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04:47, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please.

Posted by DarkLightHitomi
DarkLightHitomi
member, 946 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 01:47
  • msg #1

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

So I'm in a group playing FoE, and the system has a lot of problems and issues as it us clearly based on the video game and doesn't handle some stuff very well.

So I'm figuring on making a new system for tt/pbp.

I would like any advice or suggestions for what to include, how to handle things, etc. I'm trying for a more objective straight forward target number system (I really dislike the all the weird stuff in d100 about changing target numbers.), but I may get overruled on that.
AlexDemille
member, 11 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 03:45
  • msg #2

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 1):

Are you looking to keep the heavy focus on skills and abilities?
DarkLightHitomi
member, 947 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 09:25
  • msg #3

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

???
Depends on what you mean I guess. I never thought of the system as being heavy on skills so I guess either we are talking about different concepts or we have very different ideas about how much is a good amount of skills.

I prefer midweight systems, like d20, myself (though I avoid classes and too much number creep).
Korentin_Black
member, 482 posts
I remember when all
this was just fields...
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 10:05
  • msg #4

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please


 You could always try looking over

https://savagepedia.wikispaces...est%20Drive%20v6.pdf

 Doing a setting-specific conversion is easy and there's already

http://savagefallout.blogspot.com/

 And I would be shocked, shocked I tell you if there wasn't already material out there you could tinker into shape.
AlexDemille
member, 12 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 13:43
  • msg #5

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 3):

What I meant by "a focus on skills" is kind of my way of saying "How light weight do you want it?"  If you want a very light weight system and you're more focused on narrative then you could ditch the skills all together and run FAE or Dungeon/Apocalypse World. If you wanted balance: run FATE CORE or maybe Neumenera (which is a very cool fantasy-scifi setting, that could be converted to an apocalypse setting). More games you could look up are d10/0, a free d10 based system (though I haven't tried it yet); of course d20 usually works if you want number crunch; or even the d6 systems, open d6 I think? I'm not sure of the name.

What I mean is: Think about what aspects of the game you really want to preserve, what ones you want to take away. Then you can work out what system will work best.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 949 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 18:02
  • msg #6

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

To be honest, I know several systems and dice mechanics. I've got years of general advice on game design, now I'm looking for more specific stuff.

What I'm hoping for is a general feel of the type of system others think fits this concept and maybe ideas for elements that are not so common elsewhere, such as handling radiation and taint and maybe any strong feelings, likes/dislikes, etc. A group brainstorm really.
AlexDemille
member, 13 posts
Fri 28 Aug 2015
at 23:36
  • msg #7

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 6):

Oh, my apologies, I misunderstood what you were asking.

Looking at Fallout, the biggest thing about that game is the VATS, interpersonal, and the equipment management. A game that focuses on the more realistic features like burden, food/water, exhaustion levels and a mid-crunch (because I hate crunch) combat would be what I see as a good fallout sim. I personally believe d100 is the best system for that kind of game due to the fact that is it all in decently easy %'s and there are lots of rules to accommodate any extra features.

Depending on how invested you want to get in the inventory system, I think a neat way of dealing with inventory is actually having a "backpack" page and labelling/listing everything and exactly where it goes in the bag or on your person. It takes up a lot of space, especially if you are going to track everything and give players a massive carry load, but it could be very novel.
If you're playing this at a table, you could make backpack pages and have little cards with item names that the players use as physical items to stick wherever they want - kind of like a kids velcro stick and play book.

As for radiation, I'm afraid I have to fall back on BRP and it's 1-100 tracking system. It really is the feel of how FO handles your rads (though on a 1-100 not 1-1000 or what ever it is in FO).

Why not combine something like the Apocalypse engine or a d6/d10 with the highlights of BRP?
Keep the stuff you like (maybe you like the health/sanity/radiation chart like me) and then replace the skills and combat with d10 stats/ranks?
DarkLightHitomi
member, 950 posts
Mon 31 Aug 2015
at 21:08
  • msg #8

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Currently will be used pbp.

