Preview -- New Game System (Not Playtested)

[serleran]

Single Unified Core: A Roleplaying Game like All the Others
The pronoun you is used throughout this work to indicate the person reading it, rather than you the generic term. If you are offended, you probably would have hated me using he, she, or the dreaded s/he in its place.

There are some very basic things a player needs for a game of SUC:

1) A package of regular polyhedral dice available online or from a hobby / game store

2) An active imagination and someone else, preferably a group of four six, to play with

3) These rules, which, if youre reading them, you have already
Why are there Rules?

All games have rules they tell you how to play. To play any roleplaying game, unless youre the one running the game (this will be explained later), youre going to need a character some representation of the fictional person the events of the game involve or relate. Some roleplaying games have very detailed systems, and others are much more open. SUC is of the latter, with infinite opportunity for the former. Lets stick with the easy for now, and after youre comfortable with the basics, expand as you see fit.
SUC Characters

Youll need to determine the numbers that define the make-up of your character. It is easy to do before you roll, you must decide if the result is going to be a positive (beneficial) number, a negative (not beneficial) number, or a non-modified attribute (do not roll); you must have two of each. Then, roll one four-sided die (the one that looks like a pyramid) and record the numbers and whether it was positive, negative, or mark beside it. These values will represent the ease your character succeeds at tasks that involve that particular attribute. The specific attributes correspond to a general collection of abilities and actions, such as lifting objects or surviving an injury. For more information, see below:
Muscle as the name implies, this is the attribute that covers any, and all, activities that involve raw physical power. If you wanted to push a stalled car, break a door, lift a heavy rock, or otherwise perform some amazing feat of sheer strength, like bending an iron bar with your teeth, this would be the stat for you. In many conventions, Muscle also serves as a combat attribute, modifying the chance of success for combat actions like attacking or inflicting damage.
Brains Brains are a measure of your ability to think, reason, and know stuff, like acing a trivia quiz or solving a complex riddle. In fantasy conventions, this attribute is often tied to the magical arts; in those of a more modern, or science-fiction leaning, Brains is used for technology, such as building or adapting it. Zombies, a Nasty (read about these guys later on), love this stuff too.
Insight used for miscellaneous powers of observation that are not directly related to anything, Insight is your best friend if you need to spot a hidden object or creature, or simply avoid being seduced by the charms of a wily beauty. If youd like to understand the mysteries of the inner mind, Insight is for you many standard tropes of roleplaying games tie this attribute to perception and mental powers such as the ability to read minds, so if that sounds appealing, consider Insight.
Agility as it may seem apparent, Agility is the overall physical bend ability coupled with a strange combination of accuracy and speed; anything that involves you doing some sort of physical motion, like a cartwheel is based on this attribute. Many situations involve a degree of Agility, like moving without sound, or maintaining balance under duress, but it can also be used for combat, like dodging an incoming missile or sidestepping a fatal sword blow.
Health naturally, Health represents the endurance, fortitude, and general well-being of your character, allowing you to survive where otherwise you probably would not, such as being bitten by a poisonous snake or failing to get out of the way of that naughty sword. If your game tends toward the aggressive, having much Health is a good idea, but if you typically play other styles, you might want to skip this score altogether.
Charm if youre thinking of being suave and sophisticated with a ream of plebeians at your service, this is your lucky day, because that is exactly what Charm does: it lets you manipulate, connive, convince, and seduce others into believing and behaving as you want. Vampires, another foul Nasty, make great use of this ability.

Now that you have determined your basic character abilities, it would ordinarily be a good time to decide what they mean, specifically, to you and the character youre about to play. To help with that, many games incorporate some system that allows you to refine your character by including skills or learned talents SUC is no different. As youll see, having a smattering of things to choose from allows a degree of flexibility, letting you have something a little different from the others playing, even if you happen to have all rolled and recorded the same attribute values.
SUC Traits

