Setting Ideas - SAME content

I realized I wouldn't want to work so much on my setting for a while, since I finally had an outlet for all of the ideas that pop up whenever I brainstorm for content. (Namely, the Sowing Seeds article.)

However, I wanted to try and bring myself back into detailing my setting, so I figured now's a good a time as any, seeing as I'll be having some free time on my hands after orientation week is over. For reasons that may be apparent to those such as I, it's hard to enjoy what you produce. So I probably won't be doing any fluff material for a while. This article will be dealing with the SAME rules and guidelines for Agartha, but soon will switch back to location details, etc., just as soon as I start liking the setting again.

First off; Creative process.
I want the player characters to feel like they have a definite impact on the world at large (or small, whatever) so I'm trying to tailor some things to make it feel like your character is really important.

This can happen a couple of ways. First on the list is a larger time in the spotlight, and weight added to your choices. You guys are the movers and shakers of the world, so obviously a lot of attention is going to be paid to your actions and their consequences. The people you meet along the story's arcs will also be similarly engaging (hopefully), and would present adequate, if not exemplary, merit for being a part of the story's focus. Obviously this is bad for the setting, as if only a select few people are really capable to doing anything important, what use is there for those NPCs who don't have "it?" A really easy, but ultimately poor, solution is to just treat things as they would be if the character's didn't have the power to move mountains with their minds. This is just like how the main character's in traditional CRPGs are treated within the game world, and is really stretching believability.

The second, and more easily handled point on the list is to just give you guys better stats. Obviously this presents the same problems as the story-driven aspect above, but is easier to deal with. If you guys have better abilities, you handle tougher challenges. But, yet again the same problem creeps up: What use is everybody else?

Well, someone's gonna need all that rescuing. Also, they make food and clothes while you fight demons.

Mechanically, this is the way it'll work.

While most people have just about 10 points to put into their SAME scores, you dudes have got 30. That's right. You are worth 4 people, not counting whatever special abilities and spells you have at your call. That means that when a Behemoth comes a knocking on your door, and it takes you and 3 of your buddies to kill it, it would've normally taken a whole town's worth of militia.

You can spend 30 points on SAME attributes, with a 4-point gap between your lowest and highest scores. Your skills are derived from your base attributes, but can be altered by reducing a score and increasing another, with an 8-point gap limit instead of 4. There are 7 elementals in Agartha, with the classical four being present in addition to Leaf, Light and Void. You get an 8, 6, 4 and 2 to put into 4 of them.

So, a typical PC warrior would look something like this:

S:10 A:8 M:6 E:6
Athletics:12Acrobatics:8Intuition:4Poise: 6
Endurance:12 Sneak:4Logic: 8Deception: 6
Fire:6Water:4Wind:2Earth:8Leaf:0Light:0Void:0

With various special abilities tacked on to make him more formidable.

As normal for SAME, target Defenses are based on 8+Agility/Moxy and damage is derived from the attack/weapon base+Strength/Elan.

Skills are resolved almost like attacks, without the soak roll. There's just the test, which is d20+skill mod versus the Target number. (Usually about 10+multiples of 5)

Ranges are taken from this table:
Self
0-5 ft: Melee
5-25ft: Near
25-100: Far
100-400: Distant
400-Quarter Mile: Crazy
Quarter Mile up: Super Awesome

So a typical weapon attack would have range of M, or NF if it's a ranged weapon. A Path maneuver can have a range from M all the way up to S depending on the nature of the ability and battlefield conditions.

Normal weapons usually deal Void damage, but enchanted, natural, and specially crafted weapons deal damage of whatever type is thematically appropriate. A wooden sword deals Leaf damage, a rock deals Earth damage, etc.

Armor is like normal SAME, with random elemental resistances. Everybody starts out with armor worth 6 points of elemental resistance. You'll get better stuff when you find it.

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This will be edited further in the future to contain a list of spells/maneuvers and special abilities.