Saturday 30 July 2016

Alien Hunter X Label


Just a quick update to let people know that I've now given all my Alien Hunter X posts their own label to make them easier to find.

Its a small project, so i'm probably going to be able to finish it.

Probably.

Next Up: Missions

Friday 29 July 2016

Alien Hunter X: Lethality

Now that I've shown some of the basic moves, maybe its time to talk a little about what my plans are for making AHX different from Dungeon World.

Lethality
In dungeon world, you get assigned a number of Hitpoints based on your class and your constitution - just like from any of the Dungeons and Dragons games or works inspired by them. X-com has allways been noted for how easily the soldiers you control die and i'm keen to make sure that's something that sticks around but making the game more suitable for roleplay.

I decided to go with something more akin to World of Darkness.

Wounds are graded from 'Light' to 'Mortal'. Each of these grades has a number of boxes beside them.
When you take one of those wounds, you fill boxes until you have filled a box in the appropriate grade. If you cant fill a box, you move onto the next most serious grade and mark a box.
When you've taken a mortal wound, roll to Cheat Death.

So an uninjured soldier would look like this...

Light Wound        [ ] [ ]
Medium Wound   [ ] [ ]
Heavy Wound      [ ]
Mortal Wound      [ ]

But a soldier who had taken a single Medium Wound, followed by a Heavy Wound would look like this...

Light Wound        [X] [X]
Medium Wound   [X] [X]
Heavy Wound      [X]
Mortal Wound      [ ]

If the same soldier had taken a Heavy Wound, followed by a Medium wound, however...

Light Wound        [X] [X]
Medium Wound   [X] [X]
Heavy Wound      [X]
Mortal Wound      [X]

He's going to have a bad time.
The reason I went with this is to represent that a Light wound means nothing if you then get a hole put in your chest, but if you start with a hole in your chest, even a light wound can push you over the edge.

Different classes will get different numbers of check boxes. Levelled up troops may gain additional checkboxes.

Armour gives one-use health boxes, up to the threshold of damage they can survive. Someone in a Tactical Vest may gain a single Light Wound box, which does nothing against a Plasma Cannon handing out Heavy Wounds, whereas a suit of Power Armour may offer 5 boxes of protection against anything as powerful as that Plasma Cannon.

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Are we sick of RPG ideas yet?

"Music is Power"

Hey, at least this one actually has a dice mechanic I thought of that went with it... as far as my ideas go, this one is actually pretty far along by comparison.

Psionic energy exists in all things. Extreme situations can put so much stress on a person's mind that they tap into the rhythm of the universe. It starts as a tapping, then other sounds in the world begin to add to it, building up into a spike of psionic energy that permenantly awakens the person's psionic potential. The awakening event is called a 'Crescendo'.

Each character has a Style and a Genre.

Style dictates what psychic abilities you have acess to. A character who'se Style is Percussion focuses mostly on physical improvement, where a Vocalist's abilities are based around controlling the thoughts and actions of other people.

Genre changes how base abilities work. A Punk  is going to have faster and harder attacks or his abilities will work faster than someone elses whilst a Classicist is going to be slower but have a much more powerful final effect, for example.

Dice System is... fairly simple?

You get a number of dice based on your skill level and a target number to roll on each dice - say, 3. You roll all your dice and the more of that specific number you roll, the better you do... However, you can also decide to use a different number on the dice instead of the target number for your sucsesses, with a small 'per step' penalty.

For example, you roll 7 dice and have a target number of 4.

You roll: 4,3,3,2,2,2,2

You could chose the 4, which would be a marginal sucsess.
If you instead decided to take a 1 step penalty and chose the 3, you would lose 1 success but still have another, giving you a marginal sucsess.
If you took a 2 step penalty you could chose the 2's instead, granting you a minor sucsess instead of a marginal.

That's pretty much all I've had idea wise. I wanted to have some sort of mechanic that would let people in a group/band use abilities that gave each other bonuses, like a band playing together for a bigger effect.


Friday 22 July 2016

Alien Hunter X: Basic Moves

I've been tinkering with some ideas for Basic Moves for Alien Hunter X.

If you aren't familiar with the Apocalypse/Dungeon World style of dice rolling, I'll sum it up for you:

Roll 2d6+An Attribute
10+ Succsess
7-9 Sucsess, But...
1-6 Failure

Basic Moves are available to all Classes, but some Classes may change how those moves work or have a 'Better' Version...


