Picking CR's

Each Challenge Rating is associated with a label and a catchphrase. The label and phrase are designed to give gamemasters a feel for how difficult something is.

"Driving in snow? That's not a walk in the park, but most drivers can do it. CR 5."

"Driving 60 MPH in a heavy blizzard? That's pretty hard. CR 10."

"Driving 60 MPH in a whiteout blizzard, on a winding mountain trail, while being shot at? I think that's incredibly difficult to do. CR 30."

With a little experience, GM's are expected to eyeball CR's, rather than referring to a static list every time. I rely on their judgment to make the call.

And, if a GM isn't comfortable with that, they can always fall back on the CR charts in the skill descriptions.



Describing Success

There are four main outcomes: you failed, you barely made it, you did it, and "That was a great shot, kid!" There is a limited selection of clearly distinct outcomes, meaning gamemasters should be able to describe them to players clearly.

"You miss the rope ladder and fall on your face."

"You grab the ladder, just barely, and climb aboard as the helicopter is pulling away."

"You grab the ladder and climb towards the door. One of the goons leans out and begins shooting."

"You grab the ladder and scale it quickly. You get to the door just as the goon is beginning to lean out."

Meaningful feedback that translates easily into vivid descriptions. That's the goal.

RPG's are a game. As a designer and gamemaster you want people to love the experience of play so much, they come back and back and back. As a designer or GM, you win when the players have fun.

How to do that?

RPG's are most compelling when you have (a) characters who (b) have goals, who (c) face obstacles to achieving those goals and (d) eventually overcome.

Buy-in to the character. Buy-in to the goal. Buy-in to being determined in the face of setbacks. Vividly experiencing the world (at times). Immersion in the character (at times).

But the most important part is buy-in to the goal and overcoming challenges. The first makes the game compelling, the second makes it memorable.

Compelling play. Memorable victories. That's how you "win" RPG's.

And compelling play comes from many different things. Vivd depictions of the world. Mechanics that are fun to play with. Challenges that are novel, not "another damn orc." Worlds that are intriguing and which offer mysteries.

Make the in-game play exciting, so they are motivated to participate. Make the victory sweet, so they will remember how much fun they had and want to do it again.

That's an awesome RPG.

Infinity aspires to aid GM's in doing that.

Complications

In order to defeat a Challenge, you must beat the Challenge. This means at least 1 Result Rating.

A Result Rating of 0 doesn't succeed, but it doesn't fail either. Instead, it causes a Complication.

The character can still succeed at the Challenge, but further effort is required. They can use the same skill at a -3, or they can try and approach the problem from a new angle, using a different skill to attempt the Challenge.

Example: The party needs to jump over a wide gorge. Most of the party made the leap, but one got 0 Result Rating, a Complication.

The GM rules that he can’t try jumping again, so he can either climb to the top (with a climbing total) or the rest of the party can try and pull him up (with a lifting total).

The GM has final say on which is appropriate, or what other skills can be used. Different skills might have higher or lower Challenge Rating, depending on the skill.

When to Roll

Challenges are intended to be challenging; they don't occur in everyday circumstances. You don't roll when it's a sunny day and you're chatting with the mailman... But rather when it's a dark and stormy night, and some ugly thug is shooting at you, and your car is freaking ON FIRE! You roll, you only ever roll, when:

1.) The outcome is important to the adventure.
2.) The CR is equal or greater than the character's skill.
3.) The player chooses to.

Or, most importantly, when...

4.) Significant adverse conditions apply. ("I must shoot this thing now!" or "There's no light in here, and the grues are getting closer. Where's my damn dagger?")

And that's not everyday life. That's complicated, difficult... Challenging. (Hence the term.)

When the stress is on, when there's something riding on the outcome, when the stuff is hitting the fan, that's when you roll a Challenge. The rest of the time, assume Success and move on.

Tell Them the CR

Players, to understand the game world, need the GM to describe it. Descriptions can sometimes be enhanced by just telling them the CR they are rolling against.

They want to pick a lock. The character should know approximately how difficult that should be. The easiest and clearest way to let the player know the same thing their character should, is just to tell them.

"What kind of lock is it?"
"It's a thick padlock, probably CR 15."

