Ruins of Khazan - A Rumbles RPG - Sign Up/System Test

[MrSandman]

Going to bed so will look at this in more detail in the morning, but off the cuff; you can't have three Traits and will need to cut one of them.

Ahh, sorry. I'll cut one then. No clue where I read three again...

Also, one of those proposed Traits is "My character cannot die," to which I'm going to pretty flatly say "No, you cannot have the ability to not be at risk of death,"

Eh...."cannot die" ability is not really what I was going for there. I would describe it more as a near death status. When you break her hologram, the emitter shorts and she's basically rendered into a defenseless piece of tech on the ground until she either has time to recover, or she gets attacked again....which would be instant death. If its still too much I can adjust or come up with a more stat based way of working it.

Also, also, can explain what Hard Light Generator is supposed to do? I'm not sure I follow it. Is it a functional teleport?

Not quite but functionally the same....Ella isn't the body, she is the projector making the body. She can't teleport, but she can project a body anywhere her core has line of sight. Look at it more like projecting a new body at a new location with a minor cool down. If done at a bad time without manually tossing her core ahead it would basically be left behind and become an easy target....or become an easy target while in the air.

....its really only good outside of fighting in fact.

[Postmania]

Slots:

Body: 1 Epic, 1 Honed
Spirit: 1 Epic, 2 Honed
Mind: 1 Honed

10 Mundane/Free Slots

Body Techniques: 1 Epic Slot, 1 Honed Slot. Using 2 Mundane Slots for another Honed Tech

Mundane

Honed
Vaulting Withdrawal [Dodge Technique] [+40 AGI]: Carbon fiber reflexes tighten as Jane dodges in a backwards pattern, moving up to 30% of current movement value [0.3*128 standard] upon a Perfect Dodge or 15% on an imperfect Dodge.

Death Denial (D.R.A.M.A System) [+40 SPD]. Jane's D.R.A.M.A system, upon taking damage with zero RAC points to offer other defensive countermeasures, will pull her into the nebulous and shadowy realm of the Death Dimension. This moves Jane in the direction that has the fewest hostile enemies, aiming to place her in a place with no enemies within 15 feet of her position. The maximum distance she may move is her Movement Value [128] + Technique Boost [80] = [208]. Jane does not pick the direction, this will be decided by the GM and the aforementioned definition metric. The description of the Death Dimension in the current space can also be added some flavor to by the GM. The D.R.A.M.A System effectively teleports her out of danger by removing her from the field until the start of her next turn. While in the Death Dimension, she will not be able to perform interruptions nor will she be aware of what is transpiring on the field while she is in transit. As she is disoriented by the transition, system processing lag demands she be moved to the end of the turn order for the next round.(-25 ENR)

Epic
Used for Graveyard Revengeance.

Spirit Techniques:1 Epic Slot, 2 Honed Slots. Using 6 Mundane Slots for another 3 Honed Slots

Honed

Heart of Darkness [+30 PRE (-10 for Ranged attack)] - Something stirs within Jane, a calculation for concern for others, but from where Jane knows not. Jane's chest splits open and unlike the weaponlike facsimiles she typically uses for her attacks, this one looks exactly like a human heart, pulsing somehow despite it's metallic form. In this time Jane's greenish energy changes instead of an eerie yellow, too bright perhaps, and the energies leave the hearts ventricles and openings, connecting in an unbroken stream like the flow of blood throughout a larger body. The target of the heartflow regains [80] Mastered ENR if on an ally or [55] Mastered ENR if used on herself. (-25 ENR)

Mark of Death (Death Magnetic) [+30 PRE (-10 for Ranged attack)] [Reach Out] - Jane's right arm extends and the metal of her arm opens from down the middle to the sides of her arm. A chrome sniper rifle rises from it's hiding position. After a moment's pause, she fires. A successful attack slams a Blackstone Bullet into the target's head or similar special weak point, inflicting Dizzy. (-25 ENR)

Death Blossom (Death Magnetic) [+10 PRE (-10 for Ranged attack, -20 for AoE)] - The sides of Jane's hands open up and thin twin chrome revolvers slide up perfectly in firing position into her palms. She then begins to spin like a top with a startup and form improbable to say the least for a normal human physiology, firing in a multiple directions and striking multiple targets. An alternate visual representation of this in cases of targets not surrounding her simply involves her remaining in place while blasting away with both revolvers, her hands a blur as a fusillade of Blackstone bullets demolish her enemies. Such a barrage of bullets is spewed forth that Jane effectively lays down suppressing fire, initiating the effect of Blunt on the group of foes.(-25 ENR)

