phoenyx.net are finally closing it down. Unlike the last time I said the Fudge is dead, this time it’s official. The FudgeList will be gone by August 26 (archives will still be available). I think perhaps in the long term this will be a good thing (for many reasons that I’m uncomfortable saying in public). I do hope in the short term, perhaps, that this might consolidate the remains of the community around something new or alternative, such as fudgeforum (though I’ve barely used it myself), but I suspect it’ll just disappear for a while, subsumed by the Fate community (which isn’t a bad “fate” I guess).

I still have Reboot, though I should kick Brad about where its at. Also my “secret” project L___ H_____ was a Fudge-based roleplaying game, that I’m quietly working my way through to putting it online, in some form of free (though originally I had planned to try and get it published). I’ve even already put some of it online on here (here and here) and even had Chris of Seraphim Guard interested in buying the rights for the Story Hooks bit. But I admit that I was beginning to feel that the FudgeList wasn’t going to be the place to announce it. In short, I’m not stopping being a fan of Fudge.

In the meantime, I plan to setup a small website that generates a monster FudgeRPG feed pulling in the known FudgeRPG feeds out there since the phoneyx.net one disappeared quite a while ago.

BTW for those reading from the Fudge community, you can see just my Fudge posts using this tag (or even better Fudge and Roleplaying posts using this link).  There is even unique RSS feeds, so you don’t have to read about Fringlish or TDOMF updates.

See ya all on the other side I guess, where ever that might be.

I’ve been struggling with a roleplaying-gaming design issue. It’s probably just my own pet-hate. It’s something I call the “Big Pile of Skills” problem.

When creating a roleplaying character, there is nearly always a section on “Skills”. Most of the time you can choose any Skill you like and invest points into them. Some systems have some concept of grouping Skills like D&D’s Class system and Riddle of Steel’s Skill Packets. But most of the modern day systems I’ve played just let you pick any skills you like.  I’m under the impression that most players considered this a good thing and limiting character choices to a select set of groups is considered Bad^tm.

Let me explain the issue by way of example. I try to create a modern day character based on my own “Skillset” as an embedded programmer. Most generic or non-futuristic systems would have a Skill called “Computers”. By taking this Skill, your character knows stuff about computers. This Skill would allow you to attempt to build any sort of software, use computers at an expert level and in many cases allow you to attempt to hack any security system. Pity my profession isn’t so cool. Certainly “Computers” as a granularity is too vague. But if you break it down, into “Computer Use”, “Hacking”, “Geek Trivial”, “Embedded Programming Techniques”, “Web Programming”, “Blogging”, “Internet Memes”, “Barack Obama”, etc., I’d quickly run out of points and end up with some body who can program really well but can’t actually use a computer, which is nonsense.

For a long while I wondered why it was more fun to design a character’s powers than pick their skills. Picking a character’s skills is prep work for designing their “cool” powers, choosing skills that will support them. Which should be considered wrong. It’s a because it’s a bad “experience” when figuring out the mundane aspects of a character. I guess stuff like powers, magics, gifts, etc. are more exciting but I think they are also more character defining (like super-heroes are often defined by their powers) and they focus nearly exclusively on what they can do and how to use them. I think in part, thats why mortal-characters often appear boring. Not because playing a mortal is any less interesting than playing a super-powered critter, but that a mortal, from the system perspective, is just a bunch of Skills.

For me, Skills should be what you character can do, but most Skill lists read like a CV/resume hit-list. What does “Academics” mean? What the hell can you do with that? Fudge, my favourite hackable RPG system, isn’t so strict on its interpretation of what a Skill is. It has Attributes and it has Skills but only as implementation of Traits and it doesn’t mandate what Skills you have in your Skill List, so I could take “Embedded Computer Programming” with a little “Web Programming” on the side to cover what I can do as a programmer.

The problem really manifests when you’re trying to create a brand new character, not necessarily based on what you know. You end up taking sets of skills to cover what you think your character should be able to do. Leading to the Big-Pile-Of-Skills mess. Most of the time, I think this is acceptable, it’s fine in fantasy-based settings where the characters are, lets face it, a tad unrealistic anyway (come on undetected Vampires in the modern day?). Players will tweak their Skills based on how effective they are in-game, meaning that many of the player-characters start to have a similar feel as they “buy up” the necessary Skills.

Creating normal human characters should be fun but not so unrealistic to break the suspension of disbelief. So I’ve been mulling around some ideas in my head, mostly for Fudge. I don’t want a tight restrictive system like Classes but I still what the freedom of free-for-all Skills. For a start, Skills should only define what makes your character interesting. What can you character do that is unexpected or different from everyone else. What makes them an individual? (If everyone has a big-pile-of-skills, then you’re about as random as everyone else…) In fact, Skills is the wrong word. I think of stuff to put down on my CV when I read Skills, which isn’t what I want to put down on my character sheet, I don’t think.

I’ve started playing around some some sort of “solution” for this. Instead of just a Skill list, you take a Profession, Trade or a Role in Society and then some extra Skills you’ve picked up along the way. This is what ever your character does for a living in the setting. It has a rating like Skills and Attributes. At low rates, such as Poor or Mediocre in Fudge, you’re only at a trainee level or simply new to the work. Fair or greater indicate a decent level of competence in the Profession. The trait’s rating does not define the career path. Often careers are made up of several different distinct Professions. For example Student, Programmer, Consultant and Manager should all be considered different Profession traits, not trait rankings. You can easily create a “Loser” this way by purposely ranking their Profession trait low (such as Poor) and make a serious underachiever.

Professions are not a set of Skills related to the specific function of that Profession. Professions often give a character access to a great wealth of abilities and tools. (Professions would also feed in to their lifestyle and resources). A Software Engineer would probably have a decent computer at home bundled with great development software, would be a good problem solver generally and could easily work out how to use most modern day gadgets with easy. A Salesperson would have good interpersonal skills, has a good insight into people’s motivations, can bullshit like no-other, etc. Players should probably write down a few notes about what they think the Profession is (what they think their character can do with it) and the Games Master can clarify it with them. Profession traits should probably be treated as something between Skills and Attributes for XP cost and other resource-allocation costs but be treated like Skills for most everything else.

You should also be able to take Specialities within the Profession. Such Specialities give you a +1 with tasks that use that Speciality but cause a -1 to any other non-speciality task. You can increase the bonus of that Speciality by taking it a second time up to a max of +3 (but the inverse is also true meaning it’ll give you a -3 on any other task). For each level of the Profession above Fair, you have to take a level of Speciality. For example a Surgeon might have the Profession Doctor with a speciality in Plastic Surgery. This would mean they are great at what they do but wouldn’t be as great on a different type of surgery though they know the basics.

Professions would have to be considered narratively when applying them to a task, nearly like Gifts with ratings than Skills. I think a character’s Attributes should also play a part in what they can do with a Profession, however I haven’t come up with a strict/controlled system that would work in Fudge. The best thing to do with be to let the Games Master apply a -3 to +3 modifier based on an applicable Attribute. Professions (and Specialities) can be applied outside of their fields (with negative modifiers) as appropriate. A Cars Salesman should be able to try fast-talking their way out of trouble, for example.

Characters can have several active Professions. They can also have previous Professions but they degrade over time, perhaps losing up to a full level each year. Certain Professions will subsume old Professions (Student gets subsumed by the first Job for example). If a character using an inactive Profession goes up against another character using a active Profession, then the inactive Profession should be at a -1. Players should not be expected to detail all their characters previous Professions, only the ones they deem relevant to describe the character. They can always take one or two Skills extra to represent the left-overs of the previous Professions. I haven’t worked out how you should model moving or changing Professions. A new Professions would require buying each level individually but if the new Profession is similar in field or type of work it should be possible to start at a higher level or even use the same level as the previous Profession. Old inactive Professions might be turned into Skills if the character continues to practice certain aspects.

Professions shouldn’t be just jobs. They can be also Roles in Society, as mentioned initially, ush as House-wife/husband, Homeless, Student, etc. are all completely valid Professions as long as the character does that as their way of life.

Once a player has chosen Professions for the character, they can then chose a few Skills, not too many. These are more like the old Skills, but describe things the character can do that is outside of their active Professions. Perhaps they do sports, play musical instruments, write (books), etc.

Using Professions as traits, you could create a Salesperson who develops psychic powers, a Homeless person that was once a powerful business owner, an office worker who is barely keeping it together, etc. The system describes the character, much like saying a Vampire with that can control others with their mind (Vampire with Dominate).

What does any one think?

I love it when I receive books in the mail. I have an Amazon Wish list setup so that people who use TDO Mini Forms can show their appreciation and send me a book. So a book shaped parcel in the post doesn’t surprise me. I fill up with a sense of glee and excitement about what someone send me (the last time it was this excellent Dinosaur popup book). So when I found the parcel in the doorway as I got home, I wasn’t surprised.

