Talk:Mano a Mano

Character Sheet Duplicates Template?

NAME                           AGE   SEX  TEMPLATE               
_____________________________ _____ _____ ____________________ Template CP (______)
                                                                  Build CP (______)
OCCUPATION(S)                             BUILD                 Ability CP (______)
_________________________________________ ____________________    Total CP (______)

Mass              _____ kg  ABILITIES/disabilities Level/Limit T.Mod  Mod     CP
Length __________ _____ m   ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Template Agility  _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Template Speed    _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Template Health   _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Health            _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Half Health       _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Template Power    _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Grip              _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Carrying Capacity _____ kg  ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Equipment Mass    _____ kg  ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Encumbrance       _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Speed-Encumbrance _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
Stride            _____     ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
ground movement   _____ m   ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
water movement    _____ m   ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
air movement      _____ m   ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)
climbing movement _____ m   ______________________ _____/_____ _____ _____ (______)

EQUIPMENT            special modifiers Qty Mass Heft Cmb Reach Cvr Abs  Power  Shp
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___
____________________ _________________ ___ ____ ____ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___-___ ___

                  STUN                   |                 DAMAGE
                                         |
                                         |
                                         |
                                         |
                                         |

Combined Manufacturing and Modification Rule

Some abilities can be used to create or modify items or even other characters. A game's equipment list will describe how each ability is used. (See Game Design/Abilities/Craftsmanship.)

Craftsmanship can be used to create armor and weapons from an equipment list, to modify armor and weapons, or to create new items designed by a player or GM.

This should probably be moved to the definition of Craftsmanship in the ability list.

A game might have a "robotics" ability that allows you to build a lunar rover robot, or modify such a robot by mounting a gun to it.

Should we add robotics to our ability list instead of using it as a hypothetical example?

Difficulty Modifier

Find the character point (CP) value that the item or character will have after it is created or modified. The difficulty modifier is one percent of this CP value, rounded to the nearest whole number. For example, the difficulty modifier for creating a spear worth 1950 CP is 20. (See Game Design/Equipment/Equipment Lists and Game Design/Equipment/Equipment CP.)

Characters created by other characters are called artificial characters. Examples from popular fiction include the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein, and Robby the Robot created by Dr. Morbius. When the new artificial character is a unique life form or machine requiring a new template, increase the difficulty modifier by 2.

Some modifications affect things the character inherits from their template such as limbs, natural weapons and armor, speed, agility, power and health modifier. Use the template CP rules to determine the CP value of the modifications. For example, if an extra limb is added to a character the CP value is the difference adding the extra limb would make to the CP of the character's template.

If the character is in a culture where this kind of item or artificial character is rare, add 1 to the difficulty. If the culture deliberately avoids creating this kind of item or artificial character, add 1 more to the difficulty modifier. For example robots might be unpopular in a high tech culture (+1 difficulty) or weapons might be forbidden in a pacifist community (+2 difficulty.)

The difficulty modifier is increased by 2 if the type of technology being used to create the item or character is undeveloped compared to the culture's other technology. For example, the Inca empire had many well-developed technologies for it's time, but it did not have steel for making certain types of equipment, like swords and plate armor. A character making those kinds of weapons among the Inca would have a +2 difficulty modifier as a result.

      Difficulty Modifiers for Artificial Characters (in addition to 1% of the new character's CP) 
Difficulty 
Modifier:  Additional Factors:          
  +1       The type of artificial character is rare in this culture, or if the culture deliberately avoids this kind of character,
  +2       The artificial character unique life form or prototype, or if technology used is underdeveloped compared to other technology in culture

Success Modifier

The success modifier is the modifier of the ability used to create or modify the item or character plus technology and tool quality modifiers from the following table. Add 1 to the success modifier if the character is in a culture where similar items or methods of creating characters is common. Add 1 more to the success modifier if the character is in a culture which specializes in making this type of item or character.

