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Elder Scrolls PNP System? Interest? Ideas?
Sorenson
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
For the last week or two I've been on something of an Elder Scrolls kick, loadin' up all the old games and toolin' around, but like any game you play a shitton of after a while stuff just gets stale. Oblivion's been exhausted to its fullest extent, Morrowind's been played to (and dated as) hell and back, and while Daggerfall's nature can provide technically unlimited play and is pretty damn advanced and deep for an old 2.5d game, again, you can only do so much. But a tabletop game? Shit, a good chunk of the staple ES mechanics practically came from tabletop games, and with some tinkering and liberal fudging the rest of it could be translated decently enough, methinks.
Thing is, nobody seems to have been able to do the job - or rather, finished the job. I found a very barebones outline for some indie universal D20 system, while another tries to translate the Elder Scrolls to the Fallout PNP ruleset lock stock and barrel (and at the last update six months ago said they were going to try D20 next). So as the thread title suggests, since there seems to be something of a vacuum regarding the matter, I'd like to take a crack at the idea myself, and since search says that at least a few people have had similar sort of ideas over the years (freeform "classless" skill-based mechanics if not nessecarily of an ES nature) maybe we can get some kind of a brainstorming shindig going.
From all the pondering I've been doing on the subject for the last few days, I've gotten the following ideas about what to use and how to use it. BIG-ASS INFO DUMP, HOOOO:
...and that's all I've got right now.
Stuff I'm particularly thoughtful of/worried about/know might raise some questions:
A) Block: Block has been absorbed into the general armor skills: shields now provide additional armor AC depending on the armor class.
Magic, and keeping it balanced but still viable as a core skill: One thing I thought extremily nice about Oblivion was that magic actually was something you could use with impunity and was an actual part of the world, as opposed to the "save it for that one moment/one good shot and you're spent" nature of Morrowind and in some cases Daggerfall. On the other hand once you hit a point in Oblivion you could just SMITE dudes as you saw fit, and considering that now every single character has the potential to (and probably will for at least one school) utilize magic, needless to say I'm worried. Limiting MP to just int instead of int*2 might help, but at the same time I don't want to discourage people who want to play pure spellslingers/staff-and-spell mages.
C) Item Material and Quality: This is done in part as a means of combatting the Morrowind Power Curve, seeing as how I'm taking a LOT of data to make rules from there, and in part in order to finally kick Daedric off its mile-high throne of beat-all end-all weapon and armor material, or at least shorten the legs by about 5,275 feet. Besides making loot much more viable no matter what it's made out of, materials also provide a nice way for players to control HOW they protect themselves, to a degree: go Ebony or Daedric and make yourself a tank capable of shrugging off physical blows (and a prime target for spells, but I digress)? Opt for a lighter material that gives you more freedom and flexability and doesn't impede skills? They're all good ideas and reasons, one way or another.
Thing is, nobody seems to have been able to do the job - or rather, finished the job. I found a very barebones outline for some indie universal D20 system, while another tries to translate the Elder Scrolls to the Fallout PNP ruleset lock stock and barrel (and at the last update six months ago said they were going to try D20 next). So as the thread title suggests, since there seems to be something of a vacuum regarding the matter, I'd like to take a crack at the idea myself, and since search says that at least a few people have had similar sort of ideas over the years (freeform "classless" skill-based mechanics if not nessecarily of an ES nature) maybe we can get some kind of a brainstorming shindig going.
From all the pondering I've been doing on the subject for the last few days, I've gotten the following ideas about what to use and how to use it. BIG-ASS INFO DUMP, HOOOO:
BASE SYSTEMS: Fallout PNP 2.0 (Jason Mical version), D20 3.5, homebrew influenced by Elder Scrolls game mechanics
BASE ATTRIBUTES: Daggerfall-style: 50-point starting values for all stats with race bonuses and penalties, 50 points to distribute as desired for a total of 450 points at character generation. IDEA: Allow players to distribute their initial 450 as they please instead of using 50 +/- race bonus? Or would that be too gameable?
DERIVED ATTRIBUTES: Health=Endurance+(Endurance/10 per level), Magicka=Intelligence, Encumberence=Strength*2.5 expressed in pounds, Movement Speed=Speed/2 with deductions for signifigant encumberance. Fatigue I'm in favor of ditching since it always seems like a pain in the ass and any implimentation near what the ES games does means additional calculations and rolling as Fatigue affects most rolls to some degree.