Shoot to Kill
When you take aim and shoot at an enemy at range, Roll+AIM.
On a 10+ you have a clear shot—deal your damage.
On a 7–9, choose one (whichever you choose you deal your damage):
  • You have to move to get the shot placing you in danger of the AC’s choice
  • You have to take what you can get: Downgrade Damage 1 Step
  • You have to take several shots, reducing your ammo by one.

Close Quarters Combat
When you attack an enemy in melee, Roll+AIM
On a 10+ you deal your damage to the enemy and avoid their attack. At your option, you may choose to Upgrade Damage 1 step but expose yourself to the enemy’s attack.
On a 7–9, you deal your damage to the enemy and the enemy makes an attack against you.

Go into Overwatch
When you and any other members of your squad find a good position to wait for the enemy to make a move, the AC will choose an Alien to take an action. If the Alien’s action would bring them into the line of fire of the squad, each Squadmember may chose to react before the alien has completed its action. If a player choses to Shoot to Kill, they take a -1 Forward to that roll.

Recon
When you closely study an Alien, Situation or Civilian, Roll+WILL.
On a 10+ ask the GM 3 questions from the list below.
On a 7–9 ask 1. Take +1 forward when acting on the answers.
  • What happened here recently?
  • What is about to happen?
  • What here is applicable to the mission?
  • Who’s really in control here?
  • What here is not what it appears to be?

Civilian-Military Interaction
When you you have leverage on a Civilian or group of Civilians and Want to convince them to do something, Roll+WILL.
Leverage is something they need or want.
On a 10+ they ask you for something and do it if you make them a promise first.
On a 7–9, they need some concrete assurance you can follow through with your promise, right now.

Cheat Death
When your wounds are too great (And your Damage Threshold has been overcome), fall to the ground incapacitated. Roll with no attribute:
On a 10+ you’ve cheated death - you’re still in a bad spot but you will eventually recover fully.
On a 7–9 You have a choice to make…
  • Gain a permenant injury and reduce your maximum Damage Threshold by 1 permenantly and, provided your team can safely extract you, you will live to fight another day
  • Regain back 2 of your Damage Threshold and survive until the end of the mission, whereupon you die regardless of medical attention. You cannot cheat death again.
On a miss, your fate is sealed. Your wounds are too great to recover from and will be dead by the end of the mission.

Entrench
When you find suitable cover and prepare to protect a Person, Location or Item Roll+DEF.
On a 10+, hold 3.
On a 7–9, hold 1.
So long as you are in cover, when you or the thing you defend is attacked you may spend hold, 1 for 1, to choose an option:
  • Redirect an attack from the thing you defend to yourself
  • Downgrade Damage by 1 Step
  • Open up the attacker to a Squadmate giving that Squadmate +1 forward against the attacker

Improvise
When you take an action not covered by your training, describe how you intend to tackle it and Roll. If you do it...
  • … By utilising your technical skills, +WILL
  • … By hunkering down and enduring, +DEF
  • … By using your raw athleticism, +AIM
On a 10+, you do what you set out to, the threat doesn’t come to bear.
On a 7–9, you stumble, hesitate, or flinch: the AC will offer you a worse outcome, hard bargain, or ugly choice.

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Wynn Wednesday: Attack of the continued RPG Ideas...

"Alien Hunter X"

Short, mission based 'Whoever is available' gaming where Aliens are invading earth and its up to a small non-copyright infringing anti-alien military group to fend them off. Fairly high PC turnover because the aliens either have more high tech gear or are genetically superior to humanity.

Mission Failure/Partial/Sucsess grants bonuses on post game research rolls, which add 'Prestige Classes' like Cybernetics (BELLATOR IN MACHINA MOTHERFUCKER) or DNA Manipulation, better equipment and advanced tactics to the basic character classes.

The nature of the aliens would be a 'Discover during play' style dealie with the players basically choosing their own enemies and the ST working out research projects for each alien type.

Since each mission would be a single session, it doesn't matter who turns up to the game,  but previous players who's characters havn't died get to use their previous character sheets alongside green rookies. Just like X-Com

Dungeon World crossed with X-Com, basically.


Friday 15 July 2016

Fort Friday: Yet more RPG Concepts...

"Paintball Dystopia"

Human emotion has faded because the world's government has decided that a docile population is a safe and prosperous population.

There aren't' colours anymore and everything is a shade of grey, drugs hidden in people's food stifle creativity and strong emotional response. Music is Dead and Books and TV exist only to inform.