I have a good tt use of ap which vats fits well, but pbp really needs something better suited. (can post the tt version if you want)



The real question though, is why d100? Maybe it's just me, but d100 has always seemed far more difficult and confusing than other dice mechanics (like savage worlds or d20, or even d6 despite my distaste for d6) and trying to implement any kind of consistency to rolls (like a bell curve) is ridiculous, not to mention the lack of objective results. (objective results are important to me as I will use them outside the pass/fail aspect.)

Maybe I just haven't seen it done well or something. So why d100?

Inventory, that seems a bit excessive, but having locations like backpack A, cloak pockets, etc seems like a better balance, with only about 6 locations to worry about.

Right now the only chart I have is wound severity, and I'd like to keep it that way. In fact, I'm trying to find a way to keep what I like about wound severity without the chart but haven't figured something out yet.

Radiation will keep the number scale I think, with conditions at certain thresholds. Taint I think will be a feature/perk with ranks that can be gained after some sort of resistance roll, to become worse.

Food and water I agree need to be more prominant, I'm thinking gaining conditions.
AlexDemille
member, 14 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 04:55
  • msg #9

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

I've always liked the d100 system just because it is simple percentages. I do agree with you, there are a lot of modifiers that affect the roll and it can get very confusing. While it is true that objective results technically don't apply, special and critical rolls do exist. There is actually six different results one can roll (crit, special, success, fail, special-fail, crit-fail).Honestly, the main reason I say d100 for fallout is because the game is all %s. Think about the original games, they worked on a system very similar to BRP, so why change something that is already established is kind of my view.

I think that even if you scrap the system, the location tables and some of the other charts from BRP are great.

I am defending d100, but to be honest, I don't play it any more. I am so tired of lots of numbers and billions of skills that I stick to light weight systems like dungeon/apoc world and I'm currently on FATE.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 952 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 05:29
  • msg #10

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Percentages are nice during the design phase, but once play starts I don't need exact percentages.

BRP is one game I'm not familiar with (I thought fallout was modified gurps cause they couldn't get permission to use gurps. That's what I heard anyway)

If you can link some of those tables, I'd look them over.

I'm hoping for simpler myself, and it looks like I'll be building on my RnR core mechanic (pbp edition), so mostly just need extras and decide what to focus on and what to leave hidden.

Currently it sounds like making food/water, gear, exhaustion, are major aspects. Of course the spells and magic need rounding out not to mention racial abilities. I think I'll take heavily from Savage World of MLP for that. Of magic needs to strain characters somehow.

I'd  personally add radiation and taint as major things too.

SATS is troubling me though. Being pbp will likely use d20 ike round structure, but trying to fit SATS into that seems like it'll get broken fast, not to mention that since SATS merely slows time down, how can that really be distinguished?
This message was last edited by the user at 05:40, Wed 02 Sept 2015.
AlexDemille
member, 16 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 05:36
  • msg #11

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 10):

BRP = Basic Roleplay

It is the core system for the d100 Call of Cthulhu. If you're playing d100, you might as well be playing BRP - it's the same.

Just for reference, this is what I am referring to in my earlier posts - I have not read the Fallout rules.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 953 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 05:41
  • msg #12

Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Edited last post cause I wasn't finished with it.
AlexDemille
member, 17 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 13:44
  • msg #13

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

DarkLightHitomi:
SATS is troubling me though. Being pbp will likely use d20 ike round structure, but trying to fit SATS into that seems like it'll get broken fast, not to mention that since SATS merely slows time down, how can that really be distinguished?


I assume you mean VATS. Honestly, I'd just ignore it. VATS is really video-gamey and really it's just a way to see the numbers before you shoot in the game. For an RP, we can always see the numbers so VATS doesn't really do anything. If you make sure to include a good stable system for called shots and general combat, I think it should be ok.

quote:
If you can link some of those tables, I'd look them over.


Currently it sounds like making food/water, gear, exhaustion, are major aspects. Of course the spells and magic need rounding out not to mention racial abilities. I think I'll take heavily from Savage World of MLP for that. Of magic needs to strain characters somehow.


