Game System:Mechanics

From Eldritch Wiki

Contents 1 Overview 2 Rolling 2.1 Success Levels 2.2 When to Roll 2.3 Roll Types 3 Points 3.1 Life Points 3.2 Drama Points 3.2.1 Alpha Characters 3.2.2 Beta Characters 3.2.3 Earning 3.2.4 Spending Drama 3.3 Experience Points 3.3.1 Earning 3.3.2 Spending 4 Skill Exception Rules 4.1 Forced Specialty 4.2 Unfamiliar Aspect 5 Miscellaneous 5.1 Lifting Capacity 5.2 Soak Chart

Overview

This is where you can find all the ways in which our system works to actually make this a game. The odds and ends of rules, exceptions to the rules, and how things function are our game mechanics.

Rolling

A +sheet is just a bunch of numbers unless there is a reason for having them. That reason is to determine the success or failure of a characters actions vs. other characters, NPCs, and their environment. Rolls are not always necessary, mind you, and often are at the discretion of the scene Narrator.

Success Levels

In some situations, a Narrator may need to know more than whether a character has succeeded at something; they may need how well they succeeded. When that's the case, the number you roll is associated with a number of Success Levels, or SLs, which can be found on the chart that follows. The greater the number of Success Levels, the better the character did at whatever they were trying. For example, you might sing extraordinarily good (a roll of 24), or just manage to not break ear drums (a roll of a 9).

When to Roll

Rolls aren't something that are always required. If your character has a professional level in a skill (4 ranks or higher, including an applicable specialty) and you are simply demonstrating competency in a casual situation (a pressure-less situation), there isn't really a need to roll. You can assume success at basic tasks related to the skill. Some examples of this would be a mechanic character with a 2 in Craft and 2 levels of Mechanic changing the oil in a car, a doctor with 4 ranks in Medicine administering a flu shot, a singer with a 3 in perform and 1 rank of singing not busting ear drums at karaoke night.

Only in a case where you are trying to achieve a specific level of success, are under adverse circumstances, or face high pressure or opposition to your task, is a roll required. For example, the same Mechanic trying to get a stalled engine restarted while trying to escape a serial killer, the same doctor trying to determine which syringe is the right antidote for a poisoned friend from a box of unlabelled syringes, that singer trying to win a singing contest against other singers at a local fair.

It goes without saying that opposed rolls, such as attacks and resisting or dodging attacks, are necessary. Please note that in using skills or abilities against or on another PC against the will of their player, a Narrator or Staff Member needs to be present to observe.

Roll Types

When rolls are called for, they consist of a d10 along with the ranks you possess in applicable attributes, skills, specialties, qualities, and/or drawbacks. There are a few particular types of rolls you should be aware of, though which ones are required in a given situation are usually dictated by the mechanic of what you are trying to do, or the Narrator running the scene when a specific mechanic doesn't exist.

• Basic Roll: This is a singular roll made to accomplish an immediate task. The player uses the +roll code with the applicable +sheet items added to it, along with any modifiers the Narrator requests. If their total is 9 or above, they succeed. Example: The doctor we discussed earlier has a 4 INT, and a 4 in Medicine. He is trying to choose what unlabelled syringe in a pile of them is the antidote for his poisoned friend. The Narrator applies a -4 penalty to the task, because he is running out of time (pressure), and the friend is thrashing around (distraction). They +roll INT + Medicine -4 for a result of 9. This means that although he doesn't do it prettily, and cuts it very close to the wire, he finds the right vial and can proceed to try to administer it to his friend.

