These are roleplaying game rules written by Lance Dyas and copyright 2002,2003. With thanks to consulting critic: Erin West
If you take any of this for a play run be sure and let me know of your experiences --- > Lance Dyas
After I began writing this, I discovered at some level it had "almost" already been done... even so I have several innovations and unique elements that make this worthwhile.
In one instance the previous mechanics were unable to resolve epic powered magics concurrent with regular everyday weaponry I'm referring to the NoHitpoints variant for d20 developed by the designer of the Grim & Gritty. And the other case was geared specifically for the Super Heroic (Mutants and Masterminds) both d20 games... well Warped isnt necessarily d20.
The following game mechanics are very similar in many regards with that of M&M but is oriented for a more standard Fantasy Roleplaying environment. In spite of the basic similarity there are major feature differences from the M&M approach.
DIFFERENCES from M&M. Warped has a built in use of the degree of success from an attack, And also a method for gaining extra attack opportunities, Warps Integrated Initiative... takes a different paradigm and avoids extra die rolling (your chance of success and choice determines who goes first) Warped separates the management of armor and damage tolerance as. Armor makes you harder to hurt and toughness lets you resist more damage. Additionally warped has an imbalance option
Warped is I believe unique enough to stand on its own inspite of similarities and most systems not just d20 based can be readily Warped (assuming the system has concepts of opposed skill tests and resistance roll mechanics using the same sided die or sets of dice). Whatever dice you use for resistance rolls/skill ... that is all you will need. No hoards of odd sided dice required. It could save you around $3 USD ;-).
An opposed skill check is the basic element of combat action. A skill roll appropriate to the Attack is compared to a skill roll appropriate to the defense, and the degree of success governs the results. It could be perceived as how solid the impact is from an attack. This combines perfectly with armor making you harder to hurt, oddly enough the most radical rule departure of the bunch - but is simply a damage absorbtion/reduction which has been around since forever... Finally the part that makes this "hitpointless" your response to damage is now based on a resistance roll or two.
The basics are pretty simple... the devil is in the details, but so is some of the coolness.
Which skills to use? The same skill Combat(weapon) is normally the basis of both attack and defense. Variations on this may occur, for instance if you cannot defend using your weapon aka parrying and fending, and must rely on maneuvering alone the weapon for defense is considered Combat Maneuvers(by armor). A single attack roll encompasses both the damage and the accuracy. Your degree of success the amount your action roll defeats your opponents active defense, becomes the basis for weapon attack damage and other implications of your relative skill. Your defense roll and the amount it overcomes your opponents attack roll, similarly gains you benefits...
Defense applies to magical damage as well as or even more than mundane weapon effects as long as the attack is actually a physical one (generally would be described in terms of hit point damage). Subtract 1 pt of damage per 2pts of active defense. Spells which are defined as allowing a reflex saving throw subtract 1 point of damage per pt of Active Defense instead (They are considered more avoidable.). Spells which do damage but are all or nothing subtract 2 pts of damage per point of defense.
Area affect Attacks : generally require an extra action be performed in order to get the extra defense for them (often in the form of hitting the dirt/diving rolls and similar moves) this extra action generally costs the defender their attack opportunity this round (or the next if none are available to expend this round).
Spell damage can be extreme and again like regular weapon attacks high variation in damage is not necessary since the damage tolerance roll make the physical response to damage highly variable
Case by Case Analysis of Spells may determine some would benefit from an attack roll or others like the Explosive fireball may penalize the defense of the target who finds themselves at ground zero when it is launched.. and a benefit to those on the outer edge.
Here is a surprise.... Armor Works it makes you harder to hurt with physical spell effects too. It acts as insulation against the fires and heat and tends to channel electrical attacks through it instead of through the body underneath. There are some disadvantages if an electrical spell requires targeting metal armor does not provide benefit but very nearly does the targeting part all by itself.
Spells which are area of effect attacks such as fireball subtract both coverage of armor and weight from the damage dealt even light armor with good coverage can be quite effective.
Elderans Basic Pyromantic Explosion or Myrmidons Flame Sphere.
Authors: this magic is claimed to have been originated by many and it is known by different names because of this suffice to say it is virtually identical in most cases, you can draw your own conclusions either it really is basic/fundamental effect or someone is lying and stealing.
Timing: as a normal attack.
Channeling Difficulty: 9
Range 10*mage's will in strides + 1 per 2 levels of mage's skill.
Potency 33 + 1 per level of mage's skill is reduced by 3 per stride target begins from the middle of the effect.
Area Effect 10 strides radius + 1 stride per 3 levels of skill, primarily a spherical expansion but will conform to area cast in.
