Where Are We Now?

I have a draft of the "first chapter." It is 24 pages long and covers--at a high level--almost all if not all of the major concepts that we need people to understand (the last few posts have been pieces of that, when I have edited it I will put the whole thing up).

What Next?
What next is a couple of things. At this point there are several major things to do conceptually before the book can be "completed."

1. Install InDesign. I moved computers and I have to re-install it. That sounds trivial I'm sure but I have to hope that my decommissioning it on my old PC has wiped the serial number clean so I can reinstall on my new PC.
2. Analyze Bio-Power Design. The "bio-power" list is sort of the super-powered core-of-the-game above the Generic Archetype Traits (which really are "the core of the game."). Bio-Powers include all the super powers, a few 'magical powers' (there is a magic section but some of the abilities will still go in Bio-Powers). It has all the different Armor and Attack categories. Most of these have been tested and costed but I need to refresh them again. This is time consuming and will involve a bit more testing even so.
3. Formalize the Cyborg and Psionic Ability lists. These are relatively mature with the exception of ESP which still needs a lot of work.
4. Figure out what we are doing with Chi powers. Chi Martial Arts abilities heavily leverage the Generic Archetype Traits list now and that's a good thing: we can focus on actual mystical abilities. Unfortunately there are still some questions as to how best to do that.
5. Finish up the Magic Powers List.
6. Write the back-of-the-book sections that detail Scale Numbers, Modifying Archetype Traits, Game Designer Notes that are complex (how we structured TAP costs), and how to run leveling up MMO-Style "adventure games." None of this is going to be front-loaded (25 pages of over-view is still probably a bit too much) but these sections are relatively light weight compared to what they could be.

-Marco

Out here at Comic Con

So I'm out here in San Diego at Comic Con wich is a terrible place to get JAGS work done--but I'm still thinking on it. As I've started writing the "official" documents for rules a few things have come up.

1. Thomas points out that for characters with a huge list of attacks even a 1/3rd the charge reduction may not be enough. That's true.
2. A potential solution to the Armed / Unarmed STR issue (that, if you are going to use a bladed weapon that makes your HTH damage all Penetrating each point of STR is worth more than if it just does bare-handed Impact damage) is to simply count up your A-Cost in HTH damage and then apply that to the weapon (AP claws? HTH Disintegration Attack? A sword? Etc.). This is simple and elegant--but it has a potential problem as well. We'll see.

Let's look in a little more detail before I run out to the convention center for more interviews.

Many Attacks

We've done some testing and, in fact, having a ranged attack and a HTH attack at the same level is only slightly better than having one or the other. About 1% since it only applies in the simulator to, at most, one attack. In many battles (when the attacker is ranged) it doesn't apply at all: you just stand there firing your ranged attacks at each other.

So, in fact, charging 1 AP for a similar attack might make sense (for people just joining in: if you have super strength and want "heat vision", assuming both attacks just do IMP damage and nothing special like ignoring armor, then it turns out that if you paid for one, getting the other 'at the same level' probably shouldn't cost all that much).

Now, right now the rule is that we give you a 1/3rd cost discount--but what if we went back to the original plan: you can get another "basic attack" for 1 AP?

Well, the difficulty here is this: how do you define a "basic attack?" I mean there are some simple parameters (it should have a rate of fire for 1 shot for 5 REA ... or, you know, maybe 6 like a kick? It shouldn't do Resisted Attack effects, continuing damage, ignoring armor, and so on). But what about +1 to hit large weapon bonus? What about rifle-range vs. handgun range? What if the attack cost 7 REA? What if it cost 3 REA?

The rule itself isn't that complex but the parameters around it are. Also, worse, the magician or super-hero archer guy not only have "a lot of attacks" but often their attacks are pretty exotic. The guy has a "blast attack" but then can follow it up with an "acid burn attack" or armor piercing or "sonic devastator" or "area of effect" or "only hits enemies" or whatever.

The problem is that if we make these super cheap then we'll tend to see a /lot/ of that. If you can get an "Ignores armor" shot for +1 AP then who wouldn't. So our original solution was to designate a lot of that E - for Exotic and not give the discount.

Do we go back to that? Or is there something else we can do?