• Extended Roll: Sometimes to accomplish a task you need to work at it for more than just the span of a single action. In these cases, a task requires a number of successes that are unlikely to be achieved in one roll. In this case, a character engages in an extended roll, where they continue making rolls over time and adding the SLs together until the target number is achieved. Example: A computer genius is trying to build herself a new mega laptop from parts. As this thing will do everything short of making her coffee in the morning, the Narrator determines it will require a total of 10 SLs. She has an INT of 4, a Computer of 4, and a Hardware specialty of 3. Her first roll totals 16, which is 4 SLs. The next day the narrator tells her to roll again, and she achieves an 18, (5 SLs) which bring her total to 10. As she only needs 1 more SL and really can't fail her roll tomorrow, at that time she'll have the laptop fully built and working.
• Resisted Roll: Resisted rolls involve two or more characters (including NPCs). Both make applicable rolls (such as an attack roll vs. a dodge roll) and the character with the higher total (providing both succeed), wins. If neither succeed, nothing is accomplished. In the case of ties the defended wins or, if there is no "defender" in the situation, it is just a tie in general. Examples: Bad Boy Bling tries to punch Helpless Harry. Bling rolls his Dex + Brawl and gets a 12. Harry rolls his Dex + Acrobatics in an effort to dodge and only gets a 10. Bling manages to hit him and damage is determined. Harry tries to punch him back and rolls a 12. Bling rolls a 12 to dodge, and Harry just misses. Elsewhere, Twisty Ted tries to out-lambada Groving Grover in a dance off. He rolls his Dex + Perform + Dance and gets a 17. Grover rolls the same and also gets a 17. The judges can't choose between the two of them, and decide to call it a tie.

• Attribute Roll: In some instances, there isn't really an applicable skill to use in opposition to a roll or to accomplish a task. In these cases, a Narrator may call for an Attribute roll instead of an Attribute + Skill roll. If the situation is considerably weighted against the character making the roll, it may be a single Attribute roll. In a less weighted situation, it may be an Attribute (doubled) roll. Examples: Kate has the Love drawback. Although she knows she should call the police on her boyfriend Sawyer, because of this she has to roll a Willpower (not doubled) roll and succeed, or manage to talk herself out of it to preserve the man she loves. Elsewhere, Wilbur has tripped over his own two feet off a balcony and is gripping it one handed with the ground looming 10 stories below. To hang on until his friends can come save him, he would roll a Strength/Strength check each turn.
• Roll Modifiers: Different factors may add bonuses or penalties to a roll. Super simple tasks gain bonuses, while harder ones have penalties applied to them. Modifiers are comparable to Success Levels, with negative modifiers making it tougher to succeed and positive ones making it easier. The Base Modifiers Table is a guideline for Narrators to apply mods to rolls. Example: Desmond needs to pick a simple lock on a door. It's the sort of thing you can learn to do with a paperclip and a sweep through Google. The Narrator decides to place a +1 bonus to the task, because it isn't very challening. On the other hand, Charlie has 10 minutes to break into a highly protected room. The security on the room is extremely high tech and very concrete, including a retinal scan and fingerprint scan lock, an alarm system, cameras, motion sensors, infrared sensors, and tremor sensors. The Narrator applies a -7 to his roll, because even MacGyver would have a tough time succeeding in the time frame allotted.

Points

Life Points

Life Points (LP) are a measure of how much damage your character can withstand before they fall unconscious or die. They are your physical health, your durability, your hardiness; call it what you will. Life Points keep you fighting, running, or just standing when the pounding persists. Strength and Constitution are determinant factors — a big, muscle-bound bouncer can survive more punishment than a be-spectacled, 90-pound horticulturist. LP can also be increased through certain qualities (See: Hard to Kill and Increased Life Points).

When your character's Life Points go below zero, falling over is highly recommended. A character with 10 or less Life Points remaining is at a general penalty of -2; the penalty becomes -4 if the character has 5 or less Life Points. If a character falls to 0 or less Life Points, Consciousness and Survival Tests start to happen.

Life Points are determined by the following formula: [(Strength x 2) + (Constitution x 6) + 10]. Or, if you're looking to skip all that advanced math stuff, just consult the Life Point Table. This formula is for everyone (human-like beings, monsters, animals, critters, cosmic entities). Some creatures have different Life Point totals (many demons are much tougher than normal humans, due to Qualities they can take). Players should work out their characters' Life Points after all Attributes and Qualities have been purchased, and all Drawbacks taken.

