MaM 2007 - what's left?

update tutorials, how-tos and examples
there is no CP rule for equipment Agi. (there is insufficient explanation of equipment Agi in general.)
A new CP Scale? Can we get away with a MaM 2007 without a new CP scale? If not...
- It's obviously going to be larger then MaM 2006... CP scales do not complicate combat rounds.
- I could see a CP scale that measures reach by the 1/10 meter, at 10 CP per meter.
- Perhaps on a scale like that a template could use 19 CP for what used to be 0 CP... (see agility CP scale below)
- Related to this I see a revisualization of our ability scale and combat abilities.
  - For example, I could see the "hand to hand" abilities brokend down beyond what they are now into: Grappling (Natural Weapons,) Striking (Natural weapons,) light one handed weapons (arnis,) heavy one handed weapon (fencing... light long weapons used with one hand,) light long weapons(staffs and spears... heavy one handed weapons used with two hands,) heavy long weapons (large swords and polearms.) Since a +1 on a 1D6 represents such a massive ability promotion, each ability only provide a maximum of about 4 promotions throughout the life of the character. The more abilities we have the more opportunies for character promotions we have.)
how does the old limbs rule (primary, secondary, other limbs) change with the new primary/secondary weapon and combo rules?

I propose that we combine "thumbless" disability, limbs and natural weapons. "Other limbs" become natural weapons that are not also hands. The 1 CP cost for multiple (Qty > 1) natural weapons only applies to these other limbs. Hands (or other manipulators) are a kind of natural weapon. They have an agility (Agi) modifier between 0 and -4, like the thumbless disability. Ambidextrous characters have 2 or more hands with the same agility. One handed characters are self explanatory. Other characters can have one dominant hand and one or more other hands (how many doesn't matter, the CP is the same.) The biggest drawback is complexity: a weapon could have a different combat modifier depending on which hand uses it, but that is also a problem for the old Primary vs. Secondary limb system. We could also get rid of the Reach value at the top of the template and character sheet, since the reach of the hands would be listed as a natural weapon.

Agility            -4  -3  -2  -1   0

Ambidextrous CP     3   6   9  15  21
One-Handed CP       2   4   6  10  14
Dominant Hand CP    *   4   6  10  14
Other Hand(s) CP    1   2   3   5  **

* you can't have another hand with less agility
** if both hands have 0 agility, you are ambidextrous

Agility  Description

   0     fully developed manipulator (right hand for most humans)
  -1     improved tool-manipulator (left hand for the average human)
  -2     basic tool-using manipulator (ape hand)
  -3     dextrous grasping limb (raccoon paw)
  -4     basic grasping limb

do we need rules for Throwing Power, Maximum Range, Ability-Based Distance or Slings and Spear Throwers like the rules at Mano_a_Mano:Thrown_Weapons?
- We need to make sure that the scope of what these rules covered is covered in MaM 2007... it does not have to be a rule-by-rule replacement as long as what is convered in these rules is covered eslewhere.
cross references like "(See Abilities/Skills.)" need to be hyperlinked to appropriate sections. Other text can also be hyperlinked. The only cross references that should be in (See ...) format are ones that are more helpful than distracting when you read the printed rules.
front and back covers, title page.
how to create a book version
floating tables (messy when opened in OpenOffice.org)

Getting a Grip on Arm Strength

What if we rename Arm Strength (AS) to Grip, and we add thumbless (or manual dexterity) modifier to it? so Grip = 4xPwr + strength + thumbless(dexterity). Also, weapons could have Heft, which is the grip required to wield them easily. Normally this is based directly on their mass, but in some cases weapons could be heftier and require more strength to wield (like a mace, which feels heftier than a lighter but differently balanced sword.) Heft is almost like a disability for weapons. The CP of heft is four times the weapon's power minus it's heft. Carrying Capacity (CC) would still be based on 4xPwr + strength, and measured in kg.

What rules are these instead of? Does it skip the step where you look up your 4xPwr on the scale? How much of this process can be kept in the template design process and out of character generation?

limitations of description and customization

We need a new Game Design section about choosing limits on sex, age, templates, build, abilities, CP, equipment, etc. What are the default limitations (if any) what limits should a game designer pay special attention to.

CP in tables

CP is listed as a column in several tables of the Template section of Game Design. Is this helpful, or is it confusing to have CP outside the Template CP section?

Fast Characters

Characters may be able to get extra speed from extraordinary athletic ability or fighting skills. Their speed would increase by 1 for every 5 ability levels.