The problem is that of tagging each attack type (we had Standard, Periodic, and Exotic) and then having rules around that. It was complex and "heavy weight" and moving away from that screws some characters at the expense of simplicity.

What's the right call?

A-Cost Weapon Calculations

On the other end of the spectrum, if you have super strength (for example) and claws we determined you could just add up the A-Cost for both attacks, apply it to the 'weapon' (claws) and voila! You get your damage. It's easy.

This works and makes the A-Cost calculation do the "heavy lifting." It's even elegant.

So all we have to do is say "this is a 'weapon' and if you have it and extra Base Damage--whether from size, strength, or some other effect (Chi Power Field?)--you apply full A-Cost to that and that's what you hit for."

But there's a problem: what if my Super Strength itself has an enhancement or defect on it? What if it takes me 10 REA to "power up" my Super Strength? Then I'll hit harder than I would if I always had the super strength--and therefore my sword-hand strike should do more damage. But that's not so easy to calculate.

The basic equation is "take your Base Damage and add your weapon damage and the damage is of the weapon-type." That's basic but if your weapon is something outrageous (Disintegration punch) and, say, each point of damage costs an absurdly high 2 AP--and then you add 20pts of damage for 4 AP from charge-up super strength you are effectively getting disintegration punch damage very, very cheaply.

We don't want to encourage that loop-hole ... so what do we do?

Well, one thing is this: if you're doing that it's some decimal math but you can, in fact, divide your charge-up STR damage by the disintegration punch cost per-pt-of-damage and make it all come out balanced. No one will want to do that--but it's possible. Writing the rules for that will be a bitch and expecting people to actually do it may be naive.

Another thing to do is just not allow that kind of stacking: if you have an attack (a weapon) like the hypothetical "disintegration punch" then we can say "sorry--it does NOT stack with your strength ... even if it sounds like it should." Or even: "Sure it does--but using the A-Cost calculation--so if your strength is 'charge up STR' you don't get any bonus for that when figuring out your D-Punch damage" (I'm sure I've lost readers here--the only way to explain this clearly would be some examples I don't have time to write).

But the up-shot is that there are all kinds of complex interactions here we need to track and figuring out which ones deserve our time and effort isn't trivial.

-Marco

More Revisions to the text

What I'm Working On Right Now
I am polishing up the text that was posted and adding some key sections. I may post a revised version later this week.

JAGS Circle in Google+
Post a link to your G+ profile and I will add you to my JAGS circle on Google+.

-Marco

Buying JAGS Traits

Buying Archetype Traits

JAGS Revised Archetypes is, at its core, a big shopping list of powers divided into sections (Cybernetics, Bio-Powers, etc.) with costs rated in Archetype Points (and sometimes, for a few abilities, Character Points). Once you know what categories are legal to buy from and how many points you have to spend you’re ready to start shopping. Let’s look at what you’ll need to know to figure out how to buy Archetype Traits.

Key Concepts

Here are the key concepts to keep in mind when buying Archetype Traits (Traits can also be referred to as ‘abilities’ or ‘powers’).

v  Powers and characters are often described by “Levels” (usually each 8 AP a character has is a Level but it can be a little more complex in some games). Powers are often sold in “Levels” as well (but sometimes 4 AP represents a Level).

v  For the power, how is cost determined? Is it based on Levels? A Flat cost? Is it based on the Total AP of the character? A combination?

v  For Attacks, there are some concepts like Armed and Unarmed attacks as well as additive attacks. H

Levels in JAGS Revised Archetypes

Let’s talk about “levels.” The term “levels” in JAGS Revised Archetypes can mean a collection of things (although thankfully the concepts are all related). Let’s take a look at what we mean by “levels.”

