The Homestuck tabletop RPG ~ SYLLADEX DECK CREATOR v. 2

[umbralAeronaut]

Welcome to the home of the Homestuck tabletop RPG.

Come say hello at #HomestuckRPG, if you have a pester client (The latest Pesterchum 3.14 and Tinychum 1.5 are the two main options right now). We are online most afternoons and evenings, and many of us are somewhere around Eastern-Centralish Time. If you take these rules and play them at home, online, or outside the Veil on an abandoned asteroid, we would greatly appreciate it if you came and told us about it (in pesterchum or in this thread)! We hope you like it, and we expect to go places with this thing.

Stuff needed to Play the Game (both are PDF downloads from Megaupload):

>> The Homestuck Tabletop RPG -- Beta Playtest v1.1 <<
>> Common Sylladex deck constructor v2.1 <<
> Quick Start rules for DnD 4th edition (useful for those unfamiliar with the rules basics, we plan on having our own complete rules resource in the final version of the book) <

Character Sheets and Miscellany (various image-hosting links and a Google Doc):

>> Masterweaver's Character sheet <<
>> Masterweaver's Power sheet <<

Barralax's Character sheet:
>> in Green <<
>> and in Black <<
John Egbert: example sheet
>> Barralax's Power sheet in Green, Black, and example flavors <<

>> Bonus Aspects (Keys and Zen) <<

Say hello to version 1.1! Now we're starting to cook with petrol, my fellow forum-nauts! A (relatively) complete changelog is featured just a few pages in, and is duplicated below so you can see exactly what happened.

==> Homestuck RPG version 1.1 Changelog

• Addition of several more key concepts to the Rules of Play chapter.
• New alternative Core Mechanic die system introduced.
• Clarification of the Brutal Affront system, in particular the ability of a player to accept a normal dice result rather then making a confirmation roll.
• Heir (Lucky Strike/Wrinklefucked), Seer (Chilling Insight), Bard (Blocking Strike/Encouraging Voice/Juggler’s Dance), Witch (Armamentify), Mage (Wweakening Broadside), Thief (That’s Just Pawful/Savage Aggrievance), and Sylph (Dual Attack) powers modified for balance.
• Witch and Mage defensive traits modified for systems balance.
• The Zen and Keys aspects have been temporarily REMOVED to make way for Heart and Rage. They will reappear eventually along with other bonus non-canon Aspects.
• Added missing “Communication” keyword to many Class boon powers.
• Sprites and Server Cursors now have Brutal Affront effects as well as Initiative modifiers given in their statistics.
• Finesse Meleekind and Randomkind have had their statistics tweaked.
• Clarifications added to several segments of Alchemy that didn’t read well. Defensive alchemy powers are now always Encounter usage. Modifications to many alchemy points costs and traits for balance.
• Templates chapter modified heavily for balance, several new templates added.
• Watermark has been lightened for easier reading.
• Formatting and spelling fixes, various. Compensation, adequate.

As you can see the most significant changes came in the player section of the rules... which also already had the most content to them in the first place! This update was originally intended to be a broader fix of various flaws as well as rounding out GM material but as time wore on I felt it would be best to deliver the already quite large list of changes without holding it all back for too long. There was a lot of screwey stuff in there like Class attacks that were Minor actions but supposed to be Standard (that's right, looking at you Pounce de Leon), bad weapon stats, a really opague and difficult-to-interpret Alchemy description that has since been cleaned up, outdated non-canon aspects that were filler until we learned of the Rage element to Gamzee's title and figured out how the freak to make Heart work for anything useful, etc. etc. etc.

Lots of stuff there. While I put my nose back to the grindstone and begin chipping away at more Common sylladex cards, underling statblocks, story suggestions, maps, a PDF character sheet, sample adventures and other material for GM's and players alike, feel free to chime in with how you like all of the changes.

The old version 1.0 spiel is below.

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It's back. It's real. Playtest Version 1.0 is delivered. The PDF is a complete package, including a clickable link to 4e quick-start rules on the Wizards website and all that you need to interpret those rules for the game. I don't know what else to say aside from a sincere thank you to all of those who helped me, and also Karkat Vantas (for whatever it is useful that he did, I don't know). If you want the templates to the Sylladex cards in PSD (photoshop) format, go here: Sample sylladex cards. I had to compress it down to 200 pixels/inch but that should still be good enough for government work.

UPDATE

We have an official playtest group, which I am GMing. The Residencelocked thread is here! Go read about our insane adventures!

Also go see the Manorjammed adventure, another play-test group that has formed using these rules!

Are you looking for an online group to play this game with? Got a story you want to tell? Advertise for it here in our thread! We had a surge of interest and couldn't take everyone for the official playtest, so if somebody is willing to step up and GM then you should be good to go (perhaps with a touch of 4e or Gamma World experience, but why let lack of experience stop you with something like this?).

Old introductory post below:

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oh look it's another fan tabletop RPG based on Homestuck.





But, you feel as though there is something is a bit different about this one. No, it's not the fancy cover, or the fact that it comes in a PDF. Maybe it's the Sylladex system, which is a blend of the card-based Omega Technology/Alpha Mutations from Gamma World. Perhaps you think the Title and Aspect rolling system is pretty unique and represents the over-the-top shenanigans of MSPA well with their 4th edition DnD stylings. Maybe it's the fact that there is promise of a point-based system for Alchemization that will finally, once and for all, let you make that Squiddle-scratch TimeHammer you've been dreaming of. Perhaps the fact that there is an actual balanced weapon category that covers the exact corner scenario of your fan-character's Coin-Flipkind modus. Or maybe... maybe you won't be able to put your finger on it until you download the rules and give them a look.

The To-Do List right now:

• Aspects (ex. Mind, Time, Breath, etc)., the second major component of character creation which begins to become a factor around level 4 onwards. These are NOT YET COMPLETED and do not yet feature in the PDF above. To a fully-developed level 10 character, they represent about 40% of a character's total abilties (with 30% being your Class and 30% your Sylladex deck with it's Alchemized cards)
• Completion of several more Common (green) Sylladex cards for the 'starter' deck, and to provide a springboard for the Alchemy system.
• The Alchemy Item Creation system, which will be point-based by character level and allows bonus traits to be added to existing equipment, or for two whole items to be grafted together onto a single card.
• The GM-centric material for running campaigns, including story hooks, the monster stat-block templates for Imps, Sprites, Giclops, etc., character death scenarios, advice on "Land" terrain. Monsters will be templates, and with each "Prototyping" (ie. the number of characters in your group) they will receive new capabilities from a list of additional properties. For example, Fly speeds, upgraded melee/ranged attacks, auras, resistances, etc.
• Possibly some sort of mechanical representation of Grist and Homebuilding.
• Alternative species templates for divergent sessions of SBURB across all of paradox space. Example: Bug template in order to duplicate the adorable adventures of the Best SBURB group ever! Others might be a Robot Body template, Psionic user, etc.
• Others? Looking for suggestions on how to make this as complete a SBURB/SGRUB simulation as possible for the tabletop.

[Nust]

.....Holy Crap I saw the link the other day.

I'd like to help but I'm not familiar with the Gamma World ruleset.
I deeply apologize.

As for racial templates, well, I dunno how you'd go about doing those.
Trolls: -(insert sensible number here) to Chumming, for example? Maybe a modifier for their stats to reflect the harsh trials that they usually must survive, I'm thinking a Mangrit increase and a decrease to Pulchiritude. But like I said, I'm not actually at all familiar or even knowledgeable in game design, so...yeah.

[Zuki]

Is this a one-man project, or are you looking for collaborators? I'd be happy to see if my experience running a more freeform SBURB game using Fate's system (same as in Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG) helps out.

[umbralAeronaut]

.....Holy Crap I saw the link the other day.

I'd like to help but I'm not familiar with the Gamma World ruleset.
I deeply apologize.

As for racial templates, well, I dunno how you'd go about doing those.
Trolls: -(insert sensible number here) to Chumming, for example? Maybe a modifier for their stats to reflect the harsh trials that they usually must survive, I'm thinking a Mangrit increase and a decrease to Pulchiritude. But like I said, I'm not actually at all familiar or even knowledgeable in game design, so...yeah.

The difficulty with Trolls as a template is that it's difficult to single out an individual 'average' Troll kid in terms of what quite separates them from a Human kid, aside from the humorous dragged-out-of-context biological references. Making them bad at being friendly with people diplomatically seems to make sense, although as Feferi and Kanaya demonstrate these are not necessarily biological limitations of the race or anything but simply a matter of nurturing. Twiddling with individual ability scores is a possibility, but one that I would strongly like to avoid as it doesn't agree very well with a class system which is already tightly-balanced (the Attack vs. Defense number race is a tight power curve in 4e DnD and it's derivatives, even more so with the focusing effect of a 2d10 dice roll system around the median ranges). It wouldn't be so bad if players could just choose their classes and thus avoid the non-optimal Pulchritude classes or what have you, but that kind of defeats the purpose then as well as being nonsensical canonically.

I think the best idea for a Troll template would be something especially simple, such as:

• If your Troll ends up trained in Chumming or Insight at the end of character creation, he or she may swap that skill training with Trolling for free (no particular points imbalance is created, just a fluff and 'game-style approach' choice)
• A scaling fractional (-1/8th of total HP or so) hit to their Second Wind healing value in exchange for Resist All 1 (scaling up to 3 by the end of their level progression)? The implication seems to be that trolls have a better reinforced, almost insect-like internal biology. However if we assume that to be true then they might also be more brittle and less capable of bouncing back from injuries then a 'softer' creature. I can't say I'm totally sold that this is a truly balanced exchange, nor is it necessarily even the right assumption to make about their biology. It's an option though.

Ideally the templates will follow this sort of format, allowing for compelling choices and internally-balanced changes rather then destabilizing the ability scores or limiting the range of valid player choices. Here's an example, go go gadget ARADIA!


Robot/Golem template

You are either a sentient bipedal machine or an animated elemental spirit encased in a shell of wood, stone, and/or glass... or perhaps you are a departed soul inhabiting a construct body somebody built to contain you.

