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Post by Probie Tim on Nov 29, 2016 18:13:26 GMT -8
ICONS Assembled is my current "hot set up" game, and the first game which I've thought would be a good match for an Agents of SHIELD game I've had kicking around in my head. It's a superheroes RPG written by Steve Kenson (who wrote True20, Mutants & Masterminds, and was part of the team for Blue Rose) and is seemingly influenced strongly by both Fate and the old Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game from the 80s (often referred to as FASERIP). The BasicsThings in ICONS are rated in levels, from 1 to 10. On that scale, "average" is 3, and normal human maximum is 6. You can use the numbers or adjectives (Weak, Poor, Average, Fair, Good, Great, Incredible, Amazing, Fantastic, Supreme) as you wish. So you could have a 3 Strength, or an Average Strength. Narrative time consists of a chapter (which is kinda like an encounter or related series of encounters), an issue (which is a game session), and a series (a campaign or story arc). Action time consists of a panel (1 character's turn) and a page (all of the character's turns). During a character's panel the character can move once, and act once. During a page, a character can react as many times as they need to, and interact as much as they'd like (talking, noticing things, etc.) All measurements of time are variable in how long they actually take. Distance is rated as Personal (within someone's bubble), Close (melee/point-blank), Extended (ranged combat), Visual (outside of ranged combat but still visible), and Beyond (which is, well, anything beyond visual). All characters have six attributes: Prowess (melee combat), Coordination (dexterity), Strength, Intellect, Awareness, Willpower. Characters can also have Specialties (so, like Science for Intellect or Martial Arts for Prowess) which give bonuses to attributes and Powers. Stamina is a calculated attribute (Strength + Willpower) and is basically hit points. They also have Determination Points, which are pretty much Fate points. Attributes are tested by comparing Effort vs. Difficulty. Effort is the acting ability + 1d6. Difficulty is the opposing ability + 1d6 (or a fixed difficulty set by the GM). The Outcome is the Effort minus the Difficulty, which can be negative. An Outcome of 0 is considered a marginal success, but might wind up a failure. Each 2 points above or below 0 is a degree of success, from marginal to moderate to major to massive. So if you have Prowess 5 and roll a 3, and you're trying to punch a dude with Prowess 4 who rolled a 1, the Effort is 8, the Difficulty is 5, and the Outcome is 3 [(5+3) - (4+1) = 8 - 5 = 3]. That would be two degrees of success (1-2 is one degree, 3-4 is 2 degrees) or a major success. More to come later.
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maxinstuff
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Posts: 1,939
Preferred Game Systems: DCC RPG, Shadowrun 5e, Savage Worlds, GURPS 4e, HERO 6e, Mongoose Traveller
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Post by maxinstuff on Nov 29, 2016 18:25:10 GMT -8
I like this trend. Thanks sbloyd . (read like "THANKS OBAMA")
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Post by Probie Tim on Nov 30, 2016 7:11:39 GMT -8
The Basics, continued...More on tests: In some cases one ability may limit another, in which case you'd use the lower of the two abilities (for instance, a contest to see who could juggle [Coordination] the longest [Strength]). Sometimes a test might have two difficulties (for instance, trying to sneak past a guard [Awareness 3] and a security system [difficulty 5] - if you roll 4 Effort you'd make it past the guard, but the security system trips; a roll of 6 Effort would get you past both). You can also combine Effort from multiple characters: each assisting character makes a test, and gives the coordinating character +1 for a moderate success (one degree) result or better. Each doubling of moderate success assistance gives an additional +1 (so, +1 for one successful assist, +2 for two, +3 for four, etc., up to 8 successful assists for a bonus of +4). Finally, there is something called a Pyramid test, which is kinda like an extended contest in other games. Basically, a pyramid test requires a single massive success, but that single massive success can be made up of many lesser successes. So, like, two moderate successes becomes a major success, and two major successes become a massive success. I have to investigate this further, because I'm having a hard time not just saying that 1 massive success = 4 moderate successes (because 2 moderate successes = 1 major success, and 2 major successes = 1 massive success). There has to be something I'm missing here, and there's a whole bunch of modifiers and twists, but for now in "The Basics", we know it exists. Now we get into some fun stuff: Qualities! Qualities are basically aspects from Fate. Defined as "something distinctive not covered by a numerically rated ability", qualities