I'm working on a futuristic RPG, and came up with the front and back covers. This thread will also be for design notes. Thoughts and comments, and critiques always welcome.

Sounds pretty interesting. Only issue for me right now is that the text is a little hard to read. I'm not a graphic designer, so I can't articulate the why or how to fix that, but just wanted to point it out.

Either way, I am looking forward to more updates on where this takes you!

Thanks!

I kind of like the fuzziness, but for the final copy it will probably do to make the text clearer.

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on January 06, 2025, 11:49:23 PMThanks!

I kind of like the fuzziness, but for the final copy it will probably do to make the text clearer.

Please consider a clean black-and-white (black text on a white background) version of your character sheet.  That one will be a bear to print out and read.  Sometimes simpler is better...

Quote from: Eirikrautha on January 07, 2025, 10:33:33 AMPlease consider a clean black-and-white (black text on a white background) version of your character sheet.  That one will be a bear to print out and read.  Sometimes simpler is better...

True. I just wanted to see what it would look like prettied up.

Space Madness

Outer Space is not mankind's natural home. Terrestrial organisms removed from the direct influence of Earth's gravitational field begin to fall apart physically in a host of ways, from calcium loss in their bones to immune system difficulties. To his chagrin, man also realised that the Solar System contained a psychophysical field related to the heliosphere, and people removed from it, as on deep space voyages, begin to suffer a deleterious mental condition: Space Madness.

Space Madness is chiefly characterised by profound amnesia, loss of theory-of-mind, and a blunting of affect, including, mercifully, a diminishment of the fear response. Sufferers typically contract the disease while in hypersleep, fitfully awakening to find themselves in mysterious circumstances shorn of much, if not all, of their knowledge about the outside world. Others, outside of hypersleep, find themselves experiencing nightmares and symptoms of dementia, including psychosis, leading to a short coma, followed by their awakening to the chief condition proper.

There is no known cure for this disease, but sufferers can—often quickly—relearn various latent skills as they explore their environment, including some memories and relearning theory-of-mind. With some it may take years or decades to overcome the condition, with others they can adapt much more rapidly.

Unfortunately, as normal functioning is approached, so is an increasing sensitivity to fear and loneliness. This fear can be rational, fearing privation, hazard, or violence from other astronauts, but it can also generalise into a kind of "cosmic" fear, including both terror of whatever unknowns lurk in the stars, and a bereft realisation of the absolute impossibility of ever going home, leaving him to face the perils and terrors of the universe utterly alone.

Not a big fan of the blue and green text on a dark background.  It's hard for me to read.

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on January 10, 2025, 11:55:45 PMSpace Madness
...snip...

Okay. I'm intrigued. (I like things based on my real life experiences!) So, what's the gimmick within the mechanics? Is it about recovering Memories? The description you provided seems to be much more than a new sanity system it seems.

Quote from: consolcwby on January 12, 2025, 11:49:02 PM

Quote from: Neoplatonist1 on January 10, 2025, 11:55:45 PMSpace Madness
...snip...

Okay. I'm intrigued. (I like things based on my real life experiences!) So, what's the gimmick within the mechanics? Is it about recovering Memories? The description you provided seems to be much more than a new sanity system it seems.

Sanity here relates to morality. A character can have a firm grasp of apparent material reality (though even that isn't necessarily what it appears to be, here) while being morally insane. Moral choices regarding virtue or sin can have mechanical effects, and also affect a character's spirit by opening up his precious memories, or closing them off.

Recovering pre-Ship memories is a main part of character advancement. Development of Qualities (Brains, Patience, etc.) and possessions, etc., aside, character creation in background and personality, understanding and relationships, continues on throughout the game, rather than being a fait accompli at the start.

The PC finds himself as a kind of clearing in the fog of mystery, and must work to disclose the shape of the world.

Oh, that sounds really interesting. Keep up the good work and good luck with the project!

Quote from: consolcwby on January 13, 2025, 11:22:00 PMOh, that sounds really interesting. Keep up the good work and good luck with the project!

Thank you!