It was only later, when I realised it wasn’t from Amazon, I got a bit perplexed. The package was from Leisure Games who sell roleplaying games. I had to take a moment, because I was quite proud of myself that I had not used my credit card in months and had cleared any debt left on it. For a moment I got a little worried, did someone go a little bit further than just my Amazon Wish List? I opened it and it was a copy of Noumenon, a game I was planning to get. A roleplaying game about some really weird, Philip K. Dick kind of stuff. For a brief moment it was quite disconcerting. But once I saw the receipt I realised that it was part of an order I had made last year, and were only now sending me a copy.

Certainly it was a fitting way to start Noumenon. I really like it. A strange game where players play Sarcophagi, humanoid-insects that were once human but no longer remember who they were. They wake up in the Silhouette Rouge, guided by the voice of Logos (the voice of the Universe). The Silhouette Rouge is a house with a fixed number of rooms. Some of the rooms are described by a short story, a little abstract and strange. Some are precise. I found myself swallowing this surreal metaphorical setting with joy. However it’s not a book I’d let my young daughter flick through: insects, blood, monsters and metaphors do not, a batgirl, make.

The system is elegant and, from my reading, appears delightful. I love when games keep in theme and break from the traditional approach. Instead of dice, you use dominoes, which have their own mythos about them. I love how they are used encourages the player group to work together.

It’s not specifically horror, a genre I like but am not enthused by. I can’t picture long-term stories and games based on horror themes. Great for short once-off, creepy stuff. Noumenon has horror, but it’s not specifically about horror except as a mechanism for change. I keep thinking of Don’t Rest Your Head, which is explicitly a horror game but one also set in a mad abstract world. Don’t Rest Your Head drives the players and their characters into madness. Noumenon allows the characters to explore and journey through the horrors like a dream that flows from nightmare to dream to eventual waking. A difference of taste.

My only problem really is I don’t think I could get my group to play it. They’d just look at me, with those, “you’re not serious are you?” faces. But then sometimes they surprise me. And surprises are good, like mysterious books in the post.

Continuing on from Story Hooks, this is the second part of item 8 of the L___ H_____ system.

Update #1: Fudge Passions by Mark Cunningham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Fudge Passions v2.0

Fudge Passions was originally conceived as a way to link a character’s emotional state to other parts of the system (like Gifts or Powers). It is built as an addition to the Fudge RPG system but also replaces Fudge Points (Passion Points replace Fudge Points). It was designed and tested in parallel with my Story Hooks system but both can be used independently.

What is a Passion Trait?

Characters have a minimum of two Passion Traits. A Passion Trait (or just Passion) is made up of rating, an Emotion (also called the Driving Emotion) and a Tie (also called the Emotional Tie).

A Driving Emotion is a single word describing the overall feel or emotional impact the Passion has on the character. It does not have to be positive, negative Driving Emotions are just as useful.

The Emotional Tie describes what the Passion is about. It is only a short sentence describing the concept of the Passion. If you also use the Story Hooks system, Passions of a certain rank require a Story Hook and so allow the player to expand on the Passion.

Based on the seven rank Fudge scale, Passion traits are rated thusly:

A Passion at Interested or Curious is only a Temporary Passion and must be brought up to at least Enthusiastic or Passionate before it is considered a Permanent Passion.

A Passion at Obsessed causes a -1 penalty to all the other character’s Passion Traits but Passion Points are earned at a higher rate for this Passion.

A Passion at All-Consuming blocks out all other Passions. Like Obsessed the character can earn Passion Points for this Passion at the higher rate but with loser restrictions. For certain tasks, the Passion can be used instead of the Attribute or Skill as long as it falls within the scope of the Passion. If the character is blocked from the subject of their passion, they start to lose points. However they can be temporarily pushed into Madness.

Madness has all the flaws and benefits of All-Consuming. However the character has gone mad and isn’t really in control of themselves. The only way to save such a character is to give up the Passion and take a new Fault (something in keeping with the theme of the character madness).

A Passion Trait should generally form a sentence:

My <Rating> <Driving Emotion> <at|of> <Emotional Tie>

Example:

My Enthusiastic Duty of my Priesthood

Passions can be loosely considered to be one of two types: Passive or Goal Oriented. Goal Oriented Passions have a specific purpose, a target that could be potentially completed, such as quest, an oath or some desire (like wanting to be the best sword fighter). Passive Passions do not have a goal, but just exist such as love or duty. A Passion can change between Passive and Goal Oriented during play.

What are Passion Points?

Each Passion Trait forms a pool of Passion Points. For each rank above Interested, a player has one Passion Point in that pool. Passion Points replace Fudge Points.

Passion Points can be spent in similar ways to Fudge Points but limited to the context of the Passion.

They can also be used during a live-or-die situation where the character is genuinely afraid for their life. This would mean a combat veteran would not be able to justify every combat situation as a live-or-die situation. It only really matters when the character has a fight-or-flight reaction to some threat.

Passion Points can be earned during play by interacting with some part of the Passion. Players start with half the number of points (round down) in that pool. After a downtime, pools will refill up to this point only (but points previously earned are not lost).

At Character Creation

Players must take at least two (normally three) Permanent Passions at character creation (but there is no upper limit). New Passions start at Interested and must be raised to at least Enthusiastic. Players have nine ranks/increases to allocate to Passions.

Players can take any Skills they like up to a ranking of Fair. However if they wish to start with a Skill greater than Fair, it must be “linked” with one of their Passions and cannot be a higher rank than that Passion. So if a player wants Martial Arts at Superb, then they must have a Passion at Obsessed. (This is also true later after Character Creation when players wish to increase Skills using Experience Points).

In Play

Passions do not dictate how a character should be played. This is always a player’s choice. Passions should not be taken literally and the player’s interpretation is the most important one. It is their story after all. For example, taking a genre classic, Bruce Wayne (alter-ego/secret identity of Batman) might have a Passion like this:

My Obsessed Guilt drives me to Vengeance of my Parents Death.

But this does not make Bruce an obsessed vengeance freak instead it makes him “the Batman” striving for justice.

The only exception is Passions of rank greater than or equal to Obsessed. At Obsessed, other Passions suffer. At All-Consuming the character cares about nothing else, they are on a self-destructive path. At Madness the character is driven insane by the emotion or tie and normally the player loses control of the character at this point (unless the player is doing an remarkable job of roleplaying a character on the utter edge of sanity).

When a player rolls well (Great or better) using a Skill or Attribute in some capacity related to one of their Passion Traits, and the Skill/Attribute is a ranking less than the Passion Trait, the player should put a mark beside that Skill/Attribute. The player will be able to spend Experience Points on this Skill to increase it.

Earning Passion Points

Passion Points are earned through actions in-play.

One Passion Point is earned for the first time interacting or using something connected with the Passion (such as the Driving Emotion or Emotional Tie) for that session or adventure (which ever is most applicable).

Two Passion Points are earned for achieving something with that Passion or completely submerging the character within the Passion such as for intensive roleplaying or the character is temporarily taken out of play to deal with the Passion.

Three Passion Points are earned for anything considered a major development of that Passion. For Goal Oriented Passions, this might mean making some significant progress towards the target. For Passive Passions, this might mean protecting or saving it from some threat or it being a major element of the session/game.

Passions at Obsessed or greater earn double the rate of Passion Points. At All-Consuming and Madness, players can earn a point each time (not just the first time) they interact or use something to do with the Passion.

During downtime, characters can passively regain passions if they are at rest i.e. relaxing which does not preclude hard work or effort. Rest means the character has reduced stress but can remain active. Characters regain one point per day, the player can chose which pool this goes into. They can only regain up to half of each pool (round down) this way.

Games Master can also offer from one to three Passion Points to the player to encourage the player to roleplay a Passion (often to the player’s disadvantage). However it is the player’s choice. But if the Passion is greater than Obsessed, the player must have a really good reason not to take the Points. At Madness, the player really doesn’t have a choice! But remember it is the player’s interpretation of the Passion that counts most, no-body else.

Spending Passion Points

Players can spend Passion Points in much the same way as Fudge Points except they are restricted to having to be connected with the Passion via the concept of the Passion, the Emotional Tie or the Driving Emotion.

In addition, if it is a live-or-die situation for the character, the player can spend points but the player take points from any pool at a cost of two for one (i.e. the player would pull two points from her pools to spend one point).

Passion Points can be used to affect a roll (related to the Passion or live-or-die). Before making a roll (for either Unopposed or Opposed actions), the player can spend a Passion Point to gain a +1 bonus modifier, up to a maximum of +3. If another roll is going to affect the player (such as an attack), the player can spend a Passion Point to add a -1 penalty modifier to the roll, to a maximum of -3.

If the player waits till after the roll, they can spend two points to alter the result by one level. They cannot do this if they spent points to give a modifier before the roll.