Doom Artillery (Death Magnetic) [+10 PRE (-10 for Ranged attack, -20 for AoE)] [Reach Out]- Jane leans backwards until horizontal, supported by her hands, as a gleaming cannon emerges from her stomach. It fires with a louder report than the standard weapons and a Blackstone projectile sized up to mortar shell proportions slams into her target, exploding in a violent green flash. The wounds inflicted by this attack can rot opponent's souls, inflicting Lacerate on anyone caught in the blast zone. (-25 ENR)

Hunter-Killer Mode [Persistent] [+25 SKI] - The green aura of energies in Jane's ambient deathly energies shimmers and seems to lessen in quantity, but brightens around specific areas around her eyes, hands, and feet, as well as changing colors; at times the green fades into a sickly yellow before fading back. She becomes even more accurate, her systems working in even greater efficiency and her movements more difficult to overcome. In this design Jane draws ever closer to the god of Death. And so she has his favor: activating this technique applies the status effect of Awareness to Jane, making her a thornier target that will puncture attempts to assail her with even more precise Counter Attacks. (-15 ENR to activate, -5 ENR each turn, -10 to each technique to follow)

Epic

Graveyard Reveangance (Death Magnetic) [+25 PRE (-15 for Ranged attack, -20 for AoE)]/[+22 AGI (Halved for additional Epic slot, -8 for ranged)] - The underside of Jane's arms split open and two hose-like constructs emerge, running the full length of her arms. She bends over and unlike her more standard Death Magnetic attacks begins shooting emerald fire from them, seemingly into the ground itself. Opponents are treated to a deadly surprise as disembodied arms made from this same fire rise up from the earth and attack them in a large radius, savagely ripping at them and burning more than their flesh and frame. This attack extracts a heavy toll on opponents' souls, dealing Concuss: Stun as they attempt to cope. Jane caps this attack off by targeting a single enemy with an especially large group of arms and using to slip behind the opponent of choice with a Shadow Walk. (-95 ENR)

Mind Techniques:1 Honed Slot. Using 2 Mundane Slots for another Honed Tech

Honed

Immortal Technique [+40 CHR] - Jane's eyes dim for a moment, then suddenly reappear in a smaller, more intense glow as she is imbued with enhanced vision of enemy weak points by Nekro. Targeting diagnostics fill her field of view as she gains a buff of +19 to PRE.(-25 ENR)

Nekromantia [+40 CHR] - Jane's systems begin to whir, emitting a whine pitched in a frequency that is not audible in the physical plane. Spirits nearby begin to flow into her head as she communes with them to gain further insight. Her glowing eyes change from orbs to the improbable vision of glowing skulls inside her eye sockets, which themselves seem to have glowing skulls inside their eye sockets, ad infinitum. Her system processes these changes as the whirring becomes audible to the human ear, or perhaps those are high pitched screams? She gains a buff of +19 to BRA as she begins seeing not only the physical world but the spirits within the bodies she perceives.(-25 ENR)

See linked post for character description
See linked post for traits

Newer Honed tech with an additional slot replaces the durability DRAMA System tech. I did like it...but getting hit at all and not triggering something like Death Denial or at least Honed technique for survivability feels pretty dangerous and I think having a tiny bit extra mobility with a dodge might be good. I still want DRAMA system to be a thing though so I'll have to come up with something there.

Hunter Killer Mode swapped out for a bit more Defense with the Awareness state instead of an additional basic attack. More overt offense will be coming at some point though when I feel more comfortable with Jane defensively.

Nekromantia just felt right for Jane as a character type thing. She'll need a trait/something more to actually see spirits properly but I felt fine symbolizing it as a BRA increase. And also BRA is good for Jane to have now that she's so squishy; she really needs to act first or closer to first and be able to use those RAC points to avoid things.

[Postmania]

Eh...."cannot die" ability is not really what I was going for there. I would describe it more as a near death status. When you break her hologram, the emitter shorts and she's basically rendered into a defenseless piece of tech on the ground until she either has time to recover, or she gets attacked again....which would be instant death. If its still too much I can adjust or come up with a more stat based way of working it.

