Heroplex (Working Title)

[ironfox]

This is a little something I've been Working on for a few weeks and it's really grown on me. I'd like to get as many opinions as possible on it.

"Heroplex" is a gaming system I came up with that will (hopefully) be able to handle any kind of role play gaming.

I've borrowed heavily from various games I've played to try and capitalize on the aspects of gaming rules that were the most fun to me.

Not only would I like feedback on these rules but any creative input would also be appreciated.

As to not overload potential readers I won't be posting everything I have right now. I've got several folders dedicated to Powers, Modifiers, Perks, Flaws and misc. ideas so you can expect pretty regular updates if the demand is high enough.

[ironfox]

Basics

With few exceptions, everything in the game has the same cost and that cost is equal to the rank you are purchasing. Every rank must be purchased individually. So if at creation you want your hero to have a Damage 5 attack you will spend 15 points. 1 for rank 1, then 2 at rank 2, 3 at 3 and so on as follows; 1+2+3+4+5=15.

Flaws reduce the costs at a 1 for 1 rate. So if your hero with the Damage 5 attack also had the Equipment Flaw at a 3 the total cost would be 12.

Let's look at the Abilities starting with Mind. We'll use the character Captain America as our example when discussing Abilities seeing as he's well rounded and has a few Abilities above the human norm.

Captain America has a Mind of 3. This is in the Gifted range while not being particularly high. His Mental Resistance is the same as his Mind, 3. Anyone attempting to trick him with an Illusion or implant a Suggestion must overcome this Mental Resistance. His Mental Vitality is his Mind x10, totaling 30. When Mental Attacks reduce this number to 0, Captain America can become susceptible to Mind Control or become Comatose.

Mind + Reflexes = Initiative. Captain America's Reflexes are at a 5, that's Peak Human. Combined with his Mind of 3, Cap has an Initiative of 8. When deciding who goes first in a combat round compare the Initiative scores. Whichever is higher goes first.

Mind + Durability x3 = Energy, Mind + Durability /3 = Energy Recovery. Captain America has a Durability of 6, just above Peak Human and into the Enhanced Human scores. Mind of 3 and Durability 6 equal 9, multiply that by 3 to get 27 and Cap's total Energy. Energy can be spent to bolster Abilities up to double their score and is typically required to use Powers or Talents. Cap recovers 3 Energy per turn (Mind + Durability /3 round down).

Mind + Coordination = Ranged Accuracy. Cap has a Coordination of 5 which is Peak Human. Cap's Mind and Coordination give him a Ranged Accuracy of 8. If he were to attempt a Ranged Attack on anyone with an 8 or lower Evasion he would succeed. If his opponent's Evasion were higher, he'd have to spend Energy in order to hit them. Of course, his opponent could spend Energy into their Evasion making them harder to hit, so success would go to whoever put out the most effort.

Moving on to Strength.

Captain Steve Rogers has a Strength score of 6. A character may lift 100lbs times his Strength score plus Energy spent up to double. That means that if Cap spends 6 Energy into Strength, he can lift 1,200lbs. Cap's Strength score is also the amount of damage he deals on a successful hit, plus Energy spent up to double and Strength is added to the damage of Strength Based Weaponry, such as Captain America's Shield.

Strength + Reflexes x12 = Movement Speed. Movement Speed is measured in feet per turn and one turn is six seconds. We already know from above that Cap has a Reflex score of 5 and a Strength score of 6 making his total movement Speed 11 or 132 feet per turn or 15 miles per hour. At his absolute peak (spending 5 Energy into Reflexes and 6 into Strength, doubling both) Steve's Speed is 264 feet per turn or 30 miles per hour. However with an Energy of 27 and Recovery of 3 he will only be able to keep this up for 3 turns (18 seconds).

Strength + Durability x6 = Physical Vitality. This is where Captain America really shines. With a Strength of 6 and a Durability of 6 Steve's total Physical Vitality is 72! (6+6=12, 12x6=72) Whenever Physical Attacks reduce Cap's Vitality to 0 he is Knocked Out, can be Crippled and could enter the Dying state.

Strength + Coordination = Melee Accuracy. This works exactly the way Mind and Coordination do with Ranged Accuracy. Steve's Strength of 6 + his Coordination of 5 give him a base Melee Accuracy of 11 which can be increased by spending Energy.