• - You no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• - You gain Resist 2 (all). At 4th level this changes to Resist 3, at 6th level to Resist 4, and at 9th level to Resist 5.
• - You can never gain the benefits of a Second Wind or other forms of Hit Point restoration in battle, although you may still benefit from Temporary Hit Points and may auto-repair yourself to full HP at the end of hostilities just as other characters do.
• - If you "die" and your remains can be recovered, a competent ally may restore you to life (assuming they possess the proper tools and resources) with a hard Science check (or a series of lesser checks and more time spent at the task, at the GM's discretion).
• - If you wish, you may exchange one of your starting Aggrievements for Vise Grip:

Vice Grip
Melee 1 - Target: one creature
Attack:  Highest ability score + your level vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d10 + twice your level damage, and the target is immobilized and 
grants combat advantage until the end of your next turn.  
If you leave a square adjacent to the target the effect immediately ends.

That's kind of rough and unfinished, but you get the idea.

Is this a one-man project, or are you looking for collaborators? I'd be happy to see if my experience running a more freeform SBURB game using Fate's system (same as in Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG) helps out.

I'll take any competent help that I can get! I come from a background of playing fairly structured role-playing systems, and to a large degree that's what I hope to bring to the table. Based on various feedback, it appears that lots of people seem to think the only feasible possibility for a Homestuck-type game is something very close to Free-form, but I want to try to prove this sensibility wrong. I'd like a Homestuck RPG that I can hand to a GM with a background in 4e or Gamma World and a vague knowledge of the setting and a and say to them "Run it. Run it TOMORROW..." and they'll be comfortable doing so. That's a very powerful statement to make about a game system. GM prep time spent on Rules-wrangling and Game System arm-wrestling is prep time away from focusing on the Story. So that probably makes me a dangerous idealist in terms of the 'vision' I have for the system I'm creating.

Whether or not this is a fool's errand will only be seen in time. I have no problem whatsoever with inputs of any kind though. The worst I can do is say "Ok, I can see how elsewhere that would work, but for this game what I'd like to see is..." Anything that gets me thinking is a worthwhile input.

If anybody with a background in Gamma World or 4e wanted to actually get elbow-deep in class/power design and difficulty-curve charts with me though, that would just be icing on the cake. I'm comfortable being a one-man show on that end if it's necessary to create this however.

[cryptidWrangler]

Liking this a lot. I'm hoping to start running a regular Gamma World game and once the players are used to that I'd love to try and run a few sessions of this.

Of the 12 aspects included 10 match the trolls... 1 can't of course as we don't KNOW Gamzee's yet... but why have you replaced "Heart"

Seems to be a slight mix-up on the skills... Life is listed by Athletics and Chumming and Space is no-where to be seen... I assume Space is supposed to be by one of those two?

I really like that you've kept Gamma World's more open weapons system... selecting statblocks from general "types" and deciding exactly what that is yourself instead of being limited to a specific list suits Homestuck very well.

Not sure on the sylladex system at the moment... it seems a little constricting to essentially give players a randomising inventory... what happens when they want to directly captchalogue items themselves?

[umbralAeronaut]

Liking this a lot. I'm hoping to start running a regular Gamma World game and once the players are used to that I'd love to try and run a few sessions of this.

Of the 12 aspects included 10 match the trolls... 1 can't of course as we don't KNOW Gamzee's yet... but why have you replaced "Heart"

Thank you!

At the moment, Heart is too similar to either Life or Blood for my tastes. I can't picture it as anything other then a mildly tweaked form of "Life," so I'll just list it as an alternative synonymous title for Life. Rather then try to pound my head into the ground building an aspect that's just a series of thin echoes of another aspect, or bankrupting both of them through lame efforts to distinquish them from each other that rob both of them of the best ideas, I'd rather explore new territory and diversify the conceptual ground of the Aspects as much as possible. Keys and Balance (the two 'new' aspects you mention) are things that I came up with in one of the random generators out there (hitting that Generate button has been the best part about designing this so far) that fired my imagination and seemed enough not-alike to anything else to deserve a look.

Not to say that you couldn't convince me otherwise with a good argument, Aspects are going to take quite a while to finish. I've only got a rough draft of about 4 of them so far, although I think I've more or less nailed down the system I want to use...

Seems to be a slight mix-up on the skills... Life is listed by Athletics and Chumming and Space is no-where to be seen... I assume Space is supposed to be by one of those two?

That page was more of a personal note-space then anything else. I screw around with grids and stuff while coming up with ideas. Here's the current list, tweaked by several more days of design and thought. There is at least one new skill (Mysteries) which is a working title. The idea is that Skaian Lore is the 'academic' form of knowledge about the game, consisting of knowing (or know how to find out) the big picture stuff like What's Up With These Gates, What Exactly Are "Agents" in Game Terms as distinguished from "Underlings" and Who's This Lord English Guy. Skaian Lore is also going to be the default "Monster Knowledge" skill check, so that should come in handy even if all your session does is power game their way through encounters.

Mystery on the other hand is smaller-scale applied learning about the game... Where Would This Gate Take Me, Reading Inscripted Clues About This Room's Traps as well as Puzzle-Solving to get to the next room. It also seemed like a good place to fold "Thievery" into, so when you're trying to unlock a Boonbuck treasure chest or make a fountain flow again or whatever it's the same skill you use for breaking locks or placing esoteric Frog Runes into retarded puzzle slots. That's all "Mystery" stuff.

Anyway enough rambling, the new skill list, including an organization of which Classes/Aspects I plan on granting skill bonuses to:

• Acrobatics (Acu) Page - Balance
• Athletics (Mgt) Knight - Breath
• Chumming (Plc) Witch - Life
• Insight (Plc) Heir - Mind
• Mysteries (Acu) / - Keys, Light
• Perception (Img) Thief - Hope
• Science (Img) Mage - Void
• Skaian Lore (Img) Sylph - Time
• Stealth (Acu) Seer - Space
• Trolling (Plc)/ - Blood, Doom

Aside from a few of the Aspects (of which there were too many to be truly nit-picky about) you'll notice that the vast majority of these Title-based skill bonuses are of a skill that does not use the primary ability score of the class or aspect in question. Some people will just end up with complementary skill bonuses to their primary/secondary scores anyway, but the point is to try to keep the amount of absurd +10 starting skill modifiers to a minimum, due to the 2d10 dice rolling system. I'm actually far from a hard-core Games Theory major or anything, but I have smart people I can bounce ideas off of and one of the agreements was that changing to 2d10 with a new more MSPA-ific outrageous critical hit mechanic was cool and all, but would require a certain dedication to power curve parity otherwise it could result in a lot of boring impossible/easy Hit Probabilities. The d20 as a randomizing agent is partly so popular because it masks a lot of the power curve inconsistencies inherent in sloppy game design. Part of this is an experiment to see how well 4th edition's power curve stands up to the stress of a more stringent 2d10 system with tamer roll modifiers.

I'd rather emphasize teamwork through stacking power bonuses and/or the use of lucky critical rolls to hit the Hard-difficulty skills the GM sets forth, as opposed to power curve-breakingly high modifiers which are just less interesting in my opinion. The other consideration is that with only 4 ability scores, synergy is already pretty easy to accidentally fall into anyway.

I really like that you've kept Gamma World's more open weapons system... selecting statblocks from general "types" and deciding exactly what that is yourself instead of being limited to a specific list suits Homestuck very well.

Not sure on the sylladex system at the moment... it seems a little constricting to essentially give players a randomising inventory... what happens when they want to directly captchalogue items themselves?

The Sylladex isn't an inventory! This is important. It is not your inventory. Your inventory basically consists of Collectible items you pick up.. the concept is similar to Omega Tech Salvage from Gamma World, except the point is you are the one building the items in most cases. If your character finds a Plot Puzzle Piece laying around it just becomes a thing they have until they need to use it. Similarly, once you have come up with the Sylladex card for the Cellphone or the Four Aces Suited you just alchemized, you gain a permanent passive benefit (in the latter case, one that you built from a point-menu ala carte) even after that card has been flushed from your hand. You still have the more mundane ability that a cellphone or better 'armor' grants you, but you won't always be busting out the special Fill 'Em With Midnight item power, or granting a long-distance skill bonus to an ally. Those are spotlight powers, when the item comes up in your Sylladex and has a chance to shine.

So what the Sylladex is, is a power source. Usually the power is an item that you possess, but rather then a plot item or like the cellphone you just use to talk to people on a regular basis, it's that special Sickle you alchemized that got buried underneath bullshit and is finally available for you to wreck some Imp's face with in a manner that draws attention to the item's innermost power. It could also be a Cellphone even, as my preview showed, but the idea is that not every encounter will you be able to use the cellphone to grant an ally a power-based skill bonus and save the day. So the Sylladex, like the various randomized restrictions on Omega Tech and Alpha Mutation cards in Gamma World, is basically a stabilizing agent meant to keep in check the phat bonuses you would otherwise have at your fingertips every which way. It lets all of the ridiculous power items you Alchemize and Discover be even more powerful by balancing them against the uncertainty of never knowing when exactly you'll have them available to you, and indeed for how long. Here, check this out:

Rough Draft - Item Alchemy and Weapon Sylladex Cards

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Creation: Every time you level up, the number of points that you have to spend on Creation Alchemy is equal to the value of your level -1 (so at level 2 you will have gained 1 point, therefore it is the first level you can make any Creation alchemy cards). You can create as many cards as you have points for. Of course, it hardly needs to be said that the GM has final authority on the legality of any card created. Any vetoed cards must be rebuilt until a compromise is reached.

Weapon Cards. A weapon card always consists of two parts: First is the Encounter power that you gain when you draw the Weapon Alchemy card from your Sylladex. The second component is the Collectible item which grants a set of permanent bonuses to your attacks with a particular Strife mode (ie. One-Handed Crushingkind, or Two-handed Heavy Rangedkind) after the first time you draw the weapon in combat.

Example: John has three different hammers collected in his Strife deck (Crushing Melee-kind): the Pogo Hammer and the Wrinklefucker, both one-handed weapons, and Fear No Anvil, a two-handed weapon. Whenever he wields his Crushing melee-kind abstratus two-handed, he gains any of the permanent benefits from Fear No Anvil automatically. He must choose between the passive benefits of either the Pogo Hammer or the Wrinklefucker whenever he switches to one-handed Crushing Meleekind.

