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 3

Fun fact, a few days ago I noticed a persistent scotoma floating around the center of my vision. So, hopefully I'm not going blind...but if I am I better hurry up and get this stuff written out while I still can (I've got an eye exam in a few days, hopefully it won't be something to worry about). 

But back on topic, when I was talking about the Core Traits (which I'm pretty sure are going to be reduced to Might, Style, Reflex and Mettle, or some synonyms thereof). [[EDIT: I've settled on Heat (strength), Impulse (speed), Style (skill) and Guts (willpower)]]. I mentioned that I wasn't going to completely get rid of player-defined abilities and that's where Defining Traits come in.

Your Core Traits are the things that are universal, making Defining Traits the personal, customized elements of your character (before getting into crazier stuff like Powers). A Defining Trait is kind of a combination of the previous draft's Backgrounds and Knacks all in one. They're usually meant to be big, broad concepts that cover a lot of ground. Some examples of Defining Traits: 

• Giant Robot Disguised As A Teenager
• Machine Shaman And Techromancer
• Renegade Alchemist
• King Of The Moon 

By themselves Defining Traits have two very simple functions. First they define your character in a way that establishes permissions (I'll try and come up with a pithier term) allowing a character who is Megacorp Neo-Count to flaunt their wealth, get invitations to social gatherings and have a closetful of gilded codpieces or a character with a Infernal Motorcycle flying on wheels of fire or calling their bike with a whistle. 

The second is when one of your Defining Trait is relevant to a roll you're making you get a 1-die bonus to the roll. This isn't cumulative with multiple Defining Traits (so don't worry about stacking all your Traits into combat or anything). So the Neo-Count gets the bonus if he's driving his custom supercharged sportscar or bribing someone with a large stack of cash or intimidating someone with his family's reputation. 

This doesn't sound like much, but the main benefits will be related to a brand new mechanic I'm calling the Spotlight mechanic. While Spotlights have other uses (which I'm still tinkering with) one of the primary uses will be to allow you to expend your Spotlight in order to make a Boosted roll related to one of your Defining Traits. 

Although I haven't settled on a final decision I'm thinking characters will probably have two or three Defining Traits, enough to cover most any normal starting concept.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods Design Journal pt 2

So, here we get to the bit of inspiration that ended up sparking the series of ideas leading to this re-write. It's a pretty small change overall, but it opened up a fair number of new doors so I'm quite pleased with it. I hope it doesn't turn out to be secretly broken as hell, because I'd hate to have to ditch it. 

The change has to do with how traits are rolled. Like the previous drafts the Traits are rated by a die-type which ranges from d4 to d12. The latest version involved rolling two dice by default and taking the highest result. The change was pretty minor, instead of keeping just the highest, both dice are added together. 

So, understandably this might just seem like just throwing around bigger numbers, but it does give me an important additional lever. One of the frustrations of the previous drafts was the inability to fiddle around with the mechanics of the system too much when it comes to powers and abilities. It's one of the downfalls of a rules-light system, and finding a satisfying middle ground was tough. 

You see, by keeping two dice I open up a new door: increasing or decreasing the number of dice "kept" on a roll. So an extremely advantageous roll is referred to as Boosted allowing you to roll and keep three dice, while an extremely disadvantageous roll is referred to as Busted and you only get to roll a single dice. To keep things from getting crazy both effects are non-cumulative, your roll can only be Boosted/Busted once and if it is both Boosted and Busted the effects cancel out and you roll normally.

The previous bonus dice rule remains, adding extra dice but still keeping the original number. So a Boosted roll with three bonus dice means you roll six dice and keep three. negative dice are removed...they were never a significant element to be honest and the more dramatic effect of a Busted roll is more useful. 

By simply having both the Boost/Bust mechanic and regular bonus die I can now work with a much larger variety of effects. For instance, it becomes a great way to represent the difference between Power Levels...a character with a higher Power Level gets their roll Boosted when acting against someone with a lower Power Level. Busted rolls are a good way to represent a crippling-type Power and Boosting rolls is a good way to represent an exceptional bonus (like a holy-themed power Boosting your rolls against creatures of evil). 

This also provides a good way to represent the power of a Champion-class NPC, giving them an extra die, independent of the Boost/Bust system. So a normal roll is 3 dice, a Boosted roll is 4 and a Busted roll is still 2. That alone should make a champion encounter powerful enough to easily challenge an entire team of PCs. 

Badass Kung-Fu Demigods Design Journal: Is This Even My Final Form?!

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is put it down for a bit and step away, because you'll often find that in a month or two you'll be in the shower and a little idea comes and knocks on the back of your brain to introduce itself, often completely transforming things in the process. This isn't the first time this has happened in BAKFDG and I had one of those weird moments of out-of-the-blue inspiration which sets off a chain of dominoes in your design. 

So, with that in mind I'm using this to put down a few of the new ideas and try and get them to gel a bit before I write up an actual new draft. 

Core Traits 

So, one of the biggest problems I've run into with BAKFDG is trying to make player characters feel distinct from one another. What is truly the difference between a huge burly ham-hock of a brawler and an elegant cyborg duelist with a laser sword? 

In the previous draft my attempt to resolve this was with Fighting Forms, giving a mechanical distinction between fighting with brute strength and fighting with speed or skill. While I was fairly satisfied with the rock-paper-scissor system of advantages over different forms, I wasn't particularly thrilled about the other half of the equation (basically giving each Form a bonus Strike when you score two Strikes on a roll). None of them were great, and it always felt like Might would naturally be more desirable overall (bonus damage being significantly more advantageous in most situations). So I've been wracking my brain on how to emphasize these distinctions and was stalled out for a long time. 

Getting here involved brutalizing a sacred cow a bit...not quite slaughtering it but definitely giving it a proper maiming. What I'm talking about is the original PDQ-style player-defined Traits, which were already being de-emphasized. At the start of the project Traits were entirely player-defined and there was no real mechanical distinction between different Traits beyond their inherent scope. Eventually I realized the need for more of a mechanical skeleton and divided Traits into general backgrounds and the more defined Fighting Styles. But although they operate within separate realms both still were fairly loose and open. 

Which brings us to a new concept: Core Traits. Unlike my previous drafts, Core Traits are more like traditional RPG stats and are each assigned a die-type from d4 to d12. Each character has five Core Traits: 

Speed (alternate names: Wind, Flash): Just as it sounds, covers speed, dexterity, agility and fastiness. 

Might (alternate name: Mountain, Brute): Also self-explanatory. Being strong and durable. 

Skill (alternate names: Ocean, Style): This one's a little more complex, basically anything that requires skill or training or patience. picking a lock or a pocket would fall into this category, along with things like hacking a computer. 

Power: (alternate names: Flame, Spark): The ability to project your force of personality, energy or mystical power. This is the trait used for things like throwing energy blasts or giving a rousing speech. 

Will: (alternate names: Steel, Mettle): Indomitable spirit and never-give-upedness. 

Basically, all actions fall under one of these five traits. If something doesn't fall under the scope of a Core Trait then it's probably not worth rolling (or handled with a special rule that'll come up later). These aren't the only types of Traits, they're combined with Defining Traits which are player-defined abilities that'll be expanded on soon. 