SKILLS: Quasi-Oblivion-style: characters choose 7 skills which start at 25+race bonuses. 35 total skills, 5 for each attribute other than Luck. Class skills can be raised/trained to 100, non-class skills can be raised/trained up to the level of their patron attribute. SUGGESTION: Allow players to freely distribute racial skill bonus points amongst skills of the type or types their race has affinity for based on Morrowind racial skill bonus allotments (IE Altmer and Bretons can spread 45 points in increments of up to 15 amongst magical skills, Nords and Orcs and Redguards can spread 45 points in increments of up to 15 amongst combat skills, Khajit and Imperials and Bosmer can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 amongst combat or sneaking skills, Argonians can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 amongst combat and magical skills, and Dunmer can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 wherever they dang well please.)
STRENGTH
ARMORER: The art of forging and maintaining arms and armor and the breaking down of arms and armor to extract raw resources (if possible). (For the sake of keeping recordkeeping to a minimum I suggest that weapon durability and damage be kept to its D20 equivilent in that damage, health and repairing only matters for sundering weapons and armor; the Armorer skill is more a means of allowing continual equipment upgrades and replenishment)
AXE & BLUNT:
BLADE:
HAND-TO-HAND: The ability to fight while unarmed, punching and kicking and using debilitating and harmful techniques.
SPEAR:
INTELLIGENCE
ALCHEMY:
ENNCHANT: The ability to enchant arms and armor with magickal properties, either as permenant and consistant enchantments or as temporary effects that treat an object as a magickal conduit. (While certainely not a canonical ability, being able to apply temporary magickal damage to a weapon certainely makes Enchant actually look like something you'd want to use instead of the all-but-useless waste from Morrowind)
HEAL: Knowledge of the anatomy of man, mer and beast and how the body reacts to illnesses and injury, and the ability to treat debilitating and crippling conditions.
LORE: Knowledge and history of the world and all manner of subjects, from astrology and history to politics and theology doctrine.
OBSERVATION: The ability to observe and make deductions, ranging from determination of function and nature to the detection of entities.
WILLPOWER
ALTERATION
CONJURATION
DESTRUCTION
MYSTICISM
RESTORATION
ENDURANCE
CLIMBING
HEAVY ARMOR
MEDIUM ARMOR
SWIMMING
(Item needed)
SPEED
ATLHETICS
DODGING: The ability to maneuver around attacks while avoiding contact completily. Determines Touch AC according to the user's currently-equipped armor: NO armor gives an AC equal to speed, LIGHT ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.75, MEDIUM ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.5, and HEAVY ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.25.
LIGHT ARMOR
(Item needed)
(Item needed)
AGILITY
ACROBATICS
MARKSMAN
SECURIT:
SLEIGHT OF HAND: The ability to move or use small items or perform small hand actions without attracting the attention of onlookers.
SNEAK
PERSONALITY
DISGUISE: The ability to alter one's appearance for the purpose of hiding or assuming an identity, be it through visual and/or vocal impersonation.
ILLUSION:
MERCANTILE:
SPEECHCRAFT:
(Item needed)
FEAT/PERK SYSTEM?: Yes, general and skill specific, 1 per 5th character level + 1 at character generation.
EXPERIENCE SYSTEM: Traditional D20/SPECIAL point system, 1K*current level for next level, level range of 1-25.
CHARACTER PROGRESSION SYSTEM: At level-up a character distributes 20 points amongst skills as they see fit, each skill limited to an increase of 10 points per level. As class skills increase the attributes that govern them increase as well, .1 points per skill point (includes initial first-level skill points), rounded down to the nearest whole attribute point. Health and Magicka are recalculated based on attribute development and current level.
SKILL USE SYSTEM: Varies depending on skill. Martial combat skills roll 1d100 and must roll at or below user's skill level after subtractions for armor class and favorable/unfavorable conditions to succussfully hit. Other skills (utility and magical) automatically succeed if action DC falls below a certain threshhold and roll 1d100 +/- for conditions if DC is beyond the current skill level by a percentile less than 100 (if a character can assuredly jump 8 feet they have a 50% chance of making a 12-foot jump, for example).