After figuring out the core components that set the baseline for your character, youll need to add a little dash of yourself in there, something that will spark and give life to the pile of numbers and generalities, and that is where Traits become handy every character has a certain number of these at the start, but may add more as the game plays. Dont worry about how they get used quite yet as thats going to be covered later. For now, just pick two, from the following list, that you want for your character:
Fight: if you have this, youre good in a brawl, a shootout, or even on the archery range if it involves you needing to hurt something, youve got it covered. Weapons or not, or even a couple of them at a time is not usually a problem for you just imagine yourself as an action star, pistol-whipping and cleaving opponents in two as you waltz through a virtual bloodbath delivered by your fingers you are unstoppable, unless you encounter someone better. Youll need this one, especially if your games tend toward the lethal or fantastic would not want to get caught in a Zombie Apocalypse and not be able to get those needed head shots
Athlete: do you want to be able to swim a mile, run a marathon, or perform a quadruple Lutz while wearing a blindfold? If you can answer yes, then youll want to have this trait. Any physical action or motion, such as cartwheels, flips, or even the military crawl is covered by this take it and youre the supreme Olympian, with the only limitations set by what you let yourself do. This trait can be very handy for those who like to sneak around and take things those crossing ultraviolet lasers arent going to dodge you, but you might be able to slink yourself between them, and then, youve got that fifty story building to worry about
Stealth: being able to move without detection, hide in plain sight, bypass and defeat alarms, traps, and all manner of security systems are the be all of this traits coverage you never know when you might have a gigantic boulder roll down a tube as a spiked pit opens up before you, filled with acid-spitting snakes but, this also does so much more: need to hack a computer or decrypt a secret code? Maybe you need to infiltrate a spy-ring and root a traitor either way, mastery of this trait will get you where you need to be, leaving you in the perfect spot to do whatever it is you need to do
Sales: there are few people who can claim to be able to sell anything to anyone for any price, and of those, most are probably liars. You can join the club by accepting this trait as your own, gaining the amazing ability to convince others of pretty much anything, whether that is to buy a farm on Jupiter or to sell you their left eyeball its all at the edge of your tongue. Lies arent a problem for you, and even if caught, youll be able to lie about the lie, creating a whole web of misconfusing [heh, did you buy that as a word?] doubletalk. Heck, you can even talk people into doing things they probably wouldnt even do, you little devil
Create: needing to be able to devise some instrument, fix, or repair something is a useful trait, but this one allows far greater flexibility maybe youre a fantasy hero with the talent to forge weapons of eminent destruction or youre a technician with a supercomputer at the base of your brain this trait lets you, literally, do anything if there is time, and youve got the resources. It is the most complicated to use, but you dont care because youll just create something to speed that up, right? Sometimes this trait is limited, based on the theme of the game, so ask the players whats going on before you waste a selection
Heal: sometimes things just dont go right, and you get hurt, twist an ankle, or whatever, maybe even have a power spike without a surge protector you know, all those annoying contrivances that keep you out of action until you set on the mend well, wait no more, for this trait gives you the means to get up and going, to repair and fix, whether a wound or other technological marvel you can do it all. This trait further enables you to handle and treat lingering conditions, like a disease or the baleful agony of poison, both more likely to be found at the fang-end of a Nasty. Whatever comes, youll be able to survive it, assuming you survive it
ESP: if youre thinking I want to read minds, lift and throw things without touching them, or start a fire from a mile away then this is the trait for you its all about your mind and the lovely unlocked potential therein. In some ways, its a lot like the Create trait, so there might be restrictions put into effect, so ask before you assume, but otherwise have fun with it implant suggestions, create hallucinations, levitate and manipulate magnetism just let your mind and imagination flow. Beware Nasty bad evil guys with this trait, for there arent many ways to resist it, and you never really know what it might do
Trivia: ah, yes, the egghead, the mister know-it-all, the guy who can answer any question, regardless of subject or obscurity yeah, thats you if you take this one, turning yourself into a veritable database of information. Naturally, this ability has its place, and can be extremely helpful in many situations, so consider yourself very lucky to have it youll probably use it a lot, but dont be foolish and think that, just because you have this trait your character is going to just know something beyond reason if youre playing a character set in the Stone Age, youre not going to know how to build a tank. But, maybe youre the next da Vinci
Survive: when youre in freezing water, subject to the nibble of a black mamba, or even just dropped into a desert without food and water, your ability to live is going to be relatively important, assuming you want to keep playing. That is where this trait helps it improves the odds, letting you continue when you would otherwise not, and lets you resist effects, like torture or the deep probe of alien mind-reading; it may seem redundant to the Health score, but this applies to far more general categories and not just damage to your body think of it as a pain resistance slash general survival combination and youre on the right track, Rambo
Steal: so, youre considering being a tad of a cad, are you? Want to be a master pilfer, a sneak who can lift idols, crack safes, and take money from pockets? Well, youve got the right idea as that is exactly what this trait will let you do, and more, if you think about it long enough. If something can be stolen, it will be and youll be the right person too. However, security might pose a problem, so youll need to be smart or able to ignore it, so plan ahead good news is that youll be able to, since you already have a head for what to expect, even if what you encounter is not what you hoped
How do I use them?