• Points - Effect - Offensive Alchemy Passive Bonuses to the Collectible Item
• 0 - Cosmetic changes - Weapon's appearance and form, no mechanical changes.
• .5 (1) - Skillful - Gain a +2 (+3) bonus to a skill of your choice. You may only benefit from the skill bonus of a single weapon during the course of any individual Strife or Scrutiny, and only while wielding the weapon.
• .5 (1) - Warning - Gain a +1 (+2) bonus to Initiative while wielding the weapon.
• 1 - Longshot - +2 to ranged weapon’s range
• 1 - Evasive - Gain a +1 bonus to defense against OA’s triggered by wielding weapon.
• 1 (2) [3] - Elemental Infusion - Add +1 (+2) [+3] points to the weapon’s damage.
• 1.5 - Hardened Edge - Increase the weapon's damage die one position up the damage track: 1d6=>1d8=>1d10 or 2d4=>1d12 or 2d5=>2d6=>2d8=>2d10.
• 1.5 (3) - Inescapable - Deals 2 (4) damage on miss, unless attack already has miss effect.
• 3.5 - Legendary - Gain a +1 bonus to Brutal Affront confirmation with weapon.
• 4 - Mastercraft - Gain a +1 bonus to attacks with the weapon.

So long as you spend at least half of an Alchemy point on the passive benefits of your weapon from the table above, you also gain a generic Encounter power on the weapon card. The beginning template for the Encounter power starts out looking like this:

Weapon Power
Standard action - Encounter, Sylladex
Melee- or Ranged-kind
Target: One creature
Attack: Mgt/Acu/Plc/Img + your level + weapon precision vs. AC
Hit: 2(W) + Mgt/Acu/Plc/Img modifier + your level damage.

The ability score used is determined by you, and must be one of the primary ability scores for the Kind Abstratus and Mode you are basing the Weapon card on. Any further effects to the power must be bought.

Points - Effect - Weapon Power Upgrade Menu

• -1 - Damage decrease - The power's damage drops to 1[W] + normal modifiers. The points you are refunded may only be spent on this weapon card's Power menu.
• -.5 (-1) - Accuracy decrease - The power's attack bonus drops by -1 (-2). The points you are refunded may only be spent on this weapon card's Power menu.
• .5 - Misc. minor effect - Any minor effect that is not a standard condition, penalty to the target, or numerical bonus to yourself or allies that would apply during this combat. (example: free Skaian Lore check on hit target, changing appearance to match the target if the attack defeats it, etc.)
• .5 - Prankster's Gambit - Target may not make an opportunity attack for the first square you leave on your turn after hitting with this weapon.
• .5 - Slowing - Hit: Target is slowed (end of it's next turn).
• .5 - Extra Damage - Change the weapon power's damage modifier to "...+ twice your level" instead of "+ your level"
• .5 (+.5) - Movement effect - Shift self 2 / Jump or Fly self 4 / slide the target up to 2 on hit / push the target 4 on hit / Move self up to Speed, and similar effects (*may be bought multiple for different movement effects, or to increase a current effect by 1.5x distance)
• 1 - Shattering - Hit: Deals a -2 penalty to defenses (end of it's next turn).
• 1 - Auto-Effect - Change an effect you have bought for this power that is "Hit:" to "Effect:"
• 1 - Accurate Attack - Gain a +2 bonus to this power's attack roll
• 1 - Uncertainty - Hit: target may not make opportunity attacks (until end of it's next turn).
• 1 - Dazing - Hit: target is Dazed (until end of it's next turn).
• 1 - Immobilizing - Hit: Target is immobilized by this attack. (until end of it's next turn).
• 1 - Major Damage - Gain +1[W] on the attack.
• 1 - Accuracy boost - Gain +2 accuracy on the attack.
• 1.5 - Effect Duration - Change an effect you have bought for this power that is (until end of it's next turn) to (Save Ends).
• 1.5 [2.5] - Multi-attack - Make 2 [3] attacks against the same target, damage is now 1(W) + normal modifiers.
• 2 [4] - Multi-target - Attack up to 2 [3] different targets in range.
• 2 - Parrying - Effect: Gain a +1 item bonus to AC against melee attacks until the end of the encounter while wielding this weapon.
• 2 - Vampiric - Hit: Regain hit points equal to the [W] dice damage this attack rolls (don't count any other modifiers).
• 2 - Stunning Attack - Hit: Target is Stunned (until end of it's next turn).
• 2 - Wounding - Hit: Target gains Vulnerable 5 to all attacks (until end of your next turn.)
• 2.5 - Area attack - Changes attack from Melee-kind to "Close Burst 1 (each enemy in burst)", and from Ranged-kind to "Burst 1 within Range (each creature in burst)."
• 3 - Legendary Attack - Gain +1[W] to the attack, +1 to the attack roll, and half damage on Miss.
• 3 - Esoteric Attack - Any unusual custom status conditions that the GM will allow (until end of target's next turn).

[Nust]

....oh my that's a lot of numbers and words.

I think I just might have to bow out, for now.

Also: Will there be something to account for innocuous(spelling derp) doubles?
Or will that be a fluff thing?

[umbralAeronaut]

....oh my that's a lot of numbers and words.

I think I just might have to bow out, for now.

Also: Will there be something to account for innocuous(spelling derp) doubles?
Or will that be a fluff thing?

Rome wasn't burned down in a day and RPG systems don't create themselves through wishful thinking. In the end its about numbers and words, lots of them. But I'm not trying to scare anyone away with all of this "under the hood" talk, just doing my best to answer questions as they arise. I wouldn't have started this project without a firm faith in my ability to follow through on the mechanic foundations, so while it would be nice I'm not desperate for co-designers really. What I do need is a sounding board for ideas, so even if it makes you feel foolish or whatever the truth is that even the simplest questions help me by making me think about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I've already changed and added quite a few things based on innocent feedback from people. Question and answer is one of the best analysis tools for a concept, just ask Socrates! Oh wait.

...And of course quite soon I may need cowriters to finish off some of the fluffier parts and playtesters to play it. So if you find my system and ideas interesting I encourage you to hang out.

To the other question: By "innocuous" I suppose you mean coming up with a roll of doubles (a potential Brutal Affront) on a skill/attack roll and strategically choosing not to risk the confirmation roll and just accept the initial result? I think that should be an option, although the goal with class and item abilities is to make it so that the potential rewards outweigh the risks enough that players are encouraged to take the gamble and accept the random absurdity of the results. Another way to do this is to include abilities that trigger on a Grave Blunder and provide some sort of silver lining. As design goes on expect more of these abilities to surface.

If a player is at 1 HP though it makes no sense to force them to take a confirmation roll that could drop them, obviously.

[Nasrudith]

Perhaps psychokinesis could be handled as its own strife specibi as an alternative to the current identical to heavy weapon one which doesn't make sense when they're powers. Sure you could remove Sollux's throwing stars but he can still eye-beam you.

Psychokinesis can be used to represent any sort of physical power - throwing various junk, bichromatic eye-beams, or picking up foes and throwing them like a ragdoll. They are only capable of ranged auto-parry with reactionary. Focused is like two-handed ranged heavy in that it gives +1 to opportunity attacks as if heavy rangedkind.

Reactionary: +3 Damage: 1d6 Acu or Img 5 spaces 5
Focused: +2 Damage: 2d6 Acu or Img 5 spaces 20

[Nust]

....I mean


Innocous Doubles...Like the Gun/Key and the Lipstick/Chainsaw.

Variable items.

Also, I know you're not trying to scare anyone, I was simply a bit intimidated. Now that I gave it a more thorough readthrough, I've got an inkling of what you mean. I'll do my best to understand, and help if I could.

[The Phantom Squee]

I'm going into de-lurking mode to say that this project has my approval.

That said, I don't actually have any experience with Gamma Worlds, and a skeletal-at-best understanding of D&D 4e (3.5 and Pathfinder are my preferred editions, but I don't hate). I do have friends familiar with both systems whom I could ask for help, though. I consider myself quite an "ideas person," and would love to help out any way I can, whether it's on the fluff-writing end or what.

[Bluecho]

The thing about Homestuck is that the whole doubles phenominon never really comes into play so far as the "main game" is concerned. Think of it as Homestuck itself being a text based adventure (kinda) that follows on the heels of Problem Sleuth, but the latter's glitches that created the doubling were fixed with Homestuck. At least that's how I think Andrew once explained it. So when it comes to the players themselves, except in instances where items like the lipstick chainsaw were designed to change form, this kind of thing wouldn't be an issue.

Maybe if Problem Sleuth or The Midnight Crew were adapted to the d20 system, they could implement a dice roll to determine likelihood of a switch. Maybe a system where all weapons serve a secondary function that requires a roll to determine if the player successfully uses the weapon in its innocous double form. A failure would naturally cause the item not to be in the form required to perform an action for that round. I have only tangental knowledge of the d20 system, never having played a tabletop rpg before, but so far as I know this would be how it'd work.

Hell, it could be used for saving throws too, with an enemy's weapon randomly turning into a innocous item, thus negating damage. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

[cryptidWrangler]

Ahh... See, I'd been interpreting "heart" more as relating to emotions and such rather than blood and life. Nepeta has a great interest in the other trolls interpersonal relationships after all.

Once I've run my group through a few Gamma World games, if they like that, then I'll try playtesting some of your Homestuck stuff. Probably won't be till January now but I'll send you reports when I do so. I'd love to try writing up some adventures and monsters stuff for this as well.

I also had an idea in regards to the creation of new races... Given the themes of the system why not have some systems set up for randomising a races features... rolling on tables for biology, psychology, culture, extra-abilities and such. It would be an optional extra of course, not something necessary... I mean if the group know exactly what they want to play then they should just go for it... I guess I just love randomisation in roleplay too much.

[umbralAeronaut]

I appreciate all of the inputs received so far, they are good ideas and I'm storing them for my notes. On vacation now though and internet access is spotty at best, but I'll be back soon with more updates and maybe a better polished PDF preview of new stuff, perhaps shortly after Christmas. Obviously we'll need to have at least a rudimentary Alchemy system and a semi-workable starter Sylladex deck in place for any real playtesting purposes, and the Aspects are of course a key element of the puzzle that may take the most time of anything to nail down, but beyond that I'm curious to know what people want to see most for the early stages of development. Would you prefer to see quick drafts of the Underlings and other GM-centric rules stuff, more adventure idea fluff material, or race templates? Something else? Eventually there needs to be all of that stuff of course, but I'll try to take what you all consider most important into consideration as I put together the second draft.

