Testing a Mad Science Arms Race game system.
8 Players, 4 on each side
Each side has 20 budget points. Each player gets 5(or 25% of their side’s budget) at game start, but as the game shifts, this number can go up and down, up to a minimum of 2(10% of their side’s budget) and to a maximum of 14(70% of their side’s budget).
Players have a Science Action each and a Standard Action.
Science Action uses:
-Start a new Project
-Conduct experiments to raise knowledge
-Revise a completed Project
-Attempt to discover and remove a bug from a Project using primarily theory
A Project is a design. When a player starts a Project, they lay out what the Project is expected to be. Based on the Project’s new elements(and how new they are), the GM will set a Difficulty, and based on the Project’s number of elements, the GM will set a Complexity.
When a player conducts experiments to raise knowledge, they must decide what subject they are researching, the GM rolls based on how dangerous the player wants the experiment to be, and how much budget the player possesses. There are four danger levels: Safe, Hazardous, Dangerous, Insane. When the player conducts the experiment, the GM rolls d10, and sets the success threshold at 10 - b + x, where b is the number of budget units the player possesses, and x is a penalty based off the danger level (Safe, +4, Hazardous, +2, Dangerous, 0, Insane, -2). If the player rolls above or equal to the threshold, they gain knowledge on the chosen subject. This knowledge will reduce the Difficulty on Projects using the chosen subject, for that player.
If the threshold is 0 or below(so the player auto-succeeds), or the player rolls higher than or equal to 10+x, the player rolls again with a success threshold of 15 - b + x. This cannot trigger failure penalties if the player rolled higher than 10+x earlier. Success will lead to further improved knowledge and corresponding bonuses.
When multiple players collaborate on research, their budget numbers are added together for the purposes of the research, and each of them get a roll, but both of them gain any knowledge gained, and Experiment Backfire applies to all of them. Multiple players researching together must agree on the danger level.
A failure on the first roll(or the second, if it was automatically reached), will require a penalty roll(Unless the level Safe was chosen).
Hazardous:
1: Injury
2: Minor Injury
3-5: Nothing
6: Knowledge gained, but Minor Injury
Dangerous:
1: Experiment Backfire
2-3: Injury
4: Minor Injury
5: Nothing
6: Knowledge gained, but Injury
Insane:
1: Experiment Backfire
2-5: Injury
6: Experiment Backfire, but knowledge gained
Note that the next project to use knowledge gained on a danger roll of 6 will automatically receive a Bug.
Starting a new Project creates a Project with a set Difficulty and Complexity, and immediately rolls for Progress.
Difficulty is set according to the number of new elements. Each new element adds 1 to the difficulty, and each element other than the first that also pursues new knowledge will add an additional 1 to the Difficulty.
Complexity is set according to how complex the Project is, or how many elements the project contains. Each old element to the Project adds 1 to the Complexity(may be set to 0 at GM’s discretion, must be very old though) and each new one adds 2 to the Complexity.
Once a Project is complete, its effectiveness will be evaluated based on its bugs and its use on the field, and its Expense will be set at GM discretion, based off of its Complexity, its Bugs, and other factors the GM considers of note.
Revising a Project allows the player revising it to attempt to add one new element(d6, 1 adds a Bug, 2-3 do nothing, 4-5 succeed, 6 adds a Bug that’s also a feature), or to remove one known Bug from their Project with a roll(d6, 1 makes the Bug worse, 2-6 succeed)
A Science Action or a Standard Action can be used to remove an unknown bug from a player's Project by examining the theory of said Project and finding flaws, but this requires a d10 roll with the threshold being 10 - that player's budget number. Reaching or beating the threshold will result in a random bug being found in the project and being removed. This may prove to be harder to pull off than removing a known bug using a Revision, however.
Standard Action uses:
-Work on an existing Project
-Make a Science Action secret.
-Do something else in secret(spying, sabotage, brainwashing the budget committee, etc.)
-Revise a Project(may be changed)
Players can work on another player’s Project with that player’s permission.
Working on an existing Project triggers a Progress roll.
Roll d8.
If the player rolling for Progress rolls over the Difficulty, they gain 1 Progress for the chosen Project per 2 units of budget they possess. Fractional Progress cannot be earned. When the amount of Progress the player earns matches or beats the Complexity, the Project is complete and may be submitted for use by their side at the player’s discretion.
In the event that the player rolls a natural 8, they gain 2 bonus units of Progress, or may remove a random Bug from their Project, or may decrease the Project’s Difficulty by 1.
In the event that a player rolls under the Difficulty, no Progress is added. In the event of a natural 1, a Bug is added. The higher the Difficulty, the worse the Bug.
Bugs can only be discovered by rigorous testing, which requires a Standard Action and may fail, or by deploying a buggy design to the field, which will always work in the end but may take time.
It's a bit different than the normal system, but I'm hoping it'll work out.
I'm taking 4 players, Tyrant Leviathan has a reserved spot if he wants it due to his interest in the subject of an Arms Race where every player can choose to design something themselves.
Four players taken.
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Topic: Mad Science Arms Race Test(4/4): Oregon, 1924: Science Time! (Read 11089 times)