Basic Die Mechanics

One of the annoying things about many games is the unusually difficult or bizarrely set up die mechanics (In Nomine and Babylon 5 for example). To that end I have decided to go with a percentile die mechanic for everything except damage. All skills have a 3% (01% - 03%) critical success and a 3% (98% - 100%) critical failure zone. If the player's percentile die roll is equal to or lower than the character's Skill Rating the challenge succeeds.

Melee damage on the other hand, is based on one of the character's physical attributes (divided by 10) with a modifier due to the weapon's effects. An axe inflicts more damage than a sword for example (if swung by the same person), as is muscle powered ranged weapons (i.e. spears, arrows, thrown knives).

Ranged weapons inflict an amount of damage that always falls within a set range. That range is described by the number of dice (D) that the weapon inflicts in damage (i.e. 2D, 6D). Sometimes a weapon will have a modifier that follows the damage code (i.e. 2D-2, 6D+5).

Most weapons, if a critical hit is made, will inflict maximum damage. A few weapons inflict an even more serious wound, inflicting and a number of damage rolls in addition to the maximum damage.

One last note. Some weapons are non-lethal in nature, and some characters have equipment and skills that allow them to reduce the effectiveness of damage. In these cases damage is referred to as injurious and only inflicts Injury damage and not Wound damage.

Skills I

What are skills?


Skills are how critical events are resolved. A critical event is one in which the lives or health of the protagonists hang in the balance or one which represents a dramatic turning point for the story. Can our hero dodge the incoming fire, or can the unskilled human activate the FTL jump sequence on an unfamiliar starship before the pirates can complete their boarding action? These are the sort of situations in which skill rolls are made. Bob driving to the market to buy radishes is not (unless bob dosen't know how to drive and suffers a seinior moment).


How do skills work?

A character's Skill Rating is the sum of his knowledge, intuitive ability, training and native tallent. Skills may total up to 200%. When a challenge occurrs, the player rolls a percentile die and the Game Director may modify it to account for especialy easy or difficult circumstances, substandard or masterwork equipment or unfamiliar systems. The modification takes the form of a + or - to the ROLL a player makes (remember high is bad, low is good). the player then compares the modified roll to his Skill Rating and if it is lower or equal to the Rating, he suceeds. Critical (01-03%) sucesses allways suceed, no mater what the situation.

Learning new skills.

During character creation there are two groups of skills that a character automaticaly has access to; Species Skills and Societal Skills. Species skills include things that are a part of the species' inate abilities (like Balancing and Climbing in humans or Shifting and Psychic Ability in the Xe'phandi and the native language for each species respectively) and are learned as a part of growing up.

Societal skills are the skills that one learns as a product of growing up in your society. These skills are affected greatly by the Technology level of your planet. TL 10 human Societal Skills include; Drive: Automobile, Craft: Food, Unarmed and Knowledge: Mathematics.

Background skills are aquired from the character's background, wich include school or technical training, military training and any careers the character may have had prior to begining play. The background section details how many points and what skill selections may be taken.

While the lists of Species, Background and Societal skills varies from planet to planet, and species to species, the number of point available for the starting skill of remains the same (relatively). The average of a character's Agility, Cleverness and Insight, result in the number of points that are available to be placed in the Starting category of the character's inital skills.

Once play has begun, a new skill may be purchased for a one time cost of (100 - the cleverness secondary) in experience points. This requires the character to find a trainer to educate her in the basics of the skill, and requires 1 day for every point of experience required to learn the new skill. This results in the character gaining 1D worth of points in the starting column of the apropriate skill.

Increasing skill ratings.

Whenever a character uses a skill, either sucessfully or unsucessfully, he places a tickmark next to it. At the end of the scene, the player rolls %D verses the charcter's skill rating. If the roll is greater than the rating, the player may add 1D% to the skill (in the experience column). If the roll is equal to or lower than the skill rating, he has learned nothing new, and does not increase his skill.

Alternatively, the player may pay an experience point cost equal to the current rating +1 to increase the skill rating by 1 point. This increase takes effect in a number of days equal to the experience point cost.

As you can see, it becomes increasingly difficult (and expensive) to increase one's skill the better you get.

Category skills vs. specific skills

Some skills are category skills. That is, all of the skills that fall under that category are governed by it. Someone with training in piloting, understands the basic principles needed to steer both sail boats and motor boats. The character's skill in a category skill may never exceed the lowest skill rating of the lowest rated skill a character is trained in, in that category.

Some category skills are listed as such only because they belong to no other catgory. Examples of these skills include Psychic Ability and Mental Focus.

Some skills are sub-category skills, and are the category skill for a group of skills that also fall under a broader category. An example is Knowledge: Planetology: Specific Planet.

The Scattered Stars Google Group

I've begun a Scattered Stars Google Group. Membership is invite only, but anyone can read the files and discussions. Head on over, the latest character sheets are up!

The Great Metarules of the Galaxy

I have decided to start this off by talking about some of the metarules that govern RPGs. I call them the Great Metarules of the Galaxy (big surprise, right). There are three metarules that govern how an RPG should be played and run.

• The Golden Metarule: Have fun, even if the rules must suffer.
• The Silver Metarule: The Game Director is right, even if the rules say otherwise.
• The Bronze Metarule: Big rules are guidelines, small rules are the Law.

These three metarules exist not to restrict either the players or the GD, but to make the gameplay smoother and to help the story flow naturally. Lets discuss them a bit.

The Golden Metarule

Have fun, even if the rules must suffer.

This metarule is really intended for the Game Director. Sometimes even the best thought out rule becomes unwieldy due to the players preferred style of play or the GDs direction technique. If a rule impedes play, tweak it, or remove it completely (assuming that it's not part of the central mechanic). The rules I have developed are intended to model physics in a fairly realistic fashion (NOTE: I do not claim to duplicate the physical realities of our universe exactly, what hubris that would be) but if the blind action combat rule slows play, or the players find it makes for un-fun play, get rid of it, and use something else.

The Silver Metarule

The game director is right, even if the rules say otherwise.

This metarule, on the other hand, is intended primarily for the players. Sometimes the GD wants a scene to work in a certain way or an encounter needs to function in a slightly more cinematic fashion than the rules would normally allow. If the GD needs to bend the rules to make an enjoyable game or an especially dramatic scene, don't worry about the rules, worry about the story. Besides, nobody likes a rules lawyer.

The Bronze Metarule

Big rules are guidelines, small rules are the Law.

This metarule is intended for everybody. Because of the tremendous amount of situations and events that can occur when a story is written by half a dozen people (directors and players) instead of just one person, there are some very broad generalized rules that are intended to act as guidelines for players and Game Directors alike. But there are certain times,when a specific situation has a rule that runs counter to the guideline, or a certain planet's physics deviate from the norm that you must remember the Bronze Metarule. the rules that govern specific situations, are always more important than the sweeping rules that are intended for general use.

By remembering these three metarules, all of the troupe (directors and players alike) will have a good time, and a smooth game.

Welcome to the Galaxy

Welcome to the official blog of The Scattered Stars RPG. I intend to post some excerpts and geralities from the game (as I get them done) with the hopes of gathering some ongoing criticism and useful ideas to improve the game. So please, go ahead and comment, I am prepared to give credit where it's due.