Decision Points

The current iteration of Missions & Mayhem has much simpler character generation than its parent game, d20 Modern. That was the big impetus for me to create this, actually. Could I create a version of the game that has simple mechanics for the DM (the reason I will play newer WotC games as a player, but not DM anymore), and simple player character mechanics, but keep the flexibility of character concept creation? 

I think I've done it. The iteration I'm working on this week has a revision of the proficiency system (which doubles as both feats/skills for the game), which manages to plug a few holes I had in the system, and reduces the need for so many different mechanics. But I went over that in my previous post. 

What I want to talk about today is how I've come up with suites of proficiencies for each class to streamline character creation a bit more. This also brings it a little closer to old school D&D type games. Jeremy suggested that I still allow the option for carte blanche proficiency selection, but I don't think I need to add that to the rules officially. GMs worth their salt will know that they can house rule that for their game if they like. 

The char-gen guidelines, simplified, has seven steps listed, but one of them is math and not really a decision point. They are: 

To create a Hero, follow these steps: 

1. Roll Six Ability Scores [Place scores as desired. Note modifiers for each.]

2. Select Staring Occupation [Check prerequisites, note talent, proficiencies, starting gear.] p. 6-9

3. Select Character Class [Gain +1 to Ability Score. Select proficiency suite, and a talent.] p. 10-15

4. Modify Combat Values. [Note armor class (AC), hit points (HP), base attack bonus (BAB), massive damage threshold (MAS). Subtract modifiers from saving throws.] p. 10-15

5. If additional languages for high Int or proficiencies for high Wis are gained, select them. p. 24-29

6. Roll Wealth Level and Funds on Hand. Note starting vehicle. Buy additional equipment. p. 16-23

7. Give your Hero a name, description, and a few personality traits.

This gives us seven decision points, with one of them (#5 on the list but actually 6) being situational. 

Decision Point 1: Roll your ability scores, then decide where to place them. This is the same as with d20 Modern. Even if you use a standard array instead of rolling, you need to decide where the numbers go. And it's much faster than point buy. 

Decision Point 2:  There are 19 starting occupations. I didn't modify the list from d20 Modern, just the mechanics for what they do/provide a character. Players will need to consider character concept, how the talent, proficiencies and starting gear provided reinforce or round out a concept when combined with a class, and in a few cases which of two proficiencies or a language to take (decision point 2.5?). Not overly complex, as a lot of players will rule out certain occupations out of hand. And again, the same number as in d20 Modern, so no extra burden. 

Decision Point 3: There are six character classes to choose from. Based on the ability score distribution and starting occupation, most players probably already have this decided. But it is still a choice to make. And it's the same six classes from d20 Modern. 

Decision Point 4: Here is where we finally streamline the process over the original. Each character class has three suites of proficiencies (given convenient labels). Two of the options are based on the standard advanced classes of d20 Modern (not the FX advanced classes, saving those for supplements). The third for each I just thought about what other concepts work well with each ability-score themed class. This replaces both going through a list of 41 skills and 94 feats. Well, not all of those 94 feats can be selected at 1st level, but that's how many are in the game. And experienced players know that you need to think ahead about feat trees and advanced/prestige class requirements, etc. I just counted, and there are 54 feats available to starting characters. That's a lot of comparison and deliberation. 

My version, pick one of three options, and get these four proficiencies (five if you're a Smart Hero). 

The next step is figuring out the combat values (AC, HP, saves, BAB), but that's just a bit of simple math. Take the base numbers and adjust them by the ability score modifiers.  No decisions to make. 

Decision Point 5 (Situational): If you have average or low scores in Int and Wis, there's nothing to decide. If you have high scores in either, you have some choices to make. For high Int, you get one to three extra languages. And granted, it assumes a real world setting so you have thousands of options, from the common UN languages to any world language, including sign language (take your pick), Esperanto, conlangs like Klingon or Sindarin, or even dead languages like Latin and Aramaic. This is part of the decision process for d20 Modern, only it's folded into the skills. So in a way, those 41 skill options become many many more when you factor language. And d20 Modern makes you take Read/Write and Speak as separate skills! I originally had languages as part of the stepped proficiency system (that's what my day job is all about after all), but I realized it's just a game and it's not usually fun to have to roll to see how much of the conversation in a foreign language you can understand. If you pick a language, you're fluent in it.

