1

But thats not very interesting nor does it give a large variety. In addition it does not take into account other factors for the weapon but its ok because that is just the base. I'm going to make a list of modifiers that in the end should equal 1 for a standard weapon. Anything with an (a) is an advanced modifier that will be described later.

Penalties

Melee: -1

Two Handed: -1

Hit Penalty(-1): -1 per

Damage Penalty (-1 die): -1 per

(a) Unwieldy: -1

Bonuses

Hit Bonus(+1): +1 per

Damage Bonus(+1 die): +1 per

(a) Light: +1

(a) Armor Penetrating: +1

Exploit Die Bonus: +1 per

Expose Bonus: +1 per

(a) Wounding: +1

(a) Swift: +1

So for the class I described before I will offer him a choice of a few weapons.

Massive Axe: 2H Melee, Damage: d12, Hit Penalty: -1, Exploit d8

Maul: 1H Melee, Damage: d8, Wounding, Unwieldy, Expose 19

Light Pistol: Light Ranged, Damage: d6, Hit Bonus: +1, Exploit d6

Guess I should explain some of those modifiers a bit.

Wounding: Inflicts 1 temporary condition track damage to target damaged once per round.

Unwieldy: Increases critical failure from 1 to 2.

Light: Reduces the penalty for using it as a secondary attack by 2.

Swift: You may use the weapon for a primary and a secondary attack.

One other thing I really like in STO is that all weapons have a second attack option that is typically stronger than the normal but has a short cooldown attached to it. I think that would work well in a tabletop RPG and help make weapons even more interesting. Here are the 'special attacks' for the above weapons.

Massive Axe(Mighty Blow): Damage: d12+1, Hit Bonus: +2, Exploit d12, Once per Encounter

Maul(Backswing): Damage: d8, Light, Swift, Exploit d6, Every other Round

Light Pistol(Semi-Auto): Damage: d10, Light, Hit Bonus: +0, Exploit d6, Once per Encounter

That will add just a bit more flavor and options to the weapons.

Equipment & Armor

Armor will function as damage reduction primarily, although they can and should be various types of armor or equipment that increases the various defenses and/or secondary stats. Their will also be equipment that grants additional abilities or that increases a characters abilities. I'm going to list a few of the ideas I have for some gear that isn't too powerful.

Combat Armor: This armor provides full body protection against attacks. Armor Rating 2. Speed Penalty 1.

Telescopic Goggles: These goggles enhance a users vision with auto focusing lenses. +2 Perception.

Chameleon Duster: This coat forms a minor distortion field around it interfering with others vision. +1 Reflex Defense.

Stimulant Belt: This belt releases a small bio-electric charge into the user when they are in danger. In cases of extreme danger it can release a larger charge. +1 Saves. When knocked unconscious or severely wounded user may expend a Grit to heal Once per Day.

Armor Rating

Each point of armor rating reduces the damage you take from all attacks by 1 per die used in the attack. Sounds complex but it is actually really simple. If a player is attacked and the attack deals 2d8 damage and they player has an armor rating of 2 they reduce the damage by (2*2) 4.

And thats all I got for now but I think it is really beginning to shape up into something that will work!

Little more on the Setting

Humanity believed it only had one Earth to ruin but were wrong. They had countless earths in countless dimensions and managed to utterly destroy all of them.

On some it was to be used as a weapon. Others a tool for prosperity. And on a handful it was merely a curiosity of what would happen. What would happen if man could manipulate the gravitational forces of Earth on a global scale? Devastation. The Earth is torn apart along with the fabrics of space and time.

All was not lost. Some portions of these earths and the inhabitants survived and merged into what is known as Earth Prime. It is a strange place composed from the leftovers of the destroyed earths. Some areas are relatively stable, and others are always changing as portions are overwritten by those of a different Earth. Sometimes it is easy to cross from one shard of an earth over to another, other times it is nearly impossible.

Yes I know I'm a terrible writer and shouldn't quit my day job, or my night job for that matter :)

Although there is very little society left on Earth Prime it does exist. From small towns to a handful of global organizations that use what they can to achieve their goals, be it simple survival or an attempt to make whats left of the worlds into a better place. Here are a few of those organizations I intent to use.

Seekers of Eden: This group believes there exists an earth where man has successfully learned to manipulate the gravitational forces and seek to bring that earth to earth prime by any means necessary.

Protectors of Fate: They believe that man deserves what they have gotten. If there is an earth that has not destroyed itself it should be left alone, and no one on Earth Prime deserves to live there.

Pure Bloods: Strong believers in the protection of the human race. The pure, unmodified, human race. They seek the elimination of mutants, cyborgs, and anything else that presents a threat to mankind. They will work with those they hate, but only for a time.

Shadows: It is said a shadow will fall upon the portions of Earth Prime that are rejected. At first a strange misty fog begins to gather around the borders hindering travel. Slowly the fog thickens until nothing can pass and burning embers begin to appear inside it. Creatures begin to emerge from the shadows destroying and consuming anything that comes near for seven days. After those seven days the fog rapidly dissipates revealing a barren land inside.

The Adventure Ideas

• There will be ways to 'stabilize' a shard to keep it from fading away.
• There may be ways to travel to the 'alternate' possible shards.
• Shadows.
• Mutant Monsters!
• What happens when a military base of cyborg axis soldiers appear from an Earth where the Axis won WW2?
• As above but Russian after they won WW3?