it looks very good.... i hope someone runs a game with this system.. i'd like to try it.

am i correct in assuming the church of seven saints is corrupt, and each of the seven is almost totally consumed by a Sin?

It looks good so far, and has interesting mechanics. I like the concepts of the setting, and, as stated below, there are a few trait references that tripped me up as well.

I wonder if you could expand a bit upon your spell creation ideas. As that has intrigued me for this setting.

All in all, very well done. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

...managed to work my way through everything you've got here, Skari, and I have to agree that it's definitely an interesting system (and the setting looks to be promising, as well)...

The one small (almost microscopic) issue that I might have with any of it is the "Traits" vs "traits" bit. I get the concept, of course, just think that distinguishing between the two with a capital T vs a lowercase t might get confusing somewhere along the line. Maybe identifiers such as "Prime Traits" and "Lesser/Minor Traits" would be a tad clearer?

My opinion only, of course, and, as I said, it's just a very tiny nit-pick. Otherwise, fantastic work! I'd love to see this play-tested.

Hi guys! Not completely finished moving (currently staying at my fiancée's grandmother's house and I should have my own computer up and running before the weekend.

I just wanted to address the Trait vs trait issue: I have no intention of having it like this in the complete version. I just tend to write traits when I'm not talking about the 8 Prime Traits, so I thought I should do something about it for this design diary. I'm thinking of either renaming Traits into something else or try to refer to traits as stats. But the main point is that when I say traits with lower case 't', I'm referring to everything and not just the 8 Traits.

I'm also looking for ideas for my setting, namely locations and organizations. I think I might do a contest like the one that was done for the Inn a week or two ago.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. I have some new ideas and improvements that I will add to this thread soon. I think I have a good idea for the combat system, but it will need further testing.

EDIT: And Chessic, just to address your suspicions about the Church, it is not entirely certain. They have awakened Virtues instead of Sin, but Virtue Techniques are often very similar to the Sin Techniques. Essentially, for now, it can go either way.

Combat takes place in rounds. Each character can make a single complex action and a single simple action, or two simple actions, or a single full action. All characters can make as many free actions as they want or as many as the Chronicler allows. Reflexive actions act as free actions but can be performed at any time. Moving counts as a simple action. Attacking counts as a complex action. Special attacks count as full action.


Health A hero's Health is equal to (5x Vitality)+10. Characters begin suffering penalties when 10 Health is left, and further penalties when only 5 Health is left. When Health has dropped to 0, the character is knocked out. A knocked-out hero has as many attempts to stabilize as he has ranks in Vitality or Willpower. The attempt is a Vitality (Resistance) or Willpower (Resistance) roll against a mark of 15. Other characters can attempt to heal with Agility (Medicine) roll against the same mark. If all attempts fail, the hero dies.
Health never drops below 0, and the hero always gets the attempts to stabilize himself. Only special effects that specifically kill the target if Health drops to 0, or Coup de Grace break this rule.

Coming Back to Life Currently, there is no plan to allow characters to be brought back from the dead, except as a monster. In those cases, the character will no longer be in the player's care.


Initiative When rolling for Initiative, the player rolls 2d6 and adds his hero's Perception ranks to the results. On a tie, the one with higher Perception wins. On a further tie, compare Agility. If there is still a tie, the players who tied roll again against each other.


Attack When attacking, make an Agility (Melee, Brawl, Marksmanship, or Throw) roll and compare the result with the opponent's Defense Mark. The attack must roll higher than the DMark; if it ties or is less than the DMark, the roll fails. Certain masterwork weapons might provide bonus to the attack roll.


Defense Mark Each character has a Defense Mark equal to 5 + Agility ranks. Additionally, if an item adds a defense bonus, add that bonus to the Defense Mark.

Defensive Action As a complex action, the hero can take a defensive action. The hero rolls Agility (Defense) and adds 5 to the result. This number replaces the normal Defense Mark until the hero's next action. Additionally, items with a defense bonus, except for those with fixed bonus (such as most magical items), add their bonuses as additional dice rolled.


Damage When rolling damage, roll Power and add the weapon's damage bonus as dice. The result is the amount of damage dealt in the attack.

Bows A bow has its own Power rating. When rolling damage, roll either the hero's Power or the bow's Power, whichever is lower, and add the arrow's damage bonus as dice.

Other Ranged Weapons Certain ranged weapons (notably crossbows and firearms) do not add Power to their damage rolls.