EDIT - To include some actual responses to things people have suggested:

Nasrudith So basically, Psychokinesis is the Ranged-kind parallel to Fistkind... Slightly off the damage curve in exchange for greater flexibility and some quirky side-benefits? I think I'd drop the range on Focused PK to 15 spaces but otherwise it doesn't look too bad at all. I like. Consider the idea stolen, and thank you.

Nust/Bluecho I think Bluecho is right on this one, in that there's no particular need for a system of any kind to represent what is just a fluff thing. If you decide your weapon is also, somehow, a can of shaving cream when you need it to be and your GM is ok with that, more power to you. Unlike Problem Sleuth, you never seem to see Kanaya fumbling with her lipstick when she needs a chainsaw (and vice versa, ouch). Unless that's part of how you decide to fluff a Grave Blunder, perhaps.

The Phantom Squee Great, that would be most helpful. The problem I have is once I start working on outlining something the temptation becomes to just finish it myself, but not only could I save myself some time I definitely want to include as much good outside input as I can get on this. I'll try to come back to this thread soon with some specific fluff material requests.

CryptidWrangler Well, let's consider this. By virtue of recent updates we know that Mind represents mastery of people's analytical powers, and the ability to force mental confusion on enemies or remove it from allies, while Light seems to represent mastery of fortune... which is weird and makes it hard to properly synchronize the Aspect with what Rose is going through, but whatever. I'll leave that one alone for now. So anyway even if Heart is control over emotions and is the team 'mom' in terms of being the character destined to keep their session's interpersonal relations straight (which Nepeta does in secret but which doesn't seem to be any kind of particular overt mission of hers, anymore then Karkat the Angry Love Counselor) this still doesn't really jump out at me in terms of applicable game mechanics. It sounds like it's just veering too close to Mind now as a sort of 'team mental balance' thing. More debate on this is good though, especially as we are in an update cycle that focuses heavily on the way Aspects factor into the player's lives.

I'd love it if you did. Monster design is pretty much going to be straight-up cribbed from my 4e Dungeon Master's Guide material, which for those of you who don't know includes a monster creation chart that gives you core statistics (defenses, attack and damage values, HP totals, etc.) for generic "level x" monsters and lets you fill in the blanks. When I get to that I plan on including an entry for each common Underling enemy in canon, as well as a few sample generic Agents, and some of the more numerous Chess Pieces (including the Kings and Queens which obviously are major game-end foes). Named Archagents like Jack Noir and the Draconian Dignitary should also have their own statblocks. My plan was to leave Denizens completely open-ended: besides the fact that we haven't directly seen any in canon yet, they seem so individual and unique to the player's land that it seems more fitting to just let GM's crib a Solo monster from somewhere else in 4e/GW's extensive bestiary for each Denizen. Maybe one or two sample Denizens and advice on building your own.

Beyond that though, I'm sure we could go in any number of absurd directions with monster design. Likewise a sample adventure for this, while sort of low on the priority list until the actual class and encounter mechanics are straight, would be an amazing thing to have. Not many fan-made RPG's can boast of that feature, so hell yeah.

As for a racial generator... it's not too far-fetched, but it seems like something that I can and should put on a lower point of the priority list. Part of me wants to keep such a system from getting too out of hand, because I want all of the choices to match up favorably with a baseline of Humans in there. One could make the argument that Humans deserve their own template but honestly I'd rather avoid that and just let them be the 'vanilla' base-point from which the Class system shines through without any modifications. Any changes from that baseline should be internally-balanced ones (trading roughly equivalent skill proficiencies, changing healing capacity or HP totals in exchange for bonus Resistances, alternative starting Aggrievements, modifying movement values or gaining Flight in exchange for some other mobility alteration, gaining "Insubstantial" in exchange for halving HP, etc.). Of course the more divergent options you put in there, the more potential for abuse of them exists. Playtesting all of that for balance could be a head-ache. In the end it might just end up being a certain number of Templates that are more easily tracked, on top of a bunch of fluff suggestions.

[Cucurbita]

Regarding Light as mastery of fortune and how it's supposed to work with Rose... well, Rose is a Seer of Light, and the Seer class seems to be somewhat more internally focused than other classes. From what we've seen Rose is the one most focused on finding a way to make the kids session have positive results. In that way, she's seeing luck wherever she can find it.

Of course, that sort of steps on Hopes territory, but hey, just speculating here.

[umbralAeronaut]

Merry Christmas, have a preview. Aspects and Templates, coming at you.

Breath

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Aspect - Breath
Alternative aspects: Wind, Freedom, Sky, Air

Your aspect is one of shattered boundaries, specifically the confines of gravity that tie land-bound beings to the earth beneath them. The wind is yours to command and shape. Your land's quests may involve freeing trapped creatures of flight from some sort of spell that binds them, changing the weather of your Land, or linking lost tribes of consorts separated by distance.

Attribute Acumen
Skill bonus Great Leap - +4 to Athletics
Traits (lvl 4): 'Lucky' Fall - You never take falling damage, regardless of distance. You may still end up prone on a failed Acrobatics check.
Unfettered - Whenever you are slowed or immobilized by an attack or effect, you may make an immediate saving throw. If you pass the saving throw you are no longer effected by the slow or immobilize condition, though any other effects still apply.
Brutal Affront (lvl 6): The attack deals 1d10 extra damage, and you can fly your speed as a free action. You do not trigger Opportunity Attacks for the first square you leave during this movement. (Grave Blunder: You take 1d10 damage and fall prone in an adjacent space of the target's choosing.)

Boon (lvl 7), gain the following power:
Spirit of Freedom
Immediate Reaction - Recharge
Personal
Trigger: You are hit by an enemy's attack.
Effect: You may immediately fly 4 squares, avoiding opportunity attacks during this movement. On your next turn you may take an additional standard action and gain a Fly speed of 6.

Aggrievement, you must choose between either this power or another from your class (lvl :
Descend
Standard action - At-will
Close burst 2
Requirement: You must have flown, jumped, or fallen a distance of at least 3 spaces since the end of your previous turn.
Target: 1 creature in burst
Attack: Acu + your level vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d6 + Acu modifier + your level damage.
Effect: You may push the target and each creature adjacent to you up to 1 space, and cannot use this power again until the next time you fulfill the power's Requirement.

Fraymotif (lvl 9), gain the following power:
The Windy Thing
Standard action - Encounter
Close burst 4
Target: Each enemy or unattended object in burst
Attack: Acu + your level + 2 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d6 + your level damage, and you slide the target 3 spaces.
Effect: You gain a Fly speed of 6 (hover), until the end of your next turn.

Blood

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Aspect - Blood
Alternative aspects: Fire, Rage, Retribution

The aspect of blood is a primal one that links you to the essential wellspring of vitality. You can control your own life esence, and even begin to intuitively aggressively impact the blood of your enemies. The aspect of blood often results in a rather grisly sort of Land, adventures through which tend to involve the pacifying of twisted natural processes as the player 'cleanses' the land of a threat likened to a virus or cancer.

Attribute: Mangrit
Skill bonus: Hot-headed - +4 to Trolling.
Traits (lvl 4): Exsanguine - Whenever you deal damage to a bloodied target, you may re-roll a single damage die of your choosing and take the better of the two results.
Auto-Coagulation - Whenever you first gain ongoing damage from an attack or effect, you may make an immediate saving throw. If you pass the saving throw you are no longer effected by the ongoing damage, though any other effects still apply.
Brutal Affront (lvl 6): Blood Drain - The target of the attack gains 10 ongoing damage (save ends). (Grave Blunder: You take 10 damage at the start of your next turn, and 5 more damage at the start of your following turn.)

Boon (lvl 7), gain the following power:
Furious Reply
Immediate Reaction - Recharge
Personal
Trigger: You are bloodied or reduced to 0 hp by an enemy's attack.
Effect: You may use one of your Aggrievements or Fraymotifs as a free action with a +1 power bonus to the attack roll. You then gain temporary hit points equal to your Mangrit modifier. If you would have been reduced to 0 hp or fewer, you instead now have 1 hit point.

Aggrievement, you must choose between either this power or another from your class (lvl :
Frenzied Strike
Standard action - At-will
Melee-kind
Requirement: You must be bloodied.
Target: 1 creature
Attack: Mgt + your level + weapon precision vs. AC
Hit: 2(W) + Mgt modifier + your level damage.
Effect: You gain 5 temporary hit points.

Fraymotif (lvl 9), gain the following power:
Blood-boil
Standard action - Encounter
Close burst 5
Target: One bloodied creature
Attack: Mgt + your level + 2 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3d10 + Mgt modifier + your level damage, and the target gains ongoing 10 damage (save ends)
Miss: Half damage and the target gains 5 ongoing damage (save ends).
Effect: You gain 10 temporary hit points.

Space

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Aspect - Space
Alternative aspects: Distance, Portals, Travel

Position, dimension, and span are your specialties. As you progress in mastery of your aspect you will begin to regard distances in a more fluid manner then your allies, until many common problems seem almost hilariously quaint by your standards. While your aspect is superficially like that of Breath, you deal in more esoteric problems and have a tendency to realign reality to suit yourself, as opposed to the other way around. Your land is the single most likely to be granted the Forge and the Frogs in the Medium, though for the fulfillment of what mysterious purposes are yet unknown.

Attribute: Acumen
Skill bonus: Spatial Reasoning - +4 to Mysteries
Traits (lvl 4): Translocation - When you shift during your turn, you may end your movement in another creature's space. If you do so with a Medium or smaller being, they are immediately teleported into the space you just left. With a Large or larger creature, they slide one square in a direction of your choosing, so long as it provides an empty space for you to occupy.
Existential Stability - When you are hit by a power that would slide or teleport you against your will, you may choose to make a saving throw. If the saving throw succeeds you are not effected by the slide or teleport.
Brutal Affront (lvl 6): The attack deals 1d10 extra damage, and you can slide the target 5 spaces. (Grave Blunder: You take 1d10 damage, and your target slides you 5 spaces.)

Boon (lvl 7), gain the following power:
Twist the Fabric
Minor action - Recharge
Personal
Effect: You may teleport up to 6 squares and gain another Standard action in this turn. Until the end of your next turn you can shift 1 spacee as an immediate reaction whene an enemy enters a square adjacent to you.

Aggrievement, you must choose between either this power or another from your class (lvl :
Wormhole
Move action - At-Will
Close burst 10
Target: Two unoccupied squares in burst
Attack: Acu + your level vs. Will (one enemy adjacent to one of the selected squares.)
Hit: The target is pushed 1 space away from the origin square.
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you and your allies may choose to treat the two squares as adjacent for the purposes of movement, line of sight, and line of effect.

