RPG

XP Edition Service Pack 1, Gardener Distribution Version 4.1

By Jonathan S. Coolidge, D.O.

Character Creation:

Characters are created using Ad points.  Any ability, advantage, or statistical score bonus has a cost in Ad points.  One can gain additional Ad points by taking on a disadvantage or statistical score weakness.  The purpose of Ad points is to measure balance.

The total Character Value (CV), the sum of all Ad points spent on all advantages minus all Ad points generated by disadvantages, is in a typical campaign ranges 40 to 50 at start.  A starting CV can be as low as 30 in a campaign emphasizing realism in a low-paranormal world setting, or higher than 50 when starting above entry-level characters.  40 is a good starting number for a first-time GM running a first-time game in a typical medieval fantasy setting commonly used in role-playing gaming.

Raw Scores:

                There are nine raw scores.  10 is average.  If a raw score is brought to zero, the character becomes instantly unconscious and near-dead.  If successfully revived, that same raw score rises back to 1 if no other factor raises it higher.  Values with which player characters start out depend on how many Ad points are spent:

*¹ If no points are spent on modifying a specific raw score, its default value is 12.  10, however, is the average for an everyday person, making these scores just slightly heroic.

*² The scale follows a mathematical progression, adding two to the Ad point cost for each point every fifth point.  Use this formula if you need to extrapolate scores in the unholy ranges (such as an Int of 30, an unfathomable superior consciousness, with an Ad point cost of 84.)

Raw Scores explained:

Intelligence (Int) is the ability of a character to think, remember, and associate.  It encompasses the ability to understand concepts as well as to make connections among events and form ideas of association.  It is heavily used in “Action rolls” involving use of a raw score and a skill.

Willpower (Wil) is a measurement of a character’s sense of self and identity.  It is used when resisting mental attacks or psychological trauma.

Charisma (Cha) is the ability to influence or lead, as well as the ability to undermine a leader.

Sensory (Sen) is a measurement of one’s ability to detect or notice details or utilize one’s senses.

Strength (Str) is the character’s strength.

Endurance (End) is the character’s constitution or stamina.

                Agility (Agl) is the character’s ability to maneuver one’s body with speed and grace.

Skill (Skl) is a measure of one’s manual dexterity—one’s ability to perform finely detailed tasks.

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Integrities:

                Integrities are measurements of a character’s level of stress and fatigue, as well as modifiers to these levels.  Their maximum (and starting) values are done by calculating from raw scores and spending additional Ad points.  MI, PI, and EI fluctuate during the course of games, being lowered by various forms of stress on the characters and raised by healing or recovering, both naturally and by other means.  MR, PR, and ER are generally fixed values and indicate a certain special resistance to loss.

                Mental Integrity (MI) is the measure of one’s level of psychological and emotional well-being.  Someone at full MI is alert, confident, and feeling well.  As MI is lowered, the person becomes increasingly distracted, unfocused, and anxious.  At zero MI a character becomes incompetent.  MI as a statistic is most often used in the context of horror role-play, as a measurement of overall state of mind.  When MI reaches zero, a character risks acquiring permanent insanity or emotional disturbances.  MI regenerates normally at a rate of two points per day when active and five points per day when resting.

                Physical Integrity (PI) is a measure of one’s physical state and health.  Someone at full PI is at full strength.  PI is lowered by injuries such as through physical combat.  When PI reaches zero, a character faces unconsciousness and the possibility of death.  PI regenerates normally at a rate of two points per day when active and five points per day when resting.

Energy Integrity (EI) is a measure of one’s active endurance.  At full EI, a person feels refreshed and well-rested.  Energy Integrity is lowered by strenuous activity.  At zero EI, a person is exhausted to the point of inability to move.  EI depletes normally more quickly than other integrities, but regenerates ten times as quickly as MI and PI.  EI is also unique in the sense that it can be spent actively in allotments of five points at a time to increase performance under stress.  The details of this is discussed under action rolls and conflict.

Mental Resistance (MR) indicates a buffer that some individuals have to injury.  An experienced soldier, for example, might have a 20 point MR because of having already suffered through and overcome in battlefields numerous horrific ordeals of violence and slow, painful deaths of close friends.  Therefore, when the character experiences a traumatic event and a die roll is made, that character can subtract the first 20 points that would have been lost from the assigned MI damage.  If the total assigned damage is less than 20 points, the character takes no damage, sloughing off the episode as nothing more than the unfortunate nature of reality.

                Physical Resistance (PR) is a buffer against injuries (loss of PI).  Wearing armor can provide a temporary PR, or a creature with armor plates may have a natural PR.  Highly maneuverable beings also may have an innate PR.