Gifts that require some activation cost or require focused attention of the character should also require at least one passion point (from the most relevant pool). Passion Points can also be used to power abilities that are fuelled by emotions (such as some martial arts, magics and other supernatural powers, etc.).

If a Games Master wishes to balance some of the more powerful Faults, she may allow the player to earn Passion Points when the Fault comes into play against the character. This is optional. Individual Groups and Games Masters are encouraged to find their own uses for Passion Points.

Passion Points must come from the relevant pool/Passion Trait. If the relevant pool is empty, the player can pull two points from other pools to gain one point in that pool to spend.

Temporary Passions and Temporary Increases

During play, characters can pick up Temporary Passions, which are Passion Traits at the low rankings of Interested or Curious. However they do not appear on the character sheet, nor can they be used for anything unless the player spends one Experience Point to buy a rank in the Passion, up to max ranking of Curious. They must explain to the Games Master why they think they have this Temporary Passion (in the context of the current session/adventure) and the Games Master must approve. Once they have the Temporary Passion, they can spend Passion Points from its pool or channel points from their other pools (at a cost of two for one). These Temporary Passions remain listed on the character but drop by one rank each session/adventure until they disappear, if the player does not make the Passion permanent by increasing it to a ranking above Curious. Another reason to buy Temporary Passions in-play is that they are cheaper way of acquiring new Passions (then paying full cost during downtime).

Existing Permanent Passions can be temporarily increased by one rank for session/adventure. This can occur when something to do with the Passion is a major part of the current adventure. The player can suggest to the Games Master that they believe they are due a temporary increase for a specific Passion. A Games Master may also award an unsought for temporary increase if she believes it is warranted by the in-play events. This can push a Passion from Dedicated to Obsessed (or worse). A player can spend a Passion Point to prevent this, if they desire. Once a Passion Trait has been temporarily increased for a session/adventure, it cannot be increased for at least one following session/adventure. Players can spend Experience Points at any time to turn a temporary increase into a real increase at a reduced cost, however the restriction on no temporary increases for that Passion for the following session/adventure are still in place.

As part of Character Development

Players should all earn the same amount of Experience Points each character development cycle (my recommendation is 5 EP).

Increasing a Passion Trait requires spending Experience Points. If a Temporary Increase is made permanent during play, it is done at the Reduced Cost otherwise the Normal Cost is used.

During character development periods (i.e. when players can spend Experience Points), players can buy as many increases for Passions as they like. If during the last session/adventure, a Passion Trait got a temporary increase which was converted into a permanent increase, no more increases can be made until the next character development period (i.e. after the next session or adventure depending on the style of your game).

However players can decrease a Passion and release any Experience Points used to buy that Passion. Increases bought at Reduced Cost, give the value that was spent to buy that increase. You can’t use this to use temporary increase to gain extra Experience Points. Players must always have at least two Permanent Passion Traits with at least one greater than or equal to Passionate. Players are encouraged to “store” Experience Points in Passion Traits.

Any Skills that were used really well in context of a Passion (Great or better) can be increased using Experience Points up to the max rating of the relevant Passion. If the player wishes to increase another Skill, they must reduce one Passion (even if they don’t need the Experience Points).

New Passions can only be added based on in-game events. The easiest way is to take a Temporary Passion during play and make it Permanent as soon as possible. Otherwise a new Passion can only be bought if the Game Master suggests it.

Destroying/Resolving Passions and Shadow Passions

Passion traits can be resolved and destroyed, but only based on in-game events.

If a Passion’s Emotional Tie is destroyed, the Passion can be permanently lost. If it’s less than Dedicated, it is automatically lost. No Experience Points can be regained. If it is equal to or greater than Dedicated, the player can transform the Passion (the Emotional Tie and/or Driving Emotion) but decreases the ranking by one level. If the player chooses not to transform the Passion the Passion becomes a Shadow Passion, again starting at one rank lower. Each session/adventure, the Shadow Passion reduces one level (no Experience Points can be regained from this decrease) until it is only a Temporary Passion (i.e. Curious) and then it disappears. During character development periods, the player can decrease the Shadow Passion like other Passions and regain Experience Points.

Some Passions, such as Goal Oriented Passions, can sometimes be resolved. The character reaches or satisfies the goal of the Emotional Tie, for example. If it’s less than Dedicated, it is removed instantly but all Experience Points (minus the last increase) are regained. If it is equal to or greater than Dedicated, the player can transform the Passion (the Emotional Tie and/or Driving Emotion) but decreases the ranking by one level (no EP). If the player chooses not to transform the Passion the Passion becomes a Shadow Passion, again starting at one rank lower (no EP). Each session/adventure, the Shadow Passion reduces one level (however Experience Points are regained from this decrease) until it is only a Temporary Passion (i.e. Curious) and then it disappears. During character development periods, the player can decrease the Shadow Passion like other Passions and regain Experience Points.

Transforming Passions

Passions can be changed during character development periods. There are two types of transformations: Subtle and Gross Transformations.

Subtle Transformations might be slight rewording of the Emotional Tie or a slightly different flavour of Driving Emotion. All that is required for Subtle Transformations is Games Master approval.

Gross Transformations might be a complete refocusing of the Emotional Tie or using a very different emotion for the Driving Emotion. Such Gross Transformations must either be based on in-game events or some event/dramatic element must be imported into the game to support the transformation (if using Story hooks, this would be importing a Story Hook). They require Games Master approval and support.

Integrating with the rest of your System

Passions can be just used as a replacement to Fudge Points, however the original intention is to link it with other parts of a system, which may be setting-specific, so there are no hard rules here.

Gifts that require some sort of activation should require one Passion Point. Certain Faults may siphon Passion Points from pools. Passion Points may be used to power supernatural effects. For example a martial art may use Passion Points for specific moves that are beyond the human norm.

Other elements of the system may be linked with specific Passions. For example a power that allows the character to invoke an emotion in others may require Passion Points to power it, but it might also be linked with one Passion trait. The Driving Emotion of that Passion is easier to invoke (possible not requiring an activation cost).

Another option is to limit the ranking of some traits based on a linked Passion. By default, Skill increases are limited by the Passion ranks. You can’t increase a Skill higher than a Passion. For example supernatural powers powered by passions would probably be limited by the ranking of the character’s passions.

Using Story Hook

Fudge Passions was original designed alongside the Story Hooks system and the two were integrated. If you use Story Hooks, Passions of Dedicated require a Linked Story Hook. If the player wishes to change the Passion using a Gross Transformation, this Story Hook can be imported to support the transformation.

L___ H_____ Implementation

Both Story Hooks and Fudge Passions were originally designed for a RPG codenamed L___ H_____. There are some additional changes to Fudge Passions for L___ H_____.

Characters can have an Aspect for a Passion. An Aspect works the same way as Passions except it is not split into Driving Emotion and Emotional Tie. An Aspect is a part of the world that the character represents such as Nature, Metal, Computers, Fire, etc. In all other respects it works like a Passion.

Many character types in L___ H_____ have been supernaturally transformed but then suffer “the pressures of the Veil”. This manifests in a Fault called Passion Bleed. This means that characters with Passions less than Obsessed will lose one Passion Point per day. Characters with at least one Passion greater than or equal to Obsessed lose two points per day. If the character has no points left, they suffer a wound, which cannot be healed until they have regained at least one Passion Point.

Characters can regain Passion Points more quickly by entering the Dream or Supernatural Lands specifically associated with their own Passions/Aspects or the character’s Patron. They can regain one point per hour up to half of each pool. After that it takes on day to gain a point, but their entire pools can be refreshed this way. Passion Bleed does not have any effect in these unnatural places.

Passions are inherently linked with Supernatural and Divine Gifts and Abilities. Most effects require at least one Passion Point (though magic users may use Mana instead but require much more time to prepare effects). When the character casts an effect, the linked Passion can manifest as ghostly images around the character.

A character that spends all of their Passion Points and at least half of those on Supernatural or Divine effects will fall into a Supernatural Coma which is a sort of supernatural sleep similar to a mundane coma. They can temporarily put off the Supernatural Coma by a Good result of Willpower but it cannot be put off permanently. While in the Supernatural Coma, characters passively regain points at twice the rate of Rest. Once they regain one point they can wake up but can choose not to and continue to regain points. In this state their bodies are in a form of hibernation and do not need to eat and are unaffected by changes in temperature or environment. To the non-magical eye they appear frozen. They can still be deliberately killed, hurt and destroyed in this state. Even after they have regain all their Passion Points, a character can choose to remain in this state for they do not age or change, though upon awakening from such a long sleep, their bodies are cold and hard to control for at least one third of the time they slept. This restriction can be overcome with the use of magics. They do not dream in this sleep and are not truly conscious either.