One notably important element is that each of the five Core Traits is equally useful for combat. You can fight with your Might, your Speed or your Will or whatever. Some Powers might force or limit Trait choices (a psychic battlefield forces you to use Power or Will for instance) but largely each is equally applicable in combat. 

The Rock-Paper-Scissors element will be kept as well. Speed has a bonus against Skill, skill has a bonus against Might, Might has a bonus against Power and Power has a bonus against Speed. Will is an all-rounder and is neither strong nor weak against any other Trait.

Concerns:

Biggest one is that the five-Trait array feels just a tad forced. I'm considering dropping Power which is currently the odd one out in a few ways (mainly in that it kind of assumes everyone has the ability to shoot energy beams and whatnot...not a bad assumption for a game like BAKFDG but not every version fits). Either way I want to keep the Will stat as a all-rounder type, so that'll just collapse the first three into a 3-way RPS set-up. 

This is a good example of why you want to avoid getting too attached to a theme. When I was originally setting this up I went with an elemental theme: Wind, Rock, Flame, Ocean and Steel. But this means I was forced to try and make some of these concepts fit thematically in a way that wasn't too natural.Now that I type things out with a more generic name-set instead of the forced elemental theme I feel a lot more confident in changing to a 4-stat array.

BAKFDG v .8, Signature Powers and Trumps

So, getting to the end of the changes for this version. Like I mentioned last time the EP available to characters have decreased, but the value of each Energy point has increased. To try and be a bit more formal with power construction, I've divided Signature Powers into three levels of strength:

1 EP Powers provide a significant bonus, usually in the form of a unique mechanic, the ability to bend the rules in some way or a new way to spend Strikes. These are "workhorse" powers, which are meant to be used often but don't dramatically alter a Scene by themselves. These are the powers you can use without Ascending above Heroic level as well, so most of the subtler or more non-combat themed powers go here.

Some examples:

• Mysterious Stranger: a power that makes you supernaturally unmemorable and difficult to recognize. 
• Reflect Bullet: Spend a Strike and an EP after a successful attack to "bounce" the attack to another opponent. You keep the same roll result as before and all the same powers. Think Xena's chakram. 
• Shapeshifter: Take an animal form and get a 1-die bonus to any rolls that the form would be useful for. Sort of a multi-tool power, allowing you to disguise yourself, get into weird places and so on. 
• Spellbreaker: Spend a Strike and 1 EP to end the effect of one of your opponent's ongoing powers. 
• Unbreakable Iron Spirit: A defensive power that lets you invest 1+ EP into an ongoing effect. While this power is on you ignore any damage that does not exceed your EP investment, but has no effect on attacks that inflict more damage. 

2 EP Powers typically require you to Ascend in order to use them, so they represent more dramatic abilities that can make major "background" changes or give you access to a significantly larger set of options in how you interact with other characters or your environment. This is also where powers that can provide large amounts of extra Strikes are situated.


Some examples: 

• Cross Burst: The equivalent of a multi-attack power, after a successful fighting style roll you can spend 2 EP to then compare your second-highest die to your opponent's second highest, earning Strikes as though it were a second attack. 
• Mind Crush: For 2 EP you can devour the memories of a KO'd opponent or an Extra, this renders them a vegetable and gives you access to everything they knew. 
• Shattered Mirror: Spend 2 EP to declare whatever just happened was an illusion or ruse, this cancels the effects of the roll and forces both you and your opponent to reroll, giving you a bonus strike if you succeed. 
• Skin of Black Iron: A more reliable damage-reducer than Unbreakable Iron Spirit, this power prevents any opponent from spending all their strikes on damage. 
• Warp: Teleportation. In addition to the general utility of the power this lets you break engagements automatically by spending the requisite EP. 

3 EP Powers are the top of the chart for Signature Powers (at least in theory, I'm sure there's at least one or two 4 EP worthy powers out there). These let players dramatically redefine the current situation and using one will often dominate the current scene. Currently there are only 4 examples of 3 EP powers:

• Absolute Radiance: Control the minds of any Extras within your vicinity, emitting a light that crushes free will and potentially mindjacking hundreds or thousands of people. 
• Blade Of Ultimate Impossibility: Turn your Fighting Style into a conceptual weapon, letting you resolve situations that would normally not be possible with combat abilities. Some examples are cutting a curse free of someone's body, punching a tree into a chair or slaying a drought with your spear. 
• Quantum Suppression Field: Cuts the EP of all other characters in the scene in half. A powerful, but selectively useful ability. 
• Real Breaker: Lets you make retroactive Declarations. For instance, with a normal Declaration you can disarm someone, with Real Breaker you can declare they left their sword at home, even if they were just hitting you with it a moment ago. Can't undo damage or dramatically change circumstances for anyone who is not an extra. This might normally be a 2 EP power, but I'm adding an EP just because I bet there's some real shenanigans more creative players could get up to with the ability to rewrite reality. Just a hunch.  

Trump Powers
Trump Powers have been a bit of a rough area in the game. I started cripping from Exalted, limiting players to just one power at a time but permitting Trumps to serve as a combo of different powers. Then I decided that was too limiting and let powers be combined freely, so Trumps instead had a specific set of powers that unlocked access to your Tension meter for extra EP. The main problem there was it meant that you had to have all the "pieces" of the Trump already. If you wanted to launch a multi-attack power that steals EP you needed to have purchased both an EP-stealing power and a multi-attack power to combine them. This meant that just having a Trump with more than one Signature Power required you to invest almost all your Signature Powers in the individual "ingredients" of the Trump.

Well, my current solution is to allow Trumps to be purchased in two ways. "Blank" Trumps are the simplest...they simply provide access to your Tension Meter to fuel any combination of basic powers. These are your straightforward attack moves and powers...if you just want to launch a punch that punches much harder than normal, that's a blank Trump. Think something like your average Kamehameha, Wind Scar or Warnicorn Stampede.

Then you've got Trumps that do something special. When purchasing a Trump you can choose one or more Signature Powers (which you do not necessarily need to know as regular Signature Powers) which will determine the Trump's effects, and then combine their cost together to determine the minimum cost of the Trump. In order to use these Trumps, your Tension meter has to be high enough to pay for the cost of the Trump and if your Tension meter exceeds it the additional cost can only be spent on basic powers or to improve the effect of the Trump's powers (for effects with variable costs).

So, for instance say you want to build a Trump out of the Cross Burst and Reflect Bullet power, creating twin razor sharp energy disks you can sling from one opponent to another. Reflect Bullet costs a minimum of 1 EP and Cross Burst costs 2, giving your Trump a cost of 3 (let's call it the Dual Crescent Buster).

So, in order to use the Dual Crescent Buster you've got to get your Tension Meter up to 3. Just for the sake of argument let's say it's at 5 currently. Activating the Dual Crescent Buster nets you 5 additional EP, you spend 3 on the Trump and with the extra 2 you activate the basic powers Supercharge and Overkill (helpful, since it'll ensure there's at least a bonus strike to spend on the Reflect Bullet effect).

Just to go all out on the example, lets say you're rolling 6d10 right now from your Supercharge and Fighting Spirit/Knacks and facing 3 opponents who all roll 3d8 for their defense (all unworthy opponents)

Dual Crescent Buster gets an 16 on the first opponent, with the second-highest die being a 9. The hapless opponent rolls a 4 and a 3 as their two highest rolls. That's 6 Strikes! (3 from the 16 vs the 4, two from the 9 vs the 3 and 1 extra from Overkill). Easily KOing the opponent with 3 of them, spending one to trigger the Reflect Bullet effect and maybe spending the last two on a couple of Boosts.

