Talk:Mano a Mano

Proof-reading version 2008

Remove sections from the following list if they have been proofread since 1 January 2008. Add sections if they have been significantly changed since their last proofreading and need to be proofread again.

• Game Design
  • Abilities: How good is this list? To what degree should a game need to customize it?
    • Movement Abilities
    • Combat Abilities
    • Stealth and Detection Abilities
    • Transportation Abilities
    • Communication Abilities
    • Other Abilities
    • Disabilities
  • Equipment: Make sure these lists are up to date and make sense. The new example template (human) should give us a solid point of reference.
    • Equipment Lists
    • Equipment CP
    • Armor - example armor list
    • Hand Weapons - example hand to hand weapon
    • Missile Weapons - example long range weapon list
• Character Creation
  • Description
  • Build
  • Character Abilities
  • Choosing Occupations
  • Character Equipment
  • Encumbrance and Movement
  • Extra CP
  • Make a Character - Character Generation Example
    • Choose the Type of Character You Want to Make
    • Dimensions, Modifiers and Abilities from the Template
    • Natural Weapons
    • Use the Remaining CP to Customize the Character
    • Occupation and Equipment
    • Movement, Encumbrance and Toughness
• Action
  • Damage
    • Armor
    • Stun, Damage and Toughness
  • Rounds
  • Movement
  • List of Actions
    • Hand to Hand Attacks
    • Thrown Weapon Attacks
    • Archery and Marksmanship Actions
    • Grappling Actions
    • Other Actions
  • Attacking
  • Grappling
  • Archery and Marksmanship
  • Stance and Position
  • Mounted Combat
  • Combat Example
• Character Development
  • Manufacturing and Modification
    • Maximum CP
    • Surgery
    • Make an Item - Equipment Generation Example
    • Modify Weapon Example
    • Artificial Character Example
    • Character Modification Example

Mano a Mano 2009

Qualities

• characters and equipment have qualities
• qualities are "on or off": you have it or you don't, they don't have levels
• qualities can have positive, negative or 0 CP value.

The quality which allows you to fly will be separated from the flight ability which determines your air movement. A character cannot have any of the flight-related qualities unless his template has it or the setting specifically allows it. For example a superhero game might allow characters of any template to have the flying quality.

flying

This quality allows a character to fly. Specifically it allows powered flight, like a bird that can fly by flapping it's wings.

gliding

This quality allows a character to steer while falling. A character cannot have both gliding and flying because flying includes the ability to steer while falling.

soaring

This quality allows a character to gain altitude by riding thermals. Soaring requires gliding or flying

parachuting

This quality prevents a character from taking falling damage. A character cannot have both parachuting and flying because flying includes the ability to take no damage from falling.

sharpness will be replaced by two weapon qualities. What we used to call blunt sharpness is now just the absence of these qualities:

sharp

sharp weapons do all damage instead of half damage and half stun.

padded

padded weapons do all stun instead of half damage and half stun

hand

This is a quality of natural weapons which replaces manual dexterity. Each hand allows you to wield one weapon. Each pair of hands allows you to wield one two-handed weapon. Two-handed weapons may have a better power, parry or attack modifier because two-handed is a quality of artificial weapons with a negative CP value.

mechanical

A mechanical character does not heal, but can be repaired using craftsmanship or abilities which allow characters to modify mechanical characters. 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. Mechanical characters can be repaired more quickly than organic (non-mechanical) character's heal. Mechanical characters recover from stun like normal characters. Even a simple machine can often correct temporary mechanical problems, especially autonomous and semi-autonomous robots with redundant systems like space probes.

• The CP value of being mechanical is low because of the substantial disadvantages.
• How fast can mechanical characters be repaired?
• Are repairs like modifications or medicine/healing rolls?

