Updates for Moment of Truth -- the final stretch?
Sept 10, 2015 9:33:35 GMT -8
Post by Stu Venable on Sept 10, 2015 9:33:35 GMT -8
This is copied from the angryfolk.com/mot page
I was able to run a couple of very combat heavy one-shots at Gateway 2015, and it really solidified some the need for some changes to the system. One involves combat damage and the other involves the Moment of Truth dramatic reward mechanic.
Combat and Damage
One of my major design goals with Moment of Truth is for combat to resolve very quickly -- within two or three combat rounds if possible. I did this mainly by making the combat system very deadly. One or two hits by most weapons will drop most unarmored character.
This had one intended consequence and one unintended consequence. As predicted, the players (especially in campaigns, where this is some attachment to their character) tend to avoid combat.
However, I discovered when the party was confronted with an unavoidable combat, indecisiveness and stalling tend to cause combat to burn up more time (thus defeating the purpose of deadly, decisive combats).
Additionally, I found that hits that I felt should take a character or NPC out of the fight didn't. And several times, players asked to perform combat maneuvers that the system was not designed to handle.
This resulted in a major overhaul of the damage system.
Characters still have a pool of hit points determined in the same way as previous revisions, but this damage is handled differently.
Rather than a dice pool penalty track, there are now only two levels where character effectiveness takes a penalty: after 1/3 hit points and after 2/3 hit points -- giving a -1d6 and -2d6 penalty respectively.
I've also added a rule that if you take damage equal to more than half of a character's total hit points, the character must make a roll or fall unconscious (from shock, etc). While not killing the character, it will take the character out of combat quickly, allowing for a quick result.
The biggest change is to the damage mechanic. Like World of Darkness and HERO, MoT now had two different types of damage, called minor and serious for now).
Both of these types of damage affect your hit points pool the same -- all penalty thresholds can be reached with either, you can get knocked out by taking more than half your HP with either and taking twice your HP with either will kill you.
The only difference between them is the rate at which they heal. Healing rolls for minor damage are made every hour, while healing rolls for serious damage happen only daily.
Damage is now rolled with a dice pool. For melee weapons the dice pool is made up of Strength plus your Skill Level plus bonus dice for the weapon.
Reading damage is more complicated than I hoped, but I think with a properly completed character sheet it won't slow the game.
Every weapon will have target numbers for both minor and serious damage. For example, a stick might have a minor target number of 5 and a serious target number of 6 -- meaning minor damage is inflicted with 5s and serious damage with 6s.
A club might have a minor number of 4 and a serious number of 6, meaning the weapon won't cause more serious damage than the stick, but will cause more minor damage.
These two numbers move depending on the weapon type and its ability to inflict damage. Edge weapons have a lower serious number (5).
Fire arms add your Skill Level plus a (much larger) pool of bonus dice. They also have lower minor and serious damage numbers. The fabled sniper rifle, for example has a minor number of 2 and a serious number of 3.
I've also added rules for called shots (to aim for the head, to disarm, to disable, etc). These rules generally require more success to hit, and have damage thresholds for the desired effect (head shots increase the damage dice pool and change the damage numbers as well -- don't get hit in the head).
Moment of Truth and Dramatic Rewards
It's hard to entice players to embrace failure to gain a MoT. This is true in one-shots especially, but also in campaigns.
To fix this I've done two things: I have devalued MoTs and I've introduced a "success with complication" mechanic.
If you gain a success, the GM can offer you a MoT if you take a complication with it. You can also elect to fail, elect to roll but accept any failure as a critical failure. You can also gain MoTs under some circumstances in combat (this is also new).
You can use a MoT for a +1d6 bounus, and you can use as many MoTs as you have for any roll you have to make.
If you roll the "success with a complication" you can buy off the complication with a MoT.
I'm still brainstorming for other ways to gain MoTs. I'd rather not use them as rewards for good role-playing, making the GM laugh, etc. I want them to be rewards for contributions to the story, not for being witty.
When Will It Be Out
I'm still putting the revisions in the book. The book is mostly laid out, though I need to redo the tables -- they look terrible. I would guess it will be out for a final round of playtesting before Christmas.
I was able to run a couple of very combat heavy one-shots at Gateway 2015, and it really solidified some the need for some changes to the system. One involves combat damage and the other involves the Moment of Truth dramatic reward mechanic.
Combat and Damage
One of my major design goals with Moment of Truth is for combat to resolve very quickly -- within two or three combat rounds if possible. I did this mainly by making the combat system very deadly. One or two hits by most weapons will drop most unarmored character.
This had one intended consequence and one unintended consequence. As predicted, the players (especially in campaigns, where this is some attachment to their character) tend to avoid combat.
However, I discovered when the party was confronted with an unavoidable combat, indecisiveness and stalling tend to cause combat to burn up more time (thus defeating the purpose of deadly, decisive combats).
Additionally, I found that hits that I felt should take a character or NPC out of the fight didn't. And several times, players asked to perform combat maneuvers that the system was not designed to handle.
This resulted in a major overhaul of the damage system.
Characters still have a pool of hit points determined in the same way as previous revisions, but this damage is handled differently.
Rather than a dice pool penalty track, there are now only two levels where character effectiveness takes a penalty: after 1/3 hit points and after 2/3 hit points -- giving a -1d6 and -2d6 penalty respectively.
I've also added a rule that if you take damage equal to more than half of a character's total hit points, the character must make a roll or fall unconscious (from shock, etc). While not killing the character, it will take the character out of combat quickly, allowing for a quick result.
The biggest change is to the damage mechanic. Like World of Darkness and HERO, MoT now had two different types of damage, called minor and serious for now).
Both of these types of damage affect your hit points pool the same -- all penalty thresholds can be reached with either, you can get knocked out by taking more than half your HP with either and taking twice your HP with either will kill you.
The only difference between them is the rate at which they heal. Healing rolls for minor damage are made every hour, while healing rolls for serious damage happen only daily.
Damage is now rolled with a dice pool. For melee weapons the dice pool is made up of Strength plus your Skill Level plus bonus dice for the weapon.
Reading damage is more complicated than I hoped, but I think with a properly completed character sheet it won't slow the game.
Every weapon will have target numbers for both minor and serious damage. For example, a stick might have a minor target number of 5 and a serious target number of 6 -- meaning minor damage is inflicted with 5s and serious damage with 6s.
A club might have a minor number of 4 and a serious number of 6, meaning the weapon won't cause more serious damage than the stick, but will cause more minor damage.
These two numbers move depending on the weapon type and its ability to inflict damage. Edge weapons have a lower serious number (5).
Fire arms add your Skill Level plus a (much larger) pool of bonus dice. They also have lower minor and serious damage numbers. The fabled sniper rifle, for example has a minor number of 2 and a serious number of 3.
I've also added rules for called shots (to aim for the head, to disarm, to disable, etc). These rules generally require more success to hit, and have damage thresholds for the desired effect (head shots increase the damage dice pool and change the damage numbers as well -- don't get hit in the head).
Moment of Truth and Dramatic Rewards
It's hard to entice players to embrace failure to gain a MoT. This is true in one-shots especially, but also in campaigns.
To fix this I've done two things: I have devalued MoTs and I've introduced a "success with complication" mechanic.
If you gain a success, the GM can offer you a MoT if you take a complication with it. You can also elect to fail, elect to roll but accept any failure as a critical failure. You can also gain MoTs under some circumstances in combat (this is also new).
You can use a MoT for a +1d6 bounus, and you can use as many MoTs as you have for any roll you have to make.
If you roll the "success with a complication" you can buy off the complication with a MoT.
I'm still brainstorming for other ways to gain MoTs. I'd rather not use them as rewards for good role-playing, making the GM laugh, etc. I want them to be rewards for contributions to the story, not for being witty.
When Will It Be Out
I'm still putting the revisions in the book. The book is mostly laid out, though I need to redo the tables -- they look terrible. I would guess it will be out for a final round of playtesting before Christmas.