Fraymotif (lvl 9), gain the following power:
Singularity
Move action - Encounter
Ranged Burst 3 within 10 spaces
Effect: Each creature in burst is either pushed or pulled (your choice per individual creature) 2 spaces relative to the origin square.
Target: Each creature within or adjacent to the origin square after the forced movement.
Attack: Acu + your level + 2 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + your level damage, and the target falls prone and cannot stand (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn.

Time

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Aspect - Time
Alternative aspects: Clocks, Duplication, Seconds

At some point early in your adventure, you discover or are granted by your consorts some form of time-travel artifact, often musically themed. Skaia has designated you for the task of custodian of your session's timeline, and it is your job to preserve the alpha timeline and patch up any number of problems that may arise over the course of your game's session. The aspect of Time can be a taxing one, and you will have many difficult decisions to make... do you use a brute force approach, employing legions of 'expendable' clones from doomed paradox timelines, or do you more carefully conserve temporal integrity, attempting to handle all of your problems personally with a single convoluted primary timeline?

Attribute: Imagination
Skill bonus: Seen it All - +4 to Skaian Lore.
Traits (lvl 4): Rewind - Once per encounter when you make an attack or skill roll and fail, you may choose to use this class ability. If you do so, you cancel all actions you have taken this turn, returning to your starting space if you moved and regaining the use of any powers and actions you have expended. You may start your turn over from the beginning exactly as if nothing you did in the intervening time had ever happened.
Disc Skip - Whenever you shift on your turn as a Move action, you may shift one extra space.
Brutal Affront (lvl 6): Paradox Strike - The attack deals 1d8 extra damage and you may create a Time Clone in an unoccupied space within 5 spaces of you as a free action, even if you do not have the Time Clone power. (Grave Blunder: You take 1d8 damage and are removed from play until the end of your next turn. If your space is occupied when you return, you are slid to the nearest unoccupied space of the GM's choice.)

Boon (lvl 7), gain the following power:
A Helping Hand
Immediate Reaction - Recharge
Personal
Trigger: You would be bloodied or reduced to 0 hp by an enemy's attack.
Effect: You take half damage from the triggering attack and may create a Time Clone in an unoccupied space within 5 spaces of you as a free action (even if you do not have the Time Clone power). The Time Clone acts immediately after the triggering enemies' turn, then disappears at the end of your next turn.

Aggrievement, you must choose between either this power or another from your class (lvl :
Time Clone
Standard action - At-will
Close burst 5
Target: 1 unoccupied space in burst
Effect: You create a Time Clone of yourself in the target space. The Time Clone acts in the initiative order directly after you and can take all the actions that you can take, except that it can't use Time aspect powers or Sylladex powers. Its statistics are the same as yours, except that it has only 1 hit point. Your Time Clone disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or at the end of your next turn.

Fraymotif (lvl 9), gain the following power:
Me's a Crowd
Standard action - Encounter
Close burst 3
Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: Img + your level vs. AC
Hit: 2d8 + Img modifier + your level damage.
Effect: The power creates a zone in a close burst 3 that moves with you. The zone grants cover to you and your allies, and any enemy that willingly leaves a space within the zone triggers a basic aggrievement from you as an Opportunity Action, even if you normally would not have Reach or Range to the target's space. The zone lasts until the end of your next turn.

You may notice that the Boon from these aspects has the "Recharge" keyword instead of, say, At-Will or Encounter. The idea is that you can use those powers once, then must wait until you draw a Sylladex card that lets you recharge their usage. A similar mechanic is how you'll deal with the Void cards you accumulate at higher levels. More on that soon, once I drop the Sylladex and Alchemy updates.


Character Templates

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Troll
Tough Skin - You gain Resist 1. At 5th level this improves to Resist 2, and at 9th level to Resist 3.
Strife-hardened - You gain a +2 bonus to Initiative rolls.
Chitinous Endoskeleton - When you use a Second Wind, the hit points you regain are only 1/2 of your Bloodied value.
Rancorous - If you have a skill bonus to Chumming at the end of character creation, you may choose to exchange the skill bonus for an equivalent one to Trolling.

Bestial
- +1 to your choice of Acrobatics, Athletics, or Perception. You take a -1 penalty to Science and Mysteries.
-You gain a +1 bonus to Reflex. Your speed increases by +1.
-At each level, you gain 1 fewer Alchemization point then you normally would. This means that you may not alchemize any new items until at least your 3rd level.
-If you wish you may exchange one of your Class's starting aggrievements for Natural Weapon.

Construct
-You no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe. You gain a +1 bonus to Fortitude.
-You gain Resist 2. At 4th level this changes to Resist 3, at 6th level to Resist 4, and at 9th level to Resist 5.
-You can never gain the benefits of a Second Wind or other forms of Hit Point resoration in battle, although you may still benefit from temporary hit points and may auto-repair yourself to full HP at the end of hostilities just as other characters do.
-If you 'die' and your remains can be recovered, a competent ally may restore you to life (assuming they posess the proper tools and resources) with a hard Science check (or a series of lesser checks and more time spent at the task).
-If you wish you may exchange one of your Class's starting aggrievements for Vice Grip.

Flyer
-You have 5 fewer hit points at first level. At 7th level this changes to 10 fewer hit points.
-You have a Fly speed of 8. When you fly you take a -1 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your turn.
- If you wear heavy armor, your Fly speed decreases to 6.

Incorporeal
- You gain 1/2 your normal hit points at first level, and 1/2 of the hit points you normally would every time you level up (round down fractions).
- You have the Insubstantial property.
- Your carrying weight is only 1/5 of what is normal for your Mangrit score.
- You take no penalties for squeezing into tight spaces that can contain at least a Tiny creature.
- Your base speed is unchanged, but you may also hover above the ground as you move.
- If you wish you may exchange one of your Class's starting aggrievements for Phasing Strike.

Insectoid
-You gain a +1 bonus to AC and +1 Fortitude.
-You have 4 fewer hit points than normal at first level. At 4th level this changes to 8 fewer hit points, and to 12 fewer hit points at level 9.

Lucid Dreamself
- +1 to Skaian Lore and Mysteries checks.
- Whenever you fail a Brutal Affront confirmation for a skill roll during a non-combat scenario (ie. a Scrutiny), you immediately fall asleep for 1d10 minutes in addition to any other effects.
- Your dreamself is awake, which may entail many other story effects.

Empathic Connection
- Whenever an ally who also has this template takes damage equal to your level + 5 or more, you take damage equal to your level that cannot be reduced by any means.
- Whenever an ally who also has this template receives healing or temporary hit points, you regain health or temporary hit points equal to your level (divided by) 2, to a minimum of at least 1.
- Whenever an ally who also has this template scores a Brutal Affront, you gain a +1 bonus to skill and attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
- Whenever an ally who also has this template rolls a Grave Blunder, you gain a -1 penalty to skill and attack rolls until the end of your next turn.

Physically Challenged
-Your base speed is reduced to 3 and may not be improved by any other template or class trait OR you may only ever wield one-handed Strife Specibi and cannot hold anything in your off-hand.
- You may distribute a +2 and a +1 bonus to any two skills of your choice besides Athletics. You take a -1 penalty to Athletics.

Plant
- Your base speed decreases by 1, and you take a -2 penalty to Initiative rolls.
- Whenever you are pushed or pulled, you may reduce the distance by 1. This means that you can choose to completely ignore any push or pull effects of only 1 space.
- Whenever an attack would knock you prone, you may make an immediate saving throw. If the saving throw succeeds you may remain standing.
- If you wish, you may exchange one of your starting Aggrievements with Vine Tendrils.

Telekinetic
- You take a -1 penalty to Will, and have Vulnerability equal to your level to attacks that target Will.
- You can manipulate unattended objects from up to 5 spaces away from you as if you were holding them in your hand. For example, you can open a door as a minor action or swing a club as a standard action. You take a -1 penalty to the attack rolls of attacks you make using this trait.
- When you use your Second Wind, you gain an additional +1 bonus to your AC and Reflex defenses in addition to the normal defense bonuses.
- If you wish you may exchange one of your Class's starting Aggrievements with TK Crush.

Telepathic
- You take a -1 penalty to Will, and have Vulnerability equal to your level to attacks that target Will.
- You gain a +1 bonus to Insight and your choice of either Chumming or Trolling.
- While you 're conscious, you and each ally within 10 spaces of you can mentally communicate with one another.
- If you wish you may exchange one of your Class's starting Aggrievements with Psyche Lance.

Many of the replacement Aggrievements have yet to be designed but the templates that will offer them are listed. The templates are stackable (a Telekinetic Construct Troll, for example) but will obviously require some GM oversight in terms of adjudicating effects. To use the above-listed example, the Construct TK Troll would have two different sources of Resistance; the Troll template and the Construct template. Since the troll template's Chitinous Endoskeleton penalty to second wind is completely over-shadowed by the Construct templates' inability to even take a second wind, it only makes sense to apply the Construct template resistances and ignore the ones from the Troll template. On the other hand, a race of Flying Incorporeal creatures would have to suffer both of the Hit Point penalties they take, in exchange for their various advantages which all combine to great effect. You'd probably want to halve HP only after applying the first penalty though, to try to keep the characters from becoming too fragile (for those unaware, the Insubstantial property means that all incoming damage is halved... however, the danger is that some attacks are able to ignore insubstantial).

Many (or even most of them, aside from very specific ones like "Troll") of these templates are dual-use, in that they could be used as a broad race-wide attribute or instead applied selectively to represent unique individuals. For example, one could make an entire species of Insectoids with Empathic Connection, to represent a hive mind of latent communication. If you proceeded to give one or all of them the Telepathy trait they would even be able to communicate complex thoughts and ideas, increasing this theme. On the other hand, you could have a session where the players are all human, but two of them (identical twins, perhaps?) have the Empathic Connection template to represent some sort of latent emotional bond between just the two of them.

[The Phantom Squee]

Alright, cool, so I've been reading over the initial PDF you posted, so here's my thoughts on some of that.

~I notice the Bladed Meleekind weapons don't have Mgt listed as one of the possible attributes you can use when attacking with them. Flavor-wise, I don't really think that makes a whole lot of sense--but maybe that's just me. Is there a balance reason for this?