Replace reach with range

• range is measured in whole meters, like movement
• range is a special modifier
• most natural weapons and hand weapons have no range
• small amounts of reach which make a big difference in combat are reflected by higher agility or combat abilities

Character Points

• Remove all CP pools except for Template CP and Total CP. CP will be "spent" like money. During template and character generation CP can be tallied on scratch paper.
• CP scales should be linear. Simpler CP rules will make it easier to calculate CP
• Experience - whether measured in CP or smaller units - will not be on the character sheet.
• Maximum speed, agility, power, toughness and ability levels are campaign-dependent in the same way that CP levels are campaign dependent. Ordinary people and starting characters might have a budget of 300 CP and maximum abilities 2 levels higher than their templates (i.e. expert level.) Once the game starts and characters start gaining experience (more CP) you might have a higher level limit of 3 or even 4. In a superhero game, starting characters might have a budget of 1000 CP and maximum abilities 4 levels higher than their templates. A superhero game might also raise speed, agility, toughness and power limits. In some games you might want starting characters to have specialized elite skills (keep CP limit modest but allow 3 ability levels above template) In other games you might want characters to be able to start off with a variety of limited skills (more CP but keep 2 ability level limit.)

Character CP

• 20 CP per agility or speed (if speed > 1), 20 CP for double speed (if speed = 1/4, 1/2 or 1), -20 CP for half speed (if speed = 1/2 or 1)
• 5 CP per power, 3 CP per toughness
• 10 CP per ability or disability level (naturally suited to fractional levels)

Template CP

Template CP is often higher than Character CP because template abilities, agility, speed, toughness and power increase the maximum agility, speed, toughness and power which characters can develop. We will try to avoid the "best, second best" logic of MaM 2008's manual dexterity and reach CP and not worry about "veggies": templates with no natural weapons or no speed.

• 30 CP per agility or speed (if speed >= 1), 0 CP for 1/2 speed, -30 CP for 1/4 speed
• 10 CP per power, 5 CP per toughness
• -10 CP for no variability, -5 CP for low variability, 0 CP for medium variability, 5 CP for high variability
• 15 CP per ability or disability level
• 15 CP for powered flight, 10 CP for gliding, 5 CP for soaring (requires gliding or flight), 5 CP for parachuting
• 3 CP for mechanical templates
• 10 CP per hand
• -20 CP if the template has only one natural weapon (sharks don't have a secondary weapon)
• 5 CP for each point of power (special modifier) on a natural weapon. This does not increase carrying capacity or make it easier to wield hefty weapons with this hand.
• 1 CP for every meter of range on a natural weapon
• 5 x absorption x cover for natural armor
• 20 CP for a single sharp natural weapon, 30 CP for multiple sharp natural weapons,
• 5 CP for a single padded natural weapon, 8 CP for multiple padded natural weapons

Equipment CP

• 1 CP for every meter of range
• 10 CP per power, -10 CP per heft
• 5 CP x absorption x cover
• -20 CP for 2-handed weapons
• 20 CP if the weapon is sharp, 5 CP if the weapon is padded
• 10 CP per parry or grapple (max 2)
• 20 CP per attack (max 1)
• -5 CP for flash (the weapon makes a bright, but not blinding, flash when fired, like a gun)
• -10 CP for report (the weapon makes a loud, but not deafening, noise when fired, like a gun)
• -20 CP for smoke (the weapon makes a lot of smoke when fired, which impairs aiming and stealth, like a black powder gun)

mass	CP		mass	CP		mass	CP
1 g	-1		1 kg	-10		1 tonne	19
2 g	-2		2 kg	-11		2 tonnes	20
5 g	-3		5 kg	-12		5 tonnes	21
10 g	-4		10 kg	-13		10 tonnes	22
20 g	-5		20 kg	-14		20 tonnes	23
50 g	-6		50 kg	-15		50 tonnes	24
100 g	-7		100 kg	-16		100 tonnes	25
200 g	-8		200 kg	-17		200 tonnes	26
500 g	-9		500 kg	-18		500 tonnes	27

CP	shots		CP	reload time
0	10 or more		0	1 turn
-1	9		-4	2 turns
-2	8		-6	3 turns
-3	7		-8	4 turns
-4	6		-10	5 turns
-6	5		-12	6 turns
-8	4		-14	7 turns
-10	3		-16	8 turns
-15	2		-18	9 turns
-20	1		-20	10 or more

Making and Equipping PCs

• If the consequences of disabilities are easily avoided, then they should not have a negative CP value. Players need the GMs permission to add disabilities which aren't built into the game's templates. Characters should not have more than two disabilities.
• Characters can be male or female unless the template lists different options.
• Characters can be youths, adults or old people within normal size variance. To make a small child character without changing the template, reduce the mass, length, health and power to less than the template's variance suggests.