are things like "Worlds Greatest Detective", "Sworn to Destroy All Monsters", "Master of the Mystic Arts", "Agent Hanson's Guardian Angel" or even "Splitting Headache". A quality must be known before it can be activated. Much like in Fate, you can attempt to learn or create a previously unknown quality; you do this by making a test on the ability you're using to discover it. A marginal success reveals or creates the quality but does not activate it, a moderate success allows you to activate it once for free, a major success allows you to activate it twice for free, and a massive success allows you to activate it three times for free. Once discovered, you can activate a quality to gain an advantage or create trouble using a phrase like "Because of [quality]... I get [advantage/trouble]" or "I have [advantage/trouble]". Some examples from the book: "Because I am The World's Greatest Detective, I get improved effort on the Intellect test to figure out what happened here." or "This Splitting Headache is giving me increased difficulty concentrating." Aside of free activation when a quality is discovered, qualities can also be activated by the expenditure of a Determination Point, by taking a maneuver (a test with a suitable ability and get a moderate success or better), or by accepting trouble (coming later, heh). Finally, a quality can be removed by spending a Determination Point or performing a counter-maneuver. Permanent qualities cannot be removed like this. There's a whole bunch of stuff about teams that I have yet to look into, but if you have a team you can invest qualities into the team. A quality can give you advantage as stated above. Those advantages are Improved Effort (+2 Effort), Insight (get a clue or hint from the GM), Push Ability (increase an ability by 1 level for 1 page), Recover (regain Stamina), Retcon (retroactively change some element of the story), or perform a Stunt (soon to follow). A quality can also give you trouble as stated above. Troubles are a Challenge (similar to a Retcon, this adds a new detail or element which is problematic), a Compulsion (character is required to act in a particular manner for a page; stuff like reacting to strongly held beliefs, fears, or hatreds), a Disability (character loses use of an ability for a page), Increased Difficulty (+2 difficulty to a test), or Lost Panel (character loses a panel due to distraction or whatever). Finally (for now), Stunts! Stunts in ICONS are unusual applications of abilities, allowing them to do things they normally can't. Attribute stunts require superhuman (7 or greater) attributes or a "master" specialty, and Power stunts require powers. Stunts can only occur via an advantage as described above. I'm still reading up on stunts, but as far as I can see, a stunt would allow a character to substitute Intellect for Prowess in combat, for instance, (assuming a high Intellect and a not-so-high Prowess) to effectively "determine and attack my opponent's weak spots". Stuff like that. More to come later.
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 1, 2016 6:57:43 GMT -8
The Basics, continued yet again...
As mentioned above, determination is a calculated attribute. Characters have a starting determination of 6 minus 1 for each power the character has (and attributes greater than 6 count as a power as they're beyond the normal human maximum). Characters will always have a minimum of 1 determination, regardless of how many powers they have.
Characters start each issue (session) with determination points equal to their determination. Determination points (or DP, which makes me giggle) are the ICONS analogy of Fate Points. DPs can be used to activate a quality, avoid trouble, or provide determined effort (make an additional test for something that normally does not allow additional attempts). Spending DP is not an action and can happen at any time.
Characters get DP (heh, heh) when the GM spends DP for an NPC against a PC, when a quality is activated to cause trouble, or, again, at the start of each issue.
Phew. Now, on to damage!
When you are attacked, and the attack is successful, the amount of damage is subtracted from your stamina. When stamina reaches 0, you are unconscious. Melee/close attacks do damage equal to the attackers strength (if unarmed) or the weapon damage (if armed); ranged attacks do damage equal to the weapon or power's damage. Any damage resistance (from a power or whatnot) is subtracted from the damage before it is subtracted from stamina.
Some attacks have potential slam outcomes. If an attack which can slam does 0 or greater damage after resistance (if resistance subtraction makes damage go negative there is no slam), test the full damage against the target's strength. A failure or marginal success means no slam, a moderate success means the target is knocked prone, and a major or massive success sends the target flying to the next range (i.e. from close to extended); in addition, the target must spend the next panel getting up to the exclusion of all other actions.
