Hello my dear fellow gents. Today I intend to start a game with Sean's RtDX system, which, in a nutshell, entails that I'm going to roll three dice instead of one and do separate rolls for Luck and Skill.
Also, this post is a huge wall of text.
The game's setting is as such:
In this world, there are five schools of magic. Red Magic, Blue Magic, Green Magic, Yellow Magic and Black Magic, each associated to an element. There are mages who use these elements for offensive purposes, but these are frowned upon and only grudgingly tolerated as they are very useful at times. Due to this, these mages remain unorganized and scattered. Then there are the mages who use these schools of magic to create fortifications, defenses and other things. They are called Archimages, and you are one of these. These are organized in a large guild and direct subordinate to the head of state of the respective country.
Not a short time ago, the two major countries on this continent, known as Roland's Esquires' Democracy and Brownie's Liberal Union, respectively, decided to start a war (again) over a dispute on proper eating manners, and each of them has sent an archimage to fortify a crucial pass in the Takeyourfingersoffityoumoron mountains. If it was left unguarded, devastating sneak attacks could be launched to the juicy backlands, and we won't have any of that.
And this is how this situation came to be. Each side has to defend their fortress while attacking the other one. And both sides will be PC controlled.
And because that only leaves two wizard player spots (plus four hero spots), I don't want to give them to the one who's there first. Nope.
You will have to solve a diabolic crossword.
Across
2: A larger group of people with common traits
5: Homer Simpson's favorite brand of beer
7: An exclamation of resignation
10: A pack animal
11: An electrically charged atom
13: Abbreviation of Not A Number
15: A man of God
17: An adjective used to describe a gentleman
19: The time of day bachelors are sleeping
23: A famous scotsman (surname only)
24: Another word for competent
25: x^0=
26: Old-fashioned word for noisy disorder
27: A body of water
28: Gets eaten with ketchup and distilled in Discworld
29: A Mafia title
30: A scripting language
31: The french subway system
Down
1: 95% of today's media coverage
3: Japanese cat name featured in famous animation
4: A word describing the situation of being locked in at home
6. An entity prone to hyperventilation
8: Another (american) word for tomb
9: When exiting the subway, you should mind the...
12: A mythical being everyone has heard of, but nobody has seen (always female)
14: A corporate way of wasting time
16: The only thing more troublesome than a cat
18: A variety of cheese
20: A tarot card (The ... )
21: An adjective used to describe something related with water
22: Portable alcohol storage device
Here's the system: Each word you manage to put in correctly yields you one point. If you manage to assemble the solution word - the circled squares yield you the needed letters, but you'll have to piece them together correctly -, you'll get an extra five points. For proof, PM me with the filled-in crossword, and the solution. Deadline's at 10:00 AM, GMT+1, Sunday. The two people who scored the highest will get the spots. The four runner-ups will become minions.
Be warned. The crossword is not easy. I'd be rather surprised if someone manages to score 100% of the available points.
--
Now to the basic gameplay sketch. There's a build phase, and there's a combat phase. The build phase lasts three to five turns (GM will have to decide on that, will likely increase over time), and in the build phase, you can build fortifications and create other stuff. There's mana that you use to build the walls. There are five defensive structures, each correspondant to a field of magic.
The trap, aligned to Red Magic.
The protective barrier, aligned to Blue Magic.
The wood wall, aligned to Green Magic. Has +3 armor.
The stone wall, aligned to Yellow Magic. Has +6 armor.
And the metal wall, aligned to Black Magic. Has +9 armor.
Traps and protective barriers come in various forms and shapes, but they only last one combat phase. You could, for example, make a barrier that is inpenetratable to arrows and only arrows, for some elaborate deathtrap of sorts. The walls are of varying protection value and cost, either. And then, there's a secondary function attached to each field of magic. These fields may require special ingredients, such as some scrap metal.
The automaton, aligned to Red Magic. This is basically magitek at work. An example of this would be turrets. Generally expensive and might need upkeep.
The enchantment, aligned to Blue Magic. This governs giving an already-created object a special effect. Lasts one combat phase only.
The summon, aligned to Green Magic. Summoning all sorts of strange creatures, which involves some special equipment, usually.
The terraforming, aligned to Yellow Magic. Caves, rivers, mountains, everything. Also handy in offense, but expensive if used large scale.
And the artificing, aligned to Black Magic. This essentially is the creation of magic items. The sky's the limit. As long as you have the right materials and enough mana, everything works.
These skills are not achieved through using them, but rather by a perk system of sorts. You have 8 perks you can spend on following skills:
Red Magic (associated element: Fire)
Blue Magic (associated element: Water)
Green Magic (associated element: Wood)
Yellow Magic (associated element: Earth)
Black Magic (associated element: Metal)
These skills are levelable. One level gives you + 0.5 to the skill roll of the chosen element (which affects the other detailed functions). These are also required for the other perks. 1 perk per level.
