Nachtberg

Nachtberg

High in the Bavarian Alps the latest of the ancient Falkenstein line takes his place as the new masterof Castle X. Rumors abound that his land teams with monsters-werewolves, ghouls and the like. A group of adventurers wish to vist the town of Silver towers and find the cause of the legends. A priest, journalist, ex-soldier and jewel thief.

An invetgiation game. A benny refresh (keeping surplus bennies) make excellent investigative progress through initiative. Bennies for indoividual players if they make some progress. No bennies provided if the GM moves the action on with fiat or ex machina clues.

hOMERULES:
SKILLS

'CLASSES' BACKGROUND EDGE TAKEN AT START OF PLAY :

• GENTLEMAN- , horsemanship, persuasion and and Start at d4. +2 to CK rolls concerning gentlemany pursuits, family history, etc.
• Ex-soldier- athletics,shooting and fighting are class skills. +2 to CK rolls concerned with miltary equipment, hsitory,
• scoundrel -pracktic, stealth and streetwise are class skills. +1 to streetwise rolls and larceny
• journalist -records, persuasion are class skills +3 to CK rolls
• presit:

System

PbP NO POOLS GUMSHOE
Rules are inspired by the Gumshoe SRD RAW, in which players move the story/investigation on by spending from discrete point pools, each representing one of a list of investigative skills. In this simplified version of the game, pools are fixed at 0, 1 or 2, mainly since it’s a drag to keep tabs on lists of multiple points pools when doing PbP. At chargen, players invest 0, 1 or 2 points in each of the (just twelve) general multi-purpose skills, most of which cover both investigate knowledge AND practical competence , e.g LANDSMAN can be used to identify tracks, animal fur, etc. as clues but also reflects the character's practical ability to hunt, make camp , read the stars, etc. These (smaller than RAW) pools stay static over the course of the game so records don't have to be updated.

A score of even 1 means your character is actually quite competent in this area, hopefully picking up basic clues and usually succeeding at moderately challenging tasks. With a score of 2 they are experts . Players assign 15 points to the skills at chargen. If players buy at least one point in a skill, one sub-skill can be asterisked (*). These 'specialist' abilities can be performed at the next higher step (1 to 2, 2 to 3; 3 is the highest natural level possible , famously skilled).

The twelve generic skills are:

• CLASS title, wealth, equipment, manners, fashion, connections, bribe, intimidate
• FIGHT combat knowledge, fisticuffs, wrestle, leap and kick, fencing, knife-fight, antique weapon
• HANDINESS fix, sew, cook, smith, lockpick, 'preparedness' (from RAW)
• INFLUENCE charm, reassure, bribe, money, persuade, lead
• LANDSMAN ride, drive, survival, gather food, read stars, track, camp, stealth, guns
• MILITARY soldier talk, command, milhist, guns, miltech, ride
• PHYSIQUE health, might, endurance, swim, climb, throw, jump
• SCHOLARSHIP history, trivia, art, architecture, religion and occult, languages
• SCIENCE! medicine, astronomy, chemistry, geology, geography
• WILL courage, faith, discipline, intimidate, interrogate
• WITS notice, cold read, sense motive, sense danger, uncanny dodge
• VILLAINY lockpick, stealth, gambling, street-talk, deceit, pickpocket

PHYSIQUE and WILL are less likely useful for investigative purposes; all others are 'dual' (investigative and practical)

Skills work in exactly the same way whether they are being used investigatively to find clues, or to perform actions. To resolve a skill action in either case, roll 1d6 and add the relevant skill level. Outcomes are as follows:

• 1-3: you fail in any practical task; for an investigation roll the GM may still give basic trail clues
• 4,4+: you succeed, getting basic trail clues and extra clues if these are available; complete practical tasks successfully.

Combat=

In a typical combat:

• 1-3: no damage
• 4+: opponent takes damage for every point over 4 (e.g. a roll of 6 does 2 damage)

In combat, If the party is properly outnumbered , apply additional penalty of -1. +1 E.g. party fight a pack of wolves, take a -1 penalty. If the opposite is true, eg several characters are fighting a lone vampire, gain +1.

