Lone Wolf Fists: Tanks in my Pong analogy

I think we can all agree that "fight a tank with kung-fu" is a noble design goal

But what do we want out of fighting a tank in this game that we can't get in, say, Fate or any of a number of similar RPGs?

I mean, I could have taken my copy of Fate Core, filled out a Fate fractal with the "It's a huge tank" aspect, and knocked off for the weekend. I'd be at an aquarium with my family instead of joylessly computing the payload of the M1 Abrams (I guesse based on comparative horsepower, for the record)

What's unsatisfying about Fate's mechanics that I tortured myself to create rules like these? Maybe it's the need to load up "narrative importance" to shoot the battle cannon (no invoking aspects without fate points!). Maybe it's the "do whatever your heart wants!" attitude of the rules in regards to their descriptive mechanics ("It's a tank, I don't need to invoke an aspect for it to do tank stuff!")

Here's the fact of it: Fate is Pong. It's got different graphics loaded over Pong, but it always plays like Pong, no matter what the graphics are. Sure, I could skin the paddles to be fists and the dot to be a Kamehameha and layer in Goku/Vegeta sprites over the goals, but at the end of the effort I'm still playing Pong and dammit I want to play PacMan.

I'm not saying Pong sucks; I'm saying the existence of Pong doesn't supersede any other game you could ever make. I don't need to justify programming PacMan in terms of it being "something you could just do with Pong!": go play it, it's clearly different.

And, importantly, it's actually what I want to play

....

Equipment/ Vehicles

Human history is defined in terms of its tools: Bronze Age, Iron Age, Space Age. The ruined denouement of history is the same; perhaps, should history remember this fallen epoch, it will be called the Scavenger Age.

Tools enable human beings to do new things: plow a field, ward off the elements, mutilate their foes, etc. Characters are no different: the acquisition of a heavy cloak means the difference between shivering through one more agonizing night or bitterly freezing to death.

Normal Equipment

Clothing, scavenged tools, even food; all of these are examples of mundane, normal things that a character might possess. Such equipment delivers its benefit in the tactical infinity: these items do what you’d expect their real-world analogs to do.

In circumstances where equipment can add to your ability to do something, it adds +1d10 to the result of your action. This works as follows:

1. Take an action as normal

2. After the Rank and Facing of your action have been determined, roll 1d10

3. Add the result of the roll to your action (if your action was 16 and you rolled a 5, your new total would be 21)

Note that this can increase the final Rank of your action.

Some items effectively allow a character to operate higher on an Effect chart without a roll. For example, a thick set of winter clothes could help you to survive in below-freezing temperatures; this is effectively identical to a Rank 2 Endurance Effect. Gear with outstanding qualities like this will describe the advantage it offers its owner.

Note that the winter gear in the above example would not benefit any other Endurance actions (it wouldn’t help you hold your breath or survive an acid bath, for example). Further, it wouldn’t combine in any way with Effort or other advantages which enhance Endurance actions.

Special Equipment

There are some familiar ages to technology: the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, even our modern silicon age is familiar and predictable in their technologies and what their tools can do.

The world of Ashes and Ghosts, however, had another age: the Pranic age, where its people learned the mysteries of Prana and reshaped their world with a marriage of science and sorcery.

Some relics from this age survive; some are indestructible, some are wrapped in a field of fate or perfect luck, some have been passed down and protected by powerful masters. However they survived the final fire, these artifacts offer their wielder powers beyond what can be readily predicted by an enterprising GM with the Tactical Infinity.

Special equipment outlines its unique powers and other advantages on a case by case basis.

• This can be very brief: an unbreakable length of rope, for example
• It might be more complex: For example. consider a sword which allows its user to access an Offensive Technique
• It might be a highly complex, offering numerous advantages and drawbacks: A factory that creates robots with souls powered by magic, for example

Special Equipment may have any of the following elements:

Name: Every piece of special equipment is unique and named

Description: The gear’s appearance and function

Powers: Any special advantages the item offers, such as flight, indestructible material, or invisibility

Bonus Techniques: Techniques characters may access when in possession of the item

Prana Well: Similar to Chakra; has a Pool of Prana and a Recovery value. This Prana may be used to power the equipment’s Techniques

Soul: Some special equipment is imbued with a soul; an entire personality with a destiny, wishes, and preferences. Such artifacts may refuse the gifts of their power to a wielder they deem unworthy.

