ABS12: New weapon list

All the changes from this page will be added to the complete master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

Here is the new weapon list. I haven't made all the rules to go with the weapons yet, such as the ranged. I only have ranged spells, which may be used temporarily. Also I've put weapons in one more damage higher than the starting fighter's sword, which obviously is a longsword. I also need to put in rules about selecting the weapons somehow.

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ABS12: Weapons and Armor reevaluation and changes

All the changes from this page will be added to the master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

New version number

If you haven't  noticed, I upped the version now to 1.01 including everything changed or added last week. The current version is much larger than the first page written down in the first post of this series.

Change in focus this week
The project will switch now to more analysis and comparison to other systems for a while. This post will address the weapons and armor. Is the numbers accurate for damage and defense in the order presented originally. I don't want to develop the system further without reexamining the balance of offensive and defensive weapons.

Prior information
Here is what I had made prior to today for weapons, damage, and armor.

WeaponsStaff - +1 PL damage
Mace - +2 PL damage [or maybe 1d12/6 ]
Dagger - +3 PL damage [or maybe 1d12/4]
Sword - +4 PL damage [or maybe 1d12/3]
Scaling Damage1 damage = 1
1d12/6 = 1 or 2
1d12/4 = 1 to 3
1d12/3 = 1 to 4
1d12/2 = 1 to 6
(1d12*3) /4 = 1 to 8
1d12 = 1 to 12
1d12 + (1d12/2) = 2 to 18
2d12 = 2 to 24
3d12 = 3 to 36
4d12 = 4 to 48
ArmorCloth - +1 PL defense
Leather - +2 PL defense
Chain - +3 PL defense
Plate - +4PL defense

Running the numbers through the Open Systems presented in my black bear post, I will make some weapons changes.

Dagger according to all the games, should be the lowest. The other weapons very in different systems, especially staff and mace. So I will make those two my own order. I also decided to stick with the scaling damage instead of the static damage number - so I remove those static numbers except for the lowest weapon.

The changes in the dagger may make me reevaluate the thief's stats, choice of weapon, and covert attack damage.

But I will do the definitions reevaluation another day.

Revised Weapon 

Weapons

Dagger - 1 PL damage

Staff - 1d12/6 PL damage [or 1d2]
Mace - 1d12/4 PL damage [or 1d3]
Sword - 1d12/3 PL damage [or 1d4]

Defense

The  armor looks good enough so no changes will be made. Most of the systems had cloth at 0. For now I will let cloth give some protection. I think that cloth would help protect against some forms of scrapes and scratches - very minor type wounds. As well as some temperature type damage from the cold or wind.

Future modern and magic weapons on the damage scale

Keeping the damage for ancient and medieval weapons allows for expansion for modern and futuristic type weapons. I am going to reserve the next three damage scale levels for more modern weapons such as guns or magic. And then the highest ones for futuristic such as lasers and high magic 

Next post in this series

The next post will probably reevaluate the PL Life system, now that I have a little more accurate and variable weapon damage system.

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ABS12: Favorable, unfavorable, defense, damage, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, definitions

All the changes from this page will be added to the master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

The first thing I need to do is add a mechanic for situations that are favorable or unfavorable.

Situations: Favorable and Unfavorable
There will be certain periods of times that because of environmental, tactical, strategical, setting, psychological, social, emotional, or other reasons actions will be done more easily or difficult. These reasons could be weather, lighting, slope of a hill, a distraction, slippery surface, being under a fearful state, fighting in water, fighting behind an object, or almost anything.

If more than one condition both favorable and unfavorable exists in a situation the total for favorable must be weighed against the total unfavorable.  This comparison will determine whether or not the conditions cancel each other out or leaves the character with a more favorable or unfavorable total situation. Therefore, situations can be balanced having no modifier, favorable, or unfavorable. Balanced situations roll normal with 1d12 for the action.

If they are not balanced, the character will be in a favorable or unfavorable situation and will roll two dice.

Favorable: the higher of 2d12
If situations and influences are determined favorable, then to show that advantage the character rolls two dice instead of just one. The higher of the two rolls is picked for the result, and the lower roll is ignored.