                Energy Resistance (ER) is a similar buffer against loss of EI.

Initiative Modifier (Init) is a number added to an Initiative roll, a die roll made at the start of each round of conflict, to determine who goes first or responds.

Abilities:

                These are skills, proficiencies, and realms of knowledge.  They can be grouped by scope as broad, narrow, and focused.  Broad abilities provide less of an advantage for any specific action but are more likely to provide bonuses to actions.  Focused abilities provide higher bonuses but are less likely to come into play.  Narrow abilities fall in between.

                When performing an action, a character rolls against his or her “Fine Score.”  A Fine Score is the raw score plus bonuses from abilities.  A broad ability adds one point to the fine score for every point of ability; a narrow ability provides two points, and a focused ability adds three points.

All characters start out with one point in one broad ability, Campaign Assumptions—that is, the character can do what most normal people can do in the world.  If most people are literate in the predominant language, so are the characters (unless they choose to take a disadvantage that disallows it.)  If one were to run a role-playing game based on ordinary life around the year 2000, Campaign Assumptions could equal a two-year college degree in liberal arts.

To gain one point in any one ability, the cost is one Ad Point.

                The following table is by no means complete, and is intended as a starting point to suggest some abilities for help in designing characters.  Note that the abilities listed below do not confer paranormal or supernatural powers.  (That is what advantages are for.)  However, they can help one use such powers more effectively.

The action roll:

When a character attempts to do something, an action roll is made.  The GM decides which raw score applies to the action and then which if any of the character’s abilities would add to that raw score, and a fine score is calculated.  It is up to the GM to determine the degree of difficulty of the specific task, and therefore whether to roll 1d10, 1d20, and so forth.  To succeed an action roll, one must roll less than or equal to one’s fine score.

A character with a sufficiently high ability modifier (enough ability points added up) should be assumed to be able to perform an action.  (For example, a skilled nurse should not have to make a check to give a shot, while someone unfamiliar with basic anatomy and having to guess where it goes would.)  Alternatively, a very difficult and skilled action may have a minimum ability requirement.  (For example, someone without special training would not be able to perform surgery at all.)  If the highest possible die roll is less than or equal to the fine score, no roll is ever needed.

The following table represents a general guideline for both suggested die rolls and special exemptions, both when a minimum ability is required or when having a certain minimum ability eliminates need of an action roll challenge.  It can also be used as a fallback when the GM’s ability to improvise is being overtaxed.

Energy and extended effort:

                If you do not choose to omit Energy Integrity from your campaign, a character can spend EI in any action that involves physical exertion (generally any action that uses Str, End, Agl, or Skl as a raw score) or prolonged, exhausting mental effort.  For each 5 EI sacrificed, one adds +1 to the fine score for one action roll, in addition to any relevant abilities applied.  The 5 EI are lost before the roll is made and are still lost if that roll fails.

Special Case of Action Rolls—Conflict:

                Action rolls as described above are when accomplishing tasks against passive resistance.  When the will of another being is interjected, who is also allowed an action roll, the two action rolls are pitted against each other.  The most obvious example of this is in combat, be it a melee with swords, an exchange of gun fire, a duel of wizards, or armies of all of the above facing off against each other.  However, the same rules of conflict apply in Moonstone to any situation in which characters direct their abilities against the interests of each other.  For example, if someone wants to try to steal a character’s purse, a conflict ensues, even though the defending character may never know what took place.

                Conflict basically follows this format.  It is divided into rounds.  In each round, all characters determine their initiative.  Those with the highest initiative either act first or choose to wait and see what their opponents do and respond.  Once a character directs an action against an opponent, the one directing the action attacks while the opponent defends.  A defend roll usually does not count as an action, but there are exceptions.  Attack rolls count as actions.  Unless characters have certain Advantages, they are each allowed one action per round, and thus one attack roll, but a defense roll against each attack directed against him or her.

                Conflict sequences are divided into six second rounds.  A round is divided into time segments based on initiative.  The conflicting individuals each roll a d12 and add his or her Init to the roll (and any other modifiers the situation or the GM imposes.)  Then, the one with the highest number goes first, and then actions are taken in descending order.

A character with a higher initiative can either act first or choose to react to what a selected opponent does.  If the person chooses to react, that person can interrupt that particular action but must wait until that person’s initiative score comes up; the interrupt happens at the same moment as the action itself is attempted.  Note that the actions of a person with a higher initiative may also prevent a person of lower initiative from carrying certain actions to begin with, without choosing to wait.

Note that in Moonstone the “Initiative Modifier,” abbreviated “Init,” is an Integrity that modifies a die roll, while “Initiative” itself is the end result of adding the die roll and the modifier.

