Creating attacks

[SeDevri]

Is it possible to build a technique/attack which activates when your character drops to X health and then leaves the character "unable to do anything else"?

(Sorry for asking "stupid questions" and bothering everyone with my crazy ideas )

I would say the Weakness Trigger is what you are looking for. Have the Trigger you need be set to your Health and that should work out just fine.

[Sabersonic]

Is it possible to build a technique/attack which activates when your character drops to X health and then leaves the character "unable to do anything else"?

(Sorry for asking "stupid questions" and bothering everyone with my crazy ideas )

Well there's also the Break Flaw for a quick and dirty variation.

[Clay]

Is it possible to build a technique/attack which activates when your character drops to X health and then leaves the character "unable to do anything else"?

(Sorry for asking "stupid questions" and bothering everyone with my crazy ideas )

The only stupid question is the one left unasked!

In any case, if you look at Miho, she's built pretty much like this. Just make the new technique cost enough Endurance to knock your character out altogether, or create a new Flaw that amounts to the same.

[ZephyrMourne]

I realize this is an older thread, but I have a question pertaining to creating attacks that I can't find explicitly stated in the book.

How does Attack count against your point total? If I create an attack at level 3, my DX with that attack is now x4, but do those 3 levels count as 3 points just as with any other ability? Also, does that attack have a base Endurance cost of 0?

That makes sense, but since it doesn't actually add any dice to my roll without perks or flaws, I wasn't 100% positive that was the case.

Basically, does my attack at level three (DX x4) with no perks or flaws count as three points and cost 0 Endurance?

[The Reddest Mage]

I realize this is an older thread, but I have a question pertaining to creating attacks that I can't find explicitly stated in the book.

How does Attack count against your point total? If I create an attack at level 3, my DX with that attack is now x4, but do those 3 levels count as 3 points just as with any other ability? Also, does that attack have a base Endurance cost of 0?

That makes sense, but since it doesn't actually add any dice to my roll without perks or flaws, I wasn't 100% positive that was the case.

Basically, does my attack at level three (DX x4) with no perks or flaws count as three points and cost 0 Endurance?

Attack is an Ability like any other. So if you are using any of the limitation rules like Base Zero, if you choose to take the Attack Ability at the +3 Level, then that counts as three Ability Levels towards your Character Total.

As a rule of thumb, it doesn't matter whether an Ability gives a bonus to dice rolls or not. It's the Level in the Ability that counts towards the Character Total. Also, bonuses to the dice roll gained from Perks don't count towards the Character Total.

As to the Endurance cost, attacks by default don't cost any Endurance to use unless you choose to apply a Perk to them. Otherwise, without any Perks involved, your attacks don't cost any Endurance to use.

[ZephyrMourne]

Thanks for the response. That's what I thought, but with some of the point totals for the sample characters in the book, I wasn't sure I was reading it right.

My only "problem" with OVA so far seems to be that due to my experience with other systems, I keep thinking "it can't be that simple" when it actually is.

[ZephyrMourne]

On another related topic, if two attacks are unrelated in any way, say in the case of a martial arts expert who also carries a pistol, should you have two separate attack abilities?

Most of the characters in the book have only one "attack" but multiple variations within a suite, but they also seem to all be variations on the original rather than completely new attacks. Even the examples given in this thread involve energy attacks pulled from the character's own innate abilities, which also makes sense as a variation with different perks, flaws and affinities. And if the character has a magic sword and the sword can do multiple different things, even some sort of ranged attack, that makes sense, but in the case of fisticuffs vs. firearms this gets a little fuzzier to me.

I suspect that mechanically it makes little difference in terms of actual gameplay, but I want to be sure I understand the base rules before I start unnecessarily tweaking things that already work.

[Malancthon]

On another related topic, if two attacks are unrelated in any way, say in the case of a martial arts expert who also carries a pistol, should you have two separate attack abilities?

Nope. Attack just represents how deadly you are with any attack, whether it's unarmed, magic, ki, sword technique, guns, explosives- whatever. The 'variations' listed in the sample characters are just their usual suite of attacks, so the player or GM doesn't need to come up with attack stats on the fly. But a character can make any reasonable (or with good roleplaying, any unreasonable) attack on the fly.

[ZephyrMourne]

Thanks!

That's what I was getting from the book, but it seemed to easy to be true.

I'm finding that a lot in this system. Like, I kept looking for stats, thinking SURELY I was just missing them. NOBODY could make an RPG without that core mechanic, could they? And yet, here it is, and it doesn't suffer at all for their absence.