Non-Lethal Unarmed attacks deal non-lethal damage. Against non-lethal attacks, a hero always has Protection equal to his Vitality in addition to any provided by his armor.


Armor No armor provides defense bonus. Instead, armor provides a damage reduction, here called Protection. The armor's Protection reduces the damage dealt by its rating. Heavier armor causes fatigue penalties and movement penalties.
Armor will be divided into 4 groups: Light, Medium, Heavy and Super Heavy.

Light: 1-3 Protection, Fatigue 1, Movement -0 (Example: Thick clothing, light leather)
Medium: 4-6 Protection, Fatigue 2, Movement -2 (Example: Chain mail, breast plate)
Heavy: 7-9 Protection, Fatigue 3, Movement -6 (Example: Half-plate)
Super Heavy: 10-12 Protection, Fatigue 4, Movement -10 (Example: Full-plate, Dwarven Siege Armor)

Shield A shield does not provide Protection, but provides defense bonus instead. Small shields, such as bucklers, provide a +1 bonus. Larger shields provide +2 bonus, and the largest shields, like tower-shields, provide a +3 bonus. When taking a defensive action, this bonus is rolled rather than added directly to the Defense Mark.

I have now finished moving to my parents' house while I look for a job, and I have set up my computer to do some more work. In case you haven't noticed, I have added some more stuff to my designs. If you notice them, feel free to comment (in fact, comments would be nice).

I think I will start working for real on the Techniques next so that I can start playtesting (at least test the basic system). I aim at 10 Techniques for each Skill (and preferably Sins) before testing begins. Any ideas?

Glad you're all settled in and such, Skari. Will review changes and throw some input your way as soon as I get a minute.

I was talking to a friend of mine and a fellow role-player the other day about how I imagined Skills would work and I made a certain point that I didn't really realize until I mentioned it: "They're more like extra effort than actual Skills."

It got me thinking that perhaps I should rethink the descriptive part of Skills in this system, notably the name. Any thoughts on me starting to call them Efforts rather than Skills?

...seems to me that "Skills" is still an appropriate tag, Skari. Putting those skills to use might constitute and 'effort,' sure, but, IMO, Skills works better overall.

Now, if you had designs on breaking skills down a bit more - creating something in the vein of sub-skills or special actions that could be taken only if a character had the prerequisite skill in place, for example - you might want to label those as Efforts.

*shrugs* just my initial thoughts.

I'll keep Skills as Skills for now at least. I also gave some thought to changing the damage system.

The new system counts Trauma instead of damage (other names for it can also be considered if you have any ideas). You'd have a Trauma limit equal to a number determined by your Vitality (likely Vit x5). Attacks deal Trauma equal to the damage roll as normal and when the Trauma has become more than what you can withstand you start suffering damage equal to the surplus Trauma. So Health 10 with Trauma 13 means you'd suffer -3 on all rolls.

In theory, you could suffer a lot of Trauma without ever dying. In order to kill your target, you'll need to perform a killing blow. If successful, you'll make a roll not unlike the normal damage roll, but the Mark is equal to (((Vitality + Willpower)x2)+10). If the roll is successful, the target dies. If it is unsuccessful, something else happens (I'm not sure what, but dealing normal damage is the simplest outcome).

Killing will appear to be more difficult, but not as much when Trauma gives penalty to resisting Killing Blows. The more damage you've dealt already makes it easier to kill the target.

I suspect this might bog down battles somewhat, so this would only be reserved for notable NPCs and PCs; mooks are much easier to get rid of and would not require a specific action.

I am going to keep the damage system as it was, for now at least. Here are some further changes I will be making:

Marksmanship and Throwing Skills will be removed and replaced by a single Skill called "Ranged Combat". Ranged will be a Compound Skill and includes such sub-Skills as Bows, Thrown, Crossbows and Firearms.

Melee and Brawl will be made into a single Combound Skill called "Close Combat" and it includes weapon types as sub-Skills, i.e. Swords, Brawl, Axes, Spears, etc.

Exotic (Skill) Training will be modified. Compound Skills no longer have exotic uses, but instead have Exotic sub-Skills that are acquired through special training represented with Assets. This includes exotic weapons such as firearms (Ranged Combat) or whips (Close Combat).

Techniques for Compound Skills are the same for all sub-Skills, but must be bought individually for each. Alternatively, once bought a Technique applies to all sub-Skills of that Compound Skill.