Red Mastery (-25% trap cost)
Blue Mastery (-25% barrier cost)
Green Mastery (-50% wood wall cost)
Yellow Mastery (-25% stone wall cost, +2 stone wall armor)
Black Mastery (+4 metal wall armor)
These require 4 levels in the associated skill and give +1 to the skill roll of the associated element, in addition to the effects in the brackets. 1 perk each.
Magitek Engineer
Enchanter
Summoner
Geomancer
Artificer
Reqs 3 levels in the associated skill and 2 perks. Increases skill roll for the specific field detailed by 1 and decreases the cost by 15%.
Elemental Mastery
Needs 1 level in each field of magic, gives +1 to the skill roll of each field. Costs 2 perks.
Lucky
+1 to all of your luck rolls, and suspiciously high amounts of victory against impossible odds (as long as you don't press it), costs 2 perks.
Fit
+1 to endurance, agility or strength rolls. 1 perk.
Channeler
-25% to upkeep costs. 1 perk.
Bursar Syndrome
+10% to mana income, but you are completely off your rocker. 1 perk.
Chronic smoker
-1 to endurance, agility or strength rolls. Costs -1 perk, which means it actually gives you a perk.
Charismatic
-20% minion cost, +2 to charisma rolls (both skill and luck), 2 perks.
Heroes have a different set of skills. They also only get half the number of perks. If not given otherwise, that stuff only affects the skill rolls.
Charismatic (no minion cost, but one cost less)
Lucky (one perk cost)
Ingenious (no penalties to do stuff with unusual methods, one perk)
Strong (+3 strength, 2p)
Tough (+3 toughness, 2p)
Agile (+3 agility, 2p)
Blademaster (+2 to accuracy with melee weapons, 1p)
Sniper (+3 to accuracy with ranged weapons if not attacked, 1p)
Crazy Awesome (anything that really shouldn't work work - usually, 1p)
SPAH (+2 to disguise and hide rolls, -1 to attack unless it's a backstab, in which case it's +1 to damage and accuracy, 1 perk)
Martial Artist (+2 to accuracy while unarmed, +1 to dodge rolls, 1p)
Warmage (able to use offensive magic, 2p)
Combat mode consists of 10-15 turns during which you try to invade the opponent's fortress and get your grubby hands on your opponent's porn stash, which yields you a point if you manage to cap it but your opponent doesn't manage to capture your stash. If you get three points, you win and your opponent loses, being that humiliated that he commits suicide, and if he dies, all structures he built crumble, so sweet victory for you. If you get KO'd (which is a family friendly version of 'death'), your team can't cap your opponent's stash this turn. You get rezzed in your build phase, no worries. If a hero dies, you need to resurrect him - which is expensive - or hire a new one. If a minion dies, he's dead.
You can choose to attack or defend as a wizard, and assign your minions and heroes to stuff. They have to oblige, but can use the literal genie method, depending on their loyalty.
Now for the actual construction and mana mechanics:
You get 1000 mana at the beginning to make stuff with. A 1 square meter large and three meter high segment of wall - this is a tile, btw - costs:
Wood: 2 mana
Stone: 4 mana
Metal: 10 mana
This is the same cost for 4 square meters worth of floor. Doors are costing the following for one tile:
Wood: 5 mana
Stone: 10 mana
Metal: 25 mana
If you want to make lower walls for some reason, the cost scales accordingly.
You'll also want to buy minions for your attack. You can use about 5 minions per squad. Heroes can lead the squad, which means that it's under the hero's direct control. Otherwise, a sergeant will lead the squad, who is slightly more skilled than the soldiers he commands, but that means they aren't under your direct control. If you give no orders, the weakest class will automatically get selected. That class is free. Otherwise, the following table is to be consulted (per-squad, values in brackets are damage/accuracy/armor/weaponry):
Minion: FREE (-1/-1/-1/knives)
Soldier: 50 mana (0/0/0/shortsword)
Archer: 75 mana (0/0/-1/shortbow)
Knight: 100 mana (1/0/2/longsword)
Pioneer: 75 mana (0/-1/-1/pickaxe, increased damage vs. walls)
After each combat phase, the amount of available soldier types will increase, and the maximum number of squads, too. Furthermore, you'll get mana for each kill, usually the buying price. Minions go for 25 mana per squad. Additionally, you'll get free mana each turn, about 500, I think. This will increase over time, but you can accelerate the progress with Mana Sources:
Mana Source: 2x2 tiles. Costs 100 mana. Yields an extra 50 mana at the beginning of the build phase. No armor of it's own, keep it protected at all costs.
You can also buy defenders if needed. Essentially the same as above, but minions cost 25 mana here. Still in squads of five. You can give them orders what to protect.
Remember that you always will need a way out of your fortress, and that doors have only half the armor classes of the respective walls.
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Topic: Construction Combat RtDX (Read 1297 times)