Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Things Adventurers Do

When thinking of uses for Body/Heart/Agility (or Mind) style derived attributes, I think of Things Adventurers Do. Here's a few that pop to mind:

BODY (STR/CON)
Opening Doors
Feats of Strength
Core Combat Role: Resisting Damage

AGILITY/MIND (DEX/INT)
Sneaking around
Climbing
Core Combat Role: Initiative Checks

HEART (WIS/CHA)
Care and Feeding of Hirelings: Morale checks / loyalty checks
Uncovering deception
Impressing others
Core Combat Role: ???

I'd love to come up with a list of 2-3 things for each attribute that are done commonly in the dungeon or other adventuring settings.

My thought is that using my core mechanic (D6 dice pool, trying for TN 5 or better), you get one die for each relevant prime, +1 die for setting something as your "focus;" focus can be changed. Equipment might modify some of them (armor penalties, perhaps, for Agility checks?). So, a Swashbuckler (DEX & CON) would get 2d6 pools towards Opening Doors or Sneaking Around. He could move his focus to anything he wanted, so he could be super-sneaky, or put it in "Uncovering Deception" if he was scouting ahead, etc.

I'm also trying to come up with one core combat check for each of the derived attributes. Body is easy; use a Toughness Check. This makes Warriors the best at taking hits; Skalds and Swashbucklers are fairly durable, as are Swordmages & Paladins; everyone else is not so good at taking hits.

Agility is also easy; use for Initiative. This is a bit odd, with Wizards being the best at going first, but that works well enough for me, especially if many of their most potent spells will require multiple rounds to weave. Swashbucklers, Monks, Swordmages, and Beguilers are fast too. Everyone else is not so good at winning initiative.

Heart is hard. I'm having a tough time coming up with something that is used every encounter by every character. Hireling stuff only applies to a subset of characters, so a Rally check isn't really applicable. Perhaps a "Rally" check that can be used on yourself, to trigger a "second wind" or other restorative effect?

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