Rebooting Reboot 1: Resolution Mechanics
I playtested my Reboot ruleset this weekend, and while it was functional, I thought it was pretty flat. In part because I reinvented too much for the sake of reinventing. The whole time playing, I was thinking āIām not getting much here that I couldnāt just get with Revolver or Into the Odd with a few tweaksā.
So back to the drawing board, Rebooting, if you will. Weāre going to use Revolver as a base, with the class and exploration rules stripped away. That system works well and my players like it. Instead of going ground-up and adding mechanics just to add them, Iām going to take what Iāve learned from Revolver and modify when it makes sense to meet certain design goals (which will be often). The goal is to make my system mechanics a little more intentional and more connected to the tone/vibe I want!
The resolution mechanic seems like a fine place to start.
Core Resolution Mechanic
Design goals
- Simple
- Uses dice people already have
- Never more than one roll for one action
Revolverās Core Resolution Mechanic is super simple. Roll under or equal to your stat on a d20 to succeed.
I think this rule will mostly work fine here, but with one change. Iām going to increase the base die to a d100 and scale Stats accordingly.
In Revolver, the equipment is very simple, and not much can alter your stats. In Reboot, equipment and cybernetics will play a bigger role. Runners will have many more factors that adjust their performance in small ways, so I want the extra granularity one gets by moving from a 20-point to a 100-point scale. Plus big die fun, I can make people use my 100 sided die and we can wait 5 minutes every Check for the die to stop rolling. If someone makes me really mad I can throw it at them!
So, the core resolution mechanic will be a d100 roll under or equal to a target number. Plenty of room for granularity!
Skills and Stats
In Reboot, characters are composed of two parts: the hard drive that holds their mind (a Stem) and their physical body (their Frame). A character can change Frames multiple times during their life.
So, I want to draw a distinction between your body and your mind. My initial idea was to split the system into stats and skills, with stats coming from your Frame and skills from your Stem. The issue here is that I want to have things like Tech and computer skills, which donāt seem like they should be influenced by your Frame at all, or at least not massively!
One option to fix this would be to have some stats and skills set based on your Frame and others based on your Stem. However, four total types of stats and skills feel clunky to me. Instead, what if we get rid of Stats and just do Skills, differentiated by Stem and Frame?
Design Goals
- Mechanically differentiate between a Runnerās Stem (mind) and their Frame (Body)
- The skill list should be brief, and skills should be broad in application
Frame vs Stem Skills
Some skills are determined by your Frame, while others are determined by your Stem.
Each Stem Skill starts at 30, and Runners have 100 points to distribute among Stem Skills. A skill cannot exceed 70 during Runner creation.
Frame skills are determined randomly when the Frame is created. When using a run-of-the-mill frame, for each Frame skill, roll 3+2d6, add the results together, and multiply by 5.
This means the maximum a Frame skill can start at is 75, and the minimum is 25. Itās a pretty big range, so characters will be differentiated, but no one skill should be so bad that a player wouldnāt dream of rolling a check against it.
Premium Frames may offer stronger skill generation or special bonuses for particular skills.
Skill functionality will be more detailed later, but I think this is the list. I can always add to it later if it feels like Iām missing things that come up a lot in play.
Frame Skills
- Athletics: Performing feats that require physical strength and conditioning. e.g. Climbing, swimming, long-distance running
- Mobility: Performing feats that require speed and body control. e.g. Sprinting, rolling, balancing
- Driving: Operating a vehicle and making difficult maneuvers. E.g. Speeding through busy roads, Chasing a car, Making a sharp turn
- Stealth: Moving quietly and out of sight
- Brawling: Fighting with your fists or melee weapons
- Shooting: Fighting with Ranged Weapons
Stem Skills
- Tech: Using complex technology. e.g. Finding hidden data on a device, hacking through digital security, manipulating images
- Mechanics: Dealing with hardware and mechanics. E.g. Fixing a car, modifying a pistol, detaching chrome safely (for the chrome)
- Medicine Dealing: with flesh wounds and illness. e.g. Applying first aid, detaching chrome safely (for the Frame), determining cause of death
- Research: Finding accurate information through searches. A generic knowledge skill for all publicly known information
- Manipulate: Using your words to get someone to do what you want. Not mind control, only roll when it's not obvious how the other party will react
Skill Progression
Design Goals
- No leveling up, but skills can improve slightly with mission completion
- Most power comes from modifying your body or finding better gear
Reboot will have a mission-based structure, so the loop will be Preparation -> Mission -> Downtime -> Preparation. Weāre going for an episodic feel here, with missions taking a session most of the time, or 2-3 for āspecial episodesā.
When you complete a Mission, you can pick a Frame Skill and a Stem Skill that you used during the mission. Both increase by 1d4 (up to 75).
Frame skills are lost when a Frame dies or is replaced. Stem skills persist between Frames.
Skill Bonuses
Skill checks can be made with bonuses or penalties, typically from equipment or cybernetics. Either way, apply the bonus or penalty to the skill, and thatās the target number to roll under.
For example, if your Driving skill is 50 and you have a car that provides a bonus of 5, you are aiming to roll equal to or under 55.
Temporary equipment or situational bonuses and penalties can be large; long-lasting bonuses should be small.
Even with bonuses, no skill can ever increase above 95.
Why No Opposed Rolls
Don't like em most of the time! Opposed rolls break one of the core principles, only 1 roll per action. Talented opposition can be represented through penalties if needed, but most of the time, I'm fine just having characters roll against their skill, even when opposed.