Mortals (humans with no supernatural links/ties) have a secret Passion, which describes how much they believe in their view of the world (which may not match actual reality regardless of the supernatural/divine element). Characters with a low ranking are often very detached and distant from their fellow humans. Characters with high rankings are stubborn and narrow-minded. This Passion is often used as an inherent defence against the supernatural and divine attacks).

The Veil can have Passion and Aspect ratings. These can influence the attempts and results of any supernatural or divine effect.

There is an additional rank in L___ H_____ above Madness. This is called “Transcendal” (+6). If a Passion hits Transcendal, it is transformed and becomes more abstract, similar to an Aspect. The character has “transcended” and discovers some fundamental truth or knowledge about the world (centred around the new Passion/Aspect). A character with a Transcendal Passion can no longer live under the Veil. The character becomes unplayable.

Because of the game-world-shattering nature of Transcendal, it is treated as two levels. The first is the transition from Madness to Transcendal. The character becomes calm yet disassociated with the entire world. Their Passion Bleed will increase substantially. Human characters will start to suffer Passion Bleed. However the character believes they are on the edge of complete understanding. Nothing can really stop their “ascension” even death has little real meaning. A character in this state is like a beacon to higher state beings. Avatars may walk with the character and try to guide them. Nymphs and Spirits will gather and follow them. Higher dimension beings may attempt to break through to commune and talk with them.

The second level is the complete transition to Transcendal. They must leave this world. Their mind, emotions, traits, etc. are as unknownable as the gods are to mankind. They are in a sense god-like. Such Transcendal Passions do not have to be positive or ethically/morally good, they just have to be. The final level makes the Passion broad and encompassing.

Characters that reach Madness may see the edge of the first level of Transcendal. They can consciously choose to reject it and their Passion is instantly reduced from Madness to a lower rating but they must take a Fault. However they do not have to lose the Passion. This must be roleplayed.

Part 1 of to do item: number 8. Part 2, Fudge Passions, will be online soon.

Update #1: Story Hooks by Mark Cunningham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Story Hooks v2.0

Story Hooks is a system I created to replace the creation and management of players’ characters’ histories (see here for more). The first version, which I designed and wrote-up for L___ H_____, was very basic and involved a lot of hand-wavy “use as you see fit”. It consisted of the “Back-Story” and a non-delimited list of “Story Hooks”, which were practically Story/Adventures Seeds.

This version introduces mechanical checks and balances and in-game uses for Story Hooks. You can use it with any existing system that doesn’t have any rules or system for managing a player character’s background/history. In terms of integrating Story Hooks with an existing system, Experience Points are used when importing Story Hooks and should be replaced with the systems’ relevant character-development currency.

Instead of a background or character history, players create a set of short Story Hooks and a short Back-Story for their character. Over the course of play, the set of Story Hooks and Back-Story can be updated or changed at set moments, in discussion with the Games-Master. The Games-Master can bring Story Hooks into play as new elements (the player earns Experience Points for this) or the player themselves can bring them into play (costs Experience Points).

What is the Back-Story?

The Back-Story is a short piece of text no more than a few paragraphs that provides a context for the player character within the current setting and/or campaign. It should include any relevant points about the origin of the character such as nationality, race and/or gender and possibly their involvement in the current setting/game. It should be purely factual.

What is a Story Hook?

A Story Hook can technically be anything if it’s not long. Normally it’s a short piece of text (but it can be a picture or a piece of music for example). It cannot be big; at most a few paragraphs of text, and it can be as short as a single sentence (or even word if applicable). The important thing is that it describes something about the character that the player deems relevant or important (but is not actually covered by the rest of the character creation system).

A Story Hook can be (for example):

• A fact about the character
• An event from the character’s past
• A powerful/defining memory (descriptive or factual) (vague, false or otherwise) of the character
• An imagined scene involving the character
• Story/Adventure seeds based on the character
• An important relationship (family, platonic, love interest etc.)
• Other related characters or groups (they do not have to exist yet as part of the setting)

A Story Hook can have an optional Title as well.

Characters’ have two pools (or sets) of Story Hooks. The Unallocated Pool has no limit and can contain as many Story Hooks as the player wants.

The second pool has only five Active Slots. The Games-Master can increase this to seven or decrease it to three for that particular campaign. The Active Slots do not need to be all filled; however during Character Creation several slots are reserved and must be filled.

Other elements of the system may require a Story Hook. These required Story Hooks must be, initially, placed in an Active Slot. These are called Linked Story Hooks. If the Linked Story Hook is moved to the Unallocated Pool or deleted, the requirement/link is unfulfilled (and may incur penalties) but if the Story Hook is imported into play than the requirement is considered fulfilled. You can also replace a Linked Story Hook with a different Story Hook. One Story Hook can also be used for several different requirements and there is no limit. Powerful advantages (such as supernatural/super Powers, high ranking Traits, etc.) or vague elements (such as wishy-washy flaws like nightmares, mysterious fate, etc.) can be thusly limited and expanded on.

As a recommendation, Story Hooks should not be recorded on the character sheet. A useful way of managing Story Hooks is to write each one on a separate Index Card (available from most good stationary shops). Players can then keep Story Hooks in the Active Slots in a separate pile from the Unallocated Pool. It also makes it easier to manage character development.

A good Story Hook should have at least one of these properties:

• It interests or excites both the Player and the Games Master (the Games Master can import Player’s Story Hooks and award Player’s Experience Points)
• It appears to add to the character concept/back-story
• It appears to add to the setting or current campaign

All Story Hooks are subject to Games-Master approval but if a Games-Master decides to veto a Story Hook (or usage of) she must give a reason why. Discussion is encouraged.

At Character Creation

Players should create at least three Story Hooks in their Active Slots during Character Creation. All Story Hooks require approval with the Games-Master and should be used to discuss character ideas and concepts. While the Game-Master has veto, she should be offering alternatives or modifications instead of outright refusal.

For creating a character, the Games-Master may require (or setting/campaign dictates) certain Story Hooks must be created. These Required Story Hooks go into the Active Slots. Required Story Hooks can come with any sort of restriction. For example they may ask for a Story Hook based on a relevant Theme, detailed information about their living family, connection to the group or setting, details of the characters life during a certain period, etc. They can even specify the type of Story Hook. After the first adventure (or to the first downtime), these Story Hooks are no longer required and can be swapped out of the Active Pool. Theses are in addition to any other Story Hook requirements. A single Story Hook can be used for several Required Story Hooks and even for Linked Story Hooks, if it makes sense.

During Play

During a game or session, Story Hooks can be imported into play. When a Story Hook is imported it becomes a new element within the setting and is no longer considered a Story Hook for the character. An imported Story Hook can be used to add to the story, as a story seed, aid to roleplaying, for some benefit or disadvantage and so on.

If importing a Story Hook has a positive advantage for the player, the player will have to pay five Experience Points to import it. If it is a disadvantage for the player character, the Games-Master must be the one to import it and the player earns ten Experience Points. If the Game-Master imports a player’s Story Hook as part of the adventure (no positive or negative effect on player, at least for that adventure), that player earns five Experience Points. Players are free to suggest to the Games-Master when they think certain Story Hooks are relevant. Story Hooks that do not benefit or disadvantage the player can be imported for free with the Game-Master approval.

Players can only import Story Hooks from their Active Slots. If they wish to import a Story Hook from their Unallocated Pool, they must spend an additional two Experience Points. There is no restriction with a Games-Master imports a Story Hook, they can import from either of the players’ pools.

As part of Character Development

The Game-Master can specify periods during a campaign where players can update their Story Hooks. This is normally at the same time as when players are awarded, and can spend, Experience Points: such as during downtime or between adventures/sessions. Players can add new Story Hooks, export Story Hooks (Story Hooks based on in-game events), move Story Hooks between Active Slots and Unallocated Slots and delete Story Hooks. There is no cost required. However all changes require Games-Master review and approval. This should be a dialogue between the player and the Games-Master about the character.

Converting Existing Character Histories

There is no hard system for converting existing character histories to Story Hooks. One approach is to break down the character history into a series of bullet points such as a timeline of events in the character’s life. Then these bullet points each form individual Story Hook with the important ones going into the Active Slots.

L___ H_____ Implementation

The only change to the L___ H_____ version of this system was the addition of some Required Story Hooks. As a style guide, these required Story Hooks have a title, a main question and a “description”. There are three to four (depending on character type) required Story Hooks:

The Soul: What makes or keeps your character human?“A character in L___ H_____ is essentially human, no matter how they appear or what they have suffered. They cannot be played if they are not human. This Story Hook should encompass the humanity of your character.”

The Price: What did your character lose on becoming a one of the Chosen?“Becoming a Chosen can give your character great power but it is traumatic and removes the character from the only world they have known. The Story Hook should try and evoke what that loss has meant to the character.”

