Gangwars:Main Page

A short description might give you some answers.

Here is the story so far.

So far, I just transferred what I wrote about this system. The system is point-based and uses body scores (primary attributes) and attributes (secondary attributes).

Attributes

These are the secondary attributes (or simply: attributes) within this system. I'll have to clear up on the naming later on. Attributes (and ONLY those, not body scores) may be raised / lowered by characteristics (perks, (dis)advantages).

Strength and Endurance

Structure + Cardio = Strength and Endurance. You'll have to assign the numbers according to your own discretion. Are you strong, arduous or balanced? Lets make an example:

• structure 9, cardio 8 = total of 17, assigning 10 to strength and 7 to endurance
• the perk "strong bastard" gives +2 to strength, so thats 12 strength and 7 endurance
• the perk "one hit wonder" allows you to raise your strength by +2 in one attempt, but you have to make an endurance roll -2 after that or you will collapse

So thats how strength and endurance are used in this system. You can't raise (secondary) attributes by assigning points to them. You have to buy perks or raise your body scores.

Dexterity

(Structure + Neural) / 2 = Dexterity

Health

Structure + Organs + Cardio = Health (Hitpoints)

Initiative

Neural + Perception = Initiative

Breath

Organs + Cardio = Breath

Resistance

Nerves + Cardio = Resistance (to Shock)

other attributes

Disease Resistance = Organs etc. Other attributes are not listed on the character sheet, but will be used according to situation.

scale

so far, scores and attributes are scaled 1-20. it's a nonlinear scale. the average / starting score will be 8. there won't be boni / mali associated with attributes. there will only be comparitive rolls. i'm going to use the probability distributions for dice rolls to determine further details.

Races

I like the idea that magic might get back into a modern world. I also like cyberpunk settings, so I am simply combining these two. You're saying: wait- that's shadowrun now, right? Well, no, not really. You see, there won't really be different races but only humans that are changed by magic and called "orks" and "elves" etc. by others. But essentially, they will be humans with a few defects and a few advantages.

Essentially, there will be no playable race but that of a human. All other "races" such as trolls, elves etc. Are humans with a preset of defects and adavantages. However, these also may be chosen separately without the accompanying change of appearance. You can for example pick the perk "nightsight" as an advantage - if you have the points. Example:

Preset Ork (total of 9 points): + superiour structure (+2) + nightsight (see in lowlight conditions) + bloodlust (+2 close-combat) - social outcast (GM's discretion) - aggression (impatient, -1 on long / fiddly skills)

Picking these advantages separately would cost more points those of the preset. Each preset has a "GM disadvantage" that is only effective in roleplaying situations (social outcast).

Classes

There are no classes in gangwars but there will be presets to make fast play possible. These presets will also help to define what kind of characters will be roaming the streets.

Features

The characters attributes may define his physical facilities but the features include physical and psychological particularities that may be of advantage or disadvantage to the person. Obviously, disadvantages will gain points for the character creation.

Some features may only be chosen during character creation. Others cost more during regular play or will have to be integrated into the storyline.

Most features will be related to a particular skill or attribute, i.e. "strong bastard": gives +2 to strength. You're a person who'll ignore his pain treshold and grit his teeth to achieve a feat that involves using strength. Maybe you're a contestant in the world stronges man competition or just a woodworker who's been swinging the axe for years. In any case, you're pretty strong.

As races will be presets of features, the list of features will be quite extensive. To put some kind of structure into this, I've grouped the features into:

• modifies attributes
• modifies skills
• gives extra ability
• gift / affinities
• unlocks skill / ability

The last point is quite interesting: something like "spellcaster" is also considered a feature- one that enables the character to cast spells. Note that it only enables spellcasting, but does not do anything else. So, a person with that feature would have the facility to cast spells but might not be aware of that.

There will be an extensive feature list.

Skills

Everything you learn will be a skill. From Knowledge Skills (i.e. Archeology, History) to Combat Skills (Shooting a gun) you'll have to use skills to achieve success.

How do we model the fact that some people are better at math or languages than others? We use features. Affinity features are actually combinations of advantages and disadventages. A person with an affinity to languages will get +2 on all language skills, but -2 on natural sciences. The gift "lingo" feature will reduce the number of points a character has to spend to gain languages. Other features may negate the negative effects of some affinities.

What do we do if we don't have a skill? Nothing. If you don't know anything about the History of China, making an intelligence roll won't do any good. If you don't know how to fly a plane, you will crash. Easy as that. Some skills like "shooting a weapon" might be used without the necessary skill- but how much effect will your dexterity really have in that case?

Success is determined by rolling a d20 and adding the skill (and eventually the appropriate attribute) number to that. Some skills require a certain attribute or score number to be used effectively. Skilled and unskilled attempts have different difficulties to be achieved. so, if a skilled gunman has a difficulty number of 20, a non-skilled person will have a number of 30 to hit. Also, the non-skilled person will only be able to add his according attribute / score to the roll (always stated next to skill- perception for shooting).

Experience

Good model would be small incremental improvement depending on actions in play. As that would be far too miniscule, maybe a simple separation in exp classes would suffice: combat, non-combat and magic experience. this would also enable mixture of exps to raise certain abilities.

Some thoughts on exp, levels and advancement: I think players need both steady advancement and discrete steps. If everything changes very gradually, it feels as if it's not changing at all, even if it is. Adding descriptions might help, but actually including some special bonus for the levels would help more. The problem is: skillbased systems dont really allow for discrete jumps. Maybe it would be interesting to connect skill levels with some kind of level advancement? This way, a character could have "core skills" which define him and which would get discrete boni as they rise in level. However, that would mean spreading the skill levels a bit more.

Another problem: Skill-based systems are much easier to min-max, and a high level of knowledge of the rules becomes incredibly important. So, maybe graphical trees of skill development might become an issue here? Maybe some concepts from trading card games or computer games might also be adapted for advancement. At any rate, the system should allow for great customisation of the character.