Environments & Chases

For play purposes the landscape of the game world divides into distinct Environments. Treat Environments as large objects, described using many of the same Qualities used for other objects, albeit some used in new ways. There are two modes of engagement with Environments: casual and violent.

Casual engagement sees the PCs exploring at relative leisure, whether travelling through or scavenging for magic objects.

Violent engagement sees the PCs passionately participating in a chase with other moving objects, whether pursuing or evading. This can be noisy and even a little risky.

Rules for chases are as follows:

(1) Distance between pursuer(s) and evader(s) is measured in abstract Range Bands rated from 0 to 4. 0 means the pursuer has caught up with the evader and may grab, hit, or tackle him as the case may be, while a 4 means that the evader has escaped. Smaller Environments may be rated as having maximum Range Bands of 3, 2, 1, or 0.

(2) When compared with spellcasting time, chase time is measured in Turns of 4 phases each (8 seconds). Otherwise each Turn can be deemed of ambiguous length, anywhere from 4 phases to a kilophase (33 minutes) or more.

(3) Each Turn, pursuer and evader each secretly select a Magnitude number from 1 to 5, which determines his tack through the chase Environment. Magnitudes are revealed simultaneously and entered into the CHASE MATRIX to determine the results.

(4) Resolve any Environmental effects, and then resolve any character interactions and attacks (i.e. Go Away, or strikes-to-wound), including any ranged attacks. If the chase continues, go back to step 3.

Humans movement speed is rated in levels: a Crawl (1 kph), Walk (3 kph), Double Time (6 kph), or Run (12 kph). The chase rules presume that evader and pursuer are moving at the same speed. For every level faster or slower, the Range Band is adjusted by 1 whenever a Range Band change is indicated by the Chase Matrix.

Example: Starting at Range Band 4, a pursuer runs after a wounded man who can only walk. This is a two-level difference. When the Chase Matrix indicates the Range Band will decrease by 1, it in fact decreases by 3. When the Chase Matrix indicates the Range Band will increase by 1, it in fact decreases by 1.

Chase Results

Bounce: An unexpected avenue of escape appears. The evader and pursuer each roll Bounce or less on %. If the evader succeeds and the pursuer fails, Range Band increases by 2. If the evader fails and the pursuer succeeds, Range Band decreases by 2. If both fail or both succeed, there is no change. Any failures must lead to an Ontological Magnetism roll (which see).

Brains advantage modifies Range Band by 1: The chase hinges on wits. Whomever has the higher Brains rating modifies the Range Band by 1 in his favour.

Interstitiality: The evader may attempt to hide from the pursuer. His % odds are his Brains plus the Environment's Interstitiality rating. If successful the pursuer must make a % roll against his Patience minus the Environment's Frustratingness to hunt for the hidden evader for the next kilophase; if he fails he gives up believing his quarry has escaped.

Intricacy: The evader may choose to squeeze through narrow gaps, climb warped ladders and jagged slopes, crawl through ventilation shafts, contort past object jams, balance on ledges, etc. to elude his pursuer.  Evader rolls Intricacy plus his Care or less on 1d6; the pursuer does likewise. If the evader fails but the pursuer succeeds, Range Band decreases by 1. If the evader succeeds but the pursuer fails, Range Band increases by 1. Failure also inflicts 1d10 X 3 SP.

KV advantage modifies Range Band by 1: The chase hinges on endurance. Whomever has a higher Knockout Value modifies the Range Band by 1 in his favour.

Muscles advantage modifies Range Band by 1: The chase hinges on speed. Whomever has a higher Muscles rating modifies the Range Band by 1 in his favour.

Range Band decreases by 1: As written.

Range Band increases by 1: As written.

Sharp: Evader and pursuer each roll % against the Environment's Sharp rating to see if he is injured. Rated in Shock Points (SP).

Tangle: Evader gets trapped if he rolls the Environment's Tangle plus his Vulnerability or less on 1d6. If so, the Range Band reduces to 0.