So it is possible to do 0 damage but still slam the target. Fun!
That same mechanic is used for attacks with potential stun and kill outcomes, excepting that the a major or massive success on a kill outcome, the character loses a level of strength every page (full round). When strength falls below 0, the character dies.
Recovery!
Unconscious characters gain consciousness in 2d6 pages with 1 stamina. Thereafter they recover their strength in stamina every hour (unless they use an advantage, above). Lost strength returns at one level per week, or per day given medical treatment and complete rest.
Since ICONS is emulating the comic book genre, dead doesn't always really mean dead. If a character dies, it is out of play for one full issue (session) but then can return with a suitable in-character explanation for the miraculous recovery. This may carry other penalties at the GMs whim, like the loss of a level of determination, a special adventure, a re-roll of some traits, a duplicate from an alternate Earth, etc.
This chapter - The Basics - ends with a fun to read example of play. Next chapter? Putting all of this together in Hero Creation! Whee!
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 1, 2016 12:41:17 GMT -8
Hero CreationUnlike the earlier posts in this thread, I'm not just going to regurgitate rules out of the book. I'm going to read the chapter and post my thoughts and notes; regurgitating the character creation rules would pretty much be giving the game away, and I don't think Mr. Kenson would appreciate me doing that, heh. So, creating a hero is the part of the game most like MSH (Marvel Super Heroes, the "FASERIP" system from the 80s). You randomly roll for the hero's origin, attributes, powers, and specialties. You get to come up with your own qualities, up to three of them. Origins are things like "trained" (like Batman), "transformed" (like Spider Man), "gimmick" (like Iron Man), and so on. Your origin gives you benefits that apply to other areas of your hero ("transformed", for instance, gives you +2 to an attribute or power). While the scale of attributes in ICONS goes from 1-10, randomly generating attributes only allows for levels of 1-8. I guess that's so if you get a +2 bonus (like, from the "transformed" origin, above) it won't shoot you past 10. It does allow for scrapping a character whose total attribute levels (after origin adjustments) are less than 20, and you can swap two attribute levels. There's also an option to just roll 6 different levels and assign them to whatever attributes you want. You roll on a table to determine how many powers your hero has, then a separate collection of tables for the type of power each one is. There are mental, control, defensive, offensive, movement, alteration, and sensory powers. Another table generates how many specialties your hero has. There is an option to subtract the number of powers generated from 6, and give the hero that many specialties. Then, finally, there's a couple of pages talking about team creation (since the PCs should all be members of the same team: the Avengers, for instance), qualities, and resources (HQ, vehicles, etc.) The thing that I don't see (and I even looked ahead into the Game Master chapter) is a point-buy or non-random character creation method. I love the throwback feel to MSH, but random character creation isn't always ideal. I suppose it would be easy enough to let players choose their hero's origin and powers and let the dice fall where they may for attributes. Hmm. More to come, the next chapter is Powers!
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 2, 2016 6:53:23 GMT -8
Onwards and upwards, into Powers! ICONS has seven different types of powers: alteration, control, defensive, mental, movement, offensive, and sensory powers. Some individual powers represent a group of powers; "Alternate Form", for instance, is actually Energy Form or Gaseous Form or a host of others. Players are free to name powers and give them trappings as desired; a Close Range Mind Blast could be a shining silver ghost blade, for instance. Using a power requires an action and possibly a test of some sort; if the test is failed, some powers require determined effort (spending a DP) to try again. Some require preparation (meaning one or more panels where your action is only activating the power) and some require concentration. Finally, some powers are exclusive, meaning you cannot use other powers while using it. Powers use the ranges given above, and last for one of five durations: instant, concentration (for as long as the hero concentrates), level (one page [round] per level of the power), continuous (until the hero turns them off), permanent (um... it's always on). Now here's a cool bit: Extras and Limits. Extras are... well... extra things you can do with a power. Each power has a list of extras that go with it, and there is a list of standard extras as well. When you're rolling your powers during character creation, you have the option of substituting an extra for an additional power instead of rolling a new power. So, for instance, if you roll Aquatic, and then Fire Control - which doesn't really make sense - you could replace Fire Control with an extra like Affects Others (so that you could take other people underwater with you and they could breathe and shit.) Finally, extras can be used as stunts, which is something I'm having trouble reconciling in my head at this point. I'm sure that will be made clear. Limits are... well... limitations to a power. When you apply a limit to a power you get to subtract one from the power's value for reducing determination level, add an extra without increasing its determination cost (hmm, determination increase for extras hasn't been mentioned yet; maybe that will come later, possibly an improvement thing?), or increase the power's rolled level by two, to a maximum of 10. So our Affecting Others Aquatic hero could take the Animals Only limit, which means that he could only take animals underwater with him. Up next, devices! But I want to read over all the powers first, so that'll come later.