Term	Meaning	When it’s used
Level (of the character)	Each 8 AP a character is given to buy Archetype abilities with is a level of the character. A character built on 32 AP would be called a “level 4 character” if anyone’s asking.	It’s used, usually, in adventure type games where the PCs are fighting opponents and getting treasure and “going up in level” on a regular basis. Any game that might play like one of the MMO’s is one that might use the concept of character Levels.
Level (of an attack)	Each 8 AP you spend on an attack power is one full “level.” Usually the first level “Level 1” gives more damage than any level (“Level +”) thereafter. If a 32 AP character spent 16 AP on “plasma beam” they have a L2 (Level 2) plasma beam.	This is used when determining whether you are buying the “first level” of an attack or one of the later (L+) levels. It is also used, sometimes, when calculating specific effects of an attack (an Armor-Piercing attack might get +10 PEN Value per Level—so if you spent 12 AP on it you’d get +15 to the PEN score).
Level (of the character class)	When you get to the back-of-the-book section on character classes you’ll find some special rules for characters who are expected to find and use treasure. Some ‘classes’ may be expected to use more found gear than others (a sword fighter expected to find and use magical swords vs. a monk who only uses his bare hands). If you are playing with character classes, each level is still 8 AP but as some of those points are expected to come from gear you’ll look on a table and see how many points a character of your class has to spend discretionarily.	This is used when doing MMO-style adventure gaming and the GM is using our rules for distributing gear and the Wield and Wear rules.
Levels of GATs	In the Generic Archetype Trait (GAT) section there are some GAT’s that are only 4 AP per Level.	Despite the fact that we often list things in 4 or 8 AP chunks you can, if you want, buy them with any number of AP’s. You just need to do the math.

Why 8 AP Chunks? What were we thinking that we decided to price everything in 8 AP chunks? What’s magical about 8 anyway? Why do we recommend that characters be given AP’s in 8 AP chunks? Here’s our thinking: For a variety of technical reasons we didn’t want to price everything “by the point.” For one thing, that would usually involve decimal numbers (you get .80 points of damage per AP!) and, for another, we had to make some decisions about how many APs we wanted people to have (we thought that building a character on, say, 16 or 24 APs felt better than, say, 125 to 190).. When you are dealing with an ability priced by level you’ll usually see a table that gives you the values for 8 AP and 4 AP groups. You can do the math if you want to spend 1, 3, 5, or whatever APs but our experience is that usually that’s a good start for most people.

Buying Attacks

When buying an attack power or a power that includes some attacks (imagine a telepathic character with the ability to both read and attack minds) there are some specific rules to be aware of. These are:

v  Levels. Attacks are sold in “levels” meaning the first 8 AP (or fraction thereof) you invest in an attack always does more damage than each additional AP.

v  Armed vs. Unarmed. Attacks that increase your Base Damage (HTH damage) score such as super strength come in two varieties: Armed and Unarmed. If you will commonly use a bladed weapon or otherwise perform a HTH PEN damage attack you must buy the Armed version of the power. If you will fight barehanded doing Impact damage you may buy the Unarmed version.

v  Stacking Attacks. Some attacks, like a knife or claws add to damage you do with your strength and size. If you have, for example, super strength and claws the two abilities add together (this is also true with ranged attacks: if you have a plasma bolt and a ‘super charger’ for it, they’ll add—but that’s more in the super hero realm).

v  A-Cost. Attacks have an A-Cost listing and that is used to determine whether or not you’ll pay full price for the attack. You only pay full price for your most expensive attack!

Attack Levels

When investing in an attack you will buy “levels” of it. Levels are 8 or 4 AP chunks that do a listed amount of damage. The first level (Level 1 or L1) will do more damage than all the levels (Level + or L+) thereafter. Let’s look at an example:

Damage Type	Level 1	Level +
Unarmed Hand to Hand damage	16 IMP	10 IMP
Sword Damage	12 PEN	9 PEN
Blaster Damage	13 IMP	9 IMP
Gun	11 PEN	9 PEN

Remember that Levels are 8 AP so if I spend 16 AP on Unarmed Punch damage I’ll get 16+10=+26 Punch Damage. If I spend 16 AP on a gun I’ll get 11+9 = 20 PEN damage bullets. I can choose to spend any number of AP’s I want—all I have to do is the math (rounding normally). If I want to spend 19 AP on a magical sword the damage will be 24 PEN (12 PEN Damage for the first 8 AP and then 12 PEN damage for the next 11).

Some Traits Don’t Sell Level 1 Damage

When you are looking at powers some of them will not sell a Level 1 version. This is done for a number of reasons (mainly simplicity) but keep in mind that there is usually some way to buy the initial version (we usually explain it in the specific rules).