Some caveats:

• Don't skimp on the description. Just because you're giving the CR straight out, doesn't mean you are absolved of the need to describe the world. Tell them what things look like, smell like, feel like, then give them the CR. It's your job.
  

• If they lack the skill, tell them squat. They haven't earned the knowledge, the character wouldn't have that information, so the player doesn't get it.
  

• Always give yourself some wriggle room. Sometimes, circumstances are different than they appear. In such cases, things are more difficult than they seem. Instead of giving the players the true CR (information they can't know) or lying to them, just say something like "You think it's a CR 15." "It appears to be pretty standard, CR 8." "It should be pretty easy, CR 5." Do this all the time, so they don't know when you're giving them the straight CR or when you're hiding something unpleasant.
  

Infinity is all about in-character immersion and vivid description. CR's, used right, can be a critical part of that.

When it comes to CR's, don't be coy. Tell them, and a lot of potential misunderstandings will be cleared up or avoided entirely.

Coordination

Characters are capable of working together to achieve a task. This is called Coordinating on a Challenge. Whatever the circumstances, the core rules for Coordinating on a Challenge are the same.

All characters generate Skill Totals. The highest Skill Total is the base Total. Every other Skill Total that beats a CR 0 (Routine) adds +1 to this base Total to get the final Skill Total.

Example: Three characters are scrutinizing a crime scene. They all generate search totals: a 14, a 10, and a -1. The final search total for the group is 15 (highest 14 + 1 coordinating). Had the third character gotten a 1 or better instead of a -1, the group’s search total would have been a 16.

There are a few caveats.

In order to adjudicate the characters’ action, the GM needs to know what they are attempting. A Declaration is highly encouraged (and worth a +1 to the base Total).

“We want to talk the judge into letting us go.” “We want to make the mob think a giant is coming.” “We need to fix this car.”

This Declaration lets the GM know which skill is appropriate. This is the primary skill, and is used to adjudicate any Success Ratings or Result Ratings.

By default, all characters generate totals with the identified primary skill. If they lack points in the skill, they roll Untrained.

Coordinating with Multiple Skills

Sometimes, characters will lack points in the skill being used. With the GM's permission, they can use a different, but related skill in the Coordination attempt.

Example: If the characters are attempting to fix a car, that's a mechanic Challenge. A character without the mechanic skill can attempt to coordinate, if they have a skill the GM agrees can aid the attempt. Knowledge (electrical engineering) could be appropriate, for example.

In such cases, the original skill is the primary skill. This represents what the group is attempting to achieve. The highest primary Skill Total is the base Total. Even if a related Skill Total is higher, it only adds a +1.

Example: While fixing the car, the mechanic rolls a Skill Total of 12, and the electrical engineer a Total of 16. The base Total is 12, because that's the primary skill. This is increased by +1, because the knowledge (electrical engineering) total beat a CR 0. The final total is 13 (12 + 1).

The GM has final say on what skills are related to a specific Coordination Challenge. Take the car example. In one case, knowledge (electrical engineering) and persuasion could both be considered related skills (the persuading character talking a garage owner into aiding them some way). In other circumstances, even knowledge (electrical engineering) might not be related (if the car had a broken axle, for example).

In general, the more distantly related a related skill is, the higher the Coordination CR would be. In the case of the persuasion skill check aiding a mechanic total, the GM could require the player to actually roll (and perhaps role-play) a persuasion attempt (at a much higher CR). The GM should decide based on what makes sense to him and whatever makes the game more interesting.

Volley Attack

The Volley Attack is a maneuver common to cinema and real life. It represents a multitude of characters all attacking the same target at once, combining their attacks to deal more damage than any could by themselves. (And, though it's called a Volley, it applies to any situation in which multiple attackers are assaulting a single target, not just arrow fire.)

Volley Attacks are a special use of the Coordination Challenge rules. Because it deals with both Skill and Combat Challenges, it is slightly more complicated than regular Coordination, though the basic rule is unchanged.

The primary skill in a Volley Attack is whichever combat skill rolls highest, no matter what it is. Related skills include any other skills the gamemaster agrees are relevant. (A maneuver, for example, might cause the target to turn, exposing a weak spot.)

