Variety is the Spice of Life

[phantomdoodler]

Ok, I am going to start expanding the current classes, to give more variety to players, allowing them to build more individual characters. Rather than introducing new skills or attributes, I shall be using the current system of Disciplines, but offer varied ways to use them, or just offer more of them. They will still be suitable for rank 1 -10 characters.

So, I shall start, naturally, with the Kai Lord:

Kai Lords

Each Kai Lord eventually takes all 10 Kai Disciplines, but rather than be skilled equally, they may choose to specialize, being better at some than others. Rather than use half the Kai Lords rank as a bonus, each Discipline has 3 tiers of effect: I, II and III. When ever you make a roll which your Discipline can effect, you gain a +1 Bonus for each tier. When you gain a new rank, you may choose a new Discipline, starting with the first tier, and you may improve one other Discipline by a tier (you cant do this at rank 1, obviously). A starting 5th rank has 9 tiers to split between their 5 Disciplines, each rated 1 to 3.

For example, Grey bear is a starting 5th rank character, who chooses Weaponskill, Hunting, Tracking, Camouflage and Sixth Sense. Concentrating on more physical pursuits, Grey bear spends his 9 tiers as follows: Weaponskill III, Hunting II, Camouflage II, Sixth Sense I, Tracking I.

After completing an adventure, Grey Bear gains a new discipline, choosing Mindblast, and chooses to improve his Hunting Discipline to III.

For Mindblast and Weaponskill, you add your Tier to CS, rather than simply +2. For Healing, you may heal your tier in EP, every 10 minutes of a trance.

This system is virtually the same as having +2 in any discipline you possess, and so reflects the adventures in the books (and the gamebooks themselves), which typically add +2 if you have a discipline.

It is no way as powerful as adding half your rank, but if you want to have up to a +5 bonus to rolls involving Disciplines, then have each Discipline tiered 1 to 5. Each Rank, you gain a new Discipline at rank I, and may increase 2 other disciplines by a tier (a starting 5th rank character would have 12 tiers to spend on their 5 disciplines). For Mindblast or Weapon Skill, you would add half your tier, rounding up, to CS. For Healing, you would heal your Tier in EPs, every 15 minutes of a trance.

Warmarn/Journeyman Abilities

Kai Lords gain an additional ability during their 8th Rank. At this level of training, a Kai Lord will be either sent into the service of the Sommlending army to command troops, or given a spying and scouting mission, in the lands bordering their realm. This can be run as a separate adventure (which doesnt advance the players rank) or just role-played during the players downtime between larger missions. After a suitable period, say a couple of weeks, or completion of this side mission, the Kai lord is awarded one of the following:

Warmarn
The Kai Lord has gained valuable experience commanding troops, gaining tactical knowledge and a degree of leadership. When commanding troops or militia that you have time to train, they benefit from your combat prowess, and they gain +1 CS with melee weapons, whenever they can see and hear you on the battle field (you cannot take actions other than to give commands). Kai Lords with this training also gain +2 to all rolls when planning tactics and battle strategy, or to recognize an opposing forces tactics.

Journeyman
The Kai Lord with this ability has gained experience acting as a spy, rumour gatherer and scout. A Kai Lord gains an excellent opportunity to hone their skills during their scouting mission, and may increase any one of the following Kai Disciplines that you possess, by one tier:
Tracking, Camouflage, Sixth Sense, Hunting or Animal Kinship

(if you prefer the 5 tier system, you may increase any 2 of those Disciplines by one tier)

You can make a note of your new training in the notes section of your character sheet, which can just be Warmarn or Journeyman

 

[lightmage81]

Yeah... I was thinking of doing something like this actually. The d20 rules actually gives a lot of idea of how to do this.

 

[phantomdoodler]

Well, if you wanted to add crunch, you could use the 5 tier system from the d20,though i found you soon have a lot abilities to keep track of.