Damage

How should damage be expressed?

power = 2, sharpness = 1/2
power = 2, lasting damage = 1
lasting damage = 1, stun = 1

When is absorption taken out of damage? In the old days when we had sharpness fractions, sharpness was used to calculate lasting damage from total damage after absorption. This required a quick division calculation for every successful damaging attack. Now that absorption is relatively smaller, perhaps we can calculate lasting damage before absorption, or do away with the fractions completely.

The second option is confusing since stun is only implied. It would be nice if we could figure out how to use the third (non fractional) option... like how it would work for cases of half-effective attacks (which only result in 1/2 damage) for example. -BFGalbraith, 3:45PM Seattle-Time, July 3rd 2007

Damage and Stun

Normal "lasting" damage and stun both represent a variety of things which can hinder or incapacitate a character. In real life the effects of injuries can last a few seconds, recover in minutes, heal in a few weeks or last a lifetime. Some effects are independent while others accumulate, adding to the effects of other injuries.

Separate Stun and Damage: The two types of damage would be separate, and your damage penalty would be based on whichever is greater. This might be simpler than keeping track of stun and damage separately (depending on how health, lasting damage and stun are tracked.)

Independent, Non-accumulating Damage or Stun: Instead of - or in addition to - accumulating damage points, if the damage of an individual attack (possibly increased or multiplied by some factor) is greater than some threshold (health? toughness?) the character's condition worsens (incapacitated or goes through damage penalty stages)

The most realistic system might be to have independent AND accumulating effects of BOTH damage types (stun and lasting damage) but that would be too complex. A compromise might be to have stun accumulate while the effect of each lasting damage injury is independent. In other words a character could be hindered or incapacitated two ways: (A) by a sufficient amount of accumulated damage in a short time or (B) by distinct injuries with deadly weapons which increase damage penalty or incapacitate but don't add to the accumulated damage.

Disabilities & Using Abilities During Combat

Seriously guys. Don't allow players to take disabilities for negative CP. In fact make them pay double CP for disabilities if they want to be crippled and lame and blind and deaf and missing pretty much all their limbs and sensory organs because thats pretty much what they want anyway. Players who take disabilities can bite me.

Its pretty much an established fact that lawyers can just like see waves of sound bouncing off of your face. But at what cost? What cost indeed. If you use an ability to compensate for a disability it should require the minimum effort of 1 hitpoint per round. For example -- a blind person may use a cane to collect sensory data.

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 spent at least 1 hit point to use the ability.

--ulrich 11:00, 2005 Jul 2 (CEST)

LOL! - A blind person might also use a cane to fight evil - which will take more than 1 hit point per round :-). Seriously, placing limits on disabilities is essential to good gaming. A good rule would be that a character should not have more than one disability unless (A) she has a sucking character template (and then those should be her only disabilities) or (B) GM's permission (or allowed by the specific game.) Another good rule (especially if you have lots of small quirky disadvantages in the game) is to allow no more than 10 (or fewer) points of disadvantages. (This is one of those optional rules so important it should not just be in an appendix.)

I'm not sure I understand everything you are trying to say about ability checks, but we do need a rule for arbitrary actions during combat, to avoid the whole "while I fight these guys, I'm searching for traps, and burying bodies" problem.--SerpLord 15:17, 8 December 2005 (CET)

Individual Height and Reach Variation

Rules for varying Height and Reach for individual characters (perhaps something as simple as +1 or -1 CP for an extra 1/2 meter, with no such option for zero-reach characters?)

Character templates have minimum and maximum heights, if you are outside that range, the template does not describe you. A full 50cm reach difference seems like it would also mean you are mutated beyond your template. We should consider (at least for future editions of MaM) templates that don't allow build variation (mecha) and and templates that allow extraordinary variation (mutants.)

If we look at a sufficiently large template (an 18 meter giant for example) a 0.5 meter reach difference is only like a 5 cm difference for a human. 1 CP per 0.5 m might work. We can set the minimum for all templates at 0 (could reflect disability or damage) but how do we set maximums? The easiest solution is to only allow it if the GM approves and/or assume that templates reflect the upper limit of the race's reach. The complicated solution is to add a new number to the template (especially complicated because now templates present options with multiple CP values instead of a fixed package of features.) --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)

Archery example - calculating max range, CP

An example of how to calculate the CP of the max range of a weapon (so a decent archery example... the correct answer is "you DON'T caculate CP of the max range of a weapon," but an example of how to caculate max range is needed.) In other words, we need a clear example of pull.

