Trait Based RP Erf Game *Temporarily On Hold*

[tigerusthegreat]

Full rules will be forthcoming in the next few days (mostly because I have to type them all up, I do have most of them written down just not in electronic format).

I'm looking for a small handful of players (4-6 I think) to play various warlords and casters in a Erfworld-inspired game. This will be a Player vs Gm style, where I will take command of the Opfor, and there may or may not be neutral/friendly NPC sides as well. All players will be part of one side (whether they are mercenaries working for that side, or just part of that side). Players control one character as well as any number of units that are assigned to them (units can be switched from player to player, but characters cannot). Each character is a unit itself, but is special in a number of ways. There are five kinds of characters:

Ruler: This is the head of a faction, there can be only one per faction. They gain three traits and ability points per level, their command bonus extends to all units within the hex. They gain access to special traits dealing with rulership. Units in their stack gain a bodyguard bonus, if they are the ruler's chosen bodyguard (cannot be changed)

Faction Heir: This is the heir apparent of the faction. This designation can be changed, but doing so is costly. They gain three traits and ability points per level. They gain access to special traits dealing with rulership, and become ruler should the current ruler be croaked. Units in their stack gain a bodyguard bonus, if they are of the heir's chosen bodyguard (can be changed only when heir becomes Ruler).

Warlord: This is a field commander. Warlords can be promoted and demoted from Chief Warlord at no cost once per turn (one change per turn). They gain two traits and ability points per level. They have access to command traits.

Chief Warlord: This is the supreme field commander. Warlords can be promoted and demoted from Chief Warlord at no cost once per turn (one change per turn). They gain two traits and ability points per level. They have access to command traits. Their leadership bonus extends to all units within their hex.

Casters: This is a magical unit. Casters can use juice to cast spells. They have access to the magic traits. Many casters give leadership bonuses to units they have affinity with. They gain two traits and ability points per level.

To begin we need one Ruler, a Chief Warlord, and anything else. Levels will be determined randomly, and full mechanic information will be forthcoming as well (I wanted to post this to get interest as soon as possible).

What are Traits? If you have ever played Heroes of Might and Magic, you'll know them as skills. Essentially they provide bonuses that allow you to make your characters more unique than mere ability scores can. One warlord might have a lot of mobility-related traits, while another might have put everything into leadership-related traits. Even though they could be the same level, one would be great at scouting, and the other great at empowering his stack. This also allows good means of making casters an interesting choice, as you could have a caster who is a master of their field, or one that dabbles, but can do a lot of different things.

What will happen in this game? You will be taking part as a side against a DM-operated side, or perhaps in the midst of a war with several sides involved. You will have control over several cities, which will be used to pop units. Cities will make pop points, and have "production slots" which allow them to produce specific units. Full rules will be forthcoming, but a city will have a base production slot number of its level (lvl 5 would have 5 slots). They will also have buildings that can increase their slots, as well as other buildings that buff pop point production, support units for free, and the like. Casters with a unit affinity can produce one kind of unit of their affinity type without using a city production slot (a cwoakamancer could create one type of uncroaked without needing the city to be set up for it).

Will my units have levels? Your units will have levels, and all units popped will start at level 1, except for knight-class units. One unit per city may be designated a knight-class. These units take up 2 production slots, but when popped are lvl 5. You can also produce their lvl 1 equivalents as well (this uses the second slot the knight unit occupies). Knight-class units have a small bonus to their ability points, which makes them more powerful than a lvl 5 version of their lesser selves.

Questions? I'll be getting rules up soon.

[tigerusthegreat]

Rules:

Ability Points:

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Hits: Base value is equal to attack + defense. If you increase attack or defense with points from levelling, this value does not increase.

Attack: Determines offensive power.
*Denotes Melee attack. Ranged attacks can be granted for 20 points, at half the Attack value's power. For twice the base attack cost, you can make the Ranged attack primary, and the melee attack is granted "for free" at half the Ranged Attack's value.

