Alright, before I talk about some of the potential options for the Pressure System Toolkit can we talk about Mazes RPG? I talked about this game very briefly on my YT channel, but let’s get the very basics down.
The Polymorph System
First off the Polymorph System distinguishes between your Class and your Role. Your Class might be what you typically are use to in a TTRPG, but your Role is more how you want to approach situations. Well…let me explain what the 4 actions/approaches are first, and then when we come back to Role, it’ll make more sense…
Books - Knowledge, Perception, Skills, Searching, Charisma, Senses
Boots - Movement, Dexterity, Reflexes, Agility, Speed
Blades - Violence, Weapons, Combat, Fighting, Dodging
Bones - Endurance, Resistance, Strength Bravery, Health, Heart
Here are the 4 different actions you might be taking on a given turn. In essence these are your attributes. So a Role means that you have a bit more focus on one of these attributes/approaches.
Paragon - Books
Vanguard - Boots
Fighter - Blades
Sentinel - Bones
So how do they do this? How do they make it so you are more focused on one of the different approaches? Really its the resolution system. Each of the different action types are listed below with the specific #’s you need to roll in order for them to be successful.
Now for the big reveal. So how do these different Roles favor different actions? They use different dice!
So this to me was really slick. The other thing to mention is that all 1’s rolled are successful (as long as it makes sense for the character), and all max rolls are called Crowns. These are either successful or fails depending on the current Darkness level for the party. But with this taken into account you can see that Paragon’s are 75% successful with Books rolls, but Sentinels are only 30% successful with Books. I think this is such a clever design concept!
So what did this game inspire me to think about in regards to the Pressure System?
Alternative Checks & Saving Throws
When I first came up with the Pressure System it was all about picking up the Pressure Die and your own die, rolling both, and having that gambling feeling as you await the results. That being said, the alternative I’m about to lay out was painful to consider.
Let’s first just use the above actions from Mazes to make it easier for translating, but technically any attributes/saves/approaches could work. Each of those would get a # between 2-5. You might have a 5 in Books, 3 in Boots and Blades, and then a 2 in Bones.
Next, you have two options. Either their is 1 Pressure Die for the encounter, OR now each individual player has their own Pressure Die in front of them. This Pressure Die could go up and down between 6d-d12 based on different situations. The Player now has to roll the Pressure Die and get under their stat. I think this adds a lot of interesting complexity. The higher the individual pressure you have the worse chance you have to succeed at your roll.
In addition to this I think an eloquent Health/stress mechanic would just be to tie the Pressure Die to the player’s Health. If you ever get up to a d12 and something happens that would take you to the next die step then you are knocked out. So trying to manage the size of your current Pressure becomes an issue. Could this create a death spiral? Where the more hurt you get the worse you get and then you are destined to die? Not necessarily. I think that you could have abilities and actions to help mitigate that if you wanted.
Lets move away from Checks for a moment.
Effort System too Mathy?
In the last newsletter we talked about the Effort System. On average how much each player could produce effort in a round, and against which types of Pressure Die. We then came up with the following calculation to determine how much Effort would be necessary to make an encounter easy/moderate/hard.
# Players x # Rounds x (Effort Score + Modifiers)
Did this result in too much math? Meaning each round the players are doing X effort. Then you as the GM are doing the quick subtraction on the total effort or on individual mobs. TTRPGs and hit points for baddies has been a thing for so long, that this approach is technically fine. Just today Runehammer was talking about alternatives to bags of hit points, and that being lethality and thresholds. So let’s bring in to other ideas for consideration.
Death Numbers
Awhile back I had the idea of using death numbers, bloody numbers and target numbers as a means to speed up combat. How did this work? The idea was that each attack did 1 hit. So if a monster had 8HP it meant it would take 4 hits to kill them. To hit them you had to roll an attack value that was higher than the target number. BUT, if you ended up getting an attack value that was higher than their bloodied number then you would take away half their HPs. If you rolled an attack that was higher than their death number then you would auto kill them. I thought this was exciting, but it had two flaws to me.
Doing 1 hit on an attack sucked mentally for me and my players (even though we played around with weapons doing different things).
Missing sucks. This is a common thing that a lot of modern games are doing, and I agreed with this back then. Turns without progress suck.
Daggerheart
I think it’s interesting how Daggerheart has decided to do damage and health.
Above you will see 3 boxes. Minor, Major Severe. Inside these boxes you will end up with 3 different numbers, and they get bigger as you go from minor to severe. These are thresholds. At any point in time an attack can generate a high enough score that it is higher than your Severe value you will take 3 HP. This is similar in a way to the Death Numbers. So it seems like they have similar mechanics. You have thresholds, and if you can get above the varying thresholds you have more powerful outcomes.
Effort System Options
We already know the average effort that people can potentially produce
So what does this mean? Well, we could do a couple things. We could still have different mobs or challenges requiring effort to complete, and it could be a total number. But then we could have the Bloodied Number and Death number on the encounter’s stats so that if they were able to do that amount then they’d immediately complete the task. That’s one choice.
We could also incorporate thresholds like Daggerheart, where we could say that there is a Minor/Moderate/Severe/Death number threshold, and that when an individual rolls their effort they compare that number to the thresholds available. The question, is…does this feel good? You might end up back with the original issue I had, which is doing 1 hit, 2 hit, 3 hit, etc? I think the answer is no. Psychologically I think that the Effort calculation probably feels good when you are adding those totals up. When I first did these Death Numbers I was using single die, and rolling a single d6 or d8 didnt feel…impactful.
Tags from Legends in the Mist
I have to bring this game up, because it’s currently on kickstarter.
Legends in the Mist has combined the rules of PbtA and FATE. Two games that I love the design of, but have never enjoyed to play. One of the things it does, that I find interesting is its Tag system, in particular how it’s used for damage.
You can have all sorts of Tags on your character, and for the most part these are your actual stats. You creatively describe how 3 different character tags can help in a situation and you get +3 to your roll, and +3 power to effect the situation. Creatures can also accumulate negative tags. If you did an attack to an enemy and had +3 power from your positive tags, this might result in Slash -3, as a tag you put on the bad guy.
Well the cool thing in this system is that if you ever reach -5 on a tag you are knocked out, and -6 means you’re dead. I’m sure it varies for the monsters, but I thought this was a brilliant way of codifying Tags and giving some meaning behind them.
I only mention this because it could be that Checks could eventually go the way of Tags. Maybe you accumulate Tags, and those narrative Tags then determine the Pressure Die you are not dealing with in front of you. Or maybe Effort could be linked to tags that are applied to the enemies?! Who knows, but it’s something to consider.
That’s it for my ramblings for now. I hope ya’ll are having a fantastic week. Till next time.