Stepping away from Skills now for a sec, I am also planning on including Size in the system as a numerical value. For humans, this number is 5. Each number is twice the size of the previous number, so 6 is twice as big as 5 while 4 is only half the size. Although no human being can become size 6 through normal methods (there are no Assets that give you this much greater size) there are Spells that allows you to grow bigger.

The reason I want to keep the size as numerical values is because this value is used to calculate Health and lifting capacity. When calculating Health, you multiply Vitality with your Size, and that is your Health value. Assuming I use the new Health/Death system, it is also used to calculate the Death Resistance value.

For lifting, I will work under the assumption that a hero can comfortably lift an item that is equal to or less than his own size. Additional data may modify it, such as some things being heavier than others (in fact, mostly that). In that case, Power will be included to calculate lifting capacity.

I don't intend to make a very detailed system of calculating lifting capacity. Each material will have a Durability value that works in much the same way as Vitality to calculate Health, but it calculates Structure. If the sum of the Durability and the item's Size is equal to or less than the sum of the hero's Power and Size, the hero can lift it. Additional system will involve Fatigue (such as the item being larger than the hero, or the total sum being more than the hero can lift).


I will now start working on Techniques. I think I will start with 5 Techniques for each Skill but I hope to have at least 10 for each before the system is ready. I also intend to finish 5 Techniques and Curses for the Sins, but I won't do that just yet. Guilds and other Techniques will come later.

Just had a revelation regarding Dwarves in this setting that I wanted to share.

First of all, Dwarves in this setting are not like the Dwarves seen in D&D or many other games. They are the creatures of earth, stone and clay. As master craftsmen, I don't think it is too farfetched that Dwarves are able to create life out of stone.

There is no definition made between male and female Dwarves. In the end, there is only a Dwarf. In fact, the Dwarves have only one gender: Dwarf. They create offsprings by molding them in clay and stone, and then giving them life. A Dwarf is "born" fully grown and conscious, and able to go straight to work.

Dwarves are miners and they are constantly working. Only rare few Dwarves do anything other than mine and they become scholars and politicians. The importance of the mines makes the miner caste more important than others, however, and only kings receive more respect than they do.

Dwarves commonly have grey skin, but their beards can have any earthly color. Dwarves are divided into clans based on the color of their beards, and the longer beards get more respect. No Dwarf is allowed to have a longer beard than the ruling king but only criminals are clean shaven. A Dwarf without a beard has no rights in the community at all.

Dwarves believe that they are immortal and absolutely cannot die. Upon "death" they simply fall asleep and turn to stone. It is called the sleep eternal (or the eternal sleep, depends). The sleeping Dwarves are believed to be able to speak telepathicly, giving rise to ancestral worship.

In the center of their religion, Dwarves believe there was the First Maker, aka the Master Craftsman or the Great Maker. At the beginning of time, he created himself and the World. He was the first Dwarf and made many like him. The one they believe to be the First Maker sleeps eternally in a large cave deep in the earth, a location that is a mecca for Dwarves everywhere.

As for society, Dwarves live in a caste system that is divided into clans. Oathbreakers are at the bottom, with criminals just above. Scholars (includes what we might consider politicians), runecasters and other workers (brewers included) are next. Miners and craftsmen are only second to the king himself.

Dwarves eat mushrooms and anything else that grown underground (which is to say, not much), but they can go on for days without eating anything at all. Some develop a taste for raw meat and occasional hunting parties to the surface have become myths and legends of the human race.

Dwarves rarely travel to the surface and when they do they only travel during the night. Dwarves see perfectly in complete or partial darkness, although they see everything in black and white, and shades of grey. Bright light can blind a Dwarf, and daylight has left a Dwarf blind for days. Even faint light is enough to make a Dwarf complain. They are also accustomed to living in the cold Earth, although some do work or live near some source of heat, such as lava. Dwarves make little or no use of fire, except to forge metal.


This is actually much more than I thought I would write. If you've bothered reading all this, tell me what you think.

...just entirely too cool!

Thanks man

I'm also thinking of doing a similar remake of Elves. Not sure how, exactly, but it will have something to do with sailing West into the unknown. I've also toyed with the idea of slavery, but we'll see how that turns out.

I'm thinking about doing some major changes to the game's magic system. Initially I was hoping to make a simple system that would allow everyone to make up new spells (and allow your characters to create a new spell through research, trial and error, and hard work) but I'm no longer so sure. So I would like to know what you think: Should I make a spell-making system or should I just stick to creating a long list of spells for now?

Also, I think I'll rethink the Techniques a little bit more but I'm not sure what will come out of it yet.