Modifier		Technology		Tool Quality		Culture Specializes	Common Methods
+0		Stone age		Makeshift / lacking materials	no	no
+1		Bronze age		Low quality / cheap	yes	yes
+2		Iron age		Typical / mediocre
+3		Steel age		High quality / expensive
+4		Industrial		State of the art / very rare
+5		Mechanized
+6		Cybernetic
+7		Futuristic

Time Modifier

If the success modifier is greater than the difficulty modifier, then the time modifier is 0. Otherwise the time modifier is the difficulty modifier minus the success modifier. Use the chart below to find the time required to create the item based on it's time modifier. If the time modifier is greater than 8, then the character cannot create or modify the item or character.

If the modifications to an item or character will only increase it's CP by 100 CP or less, the modifications take half as long. If the modifications to an item or character will increase it's CP by 101-200 CP, the modifications take 25% less time.

Modifier		New or more than 200 CP added		101-200 CP added		1-100 CP added
0		15 minutes		15 minutes		15 minutes
+1		30 minutes		30 minutes		15 minutes
+2		1 hour		45 minutes		30 minutes
+3		2 hours		90 minutes		1 hour
+4		4 hours		3 hours		2 hours
+5		8 hours		6 hours		4 hours
+6		16 hours		12 hours		8 hours
+7		32 hours		24 hours		16 hours
+8		64 hours		48 hours		32 hours

Surgery

When a character performs surgery, a success roll is required. The surgeon's medicine ability is used for the success roll, and the difficulty of the surgery is added to the roll against success. Superficial operations like cutting hair or sharpening claws, which only affect non-living tissue, do not require a roll. Surgery which does not directly affect vital organs has a difficulty between 0 and 5. Surgery which affects vital organs or involves other major changes has a difficulty between 5 and 10.

If the roll succeeds, healing from the surgery only affect the character's performance for a few days. If the roll fails, the character must spend an extra month healing. If the roll fails by more than 5, the character dies.

We should get more specific about the impact and duration of healing.

Modifying organic characters requires surgery.

This should be part of the modification rules or the mechanical vs. organic character definition.

Difficulty		Type of Modification
0		no living tissue affected (sharpening claws)
2		no significant effect on organs, muscles or bones (implanting an explosive device.)
4		modifications to non-vital organs (removing an appendix)
6		significant muscle or skeleton modification (amputation, limb lengthening)
8		modification to vital organs or peripheral nervous system (heart transplant, new limbs)
10		major modifications involving central nervous system (add a new head and spinal column)

Modification Examples

Modify Weapon Example

1. Design the Modified Weapon

The evil alien steals one of Modre's ice blades with intent to modify it for his own evil purposes:

Item Name	Special Modifiers	CP	Mass	Heft	Reach	Pwr	Shp	Cvr	Abs
Ice Blade	(no special modifiers)	750	0.5 kg	4	1.0 m	3-6	2

The evil alien wants to elongate the handle to give the weapon more reach, so that it will be this weapon:

Item Name	Special Modifiers	CP	Mass	Heft	Reach	Pwr	Shp	Cvr	Abs
Ice Blade	(no special modifiers)	850	0.5 kg	4	1.5 m	3-6	2

This modification uses 100 CP to to add 1/2 of a meter reach for to ice blade, making to total 850 CP.

2. Determine Difficulty Modifier

Because the Ice Blade's CP is 850, Modre's difficulty modifier for making it is 8.5.

3. Determine Success Modifier

We start with the evil alien's +1 craftsmanship ability modifier. We add a +5 modifier for his access to this "futuristic" technology (for a total modifier of +6 so far.) The lazer press he uses is "typical" for his futuristic technology, giving him another +2 modifier and making the total modifier +8.

4. Determine Time Modifier

The Time modifier is the Difficulty Modifier with the Success Modifier subtracted from it. The evil alien's difficulty modifier is 9 (rounded from 8.5), and his Success Modifier is 8, so his Time Modifier is 1 (9 - 8 = 1.) Looking at the modification time modifier chart, we see it will take the evil alien 15 minutes to add 0.5 meters reach to the stolen Ice Blade.

Mechanical vs. Organic Characters

Being a mechanical character is an ability with a special CP of 0, no levels and no modifiers. A mechanical character does not heal, but can be repaired using craftsmanship and abilities which allow characters to modify mechanical characters. Mechanical characters can be repaired more quickly than an organic character heals. Mechanical characters do not require surgery rolls when they are modified.