While the potency of Elderans magic varies some depending on the mages capabilities even in its least of forms it is pretty nasty, Quick reflexes can mean the difference between life and death for those in its area of effect. The damage is from pure heat rather than a concussive blast. Those just outside its area effect hear the roar but feel only a warm breeze.
This magic is considered "basic" to professional wizards who engage in battle with some frequency, Its not an apprentice magic.
A seed of small flame is launched out to a range equal to the mages will * 10 in strides and a soft roaring explosion expands from ground zero. Defenders may spend their attack option for this round to make an extra defense against this magic, This area effect attack
Researching or Improvising: This magic is considered basic IE Researching and or Improvising this magic is slightly easier than similar but differing effects.
This defensive actions roll like any skilled action. It needs to be rolled at least once each round when you are engaged with opponents. All enganged characters make a defense roll.
Defensive use of combat skill grants ability to avoid being hit by and deflect physical attacks as a standard element of combat ability but also encompasses the ability to minimize the effectiveness of attacks that do impact. Truly effective defense is the basis of attack opportunities.
Determining who goes first: Basically the character who has the highest apparent chance of success is typically who goes first. The individual with the lowest defense roll leaves the most openings his adversaries resolve their attacks first in order of their own attack rating. This is basic initiative. However choices will shake the mix making things far less obvious a character can.
Sacrefice initiative in order to find more reliable openings gain 1 on your attack roll for each 2 points iniitiave sacreficed.
OR
Sacrefice your Accuracy by seeking greater speed. Reducing your precision by 1 gains 2 on your effective ability for initiatives sake.
Recovering your Defense(Scrambling): You may trade your attack opportunity to "do over" your defense roll (you get the second value in place of the first, not the higher of the two). This means you forfeit your attack for this round, unless you roll very well see additional attack opportunities above.
Defense versus mulitiple opponents. Reduce your effective defense against each successive attack from different opponents by 5 to reflect the difficulty of responding to multiple opponents.
Additional Attack Opportunities(Ripostes/Counter-Attacks): One of the effects of a highly effective defense is often an opportunity to attack. If you exceed your opponents attack by 10 you gain the opportunity for an additional attack against that opponent at penalty of 5 (each attack so exploited incurs an additional -5). To exploit the extra attacks gained this way you forfeit movement options (you must remain near the target/attacker) . The additional attack occurs immediately following The attak which your defense bests by 10.
The above rules compound one-another Against multiple opponents the likelihood of of getting an extra attack against the third one to attack you is pretty slim... your initial defense effectively has to beat his attack by 20!
Off-Guard: If caught off-guard/ ie flat footed, the Game Master may apply penalties to your defenses up to and including halving your total effective defense. If this state occurs due to an act of stealth versus perception the penalty is actually 1 point per 2 points of success in that stealth roll.
Defenselessnesss: If attacked while completely defenseless... you dont get a defense roll, obviously a very bad thing.
Weapon damage does not require a separate roll but is instead modifier depending on the weapon.
Aggressive use of combat skill grants not only the ability to hit and avoid your attacks being deflected but also encompasses the ability to maximize the effectiveness of your attacks. The degree of success of a normal attack is called that attacks impact it is how solidly the blow lands and is very useful.
Increased Damage: For each 2 points of impact increases the "potential damage". This allows room for plenty of modifiers such as weapon potency. Armor among other things may make a target harder to hurt and converts or reduces the damage.
Imbalance: is independent of whether your attack actually hurts your opponent. Armor normally makes a character harder to hurt. But not necessarily harder to knock over ;-) each 5 points impact causes one point of imbalance.. In super hero games this imbalance is reflected in actual opponents flying around the battle field and is called knockback... Imbalance is a penalty to your next action. If you get 2 or more points of imbalance you may be called on to make a resistance roll or balance test or experience 2 more points because you fell down.
Aggressive, increasing skill for purpose of attack actions +1 and decrease your skill for purposes of your defense actions. +2 initiative mod.
Balanced,skill is considered identical for attack and defense.
Cautious, increases skill for purpose of defense actions +1 and decreases for the opposite. -2 initiative mod.
Critical Hits: To allow truly extreme results open ended rolls are curently in consideration.
Not all fighters are the same. The easiest thing to differentiate is a characters Aggresiveness and Current Stance
Aggresiveness is an aspect of character personality and may be a reflection of ones training and doesnt normally change. Where as stance is modified on a turn by turn basis. Otherwise these have similar and compound effects a Aggressive Combatant who assumes an aggressive stance is now effectively very aggressive with a +2 modifier.