~On the table showing which Skills are linked to which Classes and Attributes, you have Life listed as being linked to both Chumming and Athletics, and Space is absent from the list. Probably just a typo or something, but I figured I should point that out.

~Personally, for the various defenses, I would make Reflex based on Acu and Will based on either Plc or Img. But again, I don't know if there's a balance reason for that or what. I just think it makes more sense for Img, the closest analogue to Intelligence, to add to Will rather than Reflex.

~Some more ideas to add as alternatives for Classes and Aspects: Duke (falls under Heir), Scribe (falls under Seer), Scout (falls under Knight), Priest (falls under Witch), Knave (falls under Thief), Sage (falls under Mage), Herald (falls under Page), Monk (falls under Sylph). Steel (falls under Void, mostly the "hollow constructs" part), Law (falls under Balance), Pain (falls under Doom), Ash (falls under Life), Flow (falls under Breath), Depth (falls under Space), Tears (falls under Light), Wealth (falls under Keys).
Note that a lot of these were based on Aspects I assigned to characters in a Homestuck project of my own, so in some cases the connection is kind of tentative, so yeah.

Also, is there going to be some explanation as to how Skills work in this, or are we going to have to reference the source material for that?

[DaviTheEccentric]

ATTENTION TO NEW READERS: The download links in the OP do not work. To get the main 1.1 pdf, click Here. To get the Sylladex Deck Builder, click Here.

Now, I return you to a post written long before I was a major member of the design team.
---

~I notice the Bladed Meleekind weapons don't have Mgt listed as one of the possible attributes you can use when attacking with them. Flavor-wise, I don't really think that makes a whole lot of sense--but maybe that's just me. Is there a balance reason for this?

I'm curious about this too. After all, not much dexterity or panache needed to swing a claymore around.

~Personally, for the various defenses, I would make Reflex based on Acu and Will based on either Plc or Img. But again, I don't know if there's a balance reason for that or what. I just think it makes more sense for Img, the closest analogue to Intelligence, to add to Will rather than Reflex.

Well, in D&D 4e (and by extension Gamma World), either Dexterity or Intelligence can add to Reflex. (Either quick reflexes or a quick mind, you know what I mean?) Some of the finer points of the stat system were eliminated when this mod went from six stats to four.

[umbralAeronaut]

Alright, cool, so I've been reading over the initial PDF you posted, so here's my thoughts on some of that.

~I notice the Bladed Meleekind weapons don't have Mgt listed as one of the possible attributes you can use when attacking with them. Flavor-wise, I don't really think that makes a whole lot of sense--but maybe that's just me. Is there a balance reason for this?

~On the table showing which Skills are linked to which Classes and Attributes, you have Life listed as being linked to both Chumming and Athletics, and Space is absent from the list. Probably just a typo or something, but I figured I should point that out.

~Personally, for the various defenses, I would make Reflex based on Acu and Will based on either Plc or Img. But again, I don't know if there's a balance reason for that or what. I just think it makes more sense for Img, the closest analogue to Intelligence, to add to Will rather than Reflex.

~Some more ideas to add as alternatives for Classes and Aspects: Duke (falls under Heir), Scribe (falls under Seer), Scout (falls under Knight), Priest (falls under Witch), Knave (falls under Thief), Sage (falls under Mage), Herald (falls under Page), Monk (falls under Sylph). Steel (falls under Void, mostly the "hollow constructs" part), Law (falls under Balance), Pain (falls under Doom), Ash (falls under Life), Flow (falls under Breath), Depth (falls under Space), Tears (falls under Light), Wealth (falls under Keys).
Note that a lot of these were based on Aspects I assigned to characters in a Homestuck project of my own, so in some cases the connection is kind of tentative, so yeah.

Also, is there going to be some explanation as to how Skills work in this, or are we going to have to reference the source material for that?

Crushing Meleekind is also quite capable of representing a heavy blade such as a claymore or zweihander. I wanted to emphasize a difference of style between Mangrit-based attacks and those which use Acumen. Mangrit has Fistkind if it wants an accurate option, but by and large the Mangrit-based classes of the Heir and the Sylph don't rely on Accuracy. The Heir uses misses to fuel attack bonuses in the following turn (as well as having the Lucky Strike ability which is basically a variant form of Reaping Strike, the original "Oh look I missed but it doesn't really matter lol" power) and the Sylph relies on the mechanics of Charging (which grants a +1 attack bonus to the attack you make at the end of a charge) to make up for it's attack shortfall. So in a sense yes, the balance of the game does make allowance for slightly less accurate (but of course more powerful) attacks with Mangrit. If you decide you want some kind of blade to be the weapon for your Heir or Sylph, by all means take one. Just realize you're employing a brute force attack that is more emblematic of the "Crushing" abstratus then that of the average "Bladekind" attacker.

Of course, Pulchritude occupies the middle ground between those two extremes and allows for a choice of either, as befitting how awesome it is.

Skills are in flux still a bit as many of the modifiers from Aspect are based at least partly on which Attribute score is the primary one for each Aspect. I just recently shuffled a few of those around (Space is now governed by Imagination, among other things) so it's only natural that those will take a little bit of a while to firm up. We'll definitely have a Skills chapter. There are several new skills to take into account that relate directly to the Homestuck setting, and it's important to have some material added for the GM's sake in terms of how to use Skills in the game.

The reason that Reflex defense is based on both Acumen and Imagination is partly legacy (as DavitheEccentric suggests) and partly because Reflex is the most 'generic' and commonly-targeted out of the three non-AC defenses. It only makes sense to give that more then one good opportunity to be at least averagely-high for most characters. Overall, Acumen and Imagination form a "duo" of attributes, whereas Mangrit and Pulchritude stand on their own slightly. There's a balance between those three groups that relates to how many skills rely on which attributes, what defenses and secondary attributes key off of them, and so forth. Acumen and Imagination have the lion's share of skills to them to make up for the fact that they provide redundant defenses, and they also offer a few other miscellaneous secondary attribute scores like Initiative. Pulchritude and Mangrit on the other hand contribute to their own unique defenses and also combine for your HP values, but aren't tied to as many secondary attributes and skills (especially if you consider Trolling and Chumming to just be two sides of the same coin).

The suggestions for Classes and Aspects are noted, thanks. I'll probably just include most of these directly as is if you don't mind.

~I notice the Bladed Meleekind weapons don't have Mgt listed as one of the possible attributes you can use when attacking with them. Flavor-wise, I don't really think that makes a whole lot of sense--but maybe that's just me. Is there a balance reason for this?

I'm curious about this too. After all, not much dexterity or panache needed to swing a claymore around.

~Personally, for the various defenses, I would make Reflex based on Acu and Will based on either Plc or Img. But again, I don't know if there's a balance reason for that or what. I just think it makes more sense for Img, the closest analogue to Intelligence, to add to Will rather than Reflex.

Well, in D&D 4e (and by extension Gamma World), either Dexterity or Intelligence can add to Reflex. (Either quick reflexes or a quick mind, you know what I mean?) Some of the finer points of the stat system were eliminated when this mod went from six stats to four.

What he said, basically. Here, have some tidbits from the Monster chapter.

Agents

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"Those terrible guys? They are a bunch of mean fellows who like to push people around. They are called Agents. They aren't usually a problem but they sure did put a spring in their step when the Heir showed up."

The average Agent of Derse is a craven and rancorous individual, thirsty for advancement but unwilling to risk himself in the dangerous political climate of his homeworld. They are each of them cogs in a bureacracy that has as one of it's foremost goals the maintaining of a state of oppresion on the various planets of the Medium. It is the hope of the Dersite nobles and their Agents that if the Players can be delayed on their planets that there will be a minimum of interference in their grand Chess Battle against the beleagured forces of Prospit.

To this end, Agents deliver communications and treaties between Derse and the Denizens of each planet, fomenting chaos among the Consorts and raising the banner of tyranny wherever possible. They are the behind-the-scenes puppet masters who are responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for the vast majority of the hardships that the Players must endure early in the game. Unlike the mostly-mindless Underlings that they direct, the Agents have a great deal of cunning and imaginative capacity for mayhem, and may be uncovered at any number of clever schemes intended to halt the player's progress through Skaia. If an Agent is happened upon, they will take poorly to the disturbance in their normally undercover activities and may be aggravated enough to take a more direct hand in eliminating the threat of the Players. If the battle should turn against them however it is a rare Agent who will not leave his Underlings to their fate and seek to reenact his wicked schemes elsewhere.

Dersite Agent, Medium level 5 Lurker (Leader)
HP 70 (bloodied 35)
AC 19 Fort 16 Reflex 19 Will 18
Speed 6, Initiative +9, Perception +8 (low-light vision), Stealth +12, Trolling +10

Low Blow - (Standard action - At-will, Basic attack) +10 vs. AC. Hit: 1d8+5 damage. If the attack hits an enemy granting combat advantage, the target is knocked prone.
...And Stay Down, Kid - (Minor action - At-will) Target: one adjacent prone target. Attack: +8 vs. Fortitude. Hit: 1d8+5 damage and the target may not stand up until the end of the Dersite Agent's next turn. This power may not be used on a target already suffering from it's hit effect.
Take Him Instead! - (Immediate Reaction - At-will; Trigger: The Dersite Agent is hit by a melee or ranged attack while bloodied) Effect: The target of the attack is now an adjacent Underling or other ally of the Agent's choosing.
Disappear in the Crowd - A Dersite Agent may make a Stealth check to hide whenever he has cover from Underlings or other creatures.

Mgt 13 Acu 20 Img 14 Plc 16

Some other Agent stat blocks to expect...

Courtyard Droll, level 4 Elite Controller (Leader)
Hegemonic Brute, level 5 Elite Brute (Leader)
Draconian Dignitary, level 6 Solo Soldier
Jack Noir, level 8 Solo Lurker

Sovereign Slayer, level 10 Solo Skirmisher
Bec Noir, level 13 Solo Controller

Imps...

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Vile creatures commisioned by the Denizens of the Land in order to slow the progress of the Heroes, Underlings compose the most common types of monsters encountered in the Medium. They are a diverse group of malcontents, including various types of beings apparently taken from obscure mythology. Underlings all share one trait however: every single one of them is altered by the Prototyping that the players undergo prior to entering the medium.

Whenever you place a creature with the Prototypable keyword into an encounter, you should choose at least one Prototyping template and apply it to the creature to represent the powers it has gained from the Players. Even the seeemingly-silly can be perverted into a potential weapon by the mutating power of Dersian prototyping!