GMs are again encouraged to interpret the exact utility of an item regarding the Tactical Infinity as best they can. For example, an indestructible rope might be employed as armor: the exact efficacy of which must be determined by the GM.

***Callout Box: Winning over your new Sword

Magical artifacts sometimes have souls; this effectively makes them characters. Granted they don’t routinely have limbs, but they do have desires, preferences, quirks… Everything you’d expect an NPC to have.

It’s completely reasonable that the new magic sword you found doesn’t like you, even refuses to help you. These situations provide excellent grist for character growth through roleplaying. Can you become worthy of Heaven’s Tear in its estimation?

Note that being sentient and immortal doesn’t insulate an artifact from being wrong: maybe Heaven’s Tear has unrealistic standards! In these cases, you’ll have to grow together rather than simply measure up. ***

Vehicles

Vehicles are complex machines composed of interlocking mechanical systems; but, you probably knew that. Characters use them to get around, moving faster and further than they can by running (well, barring magic). Sometimes these vehicles are weaponized, like tanks or warcycles. This section contains all the rules for using, maintaining, and destroying vehicles, as well as several examples of more common or radical ones for your immediate use.

Components

Vehicles have sheets, just like characters. Unlike characters, these sheets are compartmentalized: this is because vehicles consist of two distinct components: Core and Systems.

The Core is the chassis and engine of the vehicle. It’s the guts and skeleton of the machine; the part you ride in and the part you fuel. If the Core is damaged, the vehicle starts to go awry and might break down. If it’s totally broken, the vehicle is destroyed.

Systems are ancillary components of the vehicle; mounted gun turrets, battle cannons, radar dishes, that sort of thing. They can be damaged and repaired without affecting the vehicle’s fundamental performance. For example, a turret-mounter gun could be totally destroyed without impacting a tank’s ability to move or otherwise function.

Vehicle attributes

Like characters, vehicles have a few attributes that describe how they operate. Importantly, these attributes are keyed to either the Core or a System: they continue to function unless the keyed part of the vehicle is destroyed.

Description: A summary of the vehicle

Operators: Vehicles must be operated and driven by a pilot. Systems might require operators as well; for example, a turreted weapon systems would require a gunner. Such needs are detailed under this entry

Speed: The maximum speed of the vehicle, expressed as an Agility Rank.

Locomotion: The terrain types the vehicle can traverse.

• Aquatic vehicles move on water
• Terrestrial vehicles drive over most ground
• All-Terrain traverse rough ground
• Aerial vehicles fly
• Amphibious vehicles traverse water and land
• Underwater vehicles travel in the ocean depths

A vehicle driven through a mismatched terrain type becomes damaged. The GM rolls between one and five d10 and applies the result as damage to either an appropriate locomotive System or the Core. One die is rough but reasonable terrain, while five is a death sentence

Armor Threshold: The Vehicle’s armor; this is the minimum Rank of Attack or Power action that is required to damage the vehicle. Weaker strikes or effort have no effect!

Structure Boxes: Equivalent to Health Boxes, these absorb damage. As they fill, the Vehicle becomes increasingly damaged; once they are exhausted, it is destroyed.

Each Box can absorb 10 damage before it expires.

Vehicles do not acquire Imbalances; however, as they become ever more damaged, they risk a Breakdown. See the Breaking Down entry below.

A Core or System with 0 Structure Boxes is destroyed if it would take damage.

Repair: Unlike Health Boxes which regenerate over time, Structure Boxes must be repaired. This requires appropriate equipment, skilled labor, and costs appropriate resources, as detailed under this entry.

Unreliability: A measure of how prone the vehicle is to system failure. Rated from 1 (most reliable) to 9 (a junkheap).