The Suffering: What did your character go through to fall (before or after)?“Relevant only to Renegade and Fallen characters, these characters had to go through a trauma worse than becoming a chosen. The difference this time is that the change was under their own power for better or worse. This Story Hook should try to emphasis the struggle that the character went through prior, during or after their fall.”

The Binding: What makes your character belong to the Divine Family?“All the player characters are part of the Divine Family which is formed from the pressures of the Veil. They are drawn to it and it defines their new place in the modern world. This Story Hooks should describe or evoke the characters relationship with the other player characters and the family itself.”

Check item #7! (“Do some further work on TDO Mini-Forms”) Of course I could continue at full steam with it but I decided to slow down. Work will continue, just not as time-consuming.

Also item #6 (“Try again to get a gaming group together”) occurred without any prompting from me. I was doing some work on our roleplaying group website (moving it to a different address) and the players started to trying to figure out when they can all play next. However, it might not be until July! Must bug them again.

As for item #5 (“Move Hosts for thedeadone.net”) will occur when I make enough money from donations for TDO Mini Forms. I’m already half way there for a 1 year hosting planning…

Item #9 (“Upgrade and package the current thedeadone.net theme”) won’t happen. It’s been a maybe, but I just can’t muster the energy to do it. I think it really depends on finding a new host for thedeadone.net and getting all that up and running. Then I can think of getting a new theme and closing off the current one.

Which nicely leaves me with only one item left: item #8 (“Write-up and make available some RPG rules I created a long time back: Story Hooks and Passions”). While I think the two systems; Story Hooks and Passion, have since been done much better by Fate’s Aspects, Riddle of Steel’s Spirit Attributes and Shadow of Yesterday’s Keys, I think it’s still worth while closing them off. I did create and use them before I discovered these other systems and they are different and I hope to actually use them in my LH project. They certainly won’t be as long as TDO Fudge Combat v0.1 (short version available here) but they will probably garner about the same level of interest (which is about zero or so).

1. Upgrade and add some features to TDO-Forum for WP2.5
2. Test and Upgrade the Theme I’m currently using for WP2.5
3. Create a merge of TDO-Forum and my current custom Theme (for the forums) (maybe)
4. Update thedeadone.net to Wordpress 2.5
5. Move Hosts for thedeadone.net (maybe)
6. Try again to get a gaming group together
7. Do some further work on TDO Mini-Forms (AJAX, Form Hacker, find some way to get rid of the dependency on $_SESSION - I’m a little tired trying to sort out people’s host problems, there is only so much I can do, etc)
8. Write-up and make available some RPG rules I created a long time back: Story Hooks and Passions
9. Upgrade and package the current thedeadone.net theme (maybe)

This is a cut down version of TDO Combat Fudge v0.1 (a game system for roleplaying “combat”): Just the rules, zero explanations, zero context and zero examples. As requested, to make it more blog-digestable.

The scope of this Fudge build is very specific. It only applies to combat (or drama in social context). It doesn’t cover character creation and development or general conflict and checks. However it applies to all combat and scales. It can be applied to overt combat, goal-oriented combat (i.e. races), detection-based combat (i.e. stealth-based), chases and political combat (and anything else you can think of). It can be applied to large-scale conflicts (wars and battles) and small scale. If you don’t see how the rules can be applied to these situations, please check out the original version as it contains examples of all these cases.

The Basics

Original expanded section here

In combat you have two types of attacks: Opposed Attacks and Unopposed Attacks. Attacks are resolved like normal Actions with normal modifiers and set difficulties. Opposed Attacks are those that can be resisted or actively defended against (and are treated like Opposed Actions). Unopposed Attacks are attacks that can’t be defended against (and are treated like an Unopposed Action). An Attack means there is an attacker and a defender. If the defender wins, they stop or block the attack. If the attacker wins, they do a Wound to the defender (though a Combat Manoeuvre could modify this).

When resolving an Attack, participants must choose one (and only one) Protection and one (and only one) Armament if possible. Protection gives some benefit to defence and Armament gives some benefit to attack. Improvers (Protection or Armament) give some numeric benefit to an attack (or defence) while Enablers (Protection or Armament) will allow a participant to attack (or defend against some form of attack). They are rated from 0 to +3 and higher. Some can have fixed ratings that don’t change while others can have ratings that decrease with each usage. Game-masters should be liberal in accepting what can be considered for use as Protection or Armaments; even Faults (in the right circumstances) can be used as Protection or Armaments. Protection can come from non-attack rolls (the degree of success can be used as the rating) however this is not true for Armaments. A Protection can be used to defend against an Unopposed Attack but that does not change the Unopposed Attack into an Opposed Attack. It reduces the success of the Unopposed Attack.

Skills give Combat Manoeuvres. Theses represent trained and/or learned techniques of a Skill that can be used in combat. They can be used to differentiate two similar Skills used in the same combat. For a Skill, each rank above Mediocre grants a character a Combat Manoeuvre Slot for that Skill. These can be filled at any time; it’s up to the individual group of players and game-master what the Experience Point cost might be. Characters can attempt Custom Manoeuvres but at a +1 (or +2) difficulty modifier and some Experience Points (again determined by individual groups). A successfully pulled off Combat Manoeuvre counts as having learned it and can be bought immediately if Slots free. You can find examples of some Combat Manoeuvres here.

Damage in TDO Combat tracks the effects of winning and losing on your ability to continue the combat. There are two types of Damage. Splash Damage is applied to Attributes (default) and Task Damage applies to Personal Combat (task based or rather you can hang it on the Skill being used). The standard Wound Track from Fudge is used to track Damage and Wound penalties are used. High Attributes can give a few extra hit points. During Personal Combat, Task Damage is used but if you exit Personal Combat, Task Damage shakes out to Splash Damage and Hit Points move up to the lowest penalty free Hit Points (a bigger explanation here).

An “Incapacitated” Wound Types cause the character to suffer a Consequence, a “Near Death” causes an Extreme Consequence. Players can chose to take a Mild Consequence for a “Very Hurt” wound instead of losing a hit point. Suffering a Consequence will break out of Personal Combat (and thereby cause Task Damage to shake out to Splash Damage).

Damage is healed dramatically as per this guide:

As a reminder, Wound Type is calculated like this:

Offensive Damage Factor (ODF) = Degree of Success + [Armament] + [Scale]

Defensive Damage Factor (DDF) = [Protection] + [Scale]

Wound Type = ODF - DDF = (DegreeOfSuccess + Armament + Scale) - (Protection + Scale)

Running Combat

Framing the Combat

Framing the Combat is critical. You must answer each of the questions in Framing Combat. If you can’t answer the questions, then there is no Combat to run. Several of the questions have a mechanical impact on the Combat so they must be considered fairly. You can of course Frame a smaller Combat within a bigger Combat or Scene.

More on Framing Combat here

(Stakes) Is it worth going into Combat?

You don’t have to enter combat. You should only go into full Combat if the conflict is high stakes for the player characters (like their lives).

Who are the involved parties and what are the sides?

You can’t have a combat with out at least two antagonistic sides. If you can’t identify at least two sides then you don’t have a Combat. Go no further.

(Abstraction) What is an Attack in this context?

When applying the combat to new circumstances you must at the very least figure out what an Attack is (and by implication then what a Defence, Protection, Armament, Environment, etc. might be). If you can’t even do that, there is no Combat. Go no further.

A Combat consisting of just Unopposed Attacks starts in Mixed Combat mode. Opposed Attacks start in Personal Combat mode (perhaps framed by a Mixed Combat).

(Scaling) What is the minimum size of a Story Element within the Combat?

Combat consists of Events. The default scale of Combat is the smallest perceived Event in Combat (normally an exchange of attacks and defence - not a single attack). You can explicitly use a higher Scale. Please check out the section on Abstracting and Scale for a more in-depth description.

What are the exit conditions for the parties?

The game-master must have some concept of how the combat can end and if there are multiple exit conditions (some of which may be revealed to the players).

Declare Environment Conditions

The Environment always affects combat. The games-master must declare at least one Environment Condition that impacts the Combat. This may manifest as modifiers to tasks, task blockers or enablers or damage over time.

Mixed Combat (Default)

Combat is considered to start as Mixed Combat. Mixed Combat can handle “many to many” type combat. Personal Combat can play out within a Mixed Combat. A round in Mixed Combat is a round of events involving each player characters that is part of the combat. This round of events breaks down to the lowest character-perceived event (default scale), i.e. a Story Element. This is generally equal to an exchange of attacks. A round of Personal Combat is considered the same as a round of Mixed Combat/Story Elements.  Every player should get to act/roll once per round. Initiative/order of play should be random (unlike Personal Combat). Damage done in Mixed Combat is Splash Damage. Character’s actions are not restricted (unlike Personal Combat). The game-master can Pause combat to give a dramatic description of some event.