ATTRIBUTE BONUS/PENALTY/SKILL SYNERGY?: Yes, for every one point above 50 an attribute grants a 1% bonus of the BASE value of a CLASS skill (for example, a character with 100 in a class skill and 75 points in its governing attribute would have an effective total skill value of 125) in addition to other attribute/skill-specific bonuses (EX, base attack damage from a skill with an attribute of 75 would receive a 1.25 multiplier to rolled base damage in addition to the to-hit bonus from the high attribute.) Attribute bonuses are as follows:
STRENGTH: 1% skill bonus/penalty to melee skills for determining to-hit probability for melee and damage for all martial attacks
INTELLIGENCE: Governs total amount of Magicka, no unusual effects
WILLPOWER: Governs per-round magicka regeneration, no unusual effects
ENDURANCE: Governs total amount of health, each point over 50 gives an additional .1% chance to resist poison or disease
SPEED: Governs per-round movement speed (speed/2) and factors into initiative, each 25 points above or below 50 gives an additional standard action or full-round attack increment at full skill value or denies a full-round attack increment of the lowest skill value, minimum of 1 per round - casting spells does not receive this benifit. Also determines touch AC and AC bonuses as per the Dodging skill.
AGILITY: 1% skill bonus/penalty to marksman and target spell skill values for determining to-hit probability, also determines the range at which range penalties begin to be applied for ranged combat
PERSONALITY: No unusual effects
LUCK: Governs critical success/failure chances, every 10 poiints above or below 50 increases or decreases critical success and failure ranges as appropriate, down to a minimum of 1
COMBAT SYSTEM: SPECIAL/D20 3.5 hybrid. Initiative of 1d100+speed. Skill rolls function as per SPECIAL rules (1d100, must roll at or under character skill level - target AC -/+ condition factors, critical success on 1-5+(Luck-50) and critical fail on 96-00+(Luck-50). Round action as per D20 rules (1 move+1 standard action+free actions+5-foot-step when applicable or 1 full-round action+5-foot-step when applicable, attacks of opprotunity). Movement rules as per D20 (5-foot tiles, 2 diagonals is considered 15 feet). Full attack increments are given at skill levels of 50, 75, 100, and so on. Targetted attacks as rolled in SPECIAL (-20 for limbs, -30 for groin, -40 for head, dunno if eyes are worth including) with targetted attacks taken as standard single attacks at full skill level.
MAGIC SYSTEM: Chance to succussfully cast a spell is (spell cost/spell school skill level) - 2 x -100 (IE a destruction level of 25 lets you cast spells up to 25 points with certainty, can cast a 38-point spell with a 48% chance of success, and a 49-point spell would have a 4% chance of success). Touch spells and Target spells, if succussful, must then make a roll using the spell's respective skill or the Hand-to-Hand/Marksman skill, whichever is highest: Self spells succeed automatically, and Caster-Area spells are automatically applied unless circumstances or feats allow for a save roll.
FACTORS DETERMINING SPELL COST: Spell cost is determined by multiplying its Base Cost, Effective Magnitude, Method Value, Duration, and Area of Effect.
BASE COST: Each spell effect has a base cost assigned to it, relative to how powerful the effect is compared to other effects (IE, initial tests put Fire Damage at a base cost of .5 per point of Effective magnitude)
EFFECTIVE MAGNITUDE: The average amount of effect that a spell has is its Effective Value. EV can be either a constant (Oblivion style, a flat X points of effect per casting) or is the average of a variable range (Morrowind style, where a spell may range from X to Z and where EV as Y is (X+Z)/2). A basic fire damage spell with a 20-point EV would thus cost 10 points to cast.
METHOD VALUE: A multiplier based on how the spell is cast. For Self and Touch spells this multiplier is 1, and affects either the caster and the area around them if applicable or a target within touching distance (effectively 5 feet, one tile). Target spells possess a 1.5 multiplier and allow spells to be cast at any target with acceptable line of sight. Caster-area spells use a multiplier of 2 and effects the area around the caster as a Self spell with an area effect, but excludes the caster from the spell's effects. A 20-point fire damage spell On Target thus has a magicka cost of 15
DURATION: The number of rounds that a spell will impart its effect before dissipating. For every round longer than 1 that a spell operates, its Magicka cost increases by 50%: a 20-point fire damage spell On Target for 3 rounds thus costs 30 Magicka.
