Playtest 1 report... Finally

Okay I know its been awhile since posting.  Last post I stated I would be running my first playtest for my cyberpunk game.  I'm using the name SprawlWalkers right now but that's just a working title .  I'm really going for a generally rules lite cyberpunk game but I want to have additional rules that can be added to the game to give GMs and Players a bit more control over difficulty and complexity.  The idea being that if a GM doesn't want a hyper lethal experience for their players we have systems in place to scale that without the GM needing to scale all their NPCs.

First playtest went well as far as I could tell.  My players seemed to have alot of fun which under normal circumstances would be more important then how well the actual mechanics affect the flow of the game.  I recorded the session and once I have done a little editing I plan on posting it.

My main goal with the playtest was to make sure the base mechanics worked and there was nothing that was extremely broken.  Which is not to say there aren't improvements to be made.  Combat did seem to run a dad sluggishly and not terribly unique.  The skill system again does not seem terribly unique and will probably need some tweaking.

I have another play-test scheduled for this weekend with a few other players some more experienced then others.  My last play test was made up of primarily people who were fairly new to table top role playing games in general. This was partly based on convenience but getting newbie eyes on it lets me know that the basics of the system were accessible enough for a new player to grasp, which is a goal I have with this project.

I know I've posted this picture before but I need an illustration to show the similarities between my system and world of darkness.  I've been playing world of darkness for nearly the last 17 years of my life so I have to be sure not too much of its influence gets into my game.  Take my character sheet and compare it this mortals World of Darkness sheet.

My system is using the same idea as World of Darkness, take an attribute and add a skill to it then roll the total, then things happen.  This is something one of my playtesters pointed out.  Changing out the skill system will be alot of work but the game will be better for it in the end. 

This week I'll be focusing on adding a perk system, cybernetic implants, and making some tweaks to the combat system.

Cyberpunk RPG Development Blog - Playtest 1 preperations

While it is still early in the development of my untitled cyberpunk game I want to go ahead and plan on running a play test this weekend.  I think its important to make sure the basic mechanics of the games not only work but are actually fun before I go to much further.

So this Saturday I'll be running a one shot game to test some of these mechanics for fun and ease of use.  Just for fun though I'll go ahead and share the quick reference rule sheet and character sheet.

Playtest 1 - Quick Reference Rule Sheet

Rolling Dice –

All dice rolls are performed by combining an attribute and a skill declared by the GM for action you’re character wishes to perform.  Count the combined total of the attribute and the skill then roll that many D6. 

Successes – 5 and 6 (you may reroll as 6 results)

Botch Dice – 1s (if you roll more 1s then you roll successes your action botches and you suffer a penalty as determined by the GM)

Attributes are rated on a score of 1 - 8

Skills are rated on a score of 0 - 8

Combat –

As with other dice rolls in combat an attribute is combined with a skill as well as the damage rating of the character’s weapon.  The player will declare a target to attack then both the attacker and defender roll off to determine the success of the attack.

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Attacker Rolls Attribute + Skill (melee/firearms/brawl) + Damage value of weapon

Defender Rolls Attribute + Dodge (or melee/brawl if close combat)

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For every success over the defenders total success is one point of health damage.

Ties result in no damage but certain weapons may have a special effect

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When all health boxes are filled character has turns = physical resistance attribute to be stabilized before death.  Each turn the player may roll 1d6 and a result of a 5 or 6 will stabilize the character.  Other characters may perform a first aid roll difficulty 3 to stabilize and heal one point of damage.  Each success over the character’s physical resistance stat on a first aid roll will heal another point of damage.

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Turn order in combat is determined by each participant rolling 1D6 and adding the combined value of their Physical and Mental Prowess scores.  Turn order is determined by highest roll + stats first and descending from there.

Apologies for the Radio Silence and an Announcement of a Project

I haven't posted in awhile so I figured it would be time to give some updates on what I've been working on.  I got a promotion at work that will be affording not only more monies but also a more reasonable work schedule so I'll have a bit more time on my hands for my gaming pursuits.  Other good news, and this isn't official yet, but my wife and I are in talks right now with Twilight Creations, the makers of Zombies!!!, to volunteer to help them out at Gen Con 2015.  So with any luck we'll be hanging with some of the nicest people I've ever met in the games industry and seeing the con from a whole different angle this year.

Now on to what I'm working on now.

So I've been searching for a good cyberpunk game with fairly simple but not overly simple rules for some time now.  I think there's things I like about everything I've read but nothing ever had exactly what I was looking for.  Rifts have great fluff but it can be a little intimidating, Shadowrun again great stuff but the world is a little too high fantasy for my tastes.  There are more and all of them have their charm.

So I decided I'm going to write my own game, which is honestly something I've wanted to do for quite some time.  I'm still in extremely early stages right now.  I have some basics written up so far and combat rules started.  I'm hoping by the end of this week to have a frame work to test and see if the rules I have so far are going to work in practice.

I'll be posting the rules as I get them on here and would appreciate feedback from anyone.