What Mano a Mano 2008 says about how characters get equipment:

• The occupations rules say occupations can come with equipment
• The occupations example shows characters being awarded with a certain CP-worth of equipment
• We have a system for characters to create their own equipment

What Mano a Mano 2009 can add without getting too game-specific:

• In character creation we can suggest starting occupations as a way to provide starting equipment
• In addition to equipment acquired by occupations and craftsmanship, we can then suggest that a game can have other ways to provide characters with equipment, like spending money and finding treasure.
• We could suggest CP-worth as a general way of distributing equipment as in the Occupations example.

Character Sheet

Name ______________________ Age ______ Sex ______ Template __________________

Occupation(s) _______________________________________________________________

Carrying Capacity _____ kg  Mass      /    kg  Abilities & Disabilities  Mod
Equipment Mass    _____ kg  Length    /    m   ________________________   /  
Encumbrance       _____     Type ___________   ________________________   /  
                            Var. ___________   ________________________   /  
Ground Movement   _____ m                      ________________________   /  
Water Movement    _____ m   Speed        /     ________________________   /  
Air Movement      _____ m   Agility      /     ________________________   /  
Climbing Movement _____ m   Power        /     ________________________   /  
                            Toughness    /     ________________________   /  
Character Points    /                          ________________________   /  
                                               ________________________   /  

Equipment & Natural Defenses  Special Modifiers Mass Heft  Power  Cmb Cvr Abs
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___

                             Half Toughness    /   
                   Stun                 |                Damage
                                        |
                                        |
                                        |

Name ______________________ Age ______ Sex ______ Template human             

Occupation(s) _______________________________________________________________

Carrying Capacity _____ kg  Mass      / 70 kg  Abilities & Disabilities  Mod
Equipment Mass    _____ kg  Length    /1.8 m   ________________________ __/__
Encumbrance       _____     Type   height      ________________________ __/__
                            Var.   medium      ________________________ __/__
Ground Movement   _____ m                      ________________________ __/__
Water Movement    _____ m   Speed        / 1   ________________________ __/__
Air Movement      _____ m   Agility      / 3   ________________________ __/__
Climbing Movement _____ m   Power        / 4   ________________________ __/__
                            Toughness    / 6   ________________________ __/__
Character Points    /200                       ________________________ __/__
                                               ________________________ __/__

Equipment & Natural Defenses  Special Modifiers Mass Heft  Power  Cmb Cvr Abs
2 hands                       hand              ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
2 feet                                          ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___
_____________________________ _________________ ____ ____ ___-___ ___ ___ ___

                             Half Toughness    / 3 
                   Stun                 |                Damage
                                        |
                                        |
                                        |

Simple Static Characters

Some games will have some characters who only need a little bit of information instead of full character sheets. A common example is stock villains and monsters which only need combat stats and sometimes a few special qualities or abilities. How can we represent these characters in a compact way?

I picture compact characters being used two ways:

1. Battle-on-a-page where two facing pages of an RPG book contain everything a player or GM needs to play one side (the "NPC" side) of a battle. Sometimes this will only require a single character who fits on one page with a full character sheet. But if it involves more than 2 characters and the information that fits on their character sheets, then a full sized character sheet won't work.
2. Book-of-beasties which contains dozens of creatures which need to be playable. Most of these creatures won't have equipment or need any kind of character development. On the other hand you may want templates for each critter. A full character sheet would allow you to have a character and template together, and there may be very little difference between a template and a playable character anyway.

Scaled-down and trimmed character sheets?

