This increasing action with damage reminds me of Fallout in the Liminal Horror RPG. There, taking Fallout is "bad" in that each one takes up one of your limited inventory slots, eventually killing you. But many (if not most) of the Fallout table entries actually give your PC a boon as well, such as increasing an attribute score, enhancing their attacks, or increasing their ability to withstand attacks. The result is the PC being slowly twisted into a powerful monster (both mechanically and thematically).
Yeah, that's a very cool system. I do wonder if this one is the same though. It increases the number of dice, but those could be monster actions too. So it sort of escalates the "amount of action" rather than what Liminal Horror does
Which I guess is your point. :)
So yes, a very good related example. Thank you! Hahah.
In contrast to systems where wounded characters are stronger — although the world/demons may not be — on the face of it, this *seems* to be a system where the ticks of the self-destruct clock get farther apart as the survivor takes wounds … for survivor and demons. In the fiction (I guess), each round takes the same amount of ship’s clock time, but (presumably) rounds take more real time for the player to resolve as the survivor takes damage, as there are more actions to resolve.
As the chance of more actions goes up symmetrically for demons and survivor as the survivor takes wounds, how does the proof that a wounded, high pulse rate character is more likely to exit a room alive go? Presumably, the chance that the survivor gets all the actions goes down as the number of dice rolled goes up, but I am not in a position to say whether this matters. I am stupidly missing something obvious, right?
To be honest, I am having trouble getting over the game being called “Demon Ship” and the rulebook having “Demonship” on the cover. Argh! ;)
Yeah, the way I'm understanding it, it's a 50/50 chance on the dice being player vs. demon actions. So they would presumably go up at the same rate over the long term, but of course you could get some very lucky or unlucky rolls.
i love the idea of becoming more "powerful" as you take damage :) something to that effect happens in Band-Aids and Bullet Holes (the "deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game of bloody revenge operas set inside a tight-knit community of professional assassins"), where each time a character takes a "wound", it gets added to their deck as a Heart suit card, which then functions as a trump card against any other card ^^ (and when a character takes their their wound, they die)
it's a fun way of ensuring that you get rising action, and can go out strong :D which reminds me of games that have "death moves", that you can only take as the final thing your character does before/as they die... a quick search for what i think i might've been thinking of, it's probably Heart's Zenith abilities? super cool stuff!
I'd like to share dice pool damage system I've been using in my homebrew ttrpg in multiple settings for years. I made it for cinematic stories, so it was designed to feel tense, be quite permissive, but punish those who push their luck too far.
My design goals were:
1. Immersion. Make players feel danger. I didn't want players to think "I have 26 HP left and the enemies hit 8 at most, so whatever happens I'm still long way from dying".
2. Mechanical pacing. To resolve an attack, I don't want to consequently roll for hit, then for damage, then for armor, then for crits, then for crit location, all with different rules and its own set of modifiers. Mechanical operations have their own pacing, and I want to keep the pace tense.
3. GM load. I try to save cognitive powers where possible, so I don't want rules that are cumbersome to execute and adjucate.
Rules:
Each player character has their individual Stress pool of Fudge/Fate dice (d6 work as well), starting at zero dice. When the character is attacked (not even damaged, but just targeted by an attack!), they add Stress dice to their pool.
There's no way to "dodge" Stress gain. When cyborgs are shooting at you/fireballs explode/zombies are lunging for you, you _always_ get Stress. Amount of Stress you get depends on attack power, usually between 1 and 3, 2 being an average sword/gun attack of the setting. After adding new Stress dice, player rolls their whole Stress pool.
Blanks are collateral damage, a reminder for GM to smash glass and set things on fire. Rolling many blanks creates temporary setbacks such as characters getting knocked back, trapped under falling furniture, and also triggers enemies' special abilities.
Minuses are injuries. The more minuses you roll at once, the more severe the injury, with 4-5 minuses resulting in death (depending on pulpy-ness of the setting).
Pluses are adrenaline kicking in, going berserk and other bonuses that characters get from facing danger. The more you roll, the better the reward.
The cool part is, every Stress that "misses" still accumulates into growing pile, threatening to ruin your life later. And while players may dodge their first shot in the face, their luck is visibly running out, and at some point even minor risks become gut-wrenching because of the possibility of dying (while the actual mathematical probability remains very low). A big pile of Stress can as easily result in a dramatic twist of triggering adrenaline and pulling off a miraculous escape.
Healing Stress, on the other hand, can be as easy as the mechanics and setting require, because Stress is not actual flesh wounds anymore. But clearing stress also means no adrenaline bonuses, so there's always a temptation to take the risk and push through.