AREA OF EFFECT: A basic spell will limit its effects to its initial target, be it the caster or a target the caster touched or launched the spell at, but many spells can affect an entire area and all objects and creatures within. For every foot from the epicenter of an area-of-effect spell, multiply the cost by 1 + .1: an On Target 20-point Fire Damage Spell with a range of 5 feet (one tile from the impact location, affecting 3x3 tiles in total) thus has a 45-point magicka cost, or .5x20x1.5x2x1.5
ATTACKS OF OPPROTUNITY: Casting a spell provokes an attack of opprotunity from all enemies who threaten the spellcaster (5 feet/1 tile for normal weapons, 10 feet/2 tiles if using spears) unless they are unable to attack due to other factors. If succussful, an attack of opprotunity has a chance to interrupt a spell equal to the inflicted damage divided by the caster's skill value for the school of the spell being cast (a caster with a skill level of 25 struck for 12 points of damage has a 48% of their spell failing and must roll 52 or better on a d100 check or botch the spell).
ACTION TYPE: Casting a spell is considered a Standard Action and may be done alongside a Move Action and a five-foot step. Casting spells does NOT benifit from the increased action allowance from high Speed and may only be done once per round, but can be combined with another Standard Action like a single attack or using an item.
EQUIPMENT: As opposed to the material-based system of contemporary Elder Scrolls games, equipment stats and abilities are calculated through a combination of D20 material rules and Dwarf Fortress item quality rules.
EQUIPMENT STATS: All equipment, be it weapons or armor or tools, have an initial base set of attributes which determine how effective they are (AC for armor, damage for weapons, quality for tools). Where applicable, stats are modified by 2 factors: item quality, which affects its performance for its primary uses, and item material, which may have an effect on performance as well as modifying other properties of the item in question.
EQUIPMENT QUALITY: Items come in 6 different grades of quality, which act as a multiplier against the item's base stats to determine its total effectiveness: RUSTY/WORN, NORMAL, FINE, SUPERIOR, EXCEPTIONAL, and MASTERFUL. Rusty/worn equipment is 75% as effective as the same item of normal quality, fine equipment is 125% as effective as the same item of normal quality, superior equipment is 150% as effective, exceptional is 175% as effective, and masterful is 200% effective. Item quality affects an item's value in an exponential manner: a fine item is 200% as valuable as a normal item, superior is 400% as valuable, exceptional is 800% as valuable, and masterful is 1600% as valuable, while rusty/worn is only 50% as valuable.
EQUIPMENT MATERIAL: Weapons and armor can be forged out of different materials, which can modify their properties in various ways from their weight, durability, value, damage or protective potential, and enchantability. Base equipment attributes should thus be calculated for steel arms/armor, as it seems to be the standard smithing material in the ES-verse.
IRON/STEEL: Standard metals used for the construction of arms and armor. Steel is typically used owing to its increased ability to resist warping over iron (maybe use a .75 multiplier for iron gear hardness and health?)
SILVER: Valuable metal renowned for its ability to affect creatures of a supernatural nature, silver is one of few materials capable of damaging ghosts, vampires, werebeasts, . Weapons and armor use a thin plated layer over a steel base due to silver's low durability, but many other consumer goods use solid silver for their construction
DWEMER: As much a unique material as the overall style and maker of their construction, Dwemer equipment is made of an unknown alloy half-again as strong and durable as steel but no heavier. Under Imperial law Dwemer artifacts are considered the property of the Empire, making sale to and possession by non-Empire parties illegal, though the enforcement of this policy varies from area to area. Besides their durability, Dwemer arms and armor are of exceptional craftsmanship: items of Dwemer origin are much more likely to be of higher quality than other items.
GLASS: Volcanic glass, when reenforced with rare and durable metals, is able to produce weapons and armor of extrordinary durability but of little weight compared to contemporary equipment. Double item durability and health, 60% weight.
EBONY: Much more dense and darker in color than regular glass, Ebony makes for extrordinarily potent weapons and armor. Triple hardness and health, damage reduction/bonus, 1.5 times weight. Due to the material's high value usually only the best of smiths forge with it: ebony weapons and armor are thus much more likely to be of high quality than other items.
DAEDRIC: The most prized and sought-after weapons and armor are typically made of this infernal substance. Some Daedric items are made from ebony which has been strengthened with the "craft and substances" (can we just say souls?) of lesser Daedric beings, which are fully aware ans suffer during the item's crafting; others are creations of Oblivion itself, brought to Nirn through conjuration magicks and occasionally bound to the realm. Quadruple hardness and health, double weight, 1.5 times enchantment potential. Owing to its extremily powerful and valuable nature, it's difficult to find Daedric items NOT of masterpiece quality: for determining item quality in rolls, invert whatever rolling table is used.
