Revision as of 13:21, 13 November 2021

This is for development of the task resolution for the 3.0 revision of TWTW. The goal is to keep as much of the underlying nuts and bolts familiar to the old rules, so we do not need to completely rewrite everything.

Core Mechanic

Tasks are resolved by rolling a number of dice equal to the level of the appropriate skill. The standard dice are d8. Dice can be upgraded to d10 or downgraded to d6 by various means. Unskilled checks are made with a single d6.

There are three difficulty levels: standard (5), challenging (6) and difficult (7). Easy tasks will be discussed later. The number in parentheses is the TN for the given difficulty level.

Easy tasks are handled slightly differently. If the Judge declares a task to be easy, the player has two options. They can choose to automatically succeed, with all effects and random results considered to be normal. Alternatively, they can roll it as a standard difficulty.

• One idea discussed was the notion of a character's trait level somehow influencing the dice pool when a check is made and/or how bumps are calculated. One idea was that for a higher-ranked trait, the first bump might only require 1 over the TN, and/or a higher trait might upgrade one or more dice in the pool to a d10, and lower traits could do the opposite, i.e., require 3 over the TN for the first bump and/or downgrade one or more dice in the pool to a d6

Exploding Dice

Dice rolls are open ended, but no more than one die in a given pool may explode. Dice will explode if the number on the Heroic die is equal to or greater than the <name> threshold.

• Another idea discussed was having an "explosion threshold," where dice might explode on some result other than the highest result (rolling an 8 on a d8; a lower explosion threshold might allow a die to explode on, say, a 7 or an 8)

Heroic Dice

Each dice pool will include a single heroic die along with the other dice that are normally chosen. The Heroic die is a d8, unless modified by another ability.

Functions of the Heroic die: Determine if exceptional results are possible. Determine damage (combined with card results). Trigger special abilities.

• The Heroic die type might be standardized, or might be the subject of perks or archetype or determined by some other as yet to be determined method

Bumps

Each +2 over the TN that is generated provides a bump. If the bump is not spent on the given action, it is immediately converted to an ability chip.

Ability Chips

Each character has a number of abilities that they can choose from a list. This is based on archetype. Characters without archetype choose from a general list. These abilities are activated by spending ability chips.

Abilities can have a wide range of effects, but no matter how powerful the ability, no type of failure can ever be turned into success. Catastrophic failure and malfunction may be turned into standard failure, however.

• Additional abilities can be purchased with experience
• Lowering the activation cost of abilities might also be something characters can spend experience on (idea: this might be an excellent way to separate powerful characters from less powerful ones; if the activation cost is initially relatively high, characters will not be able to use these abilities very often, where characters with lots of experience devoted to their abilities could use them much more frequently and reliably)
• Idea: In WH, characters are free to use any ability they have and place recharge tokens on it, which are removed each round. This keeps a character from spamming the same special action repeatedly. This system shows more of a "build up" rather than "countdown" mechanic. What if there are other methods to earn ability chips? You had mentioned it might vary by power level or genre (supers might have a ton of ability chips to charge their "powers"). What if a character could earn an ability chip by spending a set number of AP (like half) or making an ability check?

Effects

Most actions and equipment have standard effect numbers. Weapons also have reduced effect (damage). The effect number is no longer a set of dice to be rolled, but instead is a standard amount of effect that is done. The Heroic die and character abilities can trigger circumstances when extra effect is rolled.

Equipment

Weapons will have a die type as well as an effect number. The die type associated is what is rolled when extra damage is generated. For example, the Peacemaker looks like this:

Colt Peacemaker (6) D 11 RD 5

Normal damage is 11, and d6s are rolled when extra effect is generated.