Load Capacity: The total number of adult human-sized passengers the vehicle can carry, including the pilot. Additionally, the total weight the vehicle can carry. This entry is separated by a slash: “4/ 1000lbs (450 kl)” would indicate 4 passengers and up to 1000 lbs/450 kl of cargo weight. Up to twice this load may be carried by the vehicle, but any amount of the threshold risks a Breakdown.

Weaponry: The kind and power of weapons equipped to the vehicle.

A pilot may fire any weapons on the vehicle during their turn; this works similarly to launching an attack. The Pilot (or gunner, if the weapon can be fire independently) makes an attack against a target, which can be defended.

Vehicle-mounted weapons have their own statistics that determine their deadliness:

• Lethality: Additional damage dealt to those struck by the weapon
• Range: How far the weapon can fire (number of Battlefields, Areas, Locations, or Regions)
• Ammo: The type and amount of ammunition used by weapon systems. Must be consumed by the weapon to attack, similarly to Prana.
• Special: If the weapon has any special effects on discharge (such as fallout or clouds of mustard gas) their mechanics are detailed here

Fuel Capacity/Consumption: The type and amount of fuel used by the vehicle, measured in scenes. Every scene, fuel is consumed before the vehicle can be operated. If insufficient fuel remains in the vehicle, it fails to activate.

Breaking Down

Vehicles and their systems might suffer a Breakdown if pushed past their limits, damaged, or improperly maintained. This happens in the following circumstances:

• When a Structure Box is filled
• When the Vehicle is loaded beyond its Passenger/Load Capacity
• When the Vehicle or System is pushed dangerously past its limitations, as judged by the GM

Whenever a risk of Breakdown occurs, roll a single d10 and compare it to the Vehicle’s Reliability. If it is below the listed number, a Breakdown occurs.

A Broken-Down Vehicle’s Core ceases to function until it is repaired. Its Systems do not function unless they are specifically designed to operate without the Core, such as a turreted weapon.

Ancillary systems, like turreted weapons, still function on a broken-down vehicle, so long as they don’t rely on the Core for power.

....

Example Vehicle

Liondog MkIII heavy battle tank

Description: A main battle tank, made by a dead country for a forgotten war. Its armor is proof against all but the mightiest weapons; its weaponry reduces cities to ruins

Operators: A single pilot is required to drive the tank. The turret requires a gunner to fire and is well-aided by a dedicated loader to reload after each shot. A single tank commander can oversee the three other crew in their operation

CORE

Speed: 2

Locomotion: All-Terrain

Armor threshold: 6

Structure Boxes: 4

Repair: Advanced military repair tools are required to work on this masterpiece of warfighting. Highly advanced armor plating, nearly impossible to duplicate engine technology, and sophisticated, interlocking components are required for each box repaired, in addition to a Rank 2 Intellect action

Unreliability: 3. The finicky, elaborate turbine engine of this behemoth is prone to failure

Load Capacity: 4 (commander/gunner/loader/driver)/24k lbs. (3.3k kl)

Fuel Capacity/Consumption: 500 gallons (1900 litres) liquid fuel/ 40 gallons (150 litres) per scene

SYSTEMS

Main Battle Cannon: The Hellbreather

Operator: Gunner to aim and fire. Fires every other round unless also manned by a Loader

Armor threshold: 6

Structure Boxes: 1

Unreliability: 2

Repair: The smooth-bore battle cannon must be painstakingly repaired to ensure it can deliver its incredible firepower doesn’t result in explosive disaster. It requires a Rank 3 Intellect action, advanced military repair tools, and sophisticated composite materials for every box repaired.

Lethality: 7

Range: 1 Location

Ammo: Heavy, depleted-uranium shells/ 1 per shot

Special: Causes an Ordnance Explosion Disaster at the point of impact

Ordnance Explosion

Scale: 1 Battlefield

Rating: 5

Path: Immediately fills battlefield; kicks up dust in neighboring Battlefields, making it difficult to see

Duration: Instantaneous (dust lasts 3 Rounds)

Description: A tremendous explosion and shockwave caused by a full-velocity tank shell impact. Liquifies concrete and organs. A cloud of particulate matter consisting of 99% dust and 1% pulverized foes billows out from the impact crater.

