Episode 2: The Conversion Decision!!!

There are really four types of ninja technique in Naruto. The three most easily recognizable ones are Genjutsu (Eye Techniques), Ninjutsu (Ninja Techniques) and Taijutsu (Body Techniques).

In BESM, it's easy to convert them as such:

Genjutsu

• Cost: 4 pts./level
• Relevant Stat: Mind

Genjutsu covers various hypnotic and illusionary techniques used by ninja. It tends not to create any direct effects or attacks, but can be used to misdirect and fool others.

Basically, this provides the character with points that can be used to acquire the attributes under the Eye Techniques list. Such attributes are designated "genjutsu" and are thus defined as follows.

To use genjutsu, one must have one's hands free (to perform the various hand seals required). In addition, it costs Chakra Points equal to twice the point cost of the genjutsu to use. For continuous effects, such an invocation lasts a minute, but for more instaneous effects, the chakra must be spent with each use. However, the effect may be activated at a lower level in order to reduce the amount of chakra spent.

All genjutsu use Mind as their relevant stat (if any), and replace attribute rolls using any other attribute with a Mind rolls when using genjutsu.

• Level 1: You have 10 points to spend on Eye Techniques.
• Level 2: You have 20 points to spend on Eye Techniques.
• Level 3: You have 30 points to spend on Eye Techniques.
• Level 4: You have 40 points to spend on Eye Techniques.
• Level 5: You have 50 points to spend on Eye Techniques.
• Level 6: You have 60 points to spend on Eye Techniques.

Eye Techniques

• Appearance
• Art of Distraction
• Environmental Control (Light, Darkness, Silence only)
• Illusion
• Invisibility
• Mind Shield
• Stealth

Ninjutsu

• Cost: 4 pts./level
• Relevant Stat: Soul

Ninjutsu is kind of a catch-all name for any technique that utilizes chakra without being an illusionary or summoning technique. It could be said to resemble magic, in short.

Basically, this provides the character with points that can be used to acquire the attributes under the Ninjutsu Techniques list. Such attributes are designated "ninjutsu" and are thus defined as follows.

To use ninjutsu, one must have one's hands free (to perform the various hand seals required). In addition, it costs Chakra Points equal to twice the point cost of the ninjutsu to use. For continuous effects, such an invocation lasts a minute, but for more instaneous effects, the chakra must be spent with each use. However, the effect may be activated at a lower level in order to reduce the amount of chakra spent.

All genjutsu use Soul as their relevant stat (if any), and replace attribute rolls using any other attribute with a Soul rolls when using ninjutsu.

• Level 1: You have 10 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.
• Level 2: You have 20 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.
• Level 3: You have 30 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.
• Level 4: You have 40 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.
• Level 5: You have 50 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.
• Level 6: You have 60 points to spend on Ninja Techniques.

Ninja Techniques

• Astral Projection
• Contamination
• Environmental Control (Temperature only)
• Exorcism
• Extra Arms
• Force Field
• Healing
• Heavy Armour
• Meld
• Metamorphosis
• Mind Control
• Regeneration
• Servant
• Special Attack (Any)
• Special Defense
• Special Movement
• Spirit Ward
• Swarm
• Telekinesis
• Teleport
• Tunnelling

Taijutsu

• Cost: 4 pts./level
• Relevant Stat: Body

Taijutsu covers straight martial arts techniques. It tends to enhance physical capabilities, whether they be muscular or sensory in nature.

Basically, this provides the character with points that can be used to acquire the attributes under the Body Techniques list. Such attributes are designated "taijutsu" and are thus defined as follows.

Unlike genjutsu or ninjutsu, taijutsu does not require hand seals. However, it costs Stamina Points equal to four times the point cost of the genjutsu to use. For continuous effects, such an invocation lasts a minute, but for more instaneous effects, the stamina must be spent with each use. However, the effect may be activated at a lower level in order to reduce the amount of stamina spent.

All taijutsu use Body as their relevant stat (if any), and replace attribute rolls using any other attribute with a Body rolls when using taijutsu.

It should be noted that nearly all Special Attacks bought as taijutsu should have the Melee drawback.

• Level 1: You have 10 points to spend on Body Techniques.
• Level 2: You have 20 points to spend on Body Techniques.
• Level 3: You have 30 points to spend on Body Techniques.
• Level 4: You have 40 points to spend on Body Techniques.
• Level 5: You have 50 points to spend on Body Techniques.
• Level 6: You have 60 points to spend on Body Techniques.

