7 6

| Version ||7.6 | | --- | | Development Began ||S 2016-Mar-23 | | Launch Date ||Not yet launched | | General Goal ||Many more powers, fixing balance between generalists and specialists. New core mechanics to better suit cinematic play. |

General

Advancement

• Ability Scores: gain 10 at character creation plus 1/level, divided as you see fit. (no change from 7.5)
• Skill Points: gain 5 per level. Each adds +1 to a skill or power. Max rank = level.
• Feats: gain 1 at level 1 and 1 every even level.
• Race: depending on choice, gain up to +20 in "background" bonuses to skills and powers (max +4 for any given skill or power) and up to 2 bonus feats.

Also, see Aspirations (work in progress). This will determine how new levels are gained.

Combat Mechanics

• Dodge and Parry are now passive DCs. Between Focus and Action Points, there are plenty of ways to be an active agent in your own defense, and these rolls were just getting tedious.

Skills

Skills no longer grant as many built-in abilities. See Skills for a list of what each skill can do.

Dodge and Parry exist again.

Skills are once again based on Skill Points. Formula is very simple: skill check is 1d20 + skill points + ability score.

Feats

Slightly rarer now, at 1 per 2 levels.

There are a few new categories now, not targeted at any given skill. Hoping to add more along these lines.

See Feats for a complete list.

Powers

Breaking powers down into smaller, more specific units. For example:

• Telepathy becomes Mindlink, Empathy, Suggestion, Psychic Assault, Psychic Chirurgery, and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions.
  • This is an extreme example; most 7.5 powers aren't this OP. Some may split into 2 or even just 1.
• Lots of new powers, especially in the area of utility. For example:
  • Clairvoyance is a discipline of the Mentalism school. It contains the following powers:
    • Extra-Sensory Perception: see invisible creatures, see through darkness, sense remote viewing, etc.
    • Foresight: see things before they happen; bonuses to perception, combat maneuvers. Take immediate actions without spending AP
    • Remote Viewing: see things far away, project your consciousness, even create a remote spell proxy

See Powers for a complete list.

Ideas, Notes, Wish List

Hero Points

• No more "auto-succeed". That's what Focus is for.
• Split "edit the scene" into Fate Points or somesuch: a currency that lets a PC be the DM for just a moment. Not just for combat anymore (e.g. "why yes, there does happen to be a magic shop in this town" or "omg, a random encounter happens, so we can get xp!")
• Use as a currency to transcend limitations (like treating your Telekinesis or Earth power as several sizes larger)
• Use as a currency to gain rounds of Super Saiyan (Espers, etc)
• Use as a currency to use powers you don't have, but are kinda close to something you could pull off
  • Powers of the same school, but higher rank: just add 1 Hero Point per rank!
  • Powers of similar school that you don't have: DM adjudicated
  • Interesting use of power that you already have: DM adjudicated, usually just Spellcraft/Concentration/Willpower, but may involve Hero Points

Aspirations

• Select 3 (or maybe 5) traits, such as Anti-hero, Honor-bound, Knowledge Seeker, etc
• Each of those has a hand of cards hard-coded into the system (i.e. not hand-written for each character by the DM)
• Each session, pick one card from each pile. That's your deck.
• If you achieve an aspiration, you immediately claim the rewards, and can draw a new one from that deck. The achieved card doesn't go back in the pile until next sessions.
• Aspiration Cards grant XP, as well as Hero Points (in their various incarnations; see above)

See Aspirations for work in progress.

Backgrounds

Feats to help round off a character at creation (especially those without a fancy race). Similar to Legacy?

Powers

All uses are possible at rank 1, but advanced uses cost extra Mana or add +x (where x is a multiple of 5) to the Spellcraft DC. Ranking up adds +5 to Spellcraft checks and +1 Mana efficiency, effectively neutralizing higher-level uses.

Power feats probably don't need to exist, because they are baked into the power as advanced uses.

Some advanced uses cost way more Mana or DC, and are intended for ritual use.

Also see 7.6 Gating

Tier Bonuses

Every 5 levels, you get certain bonuses, such as:

• Damage die upgrades (level 1-4, one die; level 5-9, two dice, etc)
• Tier bonus to stats (+1 to all)
• Perhaps some others according to a "path" that you specify, such as the 5/10/15/20 level abilities in System 6?

Resource Points

Revisit Resource Points with updated numbers to provide mapping between Powers and Equipment. Basically, any power can be turned into equipment at a given price, regardless of source. No more ambiguity about alchemcy, inscription, echantment, power suits, etc. They're both powers and equipment.

Observations

Feats are working out great. Powers are fine. Skill points, well...they're really fiddly. 10 was too many, 5 may be too few, and the whole exercise is really crunchy and probably overkill.

What we're basically trying to allow is this:

• You can invest in however many or few skills as you want.
  • If you pick a few, you'll be really good at those few.
  • If you pick many, you'll be kind of meh at those many.
• That's pretty much it. It's mostly to do with powers--in the mundane world, this sort of clash doesn't seem to be thing (yet?). That's probably because of flavor; some may want to emphasize a very small set of powers, others are broad generalists. The numbers shouldn't be too different--the specialists should have an advantage, but not an overwhelming one, as they have a lot of flexibility within their "limited" power range, given how S7 powers work.
  • One approach might be the alternate approach previously explored, namely:

The (New) 5-Rank System

For all skills and powers, there are 5 ranks of proficiency and use:

;Proficiency:

;Use:

Idea Scratch Space

Just to jot them down:

• 1-9: regular leveling
• 10-19: paragon path. gain key ability at 10, paragon traits (per chosen path) at 12, 14, etc
• 20+: epic. similar to system 6 epic

How to balance generalists vs specialists:

• Advancement mechanic is BP only
• Start with a bunch. Let's say 10 plus an amount per race (10 for human, 5 for mid-power races, etc)
• 1 BP = 1 ability score point
• 1 BP = 1 skill/power (7.5 style numbers)
• Each level, gain 1 BP. That's all.
  • Power generalists dump BP into more powers, so their ability scores (and thus numbers) stagnate.
  • Power specialists dump BP into ability scores and have better numbers, and may get deeper mastery of powers earlier (if using the above 5-rank system)
  • Non-power users (fighters, rogues, etc) happy with their mundane skills can just focus on ability scores (or deep mastery, as above)
• Feats still happen every even level (possibly alternating with a path-based ability)

Revisiting paths:

• Tier 1
  • Level 1-9: Hero
  • Key mechanic: Hero Point
  • Choose a basic hero type, such as Strong Hero, Smart Hero, etc.
  • Gain a starting ability, such as:
    • Smart Hero: spend a Hero Point to think of a clever idea, such as modulating the deflector dish to emit anti-gravitons to neutralize the enemy phase barriers
    • Tough Hero: spend a Hero Point to negate any injury or loss-of-control effect.
  • Every odd level thereafter (3-9), gain an additional trait, such as:
    • Strong Hero: +2 damage with melee weapons
    • These might be like Draenor perks, where you pick them in any order, but by the end of the tier, you have them all.
• Tier 2
  • Level 10-19: the Turn (better name TBD)
  • Concept: a change in destiny, discovering something unexpected about oneself. Choose a new power source, orthagonal to heroic type, often resulting from a change, such as acquiring a curse, losing a friend, gaining an item, etc.
  • Key mechanic: TBD (something like Artifact Power in Legion)
• Tier 3
  • Level 20+: Epic Destiny
  • Key mechanic: