CCARPS Discussions on WizardSpire

Development

GwynWynn — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:51:20 -0400

Create generic content for game worlds to use in development of new adventures and campaigns. We need basic types for NPCs and Equipment. Post ideas in this thread so they can be balanced and added to the base game system Our goal is to have 3 to 5 varieties of each type.

Damage

GwynWynn — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 08:47:16 -0400

Damage:

The damage system is based on the ancient Greek’s beliefs regarding human existence, where a person was measured by the strength and health of their mind, body, and spirit. The optimal case would be to have all three in equal amounts such that they could be represented by an equilateral triangle. Dealing and taking damage is handled through a series of check boxes, ten boxes for each of the three types of damage. Damage is counted by checking a number of boxes equal to the amount of damage dealt starting at the damage level noted by the weapon’s damage type and rating, and all boxes below that level. If a character has already taken damage beyond the indicated level the new damage is counted by checking off boxes on the next available damage type until all the damage is applied. Damage levels are Light, Moderate, Heavy, and Deadly.

In CCARPS damage comes in three forms; Mental, Physical, and Spiritual. Damage is represented as a series of three connected bars of ten boxes each. Box ten on the mental bar is connected to box one on the Physical bar, and box ten on the physical bar is connected to box one on the Spiritual bar. Damage overload occurs when the normal damage bar for the given damage index is full, and more damage of the same type is dealt to a character. The overload damage is then applied to the next damage meter. When a character reaches 10 boxes of mental stun, that character will lose consciousness. Once a character is unconscious they no longer take mental damage, instead further mental damage would overflow into physical damage thereby increasing the characters physical damage count by the overflow amount. When a character takes deadly physical damage that character begins to die, any additional damage, mental, or physical, is applied to the spiritual damage meter. Any character that has taken spiritual damage beyond the first medium box cannot be revived without the intervention of magic, or a trauma surgeon. When a character takes deadly spiritual damage no amount of medicine or magic can revive that character. A character is “all dead” if all the spiritual boxes are marked, anything less than ten boxes of spiritual damage is only “mostly dead” as defined by Miracle Max -The Princess Bride. Damage comes from these primary sources, Stun/Shock/Bludgeoning, Cutting/Piercing, and Magical/Energy

Mental:

Mental damage, also known as stun, shock, or surprise, is caused by things like flash bombs, magical attacks, punch to the face, etc, and can lead to unconsciousness. Mental damage is what happens when the character is subjected to a stun effect. Stun effects can come from any of the three sources.

Physical:

Physical damage comes primarily from physical or magical/energy attacks but it can also be caused by mental damage overload.

Spiritual:

Spiritual damage is primarily caused by Magical/Energy attacks but it can come from Mental or Physical damage overload.

Damage Levels:

Light starts at the first box for the given damage type, Moderate starts at the third box for the given damage type, Heavy starts at the sixth box for the given damage type, and Deadly starts at the tenth box for the given damage type. When a character reaches the first box on a given meter that character will take a -1 penalty to all target numbers. At the third box the character takes a -2 to all target numbers. At the sixth box the character takes a -3 to all target numbers. These penalties are cumulative; if a character has registered three physical and six mental damage the total penalty will be -1 + -2 + -3 for the mental damage plus -1 + -2 for a total penalty of -9. These penalties will remain until the damage is healed below the given level. A player can roll a success test against the character's will attribute to temporarily negate one or more penalty points for a single action. On a success the player may ignore a number of points equal to the difference between the roll and the target number. The target number is 11 minus the total number of penalty points the character has accumulated. On a failure the character takes Light Stun damage

Collateral Damage:

In the case that a player misses an attack with a critical failure the GM rolls to hit all logically available targets, once for each possible target.

The roll is made on an inverted attack roll scale against the base target number with no modifier for skill or weapon bonuses.

Beginner: roll 5d6
Novice: roll 4d6
Advanced: roll 3d6
Master: roll 2d6

Damage Recovery

Mental stun heals over time; physical damage heals with medical attention; and spiritual damage requires an act of faith, affirmation, or belief to heal.
Mental stun recovery time is equal to ten minutes times the number of damage boxes checked in all three damage indicators. i.e.: Sum up the checked boxes from all three rows, multiply the result by 10 minutes. A character with five boxes of mental stun, two boxes of physical damage and one box of spiritual damage marked would add five, two, and one and multiply the result by ten for a total of 80 minutes. (5 + 2 + 1) * 10 = 80 minutes.
Physical damage can be healed by the application of first aid for the first three boxes, if and only if there are no more than three boxes of physical damage marked. If four to seven boxes are marked a field medic with a standard field medical kit can heal the character. If eight to ten boxes are marked the character will need to be treated by a doctor in a hospital or medical clinic. In any case the recovery time is ten hours times the number of damage boxes checked in all three damage indicators divided by the tech level of the character rendering aid.
Spiritual damage is the most difficult to heal. Each point of spiritual damage marked will require a number of hours spent in the act of meditating, praying, or otherwise feeding the soul or spirit to heal. The amount of time is equal to 24 hours times the number of spiritual damage boxes marked divided by the will modifier of the Priest/Shaman/Monk/Mentor assisting the character. The spiritual rebuilding exercise must be coordinated through the game master and must be in accordance with the character’s stated belief system.

Arcane Magic

cptmashek — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:44:50 -0400

Arcane magic is magic that manipulates the world and its energy around you, converting the energy into different forms. Arcane magic is generally taught through rigorous studies. Knife is a required skill for arcane magic along with reading and writhing in the magical languages. A silver knife often called an athame or ceremonial dagger is required in order to cast many spells, and is required for gathering certain spell catalysts and components, as well as being the focus-point for many spells. The base attributes used for Arcane magic are Constitution and Intelligence. Arcane magic has three basic skill prerequisites: reading and writing directly influence how well you can learn magic, and your knife skill influences the strength of your spell components and catalysts.

Arcane Magic has four degrees of difficulty:

Easy (base target number = 8)
Medium (base target number = 4)
Hard (base target number = 0)
Extreme (base target number = -4)

Arcane Magic Spells consist of three parts:

canolbwyntio: A spoken incantation to concentrate or focus the thoughts on the spell.
drosi: A ritual to convert the catalyst or components to magical energy.
sianel: A physical action to channel magical energy through the body to the target.

Arcane magic has five domains:

bywyd: Life
môr: Sea
awyr: Sky
tir: Land
marwolaeth: Death

Character Creation - Prestige, Prejudice, and Oddity

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:58:23 -0400

Prestige, Prejudice, and Oddity

These may only be taken at character creation; however, characters may acquire new ones or outgrow old ones through GM interaction or through the Chance Card system. They are used to gain advantages and to make trade offs to provide flexibility and role play interest in character options, or to add "character" to your character.

Prestige will give positive effects to your roll such as increasing your target numbers in success tests or adding modifier dice.

Prejudice will bring negative effects to your character and therefore cost negative points to acquire, by taking a prejudice you can add points to your total to be spent on Prestige, oddities, or skills. It is suggested that the GM limit the number of points a character can gain from Prejudices to 25% of the original starting points. This suggestion comes from the tendency of players to take too many, or conflicting prejudices and have serious difficulty role playing them all.

Oddities are just that, they can enhance your character in some situations and detract from it in others. Generally they are less noticeable than Prestige and Prejudice, but serve to create the same effects.

Wealth and Influence

Wealth is a measure of a characters accumulation of material value, including things such as property (home, car, horses), finery (cloths, tools, weapons), and currency. Depending on where your character is on the scale and the current company your character is keeping it could be any one of the three; Prestige, Prejudice, or Oddity.

Influence is measured by the number of people you have in your contact list, and the quality of the contact relationship eg. a low quality contact will accept your call and listen to your request, they may even provide information if asked the right question but the information has a 50% chance of being inaccurate. An average contact is like a good friend, you can trust them to tell you what they know but they have limited access to high level information. A high quality contact will have good access to information and be trustworthy and reliable.

Wealth and influence are considered to be Prestige, or Prejudice depending on the extreme to which your character is subject. For average wealth and influence there is no modifier and it can be taken for free. If wealth or influence are undefined at character creation they are considered to be average. Ask the Game Master for average currency and/or material, and connection values. The starting wealth is more a statement of the character’s upbringing than the character’s current status. The point gain or loss is meant to represent the character’s perception of wealth and his or her ability to move in social circles. A person who was raised filthy rich would stand out like a sore thumb on skid row, just as a dirt poor person would at a country club.

Status Point Cost Table

Filthy Rich: 25
Upper Class: 15
Middle Class: 0
Lower Class: -15
Dirt Poor: -25

Attribute and Skill Modifier Table

GwynWynn — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:08:02 -0400

Attribute and Skill Modifier Table

The following table shows the level requirements for attribute and skill modifiers, as well as skill dice modifiers (always roll 2d6 for success tests against attributes and beginner level skills).

Level	Modifier	Skill Dice
----------------	----------------	----------------
1	+1
2	+1
3	+2
4
5
6	+3	+1d6 Novice
7
8
9
10	+4
11
12		+2d6 Advanced
13
14
15	+5
16
17
18		+3d6 Master
19
20
21	+6
22
23
24
25
26
27
28	+7
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36	+8

(see making success tests in the Basic Rules section for more information)

Character Creation - Skills

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:59:05 -0400

Skills

Skills determine what your character can do as well as what they know. Adding one point to a skill is the equivalent of the character experimenting with new ideas, or reading a basic instruction manual, or taking an introductory lesson from one who knows the skill at an advanced level (or higher). This gives the character the ability to use the skill with no special proficiency. Before a character can attempt to use a skill they must apply at least one point to it.

Each skill will have an attribute associated with it. These attributes are skill requirements; no skill may have a modifier that is higher than the associated attribute modifier, e.g. if your Intelligence modifier is +2, you cannot have your Reading skill modifier any higher than +2.

Skills come in three types: Natural, Knowledge, and Martial

Natural Skills are the skills that can only be learned through practice and experiment. Things like walking and running are simple natural skills, Wild Magic is an example of a difficult natural skill.

Knowledge Skills are skills that can be learned from a book. Such as, Particle Physics, reading, and writing.

Martial Skills like Karate, Archery, or wood carving must be learned from a teacher.

These learning limits only apply to the first level of the skill once a character has the basic concepts further learning can be done without the assistance of the trainer or books.

Use the Skills and Attributes Modifier Table to find your skill level modifier and skill dice modifier for a given skill.

Improving Your Character

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:48:54 -0400

Improving Your Character

Adventure points are earned through adventuring. As a general rule, each player earns one point for each session that they actively role-play in, and one point for a critical success to the skill or attribute used in that test. Further points can be earned at GM discretion by; performing an action that directly furthers the plot, rolling a critical success on a plot related action, performing an action that helps the group at great risk to self, remaining in character when there is great pressure to break down the fourth wall, etc. each of the aforementioned actions earns one point for the character. Team points can be awarded at GM discretion in cases where the team makes a deliberate, unprovoked effort to coordinate their actions to further the plot.

Point assignment: Points must be assigned at the time they are given. Points cannot be stored up, at the beginning of any session where a character has unassigned points, those points must be assigned to an accumulator before play begins.

Adventure points can be spent on primary attributes and/or skills. To increase an attribute modifier by one point a player must spend an amount of points equal to the current score of the attribute plus one. Example: Bob the bouncer has Strength level of 3 giving him a strength modifier of +2, to increase this modifier to +3 he will put 3 more points into the attribute for strength for a total of 6. When the attribute level reaches the next target number (6), increment the attribute modifier and recalculate secondary attributes. Once points are assigned to an accumulator for an attribute or skill they may not be moved or re-assigned. Skills can be increased by applying points to the skill accumulator for a desired skill, modifiers increase on the same scale as attribute modifiers, characters also get die bonuses which are applied at level 6 for Novice +1d, 18 for Advanced +2d, and 36 for Master +3d.

Example: Bob the bouncer has a brawling skill of 6 this gives him a 1d6 advantage when brawling he rolls 3d6 and counts the two lowest dice, he wants to gain a 2d6 advantage so that he can roll 4d6 and count the two lowest dice. Bob will have to spend 12 points on his brawling skill bringing the total skill points to 18 if Bob wants to be a Master Brawler he would have to add an additional 18 points to his brawling skill for a total of 36 points add a 3d6 advantage allowing him to roll 5d6 and count the lowest two dice. The maximum points one can apply to any attribute or skill is 36. New skills can be added to your character at any time during play but they must be built up through the levels as points are added. Example: Bob the bouncer wants to add martial arts to his skill list to gain a block/parry advantage to his fighting skills. At the end of the session he has earned 3 adventure points, Bob can spend points to add the chosen skill to his list of skills.

Character Creation - Attributes

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:46:17 -0400

Attributes

There are two types of attributes: Primary, and Secondary. During character creation a player will place points into each of the five primary attributes. No character may start with any attribute above level 16 without GM permission. level 10 is considered average for human skill level. For example: an intelligence score of 10 is equal to a character having a 100 IQ. Secondary attributes are those qualities that are influenced by more than one attribute these attributes are calculated as the average of two or more attributes. Take Charisma for example, Charisma is influenced by a character's intelligence, constitution, and willpower and is calculated as the average of the three rounded down. Every time a primary attribute is increased the associated secondary attributes should be recalculated. When rolling a success test against an attribute add the attribute modifier to the target number. To find the attribute modifier use the Attribute and Skill Modifier Table. For attribute success tests always use two dice.

Primary Attributes

There are five primary attributes:

STR = Strength: The measure of physical power and energy
DEX = Dexterity: The measure of skill and grace in physical movement
CON = Constitution: The physical character of the body as to strength, health, etc.
INT = Intelligence: The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
W/P = Willpower: The ability to control of one's impulses and actions; self-control.

The primary attributes are based on a Human character for other races like Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Troll, Gnome, etc. refer to the world module that your group is using.

Secondary Attributes

Charisma: compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.
Speed: rapidity of movement or action.
Reflex: an action that is performed without conscious thought in response to stimulus.
lift: the ability to alter the motion or position of a body or object.
Perception: the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Secondary Attribute Calculation Table

CHA: Charisma = (C+I+W) / 3
SPD: Speed = (S+D) / 2
RFX: Reflex = (S+D+W) / 3
LFT: lift = (S+C) / 2
PER: Perception = (I+W) / 2

Secondary attributes always round down. 5.9 = 5

Character Creation - Starting Points

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:43:43 -0400

Starting Points

There are two options for starting points:
Option A, GM assigns points according to the suggested minimum values below. (This option homogenizes the group and allows for quicker character creation)
Option B, Players roll dice to determine the starting points. (I find that this method creates more diversity within the group but it will take longer to roll up characters. Use this option when the group has plenty of time to get started. This option works better when the adventure is in progress and a character has died, the player can take all the time he or she needs to build the replacement character.)

Beginner: roll five sets of d6 according to the age specific table below.(Average See Table)
Novice; must be over 21 yrs of age; roll five sets of d6 re-roll all ones (Average of 80 points).
Advanced; must be over 21 yrs of age; roll six sets of d6 according to the age specific table (Average of 90 points).
Heroic; must be over 21 yrs of age; roll six sets of 5d6 re-roll all ones (Average of 100 points).
Epic characters eg. Beowulf, must be over 21 yrs of age; roll eight sets of 5d6 (Average of 130 points ).
Legendary characters eg. Hercules, must be over 21 yrs of age; roll ten sets of 5d6 (Average of 150 points).

Age in Years and number of d6 per set:

21+: 5d6 (Average: 75pts)
16-20: 4d6 (Average: 60pts)
11-15: 3d6 (Average: 45pts)
6-10: 2d6 (Average: 30pts)
< 6: 1d6 (Average: 15pts)

Optional Rules

GwynWynn — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:39:21 -0400

Chance Cards

Chance cards are used to create interesting role-play opportunities. During play when a character rolls a critical failure a chance card is given to the player. Chance cards can have positive and negative effects. like a critical fumble that costs the team the game, or the happy accident that helps the doctor to find the cure he was looking for. Chance cards can be very generic or they can be created to match or enhance the adventure.

Bestiary

cptmashek — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:40:55 -0400

Beasts

Beasts and Critters are common in most worlds.
These are just some examples to help you develop your world:

Name	Size	Strength	Damage	Perception	Reflex
---------------	---------------	---------------	---------------	---------------	---------------
Bat	tiny	+1	(STR)LM	+7	+7
Badger	small	+2	(STR)LM	+2	+5
Wolf	medium	+3	(STR)LP	+7	+3
Lion	large	+3	(STR)LP	+5	+2
Bear	giant	+5	(STR)MP	+3	+1

(the following content should be moved to a CCARPS world discussion.)
This list does not contain the usual animals such as deer, bears, etc.
Gremlin
Wyvern
Amphiptere
Kraken
Merfolk
Bonnacon
Harpie
Yppotryll

Magical

Dragons

Aetheric

Cerreler Machine Elves

Clockwork

Clockwork Spiders
Steam Monkeys
Acolytes

Wild Magic

GwynWynn — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:17:04 -0400

Wild magic is the type of magic that is spontaneous in nature. Some creatures are born with an innate ability to tap into the magic around them without any formal training. These beings have a way of feeling or sensing magical things and can channel magical energies. Don't ask them how they do it or where they learned it, they'll say that they just do things and stuff happens. The base attribute for wild magic is charisma, since charisma is a secondary attribute it cannot be increased directly. As was stated earlier there is no formal training available for wild magic, that means that in essence any character with a charisma modifier above 0 can try to use wild magic. For a character to be able to perform wild magic the character must believe that it will work. However, there are no spells to learn so the character will need to imagine what they want to happen and believe it into existence. That means that on the first attempt the character must succeed or that character will have doubt and will never be able to channel magical energies. How the spell works is under GM control the player must describe the intended outcome and the GM will interpret the meaning and effect of the magic to the best of his or her abilities as it pertains to the situation. Remember that the standard laws of magic apply. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed it can only be transformed. a magic user can never believe something out of existence in the best case an attempt to do so will fail in the worst case the magic user will cause a catastrophic implosion at his location and will be atomized. Target numbers begin around 4 and decrease very sharply as the difficulty of an action increases (see Wild Magic chart). A critical success will always work exactly as the character envisioned it. When a character makes the first attempt add the skill Wild Magic to the character sheet if the attempt is a success set wild magic at level one and treat is just like any other skill, if the character fails set wild magic level to none that character will never be able to advance the level of the wild magic skill. On the first attempt a character will roll two dice against the target number plus the characters charisma modifier. If successful, every roll after that will be made against the target number plus charisma modifier plus skill modifier.

Difficulty	Target
------------------------	-----------------
Simple	+2
Easy	0
Moderate	-2
Hard	-4
Extreme	-8
Inconceivable	-16

(GM / World Builder Note: For low magic worlds we suggest using wild magic as the only magic and setting a Critical success rule to acquire the skill. in non magic worlds omit all three types of magic.)

Spiritual Magic

Dakroker — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 19:35:26 -0400

Spiritual magic is magic that manipulates a different form or plane of energy to the users will. Spiritual magic is only taught by those who know it. The base attributes used for Spiritual magic are Constitution and Will. Spiritual magic has a base Knowledge Skill that is required to be known before the user can even try the following Spiritual Skills. After learning this Knowledge Skill, one may not learn any of the Spiritual Skills past the level equivalent to the Knowledge Skill.

Using Spiritual magic skills is split into four difficulties that have different base target numbers to roll against. "Easy" is the highest base target number of 9. "Medium" is 6. "Hard" is the hardest possible difficulty without any modifiers added to the roll at base target number 3. "Extreme" is only possible with at least a plus two to target number as it is at 0.

Tech Levels

cptmashek — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 12:10:01 -0400

A character's technology level helps define level adjustments and target numbers when interacting with any technology from a basic tool like a club or lever to a super computer on an inter-dimensional time machine. Use the list below to determine target numbers. A general rule is to add the tech level difference to the target number if the technology is at a lower level than the character's tech level and subtract from the target number if the technology is at a higher level.

