Game in the Brain

The Amazing things you can Do with the SRD
This must be my 3rd time compiling the SRD. I can’t find where I did so back in the day. Anyway, I’m editing it to be RAW but only to level 10. So far copying everything that would be normally found in the PHB brought it up to ~350 pages.

I will remove the tables and publish formulas instead. I hope to bring down the page count to 200 when I’m done. I’m excited about writing up the DMing part, in my own words. If I’m going to give this away and use it to introduce newbies, I was wondering if I should just add my edits. Like armor reduces damage, and all my other tweaks. I even added bennie system to make characters survivable. Basically give the wrong impression for the Newbies… I could just not give a crap.

The Idea of a new batch of newbies learning dnd without HP creep, AC cognitive dissonance, Spell Points instead of Slots, With called shots, magical healing for trauma better than our modern medicine, having level 10 as the cap, imropved world building and economics notes, bennie system, and some of the Happy Jacks Philosophy, oh yeah… and no alignments, etc..etc… If they interface with regular people who learned DnD LOL!

This will piss off dogmatists, probably will say I’m corrupting and perverting DnD LOL! Probably encounter Politics in philippine RPG scene again. (Note i’m giving away these books; my thoughts are if you can put in the hours to compile, edit, layout, print and bind, then SHUT UP). But there is always a fucker who will always gripe about something free and awesome.

Bundling D20 Skills
I know they did the same in 4E and Pathfinder.  What I did is just use the original skill names as the kinds of ‘checks’ that are possible under the skill. Ex. Stealth – character are able to move silently and hide.

Stealth – Hide and Move Silently
Savoir-Faire – Diplomacy and Gather Information
Deception – Forgery and Disguise
Focus – Concentration and Autohypnosis
Mage Craft – Spell Craft and Use Magical Device
Disable Device – Disable Device and Open Lock
Trade Craft – Profession and Craft
Persuasion – Bluff and Intimidate
Athletics – Climb, Jump, and Swim
Acrobatics – Tumble and Balance
Animal Affinity – Animal Handling and Ride
Perception – Search, Spot, and Listen
Escape Artist – Escape and Use Rope
Naturalist – Knowledge Nature and Survival

Simplifying skills by removing the ranks and accounting would save time. Making it 3 + character level for Class skills and 2 + 1/2 class level for cross class skills. Spending a feat makes a character be a Master in this skill ( 3 plus Character level) if the skill is a class skill. While spending on a cross class skill makes the character a Novice (2 + 1/2 class levels). This makes the class chosen at first level a bigger deal, the Rogue having 8 + Int modifier in choices in skills (which are about 15 options), while fighters and specialized spellcasters have only 2 + int modifier.

Languages are Feats by the way this system works. The mastery of the language follows the same Mastery vs Novice progression. A wizard is not as great as a bard in mastering languages, but he does get a lot in the beginning.

Simplifying by making it HP instead of HD per level. So a Barbarian gets 12hp + con modifier and 6 + con modifier per level.

Making Spell Casters more consistent in their specialization – They have 6hp in 1st level, and 3hp every level. They have Poor BAB and Will is their best save. They get few skills.

Unlike 4E where endurance is a skill, the character’s HP is his endurance. Its confusing to listen to all those HP creep apologists when there is a seperate system to track fatigue.

Sneak Attack follows my homebrew rule where it just allows you to roll more damage dice but keep only one. Every sneak attack “instance” allows me to roll one more instance of 1d3 fist, 1d6 shortsword, or 2d6 greatsword but only keep one instance. IF i roll max value more than once, these extra instances reduce the DR by 1+extra instances.

I will pump up and improve the value of some spells. Example is prestidigitation, which I will create a 1st level version that can be used as an immediate action. It is great for creative players and will reward ingenious use of the spell’s limitation.

 I must have clocked another 10 hours this week end on the Character Creation Digest. At least because of the OGL I can publish this, not like my GURPS LITE which is really only for my games.