Ok, moving on:

Dwarven Gunner of Bor

Dwarven gunners may select a new discipline each rank, as normal, but you may now choose from a wider selection. Assuming there will be higher disciplines for Heroes and Legend characters, then you can only choose 10 of your basic disciplines.

Forge lore
Their lifetime of experience at smithing and forging metals of all kinds gives Drodarin unprecedented skill when they ply their trade at the anvil. Although most Dwarves have a natural ability forging armour and weapons, Dwarf Gunners with this Discipline may set up an impromptu field forge in an hour, so they may make repairs if their beloved muskets and pistols are damaged. Characters with this discipline, given enough time, can even create their own pistols, muskets, weapons and armour, at half the listed price, so long as they have access to a decent workshop and forge. This usually takes a few weeks, depending on the weapons complexity and size.

Advanced Smithing
If a character possesses the Forge Lore Discipline, they may choose this discipline to further enhance their forging skills. You may now create superior weapons and armour, which effectively doubles or trebles the creation time. You must still pay half the price of such weapons, in time and materials.

Smoke Shot
The fine art of using dirty boom powder in a musket, this is a discipline many Dwarf Gunners learn early on. When loading a musket, the Dwarf Gunner can decide to make their next shot create a thick cloud of smoke around the dwarf, when he fires. For this and the following round, any attempt to target you is made at -2 CS. Although you may not fire a musket, while in hand to hand combat, if you have a Musket loaded, and a target attacks you with melee weapon, you may fire. This doesnt cause any harm to your target, but allows you to break from combat, without the target striking you, in the confusing smoke cloud you create.

You may not use Smoke Shot in conjunction with a Rapid Load

Shatter Shot
By adjusting their mixture of boom powder, the character can cause terrific damage to solid structures or items. When targeting a non living target with Shatter Shot, the damage is increased by one multiple, so treble damage with a pistol, quadruple damage with a Musket. As a rough guide, 50 Endurance would be enough to blow through a sturdy castle wall, 30 for a typical interior stone wall, and 10 for a sturdy wooden door.
When used against a living target, it reduces weapons multiplier by one.

You may not use Shatter Shot in conjunction with a Rapid Load.

Roar of Command
A Dwarf Gunner with this Discipline has some experience commanding troops, and may bellow out commands, even above the din of gunfire and battle. All allies within earshot gain +2 CS to any ranged attacks they make, so long as you continue to issue commands (you may not do anything else)

 

[Zager Krahl]

How about an ability that allows him to make firearms that can be used by other races/classes as well? Something more simple than a Bor piece, but without the (I assume) associated penalties for using an unfamiliar weapon.

Also, what about satchel charges, petards, hand cannons, scatter shot...?

 

[phantomdoodler]

I think Forge Lore would cover the ability to make any firearm - inferior items would just take less time and money to make.

As for other abilities, i will have a think. Presumably Scatter Shot would allow you to hit more than one target, but with less damage (so for example, double damage against two targets with a Musket, three targets with normal damage)

 

[Plageman]

First column is Rank, then it's the Tier of each Discipline so 1.2 is 1st Discipline at Tier 2.

R01 1.1
R02 1.2 2.1
R03 1.3 2.2 3.1
R04 1.3 2.3 3.2 4.1
R05 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.2 5.1
R06 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.2 6.1
R07 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.2 7.1
R08 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.2 8.1
R09 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.2 9.1
R10 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.2 10.1
R11 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.3 10.2
R12 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.3 10.3

You will never have "mastered" (3 Tiers) each Basic Disciplines at Rank 10. In fact if you continue to improve Kai Disciplines at MaganKai level you will have to reach MagnaKai Rank 2 to end the progression.

 

[phantomdoodler]

First column is Rank, then it's the Tier of each Discipline so 1.2 is 1st Discipline at Tier 2.

