Maybe it is as bad as SenZar...
Aug. 9th, 2007 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
I refer you to this previous post where I point and laugh at an RPG called Sage Quest.
They've added a bit of content. They've added a few paragraphs about the system (in which they manage to say not very much at all), but the big payoff is that the sample pages have a new "large" format -- which is still pretty tiny, but the text is at least legible now. So you can see the details on the amazing "world map" and, more importantly, you can see a vital page on how skills work in Sage Quest. A system so amazing, I transcribed it from JPEG to ASCII...
Usage:
Using a skill is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. First, add the amount the character has in a skill and the character’s actual intelligence together. Roll a d100 as a percentile (ex. If an 82 is rolled put it in the calculator as 0.82). Take the total of the skill and actual intelligence and multiply that by the percent rolled on the d100. Let’s take Jorin as an example. His skill in Awareness is 15,000. Now add his actual intelligence to it. 15,000 + 178 = 15,178. Take that total and multiply it by the percent rolled. 15,178 x 0.82 = 12,445. Now the SGM will take the character’s total for that skill and subtract the negatives depending on the difficulty of the task being performed.
Difficulty:
Difficulty is set by the SGM unless it is a skill versus skill such as Stalk and Hide versus Awareness. Simple tasks are set at a 500 point negative. Tough tasks are set at a 1,000 point negative. The harder or more obscure the task the higher the negative should be. The best way for the SGM to do this is to set the difficulty in his/her head, tell the player to roll their character’s skill, and then have the SGM subtract the negatives from the character’s skill on their own. If the roll was higher than the difficulty needed to beat then the character was successful. If not, they failed their attempt. If in a skill verse skill test the character who rolls highest wins.
If the character is attempting a skill versus the skill of an NPC then the SGM must decide how good the NPC is at that particular skill. For example Trap skills versus Trap skills. A party thief or scout is attempting to disarm a trap. Well since setting the trap goes off the same skill used to disarm a trap, the SGM must decide at what skill it was set. Let’s say the NPC set the trap at a 3,000 skill. If the character makes a roll higher than 3,000 then they succeeded in disarming the trap. If not, we hope the character has life insurance.
Skill Max
Do skills have a maximum amount they can be built to? Typically the maximum amount a character can eventually have in any one skill is 100,000. However if the character has their character concept in a specific skill area those skills in that field can be built up much higher depending on classes. Take a look at the thief and citizen character concepts.
It...it's like a train-wreck. You've got this monstrous skill number but you never get all of it -- it just yo-yo's all over the place (to be fair, he mentions elsewhere that really high numbers are critical hits while low numbers are auto-fumbles...but still). If it isn't skill vs. skill most mid-level heroes will never bother testing, but low-level characters won't be able to do simple things (elsewhere he gives an example of a 1st level fighter with a skill of 600 in Use Sword, if that's typical for 1st level skills, they'll need critical successes to even do the easy things).
And remember...700 pages, you'll never need another book. It's the ultimate RPG.
Tom
I refer you to this previous post where I point and laugh at an RPG called Sage Quest.
They've added a bit of content. They've added a few paragraphs about the system (in which they manage to say not very much at all), but the big payoff is that the sample pages have a new "large" format -- which is still pretty tiny, but the text is at least legible now. So you can see the details on the amazing "world map" and, more importantly, you can see a vital page on how skills work in Sage Quest. A system so amazing, I transcribed it from JPEG to ASCII...
Skills:
Usage:
Using a skill is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. First, add the amount the character has in a skill and the character’s actual intelligence together. Roll a d100 as a percentile (ex. If an 82 is rolled put it in the calculator as 0.82). Take the total of the skill and actual intelligence and multiply that by the percent rolled on the d100. Let’s take Jorin as an example. His skill in Awareness is 15,000. Now add his actual intelligence to it. 15,000 + 178 = 15,178. Take that total and multiply it by the percent rolled. 15,178 x 0.82 = 12,445. Now the SGM will take the character’s total for that skill and subtract the negatives depending on the difficulty of the task being performed.
Difficulty:
Difficulty is set by the SGM unless it is a skill versus skill such as Stalk and Hide versus Awareness. Simple tasks are set at a 500 point negative. Tough tasks are set at a 1,000 point negative. The harder or more obscure the task the higher the negative should be. The best way for the SGM to do this is to set the difficulty in his/her head, tell the player to roll their character’s skill, and then have the SGM subtract the negatives from the character’s skill on their own. If the roll was higher than the difficulty needed to beat then the character was successful. If not, they failed their attempt. If in a skill verse skill test the character who rolls highest wins.
If the character is attempting a skill versus the skill of an NPC then the SGM must decide how good the NPC is at that particular skill. For example Trap skills versus Trap skills. A party thief or scout is attempting to disarm a trap. Well since setting the trap goes off the same skill used to disarm a trap, the SGM must decide at what skill it was set. Let’s say the NPC set the trap at a 3,000 skill. If the character makes a roll higher than 3,000 then they succeeded in disarming the trap. If not, we hope the character has life insurance.
Skill Max
Do skills have a maximum amount they can be built to? Typically the maximum amount a character can eventually have in any one skill is 100,000. However if the character has their character concept in a specific skill area those skills in that field can be built up much higher depending on classes. Take a look at the thief and citizen character concepts.
It...it's like a train-wreck. You've got this monstrous skill number but you never get all of it -- it just yo-yo's all over the place (to be fair, he mentions elsewhere that really high numbers are critical hits while low numbers are auto-fumbles...but still). If it isn't skill vs. skill most mid-level heroes will never bother testing, but low-level characters won't be able to do simple things (elsewhere he gives an example of a 1st level fighter with a skill of 600 in Use Sword, if that's typical for 1st level skills, they'll need critical successes to even do the easy things).
And remember...700 pages, you'll never need another book. It's the ultimate RPG.
Tom