Characters who do not have this ability are called organic characters. The main difference between mechanical and organic characters is how they are affected by trauma. (A very complex robot which can heal itself but can be easily destroyed by an attempted modification might not have the mechanical character ability.) Mechanical characters do not decay as quickly as organic creatures, so they can be easier to resuscitate from fatal injuries.

There is a question as to weather or not the characteristic of being organic vs. being mechanical should have a Character Point value. For the time being we are just trying to balance out the advantages so that this characteristic is character-point neutral.

How fast can mechanical characters be repaired? Are repairs more like modifications or like medicine/healing rolls? If mechanical character ability had a level it might be a bonus to being repaired.

Do mechanical characters recover from stun like normal characters? I would lean toward "yes" as there are lots of temporary mechanical problems even a simple machine can work out itself, especially autonomous and semi-autonomous robots with redundant systems (NASA probes often recover themselves after the ground crew writes them off as down for the count, and they usually have minor problems which require adjustment and slow down the mission but don't cause lasting damage.)

Combat Abilities

Currently we only have two kinds of combat abilities:

Weapon Proficiency

Abilities which modify combat modifiers are weapon proficiencies, because you have one combat modifier per weapon. Weapon Proficiencies can be as specific as a single weapon or as broad as you like (you could have a weapon proficiency which applies to all weapons) but they apply to any use of the weapon's combat modifier.

Athletic Abilities

Athletic abilities improve your health, allowing you to fight longer even when you get hurt. Your best two athletic abilities affect your health, and it doesn't really matter which athletic abilities they are.

The most obvious thing missing is abilities that affect how you fight with a given weapon - abilities which give you an advantage to using certain classes of actions over others. For example experience competing in wrestling might improve your grappling more than it improves your striking ability. How would these abilities work? Would they add another column to the equipment list, or would they give you special modifiers (like the Grp, Atk, Par modifiers.) or would they be added directly to combat rolls? Would we have some combat modifiers be independent of the equipment list, and not affected by which weapon you use?

Limitations

We need to expand the coverage of limitations to character creation and development in the Game Design section.

• CP Allowance (How much CP for heroic or super-heroic characters?)
• Sex (based on template? Should templates have a "sexes" property?)
• Age
• Templates (PC vs. NPC)
• Build (depends on templates. Dogs vary more than cats, and birds even less)
• Missing limbs
• Disabilities
  • A game should allow no disabilities beyond those built into the templates, or at least have limitations like one disability per character, no more than -1000 CP of disabilities, and only those disabilities that have unavoidable consequences.
  • A game with a GM may have a bigger disability list because he GM can moderate the role-playing of those disabilities. Players need the GM's permission to give characters disabilities beyond template disabilities. The GM may have stricter limitations than the game requires, not allow some disabilities, or decide on a case-by-case basis.
• Ability levels (character creation and training)
• Equipment (character creation and shopping)
• Occupations?
  • limitations are basically built-in to occupations
  • but the occupations section feels like it needs work
• Reach? (requires a rule allowing characters to have more or less reach than their template)

Ability Checks in Combat

At times a GM might ask players to perform an ability check during a round of combat. My opinion is that players should not add their ability bonus to the check unless they specifically have established that they are using the ability. If the check is called before the player's turn and the player stated the use of the ability before the beginning of combat. The player would be allowed to add their ability bonus. If the check is called after the player's turn then the player would not be allowed to add their ability bonus the unless they specifically use at least a quick action to use the ability. --ulrich 11:00, 2005 Jul 2 (CEST)

A classic example is watching out for traps during combat. If the traps are so well hidden that an ability roll is required, at least one of the PCs should spend a whole turn looking for traps instead of fighting. If the story requires the characters to fall into a trap, it should be impossible to find (or impossible to avoid if you do find it.) If this is not a good time in the story for the characters to fall into a trap, or if the characters have been specifically looking for traps as they go along, it doesn't make sense to ask them to make routine checks for traps. --SerpLord 15:17, 8 December 2005 (CET)