No Mutants Allowed P&P

[Risewild]

For those three people or so that actually visit this Sub-Forum.
A couple years ago I decided to try and make a Fallout P&P system that was more faithful to the classic games but that didn't require a calculator to be played. I did quite a lot of work on that, but I couldn't come up with good ways of implementing stuff I wanted. I was too restricted by it being Fallout.

That factor in addition to there already being many other good Fallout P&P systems out there, lead me to put that project "six feet under" and call it a day.

But I still have the bug of working on a P&P system. And I thought that the major problem I had with the Fallout one was that is was too restrictive... Well... I should just come up with my own P&P universe from the ground up.

So it starts. I decided to call my P&P "No Mutants Allowed" because if I do ever finish this one, I would like to gather people from here to actually try and play this. I would also like people to give me suggestions, their opinions on stuff and to help me if I ever have a problem.

I have been posting random stuff over at the NMA Discord P&P channel. But I thought that more people could see if I post over here too. I am making the rules and all of that in a document that I can turn into a pdf at any time so I can share it once I have anything substantial. It is very bare bones at the moment because I only started to work on this recently.

I have a basic backstory and I come up with the Attributes and some Skills. I made up a Mutation system and a Berserker state (once a character gets a mutation, it will have a chance of going berserk when under stress, the more mutations, the higher the chance). And I am now working on a basic combat system.
So there isn't that much to be seen yet.

I am trying to make it so the game uses mostly d10 (dice with 10 sides) for rolls, but I think I am gonna use other sided dice for stuff like weapon damage (we can't have all weapons deal d10 damage).
I am also thinking that characters will not have levels. They will expend points to increase anything from skills to attributes and maybe HP too.

Skills will have a maximum of 10 "ranks". The first 5 ranks are always put into the basic skill, but some skills will branch into sub-skills once you have invested the first 5 ranks on them. Then each sub-skill will have another 5 ranks.
For example the Firearms skill will have 3 sub-skills:

• Firearms - O O O O O
  
  
  • One Handed - O O O O O
    
  • Two Handed - O O O O O
    
  • Heavy - O O O O O

Once the character has learned the first 5 ranks of the Firearms skill (considered the basic and general knowledge of the skill) he can start specializing in any of the three different sub-skills.
The character also rolls 1d10 for a skill roll if they have 1-5 ranks, if they have 6-10 ranks they roll 2d10 and pick the higher value. In combat skills, having rank 6 also gives the character an extra attack per turn. Maximizing a rank will provide some kind of bonus, maybe something like a special perk for that skill (this is work in progress).

Anyway, I could write more stuff, but I don't even know if anyone will be reading this. So for now I will stop. This post was mostly to inform you guys about what I am doing these days.

 

[Atomkilla]

I don't think I've played a PnP that doesn't use d20. Not sure how I feel about that.
Anyway, I like the things you've written here, especially that there are no levels. It could make things more interesting for character development as well as encounters when made by DM.

My advice/suggestion is to remove the backstory from the core book. For whatever reason, I dislike when core books are filled with fluff - anything but the most basic stuff annoys me. I am more into rules-lite systems where DM's creativity takes precedence and the system serves as a flexible basis (one of the reasons why I ditched DnD 5E and started playing Basic Fantasy).
In other words, I think it would be best if you made NMA RPG as a sort of post-apocalyptic RPG template that players could modify to be used in a Fallout, Wasteland, Mad Max, Metro, STALKER etc. or whichever original PA setting they come up with. But that's sort of how I feel about it, the whole thing is your work after all.

Do post more about the mutation system.

That being said, I have to point out the fact that my original suggestion for the title of our own deceased PnP was "No Mutants Allowed: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game". I'm doing this because it will make me feel special.

 

[iridium_ionizer]

I am trying to make it so the game uses mostly d10 (dice with 10 sides) for rolls, but I think I am gonna use other sided dice for stuff like weapon damage (we can't have all weapons deal d10 damage).

I would second that making it rules-lite during gameplay time is a highly valued quality for most PnP RPGs (excepting the ones aimed at accountants). You can make the skill + weapon calculation a bit more complicated - assuming character aren't increasing their skill levels and changing their weapons multiple times during a play session.

The roll to-hit, then roll damage mechanic is a bit mundane in my opinion, but it does have a certain familiarity. You might consider a location-based damage table in a post-apocalyptic RPG with damage reduction to taste. You could even try to combine the to-hit and damage mechanics, but you would probably need a more complicated table for GMs to consult.

My advice/suggestion is to remove the backstory from the core book.

I could go either way on this. A system that explains its rules in a generic setting way can make adapting it easier. However, I would keep in mind that the majority of people reading any PnP RPG are hoping to run it with friends, maybe even mining it for ideas, but probably not going to run that RPG for years with their group. Maybe a one-shot or for 2 months until the campaign dies out. Don't be discouraged that's just the reality. GURPS has a generic setting, but keeps the reading of its books fresh an engaging by constantly introducing story, setting, and character ideas (in side boxes sometimes) that help the reader to brainstorm and adapt those ideas to their own campaign.