Level	Technology / Age
----------	--------------------------
00	Instinct
01	Stone
02	Bronze
03	Iron
04	Historical
05	Enlightenment
06	Industrial
07	Mechanic/Edwardian
08	Atomic
09	Space
10	Information
11	Cognitive
12	Genetic
13	Stellar Expansion
14	Nanotechnology
15	Terraform
16	Quantum
17	Faster Than Light
18	Galactic Expansion
19	Temporal
20	Ascension

Combat

GwynWynn — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:57:52 -0400

Combat:

The act of combat is represented as a series of skill tests. The attacker makes a success test against the related skill or attribute plus any attack modifiers. On success, the attacker rolls for damage, and stages up the damage using the difference between the target number and the damage roll to push the damage level higher. Finally, the defender gets an opportunity to block, dodge, or parry the attack by making a success test against his or her reaction, plus any related skill modifiers, plus any defensive modifiers from armor and stages the damage down using the difference between the target number and the defense roll to push the damage down.

Combat Sequence:

Step 1: Attacker rolls against the target number + the skill modifier + any weapon modifiers.
Step 2: On success, attacker rolls for damage. Roll under the related attribute score if any, or under the weapon's damage modifier, plus the related skill modifier. Then, subtract the roll from the target number. (Damage rolls always use 2 dice. attribute/modifier + Skill Modifier - roll = adjustment to damage) For every five staging points the attacker can push the damage level up one level. If the staging number is less than or equal to zero then damage is at the weapon's base level.
Step 3: The defender makes a success test against their chosen defensive skill. The difference between the roll and the target number plus any armor bonuses can be used to reduce the damage level of the attack, for every five points of the difference the defender can reduce the damage by one level. If damage is reduced below light then no damage is recorded.

Melee Example:

A character, having a hand-to-hand combat skill at level 6 (first novice level), wants to punch another character. The defender has an opportunity to react with a block, dodge, or parry depending on the choice of available defense skills. The attacker's target number to succeed in hitting the opponent is 5 for a moderately difficult task, plus the skill modifier for the attack skill used, plus any attack modifiers on the weapon used. In this case Base is 5 level modifier is +3 based on a level 6 hand to hand skill, + 0 for bare knuckles, (Target : 5 + 3 + 0 = 8) The attacking player rolls 3d6 with values 1, 3, and 6 then he or she sums the two lowest values (1 and 3) to get his or her chance of success (4). In this case the attack succeeds because the attack success of 4 is lower than the target number. Now that the attacker has successfully executed his or her attack he or she must roll for damage. A bare knuckle attack carries a damage index of [STR]LM so the attacker must roll against a target number equal to his or her strength modifier, plus the skill modifier for the attack, then subtract the roll from the target number and apply the resulting number to damage staging points and use them to stage the damage up. Critical rolls do not apply to damage rolls, It the attack roll was a critical success the final damage staging number is doubled. Our attacker has a modified strength of 7 and rolls two dice producing a 3 and a 2 for a total of 5 then he or she subtracts that score from the target number 7 leaving 2 points for staging. Each staging level costs 5 points so the attacker will not be able to increase the damage beyond Light Mental (stun) [LM]. At this point the defender can make a success test to dodge the punch. The defender's target number is his or her reaction modifier based on his or her modified reaction score, plus any related defensive modifiers for the skill used to defend against the attack plus any armor modifiers. The defender, in this case, has a modified reaction of 12 providing a modifier of +4 and is wearing type II body armor that provides a damage resistance modifier of +4 against bludgeoning, and has a hand to hand skill at level 3 which gives him a modifier of +2 to dodge. The defender's target number would be Reaction 4 + Armor 4 + Dodge 2 for a total of 10. The defender rolls two dice for his or her hand to hand skill and gets a 1 and a 4 then adds the two dice (5) and subtracts the result from the target number (5 - 10 = 5) then uses the remaining points to stage the damage down. In this case the defender can use all 5 points to stage the damage down one level below LM. Since Light Mental is as low as the mental damage (stun) can go the defender marks 0 boxes on the damage meter and takes no damage penalties.

Character Creation

cptmashek — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:42:06 -0400

What is a character?