Armor historically varied from layers of your winter clothing to a hodge podge of pieces of whatever you could scavenge and repair to custom creations of an artist smith. Hit location specific armor is generally quite appropriate.
Armor reduces/absorbs damage recieved from attacks which hit in areas covered by the armor, if the damage is reduced to zero or below the attacking weapon may take damage (punching someone in plate armor is a prime example). Generally the armors "weight" determines how much damage it absorbs.. Where as its coverage determines the liklihood of it actually affecting a given attack basically being the basis for a difficulty of called shots attempting to avoid the armor. Coverage is also useful for determinging the damage of area effect attacks.(see defense against magic).
Action penalties from armor sometimes adversely affect your defense and even your attack (Helms are a major offender here) and the better the "coverage" and "weight" usually the more problems the armor may cause. Flexible armor provides fewer action penalties based on coverage, but also absorbs less damage against crushing/weight based rather than edge based attacks.
Each 2 pts of protection + coverage causes an action penalty of one, essentially someone who was at +5 strength or 20 levels of armor skill, would have no action penalty for full plate armor. Armor wearing as a skill allows for each 4 levels of armor skill reduces the penalty for actions while wearing it by 1.
Armor Action penalties and slowed movement caused by wearing armor may increase the likli-hood of many attacks against you working. Action penalties to ones active defense actually make armor impractical.
Using these 2 rules alone many mages might "choose" not to wear much armor. Armor now counts as a skill instead of a feat. The classes which have the choice of any armor get armor as a class skill and begin with 4 levels free in their choice of type.
The idea of armor making you harder to hit is not as outlandish as it at first seems, people when explicitly attacking to harm their opponent frequently "try" to attack around armor and may miss opportunites of hitting locations that are covered in favor of looking for the "better" hit against an unarmored location. However not all attacks really need to avoid your opponents armor for one thing the imbalance incurred may be worth it further specific attacks such as body slambs and trips or simply attempts to distract a mage for instance are not really hampered much if at all by your opponents armor. The choice of explicitly targeting a non armored location is available as a called shot. And is most common against heavier armors. With full armor coverage this means you are attacking between the seams at the joints etc. Against such an attack the armor improves the characters defense.
The meaning of damage:
After the affects of armor damage now reflects real wounds. Each wound is recorded individually. If an attacks damage is reduced to exactly zero it is considered to be inconsequential incidental scratches and aches and perhaps minor bruising.
Of note a 6 point wound/injury now has even odds of taking a humanoid character down out of the fight, it is not in any sense a minor scratch. The cancelling effects of armor and weaponry combined with the ability to scramble for your defense also make such injuries not altogether common either.
Why use hit locations for combat one reason is variable armor "weight" but the best answer is probably to help visualize the action.
Attacks locations are not really random, but they are often based on unintentional openings made by the defender making them effectively random. If you choose to use the hit location rules roll a hit location prior to making the attack roll. This random location roll determines where your best opening to hit is.. choosing another location incurs a penalty depending on how different the location you choose to attack is from the best opening. NOTE : Location specific injury normally impairs only during cool down time.
Body Form - Style Die Roll Human Angelic Quadruped Drakonic Avian 1 Right Calve Right Leg Right Leg 2 Left Calve Left Leg Left Leg 3 -4 Right Thigh Right Leg: Thigh Torso 5 -6 Left Thigh Right Leg: Thigh Torso 7 Abdomen Left Leg: Thigh Torso 8 Abdomen Left Leg: Thigh Tail 9 -10 Abdomen Torso Right Wing 11 -13 Chest Torso Right Wing 14 Chest Torso Right Wing 15 Left Arm Torso Left Wing 16 Left Arm Torso Left Wing 17 Right Arm Neck Left Wing 18 Right Arm Head Left Wing 19 Head Head Left Wing 20 Face/Neck Face Head
Everytime a character takes damage make a Damage Tolerance resitstance check suiting heroic genres this should be based on Will rather than a Physiological Trait. The difficulty for this equals 5 + damage taken. If multiple attacks succeed against a character in one round one Damage Tolerance chack can normally apply to all wounds but the roll is made at a penalty -1 for each additional wound taken that turn.
Failed Roll results in the character falling unconcious. In battle you are either ok... or out. This matches government studies on wounding and when associated with will actually holds up to heroic fantasy as well.
Marginally Successful or marginally unsuccessful... You arent unconcious but you definitely felt it... A wounded characters next action this round will be minus 1 per 2 points of damage staggering impulse pain etc. You can cancel this effect by recovering spending one standard attack opportunity to Recover your Defense (Make a new defense roll). This is the immediate impact of the wound, quickly drowned out by the adrenaline of battle combined with actual imbalance.