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 5, 2016 6:15:05 GMT -8
Still reading through powers, just FYI.
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 6, 2016 9:39:10 GMT -8
Still going through powers. Good stuff, here.
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sbloyd
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WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
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Post by sbloyd on Dec 6, 2016 13:16:50 GMT -8
I remember when TSR put out the Ultimate Powers Handbook (for the Marvel Super Heroes game), how giddy I was leafing through that.
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 8, 2016 6:58:16 GMT -8
So, powers! First, two quick clarifications. One, attributes (prowess, intellect, etc.) and powers are both classed as abilities and are rated from 1-10. So when you roll up a power, you then roll on the same table as you do for attributes to determine the power's level. There is a table that I haven't mentioned - the benchmarks table - which gives a 1-10 scale for different things that a power can affect (weight, material, distance, and speed). So while the numbers are the same and they're generated the same way, they mean vastly different things because the scope of attributes is vastly different from the scope of powers: an attribute of 4 (listed as above human average an the attribute level table) is very different from a speed power of 4 (which is listed on the benchmark table as a fast race car). Two, there is a non-random, point-based character creation system. It's a sidebar option in the character creation chapter. Basically, you have 45 points to build your character; each level of an ability or specialty costs 1 point. You must spend at least 1 point in each attribute, and you can only have 1 ability greater than 8 (with a max of 10). You can have 3 specialties maximum, and each power extra costs 1 point (although a limit can counteract this cost). So! I really enjoyed reading through the powers, there's lots of good stuff in here. Everything from ability boost and magic to healing and telekinesis and gadgets. I couldn't think of a comic book hero power that I couldn't recreate going through the powers, and as sbloyd mentioned above I was very giddy reading through them. One thing that I specifically liked was a consistent mechanic centered around boosting or temporarily improving other abilities; if the power doing the boosting is greater than the ability being boosted, the ability is boosted to the power level. If the power is lower than the ability, then you get a +1. I just thought that was something of a cool mechanic. Take danger sense, for instance. You can use your danger sense to react against attacks or other sudden dangers, or instead of awareness for noticing them. So if you walk into an ambush with awareness 4 and danger sense 6, you'd use your danger sense to notice it. If it were reversed and you walked into an ambush with awareness 6 and danger sense 4, you'd use awareness +1 (or 7) to notice it. This means there's always a benefit to having a power, even if your inherent abilities are better than the power. I'm not going to go through and list all the powers, but if anyone has specific questions about the powers I'll be happy to answer them as I go through the second part of the powers chapter: devices.
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Post by Probie Tim on Dec 19, 2016 8:20:43 GMT -8
I haven't forgotten about this; I underwent a minor surgical procedure last week and haven't had a chance to read or write much since.