But a rebel group exists who have worked out a way to bring colour back into the world with paint that counter-acts the drugs in people's systems - Specific emotions keyed into specific colours that physical contact or prolongued nearby exposure to causes the chemicals supressing those emotions to be eliminated from the body.

Heavy themes of Liberty, Disregard for Authority and Beneficial Rebellion.

Somewhere between very, very dark but relatively non violent. For the most part, combat would focus on... well, paint. The police have high quality gear and grey paint that basically acts like riot foam whilst the players have acsess to a ton of colours.

Jet Set Radio crossed with 1984 I guess, with some Splatoon thrown in there for good measure


Wednesday 13 July 2016

Wynn Wednesday: RPG Concept and Ideas

"Goetic Apocalypse"

Inspired by a drawing I did a while back about what I thought my 'Personal Demon' would look like.

An asteroid hit the planet.

No-one bar some dedicated meteorologists noticed, because by the time it hit the surface it was the size of a marble. Sadly, the alien disease that had survived the depths of space on that asteroid survived the atmospheric entry.

The disease was Psionic in nature, chewing up one specific emotion and leaving the others completely untouched.

Fear.

A world without fear is a dangerous world. There were no longer any voices in the back of people's mind that would warn them that it might hurt if they threw themselves out of a window. Nothing to say 'You cant fly a plane' or 'You shouldn't build bombs to prove a point'.

Some people survived the disease, though. As the disease attempted to consume their fear, their minds reacted violently to combat the disease immediately - their smallest fears suddenly bloated and exaggerated in their psionic awakening.

As their minds changed, so too were their bodies now capable of changing. They could allow the fears that plagued them constantly to consume THEM, letting their own personal demons out of their minds and into their bodies, shifting flesh and making them creatures of fear made manifest.

Bogeymen.

Now, the Bogeymen are humanity's white blood cells - being near a bogeyman... even one who looks like a human... allows humans to feel fear again as the presence of the Bogeyman fights the disease in their minds. The majority of this fear is aimed at the Bogeymen themselves, but its a small price to pay until someone can work out how to eradicate the disease once and for all.

... So yeah. My head can be a weird place sometimes. *Finger Guns*

Basically were-fears fight against alien disease that can probably make its own twisted versions of the Bogeymen that are exemplars of other emotions.


Sunday 10 July 2016

The Maid of Wynn tells it how it is...

"Christ..." I say to the Maid of Wynn as we sit in bed and she works out what plants she needs to grow in World of Warcraft on a piece of paper with the guild bank open whilst I read a new webcomic I bumped into this afternoon on the loo at work.
"... Did you know its been two years since my last blog post?" I ask her, baffled at how long its actually been.
"Well, that's because you're rubbish" She points out.

Love is kinda like that, I guess. Harsh and delivered whilst the other person is distracted.

On the plus side, she DOES have the right amount of Soy Sauce. Apparantly this is actually a thing.

Now she's spitefully licking an awful lolly she managed to nick from work, because she's reading over my shoulder now she's noticed i'm actually writing...

-----

This is me, once again attempting to get this pile of oddly shaped dice up off of the floor and back into the box.

So, heres a list of what I have (And havn't!) been doing since I last made a post...

Lords of Gossamer and Shadow failed as a campaign. Which was super disappointing. I still hope to one day have a game of it on the go, but I think people have been a little burned on it and are doing other things with their nights now.

Dungeon World was discovered as an RPG which I instantly fell in love with. I seriously adore this game greatly. I'll do another post about that in the future though.

XCOM hasn't really advanced at all as a project. Remember how my previous post to this one two years ago said 'I have a new job now! and opportunity to wargame!'? Yeah, I still have the job but the wargaming is still sparse. I really should get painting again, though...

Victory by Any Means is an interesting little 4x game that I discovered looking for similar titles. I've been looking at the rulebook for ages but have only recently been able to actually give it a go. Its pretty maths intensive, but once you know what you're actually doing it almost opens up...

The Isles of Darkness is still about and i'm still playing the games! A lot of them have had me thinking recently what players can do to improve their own games as well as the games of others, so I might do a few posts about that...

RPG Design. I'm sure every roleplayer thinks about making their own game - I bet some of them even managed it. I've come up with either hacks for other people's games or entirely new ideas without any sort of mechanics behind them or actual effort behind designing them. Maybe i'll have a go at that for real...

At any rate, that's the current state of the Fort.

Better bust out the mortar and repair some of these walls...