Body Techniques

• Combat Mastery
• Damn Healthy!
• Elasticity
• Extra Attacks
• Focused Damage
• Heightened Awareness
• Heightened Senses
• Jumping
• Kensei
• Light Armour
• Massive Damage
• Sixth Sense
• Size Change
• Special Attack (Accurate, Auto-Fire, Incapacitating, Penetrating, Stun, Tangle, Extra Energy, Inaccurate, Low Penetration, Melee, No Damage, Self-Destruct, Slow, Static, and Unreliable only)
• Speed
• Super-Strength

New attributes and special bloodline conversions to come.

"Hey... you're that ninja."

Yeah, I'm hooked on Naruto. So the idea of converting it to BESM has crossed my mind about five thousand times by now.

But strangely, I have yet to do it. Well, until now, anyway.

The trick to Naruto is that it has a wonderfully well-developed "magic system" already. And rather than bend Naruto to BESM, I'd rather bend BESM to Naruto.

In BESM, you usually spend Energy Points to use certain attributes, like magic. This has a close parallel to "Chakra", the inner force ninja draw upon to power their various techniques in Naruto. The difference is that Chakra is not innate; instead, one converts one's own "stamina" into Chakra. And stamina can be said to be derived from one's physical health. But Energy Points are purely derived from Mind and Spirit.

So... eliminate Hit Points and Energy Points. Instead, Body x 10 gives us Stamina Points. However, we need to determine how well one can convert Stamina into Chakra. Mind seems to be shown as the strongest factor in doing so.

Essentially, if one's Mind is higher than both Body and Soul, one may convert Stamina Points into Chakra Points on a one for one basis. If one's Mind is only higher than Body or Soul, one may convert Stamina Points into Chakra Points on a four Stamina Points for three Chakra Points basis. If one's Mind is lower than both Body and Soul, one may convert Stamina Points into Chakra Points on a two Stamina Points for one Chakra Point basis.

One also has a maximum to the highest amount of Chakra they can produce equal to their Soul x 10. This is called one's Chakra Limit.

For a better guide as to how Chakra works in the series itself, see here.

I'll talk about the three types of ninja technique (taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu) in Naruto in the days to come.

More Dread.

Doing more Dread while it's fresh on the brain seems like a good idea. Apologies to Unknown Armies and Risus in advance.

Checks are used to determine your success or failure in an endeavor. You just roll 1d6. If the total is above your attribute, you fail. If the total is equal to or less than your attribute, you succeed, and the number on the die is called your check result. Your check result gives a rough value of success.

Compassion is used when assisting somebody else.

Hope is used when making any check related to pure luck.

Meat is used when performing any physical task.

Resolve is used when trying to shake off stress or perform an act of mental fortitude.

Stability is used when trying to convince or befriend others.

Anyway, skills.

Every character has a profession. They then pick three skills related to that profession.

Each character also has a background. They then pick a skill related to that background.

Each character, lastly, has a hobby. They then pick a skill related to that hobby.

For example, Nick is a cop (profession) from the country (background) that makes a hobby of hunting (hobby).

So an example of the skills he could have would be:

• Profession: Car Driving, Police Firearms, Law Enforcement
• Background: Wilderness Survival
• Hobby: Wildlife Hunting

A profession skill allows you to simply take 2 as your check result when performing any check related to it, before and without rolling any dice.

A background skill adds 1 to your check result (if successful) when performing any check related to it.

You may reroll a hobby skill if you like when performing any check related to it, ignoring the initial roll. However, you must take the result of the reroll.

You may have the same skill in more than one category. The results are cumulative.

Some skills may grant extra knowledge. No checks are made to determine a character's knowledge - a GM should determine whether or not a character would know something in a reasonable fashion.

Next: Equipment.

More or less, equipment mainly enables certain skills. For example, you can't use any Firearms skill without a gun. And you aren't likely to use any Computer skill without an computer interface. First Aid is pretty tough without first aid supplies. And so on.

Doing such a skill without the proper equipment (if possible at all) reduces the maximum check result to 1. An example would be trying to bind and clean a bad wound in the wild with nothing more than torn clothes to work with.

Then, there are overkill items. For example, a overkill item for a Firearms skill would be a machine gun, and for a First Aid skill, it would be a fully-stocked hospital. Overkill items represent massive resources available to put towards one skill or another. When using an overkill item, the minimum check result is 1.

Lastly, there are charm items. Charm items represent some sort of supernatural protection, or something your character gains strength from. For example, Father Warren might have his rosary to ward off evil influence, or Joe Bob might feel safer when he cocks his daddy's shotgun. The upside to a charm item is that you may use it to cancel a Terror once per Horror. The downside is that if you ever lose it, you immediately gain three Marks, which remain even if you retrieve the item later.

A character may always start with items appropriate to his skills, assuming they may reasonably be carried and are appropriate for the society he lives. A character may also start with one charm item. Overkill items are almost always plot devices and are rarely ever actually owned by characters for extended periods of time.