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Post by Probie Tim on Jan 4, 2017 9:40:19 GMT -8
No, my "where I read" has not fallen off the face of the planet. My goal was to find a system with which I could run a low-powered supers game set in the world of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Doing this "where I read" for ICONS Assembled has really helped me to achieve that goal, but... not with ICONS Assembled. Instead, it's shown me how to run this game using one of my favorite systems of all time, my "go to" system, Fudge. While Fudge is to me as GURPS is to Stu, it has some problems when running supers - even low-powered supers - largely because of the adjective ladder and the "scale" mechanic. ICONS Assembled gave me great ideas on how to mitigate those issues. So instead of finishing up my "where I read", I've been working on a Fudge build for my AoS game. As I go over it, you might notice some similarities to Fate, as ICONS uses some very Fate-ish concepts. Basically, I'm ditching the adjective ladder completely - using numbers only - and I'm getting rid of the scale mechanic altogether. Larger and smaller numbers will denote differences in attribute and power abilities. So, for instance, I might have a Strength of +0 (the absolute human average), but Captain America would have a Strength of +9 or so. If I was arm wrasslin' Cap and rolled my absolute best (+4 on the dice, so +4 total) and he rolled his absolute worst (-4 on the dice for -5 total) he'd still beat me with a total result of +1. That makes sense. So! Here's a sample, beta-test-esque character for the build: drive.google.com/file/d/0B1uDpP8NyrImVmZoQUhRODBwdmc/view?usp=sharingName and Origin should be pretty self-explanatory, even if the story behind his "transformed" origin is not detailed. For these purposes it doesn't matter. A character's Secret is almost exactly a Trouble aspect from Fate. (As a quick aside, I'm not sure if I'm going to use a Fudge/Fate point system; the reliance on the Fate point economy is not one of my favorite bits of Fate. If I don't, I'll have some other similar mechanic for tapping into a character's Secret). ICONS has Qualities - which are pretty much Fate aspects - but I don't know if I'm going to use anything like that beyond the Secret. The attributes should be pretty simple - Prowess is fighting, Awareness is noticing things, etc. Attributes have specialties, however, and whenever a character makes an attribute roll where a specialty applies, they get +2 to the roll. So if Sam were to sit down and use a computer to investigate something, he'd get +2 on his Intellect roll. If he wanted to use a laptop to bash someone in the head, that wouldn't apply and he would not get +2 on his Prowess roll, heh. Down at the bottom of the sheet is a list showing how the various attribute levels relate to each other. Each character has one or more powers. These can be taken straight out of ICONS or styled after any similar source or other known power. For the test character I chose electrokinesis, a power I dug out of GURPS Psionics. Basically this power lets the user interface with computers and other electronics using their mind alone. Powers are rated using the same scale as attributes, which may seem odd: Sam has electrokinesis at +3 which is above average, but the average person doesn't have that. Instead it's referring to people who have electrokinesis or similar powers. So if Sam just... touches a computer, he has full access to it with a relative level of +3. Just as attributes have specialties, so to do powers have stunts. Very similar to Fate stunts, these stunts are common, frequently used applications of a given power. A stunt will grant a +2 to a power roll. As shown on the sheet, were Sam to shake your hand and you had your cellphone in your pocket or tablet in your backpack, he could try to access and get data from that device; he'd roll his electrokinesis and get +2 to the roll. So if he rolled a 0, -1, +1, +1, he'd have a total of +6 (+3 -1 +1 +1 +2 = +6). If the GM assigned a difficulty of +4, he'd have succeeded with a relative degree of +2. So, what's left? I have to come up with a taking damage mechanic. ICONS has a derived Stamina characteristic; every 2 points of success on a combat roll causes a loss of 1 point of Stamina. I may pull that in, or I may fall back to a more Fate/Fudge/Savage Worlds "wound" type thing. Also I need to fill out the rest of the benchmarks table, but that's not a big deal. Finally some quick decisions about stuff, and then I'm ready to give it a run-through. Whee! Fun!
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Post by Probie Tim on Jan 4, 2017 12:28:09 GMT -8
I have to come up with a taking damage mechanic. I don't want to deal with "hit points", so I am probably going to use some sort of a damage save/wound track mechanic. Something along the lines of making a roll against a difficulty at a penalty equal to the degree of success of the attack, with a failure giving you a wound. When you take a certain number of wounds, you're out. Something easy and quick to deal with.
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Post by Probie Tim on Jan 4, 2017 18:30:43 GMT -8
Very soon I'm going to be looking for a few play-testers, probably via G+ hangouts or something similar. If you'd like to take part, please let me know.
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Post by flyingjackelope on Jan 5, 2017 0:44:15 GMT -8
I volunteer as tribute
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