[Meat] distilling chargen and sheets

There are no stats.

From a design pov I’m really trying to avoid “to hit” and “capability” once i cross those divides the game will begin to lengthen exponentially.

To say that there are no stats is a bit excessive. There are very few measured stats for your character. There is a list of elements that make up your character that will be part of character generation. Character concept will be king in play, the matrix (illustrated below) will help the players to make those choices and that message concrete.

The player will be asked to create a character concept and write down a few notes on that. They will be asked to choose from a short list:

Power: Massive / Alien / Mutant / Elemental / Beast / Magic /Other*

Movement: Fast! / Flight / Heroic / Mount / Swimming / Magic / Teleport*(*see rule book)

Defense: Quick / Tough / Armor / Shield / Luck / Magic / Other*

Weakness: Heat / Cold / Light / Substance* / Water / Glass Jaw / Other*

Assets: Family / Sidekick / Hideout / Secret ID / Mentor / Love Interest / Career / Assets / Family / Dependent

Power is loosely described to maintain the greatest amount of flexibility in play and enjoyment. The problem i’m having at present is negotiating ranged attacks in combat. Aside from that, Power is entirely color.

Movement will generally be at a heroic pace of 2 locations per round. Players will have an option of spending tokens to increase movement for that round. The problem i’m having at present is with characters that are teleporters or ghosts. Movement is tied to a grid that has an orderly flow. Because i’m trying to keep the strategy to a minimum this has become in interesting issue. Movement is an element of enjoyment in a game that has a map. It also allows for another element of interaction tactically with the game. The mechanical interaction with the board will also force additional setting narration. Currently the direction i’m using for abstract movement is to reduce the character standard movement from Heroic 2 to Standard 1. The PC will be allowed to buy teleportation/ghosting/astral walking etc. for a token. (*thanks to causticbuddhist for feedback on this.)

Defense is all color. All characters will have a Defense Reduction stat. As all hits essentially hit in combat, the attacker will need to do more damage than the DR in order to narrate a damaging hit. Rolling doubles will cause a miss. And rolling under the DR will allow the non-damage to be described as either a miss or some sort of damage soak.

Weaknesses will be tied to conditions. Conditions are obstacles placed on the battle board. If your Weakness is analogous to a Condition your attacks will be reduced to 1d6 from 2d6; your movement of 2 will be reduced to 1. Conditions already dampen movement by 1. If you are attempting to enter a flaming building but have a fear of fire you will be immobilized unless you spend a token to move through the location.

Assets can become liabilities in play. Assets are story elements and npcs that are intrinsic to the pc’s specific story line. For each battle scene, every pc will have to volunteer which Assets will be offered on the outskirts of the battle board. Other player characters will be able to bid to move the Assets from outside positions to specific locations on the board.

At present, i’m trying to find a good list of generalized and specific: Powers, Weaknesses, Movements, Assets and Defenses. If you can be of any help please chime in here!!