The reach of a ranged weapon is it's effective range. The CP of reach is 1 CP for each 0.5 m, or 2 CP/m According to Wikipedia, an AK-47 has an effective range of 300-450 m. Depending on whether you take the high or low estimate, that's 600-900 CP. (Imagine that we are fighting on an open plain and you have an AK-47 and I have a knife. I can move a few meters every time you get a shot off, so you'll get a dozen chances to shoot me before I reach you. It's potentially like a guy with a knife fighting 20 guys with spears.)

One nice thing about MaM is that it has been created by people who have really shot bows bows and firearms, have had their arms twisted into submission, been choked out, knocked out, slowly beaten down, been cut by knives, have done full-contact stick fighting, etc. :) I think you are forgetting "kick" in the above CP formula. Kick is Pull for fire arms, and the difference is that you spend the hit points as you pull the trigger, instead of before you pull the trigger. Body-power subtracts from kick before you spend the HP (parrelled to how it effects pull.) So for a 400 meter range weapon, with a kick of 4, the actual "reach" listed on the character sheet would be 100, and the total range would be 400m (4HPx100m.) In that case the reach of the AK would be worth 50 CP, and that would be about right IMHO. (And THAT's why we need an example of Kick in the rules.) -BFGalbraith, Sept. 12, 2006

The relationship between pull and range is complex, but here's a rough formula: 120 m + (20 m for each +1 pull), but no less than 20m. --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)

Generating Armor - mass

I couldn't find any equipment mass calculation rules (they were probably removed when we were attempting "fuzzy size",) which is pretty important in the case of generating Armor.

Armor is way more important (players expect characters to be slowed down by heavy armor.) There are 3 main factors involved in Armor: Cover, Absorption, and Toughness. I would think that for primitive technologies, the mass of this would be something like "(Cover + Absorption + Toughness) times 20% of Carying Capacity = armor mass," and that for advanced technologies it might be something like "(Cover + Absorption + Toughness) times 10% of Carying Capacity = armor mass."

Here's an empirical approach: For midieval armor divide the mass by the cover bonus and get a "mass per Cvr" value. Then we can divide that by the weight of a large man (100 kg) and get an estimate of the weight per cover for any species (based on that species' upper weight limit.) Modern high-tech armor may be 1% better, and some vital areas of the body require less material to cover and still give a +1 bonus. (For example a titanium chest plate that covers my heart could have +1 cover and +5 absorption, but only weigh 2 or 3 kg.)

Armor Type  mass/Cvr  Abs  Tgh
Padded       1% /Cvr   1    2
Leather      2% /Cvr   2    3
Scale        4% /Cvr   3    3
Chainmail    3% /Cvr   3    3
Brigandine   5% /Cvr   4    3
Lamellar     4% /Cvr   4    4
Plate        5% /Cvr   5    4

The "ideal" formula for the armor's mass is the wearer's mass times the cover and absorption of the armor, divided by 100. Padded, Leather, Chainmail, Lamellar and Plate approach this ideal. Scale and Brigandine are a little less efficient, but they are inexpensive and just as useful in many situations. Toughness is more an economics issue (how much do I want to invest in this much armor?) --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)

Boiler Plate for MaM "Design"

Some adventures are a sequence of challenges like an obstacle course. However, players often want to be able to try anything they want with their characters, so an engaging environment for the characters to freely adventure in - letting the story develop naturally - is usually better than forcing players to follow a story line.

For example, if the PCs are likely to end up fighting in a village market, the GM should have a village market combat map prepared. (Instead, the GM may choose to have a blank sheet of Hex Paper, and use "pieces" to show where various Village Market obstacles are on the hex paper.) The more specific the location, the more important it is for the GM to have a specific map prepared. The GM may also have a selection of general terrain maps, for conflicts that take place in general types of areas, instead of taking place in very specific locations.

You will need one piece for every important character in the game. You will also need a piece for every significant object in the game, which is not already part of a combat map. (By significant object, I mean any visible object that the players are likely to interact with. For example, if there is a discarded spear the players are supposed to find out in the open, it would be best to have a piece for that spear, if it is not part of a map.)

After studying this tutorial, these should be all the reference materials the GM and players need to play the game. Some of the pages can help players create their PCs, others are designed only for the GM's use.