That actually sounds similar to an idea I had at some point which was basically "instead of dying or being downed after hitting 0 or below, don't die and be set back to 1 hp, and can only activate once per combat encounter".

On another note, be fun to have a friendly robot in the group in contrast to all of what Jane is up to lol

[Nik Hasta]

Eh...."cannot die" ability is not really what I was going for there. I would describe it more as a near death status. When you break her hologram, the emitter shorts and she's basically rendered into a defenseless piece of tech on the ground until she either has time to recover, or she gets attacked again....which would be instant death. If its still too much I can adjust or come up with a more stat based way of working it.

In that case, I'm a little more confused because that's essentially what happens to anyone who hits zero HP so the Trait doesn't technically do anything. See here from the combat rubrics guide:

Hitting Zero HP in Combat

0 HP puts a player into risk of death state. In combat, they lose all actions and on their next turn, they will drop by -5 HP. If they reach below -25 HP then they are dead. If players who are downed have Mastered ENR remaining, they can burn this to forestall the process of hitting -25 by paying the cost of the health negative in Mastered ENR. This will be at the rate as if you were paying for each turn. (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and then 25 ENR repeatedly until the player runs empty) Once they have exhausted their ENR or choose not to pay further, the count toward -25 will continue from wherever it stopped. If you are attacked while in this state, the attack will add another -5 HP, reducing the number of turns you have to be saved regardless of whether ENR is being spent or not.

If another player approaches a player at risk of death and they have no access to a Healing Techniques, they can sacrifice a flat 50 Mastered ENR or 1 RUM point to bring the other player back. This 50 Mastered ENR will be converted into HP and will need to cover the negative HP that has accrued over time. Using a RUM will flatly restored the downed character to 50 HP, regardless of how negative they are. If the rescuing player has a healing Technique, this can be used for more effective resurrection with the boost it provides.

This seems like it basically covers, albeit with more caveats, what your Trait would do, no? Potentially rework it?

Not quite but functionally the same....Ella isn't the body, she is the projector making the body. She can't teleport, but she can project a body anywhere her core has line of sight. Look at it more like projecting a new body at a new location with a minor cool down. If done at a bad time without manually tossing her core ahead it would basically be left behind and become an easy target....or become an easy target while in the air.

....its really only good outside of fighting in fact.

So, it's more akin to a decoy sort of thing? Or can she see out of the new body so it's like a remote viewing sort of thing?

I think I'm happy enough for it to be allowed, it seems very low impact, but I still don't think I mechanically follow what it is meant to be achieving and therefore don't really get how to mechanically account for it in the system.

To look at your stats, I see you've dropped a Trait, so I'll make sure that your BUILD and SYNC are broadly correct and do your Affinity and HP Values for reference. Corrections will be underlined:

Vitality Block
Core HP: 90
Max HP: 170 <-- This is based on the 80 Latent ENR you get as standard and can change if you want to add more to your Latent ENR from your Mastered ENR pool.

XP: 150

Offensive Block
STR: 10 BASE + 10 BUILD + 0 TRAIT = 20
PRE: 10 BASE + 50 BUILD + 10 TRAIT = 70
CHR: 10 BASE + 0 BUILD + 0 TRAIT = 10

Defensive Block
DUR: 10 BASE + 10 BUILD + 0 TRAIT + 2 SYNC = 22
RES: 10 BASE + 10 BUILD + 0 TRAIT + 2 SYNC = 22
AGI: 10 BASE + 30 BUILD + 15 TRAIT + 12 SYNC = 67

Hit Block
BRA: 10 BASE + 10 BUILD + 0 TRAIT + 0 SYNC = 20
SPD: 10 BASE + 0 BUILD + 0 TRAIT + 9 SYNC = 19
SKI: 10 BASE + 0 BUILD + 0 TRAIT + 0 SYNC = 10

Energy Matrix Block
ENR: 10 BASE + 30 BUILD + 15 TRAIT + 2 SYNC = 57
ENR VALUE: 570
Latent ENR: 80 <--- Maybe subject to change Energy you allocate toward defences. This ENR cannot be used for Techniques and will only be considered as HP once allocated. Everyone has 80 points already allocated from their BASE stat that cannot be reallocated.
Mastered ENR: 490 <--- Maybe subject to change Energy you allocate toward Techniques. This ENR cannot be used for Defensive actions. Everyone has 20 points already allocated from the BASE stat that cannot be reallocated.
Stack: 9 <--- Maybe subject to change Derived from [Mastered ENR/50] Governs how many Stack Points you have, rounds down to nearest number like RAC. See below for an explanation for how this will be used.