[Clay]

The Attack ability is “new” for the Revised edition of the game, and it took me quite a few years to get to the point where I felt like something so simple was, in fact, “okay.” I just knew that I wanted characters to be able to do awesome things without being punished for it. If you want to wield a sword and a gun in most games, you pay twice as much (or get both things half as effective) for something that doesn’t do much for you besides cool factor. And anime, more than any other medium, mixes disparate attacks for the sake of cool a lot. So it was important for me to that OVA did that with as little fuss as possible.

By the way, if you want an explicit example of someone using fisticuffs and a gun, both Miho and Jiro do so.

(As for the lack of stats, in the original book, I detail my eureka moment about dropping them in an afterword. It’s certainly one of the best decisions I made for OVA.)

[ZephyrMourne]

Unfortunately, I didn't discover OVA until after the 2nd book was out and I saw it at a friend's house (he got his from the kickstarter), but I'd like to read that. Is it still available somewhere?

[Chris Brady]

Unfortunately, I didn't discover OVA until after the 2nd book was out and I saw it at a friend's house (he got his from the kickstarter), but I'd like to read that. Is it still available somewhere?

DTRPG has it as a PDF. If you're OK with reading on a device, like your PC.

[Clay]

I think Zephyr is referring to the first edition with the afterward I mentioned, which is no longer available for sale.

While I’d be happy enough if the old edition remained in the past, I suppose there’s no reason not to include the afterword here, since it has no equivalent in the new edition:

"One particularly boring afternoon, during a childhood class, I scribbled into my three-ring Garfield binder notes for an RPG. It was little more than a bare-bones solo dungeon crawl but a perfectly good little time-waster. The only goal was to get through the dungeon with as much treasure as possible. I’ve been writing RPGs in one form or another ever since. This entire notion could be best attributed to my brother’s influence. Besides introducing me to role-playing games, he was infamous for changing RPGs like his shirt. Whether we were using the latest edition of Wastelands and Wyverns or a homebrew system of his own machinations, my characters were counted as very lucky if they lasted more than a single gaming session. But even if Cyrus the warrior never saw level 5, I was introduced to more ways to play a role-playing game than you could find at the local comic shop.

Sometime in the latter half of the 90s, I fell into an online RPG called Battlemaster High. BMH was a freeform (that means no rules) anime campaign centered around a very odd high school. At the time my knowledge of anime was so non-existent that I thought “sweat drop” referred to some sort of exercise. But BMH, with its clubs vying for control of the school and random anime craziness, drew me in.

My time as an anime neophyte didn’t last long. The DVD format was just coming into its own, and my brother invested in a DVD player and the start of a sizable anime collection. Outside of a handful of kids shows and one episode of Nuku Nuku, this was my first direct encounter with anime. I quickly became addicted to the hijinks of Tenchi Muyo!, the sprawl- ing epic fantasy of Lodoss War, and other anime greats. I began to understand what anime was about.

That’s when BMH’s creator, Robert Pool, decided to take the game to the next level. Gold Rush Games wanted to publish Battlemaster High as a full-fledged RPG. However, the many authors, iffy contracts, and general indecision caused the deal to break down.

So I had a crazy idea. I decided to create and publish the BMH RPG myself. I got to work on a new system. Borrowing a dice mechanic I had created for another defunct game, the rudiments of Ricochet were born.
Then in 2000, a role-playing game milestone appeared as Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition. Despite skepticism from both my brother and me, the “d20” system quickly grew on us. In truth, it was a brilliantly revised game. But one new rule in particular struck a chord with me The d20 system did something I had never seen an RPG do: substantially revise the initiative mechanic. At first I was appalled, but then I realized how much simpler, and better, it was.

It got me to thinking. What other things in RPGs have never changed, but should? I looked at my game with its four main statistics, Strength, Mind, Speed, and Will. What made these four statistics more important than others? Why should they apply to every game? Why must I rate statistics that, in essence, have nothing to do with my character? It was a daring move, but I promptly dropped hard-coded stats from the game.

Eventually, the built-in BMH setting was also dropped from the game, due both to computer problems and some second thoughts from the original creator. What was left evolved into the book you hold in your hands. Is it perfect? Maybe not. But one thing I can say is it is unique. It’s an RPG aimed at a new breed of gamer. People young and old, veterans and newbies alike. Playing a game side by side. And having fun."

[ZephyrMourne]

Thanks for posting that. It does give some good insight into what you were trying to achieve and where your approach came from. I think knowing that thought process will help me when I'm wondering what you had in mind with a specific ability.