Other Environmental Qualities

Frustratingness: Chance of dead ends, mazes, precipices, pools of sludge, rubber walls, etc. Rated as a percentage modifier to your Patience.
Protection Factor: Percentage chance of protection from attacks whether up close or ranged.
Ontological Magnetism: Chance to find yourself lost with no easy way out. Once per chase, roll modifier plus your Vulnerability or less on 1d6 to be trapped. If both evader and pursuer are trapped, they are trapped together.
Sensibleness—Audibility: Percentage chance of pursuer and evader being able to hear each other's progress.
Sensibleness—Visibility: Percentage chance of pursuer not losing sight of evader. If this happens ranged attacks are impossible.
Tearability: Difficulty in tearing free of entanglement (Tangle). Roll modifier plus your Muscles or less on 1d6 to tear free.
Weapon chance: The percentage chance of a weapon being at hand in the Environment, along with its Impact rating. Searching for a weapon changes the Range Band by 1 in favour of your opponent. If both evader and pursuer so search, the Range Band remains unchanged. Being determines Impact and weapon type.

Sample Environments

Chaotic Metal Scrapyard: This bay is filled with jagged, pointed, curved bladed remnants, hunks and pieces of metal, plasteel, and various viciously hard supermaterials, all heaped randomly atop each other with plenty of places to climb and hide.

Bounce 30%
Frustratingness -15%
Interstitiality +35%
Intricacy 0
Protection Factor 33%.
Ontological Magnetism -3
Sensibleness—Audibility 30%
Sensibleness—Visibility 23%
Sharp 40% = 1d10 X 5
Tangle 2
Tearability -2
Weapon chance Handheld 25% = 1d8 Impact; thrown 30% = 1d4 Impact

Example: Roonal (Brains 40%, Care 2, KV 8, Muscles 2, Patience 70%, Vulnerability 1) absconds with Willy's (Brains 77%, Care 4, KV 12, Muscles 3, Patience 33%, Vulnerability 4) engineer's boots while the latter was having a shower in the cool dimness under a leaking multiplex pipe, and Willy chases after him in the buff. They run through the Chaotic Metal Scrapyard Environment. Since it took 2 X 2 (DIM) = 4 Phases for Willy to notice Roonal, Roonal gets 1 Turn's worth of distance on him, meaning they start at Range Band 2.

Roonal knows Willy is better than him at nearly everything, but predicts that Willy will predict that he'll go for 4 (hoping for Bounce, Tangle, or Sharp to out-luck Willy), which means Willy will likely pick 4. Roonal picks 5 and hopes for the best. Willy in turn thinks that Roonal will probably try for Bounce by picking 4, and so Willy picks 2.

Pursuer 2, Evader 5 = Intricacy. Roonal crawls and contorts awkwardly under a squat bridge of slats of bladed inconel, which has Intricacy 0. Roonal needs a 2 or less, but rolls a 6 and cuts his shoulders for 9 SP. Willy needs a 4 or less, and rolls a 6 as well, gouging his belly awfully for 21 SP. Both make their KV rolls and crawl out of the bridge, bleeding.

Roonal tries a 5 again, hoping for the best. Willy chooses a 4.

Pursuer 4, Evader 5 = Interstitiality. To find a hiding spot Roonal needs to roll 40 (Brains) + 35 (Interstitiality) = 75% or less. He rolls a 59 and slips in between and behind a nearly vertical alloy curtain.

Being rules that running barefoot in this Environment risks cutting one's feet badly on random shards of steel, but will do half normal SP because the risk isn't to his entire body. Willy craps out and rolls 38 against the Environment's Sharp 40%. He rolls an 8 (1d10) X 5 X ½ (feet only) = 20 SP to his feet, toes, shins, and ankles, or 10 SP each. Since his legs haven't taken 15 SP or more, he can still walk (see Violence & Murder), but is now in no mood.

Being rules that because these are relatively shallow cuts, and Willy is angry, he can make his Knockout Roll versus only the new wounds, rather than adding the new to the old (i.e. his belly gash). Since 20 is over his KV, he has a 25% chance of incapacitation, and rolls a 13. Crying out, Willy falls awkwardly onto a haphazard gnoll of bolted steel plates and clutches at his feet gingerly. He spends the next 14 phases (28 seconds) extracting a piece of steel from his left sole and cursing inventively. Being rules he can at best now only Double Time, not Run.