Mounted Machinegun Turret

Operators: Operated by either a dedicated gunner or remotely by the pilot

Armor threshold: 5

Structure Boxes: 0

Unreliability: 4 (prone to jamming)

Repair: Requires fine military-grade steel and a sophisticated knowledge of firearms to repair (Intellect Rank 2)

Lethality: 5

Range: 2 Areas

Ammo: Consumes 10 rounds per burst/ carries 900 rounds at full capacity (90 shots)

Lone Wolf Fists: Walking the scorched earth

Let me share with you a story of my complete failure as a game master. It's an Exalted story, and I choose it because it's an example of how a GM can fail a game, even when the game gives them every advantage.

The circle had just gotten a tip-off that some serious business was going down in a distant city: the Mask of Winters was about to crush the military capitol Lookshy with a sneak attack from the underworld. Turns out Thorns was just a little snack; the entire free East was the main course. They've got to beat feat there before he brings the hurt down on the Scavenger Lands.

I didn't make a damn bit of all that greatness, by the way; the setting of Exalted gave me all this awesome stuff to play with. The game succeeded, I failed. Here's how:

They're traveling through the rolling hills of the East, going through vistas of sunset-drenched treetops and brooding shadows, pushing through days of moody, atmospheric terrain and big, long-winded descriptions of what stuff looks like. They travel, I drop them some more description. they keep going, I keep waxing poetic. They keep going, trying their damnedest to get to the next actual scene. I keep on describing how beautiful things look....

Eventually they have to tell me to skip to the good part; I kid you not, I had the gall to be upset about this.

See, I failed to understand the difference between what we enjoy in real life and what we like in games. A walking tour of the magnificent world of creation would indeed be a breathtaking spectacle, but having to "see" that through description was enormously less impactful. "A picture is worth a thousand words"

What we want in games isn't a walking tour, though; it is to make decisions. Exploration isn't experienced in games through description; it's experienced through revelations

...

Now, Exalted does struggle with travel. Here's one of the main designers of EX3 answering a question on travel rules:

Anu:
How about a simple way to phrase the travel question:

Can I hack the Extended Roll rules to determine how long it takes for the PCs to get from point A to point B? You can assume that I am asking the players to describe what their characters are actually doing at each roll interval in order to get from A to B, but that I, as the Storyteller, am not obstructing the characters with battles or natural hazards, and am simply allowing the players to describe the journey until they reach their destination.

Holden:
That’s one of the basic system functions, yeah.

There’s no “travel system” beyond that. Not really sure why anyone would need one, or what it’d look like beyond being a random encounter table.

(Source)

Remember when I mocked EX3 for "solving" dungeoncrawls by removing the dungeon? This was their "solution" to the "problem" of hexcrawls.

There's a simple, clean process to 'crawling, that goes something like this:

• The GM tells you what you see in the place you're at (a room in a dungeon, or an area of terrain in a hex)
• You tell the GM what you want to do
• Maybe some rules get involved, maybe they don't
• GM tells you what happens
• Repeat

There's a switch that flips sometimes:

• Maybe monsters walk into the place you're at (use the encounter distance, awareness, and reaction rules, possibly followed by combat). 
• Maybe the thing you did unlocked some content; open a door, get a new room description; open a chest, get some treasure, step on a trap, get eviscerated. 
• Maybe you evoked some rules your character can access: you cast a spell, or make a search check, or smash the door to flinders with your hammer

And that's playing an RPG. It's not complex, and it's actually kind of surprising that so much of this information apparently got lost for people that were in charge of making huge games.

....

How could I have done that travel better?