                An attack roll is a roll made in conflict against an opponent.  It can be anything from a sword fight or gunshot to something more subtle as an attempted burglary or attempt to read someone’s mind.

                To make an attack, one starts with the relevant raw score and adds bonuses to figure a fine score, and then adds an additional 1d20.  The ending number is the attack score.  A defending character has to beat this value.

                The defense score is the sum of the relevant raw score and bonuses (creating a fine score) plus a d20, producing a defense score.  The defense score must equal or exceed the attack score to foil the attack.  If less than the attack score, the attack action is successful.

                All of the above so far has ignored Energy.  Conflict is exhausting.  For each point of PI or MI lost, a character also loses 1 point of EI, unless an ER greater than zero absorbs some of this loss.  (Points of loss prevented by PR or MR are not lost from EI either.)  Additionally, each combat action lowers EI by 5, unless specified otherwise by a special ability description.

A character can purposefully overextend one’s self and expend additional EI can increase certain forms of combat actions or defenses—one “gives a little more”; each 5 points of EI forfeited can add +1 to one’s fine score to an attack roll using melee weapons or hand-to-hand combat.  (Ranged weapons such as bows and guns do not have this option.  As a rule of thumb for spells or use of advantages, if the special attack involves any exertion on the character’s part, then EI may be spent to increase it.  Hurling a fireball may be exhausting, but pointing a lightning bolt does not.  A telepathic attack can be overextended this way.)  One can add +1 to a defense roll for 5 points of EI.  One can also add +2 Init for 5 points of EI.  ER does not buffer any of these actions.  It is therefore possible for a character to gather up all of one’s strength and deliver a considerable blow against a superior foe, but doing so is very exhausting.

                A character at 25% maximum EI or less acts at –2 Init each round and loses –1 to both attack and defense roll fine scores.  (The character can offset this by spending EI as outlined above.  And on a similar note, an asthmatic can smoke a pack of cigarettes.)

Damage:

                Damage is delivered in many forms, be it from exposure to the elements, falling, or from combat wounds.  Below is a listing of basic damage types and examples of each.  The type of damage done is significant when certain advantages come into play.  For example, a flame salamander is immune to fire-based damage.

Each time a character loses one PI or MI, that person loses one EI as well.

Crossover shock is an unusual form of injury, in which a person’s sense of reality is damaged.  It is not the same as horror; one can experience other emotions—even having an enjoyable time—while experiencing it.  (Try going to Las Vegas.)  It comes into play if characters travel into alternate realities.  It also can come up if characters discover that reality as they knew it was not what they believed it to be, such as a person from our familiar, mundane world seeing a dragon for the first time.

Advantages:

                General advantages have an advantage rating, indicating overall level of power. The higher the rating, the higher the ad point cost of that ability.

                Scaled advantages are point based.  One spends a point to activate the ability.  The duration of the ability after spending each point, the overall effect of each point, and so forth goes into figuring out the cost of each point.  Most magic systems would fall into the category of scaled advantages, as would psionics.  Many other special abilities that can only be used in a limited manner would also qualify.  A spell is an effect generated by a scaled advantage.

                Done correctly, a scaled advantage should equal a general ability in cost if it ends up giving the same ability with the same limitations and duration, requiring the same amount of work on the part of the character to activate the ability.  Usually, a scaled advantage will one on one appear to cost more for the same ability if the scaled advantage is a versatile one.  The numbers unfortunately will not always cooperate to maintain this symmetry, and therefore GM intervention may be needed when designing one’s own scaled advantages.

Bear in mind that a person able to fly continuously will not necessarily fly for 24 hours continuously; characters (usually) need sleep and have to stay on the ground to interact with most people, (unless you’re running a weirder campaign.)  Therefore, a person with a scaled advantage that allows flight alone, equivalent to flying V, that grants that the person wishes to fly about an hour a day, every day, and up to five hours in a pinch has the same cost as just having flight V.  Note that it may be game mechanically simpler to have the latter, but the rules for the former are useful for calculating other advantages.  Additionally, spending less Ad points grants a more limited flying ability that might still fit many players’ character concepts.

                What follows in this reference stems ultimately from this one page, with the above mentioned fudging as needed to maintain balance.

                And yes, one must have at least one point of a scaled advantage to use zero-point spells available to that advantage.  One can still cast zero-point spells if all of one’s points are spent, however.

                Specific Advantages are listed in a separate reference, the Manual of Unnatural Power.

Disadvantages:

These include anything that limits the character.  When designing a character, their formal purpose is to provide a means of generating balance; a character can have additional Ad points to spend while maintaining the same CV.  However, their main purpose should be to help define a character. Disadvantages follow the same rules as general advantages, but in reverse. Lower case roman numerals are used to indicate their negative point value.