This increasing action with damage reminds me of Fallout in the Liminal Horror RPG. There, taking Fallout is "bad" in that each one takes up one of your limited inventory slots, eventually killing you. But many (if not most) of the Fallout table entries actually give your PC a boon as well, such as increasing an attribute score, enhancing their attacks, or increasing their ability to withstand attacks. The result is the PC being slowly twisted into a powerful monster (both mechanically and thematically).
Yeah, that's a very cool system. I do wonder if this one is the same though. It increases the number of dice, but those could be monster actions too. So it sort of escalates the "amount of action" rather than what Liminal Horror does
Which I guess is your point. :)
So yes, a very good related example. Thank you! Hahah.
Disclaimer: I have not played Demon Ship.
In contrast to systems where wounded characters are stronger — although the world/demons may not be — on the face of it, this *seems* to be a system where the ticks of the self-destruct clock get farther apart as the survivor takes wounds … for survivor and demons. In the fiction (I guess), each round takes the same amount of ship’s clock time, but (presumably) rounds take more real time for the player to resolve as the survivor takes damage, as there are more actions to resolve.
As the chance of more actions goes up symmetrically for demons and survivor as the survivor takes wounds, how does the proof that a wounded, high pulse rate character is more likely to exit a room alive go? Presumably, the chance that the survivor gets all the actions goes down as the number of dice rolled goes up, but I am not in a position to say whether this matters. I am stupidly missing something obvious, right?
To be honest, I am having trouble getting over the game being called “Demon Ship” and the rulebook having “Demonship” on the cover. Argh! ;)
Yeah, the way I'm understanding it, it's a 50/50 chance on the dice being player vs. demon actions. So they would presumably go up at the same rate over the long term, but of course you could get some very lucky or unlucky rolls.
Good thoughts. Thank you for your comment!
i love the idea of becoming more "powerful" as you take damage :) something to that effect happens in Band-Aids and Bullet Holes (the "deckbuilder tabletop roleplaying game of bloody revenge operas set inside a tight-knit community of professional assassins"), where each time a character takes a "wound", it gets added to their deck as a Heart suit card, which then functions as a trump card against any other card ^^ (and when a character takes their their wound, they die)
it's a fun way of ensuring that you get rising action, and can go out strong :D which reminds me of games that have "death moves", that you can only take as the final thing your character does before/as they die... a quick search for what i think i might've been thinking of, it's probably Heart's Zenith abilities? super cool stuff!
thank you for sharing <3
I'd like to share dice pool damage system I've been using in my homebrew ttrpg in multiple settings for years. I made it for cinematic stories, so it was designed to feel tense, be quite permissive, but punish those who push their luck too far.
My design goals were:
1. Immersion. Make players feel danger. I didn't want players to think "I have 26 HP left and the enemies hit 8 at most, so whatever happens I'm still long way from dying".
2. Mechanical pacing. To resolve an attack, I don't want to consequently roll for hit, then for damage, then for armor, then for crits, then for crit location, all with different rules and its own set of modifiers. Mechanical operations have their own pacing, and I want to keep the pace tense.
3. GM load. I try to save cognitive powers where possible, so I don't want rules that are cumbersome to execute and adjucate.
Rules:
Each player character has their individual Stress pool of Fudge/Fate dice (d6 work as well), starting at zero dice. When the character is attacked (not even damaged, but just targeted by an attack!), they add Stress dice to their pool.
There's no way to "dodge" Stress gain. When cyborgs are shooting at you/fireballs explode/zombies are lunging for you, you _always_ get Stress. Amount of Stress you get depends on attack power, usually between 1 and 3, 2 being an average sword/gun attack of the setting. After adding new Stress dice, player rolls their whole Stress pool.
Blanks are collateral damage, a reminder for GM to smash glass and set things on fire. Rolling many blanks creates temporary setbacks such as characters getting knocked back, trapped under falling furniture, and also triggers enemies' special abilities.
Minuses are injuries. The more minuses you roll at once, the more severe the injury, with 4-5 minuses resulting in death (depending on pulpy-ness of the setting).
Pluses are adrenaline kicking in, going berserk and other bonuses that characters get from facing danger. The more you roll, the better the reward.
The cool part is, every Stress that "misses" still accumulates into growing pile, threatening to ruin your life later. And while players may dodge their first shot in the face, their luck is visibly running out, and at some point even minor risks become gut-wrenching because of the possibility of dying (while the actual mathematical probability remains very low). A big pile of Stress can as easily result in a dramatic twist of triggering adrenaline and pulling off a miraculous escape.
Healing Stress, on the other hand, can be as easy as the mechanics and setting require, because Stress is not actual flesh wounds anymore. But clearing stress also means no adrenaline bonuses, so there's always a temptation to take the risk and push through.