Hi people.
Just finished taking a look at The Riddle of Steel, indie roleplaying game from Driftwood Publishing (more
here and
here). You can download the Quickstart Rules and take a look at them.
The game has a solid Simulationist core system (for more on Simulationist vs Gamist vs Narrativist theory on gaming, take a look
here) like Rolemaster, but not worth itself changing system from my old-time favorite one (Rolemaster, indeed).
One thing however it has that I would like to reuse adapting it to RM or maybe to any other system: a Narrativist approach to combat/resolution that enhance dramatic take on the action motivating characters more than mere "rewards" in EPs and money/items.
To make a long story short, such a game took into play "drive" mechanics based on three "Spiritual Attributes" (Conscience - representing personal moral beliefs, Faith - representing loyalty to a higher ideal being it mundane or philosophical/religious and Passion - representing ones Love or Hate towards someone/something). These three attributes are freely distributed during character creation to represent what we can call his motivations to adventure, combat, and perhaps confront possibly mortal dangers. Such attributes does not only come into play during character generation, but also during gameplay, boosting characters actions in dramatic situations or turning towards them in other.
Also, these attributes, or traits, may change their value or completely be reallocated during play. For example, winning a fight in which you've been driven by your Faith may cause your Faith trait to increase, as well as decrease in case of defeat or humiliation. Similarly, being driven against ones lifetime enemy by Hate and killing him can cause that trait to become "vacant": so the player may want, at a given time, reallocate those points to other Spiritual Traits.
Now: TRoS uses a dice pool system similar to White Wolf's WoD games. And so is very simple to add those bonuses/penalties to the dice pool: they simply add or subtract from the pool in any situation the GM deems appropriate. Altough the authors does not completely elaborate on this, leaving many of the decision to GMs (they only put down some brief guidelines), the system works pretty straight, for what it's worth.
But, as we know, Rolemaster doesn't use dice pools but a single open ended roll to determine success or failure in combat resolution.
So, if the problem of thinking about what Spiritual Traits to implement is marginal and very (Honor or Wealth? Glory or Personal Betterment? You just have to name some...), the problem of how to have this traits influence gameplay is the focus.
I've thought up some ideas, but definitely need feedback and maybe new input.
Please remember I want this system to be usable with RM, but I will not complain if it will sort out to be easily adaptable to other game systems, such as d20 or whatever.
Let's assume I want to use the system plain as it is written down in TRoS, adapting it to RM. So, we must have bonuses from drive (from 1 to 5, such is the value a single trait may have) apply to RM rolls. How? As a trait comes into play, I first thought about letting add a fixed bonus, such as - say - a +/-10 to the die roll. That's however too much stiff and potentially too arbitrary at the same time. So maybe instead of a fixed bonus a variable one, such as +2d10? This can be modulated to add/subtract importance to the Drive mechanics in the game. But, again, this isn't much more than a temporary boost; Drive points won't be usable to offset penalties, or remove fumbles, or similar very dramatic (and useful) game events. And would this affect non-open-ended rolls such as Initiative or Crits?
Another option would be rolling additional dice, and selecting the best result. This will make fumbling practically impossible under Drive effects, and open-ending more probable. But also adds LOTS of chance into the game. And,it doesn't' work very well as a penalty, such as when you're adversely affect by your Drive (for example: the Knight, loyal to his Lord, being arrested by his guards, fights to escape and prove his innocence - but his Faith Trait goes against him, subtracting from his chance of success).
Now for the questions...
How to have Traits increase or decrease during game? Such as success temporary or permanently increase a Trait, or defeat decreasing it...
How to rule opposite Traits driving a character? Such as Faith in the Religion vs Love to the woman you have to sacrifice to the Dark God?
And, again, how to have this mechanic be as simple as possible, and not overwhelm normal roleplaying, just adding flavor to the game. No bookkeeping needed, and I don't really want to have a new Fate Points or whatever-you-call-them rule to bother about...
Thoughts? Ideas?