            Additionally, many disadvantages take the form of diminished basic raw scores or other statistics, as outlined in the basic rules of character creation.  One may also modify advantages with restrictions that will lower the overall rating of the advantage, thus lowering its cost.  Some restrictions are specific to certain advantages, and are outlined with the advantage in the Manual of Unnatural Power.  Others are more generalized, and are outlined below.

            A disadvantage at rating zero or less is not a disadvantage at all, but simply a matter of character development.

Room for improvement:

I will admit the disadvantage system as it is currently written in the Book of Banes lacks the elegant simplicity of the Manual of Unnatural Power. A revision is forthcoming! In the mean time, be sure to itemize your deductions for a greater return. (When a game system sounds like U.S. tax laws, it’s time for a revision!)

Under some circumstances, it may be possible to describe the exact same disadvantage using several different sets of rules.  It is my hope that for the sake of balance, most of the time these parallel descriptions of the same thing would be of equal value.  If not, the one that favors the character (has the higher Ad point reward) takes precedence.  A character cannot “double-dip”—one cannot gain Ad points twice for the same disadvantage.  However, one can draw points twice for two different disadvantages caused by the same curse.  For example, a character with froggy skin with a dependency on water would also have the disadvantage of an unusual appearance.  However, the character could not also claim at the same time a vulnerability to deserts or other settings in which water is scarce, because the water dependency has already been claimed.

Note that there may be several different ways to create essentially the same character.  The method that makes the best economic use of Ad points should be used.  However, GMs are encouraged to introduce “fudge factor” modifiers as needed if the best choice of numbers generate a character that appears too unbalanced.  For more information ask your GM or a tax professional.

Paired Disadvantages:

                Some disadvantages are modifiers to advantages.  Rather than having a fixed rating, they modify the rating of the accompanying advantage.  Common sense should be used in deciding which modifiers are and are not relevant to particular advantages.  They should not reduce the advantage rating into a negative range (thus making it into a disadvantage) unless having the ability with the paired disadvantage actually is worse than having nothing at all.  Bear in mind that some advantages and disadvantages, particularly Transformation and Involuntary transformation, are acquired separately even though doing so might seem to violate the duplication principles above.

 The Book of Banes outlines disadvantages and gives examples.

Character Destruction: when MI reaches zero:

MI is a measurement of sanity.  It is lowered by psychological injuries and stress and raised by rest, therapy, or other forms of healing.  However, when it reaches zero, several possibilities are opened up.

First, a character could die.  This is not inevitable, but if the player is agreeable or wishes to start over with a new character, then this option is perfectly acceptable.

Second, the character could take on one or more insanity disadvantages.  One rating iv disadvantage or otherwise a total of –5 points worth should be a general rule of thumb.  Alternatively, a player may opt for additional points worth (such as taking on a rating v insanity) and collecting the difference in extra Ad points.  In any event, the character’s overall CV should be lowered by 5, but the role-playing value of the character increased considerably.

Death and Near-Death: when PI reaches zero:

Option 1: The most simple rule is that when PI reaches zero, a character dies.  This rule is seldom used but perfectly viable if one does not use a lot of combat, if the game is a single session rather than an ongoing campaign, or if having characters survive long is not important.

Option 2: A second option is that if PI reaches zero, the character is unconscious but not dead.  If PI goes below –10, the character is dying, and will lose one PI every 6 seconds until either healed for at least one point, given basic CPR, or otherwise given some sort of attention (a successful action roll of any sort pertaining to keeping characters from dying.)  A character is dead at –25 PI.

Option 3: A more dramatic option involves a deck of cards rather than a die roll, giving the near-death experience the unusual drama that it probably deserves.  What happens depends on what card is drawn:

A number of variants are possible.  Thomas Weigel, one of Moonstone’s original playtesters, invented his own deck design using index cards.  So far as of this writing, a tarot deck-based death sequence has not been offered, but would be in character with some campaigns, provided one kept perspective on the fact that it’s a game.

Exhaustion and Beyond: When EI reaches zero:

When EI falls below 25% maximum, the character suffers deficiencies (as detailed earlier.)  When it reaches zero, however, the character collapses from exhaustion.  A character at zero or negative EI can take no action roll and cannot make defense rolls.

Below –10 EI, characters take one point of PI loss for each point of EI lost.  For example, a character brought to –27 EI is at –17 EI.  This rule does not apply to EI lost from loss of PI, such as damage from combat.

Characters at or below zero EI cannot spend EI to extend actions.  Nor can characters spend more EI than enough to bring them to zero.