Mechanics Tweaks (blog)
One of the reason I wanted to make my own game system for this is to match the mechanics with the overall tone and setting of the game. This is the apocalypse. It should feel like the apocalypse, and the game mechanics should lend themselves to making the players feel a sense of desperation. So that is one goal. Our other goal is to make the mechanics simple yet diverse enough to still have fun and not be boring.
When I make a game, one of the main “red flags” I use is actually my gut. If something doesn’t sing, if something feels off about the game, I know I need to analyze and identify what the holdup is. One of the biggest problems that plagued me was the skills system. Some of the skills still didn’t feel like they matched the corresponding Trait, so I sat down and did some rearranging and configuring of those. They feel more natural now. More balanced.
The other big change I made was with regards to the Strength skills. There are now only 3 possible strength-based skills: athletics (run, jump, climb, swim), destruction, and incapacitation (this has since been changed). Because there are fewer strength skills now, the strength stat also effects other things in the game, such as how much a character can carry; damage from unarmed, melee, and thrown weapons; and some weapons and armor are only available to those with certain strength stats.
The other huge thing we noticed during playtesting was that of the player character’s condition. Sure, you can take damage. That’s not in question. But being the apocalypse, we have different food items players can scavenge for and find. Initially, food items increased health points in the same way the video game Fallout does. You eat the food and get health. But something didn’t feel right about the whole thing, so one of the biggest changes I made was to incorporate a hunger meter, which effected not only your physical health but also your mental and emotional health. This method really sang for me, and it feels right for the setting. Not only that, but I made it so that players can determine which of their meters goes down at which rate, making the mechanic much more versatile.
How Hunger Works
Now, you have a hunger meter with 24 slots. This means that a player can go 12 days without food, which is decently accurate. But as that meter goes down, the other meters go down, but the rates are different. One meter goes down for every 2 hunger slots, one at every 3, and one at every 4. This means that a character might be more hardy mentally, but less so emotionally. Each of the three meters (Vitality, Sanity, and Morale) effect different Traits. I really like this system, the only catch is now finding a way to make it easily understandable.
Resistances
The other thing I didn’t like was that there were only three resistance stats available: mental resilience, reflex, and physical resilience. I did like that these were from combined Trait stats, so I added two new ones to leverage the two missing combinations: immunity and toxin resistance. Now there are 5 resistance stats, and each one is a unique combination of Traits.
Other Updates
Another big change I made was the combat skills categories. Now, instead of a Thrown weapons category, there is an Archery category. Archery skills used to be covered under the Ranged weapons, but that meant that players who were good with guns were also just as good with bows and arrows. Now we broke that into two separate categories. I also rearranged these so that the Unarmed Combat skill is now governed by Fortitude instead of Aptitude, and Melee is now governed by Strength and Explosives are governed by Aptitude.
I also added a fourth skill to each Influence style.
All in all, I think the game is better now. I’ll know more if these changes work when we playtest next.