You can use Mixed Scale in Mixed Combat. If one player is playing at a higher scale then the others, they rolls only once per every two (or more) rounds compared to the other players. This can be used to have a Personal Combat ran on a different Scale to the rest of the Mixed Combat. Significant events during Mixed Combat can still force the player to scale back down to the same level as the other players.

More on Mixed Combat…

Personal Combat

Personal Combat uses the same Scale - you can’t use Mixed Scale (like with Mixed Combat). It applies to combat involving one party against one other party (hence “Personal”) or multiple parties. A trait or check is required to gauge initiative and therefore order of actions - you can’t use a random mechanic. Initiative can be affected by Wound penalties. Personal Combat starts when one party makes an Opposed Attack against another. If the character cannot defend them selves then it is an Unopposed Attack and does not start Personal Combat. A round of Personal Combat equals a Story Element of the same Scale. No other actions besides Attack, Defensive Actions or Combat Manoeuvres are allowed during Personal Combat. Personal Combat uses Task Damage. Personal Combat can be used for “Time-shifted Combat“; where a player character is fighting against the works of another party who is no longer present.

Step 1: Declare Stance

Before entering Personal Combat, all parties must declare their stance: Neutral, Defensive, Aggressive and Surprised. Parties unaware they are being attacked are automatically considered Surprised. If Personal Combat is started from an Opposed Attack, then the attacking party is automatically considered Aggressive. If all parties involved declare Defensive, the round ends (no-one attacks each other) but does not exit Personal Combat. Stances give some bonuses (and penalties) to the 1^st Exchange but after that, stance is forgotten.

Aggressive: An Aggressive Stance gives a +1 to any attacks but -1 to any defence.

Defensive: A Defensive Stance gives +1 to any defence but -1 to any attack.

Neutral: A Neutral Stance gives no bonuses or penalties to attack or defence.

Surprised: A Surprised Stance means the character is unaware of an incoming attack. They may be able to make some sort of roll to react but they will be on a -2 penalty.

Step 2: Initiative and Allocate Ranks

Determine Initiative of all parties involved in the Combat using your chosen mechanic. Then from the lowest Initiative to the highest, parties must:

I. Chose Skills: Parties must choose what Skills they are using for Attack and for Defence (if they have a choice). If you use a different Skill for Attack and for Defence only the lowest ranking one counts for Allocating Ranks. You can only use Combat Manoeuvres from the Skill you are using. If you use one Skill for Attack, you can only use Combat Manoeuvres from that Skill for Attack (and likewise for Defence).

II. Allocate Ranks: Parties must also allocate ranks from their chosen Skill (or lowest of their chosen Skills), declaring how many ranks they are putting into the 1^st Exchange. They start with twice the number of ranks in the lowest of their chosen Skill (this is to keep difficulties consistent between Exchanges and outside of Personal Combat). Anything unallocated can be used for Combat Manoeuvres and the 2^nd Exchange. Combat Manoeuvres, that require a roll, also require ranks from this “pool”.

To handle multiple parties in Personal Combat, the defending party must allocate ranks to each attacking party. External parties can give Protection to an involved party but cannot give Armaments. If they are giving a party Armaments, they are considered an attacker (which exits Personal Combat).

III. Declare Action: Parties must now declare their action: Attack, Defend or a Combat Manoeuvre. Parties with the higher initiative act first.

Parties with the higher initiative go first so generally the parties with lower initiative will be defending. However both parties could attack each other. In this case the party with higher initiative attacks first (the second party has no defence). Damage is applied and then the second party can attack (the first party now has no defence). Depending on the context, parties may have access to a Combat Manoeuvre that allows them to “buy” initiative. Such a Combat Manoeuvre may take Fudge Points, ranks or even Experience points, which ever is most applicable. This may be used to try and strike first if both parties are attacking, a very risky technique.

Step 3 and 4: 1^st and 2^nd Exchanges

Parties with the higher initiative act first so in the 1^st Exchange they normally make an Opposed Attack using the allocated ranks from Step 2. The winner of this roll can then take or keep initiative for the 2^nd Exchange. If there is a tie, the attacker maintains initiative. Damage is resolved and Task Damage is applied instantly taking from any allocated ranks for the 2^nd Exchange. Repeat for 2^nd Exchange (parties now allocate ranks for the 2^nd Exchange from their remaining unused ranks).

If all parties decide to attack in either Exchange, the party with the initiative (2^nd Exchange) or higher initiative (1^st Exchange) attacks first with an Unopposed Attack. Damage occurs and then the second party can attack also with an Unopposed Attack.

End of round. As long as no exit condition has occurred, start next round and go back to Step 2.

Exiting Personal Combat

The flow of Personal Combat is like this:

• An Opposed Attack Occurs: Step 1-4.
• Subsequent Rounds: Steps 2-4.

Personal Combat can stop if:

• The player character takes an Incapacitated or worse Wound
• Any of the parties suffers a Consequence
• Any of the parties involved is attacked by an external party (such as during a Mixed Combat)
• The effect of a Combat Manoeuvre (like Evade)
• An external event

When Personal Combat is stopped, the Task Damage is shaken out to Splash Damage. Parties can re-engage Personal Combat again but must start from Step 1.

More on Personal Combat…

Fun Mode Variant

Fun Mode can be applied to both Mixed and Personal Combat. Fun Mode states simply that there are no Consequences suffered by the participants. The first to suffer what would be a Consequence loses the combat. A participant can explicitly decide to break the rules and do a full-out attack. This becomes obvious to all parties only after the first full-out attack is resolved, which means that a player may not be aware that an in-coming attack is actually a full-out attack. Regardless if that full-out attack succeeds or fails, it is obvious that Fun Mode is over and normal combat takes over. If you want to know what to use Fun Mode for see here.

More

For examples, notes and guidance please refer to the original draft of the system. Comments are welcome.

An Example Fudge Implementation of “Combat Profiles”

If you don’t have time to read all this, then check out the cut-down version v0.1.1!

What started as some rough ideas and thoughts on the combat experience in roleplaying games, developed in a kind of simplistic theory I called “Combat Profiles”. After some discussion, I put together this system as an example of using these concepts. In fact, putting together this system has helped me scope and define the ideas into something more tangible, but that’s for another day. This system priorities player-experience over strategy or realism but doesn’t try to exclude anything either. I don’t know if it delivers, as I haven’t tested it yet.

It uses Fudge and Story Elements, as I believe they are uniquely suited to “Combat Profiles” compared to the other systems I’ve played (of course I haven’t played every system out there). It is task-based (i.e. not “conflict resolution”), another of my biases I guess. However I believe the general principals can be applied to other systems. It’s geared as a system that can be applied to all settings and all combat situations. The system attempts to define what combat is to understand how to apply it.

This system is in part inspired by the Shadow of Yesterday RPG, Riddle of Steel RPG, Spirit of the Century RPG, Fate System, several Fudge Factor articles and the FudgeList. If you are familiar with these sources, their influence should be obvious.

• What are Combat Profiles?
• Initial Notes
• The Rest of Your Fudge Build
• The Basic Components
  • Protection and Armaments
  • Combat Manoeuvres
  • Damage
  • Resolving an Attack
  • Summary
• Framing Combat
• Personal Combat
  • Step 1: Declare Stance
  • Step 2: Initiative and Allocate Ranks
  • Step 3 and 4: 1^st and 2^nd Exchanges
  • Multiple Parties
  • Time Shifted Combat: Fighting people that aren’t there!
• Mixed Combat (default)
• Fun Mode (optional)
• Abstracting and Scaling
• Scaling Down: From the Macro-story to the Micro-story, a story yet to be told
• Combat Archetypes
  • Overt Combat
  • Goal-Oriented Combat (”Races”)
  • Detection Based Combat (”Stealth”)
  • Chases
  • Political Combat
• Some Notes on Contexts for Combats
  • Social Situations (”TDO Dramatic Fudge”)
  • Duels and other Contests
  • Supernatural and Magical Combat
  • Mindscape and Dream battles
• Final Notes
• Plugins
  • Capping Fudge Results
  • Fudge Pool

What are Combat Profiles?

At the end of 2007, I had a lengthy discussion on the Fudge List last year about a concept I came up with that I originally called “Combat Profiles”. The intention was to describe the different types of “combats” in roleplaying games. Combat though, in this case was just as much about physical violence as other scenarios like social events, large-scale battles, wars, etc. Combat is an essential element of any roleplaying system even if you don’t have physical fighting. Drama is conflict and big conflict is combat. Therefore a generic-oriented combat system is applicable across many types (if not all) roleplaying games. If a story or game doesn’t have some form of drama, why then are you playing it?

As it turns out, calling them “Combat Profiles” was a too ambitious. I had come up with only two “profiles” and these can be stretched and bent to cover practically any other combat. They are more “modes” of combat and I ended up also identify a number of combat archetypes, which would fit the idea of profiles much better. This combat system attempts to take advantage of two main profiles/modes and how they can be applied to combat archetypes. I’m pretty sure there are systems out there that probably do this a lot better but I don’t know them and anyway, I like to tinker.