WEAPON ATTRIBUTES: Besides possessing weight, range, durability and health values all weapons have between 1 and 3 damage ranges, representing the weapon's usefulness for inflicting slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage (if possible). These values are determined by the weapon's type: broadswords are mure adept at slashing but only do moderate piercing damage, whereas a longsword can slash and pierce with equal ease (if less effectively than a broadsword/waraxe or rapier/javelin for slashing and piercing respectively. Warhammers can only cause bludgeoning damage, whereas a pickhammer can do either piercing or bludgeoning, albeit at a slight cost in weight and bludgeoning damage.
EQUIPMENT PENALTIES?: Yes, armor inflicts penalties to skills based on movement or subtlety and all magick schools other than Enchant equal to the total weight of all armor items being worn, with the Heavy and Light Armor skills negating one point of penalties for every point of skill (ergo, a person untrained in the use of heavy armor in a full standard suit of heavy armor has a 45% armor penalty (50 pounds - 5 for base skill) for climbing, acrobatics, swimming, and other such skills as well as a 45-point penalty to speed for determining dodge AC; said person as a first-level character with Heavy Armor would only have a 25-point penalty, and as little as 10 points if of a race that soley favors combat skills and 15 skill bonus points are put into heavy armor).
BASE ATTRIBUTES: Daggerfall-style: 50-point starting values for all stats with race bonuses and penalties, 50 points to distribute as desired for a total of 450 points at character generation. IDEA: Allow players to distribute their initial 450 as they please instead of using 50 +/- race bonus? Or would that be too gameable?
DERIVED ATTRIBUTES: Health=Endurance+(Endurance/10 per level), Magicka=Intelligence, Encumberence=Strength*2.5 expressed in pounds, Movement Speed=Speed/2 with deductions for signifigant encumberance. Fatigue I'm in favor of ditching since it always seems like a pain in the ass and any implimentation near what the ES games does means additional calculations and rolling as Fatigue affects most rolls to some degree.
SKILLS: Quasi-Oblivion-style: characters choose 7 skills which start at 25+race bonuses. 35 total skills, 5 for each attribute other than Luck. Class skills can be raised/trained to 100, non-class skills can be raised/trained up to the level of their patron attribute. SUGGESTION: Allow players to freely distribute racial skill bonus points amongst skills of the type or types their race has affinity for based on Morrowind racial skill bonus allotments (IE Altmer and Bretons can spread 45 points in increments of up to 15 amongst magical skills, Nords and Orcs and Redguards can spread 45 points in increments of up to 15 amongst combat skills, Khajit and Imperials and Bosmer can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 amongst combat or sneaking skills, Argonians can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 amongst combat and magical skills, and Dunmer can spread 45 points in increments of up to 10 wherever they dang well please.)
STRENGTH
ARMORER: The art of forging and maintaining arms and armor and the breaking down of arms and armor to extract raw resources (if possible). (For the sake of keeping recordkeeping to a minimum I suggest that weapon durability and damage be kept to its D20 equivilent in that damage, health and repairing only matters for sundering weapons and armor; the Armorer skill is more a means of allowing continual equipment upgrades and replenishment)
AXE & BLUNT:
BLADE:
HAND-TO-HAND: The ability to fight while unarmed, punching and kicking and using debilitating and harmful techniques.
SPEAR:
INTELLIGENCE
ALCHEMY:
ENNCHANT: The ability to enchant arms and armor with magickal properties, either as permenant and consistant enchantments or as temporary effects that treat an object as a magickal conduit. (While certainely not a canonical ability, being able to apply temporary magickal damage to a weapon certainely makes Enchant actually look like something you'd want to use instead of the all-but-useless waste from Morrowind)
HEAL: Knowledge of the anatomy of man, mer and beast and how the body reacts to illnesses and injury, and the ability to treat debilitating and crippling conditions.
LORE: Knowledge and history of the world and all manner of subjects, from astrology and history to politics and theology doctrine.
OBSERVATION: The ability to observe and make deductions, ranging from determination of function and nature to the detection of entities.
WILLPOWER
ALTERATION
CONJURATION
DESTRUCTION
MYSTICISM
RESTORATION
ENDURANCE
CLIMBING
HEAVY ARMOR
MEDIUM ARMOR
SWIMMING
(Item needed)
SPEED
ATLHETICS
DODGING: The ability to maneuver around attacks while avoiding contact completily. Determines Touch AC according to the user's currently-equipped armor: NO armor gives an AC equal to speed, LIGHT ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.75, MEDIUM ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.5, and HEAVY ARMOR gives (Speed-armor weight)*.25.