Drama Points

Drama is essential to the game and system. It evens the odds between Alphas and Betas, and lets the characters perform feats that they naturally could not even attempt. It brings a level of surrealism to an otherwise fantastical, but all too realistic, world. Without Drama Points, the game becomes a gritty do-or-die tragicomedy with dead characters and unfulfilled game expectations.

Alpha Characters

• Alpha Characters start the game with 10 Drama Points.
• If something an Alpha Character does merits a Drama reward, they may be awarded a half (0.5) Drama Point.
• Alpha Characters gain Drama Points slower than Beta Characters (they start off more badass!) via +votes.
• Alpha Characters can store a maximum of 20 Drama Points.

Beta Characters

• Beta Characters start the game with 20 Drama Points.
• If something a Beta Character does merits a Drama reward, they may earn one (1) full Drama Point.
• Beta Characters gain Drama Points faster than Alpha Character (they need them more!) via +votes.
• Beta Characters can store a maximum of 30 Drama Points.
  

Earning

All characters earn drama points over time, both through Drama Awards given by staff for participation in plots, and a smaller amount earned with every +vote a character receives from their fellow players. In general, a Beta level character will earn 1 DP and an Alpha character will earn .5 DP for a plot scene they participate in. If a character does something especially dramatic or amazing, players may recommend them for a larger Drama reward via the +request system. Staff will review these requests and distribute extra Drama accordingly.

Spending Drama

Drama points can be spent for a variety of things. When you need a boost to a roll in a scene, when you really ned that extra damage against that tough opponenet, and to minimize the damage done to you in a scene, it is invaluable. It is also something you can use, when justified, to make a scene ultra dramatic by invoking a righteous fury (think Giles wailing on Angel after he killed Jenny Calendar), or most importantly, to keep your character from being permanently dead if they wind up stone cold after a combat.

• Heroic Feat: +5 to any one roll. (1 DP)
• All You Got: +10 to damage dealt by any one attack. (1 DP)
• I Think I'm Okay: Heals half the damage dealt so far in the scene. Cannot be spent more times than you were damaged in the scene. (1 DP)
• Righteous Fury: +5 to all combat rolls for a scene (stacks with further Heroic Feats). (3 DP).
• Back From The Dead: Returning immediately after death (10 DP); returning between one week and one month after death (5 DP); returning two months or more after death (1 DP).

Experience Points

Experience points are the measure of your character's life experience. Everything we do in our lives gives us a little bit more insight, knowledge, understanding, and just plain old fashioned seasoning. Characters get better at the things they know how to do, learn things they didn't know before, and develop their personalities and belief systems in ways both big and small. These things are reflected in Eldritch on your +sheet and changes to it are made possible through the expenditure of earned experience points.

Points are earned by participating in scenes with your fellow roleplayers' characters and earning +votes from them. They are also awarded by staff for appearing in plots, both player- and staff-run. Attributes and skills can be automatically purchased or raised by a player through the XP Spending commands, within limits and when time limits between raises have been met. Higher level attribute and skill levels, quality increases and purchases, and drawback buyoffs require you to submit a +spend request (See +help jobs spend on the game).

Earning

Experience points are earned through participation on the game. This comes in many forms and from several sources. Firstly, players can earn staff-awarded XP by participating in staff-run scenes. They earn 2 XP for being in a Saga, which is part of a major game plotline. They can earn 1 XP for being in a Chronicle, which are staff-run one shot plots.

They can also earn staff-awarded experience for participating in scenes run by Narrators (Fables), or Player-awarded XP for non-combat, player social scenes (Anecdotes). For a Fable, they earn 1 XP for their participation. For Anecdotes they receive .05 XP for each +vote they receive, which is doubled to .1 XP if given in a public grid hangout. This is to encourage public roleplaying.

Narrators can earn 2 XP for running their own plots (Fables), or 1 XP for running a non-combat, public social event (such as a concert or a carnival).