If you have above average Wisdom, you can pick one to three bonus proficiencies. As I mentioned in the previous post, all of the proficiencies have three levels: Basic, Skilled, Advanced. Everyone now starts with Basic level in all proficiencies. You get two from Occupation, four (or five) from Class, at Skilled level. But if occupation and class give you the same proficiency, it bumps up to Advanced. If you get these bonus proficiency slots, you can take more proficiencies at Skilled, or bump ones you have at Skilled to Advanced to start. There are 19 proficiency areas. Five for combat, fourteen for general. You'll already have up to six (or seven...go for it, Gen Alpha!) at Skilled, but if you have one or two at advanced, they're already maxed out. So it shouldn't be too much mental strain to make these decisions. 

And again, not every character will have decisions to make in this area. 

Decision Point 6: You roll for a Wealth Status level, using a 3d6 roll weighted to Middle Class. That determines what dice you roll with a multiplier for your starting Funds on Hand. Everyone gets a bit of gear from their Starting Occupation and from their Class, and the Wealth Status provides a vehicle (or two if you're Rich). And it's Shopping Time! I have made some modifications to the equipment lists, removing some obsolete or redundant items. I simplified weapons and vehicles to types rather than specific models. I'll probably truncate the lists even more before I'm done as there are still redundancies (day packs, range packs and backpacks are all different items for some reason? [They do have different capacities, but this is probably unnecessary detail.]) I've of course added some items to the list as well, things that hadn't been invented in 2001 when d20 Modern was designed, and things they just didn't include (no WD-40 style spray lubricant? That's useful stuff for an adventurer!). 

So how does this compare to d20 Modern? A bit simpler thanks to the weapon/vehicle simplification. But with hard cash/credit numbers rather than rolling against target numbers, it requires a bit more thought. The fact that you're actually spending a set amount of money, rather than just grabbing everything you like under your "wealth score" probably makes this a bit faster. 

Decision Point 7: Decide on a name, description, and a bit of personality. Standard for almost any RPG. And no, I'm not going to do the NuSR thing of making everyone roll for a random feature or three. Players can stretch their imaginations a bit, and besides the name, it's not so vital at the start of a PC's career. 

 

 

A collection of mini-games

 Up until 3rd edition, every edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been a collection of mini-games. Combat is d20 rolls. Interaction (reaction rolls, morale, recruiting hirelings) and turn undead are 2d6. Lots of exploration abilities are x/d6 (or x/d10). Thief skills are d%. Magic is Vancian. The adventure day (wilderness), the exploration turn (dungeons), and the combat round are all procedural mini-games. If there are rules for strongholds, followers, magic item creation for high level play, they probably have their own bespoke mechanics. 

These days, most OSR games that come out that aren't close clones of an older edition tend to strive for the unified mechanic idea. Especially the "rules lite" games like Black Hack, PBTA, etc. 

I'm taking a game with a unified mechanic (d20 Modern) and trying to backwards engineer it into a game with a collection of mini-games. And it's interesting where I'm finding the lines to draw. 

I want Missions & Mayhem to be simple and easy to run and play. So far, I seem to be hitting that goal. A week ago, we did a play test of a mystery (no combat, although there was potential for it depending on how it might have played out). Before we started, a few players needed to bump their PCs up to level 2. Denis added a second level of Strong Hero to his PC, so that was easy. Justin decided to add a level of Charismatic Hero to his Dedicated Hero PC, but that turned out to be really simple and easy as well! 

Playing the adventure, things went smoothly for the most part, but I'd realized something I'd added in the edit was overly complicated. So this week, I'm taking it out. This has me streamlining how to run all the general proficiencies, and it's become a unified mechanic for those tasks (combat is still run differently, as are a few other bits and pieces). 

The bit I added then took out were "Basic Tasks" that any PC could do. They were % based, each starting at 20% but modified by ability score modifiers and character class. I realized, though that having all of the General Proficiency areas start at a Basic Level (roll 2d4), then have them progress to Skilled (roll 2d6) and Advanced (roll 2d8) would work better than having % basic tasks, some proficiencies at 2d6, others at x/d6 chances. 

Of course, that means I had to revise the General Proficiency list, and also now I'm revising the mechanics to how to run/adjudicate these actions. It's a fairly big overhaul, since I need to be on the lookout for areas that might be influenced by the new proficiency areas I added. But in the end, the streamlining will hopefully make the game even easier to explain and run. 

And this is just the base "tool box" rules. Once I add campaign settings (modern-day monster hunters, cyberpunk, zombie (or regular) apocalypse, X-Files/Stranger Things style aliens/dimensions weirdness, etc.), there will be more mini-games added to cover certain areas. So it will get worse. But hopefully, having familiar old-school D&D combat, and these simple 2dX general proficiency rules as the base, it will be easy to graft on other systems as needed. 