If I'd ran it then like I'd run it now, it would have looked less like this:

And more like this:

Every hex they moved through would have done three things:

1. Delivered a description of a new geographic area ("You leave the forests and enter rolling plains")
2. Triggered the content keyed to that area ("You see a village that wasn't on your map; a massive rogue forest-spirit towers of the entire village on a throne of bones")
3. Risked a wandering encounter ("You see a defeated army on the march back to Lookshy")

This would have both killed my purple prose (to the infinite benefit of my players) and kept the game paced in an evocative and engrossing way. 

The players may have been faced with hard choices ("Do we help this wounded army and risk losing our chance to warn Lookshy of the invasion?") or been granted unexpected opportunities ("This Forest God hates the Mask too; maybe we can convince him to slow the invasion force down!"). 

At the very least, they would have been able to interact with the setting on their own terms while exploring it: you might note that this is almost an exact description of an awesome roleplaying game

All that from understanding what makes a good set of travel mechanics. So here's ours. Note that the GM-facing stuff (wandering encounters and such) are absent; you'll be seeing those in the Content rules when I get to writing the GM section.

...

Movement, exploration, and travel

Moving around in an RPG is an exercise in decision making. The GM tells you where you are and what you see, and you tell them what interests you; do you want to go to that burned-out city that’s on the horizon, but not on your map? Do you want to open that door in the dark alley? Do you want to chance the leap between this collapsing building and next one?

This sections tell you how to do that.

Getting around: the process

The process of moving around is as follows:

• The GM tells you what’s in your immediate surroundings
• They then tell you what’s in neighboring places you can see
• You choose whether to travel to an adjacent place or stay in your current one and do something

That’s really all there is to it. Moving is really just a process of deciding where you want to do things. Don’t want to do anything where you are? Move to a more interesting place.

The distance you intend to travel determines what kind of scene you enter as you move:

• If you’re going a long way, you’re Traveling. This typically happens during a Montage scene.
• If you’re moving deliberately through an area, you’re Exploring. This usually happens during a Real-time scene.
• If you’re rushing through, you’re doing Tactical Movement. This commonly happens during an Action scene.

***Callout Box: Moving faster and slower in different scenes

Just for the record: you can move deliberately in an Action scene (maybe you’re sneaking around like a ninja and things are tense) and you can move breakneck fast during a Montage scene (maybe you’re fast enough to bolt like lightning between entire Regions). These rules are guidelines, they’re not super-strict. Use the most appropriate combination of movement and scene to get the spice right.***

Scale

The scale of places, from largest to smallest, is as follows:

Region > Location > Area > Field (or Battlefield)

• Regions represent huge geographical areas; mountain ranges, valleys, cities and the like.
• Locations are distinct places within those larger regions. Following from the example above, sample Locations could include a mountain, a forest, and a neighborhood.
• Areas are the individual parts of Locations. Continuing the example, sample Areas could be a mountain pass, a glen, or a marketplace.
• Fields (or Battlefields) are the smallest building blocks of Areas; you might think of them as “your surroundings”. For these examples, a stretch of the pass, a copse or stream within the glen, or a street in the marketplace would be Fields.

Moving far: Traveling

During Montage scenes, characters travel through Regions by moving between Locations. This takes the shape described before:

• The GM describes your immediate surroundings (in your current Location)
• They then describe neighboring Locations you can see
• You choose where to go and how to get there

This might sound like the following:

GM: “You’re traveling through Silver Star City. You’re currently in a crowded slum. To the north you see a glistening metal dome about the size of a stadium. To the west, you see a stretch of dilapidated buildings strewn with prayer strips. South is the mountain pass, while East and Northeast there’s a sprawl of empty-looking buildings”

(Note here that the GM is giving area descriptions and directions, so that the player can navigate in the Shared Mindspace meaningfully)

Player: “I want to go north to investigate that dome”

The GM then describes their trip and repeats the process when they arrive at the dome.

Each area described and moved through is a Location; we’ll teach you more about how Locations work (and how to make them interesting) in the GM section (p.XX)

For now, think of Travel like driving through a city; you might enter at uptown, drive through midtown, and exit downtown. You have the option to stop the car in each of these places as you drive through them, and you might hit some traffic or something that forces you to stop: that’s Traveling.