Often, in a roleplaying game, actions attempted by the characters are not guaranteed success in every situation maybe youll miss with that sawed-off or the tumbler wont fall into place so some sort of random mechanic is introduced to determine the result. Thats what were going to do, too, so listen up this will be important. You now know your attributes and traits, and youll probably want to know how the game uses them to determine success or failure, and what thats going to mean to you. You need to know three things having a trait is a good thing, you want to use them as much as you can, and, the most important of all -- The Rule of Cool.

When your character attempts an action that has a plausibility of failure, youll grab a twelve-sided die (d12) and roll it. Add the modifier for your appropriate attribute and another +4 if you have a trait that would seem to apply to the situation apply an additional +2 for each trait you can convincingly argue would help but dont bog down the game; if someone disagrees with you, concede the point and move on because you just want to have fun, not waste a night arguing whether you can use Heal to inflict more damage to someone because you know all about anatomy (you can, and do, by the way, for +2.) The roll is compared against a flat baseline to determine the result, but its pretty easy to succeed:

[quote]Code:


Other modifiers can be applied as needed, whether positive or negative, to reflect the exact situation at hand that is, do not consider these to be fully static as gameplay can, and should, modify the way is used. Interpreting the results is half the challenge of playing the game, so have fun with it.

In general, a complete failure is as it sounds a complete and utter failure, with a disastrous result how to resolve it depends on what provoked it. For example, if you were firing off 3000 rounds per second with your minigun and received this, the gun probably blew up and now youre dead.

Simple failures mean you did not do whatever you were trying to do, and can do it again, ideally you might be disallowed depending on what it was (like trying to not get rabies after being bit by a Rabid Carnivore Monkey,) but that doesnt mean you cant try (it just means you wont succeed.)

Success, naturally, means you succeeded. Congrats, the deed was accomplished.

A better success is one that succeeds, of course, but has some added benefit the nature of the action helps to decide what side bonus is given; if youre not able to quickly think of something, just give yourself one experience point and continue the game.

Beyond this, there is the even better success, the Woohoo! When you do so well that the activity was flawless, unprecedented, you get five experience points and something bonus related to the action you performed, just like a better success.
But what about the Create trait?

Good question. As explained, the Create trait says its more complicated. It is. The resolution system is the same that is, you determine success or failure the same way, but there are more modifiers and things to consider, namely, what it is that is being created.

[More to Come...]
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Serl's Corner

[MacLeod]

Sounds like a good, straight-forward generic system so far.
Is attacking going to be treated as an opposed roll? Or will the opponent supply penalties to the attacker's roll?
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In this world of LIES... the TRUTH, it means RESISTANCE!

[serleran]

I'm considering some options for that -- the goal is to be simplistic and streamlined, leaving out anything that doesn't really need to be there.
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Serl's Corner

[Lord Dynel]

Not too shabby, sir. I like the open-ended system for checks. Waiting to see some more, hoss.
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LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules

Troll Lord wrote:
Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.

[Relaxo]

Yeah, This looks solid so far.

I'm not sure I'd give it a name that sounds like "suck" however.

[Lord Dynel]

Relaxo wrote:
I'm not sure I'd give it a name that sounds like "suck" however.

See, I was going to mention that...

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LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules

Troll Lord wrote:
Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.

[dunbruha]

Looks interesting so far! and it's nice you are giving some love to the d12. I like that one.

[serleran]

Thanks all for the interest. Due to a hardware malfunction, my computer ate itself and is no longer working so I had to replace it with the cheapest hunk of plastic I could find. I have not yet had time to pull data from the old computer, so all projects I am involved with are delayed at best and gone at worst, which is likely no real loss.

The name for the game was intentional, by the way.
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Serl's Corner

[Relaxo]

Dude, that sucks. the computer crash I mean, and no pun intended.