Your reflect bullet lets you target another opponent, keeping the original 16/9 roll. The second opponent does a bit better, getting a 6 and a 5. But that's still 5 Strikes, letting you KO this guy, activate Reflect Bullet again and collect another Boost.

The second activation does require another EP, if you had saved some of the bonus EP from your Tension meter you could use that, but you can also provide it from your regular EP pool or even Overdrive. So that's the same 16/9, this opponent gets the best roll so far with a 7 and a 5, cutting the number of Strikes earned down the 4, but that's still enough to KO an unworthy opponent and activate another use of Reflect Bullet or use for a Boost or Declaration.

So yeah, Trumps are pretty darn strong if used right, if nothing else that guy just earned up to 4 Boosts (an 8-die bonus) for their next roll, so if there's another opponent left on the field they're screwed even though our character just fired off his Trump and emptied his tension meter.

BAKFDG v .8, Powers

Look at all of these updates. I'm so amazing!

So, one of the bigger changes in this version is dropping the amount of Energy available to all characters...1 EP at Heroic, increasing by 1 per power level up to 5 at Limitless. This is largely to make it easier to track and handle EP supply and to make things like Overdrive and Tension EP more valuable, since previously it was largely possible to simply pour EP onto a problem until it goes away and large teams had nearly overwhelming quantities of EP.

This is kind of a step back because this is the EP rules I originally had a few versions ago, but this time the value of EP has been increased, so there's less points to keep track of but they're more useful individually. This also helped rebalance some problem Powers like Overkill and Flawless. Flawless in particular needed some extra work since it basically amounted to doubling the number of dice you could roll..an issue solved mainly by limiting only to allowing the rerolling of failed roll. This made the very basic dice-adding Supercharge Power weaker in comparison but that just meant it needed to grant 2 dice per EP rather than one. Not necessarily as elegant as 1 EP for 1-die, but it works.

Several of the core Basic Powers were also trimmed pretty heavily, from 9 down to 4, limiting it to purely Powers that interact with the raw mechanics of the system in the most basic and generic ways possible: Supercharge, which adds dice to a roll. Overkill which adds Strikes if a roll is successful. Flawless which lets you reroll a failed roll. Perfection the only 2 EP power which just lets you max out your roll.

I've come to the conclusion that easy defensive Powers like Ward and the more extreme Ubeatable were just too effective and extended combat in a way that wasn't very interesting...just dragging things out by no-selling damage and making "turtling up" far too effective a strategy, especially when one side or the other has more EP to throw around, just have the person getting attacked use Ward to cancel the damage while everyone else pounds on the opponent.

Some powers got redefined as something more suitable as Signature Powers, such as Detonation or more limited defensive powers in place of the universally applicable Warding Power. One power that has just been ditched entirely is the Blast power. That's because I realized that it was both not very impressive at even the cost of 1 EP, but also just part of a completely unnecessary division between ranged weapons and close-combat weapons. Since every character now has a nearly universal applicable Fighting Style there's no reason the guy using the gunkata should be able to freely make ranged attacks but not the swordfighter or the punch-master.

So, in that regard my new ideas about ranged combat can be summed up with this picture.

So yeah, ranged combat can be performed by anyone, whether it's a thrown knife, a gunshot, a streak of energy from the tip of a sword or any similar ridiculousness.

Next time I think I'll talk a bit about the new Signature Powers and the loose guidelines on creating them.

BAKFDG v .8 even more stuff

So, finally done discussing the changes to Traits. Apparently I'm feeling particularly verbose about this draft. Maybe that's a sign I'm finally getting close to a final draft.

Declarations

Declarations are something I didn't so much change as formalized. Originally Declarations were primarily intended to be a way to create or deny "permissions" for certain actions. Got a speedy opponent dashing around, freeze their legs to the ground or pin them under rubble and their primary offensive/defensive Trait becomes useless, forcing them to rely on other Traits as a backup. Likewise, disarm a swordfighter and they've got to find some way to get their sword back or at least find a substitute.

However, with the introduction of Fighting Styles, there aren't any "backup" Traits anymore. Everyone has just one Fighting Style and except in the most unusual circumstances that's all they're going to be using. This means that shutting down an opponent's Fighting Style is just way too powerful, and being honest it was probably never a great idea to begin with as certain Traits were just too vulnerable to declarations. After all, if the only difference between being a sword-master and being a punch-demon is that the first guy can be completely shut down with a single Strike, then everyone is going to stick to punching. And don't get me wrong, I like myself some punching, but I also like big, giant swords and I refuse to tolerate a system that doesn't allow for big, giant swords.

Like So

So, obviously shutting down Traits isn't going to work. But Declarations are also kind of essential (especially with the way Forms work now). So, I decided to work on an actual list of example uses for Declarations outside of shutting down Traits and by the end of it I was very satisfied with how effective they are. Especially the ability to explicitly create or trigger Obstacles and Hazards.

Speaking of Obstacles and Hazards, a small but significant change is the division of these into "active" and "passive" Obstacles. Passive Obstacles are environmental or situational effects that get in your way. Even if they were created by another character, they just sit there and are usually pretty easy to blast through (especially if you've got EP to burn). Active Obstacles are those that represent the actions of another character, someone able to adapt and react to your actions...meaning they can use Powers to boost the Obstacle's roll and can earn Strikes on the roll. Sort of like the difference between being caught in a net and being grappled by an opponent.

Clashes

Clashes in general haven't changed too much, although I did basically ditch initiative. It just wasn't fitting and in the end, deciding turn order is just not that big a deal. Now players choose which PC goes first (by any means they wish), then an NPC gets to act, then a PC, then an NPC and so on until everyone has acted. If one side runs out of characters due to being outnumbered then all the remaining characters get to take an action.

I also introduced the concept of a "refresh" at the end of each round. Instead of regaining EP at the start of your turn, everyone's EP just refills automatically at the end of each round and that's also when your Tension Meter ticks up as well. It alters a bit of the strategy now that everyone gets EP back simultaneously, but overall it simplifies things and makes tracking EP much less of a headache.

Just like with Declarations I formalized the Actions in combat a bit, now there are 3 definite actions: Overcoming an Obstacle, Attacking an enemy, and Psyching Out an opponent. The first two operate much like they always did, but Psych Outs are specifically a Background vs Background roll, bypassing the opponent's Fighting Style. The Tension meter increase also goes to whoever wins the psych out, regardless of who initiated it.

But, overall Clashes aren't too different. A few tweaks here and there. Got rid of the multi-attack option...just couldn't think of a good way to handle it that didn't deserve to be treated as a Power. So you can kill Weaklings en masse, but any tougher opponents have to be attacked one-on-one unless you've got a power to go after multiple enemies with one attack.

Next time I'll cover some of the changes made to Powers and their mechanics.

BAKFDG v .8, continued

So, continuing from where I left off on the latest draft of the rules (which can be found here if you need a link). I spend a good while rambling about why I decided to make Fighting Styles and Backgrounds in place of regular Traits. Well, I mostly talked about Fighting Styles but the division of non-combat Traits into Backgrounds was pretty darn helpful too.