Unfavorable: the lower of 2d12
If situations and influences are determined unfavorable, then to show that disadvantage the character rolls two dice instead of just one. The lower of the two rolls is picked for the result, and the higher roll is ignored.

Also, an explanatory section needs to be added in the character section describing defense and damage.

PL Defense
PL Defense is the amount of protection that natural or worn armor provides to a character.

PL Damage
PL Damage is the character's amount of  primary melee damage done if they hit the opponent during melee combat.

For certain sections I added language that describes the elements as nouns, definitions, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. I do so to help sculpt the system into a story writing system if possible

Descriptions are nouns. Descriptions are definitions in that they define what a character can do (skills: verbs) and how a character does it (PL bonus: adverb or adjective). It represents overall skill and expertise.
Skills are verbs.
Power Level and Description Level are adverbs and adjectives.


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ABS12 Scaling damage

All the changes from this page will be added to the master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

For this post, I wanted to explore a potential scaling damage system, which I have been hinting at for one or two posts.

Scaling Damage

Here is a somewhat curved system which comes off the top of my head. Increase is by 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 12, 12

1 damage = 1
1d12/6 = 1 or 2
1d12/4 = 1 to 3
1d12/3 = 1 to 4
1d12/2 = 1 to 6
(1d12*3) /4 = 1 to 8
1d12 = 1 to 12
1d12 + (1d12/2) = 2 to 18
2d12 = 2 to 24
3d12 = 3 to 36
4d12 = 4 to 48



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Combat first test; Variable damage?; Initiative

All the changes from this page will be added to the master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).

Getting ready to test a battle

In writing the Fighter information down, I notice that I had written +2 defense in the definition. That on top of the +4 plate feels too high for a starting character, so I switch the definition from defense to rescue, meaning they can give a +2 defense to any friendly ally to help defend them.

Fighter Stats

1PL Fighter

1PL Fighter; 3PL life; 4PL defense; 3PL speed; 4PL damage; 2 rescue

Test

Battle of two fighters:

Fighter A; 1PL; 3PL life; 4PL defense; 3PL speed; 4PL damage; 2 rescue

Fighter B; 1PL; 3PL life; 4PL defense; 3PL speed; 4PL damage; 2 rescue

Fighter A attacks Fighter B. Fighter A attacks and rolls a 4 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 10. Fighter B defends and rolls a 5 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 11. Fighter B successfully defends against Fighter A.

Fighter B now attacks Fighter A. Fighter B attacks and rolls a 10 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 16. Fighter B defends and rolls a 5 + 1 +1 +4 = 11. Fighter B does 4 damage to Fighter A killing Fighter A who has 3 PL life - 4 PL damage.

Analysis

Right away, I notice that Fighter damage can kill another character in one swing. I don't have variable damage at the moment built into the game system. If I did, I might do a roll/3 rnd up for fighters so that the results could be 1 to 4. Testing this out real quick another roll results in a 5 which would round up to a 2 damage. Thief would be roll/4, healer roll/6, and magic user would still be just 1. Like many other games, the healer and magic user would rely more on powers.

I pencil in the alternative damage system tentatively in brackets for now, just so I don't forget.

In the scene above, had Fighter A done only 2 damage, Fighter A would still be alive with 1 PL Life remaining.

Secondary thoughts

I also note down two skill information into the master page.

rescue- the character gives the defense bonus to a friendly character. This is because they are helping to defend that other character.

covert- the character uses skill to become hidden, hides behind objects, stays in the dark, is less noticed, pretends to be dead, or other techniques to gain an advantage over opponents. They can then do a covert attack with increased PL for attack and damage.

I also do not have a initiative system, so I create on quickly.

Initiative
1d12 + PL + Speed
Who goes first? In situations where everyone must know when they act, initiative can be figure. Each character rolls and adds their PL and any Speed bonus. Ties mean simultaneous actions.

The 1d12 represents the random nature of events. The PL represents awareness gained by experience - the recognition of causes and effects. Speed represents a quicker skilled action or natural quickness.

Summary

I've added the new skill information, initiative, noted variable damage, and made the change to the Fighter definition on the master game page.

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