"So you want to run a heavily homebrewed campaign of one of the silliest and most broken games ever, and you want to feature cyborg furries.
...
This isn't an RPG. It's extreme anthropology."
So sayeth one of my friends when I discussed with him the idea that I wanted to run a SFRPG game, but that I wanted to clean up, upgrade, and expand the rules first. Obviously, we have something of a difference of opinion as far as the quality of the game itself is concerned.
I'm still seriously considering the idea.
My priorities in terms of adjusting the system, from most to least important:
- Fix material from the Street Fighter Player's Guide so that things like Animal Hybrids and Cyborgs are playable. (The source of the quote.)
- Update the system to use nWoD mechanics, including calculated Advantages and Merits.
- Adjust the combat system to handle multiple combatants better.
- Add support for weapon styles and gun fu.
- Add a non-combat magic system.
Obviously looking at an extensive project here. Thankfully, a lot of the work has been done for me already, between my old house rules notes-- from 2008-- and material from the SFRPG mailing list.
My thoughts so far:
Animal Hybrids and Cyborgs:- Replace the Animal Hybrid and Cyborg Backgrounds with special Fighting Styles and variable dot Merits and Techniques.
- The level of the Merit determines the extent of the bonuses (and penalties) of the Animal Hybrid and Cyborg templates.
- The level of the Technique replaces the Background for maneuver prerequisites and determining damage.
- Animal Hybrid will work as either a "primary" or "secondary" fighting style. Cybernetics will be a "secondary" style, requiring the character to have a separate"primary" style.
- Claws, fangs, and other physical features will be Merits. These Merits will be available to normal characters with background justification.
- Incorporate the Kailindo and Kibatusmejutsu styles from World of Darkness: Combat for Animal Hybrid, along with Blanka's maneuvers.
Calculated Advantages:- Vitality is based on Stamina + Resolve + the Fortitude Merit, that also grants Dizzy Resistance.
- Willpower is just willpower, derived from Resolve + Composure as standard per WoDCore.
- The "Willpower" that fuels physical maneuvers is called something else now. It's derived from Stamina + Style bonus.
- Chi is derived from Resolve + Style bonus.
- No Morality mechanics, please.
Multiple Combatants:- Biggest thing I'm thinking here is require an accuracy roll: attacker rolls Technique minus defender's Block, minimum one die, and must get at least one success in order to inflict damage. This is the roll that can botch, so characters are no longer penalized for using low damage maneuvers. Extra successes add dice to the damage roll.
- Thinking about adding more cheap maneuvers that hit multiple enemies.
Magic System:
I'm a little bit stumped on this, but I'm looking through
World of Darkness: Sorcerer and
World of Darkness: Mummy for ideas.
I did not play much nWoD (abot a year or so at a guess); but one of the big issues we had with the system is that Defense is really, really important. Which made Big Bruiser archetypes like Zangief pretty much unfeasible.
This may sound insane, but you may wish to look at various boardgames that deal with gladiatorial fights perhaps, or general "fighting games" that aren't tactical games at the same time (such as Descent). Might be some good ideas to borrow from there, as I think for emulating a Street Fighter game, it's feasible to steal a lot from a good board game mechanic, as a lot of "moves" will be pre - defined (though you will also need some means of inventing them on the flow, or allowing the moves to be mostly descriptive, with similar mechanical effects, minor concessions perhaps).
Constructing some sort of a "fight matrix", where you'd make your own moves by taking various pros and cons of a move (such as time, complexity, special requirements, the move setting opponent on fire, etc etc) could really pay off.
Quote from: FaerieGodfather;681401Multiple Combatants:
- Biggest thing I'm thinking here is require an accuracy roll: attacker rolls Technique minus defender's Block, minimum one die, and must get at least one success in order to inflict damage. This is the roll that can botch, so characters are no longer penalized for using low damage maneuvers. Extra successes add dice to the damage roll.
- Thinking about adding more cheap maneuvers that hit multiple enemies.
On reflection, this is a
really bad idea. Not only does it add an additional roll to every attack and an additional layer of complexity to all maneuvers... but the math doesn't work. An attacker with a Technique anywhere from zero up to the defender's Block will have the same 50% chance of hitting.
Whereas allowing the attacker to use Dexterity + Technique not only makes Dexterity even
more important, it'll quickly add up to adding several damage dice to the vast majority of attacks between equal opponents.
The problem isn't so much with mook battles-- a World Warrior with 5 Stamina can pretty much ignore a handful of guys with Strength 2 + Punch 2-- but with top-tier characters like Bison and Akuma being able to hold off a couple of World Warriors like Ryu and Ken simultaneously.
Back to the drawing board.
