I ran the group through a randomly-generated dungeon I made online. I substituted Cydorian equivalents for the D&D monsters and used my quick-and-dirty opponent rules. The story was that they had to recover a stolen item kept in a bandit stronghold located in an ancient bunker dug under a mesa.
The first character who opened the door rolled initiative and failed and took three crossbow bolts (I rolled two 19s to hit and another high number). He backed up and said, "I'm out. I'm walking back to town."
The other characters had a devil of a time digging the four Jinx crossbow snipers out of their cubby holes and killing them. The players only had to roll a 12 or better to hit them, but they just couldn't! The Brux wound up killing almost all the jinxes. They finally got them out but they were hurt bad!
Lesson learned: my jinxes had WAY too many hit points. They each had 16 HP, which is 3 more than the average 13 of a player character. Minor NPCs should not have the same hit points as player characters. That has been adjusted. Though I'm considering giving PCs more hit points instead.
I gave them morphic potions which gave them regeneration for 1d8 turns. They were back up to full and able to continue.
After that, the PCs were a little more circumspect regarding rushing into rooms. They set off two traps, one of them poisoned. They also avoided a room and the fight therein because it wasn't a part of their mission.
So, not too many changes as a result of this session. I made bruxes large creatures, which gives them more hit points but makes them easier to hit, and likewise jinxes and deru are small creatures with less hit points but harder to hit. I also clarified area effect attacks and re-worded some other small bits here and there for better clarity.
I added a first draft of some gadget rules for guild technicians and techno-heretics.
I converted the rules for creating forgeries from the original game.
I also added a first draft of the opponent creation guidelines, which won't be in the final rules but are useful for creating bad guys and creatures to fight.
I still need to finish the wilderness survival rules, then add morphic potions and convert the artifacts.
Check out the PDF of the current revision of the playtest rules up there to the right. I welcome feedback and suggestions. It's a living document and will be updated weekly.
Edit to Add: I am considering removing the limited reaction rule and welcome opinions about that.
This looks pretty good! You do have a fondness for subsystems that I think creates more complexity than is needed (do we really need 4 pages on creating forgeries?)
ReplyDeleteAs for Reactions, what would you replace them with? It seems like a very good way to keep players focused when it isn't their turn, works to make ganging up on people a good tactic, and gives choices during combat. I do find it interesting that there are more choices to be made when it isn't your turn than when it is.
Perhaps instead of reactions, you get a certain number of actions that must last you until the start of your next turn? This would also take the place of the all out attack and all out defense options.
Yeah, I'm going crazy with the sub-systems. I'll need to reign that in and include them in modules and add-ons, not the core rules.
ReplyDeleteThe forgery rules are a result of the setting. There is an evil empire that's keen on bureaucracy and inspecting your documents at every check-point, so obtaining good forged licenses for your equipment and for your ability to be in this city are very important to that setting.
It may be important to the setting, but does the setting drive the game, or the game the setting?
DeleteBoth are valid answers!