LIGHT ARMOR
(Item needed)
(Item needed)
AGILITY
ACROBATICS
MARKSMAN
SECURIT:
SLEIGHT OF HAND: The ability to move or use small items or perform small hand actions without attracting the attention of onlookers.
SNEAK
PERSONALITY
DISGUISE: The ability to alter one's appearance for the purpose of hiding or assuming an identity, be it through visual and/or vocal impersonation.
ILLUSION:
MERCANTILE:
SPEECHCRAFT:
(Item needed)
FEAT/PERK SYSTEM?: Yes, general and skill specific, 1 per 5th character level + 1 at character generation.
EXPERIENCE SYSTEM: Traditional D20/SPECIAL point system, 1K*current level for next level, level range of 1-25.
CHARACTER PROGRESSION SYSTEM: At level-up a character distributes 20 points amongst skills as they see fit, each skill limited to an increase of 10 points per level. As class skills increase the attributes that govern them increase as well, .1 points per skill point (includes initial first-level skill points), rounded down to the nearest whole attribute point. Health and Magicka are recalculated based on attribute development and current level.
SKILL USE SYSTEM: Varies depending on skill. Martial combat skills roll 1d100 and must roll at or below user's skill level after subtractions for armor class and favorable/unfavorable conditions to succussfully hit. Other skills (utility and magical) automatically succeed if action DC falls below a certain threshhold and roll 1d100 +/- for conditions if DC is beyond the current skill level by a percentile less than 100 (if a character can assuredly jump 8 feet they have a 50% chance of making a 12-foot jump, for example).
ATTRIBUTE BONUS/PENALTY/SKILL SYNERGY?: Yes, for every one point above 50 an attribute grants a 1% bonus of the BASE value of a CLASS skill (for example, a character with 100 in a class skill and 75 points in its governing attribute would have an effective total skill value of 125) in addition to other attribute/skill-specific bonuses (EX, base attack damage from a skill with an attribute of 75 would receive a 1.25 multiplier to rolled base damage in addition to the to-hit bonus from the high attribute.) Attribute bonuses are as follows:
STRENGTH: 1% skill bonus/penalty to melee skills for determining to-hit probability for melee and damage for all martial attacks
INTELLIGENCE: Governs total amount of Magicka, no unusual effects
WILLPOWER: Governs per-round magicka regeneration, no unusual effects
ENDURANCE: Governs total amount of health, each point over 50 gives an additional .1% chance to resist poison or disease
SPEED: Governs per-round movement speed (speed/2) and factors into initiative, each 25 points above or below 50 gives an additional standard action or full-round attack increment at full skill value or denies a full-round attack increment of the lowest skill value, minimum of 1 per round - casting spells does not receive this benifit. Also determines touch AC and AC bonuses as per the Dodging skill.
AGILITY: 1% skill bonus/penalty to marksman and target spell skill values for determining to-hit probability, also determines the range at which range penalties begin to be applied for ranged combat
PERSONALITY: No unusual effects
LUCK: Governs critical success/failure chances, every 10 poiints above or below 50 increases or decreases critical success and failure ranges as appropriate, down to a minimum of 1
COMBAT SYSTEM: SPECIAL/D20 3.5 hybrid. Initiative of 1d100+speed. Skill rolls function as per SPECIAL rules (1d100, must roll at or under character skill level - target AC -/+ condition factors, critical success on 1-5+(Luck-50) and critical fail on 96-00+(Luck-50). Round action as per D20 rules (1 move+1 standard action+free actions+5-foot-step when applicable or 1 full-round action+5-foot-step when applicable, attacks of opprotunity). Movement rules as per D20 (5-foot tiles, 2 diagonals is considered 15 feet). Full attack increments are given at skill levels of 50, 75, 100, and so on. Targetted attacks as rolled in SPECIAL (-20 for limbs, -30 for groin, -40 for head, dunno if eyes are worth including) with targetted attacks taken as standard single attacks at full skill level.
MAGIC SYSTEM: Chance to succussfully cast a spell is (spell cost/spell school skill level) - 2 x -100 (IE a destruction level of 25 lets you cast spells up to 25 points with certainty, can cast a 38-point spell with a 48% chance of success, and a 49-point spell would have a 4% chance of success). Touch spells and Target spells, if succussful, must then make a roll using the spell's respective skill or the Hand-to-Hand/Marksman skill, whichever is highest: Self spells succeed automatically, and Caster-Area spells are automatically applied unless circumstances or feats allow for a save roll.
FACTORS DETERMINING SPELL COST: Spell cost is determined by multiplying its Base Cost, Effective Magnitude, Method Value, Duration, and Area of Effect.
BASE COST: Each spell effect has a base cost assigned to it, relative to how powerful the effect is compared to other effects (IE, initial tests put Fire Damage at a base cost of .5 per point of Effective magnitude)
EFFECTIVE MAGNITUDE: The average amount of effect that a spell has is its Effective Value. EV can be either a constant (Oblivion style, a flat X points of effect per casting) or is the average of a variable range (Morrowind style, where a spell may range from X to Z and where EV as Y is (X+Z)/2). A basic fire damage spell with a 20-point EV would thus cost 10 points to cast.
METHOD VALUE: A multiplier based on how the spell is cast. For Self and Touch spells this multiplier is 1, and affects either the caster and the area around them if applicable or a target within touching distance (effectively 5 feet, one tile). Target spells possess a 1.5 multiplier and allow spells to be cast at any target with acceptable line of sight. Caster-area spells use a multiplier of 2 and effects the area around the caster as a Self spell with an area effect, but excludes the caster from the spell's effects. A 20-point fire damage spell On Target thus has a magicka cost of 15
DURATION: The number of rounds that a spell will impart its effect before dissipating. For every round longer than 1 that a spell operates, its Magicka cost increases by 50%: a 20-point fire damage spell On Target for 3 rounds thus costs 30 Magicka.
AREA OF EFFECT: A basic spell will limit its effects to its initial target, be it the caster or a target the caster touched or launched the spell at, but many spells can affect an entire area and all objects and creatures within. For every foot from the epicenter of an area-of-effect spell, multiply the cost by 1 + .1: an On Target 20-point Fire Damage Spell with a range of 5 feet (one tile from the impact location, affecting 3x3 tiles in total) thus has a 45-point magicka cost, or .5x20x1.5x2x1.5
ATTACKS OF OPPROTUNITY: Casting a spell provokes an attack of opprotunity from all enemies who threaten the spellcaster (5 feet/1 tile for normal weapons, 10 feet/2 tiles if using spears) unless they are unable to attack due to other factors. If succussful, an attack of opprotunity has a chance to interrupt a spell equal to the inflicted damage divided by the caster's skill value for the school of the spell being cast (a caster with a skill level of 25 struck for 12 points of damage has a 48% of their spell failing and must roll 52 or better on a d100 check or botch the spell).
ACTION TYPE: Casting a spell is considered a Standard Action and may be done alongside a Move Action and a five-foot step. Casting spells does NOT benifit from the increased action allowance from high Speed and may only be done once per round, but can be combined with another Standard Action like a single attack or using an item.
EQUIPMENT: As opposed to the material-based system of contemporary Elder Scrolls games, equipment stats and abilities are calculated through a combination of D20 material rules and Dwarf Fortress item quality rules.
EQUIPMENT STATS: All equipment, be it weapons or armor or tools, have an initial base set of attributes which determine how effective they are (AC for armor, damage for weapons, quality for tools). Where applicable, stats are modified by 2 factors: item quality, which affects its performance for its primary uses, and item material, which may have an effect on performance as well as modifying other properties of the item in question.
EQUIPMENT QUALITY: Items come in 6 different grades of quality, which act as a multiplier against the item's base stats to determine its total effectiveness: RUSTY/WORN, NORMAL, FINE, SUPERIOR, EXCEPTIONAL, and MASTERFUL. Rusty/worn equipment is 75% as effective as the same item of normal quality, fine equipment is 125% as effective as the same item of normal quality, superior equipment is 150% as effective, exceptional is 175% as effective, and masterful is 200% effective. Item quality affects an item's value in an exponential manner: a fine item is 200% as valuable as a normal item, superior is 400% as valuable, exceptional is 800% as valuable, and masterful is 1600% as valuable, while rusty/worn is only 50% as valuable.
EQUIPMENT MATERIAL: Weapons and armor can be forged out of different materials, which can modify their properties in various ways from their weight, durability, value, damage or protective potential, and enchantability. Base equipment attributes should thus be calculated for steel arms/armor, as it seems to be the standard smithing material in the ES-verse.
IRON/STEEL: Standard metals used for the construction of arms and armor. Steel is typically used owing to its increased ability to resist warping over iron (maybe use a .75 multiplier for iron gear hardness and health?)