Hack and Slash Real-Time Role-Playing System (Hack and Slash RPS)

The Hack & Slash RPS is a variation of Mano a Mano for "button-mashing" computer and video games where each individual action is affected by input (like fighting games and shooting games.) The normal Mano a Mano rules may be more suited for a real-time strategy or role-playing game. Unless otherwise noted, characters can move and perform actions at any time if it doesn't interrupt their current action. Movement does not have to be connected to actions, which might result in halting, irregular movement that feels less responsive. Details such as the effect of encumbrance and damage penalty on speed and movement can be ignored if they don't fit the game design or difficulty level.

Characters

Target: The target of the character's current action. The game may allow characters to have other targets or choose a next target during the current action. The Hack & Slash RPS is only concerned with the target the character intended (or most likely intended) to hit when they started their current action.

Action: The character's current action

Action Time: The time the current action started

Ignore List: A list of characters who have failed to interrupt the current action

Chance to Interrupt: Each action only gets one chance to interrupt another action. The current action may have already used it's chance and not be able to interrupt anymore.

Half Success: Whether the character's current action is limited to half success because an effort to interrupt it was half successful

Actions

Interruptible Period: After this time the action cannot be interrupted.

Effect Time: When the action's effect takes place. Effect Time is usually the end of the interruptible period. (Any animation after the effect time is usually follow-through animation.)

Duration: The duration of an action is the period from the beginning of the action until another action can be performed. The duration of a character's quickest attack is one round (two seconds) divided by the character's speed, and conversely a character's speed is one round (two seconds) divided by the duration of the character's quickest attack. Speed can be used to design the character's animation, or the animation can be used to determine the character's speed.

Interfering

Actions that overlap in time can interfere with each other. An action can be interrupted any time between it's beginning and it's effect time. Each action can only be used to attempt one interruption. A half-successful interruption limits the action's maximum success to half success. A half-successful interruption of an action that is already limited to half success has no effect.

When your action's effect time comes up, do the following for your target and all characters targeting you if the current time is within both their action's interruptible period and your action's interruptible period and either your action or their action can interrupt:

determine success (with a roll or pre-rolled totals for example)
if your action is successful and it can interrupt, your target's action is interrupted
if their action is successful and it can interrupt, your action is interrupted
if the result is half-success and your action can interrupt, your target's success is limited to half success
if the result is half-success if their action can interrupt, your action's success is limited to half success
their action can no longer interrupt
your action can no longer interrupt

Damage Penalty

A character can be healthy, incapacitated or have a degree of damage penalty. Each degree of damage penalty has a minimum ratio of total damage to health. In the basic Mano a Mano rules there is one degree of damage penalty which requires that a character's total damage is at least half of their health. In the blow by blow system the number of degrees and damage/health ratios depend on how much speed a character has. The effects of damage penalty should be similar to the Mano a Mano basic system: reduced speed, power and movement.

slower actions - use longer attack animations or have the character stagger or cower between actions
less powerful actions - powerful attacks are replaced by less powerful attacks
reduced movement - the character moves at a slower speed, does not jump or swim as well, etc.
inferior techniques - the types of grappling and defensive actions performed might change to less effective versions

If you don't have animation to reflect the degrees of damage penalty, a modifier can be subtracted from combat rolls so fewer actions succeed or attack power can be reduced by a fraction.

Success Rolls

Optionally, player skill may be used instead of success rolls. Players should not be able to spend CP on abilities that are not useful. Those abilities can be removed, ignored or determined automatically. For example, if archery depends entirely on player aim, then archery ability has no CP value. On the other hand archery has some CP value if:

archery depends entirely on a success roll
if you fail the roll the arrow doesn't shoot straight
player aim determines whether you hit while the roll is still used for armor
accuracy is affected by combat bonuses without success rolls

Even in River City Ransom success rolls are not 100% replaced by player skill, no? Also, I wonder how strongly this would divorce Hack and Slash from the mainstream "Blizzard-style" RPGs...

This is an optional rule for using H&S RPS in a less mainstream RPG design (like Hexen II or The Legend of Zelda which do not have random missing.)

Blow by Blow System

This system allows more detail, flexibility and improvisation in combat.

Toughness: Toughness = health / speed (rounded up.)

Damage Penalty: Damage penalty = total damage / toughness (rounded down.)

Actions: Actions = Speed - Damage Penalty. Quick actions count as one action. Powerful actions use more energy and count as two actions. Some actions take more time, keeping you busy for one or more rounds. Speed does not help with those actions. Characters get an extra action when they use a secondary weapon. (They cannot move with this action or use it to perform a powerful action.) A character with 1 speed can do a powerful action that counts as one action if their total damage is less than half of their health, but they cannot use a powerful action and a secondary weapon during the same round.

