Wise Turtle Publishing

I have been reading the blog since day one, and keeping track of some of the purposed changes. I like most of them, and I think it will turn out to be great.

I wanted to try and implement some of these changes in my current game, however when I started converting characters over I ran into some problems.

Maybe you all can help me convert one of my PCs

Ni Toei
Blind Samurai

Heightened Sense Hearing +3
Sixth Sense +1
Acrobatics +1
Agile +1
Combat Skill Swordplay +3
Weapon Katana +2 (AP and Extra Damage)
Endurance Reserve +2 (Meditation)
Barrier +2
Defense +3
Martial Arts +2
Power Move +3
Quick +3
Strong +3

Blind -3
Bizarre Appearence -1
Code of Conduct -2
Bad Reputation -2
Damage Magnet -2
Focus - Katana -2
Love Interest -3
Wanted -2
Rival -3

So, based on the posts, I will get rid of Wapon, Martial Arts and Power Move and replace all these with Attack. So Ni will look something like:

Heightened Sense Hearing +3
Sixth Sense +1
Acrobatics +1
Agile +1
Combat Skill Swordplay +3
Attack +3
Endurance Reserve +2 (Meditation)
Barrier +2
Defense +3
Quick +3
Strong +3

However, how do I apply the AP and Extra damage only when he swings his katana, but not when he goes H2H? I have only one ability (attack) that must be applied to 2, if not more situations.

I realized that I really liked the old system where equipment (weapons and armor in peticular) were really abilities rather than items (in other RPGs). However, now it seems like I have lost a very cool section of the game. Armor has not been done away with, changed, but not removed. I think perhaps weapon should remain as well. Maybe I am missing something, and maybe you all can help me convert Ni over so it makes sense.

Maybe it is just a matter of keeping the Weapon ability and using attack for everything else.

Thoughts?

When you create the Attack Ability, you are actually buying a suite of attacks, similar to how Power Move used to work. So you would write it something like this:

Attack +3
· Katana (Armor Piercing +5, Weapon -5)
· Martial Arts (Accurate +5, Decreased Damage -5)
· Chi Blast (Extra Damage +10)

I took a few liberties here, but you can see it's pretty easy to approximate what you had. If you're expecting a true 1-to-1 conversion, that simply won't happen some of the time. But I hope this helps you see how the Attack Ability is meant to work. You could even go a step further, and give several attacks for each "mode." Katana could have several stances, martial arts could have death blows and sweep kicks, and so forth.

As an aside, you actually cannot apply Extra Damage to the old Weapon Ability, but since your Attack is +3 anyway, it doesn't matter at this point. But it's mistakes like this that are exactly the reason I simplified it to start with. There's too many exceptions in the old game.

Man, that is the reason why you are writing the books, you can explain it so darn well it just makes me happy.

I now understand how the Attack ability works. Pretty cool how the defined attacks are all under the simple umbrella of +3, I now understand how it simplifies.

As an aside I might limit the amount of attacks that the PCs can create, by having a grittier specification.

For example

Attack - Sword +3
Normal Katana (AP +5, Weapon -5)
Slice and Dice (AP +5, Rapid Strikes +10, Weapon -5, Activation -5)

Attack - Karate +2
Normal H2H (Accurate +5, Decreased Damage -5)
Chi Punch (Extra Damage +10)

I like this method because a character skilled in swordplay could be best at swordplay and then work to improve (level up) his H2H. I believe this method depends on the character and game you are running.

If you are running a cowboy bebop type game, Spike would probably only have one Attack ability that covers his H2H, guns, and everything else. If you are running a more gritty Battlelords type game I might have the attacks broken down as above.

Since OVA is so versatile , I don't see any reason why I couldn't run it both ways depending the game and characters.

You certainly could. The Revised game even includes an expanded note box on splitting (or combining) existing Abilities. A game where all the conflicts are based on driving and racing might warrant splitting Pilot into Speed, Cornering, and Stunts. Likewise, grittier combat might do well from splitting both Combat Skill and Attack, while a silly off-the-wall game where combat is completely anecdotal might do well from combining the lot of the combat Abilities together.

That is why this game is fantastic, and quite possibly the very best. How sweet it is.