First and foremost, I decided that I didn't need as many Traits as before. In different versions I've shuffled between 5 to 6 Traits of varying intensity, now we've got 4 (including the default Fighting Style everyone starts with) but I'm encouraging bigger and broader Backgrounds in place of more traditional Traits. No-one should have a Trait like "tracking prey" or "picking locks"...we're looking at Traits that are more like entire character concepts in miniature, like "Under-King Of the Mole People" or a cyborg who is a "Walking Swiss Army Knife". Since Backgrounds have been made explicitly non-combat, that gives more freedom without having to worry about whether or not it balances with a combat Trait or whether or the crossover with an ability that has utility in both a Clash and a non-combat situation.

That also helped me to resolve a particular niggle involving magical combat. Having hyper-powered wizards, psychics, nano-warlocks or other wielders of vast cosmic powers was always part of the goal for the system. But by their nature those powers imply a variety of combat and non-combat utility. The division between Backgrounds and Fighting Style means that such characters would take an Arcane Fighting Style to represent their ability to tear things up and separate Backgrounds to represent the stuff they can pull off when they aren't tearing things up.

Knacks
Knacks and Styles were never a huge factor in the system, but when working on this draft I realized just how annoying it is to change even a relatively small thing. I had just finished working on the draft, needing only to give it a bit of cleaning up to get things like page markers pointing the right way, when I had a mini-epiphany. It happened just as I was falling asleep too and so I had to go downstairs and write it down before it got lost...then I had to go through the whole friggin document and adjust so much little stuff to match it.

Knacks are a pretty familiar concept from other games...PDQ has Techniques which serve a similar role, White Wolf games have specialties and I bet with a bit more thought I could think up another dozen or so examples. Basically a little "bump" when using an ability in a particular way. Want to be a good swordfighter but be even better as a one-on-one duelist...take a Knack for it. Bam, done. Styles were inspired by PDQ's "unchained" techniques, basically the same thing but applying globally to a character's abilities. Styles are a great way to represent little advantages (like a lucky hat) or idiomatic quirks of a character (such as making them better at everything when not wearing a shirt).

Well, as I was thinking about the system that night I began to ponder if there were just too many bonuses in the game. I like the core system, but I also recognize that no one wants a dice pool system where you've got to roll buckets of dice...especially if you're already using different die-types. Anything calling for more than a handful of d8s or d12s is a problem, if not necessarily a disaster. So I start to ponder places the fat could be trimmed. Obviously 2 dice needs to be the minimum, 1 die is just too random. Bonuses from things like Powers or boosts from Strikes need to be significant to remain balanced with other options so they've got to stay and I'm far, far too enamored with the Fighting Spirit rules to ditch those. That kind of left Knacks and Styles, which are also the reason that most characters are going to be rolling 3-5 dice at minimum anyway, since it's easy to invest in a couple of reliable Knacks and your Style is meant to apply at almost all times anyway.

But I really liked knacks and styles, Styles especially because I think it's important to be able to say "my character gets a bonus to everything when they're drunk/covered in blood/being the loudest in the room". But then some gears snapped into place and started turning and I came to my current solution...basically merging the two. Rather than a selection of Knacks and a single Style, now everyone just has two Knacks that operate much like Styles did...providing a global bonus to all rolls when acting in line with the Style. To keep bonuses from climbing too high they don't stack (this also means buying up tons of cheap Knacks won't be incentivized) and it gets rid of the issue with whether to invest Knacks into Fighting Styles or Backgrounds (because, being honest, they're a lot more useful in fighting styles).

Well, I liked the idea but that meant I had to go through the entire document getting rid of every reference to styles, reformatting all the example characters and generally nitpicking to try and fix this one little rule.

That's probably enough whining about that, so I'll go ahead and post more about the other changes later.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods, draft # 8 is done!

Who could possibly be interested in regular blog posts? Your audience? Potential buyers of your game? Naaaaah.

Sorry it's been so long. The good news is that I have been hard at work on Badass Kung Fu Demigods. Just completed the 8th draft a few days ago and figured I'd go over it here...that being the entire point of this blog.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods v 0.8  

So, it's a little bit lighter on the major structural changes to the mechanics, but there's some significant differences here. 
  
Fighting Styles and Backgrounds: 
The biggest one is that I've split Traits into two categories: Fighting Styles and Backgrounds. This is actually a huge throwback to the game that eventually transformed into Badass Kung Fu Demigods, the PDQ martial arts game Battle Royale. So, why am I going back to the start? 

First is that I realized that while having combat and non-combat Traits mixed interchangeably works okay for some games like vanilla PDQ, in Badass Kung Fu Demigods your combat abilities are going to be of paramount importance. It's a game about being walking powerhouses who can tear apart aircraft carriers and smack around kaiju. There's no reason that anyone should be building a "non-combat" character in this game. Sure, you can have characters who are good at things outside of combat, and even characters who aren't as focused on fighting as others...but roles like the classic "skill monkey" or "face", characters who might be helpless in combat but provide other advantages don't really fit in a game where everyone's default powers are enough to smack Superman around.

So, drawing from the same "pool" of resources to buy both combat and non-combat Traits means that characters who want to be the very best (like no one ever was) at fighting are going to be sacrificing their non-combat abilities to do it, while someone trying to develop another style of character could fall into the trap of thinking a non-fighty build is viable only to find their utility Traits don't contribute very much when it's time to power up and fight three-headed space dragons. By dividing the Traits out the gate I can ensure that everyone has the baseline combat competence they need without sacrificing utility and roleplaying Traits. 

It also helps solve an issue I've been wrestling with ever since I started working on Badass Kung Fu Demigods...balancing the utility of combat and non-combat Traits. Part of it is that some combat traits are significantly useful outside of combat (things like speed or reflexes in particular see a lot more use than something like swordfighting outside of the battlefield). It was never a huge deal, but it was significant enough to be a constant headache. Especially since earlier drafts focused on the idea of using Declarations to "lock down" certain Traits, and some of them were much more vulnerable than others. 

Introducing Fighting Styles allows me to cut through a lot of that by simply expanding all combat abilities to roughly the same level. No matter what your fighting style is you can attack, defend or destroy stuff roughly equally well. No swordfighter is going to lose access to their Trait when they're disarmed, super-strong characters don't also have to purchase an armor or toughness trait to allow them to defend themselves and it helps solve the puzzle of using magical or psychic abilities in combat in a more meaningful way (namely by dividing up the combat and non-combat uses of these traits). 

The Form rules (another throwback to the original Battle Royale rules, mapping very closely to it's forms with the exception of the lack of a Flame form) also allow me to do something I've been trying to do for quite some time...introduce some mechanical distinctions in how characters fight. For some games a looser style is fine where the guy with a big hammer fights the same as the little speedster who fights the same as the wizened martial arts master. However, you don't play a game called Badass Kung Fu Demigods without focusing on the combat and since everyone fights it's important to feel like your character fights differently from your fellow PCs and even your opponent. I've tried a lot of different ways to get this to work while keeping the light framework that BAKFDG operates on and I think this is the best implementation so far. 

Fighting Styles are divided up into four different Forms: Might (strong and tough), Flash (fast and agile), Tech (skilled and focused) and Arcane (using magic, mind bullets or similar non-physical combat abilities). The differences aren't huge, but they're enough to make your choice meaningful and even introducing a bit of strategy where fighting the right opponent can make a significant difference in battle. The inclusion of Hybrid forms (combining two of them together) gives even more options. 

I spent a lot longer pontificating on just that one aspect of the new draft, so I think I'll save the rest for a different post...which hopefully will be in just a day or two rather than the previous long wait.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods: Progress Report

So, you know how it is. You intend to make a blog post talking about the 6th draft of your RPG, but along the way you start working on the seventh draft...and you forgot to actually post anything about the 6th draft. 

Well, we're on to the seventh draft, available here: Badass Kung Fu Demigods

Some pretty big changes, unsurprising considering there's been two whole versions since the last BAKFDG post. I'll see if I can summarize some of the most notable ones.

• External Traits are just gone. I realized that they were, ultimately, extraneous and were part of the old style "Exalted Heartbreaker" design of Badass Kung Fu Demigods, attempting to emulate things like artifacts and the like. So all Traits are just Traits now. You want to take a big ol' sword as a Trait, that's fine but in all but the most exceptional cases they're best handled as Knacks.
•  Combat (and rolling in general) has evolved with the use of something called Strikes. When you beat an opponent's roll by 5 you earn a Strike (plus one for each additional 5 points). Strikes are flexible bonuses that can be used to inflict damage on opponents, grant a bonus to your next action, inflict a penalty on your opponent's next action or create Declarations. You can earn Strikes on every roll, which means a very good defensive roll can penalize or damage your opponent.
• Speaking of...Declarations are basically the ability to take a bit of narrative control over a situation. That's things like grabbing your opponent, disarm them or set everything on fire. It's an evolution of the "Seizing Control" option from the previous draft. 
• Fighting Spirit has evolved, functioning as a general combat bonus (adding to attack and defense) and the bonus increases with the number of opponents you're fighting, the damage you've taken and (optionally) if you're wielding a Deadly Weapon. 
• several combat options have been tweaked or simplified and a special option is introduced: Psych Out, which allows you to build up Tension, for your big powers. 
• The Mortal power level has been ditched entirely, if you don't qualify as at least Heroic you're only going to be a Weakling at best. Energy has also been increased for the lower Power Levels with Heroic characters getting 2 EP/round and Awakened characters getting 4. An extra Power Level (Monstrous) has been introduced between Awakened and Unleashed power levels. 
• interaction with higher-powered opponents is a bit less devastating. A higher level character no longer doubles their roll and instead gets a bonus Strike on any successful roll. 
• Powers are no longer limited by Power Level, instead everyone just has access to a selection of Basic Powers, limited only by their Energy. Several of the previous universal powers are now "converted" to Signature Powers or been removed entirely (replaced by things like Declarations). 
• Combos have been replaced with a new Signature Power: Trumps (look...I came up with it before November). Trumps are super-moves that give access to a Tension meter which starts at 0 at the beginning of combat and increases by 1 for each round in the fight (although things like Psych Out let you increase it faster). Activating a Trump lets you "cash in" your Tension rating for an equal amount of free Energy that can be used to fuel the Trump. 
• More detailed discussion on creating settings and setting the theme for them. A few new mini-settings as well and a few other changes (Against the Darkness is now set in the 80s and features super-powered arthurian knights, and is called Neon Knights, because everyone likes a Black Sabbath reference.)

Still a long way to go before things are complete, but things are definitely coming together. I'm particularly pleased with the Fighting Spirit rules in action, because they helped immensely with one of my initial philosophical problems with the game...in order to deal with a full gaming group of kung fu demigods you need an even bigger group of crazy powerful opponents. However, the fighting spirit rules mean that a single powerful opponent (Rival or Champion level) can effectively fight either a single opponent or an entire team, without any special changes or rules.

Happy New Year

So you know you're off to a great start when you resolve to post to your blog more regularly in 2017 and your first post of the year is still more than two weeks into January.

So, happy new year to everyone. So far, 2017 is shaping up pretty good for me and mine. As mentioned previously my wife has been struggling with a chronic pain condition and finally we found something that can help her. She's now able to get by with minimal medication and she's starting to draw and get out of the house again.

So yeah, that's pretty damn good.

Since she's doing better we're also getting back into face-to-face gaming, specifically a game of Shadowrun (using the Savage Worlds system) with NJ and her friend Amy. So I've been putting way too much effort into making lots of paper terrain and minis. Glue and tiny paper bits everywhere.

And I'm on the 6th draft of Badass Kung Fu Demigods and its finally starting to feel complete, although playtesting is still showing some holes. Next post will probably be some more details on the new version.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods: The Importance of Playtesting

Been a few months there. Part of the reason for my pause in the discussion of the game is that I've had the chance to run a slow playtest for Badass Kung Fu Demigods. I say slow since it's a play-by-post on a forum so the pace can be glacial, which is not helped by my own problems keeping a steady posting habits due to general overwork and helping out NJ.

Despite the playtest only being the face-to-face equivalent of a few hours it's already obvious that playtesting is very, very important. When I got into the game I expected to find a few rough edges that needed polishing...I didn't expect that I'd find the need for a major rewrite.

But that's what playtesting is for. You can't always see the problems in your own work and it's amazing how much can fly under your radar, problems that seem really obvious in hindsight but go completely unnoticed no matter how many times you read and re-read your work.

The good news is the playtest didn't show that that the system was an utter garbage fire and with some more work there should be a workable game that just needs some extra polish and tinkering.

Despite the still-ongoing nature of the playtest I've already made some significant changes. The first thing I found out was that the Team-Up rules were broken all to hell. They were meant to support the occasional fastball special or power-ranger-esque team move but they turned out much more devastating than expected when a group of 3-4 characters one-shotted an Awakened-level enemy with a single team-up attack without having to Power Up at all. Then later a mere two people teamed up and utterly annihilated about 8 equal-ranked enemies with one attack.

This led to the second realization...additive bonuses in general were pretty broken. Things like External Traits or even basic Knacks and Styles provide a dramatic edge. With the right build it's easy to get massive quantities of bonuses and opponents who can't build up quite that level of bonus just don't stand a chance.

Those were the first, obvious problems. The rest were a little more subtle. Mainly that the combat dynamic needed some work. Fights between characters who can shift across multiple Power Levels could potentially take quite a while and it actually becomes quite difficult for characters to "break off" combat unless both characters involved mutually agree to end the fight...there's little to no official way to say "I want out". Likewise, even without the Team-Up mechanic outnumbered opponents just can't keep up...the relatively small number of EP available means that it quickly becomes very difficult for characters to pay for a solid defense against multiple opponents let alone having enough EP left over to even try and fight back.

So clearly work was needed. Here's the new draft: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5dkSHCjlC_3QmRUT3owZVhJRmM/view?usp=sharing

A quick run-down of the major changes:

*No more additive bonuses. Instead its been replaced with a semi-dice-pool system. The default is a roll of 2dX (where X is your Trait Die) but bonuses and penalties add or subtract dice from that roll. No matter what you always keep the highest result and (normally) discard all other results. Knacks and Styles add a +1 die bonus and most special rules (like chewing the scenery, deadly weapons, and teamwork) now just add bonus dice.

*External Traits are not added but instead rolled separately (including bonuses) and the highest result is taken. Since bonus dice apply to both the biggest advantage of an External Trait is that it more or less doubles any bonus dice you receive.

*Normal range rules have been replaced with "Engagements" where characters are locked in battle with one another. To avoid the problems with ganging up I mentioned before I introduced a rule called "Fighting Spirit" where an outnumbered character gets a bonus die for each opponent they're currently Engaged with. Ranged attacks allow you to attack outside of Engagements and there are rules for Breaking Engagements which allows someone to try and break-and-run if fights are getting too intense.

*During character creation rather than buying Knacks, Styles and Signature Moves from the same "pool" of bonus points each characters gets couple of Knacks, a Style and a pair of Signature Moves. It was pointed out that while Signature Moves are a lot of fun Knacks and Styles are more practical but a bit duller and having to make a decision between the two was a bit lame at the start.

Oh, and I added a new micro-setting at the end of the book, which I quite enjoy, called "After J-Day" where players are angels who have rebelled against heaven to defend the people left behind after the rapture takes the chosen and the gates of hell open upon the earth. Post-apocalyptic archangels vs demonic wasteland bikers.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods: Breaking System News!

So, as I mentioned Badass Kung Fu Demigods is still very much in development and just the other day a new possibility dawned on me. This may be a part of the core rules, an optional rule for a mini-setting or it may turn out to be nothing at all.

This starts (much like Badass Kung Fu Demigods itself) with Exalted. Now, most of you are probably aware that Exalted recently came out with a 3rd edition. I got into Exalted with the first edition and I still consider 1e the most "playable" form of Exalted. It's got a lot of problems but it's still semi-functional and with some work it can be a good bit of fun. 2nd edition turned me off almost from the word go with its tick-based combat system and it ultimately didn't address the real problems of 1st edition.

Now, I'll preface this by saying I haven't bought or read 3rd edition because I just don't have the spare money to plonk down on a game that I'm unlikely to use. However, from reading about it the combat mechanic still seems quite complicated and the setting has lost some of its appeal with the sheer proliferation of Exalted-types. You don't need that many Exalted!!

Anyway, I will say that there is a concept I've read about in 3rd edition which I like in theory, even if I don't have much faith in the practice. The idea is to set up an opponent for a big "finishing move" attack by hitting them with weaker "withering" attacks to build up advantage, then top it off with an actually damaging attack that blasts them into next week.

Now, that's a concept I quite like. In addition to serving as a satisfying way to regulate the flow of combat but it's also a good way to imitate the "source material" of anime or video games where you build up to big final blows. These are also the inspirations for BAKFDG and so I'm interested in this concept as well.

So the question is, how do I adapt it? Here's the current shape of it in my mind. These rules are quite crude and are still subject to extensive modification or complete dismissal.

Momentum: When making an attack you can choose to go for a Damaging Attack or a Momentum Building Attack (think of a better name for this). Damaging Attacks are resolved normally (roll off, if attacker wins they inflict 1 damage, +1 damage per 5 points by which you beat your opponent). Momentum Building Attacks won't inflict damage, instead they give you Momentum Dice, one die per point by which you beat your opponent's roll. Momentum Building Attacks also do not have to be physical assaults, you can use them to put your opponent off balance, give yourself an advantage, smack talk them or otherwise show off.

possible rule: Taking Damage also gives you Momentum Dice, 1 die per point of damage you take. Possibly the option to convert Energy into Momentum. 

Momentum Dice are d6's and when you make a Damaging Attack you can choose to unleash your Momentum (think of a cool name for this), rolling all of your momentum dice (all or nothing, you can't divvy them up) and add them to your roll result to get your final total. Of course, you can choose to use Powers as well.

Momentum Dice go away at the end of a Scene if they aren't used.


Example:

 Let's take an example scenario, for simplicity's sake we're going with limited Traits and we'll ignore Powers.

*Sarah, with the Traits of Boxing [d10], Fast On Her Feet [d8], Perceptive [d8]
Vs.
*Giant Rock Guy with the Traits of Made of Rocks [d10], Smashing Stuff [d8] and Big And Scary [d8]

Round 1:

Sarah wants to build Momentum, she could just throw some jabs but that'll be opposed by Giant Rock Guy's "Made Of Rocks" Trait which is an even fight. Instead she'll use Fast On Her Feet to play matador a bit and Giant Rock Guy has no relevant Traits in that area. 

 Sarah rolls and gets a 6, GRG rolls and gets a 5. Sarah gets one Momentum Die.

GRG tries to smash Sarah.

GRG rolls and gets a 6, Sarah rolls and gets a 3. She takes 1 Damage.

Round 2:

Sarah still wants more momentum and so she performs some more acrobatics, leaping on top of GRG's back while he rages about.

Sarah rolls and gets a 5, GRG rolls and gets a 9. No momentum for her.

GRG tries to smash Sarah

GRG rolls and gets a 5, Sarah rolls and also gets a 5, no damage.

Round 3:

Rinse and repeat:

Sarah rolls 10 and GRG gets a 6. That gives her 4 Momentum for a total of 5.

GRG rolls and gets a 14, sarah rolls and gets a 5. That's 2 more damage, Sarah's taken a total of 3.

 Round 4:

 Sarah's going for one more round of momentum building. She gets a 7, GRG gets a 3, Sarah's momentum is now 9. If this was a video game her "limit break" bar would be flashing.

GRG rolls a 7 and Sarah rolls a 5. That's 4 damage for Sarah now.

Round 5:

Sarah goes for the kill, rolling 2d10 (keep the highest) plus her momentum +9d6! vs the GRG's 2d10 (keep the highest). Lots and lots of rolling gets a total of 45!! GRG rolls and gets a 5. That's a full 9 damage, easily blowing him apart.


So, that example teaches me a few things, but I'm not sure what. One thing I think I may want to do is rule that any Momentum Building Attack will always generate at least 1 point of Momentum, because otherwise you could end up wasting a lot of dice.

Still not sure if this mechanic is going to go anywhere or not, but if you recall from one of my previous posts that I designed Badass Kung-Fu Demigods to incorporate rules I like and one of the things I liked, but couldn't really include was rolling big handfuls of dice, so the possibility of  successfully including them in an interesting and appropriate way is very appealing to me.

I'll keep you updated.

Badass Kung Fu Demigods, development journal part 3

Been a while but not dead. Just a busy time. I'm still working on baking Christmas presents for family members. That's how behind I am on things.

Part 3: The Actual Rules


Characters in BAKFDG are built on a small set of player-defined Traits, with NPCs built in much the same way. A Trait basically establishes something about the character and gives it a rating, starting at 1d6 and reaching 1d12. Some example Traits are things like "Massive Brute", "Killer Ninja Warrior" and "World's Strongest President". There were a few basic ideas about Traits:

A) There are no weaknesses or negative traits. That is not to say that you can't come up with a character who has flaws or disadvantages...these are just roleplaying elements with no mechanical backing. This is a game about playing crazy and wild superhumans. Who cares if you don't have arms, just grab a sword between your teeth. It doesn't matter if you're ugly, because no one is thinking about your battered face when you throw a manhole cover through an orbital weapons platform.

B) Traits do not "Stack" (with limited exceptions, see below). The highest Trait is the only one that matters in a given situation. Characters don't get a huge number of Traits and this way there's no need to "dogpile" traits and encourages characters to be a bit more diverse. A swordmaster doesn't have to also be massively muscled or hopping about like a bunny rabbit. Instead they can use their other Traits to flesh out other areas.

C) Traits are meant to be broad and focus is provided with Knacks, which are specializations of Traits allowing them to pick small areas which give cumulative bonuses (+2 per knack).

D) The one exception to stacking Traits are "External Traits", special Traits which represent powerful items, special connections or status in society. Unlike Internal Trait, External Traits can be taken away, denied or simply inaccessible. However, in exchange they provide a powerful boost when using a synergistic Internal Trait.

Originally, the intent was that when faced with a challenge, everyone rolls their Trait. Have a Trait like "World's Strongest President [1d10]" and you need to break something or lift something to impress congress? Roll 1d10 (and if the roll comes up 10 keep rolling and keep adding up the rolls) and see if you succeed. However, it quickly became apparent that this was just too random. It's no good being the World's Strongest President (and yes, I think I will use this guy as my example character from now on) if you keep tossing a bunch of 1's and 3's in a row.

In order to decreases the whiff factor and push number higher I switched to rolling two dice and taking the highest result. So far, this has smoothed things out pretty well.

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Next came how to handle accomplishing tasks. Honestly, I had a little bit of trouble here because I couldn't figure out a good way to calculate target numbers is a smooth, elegant way. Fortunately, I eventually came to a better way, instead of set target numbers any task is simply assigned a die-type and the GM rolls off with the player and sees who gets the higher result. The term I came up with for this was "Opposing Forces" which could cover anything from obstacles, complexity or even a time limit.

Now, this does mean that even the lowest-ranked  Opposing Force is capable (if not necessarily likely) to overcome a character with a d10 or d12. But on reflection, I'm fine with this. First, unlike Opposing Forces, characters have access to Powers which can dramatically tilt their odds if they're willing to spend the Energy. Secondly, anything that counts as an Opposing Force against a Badass Kung Fu Demigod should be pretty impressive to begin with. The World's Strongest President doesn't need to roll to break a window or snap a baseball bat over his knee...he should be rolling for ripping chains from walls or (at higher Power Levels), toppling the Washington monument.

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Then there's fighting each other!

Clashes are BAKFDG's term for general conflicts. They largely include fighting, but it'll also include social, mental or physical challenges outside of combat. Clashes are resolved by taking turns rolling off using whatever appropriate Trait's you're using for attacks or defenses. If the attacker wins they inflict a point of damage, if the beat the opponent by 5 or more then you inflict an additional point of damage (which continues for each 5 additional points of damage). Taking a total of 5 damage takes you out of the fight.

This is one area where I compromised in a way that I feel made things very slightly worse. The original rules were that each "doubling" of your opponent's result adds an extra point of damage. So if the World's Strongest President punches an alien tripod and the alien rolls a 6 then the President would inflict a point of damage if he rolls a 7 or higher. A 12 or higher would get him two points of damage, a 24 would get him 3 and so on.

Now, this met my goals in some very specific ways. I wanted to avoid the two extremes that seem endemic to high-powered RPGs: "rocket tag" fights or "cherry tapping". The first is when you have enemies with such a high offensive ability that most fights end with the first hit (or the first hit cripples the opponent so badly that the second will surely end them). The second is when characters have so many hit points or such a strong defense that fights drag on forever as you slowly chip away at each other's health.

My goal was to create a system where actually inflicting damage against an opponent isn't too tough and most fights will end within about 3-5 hits, which I felt was not so short as to be unsatisfying and not so long it stops feeling intense. Enough times for tables to turn, allies to show up or a bit of banter to be traded.

However, at the same time I wanted the ability for a really powerful or lucky hit to potentially take out an opponent in a single blow. Not a likely event, but something that would be possible (especially when a stronger foe faces a weaker one).

That was the intent behind the doubling mechanic, it ensured that the odds of inflicting extra damage increased non-linearly, requiring more and more luck to get a really strong hit in. I felt it was an elegant damage system that met my needs but unfortunately it didn't quite work out.

I went to the 1 damage per 5 points of difference system because the doubling system, while useful, seemed to cause some calculation issues in play, and more significantly was awkward to explain in the text. Although I still don't feel too content with the change I think it'll turn out to be the right decision and did allow me to create the Deadly Weapons rule.

You see, I realized something working on several of the "micro-settings" for BAKFDGs. Specifically a setting called "Against The Darkness", kind of a hybrid of Highlander and Men In Black where players take the role of immortal enforcers who defend humanity from the hordes of secret monsters that lurk in the night. It was very much intended to be in the Katana-and-Trenchcoat style of Highlander and WoD games like Vampire. But I realized that since I didn't include any rules for weapons outside of External Traits I was actively discouraging players from using them. After all, in a modern setting where players are trying to avoid notice it's quite a pain to lug around guns or katanas and avoid suspicion. And that's not what I wanted, I wanted to encourage rooftop swordfights, or mowing down hordes of were-vampires with twin Uzis firing silver bullets, in addition to unarmed high flying combat.

So I needed a solution and that was the (optional) Deadly Weapons rule. I felt like just adding a flat bonus to your roll was bonus uninteresting and it was difficult to define the line between a piddly bonus not worth bothering with or a bonus that became too big and made the weapon indispensable and rendered unarmed combat worthless. Basically the Deadly Weapons rule lowered the threshold for additional damage from an attack to 1 Damage/5 points to 1 Damage/4 points. This meant that both unarmed fighters and swordsmen have the same minimum damage and largely operate the same, but the weapon gives just enough of an edge to make it worthwhile to carry around. It also only works in the new damage system so I feel it kind of evens out with the original rules.

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I didn't want BAKFDGs to be nothing more than trading blows back and forth and I was hoping to give it a little bit of tactical oomph, so I also came up with a few other rules that I think are interesting...but may or may not be good. Time (and playtesting) will tell.

*Combat Forms: As I mentioned, BAKFDG was born from Battle Royale and one thing that Battle Royale had that the first drafts of BAKFDG didn't was a good way to distinguish between different "flavors" of fighting. In Battle Royale a big brute had a different style from a judo master or an acrobatic knife-fighter. In BAKFDG, different Traits may or may not apply in certain circumstances, but largely one combat-suitable Trait is much like any other. Combat Forms were my attempts to remedy it and to play around with the 2dX mechanic. For instance, the Brute Form was meant to have the ability to hit really hard with a lucky blow, so if both of your Trait dice come out higher than your opponent's highest die result then you can add them both together to get the final total (and thus do more damage). The inverse was the Speedy fighter who doesn't do more damage, but is more likely to hurt the opponent: if you fail an attack but your lowest die result was higher than your opponents lowest dice result you still inflict 1 point of damage anyway.

*Seizing Control: When fighting an opponent and you inflict damage you can choose to reduce the damage by one point in exchange for declaring some kind of advantage you've got over your foe: knocking them off something, disarming them or catching them in a grapple. Essentially meant to prevent them from using one or more of their Traits (such as pinning down a fast or agile opponent, disarming a powerful sword-fighter, etc).

*Chewing the Scenery: basically meant to encourage mass destruction and chaos. By destroying a large part of the environment in a suitably dramatic way (knocking someone into a propane tanker, collapsing a building on them, etc) you can use the Scene as a kind of one-shot External Trait, adding 1d4 to your roll total.

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That more or less does it for rambling about the rules, at least the general rules. Next (hopefully not in a month's time!) we'll tackle the main draw of being a BAKFDG: Powering Up!

Badass Kung-Fu Demigods: Development Journal pt 2

Euugh, last week and a half I've spent battling a nasty cold. Finally starting to fade so I'll try and resume my lost momentum.

Back to Badass Kung-Fu Demigods.

Part 2: The Basics

Part of the reason I think this game has come together so quickly is that most of the basic concepts come directly from my Id. I started with just the basic concept of "player-controlled scaling power level, ramping up to the ridiculous." and after that I basically just decided to make every decision based purely on things I enjoyed from other games. Not necessarily the best or most coherent decision...just the one that I personally enjoyed. And as a result everything came together beautifully.

For comparison, Battle Royale was created mostly because I saw it as a good way to fill a niche that might appeal to people. I wanted a PDQ game, but I also kind of wanted to make a good first impression with what I planned on being my first "professional" game effort. I saw martial arts as a niche that wasn't being too thoroughly filled and I felt fit well with the PDQ system. I wasn't even a massive fan of martial arts media at the time (although in the process of making Battle Royale I have since become one). And while I still think that the final result is a good job it took a hell of a long time to get there as I didn't really have a clear vision when I started things.

So, back to BAKFDG. What kind of decisions am I talking about. Well, here are the basics:

• First and foremost I wanted to use all of my dice. As a person who started with D&D and has since become a big fan of Savage Worlds I have a rather large collection of polyhedrals. While there are definitely mono-dice game I enjoy (such as PDQ and FATE), I always feel a little bad about all those other colorful dice sitting unused in my dice box. So I decided that I definitely wanted multi-dice and since I quite liked Savage World's dice-based abilities I decided to use that concept as a basis for my game. 
• Second, I wanted exploding dice. My first experience with exploding dice came from the Storyteller system, but it was Savage Worlds that really made me fall in love with them. I just plain like them. My wife really likes them too and whenever we play a system where the dice don't explode she expresses disappointment that she doesn't get to roll again. I don't want to disappoint my wife, so exploding dice were definitely in. 
• Thirdly, I like the DIY philosophy of PDQ, FATE and Unknown Armies where abilities are created by players for players and not restricted to a set list of specific, often bland, traits. So throw those in on top. 
• Fourth, I wanted to be able to play Exalted with it. I don't talk about Exalted too much here (other than showing off my clunky-ass PDQ conversion), but it is kind of my gaming white whale. I was a big fan of the first edition but, like many many others, I got frustrated with the limitations of the system. 2nd edition compounded the problem with an even more insane combat system and a few questionable setting decisions. The third edition seems to have doubled down on "complex combat system" and the setting has (for me) gone off the rails by doubling the number of different Exalted "flavors". So, while I've always wanted to play Exalted I've never found a system that met the right level of "crunch vs fun" while still scratching a very specific itch Exalted has left me with. So a very big goal with BAKFDG is to create my own personal Exalted "emulator". 

Those goals already provided me with the very bare-bones of a system and it turned out that in the process of adding a bit of meat on I realized that the system was (with a few tweaks) surprisingly workable and a lot of fun.

I didn't feel like the whole thing needed much of a "native" setting (especially since I was probably going to be using it personally mainly for playing existing settings like Exalted and Scion), so I just decided to fiddle with the system until I got something that worked out for me.

That's all for now (still recovering from the cold) but next time I'll talk a bit more about the system itself. 

Badass Kung-Fu Demigods: Development Journal pt 1

So, last week I mentioned what I've been doing as far as new conversion material, but quite a lot of my free time has actually been spent on games of my own. The one I want to talk about first is Badass Kung-Fu Demigods.

The name alone should give you some idea of the sort of game you're dealing with.

BAKFDG is an original system, the latest of several I've been working on and despite that it has the distinction of being the system closest to feeling complete and ready for action. It's "clicked" in a way very few of my other works have and I've already reached a point where it's almost out of the "rough draft" phase...something Battle Royale hasn't managed despite several years of work.

The fourth draft is available here: Badass Kung-Fu Demigods (v 0.4)

So...if I feel like it's practically finished already, haven't I kind of moved beyond commenting on the game's development? Well, here's the thing...I feel like it's practically done, but that doesn't mean it is. The intent behind this is to more or less break down my own game, chapter by chapter. I'll discuss the ideas behind the mechanics and the ideas and hopefully that'll help me spot any areas in desperate need of sprucing up or help me feel like things are definitely and firmly "good".

Part 1: Origins

Just to start with, I'll go over how this game got started. It all began with my long-time project, Battle Royale. A game that, while I'm still quite enthusiastic about it, certainly has not solidified with anything like the quickness or surety of BAKFDG. I've gone over and over the system for Battle Royale, tinkering and rejiggering to see what feels right.

In this case, I was thinking of creating a playtesting "setting". But if you remember any of the Battle Royale material I've discussed before, the game is designed to provide multiple different power levels for different types of games. I started originally making different playtesting scenarios for different settings with different power levels...but I was having enough trouble getting together a playtesting group for one setting, let alone several to stress test Battle Royale at different power levels.

So I hit upon the idea of having a single setting with characters who were capable of adjusting their own Power Levels up and down from the lowest rank to the highest, allowing for the possibility of testing the rules for different power levels all in one game!

The setting was called "Kung-Fu Demigods" and owed a bit to Exalted and the Korean Manhwas Veritas and Breaker The premise being that in the ancient world existed secret martial arts societies run by 13 near godlike Great Masters who were capable of the highest levels of martial arts ability and whose power would carry from one life to the next through reincarnation. These 13 Great Masters dealt with spirits, maintained the balance of the world and fought one another in epic martial arts throw-downs.

Five of the Great Masters formed an alliance and through various means developed the means to create semi-mystical drugs that could elevate the chi of their students. Backed with a small army of lesser (but still amazing) martial artists these five Masters defeated the other 8 and then dominated the rest of the world, shaping society as they saw fit.

Fast forward to the modern age, the world is ultimately dominated by the Unified Martial Arts Society, still led by those 5 Great Masters. Artificial chi-boosting drugs are mass produced and used to elevate those with talent, called The Gifted, above ordinary human beings.

Of course, the players would be reincarnations of the former 8 Great Masters, with the potential for near-unlimited martial arts power...but the five Great Masters have centuries of skill and massive support in the form of the Martial Arts Society they created.

The players would have the ability to push their way, at will, from the lower power levels to the higher power level, immediately gaining the benefits of the new level of ability...with the downside being that doing so attracts the attention of someone of the same Power Level. So while you could Power Up to Cosmic power level and kick a mugger into orbit that'll alert the remaining Great Masters that something is up.

For whatever reason, this concept really caught me. Most games, even the high-powered ones like Scion or Exalted, work on the premise that (powerful or not) you start at the low end of your respective power-scale and gradually work your way up. Why not, I thought, have a game where absolutely ridiculous levels of power are available from the very start...sure, there's always room for lateral growth or new tricks...but why not throw the players raw power and set them loose in a world where their choices have truly massive consequences.

And that thought is where the seed of Badass Kung-Fu Demigods began.