Badass Kung Fu Demigods Pre-Penultimate Draft Completed

And now we have it completed, the latest draft of Badass Kung Fu Demigods

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OuOpn0XW6ceYICbis_zFEEVSzLy1dHY6/view?usp=sharing

Still definitely not the final design, but getting closer. Definitely getting closer.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods, design journal pt 6

So, I'm skipping ahead a bit because I had a bit of inspiration and wanted to get my thoughts down before it faded. In particular this concerns Powers and another one of those sacred cows that needs to be sent to the vet.

So, the current system divides powers into three categories: Basic Powers, Signature Powers and Release Powers (formerly called Trumps).

While Signature and Release Powers are player-designed, Basic Powers were universal and consisted of some very basic, straightforward ways to spend Energy. To understand the idea behind Signature Powers its important to look at the DNA of this system, which of course was heavily inspired by Exalted.

In Exalted, each charm category featured a selection of "Excellencies" which were basic ways to boost your effectiveness when using the linked ability. Rolling more dice, rerolling dice, etc. This should sound pretty familiar if you know my basic powers. I liked the basic idea of having an efficient, straightforward use for Energy to improve your odds, but I didn't feel like players needed to be charged a "power tax" to get such a simple ability (let alone purchasing a version for different abilities the way Exalted did). So, I hit on the solution of providing everyone with a selection of Basic Powers for free, generic ways to convert Energy into bonuses.

Now, since then I've steadily chipped away at Basic Powers as I realized some needed to be changed into more specific powers or didn't need to be powers at all (such as the one that forced you to pay energy to make a ki-blast or whatever). Now I'm down to four Basic Powers...and I think it might be time to take the concept behind the shed and send it to a farm upstate.

The thing that made me think this was the Flawless Power. It's not a bad power or anything (spend an EP to reroll a failed roll) but it makes me realize that there a lot of different, interesting ways you could do the same Power, especially now that I have introduced Core Traits.

You see, since I have Core Traits now I intend to incorporate them into power design, especially offensive powers. By tying powers to specific Core Traits they'll become more important and the difference in style and approach becomes more significant and one of my goals is to make a character fighting with Heat feel different than a character fighting with Impulse.

So, I came up with four variations of the Flawless Power, one for each of the Core Traits which help to illustrate the possibilities of Power design and the themes of the Traits.

Roar Of Blood (1 EP)
Just when your opponent thinks they have you beaten you surge forward, heedless of your enemy's weapons. With a spray of blood you lunge for your opponent's throat.

You may spend a point of EP after failing a Heat roll where your opponent scored at least one Strike against you. Your opponent keeps any Strikes they earned, but can only spend them on damage and only after you reroll and assign any Strikes you earned (if any). You may choose any number of dice from your original roll and then re-roll them, taking a new result based on the new rolls (or your original result, whichever is higher).

[[So basically, accepting damage in order to get a reroll on your attack, with the bonus that you can keep any high results from before. Since Heat will also get Powers that reduce damage this'll synergize well with them and prevent opponents from getting tricky with things like conditions. as is appropriate for Heat it provides very little benefit on defensive rolls.]]

Shattered Mirror (1 EP)
With a flicker of motion it's revealed that the figure your opponent was fighting this whole time was really an afterimage left by your incredible speed, finding only air where you were standing just a moment before.

You may spend a point of EP after making a failed Impulse roll, forcing both you and your opponent to roll again. You both must accept the result of the new roll (although you can always choose to use this Power again).

[[I view the Impulse Trait as a little chaotic and flashy, the classic "tricky ninja" Trait and with an emphasis on dominating lesser foes. So this power really shines when bad luck puts you in a hard spot against a weaker opponent but against a more powerful opponent it mainly serves as a way to blunt the dangers of a really high roll]].

Shining Clarity (1 EP) In your mind's eye you can see your actions and their consequences unfold in your mind's eye. This precognition lasts only for a split-second, but it's enough time to make an essential change in your strategy and snatch victory from defeat.

You may spend a point of EP after making a failed Style roll. You may immediately reroll your dice and take the new roll as your final result (or the original result, whichever is higher). If your new roll is still a failure you can use this Power again.

[[Since Style is kind of the poster-child Trait for the Flawless Power, this is the most basic, straightforward and efficient version of this power and focuses on preventing a crappy roll rather than trying to maximize your final result.]]

Stubborn Defiance (1 EP) 
In the face of imminent defeat you refuse to give up. The only acceptable response to failure is to try even harder until the impossible no longer exists. 

You may spend a point of EP after making a failed Guts roll. You can select a number of dice from your original roll equal to your current Fighting Spirit and roll those dice again, taking the new result or your original, whichever is higher.

[[As befits a Guts move, this Power only really shines when you're an underdog in a fight and have been surrounded or are taking a lot of damage. It's a super-cheap bonus when you've built up a huge Fighting Spirit but is incredibly inefficient (and perhaps even unusable) in other situations.]]

So, this should give you an idea of the way I'm thinking right now. I fully intend to include some sidebars with a cleaned up version of this very discussion in order to illustrate the design principles in order to help you create your own powers.  

The one Basic Power that will still remain is Supercharge which won't really be a power anymore, so much as kind of the most "basic" use of Energy (instead of just fueling powers). The bonus will revert back to 1 EP = +1 bonus die, because I no longer have to worry about balancing it against other Basic Powers. And lets be fair, I don't think anyone was going to use Perfection. Overkill will probably suffer the same fate as Flawless, getting folded into other powers as a way to build up additional Strikes.  

Badass Kung-Fu Demigods design journal pt 5

So, this one is a little bit stream-of-consciousness. We're getting into the tall grass here because while I don't have any grand new inspiration for these rules the changes I made previously will have some significant knock-on effects which will require tweaks and modifications throughout.  So we get to the part where I try out a lot of ideas that feel like they might work and see what fits into the gaps we've left.

One of the first things to consider is the idea of what you do during your turn in a Clash. The original three-action structure was built around the division of Fighting Styles and Backgrounds. If you wanted to leverage a social or mental ability in combat you would take an action like Psych-Out which would allow you to engage your foe in a way that they aren't necessarily buffed to hell against. 

However, the new Core Traits are universally applicable for combat. You can fight with Guts or Style or Heat or what-have-you. If your opponent wants to try and cut you in half with a lava axe and you want to try and hold them off by standing stock still and giving them a steely glare then you can go for it. In this situation, there's never a reason not to take an Attack action unless you're trying to do something outside of combat (like tackling an obstacle) and even that could theoretically be interpreted as an Attack against the Obstacle or GM. 

So why not just go with that? On your turn you make an attack. Whether it's an attack against an opponent or a security system or a giant wall of ice. If you succeed then you get a Strike, plus additional Strikes earned as normal. Like before the defender can earn Strikes but only the attacker gets a free Strike for basic success, preventing every defense from becoming a perfected counter-attack. 

So, with that our next concern is how Strikes can be spent and whether or not that needs to change. Let's look at some ideas...

*Damage: So, damage obviously remains unchanged. It's hard to get more straightforward than this. 

*Boost: So this is a little tricky. I originally increased the value of a Boost because I felt that 1-die was a pretty poor comparison to dealing another point of damage. Now, I can definitely say that just spending a strike to make a roll Boosted is probably too much...that's a big-ass bonus. But at the same time...the other option is damage: i.e. the way to actually end the fight. The bonus needs to be big for anything to be worth sacrificing one of the mandatory steps on the road to victory. A 1-die bonus is obviously a non-starter but a 2-die bonus is a little awkward and results in dice-creep as more and more dice get stacked into a roll. The meandering conclusion I'm coming to is that maybe I should handle it like spending your Spotlight: a Strike can be spend to add a generic 1-die bonus or to turn a roll under the umbrella of one of your Defining Traits into a Boosted roll. I like that it provides a big, but conditional, bonus and makes your Defining Traits a bit more important. 

*Declarations: These were messy to begin with so they probably needed to be codified a bit more. I'm probably going to narrow Declarations into more narrative changes and create more defined additional effects. Below are some things I'm thinking about. 

*Conditions: So, the original function of Declarations was intended to provide a means of restricting your opponent's options in combat: disarming a swordsman, pinning a speedy character to a wall with a spike, etc. Now the problem with this was kind of obvious: pick a Trait that can't be shut down like this. A kung-fu master can't be disarmed after all, and if you don't rely on speed or mobility then it's harder for opponents to restrict you. This was somewhat resolved with the division between Fighting Styles and Backgrounds. Since Fighting Styles were broader they couldn't really be "shut down" in the same way. However, that also made them a little bit toothless as they couldn't really have much of a meaningful effect on combat anymore.

So, with the creation of Core Traits as a consistent character element we have an opportunity to bring back some of the old ideas so I'm experimenting with the idea of Conditions: temporary, semi-freeform status effects. Conditions come in four types:

• Debilitating Conditions: effects that weaken, sicken or shock the body. This makes the victim's next Heat roll Busted. 
• Disrupting Conditions: effects that unbalance, throw off or confuse opponents. This makes the victim's next Style roll Busted. 
• Binding Conditions: effects that restrict movement or slow and hinder the target. This makes their next Impulse roll Busted. 
• Mental Conditions: Something that demoralizes or harms the willpower of the target. Makes the next Guts roll Busted.

The condition also creates a situation and maneuvers (i.e. free actions) cannot contradict the effect of the condition until it is removed either a Strike is spent to remove it or the opponent makes the Busted roll which automatically removes the condition.

Conditions may not seem like they last very long, but the intent is that a Busted roll is a big enough penalty that most characters will switch to a different Core Trait for combat and wait until they score a Strike in order to avoid it. So, if you've got a d8 Style and an opponent disarms you (a disruptive condition). Now another opponent is trying to punch you. You could accept a Busted roll on that defense and be immediately rid of the condition but against all but the weakest enemies that's going to put you in a dangerous situation and you'll likely end up with a point of damage or two (and maybe get another condition slapped on you). Or you could switch to your d6 Impulse Trait and fend off your opponent with 2d6 (average of 8.4) rather than 1d8 (avg of 5.1).

So conditions leave you with the choice of accepting a long-term but minor penalty (often forcing you to forgo beneficial trait synergy) or a major but one-shot penalty. This seems about right to me.

There may be more to declarations but I feel like figuring out conditions and Boosts is a good start here.