By a vast margin the most numerous of Underlings, Imps are commonly one of the first things to greet new Players entering their Land. At the beginning of the journey Imps will pose a credible threat to most players but a few levels up the Echeladder should see the average player dispatching these creatures with ease. Basic imps are slippery and cunning little devils who will try to gang up on players in melee but are easily frightened off by high-level adversaries, although the effects of prototyping can grant them any number of diverse abilities.

Imp Scrabbler, Small level 2 Skirmisher [Prototypable]
32 HP (bloodied 16)
AC 16 Fort 13 Reflex 15 Will 13
Speed 6, Initiative +4, Perception +3, low-light vision

Clawkind - (Standard action - At-will, Basic attack) +7 vs. AC. Hit: 1d6+3 damage. 1d6+6 damage if the Imp has combat advantage against the target.
Shifty (Minor action - At-will) - The Imp shifts one space.

Mgt 11 Acu 17 Img 14 Plc 8


Imp Mook, Small level 4 Minion [Prototypable] (use four of these in place of a regular monster)
1 HP (a missed attack never kills a minion; Prototyping never changes the Imp Mook's HP)
AC 18 Fort 15 Reflex 17 Will 15
Speed 6, Initiative +7, Perception +5, low-light vision

Clawkind - (Standard - At-will, Basic attack) +9 vs. AC. Hit: 5 damage.
Shifty (Minor - At-will) - The Imp shifts one space.
Prototyping Powers: Don't give the Imp Mook any Encounter powers from prototyping. If the Imp Mook receives a bonus to it's Basic attack damage or gains an additional attack type, change the Damage of that ability to 7 total.

Other monsters to expect from the chapter:

*Ogre Juggernaut, level 2 Elite Brute
*Ogre Aggressor, level 4 Brute
*Basilisk Gazer, level 5 Controller
*Lich Underlord, level 6 Lurker
*Giclops Monstrosity, level 6 Elite Brute
All of the above have the Prototypable keyword, making them customizable via Prototyping.

Chess Pawn, level 5 Minion (soldier)
Chess Pawn Rifleman, level 4 artillery
Chess Rook, level 6 Brute
Chess Bishop, level 6 Elite Controller
Chess Knight, level 8 Elite Skirmisher
Black Queen, level 10 Solo Skirmisher (Leader) [Prototyping Ring!]
Black King, level 11 Solo Brute (Leader) [Prototyping Ring!]

Denizens

Lord English (!?)

...And Prototyping

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Prankster's Gambit (Controller Prototyping)
Prototyping the Kernelsprite with a silly item or cartoon animal may have seemed like a good idea, but after a few battles you may regret the fact that the Imps always seem to come away with the better Prankster's Exchange in any encounter.
Defense modifiers - +1 to Reflex.
Slippery - (Immediate Reaction; Trigger: An attack targeting this creature misses): The Underling may shift one space.
Gag Weapon - This ability modifies a Basic attack that the Underling already posesses. In addition to it's normal effects, on a Hit the target is unable to make opportunity attacks until the end of this Underlings next turn.
Hat Trick - (Standard; Encounter) Ranged 5, Burst 1. Targets all enemies in burst. Attack: Level + 2 vs. Reflex. Hit: The target is dazed until the end of its next turn.

Army Men (Soldier Prototyping)
You gave the Imps a Prototyping of loyalty and discipline, along with actual weapons to use against you. How considerate! Well, at the very least they now have a curious tendency to want to stand in neat little rows.
Defense modifiers - Add +1 to AC.
Rappeling/Entrenching Equipment - The Underling gains a skill modifier equal to it's Level + 5 to Athletics.
Squad Formation - If at least two Underling allies are adjacent to it, this Underling gains +1 to all defenses.
Plastic Carbine - (Standard; At-will) Ranged 15, one target in range. Attack: Level + 6 vs. AC. Hit: 1d10 + level damage, and the target is marked by this Underling until the end of its next turn.

Masked Avenger (Lurker Prototyping)
They are Justice. They are Fear. They are the Night... They are Imps! Also, they are a royal pain in the ass to fight now.
Defense modifier - +1 to Reflex and Will. Subtract -2 from Fortitude.
Hit Points - The Underling loses 2 HP, as well as having -2 more HP per level.
Skill bonus - The Underlings gain skill modifiers equal to their Level + 6 to Acrobatics, Athletics, and Stealth.
From the Shadows - This ability modifies a basic attack that the Underling already posesses. Whenever they hit a target granting combat advantage to them with this attack, the target takes 1d10 extra damage and the Underling may shift 3 spaces for free.
Utility Belt Malfunction - (Standard, Encounter) Close Burst 1. Target: Each creature in burst. Attack: Level + 2 vs. Fortitude. Hit: The target is blinded until the end of it's next turn. Effect: The Underling may shift 4 spaces and make a Stealth check if it has cover or concealment.

Pretty Princess (Leader Prototyping)
On second thought, this was a terrible idea. Every group of Imps seems to be led by at least one that is wearing an absurd dress and posturing vainly while its allies attack with the blind fervor of lovestruck Princes Charming. We hope you're happy with yourself.
Defense modifiers - Subtract 1 from the Underling's AC. Add +2 to it's Will defense.
Fanatical Devotion - (aura 5) Any Underling allies in the aura that are reduced to 0 HP may make a Basic attack as a free action before they die.
Dance for me, my Courtiers - (Minor; At-will) Ranged 5. Target: One underling ally. Effect: The target may shift 2 spaces.
Behold Dress!?! - (Standard; At-will) Ranged 10. One target in range. Attack: Level + 4 vs. Will. Hit: The target grants combat advantage to this Underling's allies (save ends).

First Guardian (Controller Prototyping, Tier 3)
This Imp crackles with green lighting and seems to flicker between this reality and an infinite Other. As you ready yourself for the coming Strife, you begin to wonder just what could have gone so wrong for Fate to curse you so.
Defense modifier - +1 to AC, Reflex, Fortitude, and Will.
Quantum Strike - This ability modifies a Basic attack that the Underling already posesses. The attack now targets Fortitude defense, and on a hit the target takes an additional 1d10 + level damage and is teleported 2 spaces in a direction of the Underlings choosing.
Unstable Gate - The Underling gains a movement mode of Teleport 4. Whenever it teleports, it may choose one ally and teleport it 2 spaces as well.
Warping Defense - (At-will; Immediate Interrupt) Trigger: An attack hits or misses this Underling. Effect: The Underling gains +2 to all defenses against the attack. If the attack is a miss after the defense bonus, then both the Underling and the triggering attacker are teleported 5 spaces in a direction of the Underling's choice.

This is a sample of just 5 out of 20 different Prototyping templates that are currently written up. As you can see each Prototyping subtly modifies the abilities of the Prototyped creatures and changes their "role" to make for more diverse tactics and encounters. If there is even just one prototyping for every player in the game there can be multiple battles where each Underling is doing something entirely different based on their Prototyped abilities, in conjunction with their natural stat block.

We're close to being ready to drop Version 0.6 of this sucker. At that point the game will be fully play-testable from both the Player and GM-side of the screens, with all the raw tools needed for Prototyping, monster stats, most (if not all) Aspects, a Sylladex deck creation system, Alchemy, some rudimentary combat maps, etc. Expect it sometime early January if the current rate of inspiration holds up. Following that begins the long cycle of analyzing what has been done, making minor mechanical adjustments, finishing off the High-level stuff (God-tiers and so forth), and writing all of the adventure ideas and GM material which should help in having a smooth-running game.

In the meantime, if anybody wanted to do a Class writeup for the Witch and the Sylph, please don't let me stop you. I keep wanting to finish those off but it seems like every time I open up the document there's something else that demands to be put to paper more.

[The Phantom Squee]

The reason that Reflex defense is based on both Acumen and Imagination is partly legacy (as DavitheEccentric suggests) and partly because Reflex is the most 'generic' and commonly-targeted out of the three non-AC defenses. It only makes sense to give that more then one good opportunity to be at least averagely-high for most characters. Overall, Acumen and Imagination form a "duo" of attributes, whereas Mangrit and Pulchritude stand on their own slightly. There's a balance between those three groups that relates to how many skills rely on which attributes, what defenses and secondary attributes key off of them, and so forth. Acumen and Imagination have the lion's share of skills to them to make up for the fact that they provide redundant defenses, and they also offer a few other miscellaneous secondary attribute scores like Initiative. Pulchritude and Mangrit on the other hand contribute to their own unique defenses and also combine for your HP values, but aren't tied to as many secondary attributes and skills (especially if you consider Trolling and Chumming to just be two sides of the same coin).

~I notice the Bladed Meleekind weapons don't have Mgt listed as one of the possible attributes you can use when attacking with them. Flavor-wise, I don't really think that makes a whole lot of sense--but maybe that's just me. Is there a balance reason for this?

I'm curious about this too. After all, not much dexterity or panache needed to swing a claymore around.

~Personally, for the various defenses, I would make Reflex based on Acu and Will based on either Plc or Img. But again, I don't know if there's a balance reason for that or what. I just think it makes more sense for Img, the closest analogue to Intelligence, to add to Will rather than Reflex.

Well, in D&D 4e (and by extension Gamma World), either Dexterity or Intelligence can add to Reflex. (Either quick reflexes or a quick mind, you know what I mean?) Some of the finer points of the stat system were eliminated when this mod went from six stats to four.

What he said, basically.

Hm, alright, I'll buy it. Makes sense now that I think about it again, and I can dig staying true to the source.

Regarding the weapons, while I can understand a claymore or the like functioning as a crushing weapon, I had in mind the sort of stuff in between, along the lines of a longsword or something. But again, since there does seem to be a discrepancy there, I guess I can also see them falling under Crushing if the person using them wants to represent a more brutish fighting style.

We're close to being ready to drop Version 0.6 of this sucker. At that point the game will be fully play-testable from both the Player and GM-side of the screens, with all the raw tools needed for Prototyping, monster stats, most (if not all) Aspects, a Sylladex deck creation system, Alchemy, some rudimentary combat maps, etc. Expect it sometime early January if the current rate of inspiration holds up. Following that begins the long cycle of analyzing what has been done, making minor mechanical adjustments, finishing off the High-level stuff (God-tiers and so forth), and writing all of the adventure ideas and GM material which should help in having a smooth-running game.