RAC: 2.78 therefore 2 active RAC points
RUM: 3
Movement Value: 71 feet per round
ATK Action(s): 1
Technique Action(s): 1
Range: 245 feet

Affinity Allocation

Free Slots: 6 Mundane Slots

Body: 0 Slots [Damage Reduction: 5.56%]
Spirit: 2 Honed Slots, 1 Epic Slot [Damage Reduction: 38.89%]
Mind: 0 Slots [Damage Reduction: 5.56%]

Cool, so let me know about the Traits and you're now clear to start working on your Techniques.

[Nik Hasta]

Nik keeps changing rules. Everyone (understandably) keeps altering characters.

The game has become an oroboros. ^_^

This is what happens when I'm building the system as people test it.

I feel this may be worth contemplating for another iteration of Kinu's tech page. I'll see if I can make something work with these refined system rules...or just kinda roll with what I got, idk.

Happy to talk shop if you would like, there is still plenty of time to make changes.

Remember, Friday is when we see where the cast is as a whole is at. Also, since I'm broadly ahead of you all in terms of timezones, I am anticipating that I will have a more solid idea of where everyone is on Saturday my time.

Once we know where we are, I'll make final checks on characters who are going in and will put up an actual kick off date for the game. So we still have some time before we move out and characters are locked in.

I'll also probably allow a bit of switching of stuff in the very early phases of the game, like post first combat encounter, just so people can have had some experience of how their character feels to play in combat.

[Nik Hasta]

Postmania, I will do a fuller assessment of Jane before kick off but those changes and Techs broadly look okay at a glance. Nice to see a Dodge Technique already being employed.

I'm surprised at how fragile she's become now, almost baseline HP, but I guess you're really committing to the ranged sniper play and if you're getting hit it means something has gone seriously wrong haha.

[Postmania]

Postmania, I will do a fuller assessment of Jane before kick off but those changes and Techs broadly look okay at a glance. Nice to see a Dodge Technique already being employed.

I'm surprised at how fragile she's become now, almost baseline HP, but I guess you're really committing to the ranged sniper play and if you're getting hit it means something has gone seriously wrong haha.

It’s true, she’s barely taking any more hits than Krys now. But that’s what the team is for, ideally.

[Sharpandpointies]

So, it's more akin to a decoy sort of thing? Or can she see out of the new body so it's like a remote viewing sort of thing?

It seems that the Hard Light body is actually something that is physically present, and is basically her 'working body'. The CORE is the projector, but the core is essentially immobile and useless on its own. Am I getting it right?

If this is the case, then yes, it would be exceedingly dangerous to start the body teleporting around the battlefield because if someone finds the core they can just step on it. Also, the body (as noted) can't 'go on ahead' without leaving the core behind. I assume the core is normally 'carried' by the hard light body somehow - like within it, or by it.

Possible abuses of power:

1. Hide the core in the battlefield. Now the body can dance around the battlefield. Granted, the hard light body can also be destroyed, and the core can ONLY project light where it can 'see', so that's LESS of a problem - the core can't be completely hidden or it can't project.

2. Have another player carry the core. This is a bigger problem, as it leads to someone carrying the core while the hard light body is basically an immortal, teleporting scout (it can be 'killed', but that doesn't harm the core).

Out of the two, I would say that #2 is the bigger imbalance. It's a pretty crazy-good thing to have a teleporting being as an advance scout, or someone who can teleport through transparent things and fiddle with stuff on the other side of the window, or...you get the idea. I don't know if it's game-breaking, mind.

It’s true, she’s barely taking any more hits than Krys now. But that’s what the team is for, ideally.

This is the issue with being razor-focused on a single aspect: weakness in other areas. Krys is completely focused on 'massive skill/defense+counterattacks' - area attacks are and will be a problem, and they don't take hits well (though some of their techniques help with that). Jane is going almost pure sniper, which means a weakness towards melee and, of course, toughness.