Brawl fighting. In a brawl facing multiple lesser foes, a character can target two opponents at a time, taking a voluntary -2 multi-action penalty. They roll twice with the -2 penalty. With the GM's permission, 3 foes could be attacked similarly at -3, 4 at -4 and so on.

The GM may sometimes apply a penalty if the difficulty of a task is unusually high, e.g. -2 to identify footprints on a clean floor, or -2 to resist a powerful vampire’s stare. Punching out a tavern thug would be a standard fight roll, but a GM might apply a -2 penalty for a fracas with a werewolf, or -4 if it is the Wolfman himself!

Guns always do bonus damage as long as they hit (i.e. >=4) but characters generally can't fire into combat. Pistols do +1; rifles and rapid fire revolvers do +2. Weapons, e.g. swords add +1. Wrestling with a might of 2 or more also does +1 bonus damage.

Example Character

Max Ludendorf, Jewel Thief'
Although university educated and from a wealthy family of jewellers in Munich, Max never settled down to a life of commerce. He would rather steal jewels than buy them. Well mannered and charming, he easily infiltrates high society here finds easy pickings.

• CLASS 1 *money
• FIGHT 2 *fencing*
• HANDINESS 1 preparedness
• INFLUENCE 2 *charm
• LANDSMAN
• MILITARY 1 *guns
• PHYSIQUE 1 *health (power player!)
• SCHOLARSHIP 2 *geology ('this diamond is full gazy')
• SCIENCE!
• WILL 1 *courage
• WITS 2 *uncanny dodge
• VILLAINY 2 *lockpick

Gear: decent monies, good wardrobe and excellent gear purchased from the best tradesmen in Europe. He dresses in a leather overcoat, trilby and carries an ivory cane (actually a swordstick)

Motivation in the setting: Max wants to steal as many local jewels as he can, especially from the ancient line of Wolfenstein. He does have some morals-he would prefer not to harm common folk, unless they make themselves too inconvenient. He is also a thrillseeker, unable to resist the taste of danger.

Combat example. Party versus werewolf

Party:
Jewel Thief, Guns 2, Fisticuffs 1, Health 1
Circus strongman , Wrestle 3, Health 2
Countess X, Fencing 2, Health 1
Occultist , Guns 2, Health 1.
Monster
Werewolf, leap and bite, 2, Health 3. Difficulty -2.

................................

The party encounter a werewolf in the forests near the lakeside. Seeing it, each must make a courage roll of 4 or more. Each rolls 1d6 and adds WILL/courage. All manage to get >4, except the occultist who flees.

............................
The GM assigns the physical battle itself a difficulty mod of -2. This abstract modifier represents the monster's supernatural toughness, plot immunity, etc.

The GM allows the jewel thief to shoot before melee begins as he said he was carrying his pistol loaded with a silver bullet. The Thief rolls 5 , then adds his Guns skill of 2 =7. After subtracting the difficulty rating of 2 this is reduced to 5. The bullet therefore does 1 damage, with an extra +1 weapon bonus. Ww is down to 1 health.

Melee begins. The Order of action is determined once, according to the characters’ pool in their chosen method of combat. This gives us: 1. Werewolf, Strongman
2. Jewel Thief, Circus Strongman

The Strongman attacks the werewolf, rolling 2 plus wrestle 3 = 5. Enough to do 1 damage and bring the WW down to 0 health. But the WW attacks simultaneously, rolling 4 + 2 leap and bite. He does 2 damage to the strongman, bringing him to 0 health .

Countesss X stabs with her sword stick, rolling 5+2= 7, doing 3 damage. The monster is killed and transforms into his human form- a local woodcutter!