R01 1.1
R02 1.2 2.1
R03 1.3 2.2 3.1
R04 1.3 2.3 3.2 4.1
R05 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.2 5.1
R06 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.2 6.1
R07 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.2 7.1
R08 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.2 8.1
R09 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.2 9.1
R10 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.2 10.1
R11 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.3 10.2
R12 1.3 2.3 3.3 4.3 5.3 6.3 7.3 8.3 9.3 10.3

You will never have "mastered" (3 Tiers) each Basic Disciplines at Rank 10. In fact if you continue to improve Kai Disciplines at MaganKai level you will have to reach MagnaKai Rank 2 to end the progression.

You are not meant to have mastered rank 3 in each discipline. Thats the point of this. Its meant to create different characters, so no two rank 10 characters are the same. It assumes that on average, you have rank 2 in all your abilities by rank 10. But you may customize this so, so some are rank 1 (for disciplines you are weak at) and some are rank 3 (the ones you have made an effort to improve more.

if you are using tiers 1 to 3 (my preferred variant), your total Tiers are:

Rank 1: 1
Rank 2: 3
Rank 3: 5
Rank 4: 7
Rank 5: 9
Rank 6: 11
Rank 7: 13
Rank 8: 15
Rank 9: 17
Rank 10+: 19

so that works out at practically +2 in each discipline you possess, for each rank.

If you are using the 5 tier system, then your total tiers are:

Rank 1: 1
Rank 2: 3
Rank 3: 6
Rank 4: 9
Rank 5: 12
Rank 6: 15
Rank 7: 18
Rank 8: 21
Rank 9: 24
Rank 10+: 27

By 10th rank, you would have +2 or +3 in all your Disciplines (its a little less than average, I admit)

 

[phantomdoodler]

Kai Focuses

My previous bonus system seems rather dry and complicated, so instead, I am going to allow a character to be a generalist with a discipline (adding a straight +2 to all uses of that discipline), or focus on one aspect of (you gain +3 with your focus, but +1 with the others). Some Disciplines may not have focuses (Mindblast or Weaponskill particulary)

So, for example:

Animal Kinship
Focuses: Beast speaking, command, Land creatures, Flying creatures, Sea Creatures.

Hunting
Focuses: Stalking, Beast lore, Speed

Note that this system replaces the half rank bonus system

 

[Plageman]

Instead of offering Discipline Focuses (which you will have to define for other classes) why not simply use Aspects as you proposed earlier. By not making them part of the Disciplines themselves you can have them impact Tier II and Tier III Disciplines too.

To continue with your example of Animal Kinship, if you have an Aspect called "Tongue of Beasts" it can also apply to Tier II Animal Control and Tier III Animal Mastery Disciplines.

As I said before, I'd remove completely the Discipline automatically giving 1/2 Rank bonus and rather apply this rule from page 42.

A Bonus should generally be between +1 and +5, with the average being +2. When deciding what a Bonus should add, always start at +2. If you feel it should only add a little benefit, make it +1. If you feel it will have a powerful effect on the Test, make it +4 or +5.

I know the author says that "Bonuses that are being applied because of a Kai Discipline that a player has should usually be applied at half the player’s Kai Rank, rounded down" but statistically it makes it too easy to succeed and totally break the Difficulty Chart imho.

Just look a page 74 where the bonuses for having Tracking or Hunting are not scaled according to the characters Rank of 5. In the "Terror of the Darklords" campaign the bonuses for having the right Discipline at the right time are ALWAYS +2 even late in the story when the Characters should be Rank8-9 and have +4 instead. The same goes for the "Enemy Mine" adventure which was written with the idea of Kai Lord being Rank 7. And these are official products from the persons who have developed the game.

 

[Random Code]

I think Plageman's suggestion is the way to go here Phantom...

 

[Random Code]

Just look a page 74 where the bonuses for having Tracking or Hunting are not scaled according to the characters Rank of 5. In the "Terror of the Darklords" campaign the bonuses for having the right Discipline at the right time are ALWAYS +2 even late in the story when the Characters should be Rank8-9 and have +4 instead. The same goes for the "Enemy Mine" adventure which was written with the idea of Kai Lord being Rank 7. And these are official products from the persons who have developed the game.