All characters generate Skill Totals. The highest combat Skill Total becomes the base Total. Every other Skill Total adds +1 to this base Total.

As this is an attack, the Damage Rating of the weapon used by the highest combat Skill Total is added to the final Skill Total to get the group Attack Total. This is compared to the Defense Rating of the target, with the Result Rating read as Damage. (See "Combat", later.)

Example: A group of characters breaking into a lab are attacked by a security robot. After a couple of futile rounds of attack, it becomes clear that individually, none of them can meaningfully damage the robot. So they volley their fire.

One shoots with a gun (firearms total 13), one throws a grenade (thrown weapons total 12), and another uses a trick to lead the robot off, exposing a weak spot (trick total 20).

The highest combat Skill Total is a 13. This becomes the base Skill Total. Both of the other skill totals beat a 0 CR, so Coordinate. Each adds a +1 to the firearms Skill Total, for a final Skill Total of 15 (13 + 1 + 1).

To this 15, the firearms player adds his pistol damage of 16, for an Attack Total of 31. This Attack Total of 31 is compared to the robot's Defense Rating. (Had the character throwing grenades rolled higher, his total would be the base Total, and he would add his grenade damage of 18 to the final Skill Total).

Using this method, characters can work together to bring down a single, tough target with coordinated attacks.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;622061In addition to the inherent uses, each Attribute gives a bonus to associated skills.

Code Select Expand

[B]Attribute Rating Skill Bonus[/B]
4-5 +1
6-10 +2
11-12 +3

This bonus is added to the Skill Points to get a Skill Rating.

There is no cap no the Attribute scale, so this pattern repeats itself indefinitely. An attribute of 50 gives a +10 bonus to associated skills, for example. This is especially important for superhero settings.

Using the Infinity scale, the Earth itself has a Toughness of (roughly) 136 and the Death Star's main cannon has a Damage of about 170. That is, enough to vaporize a planet the size of Earth.

Traits

Traits are short, descriptive phrases. The most important is the character's Defining Trait, which describes the core concept of the character. Examples:

• Hunted werewolf
• Vengeful magician
• Naive rookie cop

The other two kinds of Traits are Distinctions and Difficulties. A Distinction represents something the character is unusually gifted at. It allows the character to be very good, in a specific circumstance.

A Difficulty is a problem that afflicts the character. In a specific circumstance, the character experiences trouble.

Defining Traits are both Difficulties and Distinctions. As Distinctions, the above Defining Traits could offer benefits when:

• Hunted werewolf: Hiding from those searching for him.
• Vengeful magician: Using harmful magic.
• Naive rookie cop: Meeting other people. Most people tend to trust him, so he's remarkably good at social interactions.

The same Defining Traits could offer the following problems:

• Hunted werewolf: Hunters have a tendency to show up, chasing him.
• Vengeful magician: He focuses on his enemy over other, more proximate concerns.
• Naive rookie cop: He trusts people he shouldn't, sometimes to a dangerous extent.

The Defining Trait is mandatory, all characters have one. They can also have up to three Distinctions and up to three Difficulties. These can be taken at character creation, but can also be chosen later (after any game session).

As a character develops, they change. The player may add, remove, or alter any Trait to reflect how their character develops in play.

The specific benefits (for Distinctions) and drawbacks (for Difficulties) are chosen when the Trait is taken (or changed).

Defining Traits, Distinctions, and Difficulties interact with the character's Resolve.

Balancing Distinctions

   When looking at the sample Distinctions, you may have noticed that the Vengeful Magician's is "better" in that it's more directly usable in combat, and more often applicable.

   This isn't a problem. The dirty-little-secret about Distinctions is that it doesn't matter how useful one is, or how often it can be used. The balancing factor isn't the Distinction itself, but the character's Resolve.

   Distinctions are only useful when the character spends a point of Resolve to activate them. That's one less point of Resolve he can use some other time.

   The same holds when deciding if a Distinction can be activated in a specific situation. Don't sweat it too much, as the Resolve point is the balancing factor. If the player really wants to, and it isn't obviously inapplicable, let them spend. ("I can use it on this search spell, because I can find my enemies, so it's harmful magic." No.)

   In short, don't worry about balancing Distinctions. Each is self-balancing.