Map of Nachtberg

System

ONE-SYSTEM GUMSHOE
Rules are similar to Gumshoe SRD RAW, in which players move the investigation on by spending from discrete point pools, each representing one of a list of investigative skills. In this simplified version of the game, players invest between 1 to 5 points in each of the (just twelve) general multi-purpose skills, most of which cover both investigate knowledge AND practical competence , e.g LANDSMAN can be used to identify tracks, animal fur, etc. as evidence but also reflects the character's practical ability to hunt, make camp , read the stars, etc.

In RAW, having any points invested in a particular investigative ability is sufficient for the character to reveal a GM-intended clue related to that ability, without spending points from the pool. Players can though also optionally spend points to get better, more revealing clues in situations where the GM says better info is available.

General skills now work just like investigative skills so that any investment of points in a skill means a character can perform a relevant task at a passable level of competence without spending points, but can spend points to perform actions more quickly or impressively. A small difference: the GM may sometimes demand points be expended if the difficulty of a task is unusually high, e.g. to resist an actual vampire’s stare may require a point spend of will, rather than the default zero spend needed for lesser will tests. Punching out a tavern thug does not require a point spend if the character has any points in fighting, but a GM might ask for a spend of two to survive an encounter with the Wolfman, or three or four points if the character wishes to win fame by beating him!

The twelve generic skills are:

• CLASS title, wealth, equipment, manners, fashion, connections, bribe, intimidate
• FIGHT combat knowledge, fisticuffs, wrestle, leap and kick, fencing, knife-fight, antique weapon
• HANDINESS fix, sew, cook, smith, lockpick, 'preparedness' (from RAW)
• INFLUENCE charm, reassure, bribe, money, persuade, lead
• LANDSMAN ride, drive, survival, gather food, read stars, track, camp, stealth, guns
• MILITARY soldier talk, command, milhist, guns, miltech, ride
• PHYSIQUE might, endurance, swim, climb, throw, jump
• SCHOLARSHIP history, trivia, art, architecture, religion and occult, languages
• SCIENCE! medicine, astronomy, chemistry, geology, geography
• WILL courage, faith, discipline, intimidate, interrogate
• WITS notice, cold read, sense motive, sense danger, uncanny dodge
• VILLAINY lockpick, stealth, gambling, street-talk, deceit, pickpocket

PHYSIQUE and WILL are less likely useful for investigative purposes; all others are 'dual' (investigative and practical)

Players assign twenty points to the skills at chargen. If players buy three or more points in one skill, one sub-skill can be asterisked. This reduces the point spend cost of this sub-skill by one, so that a three point spend costs two, a two point spend costs one, and a one point spend costs nothing.

The notion of skill pools in the game is that they represent time that the character spends centre stage. Points are expended so that every character gets their turn, and a player does not resort repetitively to the same strengths and strategies. This concept is retained but the asterisked skill mans that players retain unusual competence in key skills even when their pool is emptied.

Game is an investigative game with a story, plot that needs a modicum (though hopefully not too much !)attention to solve. Not ideal for a player not interested in such matters, scenery chewers.

An example character is:

Max Ludendorf, Jewel Thief
Although university educated and from a wealthy family of jewellers in Munich, Max never settled down to a life of commerce. He would rather steal jewels than buy them. Well mannered and charming, he easily infiltrates high society here finds easy pickings.

• CLASS 2
• FIGHT 3 fencing*
• HANDINESS 3 preparedness*
• INFLUENCE 3 manners*
• LANDSMAN
• MILITARY 1
• PHYSIQUE 1
• SCHOLARSHIP 3 geology*
• SCIENCE!
• WILL 3 *courage
• WITS 3 uncanny dodge*
• VILLAINY 3 lockpick*

Gear: decent monies, good wardrobe and excellent gear purchased from the best tradesmen in Europe. He dresses in a leather overcoat, trilby and carries an ivory cane (actually a swordstick)

Motivation in the setting: Max wants to steal as many local jewels as he can, especially from the ancient line of Wolfenstein. He does have some morals-he would prefer not to harm common folk, unless they make themselves too inconvenience. He is also a thrillseeker, unable to resist the taste of danger.