Example: Gunslinger

Gunslinger [4 AP per Level]
Description: You deal more damage with your gun (you also get some extra Damage Points). Whether this is because you have a bigger gun, more powerful bullets, or some other reason (precision shooting?) is up to the characters and the nature of the game. This trait will work with any Ranged PEN attack the character uses. It applies to every shot.
Ability	Cost	A-Cost	Damage	DP
Gunslinger	4 AP	+2 AP	+2 PEN	+7 DP

This ability has no L1 or L+ listing (it happens to be L+ but you don’t need to know that). What that means is that the bonus to damage you get won’t change. If you invest 8 AP in Gunslinger you get +4 PEN damage and +14 DP. If you invest 24 AP in it (six levels) you get +12 PEN and +42 DP.

When we started testing JAGS we realized that the damage that was balanced for each AP changed after a starting point. This was because every JAGS character is “born with 10 Damage Points” (our standard test model had 14, in fact) so to overcome this and be balanced the first “level” of an attack had to do more damage for the points than each level after.

Stacking Attacks

Some attacks “work with others.” Our common example is claws and super strength: the super strength amplifies the claw damage. Another example is right above: Gunslinger. The ability adds +2 to the gun the character presumably already has. These are examples of “stacking attacks.”

Stacking attacks are usually identified in one of three ways:

v  The description says they add to another attack (like Gunslinger does)

v  The attack increases the character’s Base Damage (STR, BLD, or other HTH damage increase)

v  The attack’s A-Cost has a (+) in front of it (note that the A-Cost for Gunslinger is +2 AP)

When you buy a Stacking Attack there are a couple of things to be aware of.

1.       The A-Cost of the stacking attack is added to all the other attacks it could stack with when computing the A-Cost of your most expensive attack (which you will want to do if you have more than one attack because you only pay full points for your most expensive attack)

2.       You can only have one Level 1 attack in any stacking group. This means that if you buy Super Strength and get a Level 1 level of it you can’t then go and buy claws and get the Level 1 level of it—if you already bought the super strength you have to buy the Level+ Claws. Let’s see an example:

Super Strength [Levels]
Description: You’re super strong! Well, stronger than normal … stronger than you were before you bought the ability anyway. Super Strength gives the listed bonus to STR and DP.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	STR	DP
L1 Armed	10 AP	+8 AP	+12 PEN	+8
L1 Unarmed	10 AP	+8 AP	+16 IMP	+8
L+ Armed	4 AP	+3 AP	+3 PEN	+4
L+ Unarmed	4 AP	+3 AP	+4 IMP	+4

Slashing Claws
Description: You’ve got claws! Rawrrr! Claws deal PEN damage at Close (punch) range.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	Damage	REA
L1	8 AP	+8 AP	12 PEN	5 REA
L+	8 AP	+8 AP	9 PEN	5 REA

Okay, so the character wants both Claws and Super Strength. Firstly, since the character is going to deal PEN damage you can ignore all the Unarmed Super Strength. Secondly, what can you buy? Let’s see:

16 AP: Level 1 Super Strength, Level+ Claws. This does 12 + 9 = 17 PEN damage and gets +8 DP.

16 AP: Level + Super Strength, +1 Claws. This does 9 + 12 = 17 PEN damage and gets +8 DP.

Hey—it’s equal.

What you can’t do is get Level1 Claws and Level1 Super Strength: that would do 24 PEN damage for the same points.

Power Types

When you start shopping in JAGS Archetypes you’ll see listings that look something like this (these examples are often simplified for clarity):

Basic Ability (Fixed Cost)

A basic ability is simply described and given a cost. It has no levels and you can (generally) only purchase it once.

Night Vision [1 AP]

Description: You have the cat-like ability to see in the dark! Night vision allows you to ignore -4 points of Darkness Modifier and generally see “normally” in anything but pitch blackness.

Compound Ability

A compound ability usually mixes an attack with something else. This example ability does not have a Level 1 version which means that however many levels of it you purchase the effects the effects are constant (+20 Vibratory Field and +5 HTH Damage). If a character invests 24 AP in Vibration Shield they get 24 x 3 =72 Vibratory Field and +15 IMP HTH Damage.