More Play Testing - One-on-One!

 About an hour ago, Jeremy and I wrapped up a one-on-one play test of Missions & Mayhem. 

He rolled up a Fast Hero, which has been a popular choice. Steven, Charles, and Nate also all picked the Fast Hero as their level 1 class. And for a talent, Steven picked fast hands (pick pockets), while the other three all decided that dodge (AC bonus) was the optimal starting talent. I may have to tweak that. It might be too good the way it is right now. 

I ran him through the same adventure that I ran Charles and Jada through a week and a half ago. It went well, even with only one hero. The potential fight that could have ended both games was averted through bargaining and interaction with the NPCs rather than a gunfight both times. 

My dice kinda sucked. In the chase scene, I rolled really low the first two rounds, and decent the third, but Jeremy waited to leverage his Dex score in a gamble to gain a bonus, and succeeded on the gamble and the chase roll. 

In general, Jeremy thought it was fun but that there are maybe too many mini-games mushed together for this. He'd prefer not so much a unified mechanic for the whole game, but maybe one system for combat and another for non-combat tasks. 

Right now, I've got standard roll d20 to hit vs AC combat, with roll d20 over set value saving throws. But for out of combat tasks, some things are on an x in d6 chance (roll low), some are x or more on 2d6 (roll high), some are d20 vs ability score (roll low), and some are d% (roll low). 

I may have gone overboard with that. I will definitely keep D&D style d20 based combat. But I may make some changes to make every non-combat action that requires a roll to be on 2d6 (I like the bell curve results) or d%. 

I also need to be more precise in the character generation rules. I'm far from finalizing the text (still trying to get mechanics to work in a way that I'm satisfied), but Jeremy made his PC by himself and had a few small errors. Both of them were areas where I'm sure I wasn't clear in the text, but every other time players have made PCs I've been there to answer questions. 

I don't plan to make any big sweeping changes just yet. I want to run another play test with the local gang, or at least as many folks that aren't busy with vacations or winter camps or whatnot. I've got a detective style mystery to solve and I think it might be fun. It will give me a chance to test out more of the non-combat systems and decide how to modify them, if necessary.  

Computer Hacking in RPGs

 I'm finally working on some computer hacking rules for Missions & Mayhem. I've heard before from fellow gamers, and reading a lot on the internet about how many games try to make hacking fun and exciting, or make it fairly realistic, but it turns into a mini-game that one player is playing while everyone else sits and twiddles their thumbs. Or, it just gets made into a single skill check that is not very exciting. 

There's got to be a sweet spot of just complex enough (providing choice/strategy to the hacker PC) while not bogging down into 30+ minutes of solo play. And as always for M&M, I am trying to follow the KISS principle. Don't make any mechanic more complex than it needs to be. 

Or as Einstein (I think) once said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." 

Right now, I've got two ideas in mind. One is for hacker vs hacker scenes, as you might see in a spy or superhero movie/show. The other is for simple player vs system checks, but could also be used for hacker vs hacker stuff. 

My original idea was to try and make a strategy vs strategy results chart, similar to the Chainmail jousting rules. The PC hacker selects a strategy. The opposing NPC hacker (or the system being hacked) selects a countermeasure strategy. Cross reference on the table to see what happens. 

But I'd really need to test and refine that chart. I remember Delta analyzed the Nash equilibrium of the Chainmail joust, and there is definitely a single dominant strategy to it that will more often than not result in a win. And that's boring if you always know the optimal options to select. 

So my current thinking is to use the second option, which would break hacking a system into three phases. 

Phase 1: Entry. Hacking into the system. Make a roll to get into the system. If the roll succeeds, you're in. Either way, make a check to see if the attempt was noticed.

This phase could be made much easier with some other character talents. One Charismatic Hero class talent, and several of the starting occupation talents allow for a check to get "information, access, or a favor" from an NPC or organization. This could be done to represent social engineering before the hack.

Phase 2: Manipulation. Depending on the security level of the system, this might be automatic for unsecured systems, or require a check/counter-check. Either way, once you're in, you can search for information (including physical location if unknown), download or copy information, attempt to reprogram the computer system, control connected (security) devices, or try to sabotage the system. The longer the PCs stay in the system (each additional check after the first) increases the odds of being noticed/having countermeasures triggered.

If the attempt to enter was noticed, countermeasures will be in place (if there are any). If not, each action runs the risk of being noticed, and triggering countermeasures. If there's an opposing hacker, the hacker can attempt to reverse hack the PCs and direct the countermeasures. And of course, this could all be reversed, with an NPC trying to hack the PCs' computer system.  