Reflexes

We've already covered two functions of Reflexes in the descriptions for Mind and Strength. That leaves us with just one more function to talk about...

Reflexes + Coordination = Evasion. Cap's got both of these Abilities at a 5, Peak Human, making his Evasion a 10. Once again Cap can spend Energy to increase this to up to 20. If his opponent cannot match his Ranged or Melee Attack to Cap's Evasion, then Cap dodges the Attack.

Durability

Like Reflexes, there's just one more thing you need to know about Durability and it's pretty simple.

Durability = Physical Resistance. Cap has a Durability of 6. That means that he ignores the first 6 points of all incoming Physical Damage. Now when you take into account that Cap already has 72 Vitality, you're going to have a hard time bringing this guy down. (And we haven't even factored in his shield and costume.)

Everything that Coordination does was covered in the other descriptions. Sorry Coordination.

[ironfox]

These are just a few questions I thought might arise from what I've posted above. If you have any more feel free ask.

Q: Why are Physical and Mental Vitality so high when Cap's Strength suggests his max damage is 12?

A: The "Damage" Power in the game adds 1d6 to damage for every rank purchased. The logic behind this was that if a character had a Strength score equal to his opponent's Durability and a Damage rank equal to his overall Vitality rank then said character COULD one shot the other IF he maxed out his roll.

Q: Isn't the Strength scaling a bit off? The Hulk would have like a 2000 Strength!

A: There is a Modifier in the game called "Power Lifting" that doubles the weight limits of Strength with each rank. That combined with the "Strength based Damage" Power would work for Hulk.

Q: Isn't Cap faster than that?

A: Nothing is perfect! However I think 30mph is fine for Cap and more accurately reflects his "peak human" status.

[ironfox]

Should I move this? Looks like this area of the boards doesn't get much attention.

[Silentking Alpha]

You have my attention. I am just have nothing to add. It is very interesting what you have here. Please continue!

[ironfox]

Well, I've changed enough of the system after a few test runs that the only way to recognize it as the same system is pretty much to be me, the creator.

It no longer uses Energy. Instead it uses 2 levels of effort that may be combined into the same action for a +5 boost or divided into two different actions for a +3 boost to each.

Characters are still able to use their abilities at their full rank, effort simply boosts this number.
Powers and talents also work very differently. Actually almost everything does. I won't be able to describe all of the changes here until I have the revised rules written out.

But here's a little mind bender (at least it was for all of my players): All characters now have only 5 points of health!

I'll let that stew before filling in the why's and how's.

[Silentking Alpha]

The biggest WTF to me was the health change.

[Neros]

The biggest WTF, for me was the amount of mathmatics and how high the numbers are. But the idea about combining different things is a nice way to handle combat, senses and evasion

But when you write down all the rules for people to read, one of the most important things to remember is to make it sensibly and have a easy setup so people don't get lost in words and numbers..

[ironfox]

Well the mathematics and high numbers are a couple of the things I wanted to get rid of with my revision. Things are much simpler now.

I've strayed away from the sandbox style of character build as well. I'll be crafting each power individually with options to add and remove from each power. So it's kind of a reverse sandbox game.

And now for the health aspect: Each point of health has a resistance equal to your Durability. So if Cyclops has a Durability of 6 you would have to deal 6 to reduce his health by 1, 12 to reduce it by 2 and so on. Dealing 8 damage will reduce his health by 1 and the additional 2 damage are wasted. This is much easier to track than it may appear in text.

Some great benefits to this form of health system is that it's insanely easy to keep track of, you have five hit points, easy. Also this has allowed me to create a Teamwork and Leadership dynamic that is my favorite of any game so far.

Hulk has a Durability of 16, really hard to hurt but if two characters have teamwork and one level of Effort dedicated to it then all of their attacks count as the same action. So two characters who would have no chance of hurting Hulk alone might have a chance if they work together.
A character with leadership and one level of Effort dedicated to it may act as if he and another character have teamwork active even if that character doesn't possess the teamwork Talent. Additionally if the leader dedicates both levels of Effort to leadership then he and a number of characters equal to his Leadership rank gain the benefits of teamwork making an impossible foe tolerable to fight.
This puts much more pressure on keeping the leader safe and on taking out the leader of an opposing team.

Any confusion? Sound fun and functional?