Defense: Determines defensive power. Limited by unit type.
*Normal: Max of 4
*Heavy: Max of 10
*Super Heavy: Max of 20

Movement: Determines how many hexes a unit can move. Limited by movement type.
*Walker: Capped at 4 movement.
*Hoverer: Capped at 5 movement.
*Flier: Capped at 7 movement.
->Partial points of movement granted by traits are rounded to the nearest point.

Intellect: Determines base power of spells, as well as gives a bonus to juice.

Traits:

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Each skill tree has one Primary and three Secondary skills. Secondary skills cannot be levelled past the level of their primary skill.

Skills have four levels: Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Master.

Skill Trees:

General (available to everyone):

Hardiness (Primary): Increases Hits of a unit (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Melee Attack (Secondary): Increases Melee Attack of a unit (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Defense (Secondary): Increases Defense of a unit (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Ranged Attack (Secondary): Increases Ranged Attack of a unit (10%/20%/30%/40%)

Scouting (Primary): Increases sight range of a unit (1 hex/2 hexes/3 hexes/ 4 hexes)
*Pathfinding (secondary): Decreases movement penalty of difficult terrain (0.25 point reduction/0.5 reduction/0.75 reduction/1 reduction)
*Stealth (secondary): Increases chance of remaining hidden from enemy scouts (invisible to units with scouting lower than your stealth)
*Maneuver (secondary): Increases Movement of a unit (0.5/1/1.5/2)

Warlord (available to warlords and leaders/heirs):

Leadership (Primary): Grants bonuses to all units in a stack (+20%/+40%/+60%/+80%)
*Offensive Tactics (secondary): Grants bonus to attack of a stack (+10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Defensive Tactics (secondary): Grants bonus to defense of a stack (+10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Mobility (secondary): Increases movement of a stack (+25%/50%/75%/100%)

Rulership (Available to leaders/heirs):

Rulership (Primary): Increases Schmukers per turn (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Estates (secondary): Reduces upkeep costs of all units (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Contracting (secondary): Reduces costs of hiring mercenaries/casters. Also reduces interest penalty of loans (10%/20%/30%/40%)
*Diplomacy (secondary): Increases recruitment rate of natural allies (10%/20%/30%/40%)

Magic (Available to Casters):
NOTES: All magic traits have a primary trait (the class of magic) that increases a caster's juice and potency of spells of that class. They then also have 3 secondary traits that have specific effects, as well as improving magic of that type.

This is also a major work in progress as I'm not sure how to handle magic just yet.

You must have the primary skill to use any spell scrolls of the secondary skills type.

Any magic secondary that allows you to create units also provides you with the leadership skill for those unit types equal to its level (master croakamancy would act like master leadership towards uncroaked).

Hocus Pocus (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Findamancy (secondary) Can be used in liue of scouting to reveal hidden units.
*Predictamancy (secondary) Provides bonuses to combat by using juice
*Mathamancy (secondary) Provides bonuses to combat by using juice

Spookism (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Turnamancy (secondary) Speeds up production by using juice
*Dollomancy (secondary) can create cloth golems at a cost of 1 juice per hit. Increases effectiveness of dollomancy spells (1 hit/1.3/1.6/2| 20%/40%/60%/80%)
*Weirdomancy (secondary) Has random effects.

Stuffamancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Dirtamancy (secondary) can create rock/crap golems at a cost of 1 juice per hit. Increases effectiveness of dirtamancy spells (1 hit/1.3/1.6/2| 20%/40%/60%/80%)
*Changemancy (secondary) Can change unit types
*Dittomancy (secondary) Can replicate units to provide combat bonuses

Eyemancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Lookamancy (secondary) Can be used to scout and uncover stats of units
*Thinkamancy (secondary) Used to enhance range of bonuses of commanders, modifies duty and loyalty
*Foolamancy (secondary) Can hide units or provide defensive bonuses

Hippiemancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Flower Power (secondary): Can create flower creatures at a cost of 1 juice per hit, increases flower power spell effectiveness (1 hits/1.3/1.6/2| 20%/40%/60%/80%)
*Signamancy (secondary) Uncovers hidden statistics of units, able to hide statistics of your units.
*Date-a-mancy (secondary) Provides bonuses based on the alignment of the stars.

Naughtymancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Shockamancy (secondary) removes units from combat, preventing them from attacking. AA ability.
*Croakamancy (secondary) Can raise corpses as uncroaked at a cost of 1 juice per hit, Increases croakamancy spell effectiveness (1 hit/1.3 hits/1.6 hits/2 hits| 20%/40%/60%/80%)
*Rectonjuration (secondary) Can emulate any other 'mancy at high juice cost.

Stagemancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Hat Magic (secondary) Various utility tricks.
*Carnymancy (secondary) Can tame wild animals.
*Rhyme-o-mancy (secondary) Bonuses to diplomacy, wordworking, and the like.

Clevermancy (Primary) Increases Juice and potency (10/20/30/40)
*Luckamancy (Secondary) Provides a 10%/level bonus to combat. Costs juice based on distance
*Healomancy (Secondary) Can heal 1 hit of damage at the cost of 1 juice. Increases heal spell effectiveness (1 dam/1.3/1.6/2.0|20%/40%/60%/80%)
*Moneymancy (Secondary) Improves income of cities, can convert cash into gems.

Terrain

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Unless noted, movement is 1.
Roads: 0.5 movement for walkers. -25% defense for walkers.
Flatlands/Plains: 1
Forests: 1.5 for walkers +25% defense for walkers. Fliers and hoverers can only be attacked by ranged units.
Hills: 2 for walkers. +50% defensive bonus
Mountain: impassable except for fliers, which costs 2 +50% defensive bonuses.

Walls provide defensive bonuses of 10% per level (max 5), and have 20 hp per level (they do not benefit from their own defensive bonuses).

Cities

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Cities produce 250 pop points per level, have five unit slots, and support four units per level free of charge. It costs 1000 pop points per level to improve a city, taking 1 turn per new city level to complete. During an upgrade, units can be popped, but new buildings cannot be made. Cities have a scout range of 1 (max 6 with a maxed tower)

Buildings: All buildings cost 500 pop points per new level to upgrade, and take one turn. Only one building per turn can be upgraded.
Walls: 10% defensive bonus per level
Barracks: 2 units supported per level for free
Manufactury: 1 Unit production slot per level
Bank: +10% pop income per level
Tower: +1 scouting range per level

Combat Calculations

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The basic battle calculation of the game involves dice. Take 1/2 your base attack stat rounded to the nearest whole number. This is the size of your die to roll for attacks. So if you have a 10 unmodified attack, you will be rolling a d5 for your attack. Take your modified attack stat, subtract the size of your dice, and this is your attack modifier. Roll the die, add the modifier, and that's your attack roll. Subtract the enemy defense and that is the damage you deal to the enemy.

Example: You have two monsters attacking one another. One has attack 8, defense 4, and 12 hits. The other has 10 attack, 2 defense, and 12 hits. Monster A (4 defense) attacks first, rolling a d4 (1/2 8) and adding 4 (8-4=4). He rolls a 2, and gets 6 damage. Monster B takes 4 damage after takings his 2 defense into account. now Monster B attacks back. He rolls a d5 (1/2 10) and adds 5 (10-5=5), and rolls a 2, and gets 7 damage. Monster A takes 3 damage after taking his 4 defense into account. Higher attack stats mean consistently higher damage (bigger bonus, bigger die rolls) and a better return from traits that boost attack.

Stacking

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When more than one bonus applies to a particular area, they are complimentary. So if you have a +20% bonus to attack from traits and a +20% leadership bonus, then your "net" bonus is 44% (1.2*1.2=1.44). This means the more types of bonus you get the better.

For the purposes of this game, a stack of units caps at 12 units (including a commander). There is no bonus or penalty associated with stack size.

Creating your character

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As mentioned, there will be commanders, rulers, and casters. Player's characters will start at level three.