Initial Notes

This is a conceptual system, which is in other words a system that hasn’t been play-tested. If it gains some traction, I may actually do something serious with it (I was thinking of using it for my LH project) but right now this is very much a thought exercise. By me writing up the system, I’m also designing it. But if anyone is inclined to try it, please inform me of your results!

What this system does not try to cover:

• Character Creation
• Character Advancement
• Mechanisms designed to explicitly support roleplaying or setting specific stuff
• Fudge Points
• Gifts and Faults (though I may suggest some build-specific gifts/faults)

The Rest of Your Fudge Build

I’m assuming you are familiar with Fudge. If not, but your familiar with RPG systems in general, then most of this will still be familiar to you. We are going to be using Attributes and Skills. Fudge at its most flexible allows players to choose their own Attributes and Skills, even to drop the use of Attributes altogether (Fate and Spirit of the Century replace Attributes with “Aspects”). However for TDO Combat Fudge to work, not only do we need Attributes, everyone needs to have the same set of Attributes (be patient, all will be explained). Attributes describe the raw abilities or potentials of your character. Your set of Attributes needs to cover all the bases, specifically all the types of combats (in the abstract) that you intend to have in your game. (Or rather the damage they can suffer). If you’re going to have physical combat, you probably need something like Strength, Stamina and/or Agility. If you’re going to have social combat you’ll probably need Charisma, Wits and/or Appearance, etc. You don’t have to have four or five Attributes per type of combat, just one can be enough. Your choice of Attributes will probably flavour your combats a lot. For example, you might have something like this:

• Reasoning
• Perception
• Willpower
• Strength
• Agility
• Health
• Charisma

(Based off Five-Point Fudge)

As for Skills, we need to make sure the granularity of the Skill choice is fine-tuned for TDO Fudge Combat. When we get down to Combat you should be using just one Skill to attack and defend in any one combat. I don’t mean that you can’t have several combat Skills (such as different martial arts) but that your Skills aren’t broken down beyond having a max of two Skills for the one type of combat: one for defending and one for attacking.

We’ll also be using Story Elements. If you use Story Elements normally, you don’t have to change anything outside of combat, however once the fists, insults or bullets start flying, we’ll have to place some constraints on Story Elements, which we’ll explore later.

You must have also some way to determine Initiative (determining order of characters’ actions). It can’t be some random mechanism but it should be noted that Initiative is not used all the time in combat. You could use a Skill (even one specifically for this), a Gift or Fault, an Attribute, some calculation based on a combination of some or all of the previous options or use the most applicable Skill to the Combat.

Just a reminder, Skills and Attributes are generally rated like this in Fudge:

The Basic Components

Combat is defined by the fact you have more than one party in direct conflict with each other. Combat containing more than one party breaks down into at least two sides but can be more.

There are two types of attacks to consider. An Opposed Attack is one where the party being attacked can resist. For example, someone swinging a fist at another person would be an opposed attack because the person being attacked can block and/or even attack back. An opposed attack does not mean that the defender can or must attack back, but potentially they may. An opposed attacks work in a very similar way to how opposed actions do.

An Unopposed Attack is one where the party being attacked cannot resist or fight back. For example, shooting at someone is an unopposed attack: in a semi-realistic game, a human (unless enhanced by supernatural or technological means) cannot defend them-selves from a bullet.

Both Unopposed and Opposed Attacks will have set difficulties and use modifiers as per making normal actions in Fudge.

Protection and Armaments

Parties involved in combat can also increase their attack and defence by using Armaments and Protection. In physical combat these roughly break down as armour and weapons, but that’s a weak description because they can be used to cover a much wider range of possibilities. For example, an Unopposed Attack can be made more difficult by creating Protection in advance such as wearing armour.

Only one Armament or Protection can be taken into account for any one attack or defence resolution. The player must choose which one applies for that roll if more than one option available. The benefits of multiple Protections or Armaments are not cumulative and by default the highest one counts. It is also permissible to use the same “thing” for both Armament and Protection, for example, many weapons give values for Armament and Protection. Also, some Protections only work against some Armaments or attacks, so choosing them can be critical.

In general, Protection and Armaments should be interrupted broadly. If a player thinks that something should give her some advantage in combat, it should. These rules are here to model the vast array of possibilities that players can take advantage of: from weapons and environment conditions to knowledge and beauty. In the right context, even a character’s Faults can be used for Armaments and/or Protection.

There are two types of Armaments and Protections. The first type, Improvers, simply improves a characters existing Skill to attack or defend. A Protection Improver can often work without the use of any Skill (such as armour, cover, protective action from another party, etc.). But many Armament Improvers require some degree of Skill to first make use of. The second type, Enablers, enables the character to attack or gives some sort of defence. Without it they may not be able to attack or defend at all. Many enablers are also improvers. There may also be other restrictions too: Physical weapons are often bound by range for example. If you have a Knight using a sword attempting to attack an Assassin armed with a knife, the Knight is making an Unopposed Attack because the sword enables him to do so. However, the sword’s advantage is range. If the Assassin gets the initiative (or uses a Combat Manoeuvre) she could close the range and make the sword useless but enable her to have an Unopposed Attack but the Knight’s armour will provide protection against the attack (improver) but not actually enable a defence.

As per the use of weapons in normal Fudge, Armaments and Protection are rated from 0 to +3 and higher. A rating of 0 may mean it provides no numeric advantage but there are other advantages to using Armaments and Protection as above. The value of Armaments and Protections can also fluctuate in combat. In general you have static ratings and you have decreasing ratings. Static rated Armaments and Protections maintain their rating as long as they are being used. This is the standard for melee-based weapons. However this can often mean the Armament or Protection can be dropped or lost in whole, like dropping a sword. Armaments with decreasing ratings will decrease in some value each time they do a certain amount of hit-points of damage. Likewise, Protection with decreasing ratings will decrease in value for some value of hit-points of damage they stop, like a shield or a blocking weapon.

Other parties in a combat can provide Protection to a character. For example, one party could do continuous cover-fire so that another party can reach better cover (better Protection) from a hidden sniper. The rating of the Protection is, generally, equal to the Degree of Success. The same is not true for Armaments. If an ally attempts to “aid” in an attack by providing an Armament, they are essentially a second attacker.

Combat Manoeuvres

Skills can provide Combat Manoeuvres. These are special actions or effects that your character can perform because they have learned or practiced them as part of learning/using that Skill. They can improve attacks, gain initiative, provide protection, etc. and can even break the rules (a bit).

Manoeuvres can be used to distinguish one Skill from another Skill used in the same type of Combat. For example two Martial Art skills could provide different Manoeuvres. Boxing may give powerful combos for Manoeuvres while Judo may give Manoeuvres to grapple and throw an opponent. Non-physical combat also makes use of Manoeuvres from making sophisticated play on words for social combat to debate techniques in arguments. Manoeuvres can also help to highlight the specialised benefits of any particular Skill. For example, an Assassin Martial Art might have “Surprise Stun” or “Surprise Kill”. These two manoeuvres both require the assassin to have the element of surprise but if successful do twice or more damage and ignore many types of Protection, the fun is getting close enough to use them! No other Skill will have such an “instant kill” kind of manoeuvre. Manoeuvres, of course, can be used at any time but they are most useful during Personal Combat.

Basic attacks and defensive moves can be considered implicit manoeuvres for a Skill; once you have a particular Skill at any level you can do (or attempt) the basic attack and defence for that Skill though you have to decide what it means to attack or defend with that Skill.

The number of Manoeuvres a character knows for any particular Skill depends on the rating of the Skill. A character must have at least Fair in the Skill before they can learn or train a Manoeuvre.

These are not the same as Gifts or “Stunts” from Spirit of the Century (Spirit of the Century also has a concept of manoeuvres). They may break combat rules but they are intended not to give additionally abilities but to model the practiced and learned techniques that come with a Skill. In combat and particularly Personal Combat, a fight can be intense and so it is often hard for parties in-game and players out-of-game to see objectively and often get carried up in the action. Manoeuvres then represent trained reflexes that characters have picked up along the way of using and learning a particular Skill.

Of course, none of us want to be writing up pages and pages of potential manoeuvres for each Skill. So instead, characters have Combat Manoeuvre Slots for each Skill depending on the rank of that Skill (see the table above). For example, a Good Skill would give two slots and Great would give three. Combat Manoeuvres must be learned so it’s up to you as the games-master if you wish to charge some Experience Points to fill a Combat Manoeuvre Slot (though I suggest a very small amount, maybe only 1 or 2 Experience Points).