Hauling himself to his feet, and leaving crimson footprints behind him, a now bloody-minded and silent Willy catches up to where he lost Roonal, and to find him needs to roll 33 (Patience) – 15 (Frustratingness) = 18% or less. He lucks out and rolls a 03, seeing a smear of blood near the critical alloy curtain, and his naked shadow darkens Roonal's hideyhole . . .



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CHASE RULES CHEAT SHEET

Core Mechanics

Distance (Range Bands):
Abstract zones from 0 (caught) to 4 (escaped).
Smaller environments may limit max Range Bands (e.g., a cramped alley
might only allow Bands 0–2).

Turns:
Chases progress in Turns of ambiguous length, where each participant chooses to either engage the CHASE MATRIX, or stop/stay still, search for weapons, or tear himself free (if caught by a Tangle CHASE MATRIX result). If timed against a spell being cast, treat a Turn as equalling 4 phases.

Speed Modifications
Characters may Crawl, Walk, Double-Time, or Run. When the Range Band changes in a Turn, each level of speed difference adjusts the Range Band by 1 in favour of the faster chase participant. A pursuer Double-Timing it against an evader Running will lose 1 Range Band per Turn, for example.

Environmental Effects
Each Environment has a large set of Qualities, expressed as percentages, modifiers, or YES/NO indicators.

Avalanche: Whether there are unstable parts of this place is. YES/NO.
Bounce: Surprising escape routes like swinging from wires, jumps down to rubber depots, and emergency shafts. %
Frustratingness: How little the place is designed with human ease of movement in mind. Integer.
Hearing Chance: How loud movement sounds here. %
Interstitiality: Ease of hiding. Integer.
Intricacy: How many awkward nooks, alleys, zig-zags, and crannies there are to negotiate. Integer.
Protection Factor: How many objects, hoses, cables, bulkheads, grilles and the like are in the way of an attacker. %
Ontological Magnetism: Odds of being lost or caught in a dead end. Integer.
Sharpness: Chance of injury. % casual (exploring or scavenging without urgency)/% violent (engaged in a chase where one side is pursuing and the other is fleeing), and Shock Points (SP)
Sighting Chance: How obvious movement looks here. %
Slow & Picky: How much of a complete joke a chase is in terms of sheer speed of movement. YES/NO and integer.
Straightaway: Whether or not this place has large, smooth, easily-crossed spaces or corridors. YES/NO
Tangle: How many barbs, hooks, sharp burrs, and things to blunder into and trip over are here. Integer.
Tearability: How hard it is to use brute force to escape entanglement. Integer.
Verticality: Whether the place extends up and down rather than just horizontal. YES/NO
Weapon Chance: Whether there are detachable pieces of machinery, tools, or debris here that can be used to hit or throw. %

Resolution Flow

(1)   Both sides choose their actions secretly.
(2)   Both sides reveal their actions simultaneously.
(3)   If relevant, consult CHASE MATRIX.
(4)   Make any relevant dice roll due to CHASE MATRIX results.
(5)   Modify Range Bands as indicated by CHASE MATRIX or other action results.
(6)   Resolve effects, injuries, and attacks, if necessary.
(7)   Repeat until chase ends (Range Band 0 or 4).

Range Bands

0 = Caught. Engaged in combat or grappled.
1 = Close range. Ranged attacks possible, evader is barely ahead.
2 = Medium range. Both sides visible; ranged attacks possible.
3 = Long range. Hard to engage; focus on closing the gap.
4 = Escaped. The chase ends; the evader gets away.

Player Actions

A character's desired actions must be made manifest as the fruit of the CHASE MATRIX. Actions must be cultivated; things don't always go according to plan, and a chase may involve many unexpected opportunities, diversions, double-backs, and interruptions. Potential actions include running, hiding, obstacle maneuvering, attacking, and searching.

Instead of employing the CHASE MATRIX, a character may, of course, merely (1) stop and stay where he is, (2) search for weapons or other objects including characters not involved in the chase, or, (3) because of a Tangle result on the CHASE MATRIX, be forced to tear his way free of the environment. In all three cases, the Range Band increases by 1 if the pursuer has stopped but the evader has not; or the Range Band decreases by 1 if the evader has stopped but the pursuer has not.