I assumed the name was intentional.
good luck w/ the data recovery.

[serleran]

OK -- I found the original file and was able to restore it. I have worked on it a little more, but not as much as I would like. Here is more information on the Create trait:

The following are the most basic uses of the Create trait and the modifiers for each; if you want something that has multiple effects then you must also apply each modifier for those effects:
Effect / Modifier

Increase an Attribute / -4 per bonus given

Increase a Trait / -3 per bonus given

Increase non-Attribute / -2 per bonus given [double for combat related]

Gain a Trait [excludes Create or ESP] / -6 per Trait

Allow use of Create or ESP / -10

Reduce Create Time / -1 per day reduced

Reduce Create Cost / -5 per halving

It may not be immediately obvious what these various functions are capable of, so a little explanation is needed so you understand just why this trait is very powerful and possibly limited in the milieu of your game.

Increasing an Attribute is pretty straightforward you select one of the six Attributes previously described and add 1 to it. There may be maxima values in effect, so dont try to supersede those.

If you increase a Trait you get a +1 bonus when using it, in addition to any other modifiers you might receive think of it as a sort of focus, making you even better at that particular thing than most, if not all. Like increasing an Attribute, there may be limits on how high a bonus you might get, or even if you can do it at all.

By increasing a non-Attribute you make some aspect of your character better, which are usually things related to combat but are not either Attributes or Traits such as speed and resistances it can also enhance other extraneous things about your character, like wealth, age, and so forth. Certain effects, such as those that directly affect your capability in combat, should it be important to the style of game youre playing, are more difficult and therefore double the modifier since we dont want you to become invincible too easily.

Gaining a Trait treats you as though you had initially selected or earned it. You gain all the bonuses and abilities of the Trait, including that of the +2 bonus should it apply to another action.

You can even Create something that lets you create something, though you would normally do this for someone else however, if you ever suffer amnesia, youre likely to hope you were smart enough to create a few backups of your memory. It is also possible to develop some creation that endows you with mystical ESP, often on a one-shot basis because the costs for making something permanent are generally very high as youll see.

Making anything takes time. How long depends a great deal on what is being made, the materials involved, and the skill of the crafter were ignoring that. In SUC, when you make something, it is assumed to take two weeks, less any days removed by making it harder on yourself. Of course, you do have to have the components, and some of them might be very hard to obtain.

Lastly, when you Create something, it has a cost. This is reflected by spending hard-earned experience. There are three types of items that can be created, each with a different cost
Duration / Cost

One Use / 10 experience

Per Use / 10 experience per use

Permanent / 500 experience

One use items may provide whatever benefits they have once, and once only.

Items made to be per use have some number of times it can bestow its abilities, which must be a minimum of 2 and cannot exceed 50. Each use reduces the available by 1. If one is allowed to refill or replenish the usages, the cost must be paid again, but the amount of charges set at creation is always the maximum this means when you originally create something you must set the upper limit to its uses and pay the corresponding experience.

Something that is permanent always grants its abilities. Some things may suppress or destroy the item, but as long as it exists, and youre using it, you get the benefits treat these with great care because they are very powerful.

If you opt to reduce the cost and succeed, the cost is halved; this is per penalty accepted so it is possible that one use items can be made to be very cheap. Regardless, the cost of create must always be a minimum of 1.
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Serl's Corner

[serleran]

What is the Rule of Cool?

The most important rule of any SUC game is always the Rule of Cool. A small part of it has been explained before with great success comes great reward. However, that is not the summation of what it means: at any point, any player may announce (usually referred to as invoking the Rule of Cool) that what another has done, whether some die roll or course of action, is of such enjoyment that it benefits from this rule... which then gives the person doing whatever was announced an automatic success, even if a die roll or condition says otherwise, but it is not resolved immediately. Instead, the player for whom the Rule of Cool was invoked gets to decide when to use it, but must do so before the end of the game session or it is forfeit, transformed into 5 experience points. Use of the Rule of Cool in this way can only happen once (or subsequent times) per game session for any particular player, unless all players have equally received its benefits. Lastly, the Rule of Cool allows for anything even if the tropes and conventions of the game do not allow something, a player may call on it anyway, and if the other players agree, will be allowed for the game session using the Rule of Cool like this provokes forfeiture of the first earned invocation for the calling player, without penalty or consequence to the others.

[More to come...
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