Fully successful +10 Your momentary "imbalance" is only 1 per 5 points of damage.
Extremely Successful +20 ummm I didnt notice did I get hurt?
After the battle or when the character falls unconcious the real impact of the fight sets in the adrenaline no longer bouys the embattled warrior. Fatigue and other factors come to the for front. An additional Damage Tolerance test may be required at ths time to maintain conciousness. But for those sorely wounded this is not the immediate question.
Mentioned first in the Aftermath section... because if it comes to this the rest doesnt matter.
If you have taken 10 or more total points of wounds make a death test based on the intensity of the most severe wound you have taken. People have died who were by some standards barely wounded.. This effect while realistic is not very heroic. More heroic games should make allowances or not even require the roll unless a total of constitution points of damage have been taken in a single wound. Additionally healing magics and such in fantasy environments will normally prevent the death of fallen combatant unless extremely wounded. Those using healing skill can apply there skilll versus the injury and save you via their action independent of your death check.
While the resistance check as written results in a death --- coma or mutilating injury (which add to the characters gnarly interest value and the story might be other perfectly acceptable resolutions. This is so very dependent on genre that it is not funny. The game master and player really should decide whether the characters death is appropriate to the story and whether it works in this scene. If Hero Points are available they are the perfect option for putting this to rest, so to speak. A heros death can be used to inspire other heros.... and other interesting effects. For the story it is reasonable to decide that death is only appropriate. Mystic Quests to return the dead characters spirit is also an option allowing exploration of other themes. So even if your character is dead... mayhaps the story can become more grande because of it. Perhaps hero points really cant save your character this time because it just wouldnt make sense.... they could mean the difference between your character being drawn back by other heros to the land of the living or just fading into memories till the wheel of life and death...works its way around again.
These can save your characters, their usage is in the players hands err sort of, they can be spent on many things. Heroic deeds result in your character being rewarded with these yes completely out of synch with other forms of character advancement. They are the just deserts of being a real hero. Mechanically these points may simply allow a free reroll of any roll, be it a skill test or resistance roll, or whatever.. they are a form of wild luck and their manifestation should usually be tailored to make this obvious. They are intended to take a little of the bite out of the "realism" . The more Cinematic and Grand your play the more points should be awarded. One interesting take on this is literally as a double take, the character gets a deja-vu flash of what would have happened... except now this new roll is really what happens.
Luck guardians Not all players like the perceptual discontinuity of controlling their own luck, a way to emphasize that luck is not something your character does... but something that happens to them it is appropriate to assign a lucky star/ guardian in the form of another player to describe and even allocate a characters hero points.
After the battle wounds cause a pain penalty of minus one on all rolls involving the hit location wounded for each 5 points of damage. Will roll(s) can allow you to temporarily ignore the penalties. The quality of the will roll determines how long the pain is ignored... the pain sneaking back to the fore-front tends to cause that next roll to fail with wonderfully dramatic flavor. If you arent using hit locations all actions are at a penalty of 1 per 5 points total.
A characters defense is not a sure thing. Characters who where un-hittable can now be hit. This means the everyday character may be able put a dagger between the scales of that great beast etc although the true extremes of effects are certainly less likely. It is now possible though not likely for a hero to be "knocked out" with relatively minor "damage". This occurance is the mainstay of various genres and shouldnt be "impossible". Hero Points not withstanding battle is now scarier even a skilled combatant can go down in a single stroke..
A battle between equal opponents becomes numerically identical whether they are "highly skilled" or "low".
Armor is pretty damn important as are weaponry.
A battle between differing skill opponents gets faster and deadly the more of a mismatch the combat is.
Warped Combat may require changes to the system it is imbedded in for instance combat is now based on skills this has some implications that need to be addressed..
In order to encourage specific actions many games developed what amounts to too many skills. like parry or riposte etc. as a separate skills it probably needs be recombined into your weapon manipulation/attack skill because realistically having better defense allows one to choose to behave more agressively in real combat this is a choice.
Combat/Weapon Skills are listed as skills along side others and chosen or bought for your character as all others some high level warrior become more politician like in their old age... and not picked up every last rank of fencing skill they could have... Some would say they switched Archetype... errr that is making archetypes a straight jacket rather than a guiding light.
Weapon Skill (By Category), similar weapons can very often be used with only minor -1 , -2 or -3 or even no penalty. Combat skill(weapon) includes the ability to attack, to defend, to analyse the weapons quality, to analyse anothers skill at it, to intimidate by display of your skill. and occasionaly to make minor repairs on it. To apply attacks with it to achieve greater damage and to deflect attacks using it.
