Bringing Breathless back to 24XX ... in order to play Electric Bastionland?
After the long post yesterday this will just be a quick one.
As I alway mention I'm a big fan of Jason Tocci's 2400 rpg system. This system was profoundly inspired by Chris McDowall's Electric Bastionland. A system that I deeply love as well.
Lately I rarely come to play Electric Bastionland instead of 2400, because the way the later system handles enemies and combats makes it easier for me to improvise. But I still have a deep desire to see more of Bastion. Therefore I thought about making a 24XX hack for playing Electric Bastionland.
And now I've run across Fari RPG's Breathless system, which was inspired by 2400. Mainly by it's mechanic of dice depletion. Within the many iterations of that system I've found Tales of the Burned Stone, also made by Fari RPGs and available for free. This game cites, next to the 2400 system, Cairn as one of it's influences. And Cairn on the other hand, was influenced by Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland.
What a wild family tree!
Now! Tales of the Burned Stones has a bit to much mini-crunch for my liking to use it's frame directly as a possible vehicle for Bastionland.
So, in order to give it back some of the extra looseness of it's direct origin, I will turn that family tree into a circle and combine Breathless and 24XX into a frame that I may use for playing Electric Bastionland.
Note that this uses words from the Breathless SRD, Tales from the Burned Stones, the 2400 SRD, 2400 Exiles and 2400 Xot.
None of these are original ideas by me, I'm just mashing together, what others have created in the first place.
The Frame
PLAY: Players describe what their characters do. The GM advises when their action is impossible, requires extra steps, demands a cost, or presents a risk. Players only roll to avoid risks.
ROLLING: Roll a abbility die or special gear die. If hindered by injury, circumstances, or carrying more than 1 bulky item, roll twice and take the lower result. If helped by circumstances, roll an extra d4; if helped by an ally, they roll their abbility/gear die and share the risk. Take the highest die.
1–2 Disaster. Suffer the full risk. GM decides if you succeed at all. If risking death, you die.
3–4 Setback. A lesser consequence or partial success. If risking death, you’re injured.
5+ Success. The higher the roll, the better.
If success can’t get you what you want (you make the shot, but it’s bulletproof!), you’ll at least get useful info or set up an advantage.
Everyone who rolled a abbility/gear die steps it down by one step (d12 > d10 > d8 > d6 > d4). You can't go lower then d4. Risks or costs may involve stepping a die down multiple steps at once.
CATCH YOUR BREATH: You may reset all your traits and vocations to their original ratings, but a new complication will be triggered as a result.
DEPREVATION: If you are deprived (e.g. through the lack of food or sleep) you can't reset your abbility dice through Catching your Breath.
HARM: Healing takes time commensurate with a hindrance’s severity, but can be handled faster at a cost. If killed, make a new character to be introduced ASAP. Favor inclusion over realism
DEFENSE: Say how one of your items / armor (or artificial limbs) breaks to turn a hit into a brief hindrance. Broken gear is useless until repaired.
SPECIAL GEAR: Important items that may be assigned a die rating (e.g. Weapons). If it makes sense in the fiction a gear die may be used for a roll instead of a abbility die. Step it down by one step afterwards. Gear diece can only reset after a long rest. One-Use Gear (e.g. Grenades) is lost after it's been used.
LOOT: This lets you loot locations for items. You start with a d12 loot die, which steps down after each usage. To loot a place, roll your loot die and interpret the result. It resets after a long rest.
1-2 Trouble is here...
3-4 There is trouble ahead...
5-8 You get 1 item / treasure.
9-10 You get 2 items / treasures.
11-12 You get 3 items / treasures.
GM: Describe characters in terms of behaviors, risks, and obstacles, not skill dice. Lead the group in setting lines not to cross in play. Fast-forward, pause, or rewind/redo for pacing and safety; invite players to do likewise. Present dilemmas you don’t know how to solve. Move spotlight to give all time to shine. Roll a die periodically to test luck (e.g., run into predators, or out of bandages), checking for (1– 2) trouble or (3–4) signs of it. Improvise rulings to cover gaps in rules; on a break, revise unsatisfactory rulings as a group
CHARACTER: Every character has three abilities for rolling in risky situations. These are STRength, DEXterity and CHArisma. To determine your abbility ratings, roll a d4, a d6, and a d8 on a flat surface. The die that is farthest away from you is your STRength, the closest to you is your CHArisma, and the remaining one is your DEXterity. You can swap two results if you wish.
ADVANCEMENT: When your highest die in a row rolls its max, you may turn it to a 1 to permanently raise either one of your abbility dice or 1 of your Gear dice by 1 step. If you do that, narrate how your character takes a permanent scar from that situation and note that on your character sheet.