A player can have his character attempt a Custom Manoeuvre if the appropriate Skill is at least Fair. This can be a brand new technique or be a currently unselected Combat Manoeuvre for this Skill. This should cost some Experience Points to do as they player is drawing on the experience of the character to use their Skill. The Custom Manoeuvre will also be at a -1 penalty (or -2 if it’s a rather extreme Manoeuvre). Players should not be forbidden from trying Manoeuvres as long as the games-master and the other players think it is within keeping of the Skill and game. If a Custom Manoeuvre is successfully pulled off and the player has some Combat Manoeuvre Slots free, the player has the option right then to buy it (minus the Experience Points she has already spent) and put it in the slot. If they can’t buy it then or they chose to do so later, they can but must pay the full Experience Point cost. You may allow a player using a Skill less than Fair to spend a Fudge Point to attempt a Custom Manoeuvre.

A nice way to use Manoeuvres, if you have the time, is to create a physical set of cards for each Manoeuvre a player has. The players (and games-master) then have something to quickly flick through during combat (and fiddle with when nervously waiting for their character’s action in combat) and can “throw them down” when they use them. Using cards can make “Feints” and “Setups” all the more fun when they get thrown down after both parties have rolled their dice.

Some ideas for Gift and Faults based on Combat Manoeuvres:

Skill Potential Gift: A character with this gift can learn Combat Manoeuvres for a Skill when their Skill is only Mediocre. (This could be applied to a group of Skills that fit some theme or concept)

Muscle Memory Gift: A character with this gift can attempt to use or attempt any Manoeuvre your character has seen for any physical Skill.

Skill Plateau Fault: A character must fill each Combat Manoeuvre Slot before buying the next level of that Skill. If your system does not have a cost for learning Combat Manoeuvres then with this Flaw they cost at least one Experience Point for that Skill.

Here are some examples of Combat Manoeuvres to give you a flavour of what can be done with them. They are not canon but are provided for inspiration. I’ve done nine generic ones and I could do several more in the same vein. Designing Combat Manoeuvres for specific Skills can give you a very strong feel for what that Skill can be used for in Combat and also give you a feel for the different types of Combat that the Skill can be used in.

Block:  Blocking is one of the most basic defences. You meet an attacking force by putting something in the way and pushing back. If you block with some Protection that can’t take the incoming force, it’s not going to be much good; using your arm to block a sword-attack is not a good idea, but using a decent shield to block a sword is. A block can also be used to give Protection to someone else. If a block is much more powerful than the incoming attack, it can have some backlash on the attacker (breaking their weapon, sending them flying back, etc.)

In Social Combat, this is equivalent to bluntly standing up to someone or throwing a direct counter-point/strategy against another strategy. It’s obvious and though it may stop the attack, it may only increase the ferocity of following attacks as it serves to anger the attacker, however it is the most instinctive reaction.

Parry: Parry is similar to block but instead of stopping the incoming attack, you deflect it. Unlike a block it is much more subtle but lends itself to follow-up attacks. In Social Combat, deflecting incoming attacks is much more efficient than blocking them: deflecting insults with laughter or breaking logical arguments by confusion for example.

Dodge: Unless you are using a dodging Skill, the ability to dodge may not be a natural part of your Skill though it could be the default defence too. Dodge is the ability to not be where an attack lands. It requires the ability to foresee or guess where a type of attack is coming from (or instead just luck). A Martial Artist might train their body to instinctively react to an incoming punch or kick. However, dodging is all or nothing affair. If the character fails to dodge they take the full blow (a Block would reduce the damage). Dodging is normally harder to do than blocking however succeeding on a Dodge can give an advantage on a following attack.

Dodging in Social Combat can come in many forms: avoiding people at a party, avoiding answering questions or being tied down to one point or strategy. Being able to dodge social attacks is the skill of Diplomats, Celebrities and Politicians, as they use to avoid answering tough questions.

Dodging is the basic defence for thieves, assassins and others who live by stealth. For example guards make perception or investigation “attacks” to find hidden characters and so if you wish to remain hidden you must completely avoid those attacks or be found. You must, simply, not be there. This is the same for being hunted.

Evade: Evade is a very powerful extension of the Dodge manoeuvre. Not only do you avoid the attack, your attacker must now do something (such as move in) to attack you again. This sort of manoeuvre is again more difficult than dodging but is also limited by circumstance. If your character is pinned, they can’t evade (though they may be able to dodge). But it is the manoeuvre required for fighting multiple opponents because it allows you to handle one opponent at a time (otherwise you’ve got to split your dice among all of your attackers).

Feint: A Feint or Fake attack is a powerful technique. Your character appears to attack, hoping that the defender commits to the defending it. If the defender does commit, he leaves himself open to your real attack. To use it, a player would declare it after both parties have already rolled. However the player can only use it once, every repeat attempt, against the same party increases the difficulty by one (or more).

Combo: A Combo is a combination of attacks and other manoeuvres. This could allow several attacks from the one roll or the usage of several manoeuvres (like Feint followed by a Power-Attack). Though each attack/manoeuvre would probably require ranks or points to use and each combo is probably configured with a static cost for each. Using a Combo as a Custom Manoeuvre should also be at a +2 to difficulty (but if you pull it off…).

Power-Attack: A character could have a special attack that does more damage or power. This is often at the sacrifice of something else, like speed, range, subtlety, style, etc. But can be devastating.

Setup/Trapping: This manoeuvre would allow a character to setup their attacker for some purpose. For example, in a fight a Martial Artist may let her guard down or throw her leg out to try and lure her attacker into making an attack for it. If successful, the Martial Artist would have some technique to take advantage of the attacker’s attack. This manoeuvre may simply win initiative or be part of a combo.

A hunter might use this manoeuvre to lure his prey or to prevent the use of Evade. In a race, a pilot might appear to give space, only to close it off if a competitor tries to pass and thereby force the competitor to lose time.

All-out Attack/Defence: A character, with this manoeuvre, forsakes either their defence or attack to gain bonuses on their attack or defence, perhaps +2 or even +3. This is not always available for every Skill, however it can be the desperate edge needed in a combat situation.

Damage

In a combat system that can be used for any type of combat, damage no longer tracks how many physical (or mental) hit points you have left. Instead it tracks the effects of winning and losing on your ability to continue the combat. This is crucial. You can only fight as long as you have ability to fight.

So in Personal Combat, the damage is done to your ability to stay in that Combat; this is called Task Damage (can also be called Skill Damage but that can be misleading). When a character is unable to continue a fight, they are taken-out and their Task Damage shakes out and becomes Splash Damage to their Attributes (which can also be called Attribute Damage). The advantage of using Tasks and Attributes to track damage gives even the most abstract “damage” a psychological hook for the player to hang it on.

Damage is very much contextual and how long it lasts, its effects, etc. are determined by how you have framed the combat (see relevant section). Like Armaments and Protections, the games-master must be ready to use common sense about how Damage is used. In most cases it’s obvious but when it’s not, the games-master will have to make a call. Player’s input should always be considered.

To track Task Damage, we use the standard Fudge Wounds. Penalties from Task Damage apply to all actions taken within that “Task”.

“Incapacitated” means the character can no longer fight and must take a Consequence. “Near Death” means the character suffers an Extreme Consequence. A character can opt to take a Mild Consequence for their first “Very Hurt” wound instead of losing a hit point.

Consequences are bound by the context of the combat. They cannot extend beyond that scope. For example a physical combat consequence could be serious bleeding wounds however a social combat consequence could not be. A Mild Consequence is the same as rolling a Critical Fail, something bad happens to the character; they lose their weapon, run out of bullets, trip, make a very revealing slip of a tongue, etc. A normal Consequence means the character can no longer continue to fight and often means they no longer have any form of defence. An Extreme Consequence means the character is taken out of the fight but is also at risk of some permanent damage or loses of ability and without help something pretty bad will happen.

If a Personal Combat is disengaged or broken out of, the Task Damage is then shaken out to Splash Damage. Also, suffering any sort of consequence will break out of Personal Combat, as often the net result of a consequence is that a character can no longer defend them selves.

Splash Damage is the basic default damage: When a character suffers damage from an attack (outside of Personal Combat), the games-master must decide to what Attribute it belongs to. Physical damage would go to some physical Attribute like Health while social-based damage might go to Charisma. Similar to Task Damage, Splash Damage has a wound track but for each Attribute. Any penalties from Splash Damage apply to any task that comes within the scope of that Attribute. So if you have Splash Damage on Health, any physical action would be affected by Health and therefore suffer the penalty.

There is another difference between Task and Splash Damage. Higher rating Attributes give more hit point boxes. (Note to self: Should lower rated Attributes give less hit point boxes? This would mean that Task Damage must be limited by the Attribute…). Characters also suffer consequences as per Task Damage. Splash Damage consequences also have larger scope than Task Damage and can be more general.

When Task Damage is shaken out to Splash Damage, the damage changes (but consequences remain!). The hit points roll up.