I would suggest that, based on the evidence there is now no longer an agreed way to apply discipline bonuses to actions. The rules are contradictory to each other in so many places that we may as well all adopt the ones we prefer.

Personally, I'm going with a +1/+3. The +2 bonus is okay (and matches bonsues from Weaponskill and Mindblast for instance) but there's no scope for slightly matching disciplines (unless you go with a +1 and +2 rather than +3 progression). I'll certainly not be using the half rank bonus.

 

[Zager Krahl]

Having a bonus ranging from +1 to +5 is basically the same as taking half rank and then tempering the bonus based on how applicable the skill is to the Test. Roughly. Which comes down to player creativity and GM discretion...

 

[Random Code]

Having a bonus ranging from +1 to +5 is basically the same as taking half rank and then tempering the bonus based on how applicable the skill is to the Test. Roughly. Which comes down to player creativity and GM discretion...

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I was just talking about going with either a +1/+2 or +1/+3 discipline structure in my post above. I wasn't making any reference to adding Aspect bonuses. Apols if that wasn't clear. If I adopted Aspects I'd look at their mechanical application and impact or just allow them to be applied as a focus in particular circumstances rather than a cross the board enhancement.

 

[Plageman]

Having a bonus ranging from +1 to +5 is basically the same as taking half rank and then tempering the bonus based on how applicable the skill is to the Test. Roughly. Which comes down to player creativity and GM discretion...

Mechanically speaking yes, but I feel that the GM, in respect of the particular MPG system, should be the only one to be able to determine the bonus.

As Random Code said in another thread, if the Difficulty Chart is kept all over the three game Tiers then the whole encounter should be scaled for the specific Tier as is the bonus you get from Disciplines.

For example in a Tier I sneaking test it would involve Giaks or rank and file guard, while a Tier II could involve Drakkarim Death Knights. So even if the Test Difficulty would be the same, the bonus itself could be +3 if you have Tier II Discipline, and only a +1 if you have a Tier I Discipline.

 

[Zager Krahl]

The Difficulty Tests while have to increase with Tier as well, otherwise - to use your example - sneaking past a Death Knight (DC 7) and sneaking past a Giak (DC 7) will not be able to happen in the same scenario. The logical solution is to scale the tests to max 20 at Tier II (so DC 7 for the Giaks, DC 17 for the DK's) and to max 30 for Tier III (DC 7 Giaks, DC 17 Dk's, DC 27 Nadziranim).

 

[Random Code]

The Difficulty Tests while have to increase with Tier as well, otherwise - to use your example - sneaking past a Death Knight (DC 7) and sneaking past a Giak (DC 7) will not be able to happen in the same scenario. The logical solution is to scale the tests to max 20 at Tier II (so DC 7 for the Giaks, DC 17 for the DK's) and to max 30 for Tier III (DC 7 Giaks, DC 17 Dk's, DC 27 Nadziranim).

The lesser test would be an auto success for Magankai's just like what happens in the books along with trivial combats and other formerly difficult tasks. At least that's what I'd do with the way I would implement scaled TNs.

 

[Plageman]

The Difficulty Tests while have to increase with Tier as well, otherwise - to use your example - sneaking past a Death Knight (DC 7) and sneaking past a Giak (DC 7) will not be able to happen in the same scenario. The logical solution is to scale the tests to max 20 at Tier II (so DC 7 for the Giaks, DC 17 for the DK's) and to max 30 for Tier III (DC 7 Giaks, DC 17 Dk's, DC 27 Nadziranim).

Well as I said before in the original gamebooks the Difficulty scale never truly changed. Only in some cases, when you had a +3 bonus, the paragraph options would have an entry for a 9-12 result. Again unless the folks at Mongoose come on the boards and explain how the Tests are meant to be played we won't have a clue.