ArcBlade

[Arc]

Here it is ladies and Gents. ArcBlade Alpha 1. Created as I type RIGHT NOW~!

Game System Purpose:
To allow players of different skill levels to be on equal footing during LARPs, Event games, or online roleplaying. To create an easy, simple, and fast combat and noncombat challenge system to use in such rapid and fast paced environments.

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Stats:

Like other game systems, ArcBlade has Statistic Scores that measure a character's value in each of 4 areas. These stats also determine how many points a character can have in skills based on that particular stat. (a character may never have more Skill Points linked to a particular Stat than their rating in that Stat.)

• Level - The total number of points that a character has in Health, Energy, Strength, Agility, Mind, and Willpower Stats, Plus the total of level points in Skills. This Stat is a true measure of that character's power.
  
• Health - The pool from which your character subtracts damage, when damage is taken. At 0 Health, a character is unconcious and can no longer act.
  
• Energy - The pool from which your character uses Skills. Skills cost Energy to use equal to their Level. At 0 Energy, a character is exausted and can no longer use Skills.
  
• Strength - Your character's raw physical power and muscle.
  
• Agility - You character's speed and fine motor control.
  
• Mind - Your character's mental faculty and creativity.
  
• Willpower - Your character's raw emotional drive and ability to go on.
  

Skills:

• Strength Skills - Strength Skills get +1 Level versus Will Skills.
  
• Agility Skills - Agility Skills get +1 Level against Strength Skills.
  
• Mind Skills - Mind Skills get +1 Level versus Strength Skills.
  
• Willpower Skills - Willpower Skills get +1 Level against Agility Skills.
  

Another easy way to see which stats are good against which is to look at this wheel. Stats are good against the next, in a clockwise fashion.

S
/ | \
M---+---W
\ | /
D

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Skills are the most important aspect of ArcBlade. Skills are the abilities, spells, and techniques used by the characters. Each Skill has a Level. This Level is the only real stat needed for the Skill. All factors of the skill are applied internally, making the Skill Level the end-all be-all of the Skill. Factors like range, power, and speed are all part of the Skill Level and therefore are not needed when in combat. Skill Levels range from 1 to 7, 1 being low and 7 being masterfull.

Skills also have an associated Stat. This Stat determines what sorts of other Skills this particular Skill is good against. Strength Skills are good against Will Skills and so on. Remember to apply the bonus of +1 to your level if your Skill is of the appropriate kind against your opponent. This means that characters of the same level can still gain the upper hand against one another, if their Skills are of the proper Stat.

Some Skills have non-combat abilities and are therefore useless as combat abilities. Examples of this would be Skills that heal Health or Energy, help other skills, or Skills that allow characters to create items.

Skills also come in three flavors, based on what they do. Attack Skills are just that; skills used for attacking other characters in a variety of ways. Defense Skills are Skills used to prevent Attack Skills from working on a character. The third type is Miscelanneous Skills, which aren't used directly in combat.

Attack Skills are bid first, by both combatants. Then, they bid their Defense Skills, based on what attacks are being used.

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The Skills of ArcBlade are organized into trees or "Combat Styles." These styles are lists of skills that students of that school learn as they progress through the levels of the style. The lower level the skill, the more basic it is. The opposite is true of higher level skills. To gain access to a higher level of skills, a character must posess 1 skill from each preceeding level of that tree. Thus, a grand master of a combat style will have levels 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 before getting level 7 Skills.

Often there will be multiple skills of the same level. These skills differ in Attack or Defense status, or simply in description, giving them more flavor.

Characters can belong to any number of fighting styles and have as many skill trees as they can buy.

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Arcblade combat is designed to be simple and fast. The result is often brutal, but one must consider that combat is, well, FIGHTING, and that characters don't simply die at the end of combat.

To speed things up, combat is done in stages.

Stage 1: Challenge
Characters first challenge eachother to a fight. This is a formal agreement to begin combat, and both parties must agree for combat to start.

Stage 2: Declaration of Attack Skills
Both characters bid their attacks at the same time. Either calling them out, placing cards down, or writing the Skill on a piece of paper will work, so long as each combatant knows immediately what skill their opponent is using.

Stage 3: Declaration of Defense Skills
Characters then Bid Defense Skills, based on the knowledge of their opponent's Attack. This need not be done at the exact same time like Attack bidding.

Stage 4: Calculation
Players calculate the damage recieved to their characters by subtracting the level of their Defense Skill (Plus applicable modifier) from the level of the Attack Skill (Plus applicable modifier.) The Damage numbers are then tallied on character sheets to keep track of damage.

Stage 5: Resloution
If a character's damage exceeds their Health, they are unconcious at this point. If they have no more energy, they cannot go on either. If both characters have Health and Energy left, they can continue to fight the next round, or they can withdraw from the fight. Combat proceeds from Stage 2 if both characters are willing, but if not, the winner is decided by who has the most health at the end of the fight.

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Though battle and hard work, characters can gain experence points. 1 experience point is worth 1/10th of a level point. When a character has 10 EXP, they can choose to loose 10 and instead put 1 point into either a Stat. Characters can build up more and more EXP to get higher level Skills. That means that a 5th level Skill would cost 50 EXP, assuming that the character already has the previous levels accomplished. EXP is handled outside the game (ie after a session) or by Training.

Characters with sufficiently high levels can train others in skills they know. Trainers can only train skills one level lower than the highest they know in a particular tree. (Characters who level up outside of the game do not have this restriction, and can learn 7th level Skills this way.) Training another takes time. Consider that one must spend a decent amount of time being trained in game. usually this means about 30 minutes if a short (2-4 hour) session, or 1 hour (for a 4+ hour session). This prevents characters from becoming too flexible too rapidly, but allows characters to still be flexible for difficult situations. Training may be any activity so long as the trainer and the trainee are together for that ammount of time.