In the meantime, if anybody wanted to do a Class writeup for the Witch and the Sylph, please don't let me stop you. I keep wanting to finish those off but it seems like every time I open up the document there's something else that demands to be put to paper more.

I'll see if I can come up with something for Witch at least. Dunno about Sylph since, as mentioned, not much experience with 4e's mechanics.

[umbralAeronaut]

Oh don't worry about the class mechanics. I already have those finished... I forget sometimes just what it is you guys are looking at with the version of the book you have. I mean for the paragraph fluff blurb at the start of the class entries. Like for the Witch, something about how they're bluh bluh hugely privileged and energetic players who facilitate their friends or whatever, using Feferi and Jade as the template. They both have extremely powerful Guardians, so maybe that is something. You have 6 other classes to work off of for ideas of how to shape the fluff.

Sylph is going to be harder because that class was a little bit artificially introduced... I knew it would be a Mangrit-based class (ie. Kanaya's chainsaw) to round out the attribute/class table and I wanted it to be movement-based, so it ended up as a sort of charging mobility-barbarian. It has non-combat traits that relate to giving two different allies a chance to gain bonuses with each others successes (Auspiceticery at its finest). I haven't the first idea what to write for its fluff blurb though. If there were some way to link Aradia to the class as well that would be good, as she's the very last loose thread with regards to canon players. She's such a weird case though that it won't bother me too much if she gets left out of it sort of. Aradia works just fine as the poster example of the player Templates section instead of trying to shoehorn her into some class or another.

[The Phantom Squee]

Yeah, I gotcha. When I referred to the Sylph I just meant the fact that it's still missing a Fraymotif, or at least was last time I checked. I probably could have worded it a bit better to begin with. XP But I guess you're taking care of that part, so I don't have to worry about that anyway.

Anyway, yeah, I'll see about linking Aradia in there as well. Shouldn't be too difficult, I'd think, since she's pretty much been the definition of a Mangrit-based class that's highly mobile.

[The Phantom Squee]

Double-postan because here's what I got for the Witch and Sylph. Let me know if anything looks off.

Witch
You probably come from a privileged background, be it actual royalty or simply access to unusual advanced technology. As is Skaia’s way, over the course of your adventure you will likely lose much of this material wealth. Your cheerful disposition will see you through, though. It is this same disposition that will make you the glue that holds your group of players together. Along with your possessions, you have a close relationship with a powerful entity, which is unfortunately likely to be turned against you at some point during the game.


Sylph
Whatever the specifics may be, you are a person of strength tempered by discipline and self-control. Just like anybody else, though, you’re a multifaceted individual. Chances are there’s something you’re keeping hidden or repressed. It may be unrequited romantic feelings, regret over past actions, or simply the fact that you’ve been dead all along. Skaia may test you severely, but your trials and tribulations will surely mean great rewards for you in the end, provided you don’t snap under the pressure. Regardless, you are a mighty warrior in your own right, capable of both devastating power and dizzying mobility.

[umbralAeronaut]

Excellent, thank you. I really don't have any criticism to offer as these both capture the essential qualities of what I'm trying to pull from the applicable canon characters. They both look general enough to inform a fairly diverse set of interpretations as well, which is also important. At the end of the day the class fluff write-ups are just suggestion and thought prompt. If I can think of something worth adding a sentence to them for I will, but they look just fine for now.

I'm open to suggestions and input from anyone who feels they have anything else to add. At this point the easiest way for somebody interested in stepping into writing samples is likely to be with the GM-centric material. If you've ever handled a RPG guidebook you probably have a good idea how these are supposed to go. For example, heres something of an outline of what might make a good sub-section of the GM Quest suggestion area: Resurrection Quests.

A Player dies, either because of random poor luck in battle, a deliberately-hard encounter the group can't or won't flee from, or simple story shenanigans (the potential cruelties at the fingertips of a GM running this game are terrible to think of). What do?

• The ---- of Life gives you a kiss. Tavros' aborted "Breath of Life" kiss also implies this may take alternate forms for different player Aspects. A response from one of Hussie's Formspring questions also implies that, with each player being in essence the "prince" or "princess" of their respective moon, this may be a universal player quality. (Net result: If this happens soon enough before your Dreamself dies of the 'resonant wounds' inflicted by your real selves' death, then you suddenly awaken in the form of your Dreamself. If you can find a way off of Prospit/Derse down to a Gate you're back in the game. Based on events in canon this looks like the least complicated, but possibly also most inadvisable form of resurrection. Loss of a dreamself is kind of a long-term handicap as we are rapidly seeing)
• The ---- of Void builds a robot/golem body for you. This might entail the entire party finding some sort of required resources (Uranium grist for the robot's nuclear reactor, a special quest-line gem that can somehow resonate with the fallen player's soul, etc.). This features the entertaining twist of having the dead player gain the Construct template.
• The ---- of Time, from a 'doomed' timeline created by your death, takes the rest of their doomed timeline party in a brief side-quest to pin-point exactly what went wrong where before personally traveling back and rewriting events to guarantee the death does not occur at that point in the alpha timeline.
• "Death" for your species is not an intrinsically permanent state for some reason. Perhaps it is a phase through which a sufficiently-old youth may attain adulthood, gaining and/or losing some Templates as necessary. Or maybe continuous resurrection is the norm, albeit with an altered personality and distorted memories (re-roll on the Class table?).
• Of course, sleeping on your Quest Bed. The mechanics for this aren't fully on the table yet, but I'm picturing it as an option for the level 10 bonus. Ideally there will be a way to balance the "Quest Bed Death" option with other 10th-level benefits (there seems to be a limited subset of players who ever have the nerve or circumstances that allow them to experience this, except for maybe a theoretical perfect session).
• Other possibilities I have not yet considered?

An important consideration here is a way to keep the "resurrectee's" player invested and interested during these side-quests. Part of the solution is to keep them nice and short, a few battles and some skill sequences at most. It makes sense that the GM should consider their input as to what sort of ressurection they'd be most interested in. Maybe they can continue questing alongside the rest of the party during the interim with the Incorporeal template applied. Perhaps they gain control of the fallen player's Sprite and can use the opportunity to characterize that sprite's reactions to their player's death. Sprites are gonna get statistics too. They never weren't going to get statistics, that was never a thing that was going to happen.

....Something else that could probably be written is a simple summary of the 'generic' opening events of a SBURB game. Basically a re-cap geared towards the less canon-savvy (or the people who've never heard of Homestuck who got dragged along with the rest of their RP group at the promise of pizza and nanchos). It doesn't have to Hussie-esquely detailed, nor describe the canon adventure really, but just the basic form of how a Skaia game is meant to proceed, perhaps with some suggestions of different places where the GM can choose to take it off the rails. Dunno if anyone wants to jump on that grenade but there it is.

Anyway there, I practically wrote that all out. If somebody wanted to be a Sweet Bro they could pretty much take all that above, add stuff or whatever, format it as a GM advice-column, and send it back here. We'd totally give you a space in the opening introductions, like Phantom has already earned. Let's make it gogdamn Christmas up in this B--(smacked by server player with levitated broom)--LLLLOOOOUUUCH.

Hey speaking of that topic, Holiday travel and a debilitating illness that I'm finally pulling myself out of means that I don't have too much in the way of new previews to show off at this precise moment, but here's something that I've been considering: Server Player Combat. Right now the idea is that the Server Player has a full turn's worth of actions and an Initiative count just as any other combatant does, but as an exchange for their functional immortality from the Client-side perspective they must choose from a cut-down list of terrain-alteration and control attacks for their abilities. For example:

Drop the Load Gaper
At-will
Standard action -- Ranged Burst 1 (the origin space must be within 5 space of your Client player)
Target: each creature in burst
Attack: Your highest Attribute score + your level vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d12 + your level damage, and the target is pushed 2 spaces away from the origin space.
Miss: The target is pushed 1 space away from the origin space.

Revise Room
Encounter
Move action -- Ranged Burst 2 (the origin space must be within 5 spaces of your Client player)
Effect: Any areas of difficult or impassible terrain in the area of the power are turned into normal terrain. Any walls in the area of the power are removed... line of sight and line of effect, as well as movement may be freely traced through them. These effects last until the end of the encounter, perhaps permanently if your Client is happy with your creative redesigns.

'Clean Up'
At-will
Move action -- Target: 1 space (the target space must be within 5 spaces of your Client player)
Effect: The space becomes difficult terrain until the end of the encounter.

Yeah, something like that above. Man I love exception-based power design.

Finally, for those of you who have been laboring under a crippling lack of knowledge about the rules of 4th edition that are at play here, have a link to cheer you up. It took me a while to discover this on the Wizards web site but it's pretty much perfect for the purposes of the game (at least, the first few sections on combat are. The skill stuff is going to be mostly superseded when we're done). I'm also putting a link to this inside the document from now on.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/QuickStartRules.pdf

EDIT 9: The Re-Editing. I think I'm done.

[DaviTheEccentric]

Time for more comments.

Resurrection Quests

This is a good idea. Gamma World tends to be more lethal than vanilla 4e, and you'd be more connected with your character in this hack.

Kiss of Life or Breath or...

Looks good. I'd leave it open to all elements, since there's no guarantee that there will be a character with Life/Breath. I say that if another character can get to the dead character in a certain amount of time (3 rounds in-combat, 1 minute out?), give the GM a good enough reason that their element can justify bringing someone back from the dead (or stopping them from just bleeding out or whatever) and spend a standard action to bring them back with 1HP. Sounds good?

Robot Body

I don't know, sounds more like a justification for switching templates and less for coming back from the grave. Aradia's player just wanted to switch Incorporeal with Construct.

It's All A Failed Time Loop

Another one that should work fine, if you can find something for the dead guy's player to do. As long as all experience earned in the failed loop is absorbed by the alpha characters (so the time they spend in the beta timeline isn't wasted), it should be good for everyone.

Reincarnate

This sort of thing seems the simplest solution for death besides someone else bringing them back. It could even work for things other than reincarnation. (Aradia died! Aradia gains the Incorporeal template and is now Ghost Aradia! Alternatively, Ace Dick died! Ace Dick gains the Undead template and is now Zombie Ace Dick!)

Server Player Combat

Seems good enough.

So, other than the fact that most early fights would probably involve two players at most, this seems like a good hack so far. (And really, that flaw is kind of needed, given what this is supposed to emulate.)