A lot of indie RPGs integrate custom rules with their unique settings in their pdfs. They could be adapted to a different setting with some effort, but its the fluff that makes people want to read them and imagine running a game with that system.

I have been posting random stuff over at the NMA Discord P&P channel.

You might want to post a link to that for the curious. Also if you are making an RPG with significant community input, I would suggest constructing a concise statement of the "feel" that you want for your game. (see the Homebrew RPG Worksheet on my website).

Example: Mucha Lucha is a comedic RPG set in small pueblos where good Luchadores fight injustices on behalf of the townsfolk both in and out of the Luchador ring. The mechanics involve battling UNO decks.

 

[Risewild]

I forgot to mention that this P&P RPG system will be a super mash of total retro futuristic tropes and way more into that than Fallout is. I am going full throttle with that, because who doesn't want to be able to use a cheesy shrink ray, or a freeze gun? Who doesn't want to fight robots like these:

Spoiler: Robot pics I found on the net that will fit with what I want

My advice/suggestion is to remove the backstory from the core book. For whatever reason, I dislike when core books are filled with fluff - anything but the most basic stuff annoys me. I am more into rules-lite systems where DM's creativity takes precedence and the system serves as a flexible basis (one of the reasons why I ditched DnD 5E and started playing Basic Fantasy).

This is a RPG to be shaped by the GM. My aim is to provide just rules for things and let the GM do whatever they want to. My backstory is basic and it can be totally ignored by the GM. It is there to kinda give a meaning to the No Mutants Allowed name (and fits well with the mutation system).
But my goal was to let the GM come up with whatever they want. I will give the rules for combat, weapons, attributes, skills, mutations, etc. But I will not go around saying "This country got decimated by nukes, while that country got decimated by the asteroid that hit Earth".
I was thinking that I will not provide any maps or any information about what happened where in the world. I will not provide any dates or how or when the world became advanced in a retro way.
Basically, I want the GMs to go nuts with their creativity. The backstory is there only for those who want to use it, and to help me to come up with rules for things (backstory mentions mutations and how people get uncontrollable and violent, so I made a mutation system where people get violent for example).

I would second that making it rules-lite during gameplay time is a highly valued quality for most PnP RPGs (excepting the ones aimed at accountants). You can make the skill + weapon calculation a bit more complicated - assuming character aren't increasing their skill levels and changing their weapons multiple times during a play session.

The roll to-hit, then roll damage mechanic is a bit mundane in my opinion, but it does have a certain familiarity. You might consider a location-based damage table in a post-apocalyptic RPG with damage reduction to taste. You could even try to combine the to-hit and damage mechanics, but you would probably need a more complicated table for GMs to consult.

Combat will have several options for the players and for the NPCs. I had to come up with several ways of keeping it balanced, because combat will be: Attacker uses his relevant combat skill + 1d10 to hit vs the Defender dexterity attribute + 1d10 to evade, whoever rolls higher "wins" (if the attacker rolls higher it hits, if the defender rolls higher, it evades). It's a simple thing, but it could become unbalanced quick (what if the attacker has 6 combat skill, but the defender only has 2 dexterity. Wouldn't be very balanced. Same goes for what if the attacker has 3 combat skill but the defender have 7 dexterity?). So I came up with modifiers that can increase hit chance and modifiers that can increase evade chance.
Cover will be important when guns are involved, being in cover will increase the chance of not getting hit, then we also have Stances (crouch and prone) which makes it so a character is harder to hit by ranged weapons, but easier to hit by close combat, it also boosts the chance of the character to hit when using two handed guns.
There will be distance modifiers too. Ranged weapons will have a normal range, a far range and maximum range. normal range has no modifiers, but far will reduce the chance to hit the target. One handed guns will have a bonus to hit when the target is in close combat range (usually right next to the attacker), but two handed will have a penalty to hit and heavy guns will have a even higher penalty.
Characters can also spend one Attack Action to Aim. Aiming will give them a bonus to hit the target on their next Attack.
Some weapons will allow Lock-On, which increases the chance to hit the target by a lot, but those are only usually found in advanced missile and rocket weaponry.

Weapons will also have Attack Modes. These are things like the "Lock-On" I just mentioned, there will also be stuff like "Burst" (usually found in automatic weapons), "Double Shot", which fires two shots at once (usually found in some shotguns), "Stun" and "Overcharge" (usually both found in some energy weapons). More to come.
So combat is a simple check vs check, but there are plenty of tiny things that can make it more complex.

Do post more about the mutation system.

The fastest way for me to do this is by making a short pdf of the file I have, containing just the 2 and a half pages that talk about it. Ignore the skills with * after the mutations, I am not sure if I should make sub-skills for sub-skills yet . Maybe I will make it a house rule if GMs want to use them, but I think I will keep them out of the vanilla rules.
Here is the pdf: