While designing Legends of the Khurst Riders my goal is to create a medium to light crunch game that also delivers on high drama while plumbing the depths of redemption. The original Wound by Tension system I had in place worked. After all I used it in Honorbound so I know how flexible it can be. It’s a great system but not a perfect fit and I knew I wanted something even easier.
Making It Easier for the GM
One of my mandates was I never wanted the GM to roll dice. There is enough cognitive load juggling storyline, remembering motives, and just the art of painting a picture with words. The second was to make everything easier. Adding up d6s had to go! Some folks bounce off of math of any kind.
Now, a “Hit” happens 50% of the time. Borrowing from the All4Two system I cobbled together for Goblyn Market (on sale now AND SRD coming soonish!). On a d8 5-8 is a Hit. The default is 2 Hits equals a success action.
The dice pool is created from an Attribute plus Skill matrix. I love the matrix, I think it allows players to stretch their imaginations in interesting narrative directions. I should write an article just on choosing creating the right matrix for your game but this is what I am working with right now:
The descriptions in light blue are merely suggestions at the intersections of the attribute and skills. It is up to the player to interpret what it means to use their Belief attribute to Weasel someone! In my mind it is some sort of spiritual flim-flammery, the creation of a false belief. But looking at this character, they are more concerned about tussling with folks rather than talking anyway.
New Die, Who Dis?
Meta points still exist. Doom on a 1. Legend on an 8. These are why I switched from a d6 to a d8. The meta points were too swingy on a d6 coming up 33% of the time for each die. So far 25% of the time has felt better for the players (although they’ve had insane good luck for the first scene!). How the meta points are spent has been updated a bit too.
Legend points generate automatic hits and can power abilities once they are gained. Doom points simply go to a curse tracker. Every 5 Doom accumulated triggers the character’s baseline curse AND they gain a new…idiosyncrasy depending on the character type. Vampires gain Supernatural Allergies like silver, religion, sunlight etc. Xombies…er, fall apart and need to repair themselves. And the reincarnated becomes a new person from their past lives. More character articles to come! Haunts and Curses is a whole thing and will be explained another time!
The Battle Saddlebag – TM
A whole new (I think unique?) ruleset for skirmishes; anything that involves more than 1 enemy opposing the characters. It is no secret I adore the initiative system for Troika!. And this is my homage and commitment to making games unsafe again!
At the top of the round everyone declares what their action is to build their dice pool. Each player has their own color and adds 1 per die in pool. The game runner does the same for their baddies. Shake it up and…
- Deal X chips. Right now it’s 1 per participating person/monster +2.
- Players either cash out or push their luck.
- Cash Out – Roll dice equal to the number of chips, your action is done for the round.
- Push Your Luck – Tell the GM to pull more chips.
- Players either cash out or push their luck.
- Add the Bust chip.
- The GM now pulls 1 chip at a time. All adversary chips choose to Push Your Luck. The color of the chip pulled indicates the player has the choice to Cash Out now or Push Your Luck. The Bust chip ends the round.
- If you have not Cashed Out before the Bust Chip is pulled…you simply don’t get an action for the round. You gambled, you lost!
- Buuuuut, I’m not that sadistic. As long as your character chooses to do the same action they may Let It Ride.
- Keep any chips pulled from the bag in front of you to start the next round.
- Buuuuut, I’m not that sadistic. As long as your character chooses to do the same action they may Let It Ride.
- If there are enough participants, empty the bag and start again!
This has been AWESOME fun so far. Characters can gain abilities to mitigate some of the feel bads. And there are a couple of other minor rules to keep things interesting. Now if anyone can come up with a better name than Battle Saddlebag or Battle Bag please let me know!!!
Recent playtesting has integrated the bag into dynamic chase scenes and high noon showdowns. If I am to believe the players it is “The best chase system I have ever played. The push your luck mechanic feels incredibly thematic and fun!”. I’ll expand on these over the next couple of months.
Book Update!
The rules are humming right along, work division has been set up, and the cover artist has been hired!!! Sketches will be shared as they come along but for now, enjoy David Venegas’s visions! ArtStation – David Venegas It is soooo good.
Sample of Venegas art!