Combat Maneuvering (Armor Category) skill with armor of differing weights and coverages are different but all are similar to one another. Armor skill includes the ability to overcome the armors encumberance and move effectively while using it. Your maximum effective maneuvering skill including unarmed defense is based on this skill.... it caps your skills while wearing it. Its really really needed. If you intend to use armor. But it is also a fairly narrow skill(see the time based advancement system.)
Ability with weapons and armor are skills and so the habit of treating warriors as low skill characters needs to be rethought and readjusted. On top of this skills need as many degrees of emphasis as the combativeness the old style classes combativeness represented.
4 levels is basic familiarity only If you know other broader skils of the same type this is sufficient to overcome any sort of circumstantial unfamiliarity penalty. It represents 100 man-hours for focused skills, which could be acquired in a single week.(if you ate drank and breathed the skill during that time)
The hitpointless combat system makes combat based on skills this has some implications that need to be addressed..
Combat/Weapon Skills are listed as skills along side others and chosen or bought for your character as all others some high level warrior become more politician like in their old age... and not picked up every last rank of fencing skill they could have... Some would say they switched Archetype... errr that is making archetypes a straight jacket rather than a guiding light.
Combat Skill (Weapon Category), similar weapons can very often be used with only minor -1 , -2 or no penalty. Combat skill(weapon) includes the ability to attack, to defend with it, to analyse the weapons quality, to analyse anothers skill at it, to intimidate by display of your skill. and occasionaly to make minor repairs on it. To apply attacks with it to achieve greater damage and to deflect attacks using it.
Combat Skill (Armor Category) skill with armor of differing weights and coverages are different but all are similar to one another. Armor skill includes the ability to overcome the armors encumberance and move effectively while using it. Your maximum effective maneuvering skill including unarmed defense is based on this skill.... it caps your skills while wearing it. Its really really needed. If you intend to use armor.
Skill point totals may need readjusted. On top of this skills need as many degrees of emphasis as the combativeness the old style classes combativeness represented.
Each archetype emphasizes differing skills this is how we maintain character niches the specialities which promise a role within the playing group. Skill advancement "cost" can be used to encourage archetypes to develop appropriately to their nature while allowing great freedom for character develeopment or a maximum ranking in a skills can be used to make the niches more absolute, either way the degrees of emphasis for all skills need to be as differentiated as those of the combat skills.
|
Emphasis Category for Skill |
Description |
Advancement Costs |
Maximum Rank (round up) |
| Primary/Central | These skills are the focus of your archetype. | 2 pts per rank |
3 + lvl |
| Secondary | These are encouraged but not primary or central to your type | 3 pts per rank |
2 + 2xlvl/3 |
| Incidental or peripheral | These may be useful but are neither encouraged nor encouraged for development. |
4 pts per rank |
level/2 |
| Discouraged | Thes skills are actively discouraged by your archetype...
The archetype doesnt normally admit they are useful. They may even hide
the aquisitioning of these skills. |
6 pts per rank |
level/3 |
Some Skills are just broader than others... they apply to doing more things and usually take more effort to develop independent of the above.
Breadth of Skill |
Description |
Adv mult. |
| quite narrow | Most people figure these skills are ability at doing just one thing.... err they arent but its a reasonable mistake. | 1x |
| somewhat narrow | These skills represent almost a sub skill they still apply to several things just not many. | 2 x |
| normal | Most identified skills are this category and represent a fairly large group of things one can do. | 3 x |
| broad | These skills encompass a definitely large number of sometimes complex things This is sometimes considered a sub profession. | 4 x |
| very broad | These skills encompass ability at a very large number of usually complex
things They are the core of a whole profession |
6 x |
Skills and Actions very often are confused by game writers and players both.. Skills are often seen as the ability to do a single action. If this were the case it would be extremely difficult to emulate the number of skills your typical high-school drop out possesses let alone the broad reaching abilities of the heroic. There is a habit of too tightly binding skills to a trait/characteristic that is the cousin of this problem.
Degree of Success for Combat skills is now rather detailed in its effect, other skills too gain some advantages from higher degree of success.... speed of performance is an obvious thing to enhance but other possibilities should be considered. Each 2 points of success can be used as a modifier for another skill. Such as a stealthy ambush which affects the attack chancess during the initial round of the upcoming conflict.
It's easy in basic to customize this to many game systems, replacing your current combat system with Warped is not iniitially tricky but may take some thought. The numbers I am using apply well enough to work with a D20 or 4D6 or even work in a percentile system(multiply weapon potency and armor effects by 5. As long as the resistance rolls and skill rolls use the same die range. i may further d20 tailor this.. or go the opposite route and make a Warp Quest for RuneQuest fans..