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Harry Dresden Diceless

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finarvyn:

--- Quote from: taralon on April 18, 2007, 12:43:23 AM ---Personally I like going as 'diceless' as possible as a GM outside of combat.
--- End quote ---
This got me thinking. What about running a Dresden campaign using something like the Amber Diceless RPG?

Four main attributes: Psyche (mental combat), Strength (athletic actions), Warfare (weapons combat), and Endurance (how long you can last).

Spellcasting ability costs character points to buy (similar to buying Power Words, Sorcery, and Conjuration, but maybe only one "Magic" stat to represent training).

I notice in the books sometimes that Harry will compare notes with other Wizards, perhaps finding that they are better at certain types of spells while he is better with others. This could be simulated by combining Psyche (power) with Magic (training) to get some sort of spellcasting points which could be divided among magic "schools" or spell groups.
* Offensive (player picks special effect of fire, ice, lightning, water, whatever)
* Shield (player picks special effects)
* Telekinesis (moving and pushing stuff)
* Sensory (ESP, Sight, and so on)
* others I've missed?

The rules would be similar to ADRP, with each magical "school" acting a lot like an ADRP attribute. For example, a combat could be one wizard's lightning blast versus another wizard's shield and if one is stronger he is victorious, but using Endurance to resolve similar power levels.

Anyone done anything like this?

Rel Fexive:
It's an interesting idea.

Is there anything the ADRPG can't do? ;)

finarvyn:
Well, I think that ADRP is great for weapons combat (particularly for melee) but I've always been a bit hesitant to get too into missile combat becasue it seems so random.

What I like about melee is that it's kind of like playing chess with move and counter-move. Magic always troubled me as well, since it seems to lack the back-and-forth the way melee does, but I'm hoping that having offensive and defensive options rather than generic spell lists may allow magical duels to play much like melee.

In most RPGs, a person casts a spell and there isn't really a counterspell. The spell just fires and everyone ducks or makes a saving throw, or whatever. What I want is a system where I can simulate the ebb and flow of magical combat with attack and counterattack of spells rather than rapiers.

I'm going to try my system out this weekend, unless someone can give me some suggestions on how to make it better before then.   ;)

Slife:
I actually statted out Harry Dresden for Amber DRPG

Psyche: -15
Strength: -24
Endurance: -20
Warfare: -24
Bad stuff: Too much.
A few points invested in sorcery and misc artifacts.

finarvyn:

--- Quote from: Slife on April 19, 2007, 01:52:00 AM ---I actually statted out Harry Dresden for Amber DRPG

Psyche: -15
Strength: -24
Endurance: -20
Warfare: -24
Bad stuff: Too much.
A few points invested in sorcery and misc artifacts.

--- End quote ---
Made me smile.  :D  I assume your scale was with zero representing "Amber" level.

I was thinking of running something where zero would be "human standard" level so that I wouldn't need to have all of those negative numbers. I also was looking at using the system but not all of the Amber NPCs -- the point would be to run a Dresden campaign and not simply insert Harry into an Amber campaign.

With "human" level at zero, "exceptional" (Chaos) might be at 15 and "supernatural" (Amber) more like 25, Slife's example would stat out more like this:
Psyche: 10
Strength: 1
Endurance: 5
Warfare: 1
Bad stuff: Too much.
A few points invested in sorcery and misc artifacts.

To set up characters, one would need some sort of baseline:
Vampires would have "supernatural" strength = 25.
Weres would have "supernatural" endurance = 25.
I would put most Wizards with "supernatural" psyche = 15 (so Harry's would likely be more than this).
Mercs like Kincaid might be close to "supernatural" in Warfare, maybe 10.

Pretty much all of the ADRP powers would be gone, as they are not part of the Dresdenverse, but some system for spellslinging and shape shifting would clearly have to remain. Many of the item costs (for things like Michael's sword) could remain, and the basic conflict resolution process would remain intact as well.

So ... just some quick off-the-cuff thoughts for generic critters:
* Vampire = P 10, S 25, E 15, W 0. (50 point template)
* Loup Garou = P 0, S 15, E 25, W 0. Shape Shift 35. (75 point template)
* Generic Warden = P 15, S 0, E 10, W 5. Power Words 10, Sorcery 15. (55 point template)
* Better Warden = P 15, S 0, E 10, W 5. Power Words 10, Sorcery 15, Conjuration 20. (75 point template)

Thoughts?

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