Movement: Characters can move before each action. A characters stride, swimming, flying and reach is the distance they can move with each action. Optional Rule - Sprinting: Each time a character uses more than half their movement with any action, they take one point of stun damage. (This should be reconsidered in light of the new health/damage scale)

Aimed and Flanking Attacks: flanking attacks and aimed hand to hand attacks are avoided in favor of two normal attacks.

Action, Formation, Interfering and Covering: A character may have several chances to use their actions between the end of one turn and the end of their next turn, so the character's turn is the last chance to use the actions the character hasn't already used moving in formation or interfering with other characters' actions.

At the beginning of an action the character whose turn it is, and any characters moving in formation with that character, can perform one action each. Formation actions have to be planned before the turn begins.
If they do not perform an action, the turn ends. Otherwise, the opposition has a chance to interfere with them by performing one action each. Interfering is an opportunity, not an invitation: The game doesn't stop so everyone can be asked if they would like to interfere.
Then, any characters who have not performed an action but are providing cover for the character whose turn it is or the characters moving in formation can perform one action to interfere with the opposition. Characters interfering with interfering actions should announce their general intent in advance - "I'm covering Jimmy" - but don't have to choose a specific action or target until the opposition has chosen their interfering actions.

Traditional Pools

This is a system for tracking damage and actions that superficially resembles MaM 2006:

Health counters are shared between stun and lasting damage and one health pool for each action. Action counters are shared between ready, used and hurt (damage penalty) pools, with two single-counter pools for a (ready) secondary weapon attack and (used) defense action.

 Damage                Health (by actions)             Actions
 __________ __________ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____   _________ _________ _________ 
|  Lasting |   Stun   |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  | |  Ready  |  Used   |  Hurt   |
|          |          |     |     |     |     |     | |         |         |         |
|          |          |     |     |     |     |     | |_________|_________|_________|
|          |          |     |     |     |     |     | |   |2nd  |   |Extra
|__________|__________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| |___|Wpn. |___|Defense

Characters begin by filling one health pool for each action with their toughness in health counters or the remainder of their health counters if it is less than toughness. (The remainder should go in the first health pool.) Characters place their action counters in the ready pool - plus an extra action counter in their secondary weapon pool if they have any secondary weapons.

Branches and Leaves

This system for tracking movement and actions removes the need for one counter per action.

Actions are represented by a slider and health pools are arranged in rows perpendicular to the action slider. Health pools are emptied top to bottom. Once a row is emptied, the action next to that row is "hurt" and the slider can't move back there. The last space in the action slider cannot be used unless the character uses a secondary weapon. A separate "toggle" counter keeps track of whether extra defense has been used. It is left on "Y" when the character plans to use it automatically and left on "N" when the character doesn't plan to use it.

Actions     Health
   __  ________________ 
5 |__||________________|
4 |__||________________|
3 |__||________________|
2 |__||________________|
1 |__||________________|
0 |__|
  |__|<--Secondary Weapon
               __    __
Extra Defense |__|Y |__|N
 __________  __________ 
|          ||          |
|  Lasting ||   Stun   |
|  Damage  ||  Damage  |
|__________||__________|

Calendar

This system for tracking movement and actions only requires four counters:

Similar to branches and leaves except that there are no stun and lasting damage pools, there are only two damage counters and their position in the health area indicates your lasting damage and total damage. There are two extra spaces in the health table for the damage counters to "drain into". The width of the rows is the character's toughness. The player may need to shade in columns of the health table to indicate his character's Toughness

Actions      Health
   __   __ __ __ __ __ __ 
5 |__|-|__|__|__|__|__|__|
4 |__|-|__|__|__|__|__|__|
3 |__|-|__|__|__|__|__|__|
2 |__|-|__|__|__|__|__|__|
1 |__|-|__|__|__|__|__|__|
0 |__| |__|__|
  |__|<--Secondary Weapon
               __    __
Extra Defense |__|Y |__|N

Racetrack

Similar to calendar except the health rows are connected end-to-end and are parallel to a horizontal action slider instead of perpendicular to a vertical action slider. You could shade in the spaces to indicate your character's toughness and actions or you could draw a special racetrack to fit your character. The following generic example has lots of actions for fast characters and lots of toughness for healthy characters, but normal creatures would not use the full capacity of both (which would mean having 30 health.)

                ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___
Health  ___ ___|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
Action |___|___|___________|___________|___________|___________|___________|
        2nd  0       1           2 __    __  3           4           5
        Wpn.        Extra Defense |__|Y |__|N

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