RPG Design Patterns

Flaw (“Disadvantages”), Game Master, Generalized Contest, Gift (“Talents” and “Perks”), Hit Points (“Body”), Point Spend Attribute, Rank, Skill (“Skills” and “Powers”), Success Reward (“Character Points”), Template

Hero characters have eight primary attributes (“Characteristics”): “Strength,” “Dexterity,” “Constitution,” “Body,” “Intelligence,” “Ego,” “Presence,” and “Comeliness.” Their values are specified by having players spend “Character Points” and the costs vary from attribute to attribute. The genre of game, whether heroic or super-heroic, determines the number of points distributed to players to generate their characters. After setting the primary attribute values, players derive six more attributes from the primary ones via various formulae. These derived attributes are: “Physical Defense,” “Energy Defense,” “Speed,” “Recovery,” “Endurance,” and “Stun.”

Body and “Stun” are both hit points attributes. Characters fall unconscious when Stun drops to zero. They start dying when Body falls to 0 and truly die when it drops to -10. Characters also possess two additional derived attributes known as “Combat Value” and “Ego Combat Value,” which gauge character effectiveness in combat and mental actions, respectively. Combat Value is further adjusted by various skill ranks, equipment, and other factors to produce both an “Offensive Combat Value” and a “Defensive Combat Value.”

Players purchase skills (Skills and Powers) and gifts (Perks and Talents) for their characters using Character Points. Character Points also buy skill ranks at costs that vary from skill to skill. Players can earn additional Character Points by accepting flaws (Disadvantages) for their characters.

Powers are particularly notable, in that they are skills that essentially define mechanical effects without specifying “special effects.” For example, the game provides an “Energy Blast” power. A player may customize this power to fit his character concept by describing it as the power to cast thundering lightning bolts from his fingertips, summon blazing spheres of greenish flames from the heavens, or shoot laser beams from a blaster. Essentially, all Energy Blast powers have the same mechanical effect. Their differences mainly involve presentation. So, players craft powers to match their character concepts rather than the other way around. Despite their flexibility, hero powers qualify as “skills” rather than “traits” because the various powers are pre- defined, even though their superficial appearance is entirely in the players’ control.

To perform a combat attack, a player rolls 3d6 and sums the result. A blow lands if the sum is less than or equal to a value determined by both the attacker’s Offensive Combat Value and the defender’s Defensive Combat Value (11 + OCV – DCV). Mental attacks use a similar technique, replacing Ego Combat Value for “Combat Value.

If an attack lands, it inflicts damage on the target. Depending on the nature of the attack, the damage may be subtracted from either Stun or Body (or both). Stun attacks can knock an opponent out, but cannot kill. Body attacks can kill. Physical Defenses (such as armor) and Energy Defenses (such as force fields) can modify the amount of damage actually sustained by a character from an attack.

Combat is segmented into 12 second “turns.” A character’s Speed attribute determines number and timing of his combat actions every turn. If a character has a 3 Speed, he gets three actions (“Phases”) every turn. The timing of those actions is determined by a table lookup. For example, a character with a 3 Speed performs his actions on 4th, 8th, and 12th second of every turn since that is what the table specifies. For characters acting on the same second, the action order goes from highest Dexterity to lowest.

Some actions count as “Full Moves” while others count as “Half Moves.” In general, a character can perform either one Full Move or two Half Moves during each combat “Phase.” If a character performs a half move before an attack, then the attack counts as a half move. But, a character cannot perform an attack and then enact a half move. Once a character makes an attack, his Phase is over.

The game master rewards players by giving their characters experience points, which are spent just like Character Points. Each session is generally worth at least 1 experience point, but players can earn more by being clever, role-playing well, solving a mystery, etc.