Quote from: FaerieGodfather;681401So sayeth one of my friends when I discussed with him the idea that I wanted to run a SFRPG game, but that I wanted to clean up, upgrade, and expand the rules first. Obviously, we have something of a difference of opinion as far as the quality of the game itself is concerned.
Have you looked at
Thrash, or the other fighting game RPG (I think it's
Fight!)?
Quote from: Ladybird;681751Have you looked at Thrash, or the other fighting game RPG (I think it's Fight!)?
Haven't heard of either of them. Investigating now.
You may want to look at the core rules i have made, too, especially the animal traits and the combat rules.
http://catelf.webs.com/streedrpgcorerules.htm
Quote from: FaerieGodfather;681765Haven't heard of either of them. Investigating now.
I'd recommend Fight! over Thrash mostly because Thrash is currently incomplete and Fight! is a fully realized game (with a couple of supplements). Fight! is focused more on directly emulating Fighting Video game play than Thrash which is more of a "world/genre" emulation. 1st Edition Thrash is more heavily influenced by the Streetfighter game including Dexterity being important which I assume you find a bug. The 2nd edition corrects this (overcorrects, IMO but I don't find it to be a bug at all) this issue. Fight! avoids it all together.
Street Fighter is the one game I've actually been despairing of converting to Fate... and I finally realized how to do it. There are still some pieces missing (how to determine maneuver Speed), but the basic idea is that the combat system is mostly Street Fighter while non-combat skills are mostly Fate Core. The faster rolling system also allows me to use the attack roll versus defense roll I wanted to do, separate of the damage roll.
Basic idea is that Techniques work like Traits, but with a separate pool for determining values. You roll Technique versus defender's Block or Athletics defense, and if you succeed, you roll the maneuver's damage (plus shifts) minus the defender's Endurance, counting pluses as shifts. (Or Endurance + Block if they're blocking.) Damage is Might + Technique for physical techniques and Conviction + Focus for mystical techniques.
Game would then use the Street Fighter XP system.
Still need to do the other things on my list, but using Fate to replace nWoD makes me happy.
H'okay. For anyone interested in how I'm doing this...
The normal skills/traits system for Fate Core is broken into two lists, Skills and Techniques. Skills are all your (basically) non-combat abilities, and Techniques are all of your (basically) combat abilities. There are fifteen traits in each list.
Since "Techniques" includes a number of raw physical or mental attributes, I'd like to be able to rename it.
Skills:- Scholarship
- Science
- Lore
- Occult
- Contacts
- Resources
- Crafts
- Investigation
- Nature
- Pilot
- Deceit
- Empathy
- Rapport
- Stealth
- Thievery
Techniques:- Might
- Reflexes
- Endurance
- Conviction
- Alertness
- Discipline
- Block
- Punch
- Kick
- Athletics
- Grab
- Focus
- Weapons
- Firearms
- Provoke
Characters start with +4 pyramids in both Techniques and Skills, and then use the Skill Column rules for advancement-- despite being separate lists with separate pyramids, Techniques and Skills both count together for column purposes.
Advancement is modified: every Minor Milestone, in addition to the standard benefits, characters get a Power Point. Every Significant Milestone, characters get both a Technique point and a Skill point. And every Major Milestone, characters get a point of Refresh as normal.
---
The combat system is taken straight from
Street Fighter, with one major modification and a couple of minor ones.
There are now attack rolls like in Fate-- you roll your attack Tech against the defender's Block or Athletics, depending, and then if you hit you add your shifts to the die pool for damage. Damage works as in standard
Street Fighter, rolling a dice pool and counting each plus as a success. (It's simplifying "six or higher on a d10" to "plus sign" that makes me confident about adding attack rolls.) Dice pools are all Technique 1 + Technique 2 + Maneuver Bonus; strikes and grabs use Might, mundane missiles use Alertness, chi attacks use Conviction. Taunts are a special case and use Conviction + Provoke.
Maneuver Speed, likewise, works as in
Street Fighter, using Reflex in place of Dexterity and Alertness in place of Wits. Movement is based strictly on Athletics as normal.
---
Stress tracks are replaced with (grainy) hit points. Health is equal to your Endurance score + the game's current skill cap, Willpower is equal to your Discipline + the skill cap. If you take more hit points than you have, the remaining damage is Aggravated and you take a Consequence-- 1 or 2 hit points is Mild, 3 or 4 is Moderate, and 5 or more is Severe. Normal damage refreshes at scenes as normal, up your total Health minus Aggravated Damage.
Willpower, as mental health, and Willpower as fuel for physical maneuvers are separated. The new "fuel" is called Vigor, and is equal to your Endurance + your style bonus. Likewise, Chi is based on Conviction plus style bonus. These also refresh at scene break.
---
Voilá.
So yeah. That number for Health Levels? Double it.
https://sites.google.com/site/faeriegodfather/street-fighter-rpg-conversion