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Author Topic: Among Monsters and Men (survival horror rules)  (Read 1742 times)

Offline Noctuary

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 177
Among Monsters and Men (survival horror rules)
« on: September 17, 2015, 01:47:44 AM »
Hello Lead Adventurers. Today I bring my home brewed rule set for the Modern Survival Horror genre. I grew up playing games like Splatterhouse, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I tried to recapture the feel of those games by making the player characters human instead of being a hero. Each character is built off the REACTS stat and skill system which will provide players a character who they can hopefully bring close to home.
The game is meant to be deadly and hard to play as far as challenging. The other good thing about the system is that it is intended to be used for different scenarios from zombie apocalypse to Dead Space with ease in mind. So on to the rules.. but as a note these are rough and still are going through play testing at my gaming store. I appreciate all feed back or if you think you have a better way of doing something feel free to respond. I have some custom minis in the works for the scenario and setting of choice which will be displayed here as well as game play if it makes it that far. Thanks!

*STATS*
R.E.A.C.T.S is the acronym for the players basic status. These numbers are based from 4-10 and 5 being the human average. When building a character players should start with 5 in all the attributes. They then can apply 6 points as they please. They may also subtract points from other attributes down to 4 to gain some extra distribution.
If the game calls for a ___ Check then the player rolls a 1d10 and subtracts the difficulty penalty to his stat for the check. If the players roll is at or below the Stat check then they pass. The reason stats range from 4-10 is because the difficulty penalty will be -1 to -3, -1 being an easy task like breaking down a wooden door, and a -3 being trying to hold back a horde of zombies behind a door.

-REFLEXES -  How agile a player is.
A Reflex check may involve escaping a zombies clutches or attempting to catch a thrown weapon.

ENDURANCE - A players vitality and level of health.
An Endurance check may involve resisting being stunned after a brutal attack or resisting infection.

-AWARENESS- A characters perception of their surroundings.
An Awareness check may involve trying to hear something behind a door or smelling rotting flesh up ahead.

-CHARISMA- A characters physical appearance and/or their social skills.
A Charisma check may involve trying to catch the eye of the opposite sex or Inspiring a team member to not be terrified.

-THOUGHT- A players overall logic and understanding.
A Thought check may involve your character knowing information on a topic or knowing which direction is north.

-STRENGTH- A players physique and toughness.
A strength check may include lifting a person hanging from a ledge or carrying something heavy.

-Health-
A player starts with 5 health and gains their Endurance score as a bonus. If a player has 5 Endurance they would have 10 health.

-Action Points
A player starts with 5 action points and gains 1/2 of their Reflex score rounded down to their AP Max.
If a player had a Reflex score of 6 then they would have a total of 8AP a turn to spend.

-Fear Limit-
A player has a point where they just can't handle the terror anymore. This limit is 1/2 the sum of their Endurance and Thought scores. So if a player has 5 Endurance and 5 Thought, then they have a 5 Fear Limit they can accumulate before gaining the terrified condition and only 2 before gaining the scared condition. See Status Condition for more details.

-Dodge-
A players chance at avoiding an attack by a creature. A players dodge score is 8 + their gear bonus. Players wearing no armor or armor tagged as light or medium will add 1/2 their reflex score rounded down to the bonus.

*SKILLS*
SKILLS - All skills start base 0 and only a max of 10 to skills from SKILL UPs, Players choose 3 skills and gain their specialty bonus in the selected skills. Add half of your attribute score to the corresponding skill rounded down. SKILL UPs grant half your THOUGHT rounded down to upgrade your skills. If a skill check is called then the player rolls a d20 and adds the score of the skill to that roll to try and hit the Target Roll or higher.
EXAMPLE: Player A is trying to jump from one building across a 10 foot gap to the next one slightly below. The game master would set the difficulty of the target roll (10). Player A rolls his d20 then adds their skill bonus in ACROBATICS to the roll. If he beat the target roll they succeed.


1.ATHLETICISM(STR) - Skill in running, climbing, and swimming.
2.SEARCH(AWA) - Skill at searching for items of interest or finding something useful.
3.MEDICAL(THT) - Skill at using medicine, mixing herbs, making medical supplies, or reviving a fallen comrade.
4.TECHNOLOGY(THT) - Skill at using computers/electronics or scientific equipment.
5.STAMINA(END) - Skill at sustaining prolonged physical or mental effort.
6.SOCIAL(CHA) - Skill with words, negotiations, bartering, intimidating, or bluffing.
7.STEALTH(REF) - Skill at sneaking, moving silently, stealing, or concealing something.
8.CRAFT(THT) - Skill at building useful items, or repairing broken things from salvaged materials.
9.ACROBATICS(REF) - Skill at balancing, jumping,or other acrobatic stunts.
10.INTRUSION(THT) - Skill at picking locks, or hacking into computers.

Players have a pool of Action Points (AP) that they spend each turn doing their selected actions. These actions points are based off the players REFLEX score. Some actions include Attacking, Moving, Reloading, Using a skill, Picking up items, Using items, Interacting with objects, and more.

*ACTIONS*
-Attack-
A player may perform the attack action on their turn unless a status effect says otherwise. Attacks will range from 3-5 AP per attack. A player with a high enough AP pool may perform multiple attacks per turn. A player may break up their attacks with movement in between as well provided they have the AP.

-Move-
A player may move 5 feet per 1 point of AP spent per turn. When walking through difficult terrain or climbing a player will have to spend 2 AP to move 5 feet.

-Change Position-
A player may want to crouch or go prone in some situations. To change positions it will cost 2 AP. This cost is the same when going from prone to standing. It will cost 4AP to stand up or crouch when a player is knocked prone by something other than their choice however.
When a player is crouching they gain a +1 to their attack roll bonus with ranged weapons as well as performing a stealth skill check. If a player is prone they gain +2 to the same attack and stealth checks, however they do not add their Reflex bonus to their Dodge score when prone.

Well before I spend more time condensing my notes down to what you just read I'll see if any interest is there. If there are any questions please ask them =]

EDIT: So I was flip flopping between the 1-100 skill system or the d20 which do you all like more for an rpg or even one shots and why?
« Last Edit: September 18, 2015, 04:08:32 PM by Noctuary »

Offline Noctuary

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 177
Re: Among Monsters and Men
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2015, 02:02:11 AM »
Also it got me to start painting those Zombicide figures.


Offline Gailbraithe

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  • Posts: 131
  • Post-Apocalyptic Librarian
Re: Among Monsters and Men
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2015, 07:06:46 AM »
EDIT: So I was flip flopping between the 1-100 skill system or the d20 which do you all like more for an rpg or even one shots and why?

I prefer a d20 over d100.  I don't find the additional granularity of the d100 really enhances gameplay, and typically the maths involved with a d20 are easier, which tends to speed up gameplay.  What I mean is that in a d100 system you can have a skill of 47 (47%) and a modifier of +4 (+4%) for a total of 51/100, but typically a game is going to be abstract enough that you're really not getting a better simulation than you'd get with a skill of 9 (45%) and modifier of +1 (+5%) for a total of 10/20.

 

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