What could have been... DC3e

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Marcus Bone
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What could have been... DC3e

Post by Marcus Bone »

This morning I was struck by memories of the past - some good, some bad - of my time developing DC. I started the process about 5 years ago (OMG - I can tell because my first son was born a month or so before I signed the license!!), and while it was a bumpy ride, I quite enjoyed the experience!

I don't know whether I've gone into what was or wasn't meant to be in DC 3e, but I thought, mainly for my own edification, I would quickly go over the system mechanics I developed for the game.

Character Basics
  • Attributes - These were the same base 8 from 1st edition - Strength, Agility, Constitution, Empathy, Intelligence, Education, Charisma
  • Aptitudes - These were derived from Attributes and determined base levels of compentency for skills. These were - Combatative, Athletic, Manipulative, Technical, Communicative, Preceptive, Empathic. All skills sat under one of these Aptitudes.
  • Skills - Just like revised 1st edition, skills were determine by adding an Aptitude to the number of skill points to give a total.
  • Social Class & Background - All characters had a Social class (with certain career restrictions and benefits) and a Background (a selection of skills and Attribute bonuses based on they type of upbringing the character had).
  • Careers - These were 3 year terms, and were divided into Social Class (i.e. Proles couldn't take Mike or Nome Careers). Careers gave skills (with more skill points than 1st edition per term), contacts and resource points. Some had been added, others renamed, removed. Norm also did a lot of work on the way in which military careers worked! This was really neat, especially as the default setting saw most characters having to undertake at least one term of military service!
  • Motivational Descriptions - Players were encouraged to add desiptions or key events in their lives, Vignettes of how they see the world, any interesting items they might own, any non mechanical talents thet might have (i.e. Jon can play the spoons) and Personality Traits (i.e. Jon has old fashion manners - opens doors for women, etc.)
  • Trigger Events - All characters would have one of these. Basically the event that made them aware of the Dark.
  • Resources - Rather than dealing with cash, Resources would guide what you could afford/access/find. These were divided into 10 levels (with 10 Resource points making a level), and all goods/services/equipment would fall one of these. Characters with the appropriate level of Resource could acquire the item, while those without would have to spend a number of resource points to gain it. Of course contacts could temporarily raise a character's Resouce level when acquiring an item.
  • Contacts - would remain the same, although all contacts would have a rating. This would be lowered and raised as the character interacted with them. A contact reduced to zero would be lost.
System Mechanics - Step System
  • Dice - DC3e used only a single D20's and D6s
  • Task Resolution (D20 under skill + Aptitude +/- modifier)
  • Level of Success - For every 3 less than the target number rolled is a level of success. These levels are used in tasks that take time (i.e. to hack this computer a total of 10 levels of success are needed, or to open this door 12 levels of success would be needed). In some cases, LoS could be built up over multiple rolls from multiple characters. LoS also added to damage in combat.
  • Initiative - Uses the system I devised for the 2e version of DC. This was rolling 2D6 and adding your Initiative score. Characters then acted at various points in the round as the GM counted down from 20 (i.e. for humans they act on the number rolled and every 5 action points after this - Jon rolls a 7 on 2D6, adds his Init of 4 for a total of 11. Therefore he acts on Action point 11, 6 & 1 in the round).
  • Combat - retained the mechanics from 1st edition i.e. multiple shots, and autofire, but also included rules for controlled bursts (benefit to hit, less attacks in a round) - the tactic used by Special Forces with auto weapon of point & shoot - and other such rules.
  • Hit Locations - The location hit by an attack was determined by the 'ones' digit rolled on D20 used to roll to hit. This meant more skilled characters had more potential to hit vunerable locations!
  • Damage - Damage was done with D6s. Roll number of D6 as per the weapon, plus extra based on LoS minus armour. Damage was very much like Savage Worlds, where wounds were inflicted once more damage was done than the character's Toughness.
  • Scratches - Scratches were retained, and marked off when a hit didn't do enough to bypass Toughness. However, if all Scratch boxes were marked off then the location hit then took damage!
  • Wounds- These were retained with each location having a number of wound boxes (i.e. Head only had three, while Chest had 5, etc.).
  • Stress Mechanics - I decided to add some horror/fear rules. These were to be a modified verion of the damage mechanics, where the frights would attack one of the three Stress locations (Resolve - Ability to withstand pain, Reasoning - Ability to handle the supernatural, Humanity - dealing with the Dark leads to corruption).
That covers everything I think. I never really got into the Empathy skills, although these would be modified skill rolls, and the setting/background I came up with has a good possibility of being revamped into the edition Norm, Lee and Tad are working on.

