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Pen And Paper Elemenstation Rules

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 10 months ago

back to ELotH: TES - Pen and Paper RPG

Pen And Paper Elemenstation Rules

The Elemenstation system in the P&P RPG is based on a simplified octahedric hyperprism hypothesis. A modified version of the system also exists for Dark Elemenstation, but was not included in the core rules, only added later by the Age of The Lack of Light expansion.

 

Unlike traditional RPG magic systems, Elemenstors do not have to worry about spell memorizing, or spell points, or any such nonsense. If an Elemenstor has learned a gear, they may cast that gear an unlimited number of times per day. Some gears have endurance penalties if there is a physical activity required to participate in said gear, but there is no elemenstational reason why your character cannot continuously strike any combination of their gears.

 

This leads to Elemenstors being particularly powerful characters, and battles between elemenstors are some of the real highlights of the game.

 

The primary limiting factor is the complexity of the mechanics of gear striking, so new players typically use less gears, where experienced players strike gears more frequently with more powerful results. Most fans feel that this lends a nice verisimilitude to the mechanic.

 


 

Representative Prismatic Chart (RPC)

This is the primary game element used in defining and resolving Elemenstor related gear striking.

 

Features of the RPC

  • The four circles represent the aligned elements, the four primary being on the left, the secondary elements being on the right.
  • The black lines are referred to as struts
  • The center line is called the height indicator
  • The left grid is considered height 0 where as the right is considered height 4

 

Character Elemental Affinity (CEF)

An RPC is used to define the element type of an Elemenstor. Each Elemenstor character must have a base affinity, although the penalties associated with striking an out of affinity gear can be reduced (or eliminated) through Skill: Formal Elemenstorly Training.

 

As an example, here is a Water Elemenstor's CEF chart:

 

The affinity is defined by a point in 3D space which aligns with an element.

Gear Elemental Affinity (GEF)

Like the CEF, the GEF is defined by a point in 3D space. The penalties associated with striking a gear are determined by the distance between the CEF and the location of said gear (the GEF), then modified by its difficulty, the skill of the elemenstor, and the Elemanifestation Density (ED) of the area. (see the section on gear resolution)

 

As an example, a Parsum peanut gear may look like this:

 

In the case of our example water elemenstor, the affinity distance (AD) is ~4.90 (which would round to 5) so that is the base distance modifier used in determining success of failure of the strike.

 

Gear Stratum Modifier (GSM)

Gears fall into three difficulty levels called stratum.

  • Parsum - easy gears with a +0 modifier (no difficulty modifier)
  • Genisum - medium difficulty gear with a +10 modifier to the resolution number
  • Bassal - a very difficult gear with a +20 modifier to the resolution number

 

Elemanifestation Density (ED)

When the game master brings the party into a new area, if there will be elemenstation in that area, the first thing that the game master will do is roll a D7 to determine Elemanifestation Density. Unless any Elemenstors in the party have Skill:Detect Elemanifestation Density, this number is kept secret until the first party member strikes a gear.

 

This number subtracted from the resolution number of the gear.

 

Resolving Gear Strikes

Successful strikes depend on the skill of the elemenstor, and are struck true on a combined resolution number of 0 or lower.

 

Resolution Equation: AD + GSM - ED - character's ELM - 1D7 (called the kicker)

 

As you can see, most elemenstors would have no trouble casting an aligned parsum gear.

 

Elemenstaves

The use of an Elemenstave as a focus gives a -1 bonus applied to the resolution number when striking genisum or bassal gears.

 

Untrained Elemenstors and Bassal Gears

Given that a bassal gear has a +20 GSM, the max ELM for an Elemenstor is typically 5, the highest ED in an area is 7, and the highest kicker is a 7, and an Elemenstave offers a -1 bonus, one will note that it would be almost impossible for an elemenstor who does not have special training to strike a bassal gear... though not impossible.

 

Notes of special resolution numbers

  • A true 0 can add bonuses or penalties to the strike (without negating the primary effects of the gear) at the game masters discretion
  • A resolution number of 5 or greater is considered a critical fumble. Most bassal gear rules have descriptions of backfire rules, but any effect may be applied at the discretion of the game master.

 

Discussion

TimWhew! This system is pretty complicated, but I think it's kind of elegant and like most of the rest of the P&P, playable once you know the rules. Did this from memory, so anybody that plays a lot who knows of details I missed, feel free to add them in.. also any questions, let me know.

Comments (1)

Anonymous said

at 6:23 pm on Feb 27, 2006

we used the alternate rule where any gear not resolved in 60 seconds of actual time was an automatic failure. I think that this was pretty common both to nerf the overpowerful elemenstor class and to speed up gameplay. anybody else have similar stories?

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