In one Montage scene, marching at an even pace (A Rank 0 Agility Movement, to be perfectly specific) will take you through a single Region.

Moving around: Exploring

Exploring occurs when players choose to stay where they are and investigate and interact with their surroundings. This works like before, but has a few new steps:

• The GM describes your immediate surroundings (within the same Area)
• They then describe neighboring Areas you can see
• You describe how you’re investigating or interacting with your surroundings
• Sometimes, your actions will unlock hidden content
• The GM describes the outcome of your efforts

That bit about unlocking content sounds pretty juicy, doesn’t it? Let’s tell you about that part first.

Certain content (NPCs, places, treasures, foes, etc.) isn’t immediately obvious to characters; this is called by the fancy-sounding name Vertical content, which you’ll hear all about in the Content section (p.XX).

For now, it’s sufficient to know that unlocking this cool hidden stuff requires your character to interact with the environment in a fairly specific way. Sometimes this is as easy as opening a door, sometimes it’s more obtuse, like asking a certain NPC about their connection to the Red Sands Shaman.

You won’t know what it is, so the only thing to do is dig deep and pay attention to the world. Nothing exists in a vacuum: the clues to unlocking hidden content are all about for canny players to find. So get investigating!

As for movement, Exploring is a methodical and measured movement from Area to Area within a Location. To put that in perspective, think of a Location like “downtown”; there’s a lot of blocks, shopping areas, parks and suchlike downtown, huh? If you took a walking tour, stopping to rest in the park, eat lunch at the shopping center, and finish up on your friend’s block, that’s Exploration movement.

In one Real-Time scene, marching at an even pace (another Rank 0 Agility Movement) will take you through a single Location.

Moving fast: Tactical Movement

Tactical movement happens when you’re measuring every second of your movement; maybe you’re being chased, maybe you’re fighting for your life, maybe the building you’re in is collapsing. In any case, you’ve got to book it! Surprisingly, this follows a similar structure to the normal movement process:

• The GM describes your immediate surroundings, including any foes, obstacles, hazards, or other notable elements you see
• They then describe neighboring Fields of which you’re aware
• You describe how you’re hiding in, running through, climbing, breaking, or otherwise strategically dealing with your surroundings
• The GM describes the outcome of your efforts

Because tactical movement generally happens in Action scenes, the speed of the movement is more likely to be measure in terms of Agility actions. Refer to the Agility Effect Chart on p.XX for a full breakdown of strategic movement.

The places moved through are Fields (called Battlefields in a fight). They’re described in terms of their Terrain and Elements: Terrain is what the ground (or equivalent medium moved through) is like, while elements are things present in the area.

Terrain can affect what movements are easy or even possible. You can’t really run underwater, and you can’t swim up a concrete staircase. In effect, players must describe their movement in terms of the Field’s terrain. Sometimes this is just flavorful, but it’s often tactically important; to give one example, it’s not so difficult to run with a broken arm, but swimming is next to impossible.

Elements also open up (or limit) strategic possibilities. A massive dead tree would require circumvention (limiting the strategic option to flee) but would make an awesome sledgehammer for a super-strong character (opening up an intimidating weapon option)!

In both cases, the Tactical Infinity leads the gameplay: this is a place where sound, consistent judgement from the GM is vital.

GMs, use the Effect Charts (p.XX-YY), Hazard rules (p.XX), Environmental Destruction rules (p.XX) and other elements of the mechanics that allow you to make game-elements from your descriptions. This turns an interesting description from you into a tactical landscape for the players, creating a rich and satisfying blend of imagination and gameplay.

Note the hyper-detail at play in tactical movement: players must consider everything in terms of how it affects their movement. This is useful for combat and chase scenes, but as mentioned before is a great way to represent any tense situation. For example, carefully sneaking through an area loaded with foes or monsters would use these rules, even though the character’s pace is much more measured than you’d expect from a casual reading.

During an Action scene, moving at a strategic pace will get you through only a single Area… In most cases. Generally, if you’re able to duck out of the broader area of conflict, you’ve effectively escaped and the game shifts to a slower scene.