I personally think that I had a good system in the making, one that while complex created interesting and diverse character, and allows for depth in task resolution and combat. I suppose we will never know :P

Happy to hear any feedback on this, BTW. I wrote most of the character gen and careers chapters and about 70% of the task & combat sections (and had a good outline of the Healing chapter).

Thanks for letting me indulge in my walk down memory lane!
Marcus
Owner of http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info and other great RPG websites -
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- Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org
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ReHerakhte
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Re: What could have been... DC3e

Post by ReHerakhte »

I'm at work so this by necessity will be a quick reply :(

I always liked the social background idea so I like that it was to be a factor in your edition.
I went with 3 year terms for my house rules, seems a lot of people felt the same way - 4 years was simply too long.
The Resource Points concept is an interesting take, I'm assuming it would be a 'determining' factor to allow PCs to acquire gear rather than having the idea that they can just walk into any old shop and pick up whatever they want? Kind of like the Availability Codes but not as arbitrary as them.
I really, really, really like the idea that PCs need to 'work' their Contacts, so having a scale to judge how well they have treated those Contacts is a great idea. I hate it when Players treat Contacts as though they are just another way to get gear (hence my own house rules)

I'll have to leave the mechanics for another post :(
Cheers,
Kevin
It's not whether you win or lose,

It's whether I win...
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Marcus Bone
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Re: What could have been... DC3e

Post by Marcus Bone »

ReHerakhte wrote:I always liked the social background idea so I like that it was to be a factor in your edition.
That's one of the core background aspects of DC - the return of a rigid class structure. I was always amused that the setting created such great material yet failed to iintegrate it into the mechanics
The Resource Points concept is an interesting take, I'm assuming it would be a 'determining' factor to allow PCs to acquire gear rather than having the idea that they can just walk into any old shop and pick up whatever they want? Kind of like the Availability Codes but not as arbitrary as them.
Depends on how rich one was, to maintain one's class you had to have a certain number of Resource Levels (otherwise you just couldn't afford the house and car, kids education and the three ex-wives :P).

The basic premise was so avoid characters having to worry and dollars and cents, and say 'YES you can afford it', or 'Well, you can, but it cuts into youtr available money". I mean you could imagine a Nome going into a Hummer shop and purchasing an H2 without blinking an eye, while sure the Mike could afford it, but will have to sell the house or take on some ridiculous credit contract to purchase it'

That was what I wanted to replicate with the Resource Levels.
I really, really, really like the idea that PCs need to 'work' their Contacts, so having a scale to judge how well they have treated those Contacts is a great idea. I hate it when Players treat Contacts as though they are just another way to get gear (hence my own house rules)
I wanted to see contacts become more of a integral part of the game. Norm & I talked for hours on the subject and we mocked up a few ideas. Never got it 100% however, but we were going down the path.

Look forward to anything else you may have to say!

Marcus
Owner of http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info and other great RPG websites -
- Stormbringer! - Supporting the Eternal Champion RPGs at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com
- Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org
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Zvezda
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Re: What could have been... DC3e

Post by Zvezda »

I like most of the ideas. Especially the LoS system seems to remove some of the worst aspects of the GDW core rules. Would the difficulty levels be kept with that system or would they have been removed? Was there also a system for failures? I mean could you get levels of failure or was a fail a fail?
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Re: What could have been... DC3e

Post by Marcus Bone »

Zvezda wrote:I like most of the ideas. Especially the LoS system seems to remove some of the worst aspects of the GDW core rules. Would the difficulty levels be kept with that system or would they have been removed? Was there also a system for failures? I mean could you get levels of failure or was a fail a fail?


Hi Zvezda,

Yes, there were still the difficulty levels, these would have given you bonus or negative Steps to your skill level (i.e. Easy was +6, Average +3, Difficult +0, Hard -3, etc.). That meant that someone without the skill (which I think defaulted to Aptitude (-1 Step) could still have some chance of success in simple tasks.

As for levels of failure, no, don't think I ever went down that road. Althought, now you mention it, it seems like a cool idea!

Marcus
Owner of http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info and other great RPG websites -
- Stormbringer! - Supporting the Eternal Champion RPGs at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com
- Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org
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