CHASE MATRIX Results

Avalanche
Bounce
Brains advantage modifies Range Band by 1
Frustratingness
Hearing Chance
Interstitiality
Intricacy
KV advantage modifies Range Band by 1
Muscles advantage modifies Range Band by 1
Ontological Magnetism
Sharpness
Sighting Chance
Slow & Picky
Straightaway
Tangle
Verticality

Related CHASE MATRIX Environmental Qualities
Protection Factor
Tearability
Weapon Chance

Being Guidelines: Setting the Scene

(1)   Define Environmental Size: Small (max Range Band 2), medium (max 4), or
large (max 6 for epic chases).
(2)   Define Environment (see Environment catalogue).
(3)   Situate key stationary and moving objects of note, including characters not involved in the chase, to be discovered either on certain Turns or upon certain CHASE MATRIX results, as arbitrated by Being.

Visual Aid: Chase Tracker

Represent the current Range Band using a small piece of metal, such as a nut or washer, on a two-dimensional 0-4 scale.

Designing Your Own Environment

Example: Prefabricated Colony Rooftops

Avalanche: NO
Bounce: 10% (emergency chute)
Frustratingness: -0%
Hearing Chance: 50% (loud metal and synthetic surfaces)
Interstitiality: +10% (air ducts, ledges, shadows)
Intricacy: 2
Protection Factor: 15%
Ontological Magnetism: -2
Sharpness: 0%/15% = 2d10 SP (low risk of injury from falls, pipes, or sharp edges)
Sighting Chance: 70% (lots of wide open spaces)
Slow & Picky: YES -2 (jumps between buildings, unstable surfaces)
Straightaway: NO
Tangle: -5
Tearability: 4
Verticality: NO
Weapon Chance: 5% (antenna)

Sample Environments

Assembly Equipment Bay
Atmosphere Processing Station
Chemical Refinery
Fallow Construction Bay
Fusion Plant
Gravity Drive Compartment
Industrial Component Warehouse
Jagged Bulkhead Slope
Monorail Component Warehouse
Monorail Station
Organic Chemical Workshop
Raw Materials Warehouse
Rebar Landscape
Robot Storage Bay
Robotic Assembly Line
Rubber Scrap Depot
Subcomponent Warehouse
Vehicle Storage Bay

Simplified Quick Chase Rules

To simplify a chase sequence, just mandate that the participants can only select Magnitudes 1, 3, or 5 each Turn. That pares away all the special effects, and makes things go much quicker and requiring less rules look-up.


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Quality Addenda

Avalanche: The supposedly solid surface gives way. Whether you survive this collapse of metal debris or not is entirely at the caprice of Being. Roll %, on a 50 or less you come through unscathed and at 1 Range Band increased from your quarry or hunter, as the case may be. If you roll 51 or higher, you suffer Sharpness SP X 10.

Slow & Picky: The comfortable walking environment changes to ankle-breaking, awkward, debris-piled terrain necessitating ducking, jumping, and picking one's way slowly from place to place. Pursuer and evader each roll Care on 1d6 plus the Environment's Slow & Picky modifier. Anyone who fails suffers 1d6 X 3 SP to one of his legs. If this disables him (i.e., 15 SP or more) he is immobilised in the locale, and anyone coming to rescue him must likewise roll Care to get in, and again to get out.

Straightaway: The chase debouches into clean, flat, clear terrain, making it a contest of pure speed and endurance. Sum Muscles and KV. Whoever is higher gains a 2 Range Band advantage.

Verticality: The chase finds its way to ladders, catwalks, platforms, staircases, and lifts. Pursuer and evader each roll Muscles on 1d6. If the evader succeeds and the pursuer fails, the evader finds himself overlooking a vista and increases the Range Band by 2. If the pursuer succeeds and the evader fails, decrease the Range Band by 2 and, if it is now 0, the chase ends on a ladder, support strut, elevator shaft, or similar vertical locale.