.....

While I'm not normally one for 'preferring X build' (I'm more about 'preferring complex characters and themes'), I will say that I really like razor-focused characters. Not to put-down generalists; if well-made with an interesting character, they can be just as good.

[Postmania]

Speaking of team I should add a description of these buffs when they affect other people since I almost forgot they can do that. They won’t be able to help a high RES character like Arx too much but I’m sure someone like Krys might appreciate hitting a little harder with PRE at some point

[Sharpandpointies]

Speaking of team I should add a description of these buffs when they affect other people since I almost forgot they can do that. They won’t be able to help a high RES character like Arx too much but I’m sure someone like Krys might appreciate hitting a little harder with PRE at some point

Ouch. Yes, valid point. Would like to know what it does/how it feels so that I can put that in my writing.

Sadly, Krys has few Buffs, but they can buff someone's speed, which might be useful for Jane (with a RES of 10, Jane should get roughly the same out of it as Krys does, ie something like +24 if Krys has Stacked CHA), and Charisma (social situations only). Both buffs are more a matter of altered perception of All Things than anything else, so I'll basically describe the changes in the what the recipient senses if Krys uses the technique on someone else.

[Postmania]

That should do it for those buffs when given to others. Since they're primarily for Jane, others might be discomforted and receive some side effects

Also question

A PC may only one have Persistent Technique personally active at a time [unless a trait is acquired is gained to allow for that] but multiple Persistent Techniques may be placed upon a single target and they will stack.

What does this mean? I thought they were things you did to yourself, but this sounds like they are not that.

Also I think the Persistent Tech part mentions that Epic techniques can receive multiple status effects, but the link it directs to says thats not a thing, so I assume that first part is an older part.

[Nik Hasta]

What does this mean? I thought they were things you did to yourself, but this sounds like they are not that.

Also I think the Persistent Tech part mentions that Epic techniques can receive multiple status effects, but the link it directs to says thats not a thing, so I assume that first part is an older part.

This quote covers a few things. It could probably do with being updated a little to be more accurate in its language but the core of it is still pretty much correct. To give a bit more detail.

1) A Persistent Action being active automatically uses one (1) Technique Action for the caster for every turn it is active. If it is cast upon themselves and they only have 1 Technique Action based on their build then, on their turn, they cannot use additional Techniques while using their Persistent Technique because their Technique Action is already occupied.

2) However, if you have two Technique Slots and two different Persistent Techniques, you still would not be able to cast them both at the same time as the rule is that you can only run one Persistent Technique at a time. Just as a hard limit of the system.

3) However, if multiple players have Persistent Techniques that can be cast on another player [Epic level] and they took the trouble to set it up, multiple players could stack their individual Persistent Techniques on a single target PC to make them much stronger by getting the benefit of all the Techniques on one guy.

All that clear?

[Postmania]

So basically, we can give players Installs, the same way we can give players buffs, but it costs the Technique action bc its a Persistent Tech? Would you have to designate that they can be applied to others or would that just normally be a thing that can be passed on?

I assume the part with additional slots being able to be combined into a single Persistent tech to apply different status effects is the part that is outdated

[Nik Hasta]

So basically, we can give players Installs, the same way we can give players buffs, but it costs the Technique action bc its a Persistent Tech? Would you have to designate that they can be applied to others or would that just normally be a thing that can be passed on?

As noted in the Technique Guide, only Epic Persistents can be applied to others. Given that it's Epic, I'm not fussed about it requiring designation.

I assume the part with additional slots being able to be combined into a single Persistent tech to apply different status effects is the part that is outdated

No it isn't, it doesn't mention status effects in that section. The reference to multiple slots refers to crossing Affinity Types with a Multi-Slot Techniques. Like to have a Persistent Tech that does +25 STR/+13 BRA, you would need to use a Honed Body and Honed Spirit Slot to do it and you would only get the effects of the Body Slot because it is the primary as indicated by it getting the bigger boost.

Persistent Techniques can be multi-slot but they can't have multiple effects in play unless you use two Epic Slots as noted in the Multi-Slot guide.

[Sharpandpointies]

That should do it for those buffs when given to others. Since they're primarily for Jane, others might be discomforted and receive some side effects .

Nice work on that, Post.