Any player or narrator can earn a .25 XP award if another player writes up a recommendation (+rec), explaining why they are deserving of an award above and beyond normal votes. These are reviewed by staff and awarded accordingly.

Spending

On Eldritch MUSH, you can spend your earned Experience Points to improve your character sheet. There are limitations to this of course.

• A character cannot raise any attribute above a 5, unless they have the Inhuman quality granted to them via a package purchased in character generation, or they have the Demonic Heritage quality. The former allows them to raise their stats as high as 10, the latter allows them to raise either their physical or mental stats as high as 6.
• After you raise an attribute or a skill, there is a time limit before you can raise them again (see chart).
• You can use the XP Spending Commands to automatically raise an attribute or skill that you have reached the time limit for a raise on. This is only for spends up to level 8 (if Inhuman) for attributes and level 5 for skills. Above those limits, you must submit a +spend request to which staff will respond with approval, denial, or possibly a request for supporting logs.
• You can request the purchase of new qualities, request to raise qualities, or request to buy off drawbacks via a +spend request, to which staff will respond with either a denial, or their requirements for this to happen. This may include a request for logs, or a requirement that a plot be run. Some qualities are not buyable after chargen, including packages. Buying off drawbacks that were bundled in a package purchased at chargen cost twice as much.
• There is a limit of two (2) +spend requests per player (not per character) in the system at one time.
• Time limits and costs are in the chart that follows.

Basic Costs and Wait Times
Trait	Cost	Wait Time Since Last Raise
Attribute	New Rating x 5	1 Month x New Rating
Skill	New Rating x 2	2 weeks x New Rating
New Skill	5	N/A
Specialty	3 per point	2 Weeks
Qualities*	Chargen Cost x 3	Variable
Drawbacks**	Chargen Cost x 3	Variable
Packages	Unbuyable	N/A
Advanced Manuevers	5	N/A
* - Not all qualities can be purchased after Chargen. All require appropriate RP. Some require plots. Packages are not purchaseable after chargen. ** - Not all drawbacks can be bought off. All require appropriate RP. Some require plots. Drawbacks inside of a package cost Chargen Cost x 6 to remove.

Examples

• Joe Somebody currently has a DEX attribute of 3. He uses the XP spend commands to raise it to 4. He must now wait 5 months before he will be able to raise it to 5.
• Betty Stranger has waited 8 weeks since she raised her Knowledge from 3 to 4. She can now use the XP spend commands to raise it to 5 whenever she wishes to. Once she does, she will have to wait 10 more weeks before she can raise it to 6, and when she does, she will need to submit a +spend request for staff approval to get it raised.
• Tom Tom wants to raise his Telepathy from level 2 to level 3 for the cost of 9 XP. He submits a +spend request on the game. The staff check and see that he hasn't raised his Telepathy before, and he has been playing a long enough time for his character to advance that ability. They ask him to submit a number of logs showing him using his Telepathy, so they can see that this would be a natural progression of his ability. He does so, and staff set his Telepathy level to 3.
• Sue Sue wants to buy off her Sinful (Pride) 1 drawback. This would normally cost 3 XP, but it is part of Sue Sue's Superscientist package, so it will cost 6 XP instead. She submits a +spend request for staff approval. Staff note that she has played her flaw well over 6 months on the game. They respond with a request that Sue Sue have a plot run for her (either by Staff or a Narrator) where something occurs that cures of her of terrible Pride. Once this happens, she needs to submit the log for the raise to be approved. She does so, and staff remove the drawback from her package.
• Mr. Goofus has been out of character generation for two weeks. He wants to buy off his Honorable 1 drawback. He submits a +spend request for staff approval. Staff decide he hasn't actually played long enough, or frequently enough to have even explored the drawback yet, and they deny the request, telling him to play more before requesting this sort of spend.