As always, more to come.

My Profound Apologies

Another lazy day. Prepping for my tabletop Planescape game, so that doesn't leave much room for working on this.

So today you get my dirty laundry.

It's Rifts adapted to some system which may (or may not be) d20 Modern. Rifts is a terrible guilty pleasure of mine, but there's really no excuse for something on this scale.

No real clean organization to the notes here; really just kind of a random collection. Make sense of it yourself... or don't. I think there are some neat ideas, particularly in the Advanced Classes, but a lot of it is a real groaner to me now; I think some of the abilities and races could really stand to be tweaked and adjusted.

Maybe someday I'll return to this. Maybe China will invade Haiti, too!

Rifts Redeux.txt

Creeping Dread...

I was thinking of showing off my gnomes today, because somebody liked my gnomes, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready to show my gnomes over the internet. You know, it's kind of a private thing, to show off your gnomes.

So instead I'm going to do more for Dread.

Here's some additional ways of earning Marks I thought up in the past 24 hours.

• Whenever a character (or perhaps even player) completely dismisses the threat verbally, regardless of whether or not the statement is true. Examples include "What's a vampire gonna do to us during the day?" or "Cannibal clowns? You obviously need a psych eval."
• Provoking the horror in some fashion, or deliberately trying to get its attention.

Some confusion was apparent as to how Marks worked exactly. You can use Marks against any attribute, with the attribute used showing what sort of thing you can inflict. A Terror on the meat attribute might mean a physical disaster, but a Compassion Terror might mean abandoning one's friends or perhaps even becoming violent towards another person. Speaking of which, it's time to get on to the attributes.

• Compassion: How 'connected' you are to other people, and how likely you are to feel for others.
• Hope: How willing you are to believe in a positive outcome.
• Meat: How strong your physical capabilities are, overall.
• Resolve: How likely you are to be able to keep to a course of action, no matter what.
• Stability: How tight your grip on sanity is, and how capable your are in coping with the bizarre.

And a listing of sample Terrors for each:

• Compassion (Minor Terror): You decide not to help the person get inside when the zombies are pulling him out.
• Compassion (Major Terror): You decide to shut and lock the door to prevent anybody from getting in, zombies or otherwise.
• Compassion (Catastrophic Terror): You hit your friend over the head and throw him outside for the zombies to eat. There's only so much food and water available in here, after all.

• Hope (Minor Terror): You decide not to call the police. Who's going to believe a story about vampires?
• Hope (Major Terror): You decide not go with your friends on the vampire hunt. They're all gonna die.
• Hope (Catastrophic Terror): You go to the vampires' lair and ask to become one. Humanity doesn't have a chance anyway.

• Meat (Minor Terror): While the serial killer is chasing you, you drop something.
• Meat (Major Terror): While the serial Killer is chasing you, you fall down and have to struggle to flee.
• Meat (Catastrophic Terror): While the serial killer is chasing you, you fall and break your ankle. There's no fleeing now.

• Resolve (Minor Terror): When you see the cultist has no face, you freeze up.
• Resolve (Major Terror): When you see the cultist has no face, you break and flee.
• Resolve (Catastrophic Terror): When you see the cultist has no face, your heart suddenly seizes up.

• Stability (Minor Terror): When you find out society is run by aliens as a meat farm, you immediately start to obsess on it.
• Stability (Major Terror): When you find out society is run by aliens as a meat farm, you break down in hysterics and write up flyers warning everybody about it.
• Stability (Catastrophic Terror): When you find out society is run by aliens as a meat farm, you pick up a knife and begin killing everybody you suspect of being an alien plant.

More to come: an actual vague system, equipment, sample Horrors, etc. Maybe tomorrow, maybe later this week.

Initial Dread...

So I've watched two horror movies in the space of one weekend and of course, that gets me thinking about horror RPGs. I've come to ths realization that there's a definite dearth of horror systems I actually like, and a dearth of them in general. You have the venerable old Call of Cthulhu with both d20 and percentile, and the goofiness of its insanity system has already been well-documented. Though it's true that people in Lovecraft's tales tended to lose their grip on reality, they tended to do it at the climax of the tale rather than just any old time - but the sanity system tends to produce random results that can very well result in somebody going mad over the first minor critter they witness. Many other systems use fear checks or whatever with similarly random results. So, instead, I've decided to put fear in the hands of the GameMaster (GM).

And so we have the beginnings of Dread, which will theoretically be my horror system.

There are several thoughts I came up with thinking how to design the actual system.