Name Joe Human Age adult Sex male Template human Occupation(s) _______________________________________________________________ Carrying Capacity 3 kg Mass 80/ 80 kg Abilities & Disabilities Mod Equipment Mass 0 kg Length 1.8/1.8 m ________________________ / Encumbrance 0 Type tall ________________________ / Var. medium ________________________ / Ground Movement 4 m ________________________ / Water Movement 0 m Speed 1 / 1 ________________________ / Air Movement 0 m Agility 3 / 3 ________________________ / Climbing Movement 0 m Power 4 / 4 ________________________ / Toughness 6 / 6 ________________________ / Character Points 200/200 ________________________ / ________________________ / Equipment & Natural Defenses Special Modifiers Mass Heft Power Cmb Cvr Abs 2 hands hand ____ ____ 2 - 4 0 ___ ___ 2 feet ____ ____ 2 - 4 0 ___ ___

Name Barbarian Age adult Sex male Template human Occupation(s) barbarian Carrying Capacity 30 kg Mass 100/ 80 kg Abilities & Disabilities Mod Equipment Mass 3 kg Length 1.8/1.8 m swordsmanship 2/ 0 Encumbrance 0 Type tall ________________________ / Var. medium ________________________ / Ground Movement 4 m ________________________ / Water Movement 0 m Speed 1 / 1 ________________________ / Air Movement 0 m Agility 3 / 3 ________________________ / Climbing Movement 0 m Power 8 / 4 ________________________ / Toughness 10 / 6 ________________________ / Character Points 252/200 ________________________ / ________________________ / Equipment & Natural Defenses Special Modifiers Mass Heft Power Cmb Cvr Abs 2 hands hand ____ ____ 4 - 8 0 ___ ___ 2 feet ____ ____ 4 - 8 0 ___ ___ 1 big sword sharp, 2-handed 3 kg 7 5 -10 2 ___ ___

Simplified Character Sheets?
N Joe Human A S m T human O CC 3 kg Mas 80/80 kg (Qua/Abi)lities Mod EM 0 kg Lng 1.8/1.8 m / Enc 0 Typ height / Grd 4 m Spd 1 / 1 / H2O 0 m Agi 3 / 3 / Air 0 m Pwr 4 / 4 / Clm 0 m Tgh 6 / 6 / CP 200/200 / Equipment/ND Mod/Feature Mas Hft Pwr Cmb Cvr Abs 2 hands hand 2-4 0 2 feet 2-4 0	N Barbarian A S m T human O barbarian CC 30 kg Mas 100/80 kg (Qua/Abi)lities Mod EM 3 kg Lng 1.8/1.8 m swordsmanship 2/0 Enc 0 Typ height / Grd 4 m Spd 1 / 1 / H2O 0 m Agi 3 / 3 / Air 0 m Pwr 8 / 4 / Clm 0 m Tgh 10 / 6 / CP 252/200 / Equipment/ND Mod/Feature Mas Hft Pwr Cmb Cvr Abs 2 hands hand 4-8 0 2 feet 4-8 0 1 big sword sharp 2hand 10 2

Short List of Stats?
Joe Human, 80/80 kg, 1.8/1.8 m tall, 1/1 Spd, 3/3 Agi, 4/4 Pwr, 6/6 Tgh, 4 Grd, 200/200 CP, 2 hands (hand, 0 Cmb, 2-4 Pwr), 2 feet (0 Cmb, 2-4 Pwr)	Barbarian (human), 100/80 kg, 1.8/1.8 m tall, 1/1 Spd, 3/3 Agi, 8/4 Pwr, 10/6 Tgh, 4 Grd, 252/200 CP, 2/0 swordsmanship, 2 hands (hand, 0 Cmb, 4-8 Pwr), 2 feet (0 Cmb, 4-8 Pwr), 1 big sword (2-handed sharp, 2 Cmb, 7 Hft, 5-10 Pwr, 3 kg)

Editing Character Sheet

If you change the character sheet format when editing any of the following, you must update the others:

• Blank Character Sheet
• Example Template
• Example Character

Be sure you know which character sheet you are updating:

• The template creation example includes both the blank character sheet and the example template.
• The character creation example includes both the example template and the example character sheet.