Skill Exception Rules

Forced Specialty

A forced specialty is a specialty that represents a function of a skill that the character cannot take advantage of without the specialty itself. A character can have a Control rating of 7 and be the best damned race-car driver ever, but if he doesn't have the Helicopter specialty, he's not going to be able to use the Control skill to pilot one. This system is also applies to other aspects of Control: such as Ride, Planes,and anything else that doesn't go on wheels. Another skill burdened with this system is Perform. Though most aspects of it are freely accessible (as a matter of ease and convenience), characters cannot use Perform to play a musical instrument unless they have at least one point in a specialty designating said instrument. Note that some instruments are very closely related (guitar -> bass; saxophone -> clarinet) and while not the same, a character may still attempt said 'related' instrument, under the Unfamiliar Aspect rules.

Characters buying forced specialties after character generation pay a surcharge of experience equal to the main Skill's current rating (and must, of course, have a plot to back it all up). Situations like the classic 'character doesn't know how to fly a helicopter but has played extremely complex and detailed flight simulators before' should be handled with Drama Points.

Unfamiliar Aspect

Some skills have certain aspects that aren't known to everyone that possesses the skill, but can still be easily overcome by simply relying on ingenuity, guile, wits, and practice. If a character is confronted with a situation in which a skill she possesses is to be used in a manner unfamiliar to her (but not beholden to the Forced Specialty rules), she may make an attempt anyway. However, this attempt has an imposed penalty of -5, which may be reduced to no lower than 0 (duh) with an Intelligence+Skill roll. Each Success Level in the roll lowers the penalty by one. Unfortunately, this only works for the remainder of the scene. If the character truly wants to incorporate this unfamiliar aspect into her main skill, she'll have to practice. Each week of practice lowers the penalty (permanently) by one.

Perform is the only exception to this rule, in that unfamiliar aspect works differently for Instruments. If a character who plays an instrument (e.g. guitar) wants to play a closely related (e.g. bass, banjo; but not violin) instrument, he may attempt to do so with his base Attribute+Perform. You do not apply the original Instrument specialty (in this case guitar) to the roll. If the character wants to have a specialty in a new instrument, he can learn it with experience.

Miscellaneous

Lifting Capacity

A character's Strength obviously figures heavily into how much he can lift and carry. Characters with low Strength are going to be able to carry a lot less for a shorter amount of time. The Strength Table notes the amount a character can dead lift without much effort. This load can be carried around for a while but it's gonna play havoc with a guy's dance steps. A character's maximum lifting weight — for brief periods — is equal to his Lifting capacity + 1 Strength per success level of a Strength (doubled) roll (called a Lifting Effort roll). Not recommended that he do that often — could blow out a knee or bust a gut.

A character can carry the amount depicted in the Strength Table for a number of minutes equal to his Constitution, and half this amount for a number of hours equal to his Constitution. A character lifting his maximum weight (with a Lifting Effort roll) can do so for a number of turns equal to half his Constitution, rounded down. In this second instance, if — when his turns are up — the character doesn't immediately set whatever he's lifting down, he must roll [(Strength + Consitution) - Success Levels of his Lifting Effort roll]. Success means the character can continue, but must roll again for every extra turn he persists, with a -1 cumulative penalty added on per turn. Failure means he pulls something or blows out a knee or joint, inflicting (Strength x 3) damage, and of course drops whatever he was lifting or carrying. In addition, he cannot make a Lifting Effort roll again until he's had medical attention and healed the damage; and depending on the Acting Director's call, may have movement penalties added until then.

Soak Chart

Characters can resist a certain degree of physical punishment; this is called soaking damage. A character has two separate soak scores, each corresponding to one of the two basic types of damage (Bash and Lethal) and determines starting soak against each one of those based on the Constitution score. The tougher the character is, the more damage he's going to be able to ignore (and the less of a hit his Life Points are going to take).

Bash damage can be soaked with the character's entire Constitution score. Lethal damage, being particularly gruesome in this setting, cannot be soaked by normal humans. Qualities such as Natural Toughness and Protection can augment a character's soak scores for one or all the types (and allow characters to soak Lethal damage).

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