I'll see what I can do
DarkLightHitomi
member, 955 posts
Wed 2 Sep 2015
at 20:32
  • msg #14

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Fallout Equestria is a crossover fanfiction. VATS got changed to SATS, among other things, like the inclusion of technology that runs on magic. Also the effects of SATS had been described a few times. In Project Horizons, Blackjack actually used SATS just to buy herself a moment to think. Thus, SATS is significant enough to not be simply ignored.
AlexDemille
member, 18 posts
Thu 3 Sep 2015
at 01:00
  • msg #15

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 14):

Oh, I didn't realize it played that much of a part in the FF. I've never gotten the courage to actually sit down and read the Fallout EQ series; really big for a fan fic and I'm not a huge fan of the idea. I'll see what I can do to get those charts for you.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 957 posts
Thu 3 Sep 2015
at 02:11
  • msg #16

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

I think it will seem more like a background detail for most, but it is clear that chances are higher to hit with it, and is sometimes used as a reference (such as saying that she could easily hit something that close even without SATS.).

If you think FoE is big, look at FoE: Project Horizons (commonly accepted as nearly cannon itself). It is many times longer and still more chapters are being written last I checked.
AlexDemille
member, 20 posts
Thu 3 Sep 2015
at 03:35
  • msg #17

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Is that a multi-person team that works on that?

You could use something similar to FATE points where to use VATS the character has to spend a point that lasts for X rounds and they can either refresh with the scene/time/actions/etc. Activating it gives an additional +d-something to hit perhaps? or maybe a flat bonus.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 958 posts
Fri 4 Sep 2015
at 11:45
  • msg #18

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Just me. Implemented occasional ideas from others, but I'm the only one that is really working on it. I've been putting it together for years. I've been aiming to make it easily adjustable (i.e. the lethality can be easily adjusted without impacting the rest of the mechanics.)

I even have a simple system for resolving noncombat contests like races, diplomatic persuasions, arm wrestling, etc. Could work for combat too if you don't want the crunchier tactical combat.

As for refresh points for sats, that is a possibility.

I'm thinking about doing radiation like strain, but in reverse. Whenever rads are gained, roll how many rads gained against the current irradiated stat, if higher, than current irradiated stat will increase by one. At certain points, penalties accrue, and then death (unless one is one of the goddesses or a ghoul.).
AlexDemille
member, 22 posts
Sun 6 Sep 2015
at 16:32
  • msg #19

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

In the new Fallout app, radiation is a backwards bar that reduces the maximum health of a dweller. That might work as well. If someone has a maximum health of 100 but 20 rads, he would only be able to heal back up to 80 until he reduced his radiation. I'm not sure how that would work actually, but it's an idea.
DarkLightHitomi
member, 961 posts
Sun 6 Sep 2015
at 20:11
  • msg #20

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

Sounds interesting, but doesn't work so well on fort saves. It would get lethal very fast.

Also, it wouldn't generally kill you.
AlexDemille
member, 23 posts
Mon 7 Sep 2015
at 05:28
  • msg #21

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

What core system are you using? Fort saves sounds like d20?
DarkLightHitomi
member, 964 posts
Mon 7 Sep 2015
at 07:16
  • msg #22

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

I kinda ended up building out of my rnr system.
RnR has a basis in savage worlds and d20 with a lot of my own stuff.

The fort save is a roll modified by two attributes, further modified only by wound points. It is used to resist damage as failure results in gaining an injury/wound, instead of hp or similar.

The system is built around the concept of 10 being average, in just about everything. The average roll is 10 to 11, the average attribute score is 10 to 11, average damage and the average fort save to resist damage are also 10 to 11, etc. This means that even 10 rads would make the fort save average at zero, which is nearly an autofail against average damage (about 1% chance of success not including the variable critical chance, due to bell curve).

All in all, since health is a fort save, rads that reduce the fort save are not fine grained enough.

Edit
Of course, not a problem with that being an effect of some sort of rad poisoned condition, but then still need another mechanic governing the accumulation of rads.
This message was last edited by the user at 07:18, Mon 07 Sept 2015.
AlexDemille
member, 24 posts
Mon 7 Sep 2015
at 16:09
  • msg #23

Re: Fallout Equestria, new system advice and suggestions please

How about rads acumulate like they do in the FO series and at certain levels they impose negatives. i.e. you start at 0/100 rads; at 25/100 rads you take a -1 to all constitution based checks; at 50/100 you gain another -1 (cumulative); at 60/100 you gain a minor mutation; etc.
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