Phase 3: Exit. Attempt to cover your trace as you log out of the system. Depending on the countermeasure response, this might not be necessary as your cover could already be blown or you could have already been booted from the system. But it would be a simple check at the end. 

 Computer systems will have three categories. Unsecured systems are your typical home/office PC. Sure, they may have some passwords or firewalls, but nothing unusual, and no countermeasures unless an NPC hacker is on them. A lot of IoT devices will also be unsecured. 

Secured systems will have some automated countermeasures in place that can be triggered, and are harder to hack into during entry or exit cleanly. Unless an NPC hacker is working against the intrusion, though, the responses will be preprogrammed/limited. Most small to medium size businesses and non-military/intelligence government agencies would have this level of computer system.

Hardened systems will be the hardest to enter or have a clean exit, and will have responsive AI countermeasures that act as an NPC hacker even if none is present. This is what megacorps, militaries, and intelligence agencies use. 

OSR Modern Play Testing and a Title!

OSR Modern was a placeholder name, and I finally have a decent name for my simplification/revision of d20 Modern: Missions & Mayhem. 

A few days ago, I tried turning to ChatGPT for title ideas. Flynn, my older son, is in a school "CEO program," and the teacher had made an optimized GPT for help with branding, marketing and whatnot. So he suggested I try it. Honestly, all of the ideas it came up with were so-so at best. That's par for the course for gen-AI. But it did inspire me with a few ideas of my own. I tried an online random action movie generator, and again, so-so but gave me a few more ideas. I pitched my ideas to some of my players, and M&M was their favorite. It was in my top two, so I'm sticking with it. 

Today, we did our second play test. Only two players could show up (due to vacations, winter camp work -- I'm not doing the camp this winter, and illness), but I ran them through a small action movie mission to rescue a kidnapped girl. They used some combat, some chase mechanics, some medical treatment mechanics, and some of the social interaction rules. They all played smoothly, although I forgot a wrinkle I'd added to the social interaction rules. It was fine, though, as they worked well without the need to push the results. 

I realized at first that the chase mechanics I'd come up with gave out a LOT of XP for 1st level characters. But they're set values for a chase at any level of play. So while low level PCs will get a big boost out of any chase encounter, after a few levels the XP will not be overpowering. And at high levels it will barely register. I suppose another factor is that the XP for the two chases in this session were only divided between two PCs, not four or five. So I think they will be fine in the end. 

It seems that modern group sizes (around 4 PCs) may be optimal for this game. Two weeks ago, at the first play test, we had six PCs. We ran through a fist-fight (and of course dynamite, knives, and a few guns were brought into it) which went really long. 

I've been considering ways to make fist fights go a bit faster. In real life, yes, they can drag on without much serious damage (at least among amateurs in a street/bar fight), and in action movies the heroes can get into epic fights (like the alley fight in They Live), but a lot of the time a fist fight with mooks should be over fairly quickly. So I added a rule where any subdual damage over a certain threshold triggers a fortitude saving throw to avoid being knocked out. If all damage is low, or all saves pass, you are KOed when your subdual damage equals your current hit points. 

I haven't tested this new version, as today's fights were either interrupted by intimidation or were gun fights.

With two chases (one on foot, one boat), some interactions, general tasks, and one gun fight (during the boat chase), and some loot/reward money, they earned 2nd level. We leveled up their PCs. Neither player decided to multiclass. They thought it would be better to get their BAB/saves up, and be a step closer to their second class talent. I'll have the other players also bump up to level 2 next time to see what they do. 

Next time, I plan to present the players with a mystery to solve, which will involve some breaking and entering. This will allow me to test out the investigation/clue finding rules, and the sneaking & avoiding/deactivating security devices rules. Plus probably more social interaction to test out the pushing mechanic, and some other non-combat challenges. Maybe we'll work a few fist fights into it as well. 

For today, I had a small scenario that was fairly linear, but with several off-ramps. I figured that since I'm only play testing at the moment, and we'll make new characters for any future campaign I run, that these play test sessions should be like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure or Endless Quest books. If you get a "bad" ending, you just flip back to page 42 and select another option. So no need to make them too elaborate. If I revise them for release, I'll add more detail and more options for non-linear play.  

Now, I need to figure out some good computer hacking rules that have enough options to make it useful, but not too much to be overpowering or confusing. Also, I've switched from wealth rolls for shopping to cold hard cash, and I have starting wealth levels and starting cash worked out, but I need to add some equipment to the starting occupations and character classes (or proficiencies).