Think of a role play character the same way you would a movie character. The only differences are that you play the roll of your character and the script is unfinished, the story may be there but the details and character interactions are up to you to determine through a series of conversations and dice rolls. So be creative, but don't get too attached to your character. Since the story details are not yet written you cant count on your character playing a lead role. He or she may become the plot motivator by becoming a martyr to further the story line and thicken the plot. Finally you should create a character that is interesting and works to further the goals of the group. As an example: if the group has a thief character you may want to create a wizard or fighter to add a variety of skills to the group so that your group can have a greater chance of success in different situations.

Character Appearance

The appearance of a given character is mostly up to the player; however, it is a good idea to use character attributes as guidelines.

Example: The range of possible values is 1 to 36 for an adult aged character (over 21). Armed with this information, just as we would consider a person with an intelligence of 1 to be an imbecile, we would consider a person with a 1 in charisma to be repulsive. Therefore, it would be unusual for a good looking character to have a low charisma unless he or she had a detriment that modifies charisma such as “evil spirited” which will give a -15 to charisma. As for the stature of a character, that is up to the player and should be consistant with the norm of the world you are playing in. GM Note: feel free to add in any race or body type you feel would enhance your world. You are welcome to add alternate races to enhance your world, but such consideration is not required. You are the God of your world after all.

Character Background

This is pretty much open to the players creativity. Background story can go a long way toward identifying a character’s habits of mind, body, and spirit. This can aid the player in making good believable decisions and greatly enhance the role play experience as well as add to the group dynamics. So put some thought into this part, make it interesting and be creative. Prestige, Prejudice, and oddities can go a long way to help with good back story.

Starting Points

Attributes

Prestige, Prejudice, and Oddities

Skills

Chance Cards

cptmashek — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:33:55 -0400

Chance cards are used to create interesting role-play opportunities. During play when a character rolls a critical failure a chance card would be given to the player, chance cards can have positive and negative effects. Typically each card would have a success option and a failure option. Another example is the “Plot Twist” card which generally follows the existing plot but throws in a clue or a bit of disinformation or an odd requirement like “this situation must be solved with an explosion.” Most often the GM will put these together as the adventure is being built so that they will fit with the adventure.

Basic Rules

cptmashek — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:32:23 -0400

Dice System

CCARPS uses a d6 system that utilizes five six-sided dice throughout the game. A player rolls a number of dice between two and five in an attempt to roll the lowest possible score. Success tests are based on the two lowest dice in any given roll. A player must roll under the target number to succeed (roll < target number). Success rolls are required for Perception checks, Combat actions ( Attack, Parry, Block, and Dodge), Skill tests, and Attribute tests.

Success Tests

Any time your character interacts with another character in the game either a player character (PC) or a Non-Player Character (NPC) your Game Master (GM) may ask you to make a success test. Success tests are used when a player character tries to influence or effect another character or object in the game world. To make a success test against an attribute roll two dice against the target number if the sum of your rill is less than the target number you character succeeds in whatever was attempted. Target numbers are based on the difficulty of the action and modified by the conditions under which the character must work to perform the action. For example: walking down stairs would have a base target number of 12, which means anything better than a critical failure will work. However; if that stairway is filled with Christmas shoppers going up the stairs to get to the HTS (Hot Toy of the Season) it would be much more difficult to get back down the stairs with your copy of the HTS so to think about this base walk down stairs 12, crowd of shoppers coming up stairs -5 (12-5=7), trying to hide the HTS wile walking through -3 (7-3=4) as you can see it is getting very difficult very fast you would need to roll under 4, so only a 2 or a 3 would ensure your success, that is two chances in ten that you will get down the stairs with the your Hot Toy of the Season unnoticed. Maybe the elevator would be a better choice, atleast there all you need to do is hid the toy while standing still.

Critical Rolls

Critical success is any roll where all the dice in a given test land on 1, a critical failure is any roll where all the dice in a given roll land on 6. On any critical fail a player character may draw a chance card (see optional rules), On a critical success a player may, depending on the situation, gain one character point or improve the attempted skill or linked attribute.
Reaction: A reaction can be anything from a block to a dodge or even a counter attack depending on the character’s skills and abilities.