• First, the creature(s), situation, mcguffin, whatever the players face is called the Horror.
• Direct conflict with the Horror is intensely undesirable. However, avoiding conflict with the Horror is inevitably even worse.
• Physical combat takes a backseat in this system. Mental damage is even more important than the physical. Physical combat should be undesirable in general, and contain crippling or lethal consquences.
• The game will be more adversarial than most. The GM will be forced to be unrelenting in taking characters apart, and things like 'fudging' should be discouraged.
• The system is made for one-shots. Campaigns will be supported but ultimately things like character creation are shallow in order to facilitate on-the-spot creation (especially with the relatively high fatality rate for a game).

Character's attributes will be roughly measured from 0 (pitiful) to 6 (master).

One of the key mechanics will be Marks. What Marks do is represent the enroaching doom the characters face when confronting (or being victimized by) a Horror. Characters will recieve Marks for all sorts of situations, and it should be noted that the GM should be handing them out like candy during a typical session. A Player Character should theoretically gain 3 or 4 Marks a session, with a bottom end of 1 or 2 or a top end of 5 or 6. PCs can gain Marks for the following situations, for example:

• Being the first person in the group to be noticed by or come into contact with the Horror.
• Deliberately confronting the Horror, physically or otherwise.
• Becoming isolated from the group.
• Killing another human being.
• Performing any task which is acquiescing to the to the Horror's need.
• Making a critical failure on a task.

Specific Horrors may inflict Marks for specific situations. A serial killer that haunts people's dreams may cause players to earn a Mark for every night they sleep. An otherdimensional, undefinable apparition may cause people to earn Marks for simply witnessing it. A haunted house may cause Marks for each time you open a door. Hordes of zombies may inflict Marks for every day you spend in hiding. And so on.

Ultimately, Marks will build up to a point where a GM will want to use them. Ultimately, Marks can be used in a wide variety of ways, but their ultimate purpose is to give players the sort of bad luck and situations that horror characters inevitably get themselves into. By expending a player's Marks equal to an attribute, the GM can inflict a minor Terror on them. If he spends Marks equal to twice an attribute, he can inflict a major Terror, and if he spends Marks equal to three times an attribute, he can inflict a catastrophic Terror. Terrors are meant to represent the moment in horror where something goes wrong. Let's say a player is fleeing from a pack of hungry, hungry zombies and the GM has decided to inflict a Terror on him (a particularly good moment to do so) using his Meat attribute (the attribute which governs physical actions). A minor Terror might be that suddenly he comes to the end of an alley, and there's a fence, and has to make a successful check to flee up the fence before the zombies get to him. A major Terror might be slipping and falling, and he has to engage in combat with a zombie or two to successfully flee again. A catastrophic terror is that he slips on a piece of trash and hits his head - at which point only another PC can save him. As a rule, minor Terrors tend to inflict more skill checks, skill checks with the potential to make the situation worse. Major Terrors tend to force a major error of one sort or another. Catastrophic Terrors essentially means the GM forces more or less whatever he likes on your character, whether that be injury, madness, or worse.

The only way to truly rid oneself of Marks (outside of Terrors) is to overcome the Horror. When the Horror is overcome, all Marks go away. At least until the next Horror.

More to come.

The Forge: Dwarves!

I had hoped to show off my neat Tarot-card based system, but alas, it has escaped me and I can't find it. So instead you get a look at dwarves for my homebrewn D&D setting. How they would despise my laziness!

My major complaint with the modern dwarf in D&D is that it's kind of become a lukewarm race. Not quite Norse as barbarians, not quite as hardy as duergar, not quite as skilled as gnomes, not quite as fearsome as drow, etc.

And so I decided to use the deep dwarves from the Monster Manual, and kick them up a notch. That 'kick' comes up with the simple fact that in my setting, dwarves are the major bulwark against the chromatic dragons. Their eternal enemies are the dragons and their lackeys, the kobolds.

Just setting up dwarves as "the folk that kick dragon ass in the dark" already makes them feel more epic in my mind. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Dwarf

The people of the deep, dwarves are best known for being the race to plumb deepest into the thick earth and stone of the land, and create virtual paradises out of nothing more than stone and soil. Their wars against the ancient wyrms beneath the world are things of legend, and they often war against the wyrms' servants - the kobolds - in order to keep their axes sharp.

• +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Dwarf base land speed is 20 feet. However, dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
• Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 90 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.
• Stonecunning: This ability grants a dwarf a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.
• Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves may treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
• Stability: A dwarf gains a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
• Light Sensitivity: Dwarves are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
• +3 racial bonus on saving throws against poison.
• +3 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.
• +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against monsters of the dragon type.
• +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the dragon type of large size or larger. Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too.
• +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items.
• +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon.
• Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass dwarf ’s fighter class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.