Vibration Shield [Levels]
Description: Vrmmm--You can activate a humming field of vibratory force that surrounds your body! This both protects the character and can be used to deal damage at hand-to-hand range. Turning on the vibration shield takes a 5 REA Medium Action and, if it is knocked down, it can no longer be used to deal damage until it recovers (about 5 Rounds—30 seconds). The Vibratory Field is a Power Field (meaning all damage done to the character comes off the Vibratory Field first and each remaining point of the Vibratory Field counts as 1pt of PEN Defense). NOTE: the damage from the Vibration attack adds to HTH damage.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	Vibratory Field	Damage
Level +	8 AP	+4 AP	24 pts	+5 IMP HTH

Basic Attack

The basic ranged attack has a Level 1 and Level+ rating. The first 8 AP (or fraction thereof) invested buy at the Level 1 cost. After that, each 8 AP invested (or a fraction) buy damage at the Level+ rate. If a character spent 13 AP on Plasma Vision they would deal 13 (L1) + 6 (L+) = 19 Impact Damage (the +6 comes from taking 9 IMP Damage and dividing by 8 = 1.125 damage per AP. The character invested 5 AP at the L+ rate so it’s 5 x 1.125 = 5.625 which rounds up to 6).

Plasma Vision [Levels]
Description: Obliterate your enemies by firing plasma beams out of your eyes! A plasma vision attack is a ranged impact damage blast that can be fired as Explosive or not (it does the same damage). Use the simplified rules for explosive damage given in the attack section if the character is using it in this firing mode. As this is an “optical beam” it gets +1 to hit with any Aim action.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	Damage	Range	ROF
Level 1	8 AP	8 AP	13 IMP	-1/10y	S
Level +	8 AP	8 AP	9 IMP	-1/10y	S

TAP Cost

Evasive Movement has a TAP cost and therefore has a cost based on the Total AP of the character. A character built on 24 AP would pay 5 AP for it. A character built on 40 AP would pay 9. If the character is not built on multiples of 8 AP that’s okay: use whichever value they are closer to (more detailed rules will be described in the TAP cost section).

Evasive Movement [TAP]
Description: You dodge and weave in combat so that no one can get a clean hit! Evasive Movement gives the character -4 Damage Mods so long as they have their AGI Bonus (i.e. not if grabbed).
Ability	8 AP	16 AP	24 AP	32 AP	40 AP
-4 Damage Mod	1 AP	3 AP	5 AP	7 AP	9 AP

Armed vs. Unarmed Cost

Here is an ability that increases Base Damage (armed or unarmed HTH damage). It comes in two flavors: Armed and Unarmed and only one Level type (L+). Note that each 4 AP level (here levels are 4 AP) gives you an extra point of damage if you are buying the Unarmed version (meaning you will not/cannot use a PEN damage attack with it).

Mighty! [Level]
Description: You are extra strong and tough with rippling muscles. A Mighty character gets additional STR, a small amount of BLD, and Ablative Damage Points.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	STR	BLD	ADP
Armed L+	4 AP	+2 AP	+3	+1	12
Unarmed L+	4 AP	+2 AP	+4	+1	12

Combined Ability

Ability groups can combine combinations of these (TAP, A-Cost, and even Armed and Unarmed). When this happens there’s a fixed cost that’s added to the TAP cost. It looks like this:

Cybernetic Enhancements [Combined]
Description: Better! Stronger! Faster. Cybernetic enhancements give you improved strength and durability as well as faster reflexes! The character gets the bonus listed to their STR and DP as well as +3 REA.
Level	Cost	A-Cost	STR	BLD	DP
Level 1 Armed	12 AP	8 AP	+12	+0	+16
Level 1 Unarmed	12 AP	8 AP	+16	+0	+16
Level+ Armed	12 AP	8 AP	+9	+0	+16
Level+ Unarmed	12 AP	8 AP	+10	+0	+16
TAP Cost	8 AP	16 AP	24 AP	32 AP	40 AP
+3 REA	2 AP	4 AP	6 AP	7 AP	8 AP

If a character had 32 AP and wanted 2 Levels of Cybernetic Enhancements they would pay: 12 for L1, 12 for L2 and 7 for the TAP cost (they are based on 32 AP) for a total of 12+12+7=31 AP. They would get, if Armed +19 STR, +32 DP, and +3 REA. If Unarmed +26 STR, +32 DP, and +3 REA.