SILVER: Valuable metal renowned for its ability to affect creatures of a supernatural nature, silver is one of few materials capable of damaging ghosts, vampires, werebeasts, . Weapons and armor use a thin plated layer over a steel base due to silver's low durability, but many other consumer goods use solid silver for their construction
DWEMER: As much a unique material as the overall style and maker of their construction, Dwemer equipment is made of an unknown alloy half-again as strong and durable as steel but no heavier. Under Imperial law Dwemer artifacts are considered the property of the Empire, making sale to and possession by non-Empire parties illegal, though the enforcement of this policy varies from area to area. Besides their durability, Dwemer arms and armor are of exceptional craftsmanship: items of Dwemer origin are much more likely to be of higher quality than other items.
GLASS: Volcanic glass, when reenforced with rare and durable metals, is able to produce weapons and armor of extrordinary durability but of little weight compared to contemporary equipment. Double item durability and health, 60% weight.
EBONY: Much more dense and darker in color than regular glass, Ebony makes for extrordinarily potent weapons and armor. Triple hardness and health, damage reduction/bonus, 1.5 times weight. Due to the material's high value usually only the best of smiths forge with it: ebony weapons and armor are thus much more likely to be of high quality than other items.
DAEDRIC: The most prized and sought-after weapons and armor are typically made of this infernal substance. Some Daedric items are made from ebony which has been strengthened with the "craft and substances" (can we just say souls?) of lesser Daedric beings, which are fully aware ans suffer during the item's crafting; others are creations of Oblivion itself, brought to Nirn through conjuration magicks and occasionally bound to the realm. Quadruple hardness and health, double weight, 1.5 times enchantment potential. Owing to its extremily powerful and valuable nature, it's difficult to find Daedric items NOT of masterpiece quality: for determining item quality in rolls, invert whatever rolling table is used.
WEAPON ATTRIBUTES: Besides possessing weight, range, durability and health values all weapons have between 1 and 3 damage ranges, representing the weapon's usefulness for inflicting slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage (if possible). These values are determined by the weapon's type: broadswords are mure adept at slashing but only do moderate piercing damage, whereas a longsword can slash and pierce with equal ease (if less effectively than a broadsword/waraxe or rapier/javelin for slashing and piercing respectively. Warhammers can only cause bludgeoning damage, whereas a pickhammer can do either piercing or bludgeoning, albeit at a slight cost in weight and bludgeoning damage.
EQUIPMENT PENALTIES?: Yes, armor inflicts penalties to skills based on movement or subtlety and all magick schools other than Enchant equal to the total weight of all armor items being worn, with the Heavy and Light Armor skills negating one point of penalties for every point of skill (ergo, a person untrained in the use of heavy armor in a full standard suit of heavy armor has a 45% armor penalty (50 pounds - 5 for base skill) for climbing, acrobatics, swimming, and other such skills as well as a 45-point penalty to speed for determining dodge AC; said person as a first-level character with Heavy Armor would only have a 25-point penalty, and as little as 10 points if of a race that soley favors combat skills and 15 skill bonus points are put into heavy armor).
...and that's all I've got right now.
Stuff I'm particularly thoughtful of/worried about/know might raise some questions:
A) Block: Block has been absorbed into the general armor skills: shields now provide additional armor AC depending on the armor class.
Magic, and keeping it balanced but still viable as a core skill: One thing I thought extremily nice about Oblivion was that magic actually was something you could use with impunity and was an actual part of the world, as opposed to the "save it for that one moment/one good shot and you're spent" nature of Morrowind and in some cases Daggerfall. On the other hand once you hit a point in Oblivion you could just SMITE dudes as you saw fit, and considering that now every single character has the potential to (and probably will for at least one school) utilize magic, needless to say I'm worried. Limiting MP to just int instead of int*2 might help, but at the same time I don't want to discourage people who want to play pure spellslingers/staff-and-spell mages.C) Item Material and Quality: This is done in part as a means of combatting the Morrowind Power Curve, seeing as how I'm taking a LOT of data to make rules from there, and in part in order to finally kick Daedric off its mile-high throne of beat-all end-all weapon and armor material, or at least shorten the legs by about 5,275 feet. Besides making loot much more viable no matter what it's made out of, materials also provide a nice way for players to control HOW they protect themselves, to a degree: go Ebony or Daedric and make yourself a tank capable of shrugging off physical blows (and a prime target for spells, but I digress)? Opt for a lighter material that gives you more freedom and flexability and doesn't impede skills? They're all good ideas and reasons, one way or another.
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