You're Doing it Wrong

Avatar AGE (The Last Airbender meets the Dragon Age RPG)

Okay ... So, my friends and I have decided to play a campaign based on Avatar the Last Air Bender and I have decided that I want to use AGE (Dragon Age RPG) system to run it. I realize the Bending is a Martial Art, but I think using the basic rules for Mages will work fine. A Mage's Arcane Lance Ability can take the form of any number of standard elemental bender attacks and can be used without mana cost while more elaborate effects can be paid for with mana using the existing magic system as a guide.

I was going to create a bunch of background tables, but that really proved to be a chore. I came up with some alternate character creation rules and got rid of the random. My players know what they want to play, so I will just let them make their own.

The campaign will take place in the years immediately following the conclusion of the 100 year war.

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Avatar Campaign Character Creation:

CHOOSING CLASS AND ABILITY SCORES

Decide if you want to be a Bender or a Non-Bender.

If you choose a Bender your class is Mage.

If you choose a Non-Bender you may choose either Warrior or Rogue for your class.

Your class will give you 3 Primary Abilities and 5 Secondary Abilities.

For your 3 Primary Abilities one Ability is 3, and the other two have a value of 2.

For your 5 Secondary Abilities one Ability is 2, three are 1, and one is 0.

The final array will be 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0

WATER TRIBE

Hero of the Northern Water Tribe

You are from the Northern Water Tribe and fought in the battle to defend your home against the Fire Nation. You were just a rookie then and had never seen a real combat, but your tribe persevered against the Fire Nation, and now you and many other young people who fought in your tribe's defense are respected war heroes.

If you play a Hero of the Northern Water Tribe Modify your character as follows:

Add the Ability Focus: Constitution (Swimming)

Add the Ability Focus: Cunning (Navigation) or Choose any One Communication Focus.

Choose a class. You can play either a Warrior or a Rogue.

Northern Water Bender

You studied water bending in the Northern Water Tribe. Water bending is a rare art, all the benders of the Southern Water Tribe were killed by the Fire Nation and it is your duty and honor to learn all that you can about water bending techniques to ensure that the tradition of water bending survives.

If you play a Northern Water Bender Modify your character as follows:

Add the Ability Focus: Constitution (Swimming)

Add the Ability Focus: Cunning (Healing) or Choose any One Communication Focus.

As a Water Bender your class is Mage.

FIRE NATION

Fire Nation Soldier

You fought on behalf of the Fire Nation. You saw the damage that the Fire Lord was doing and did what you could to minimize that damage. Orders were orders, but ultimately you knew that what you were doing was wrong. You only hope that the world will give you a chance to make things right.

If you play a Fire Nation Soldier Modify your character as follows:

Add the Ability Focus: Strength (Intimidation)

Add the Ability Focus: Cunning (Military Lore) or Choose any One Dexterity Focus.

Choose a class. You can play either a Warrior or a Rogue.

Fire Bender (Fire Nation Elite Soldier)

You are a mighty Fire Bender. You honestly believed that uniting the world under one rule was a righteous and noble pursuit. You fought along side the Fire Lord, and you lost. Now you see the devastation that the war has caused and you realize that the price was too high.

If you play a Fire Bender Modify your character as follows:

Add the Ability Focus: Cunning (Military Lore)

Add: Weapon Group: Light Blades, or Weapon Group: Spears.

As a Fire Bender your class is Mage.

EARTH KINGDOM

Omashu Survivor (Earth Kingdom)

Omashu was a proud earth kingdom city, second only to Ba Sing Se. It was occupied by the Fire Nation during the latter days of the 100 year war and it's name was changed to New Ozai. You saw many atrocities during the months of Omashu's occupation and these visions of war and the evils of the Fire Nation are still fresh and raw for you.

If you play a Omashu Survivor Modify your character as follows:

Add the Ability Focus: Perception (Tracking) or Choose any One Constitution Focus.

Add the Ability Focus: Cunning (Natural Lore) or Choose any One Strength Focus.

Choose a class. You can play either a Warrior or a Rogue.

Earth Bender

You are an Earth Bender who fought against the Fire Nation. You stood along side the Avatar's forces on the assault of the Fire Lord's palace. You are proud of your accomplishments and hope to one day become as renowned an Earth Bender as the legendary Toph Beifong.

If you play an Earth Bender Modify your character as follows:

Add any One Perception Focus

Add any One Constitution Focus

As an Earth Bender your class is Mage.

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What do you think of my ideas? What do you think of using AGE to play in the world of Avatar the Last Air Bender? We are going in bare bones and making stuff up on the fly ... I'd love to see someone do a full blown Avatar AGE source book. I think the mechanics of the AGE system from Backgrounds to Stunts would work with Avatar perfectly!

Regards,

Jeff

Five by Five 2.5 (Kindle Version)

My thanks to Chris Nason aka Zimzerveran for providing me with a copy of my Five by Five Kindle version (PDF with large type single column for reading on my Kindle) ... I had lost the version to an HDD crash a while back and the place it was hosted (PDF Archive??) didn't seem to have it anymore.

I just wrote this version of the game off. Chris recently sent me a copy and looking at it, I realize it's actually pretty good. It's clean and easy to read and it's all there. It's also the version that the character sheet I created was meant to be used with.

So, in the interest of completeness, I have put up links to the 2.5 version of Five-by-Five and the character sheet. It changes a few of the mechanics. The Doubles = Experience for one. And it uses the term "trump" instead of making a '6' equal '0' ... I had forgotten about these conventions. It's not bad. I am back to the original mechanic for both of these options on the version of the game I am working on now, but it was really interesting to me to look back at these alternative ideas.

Links are in the sidebar to the right.


Regards,



Jeff Moore

Blade Raiders Now Available!

Woo Hoo!

I just ordered mine and free shipping and PDF is available for a limited time so get yours today!

http://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2013/03/blade-raiders-fantasy-rpg.html

Regards,



Jeff

Improving Five-By-Five's dice mechanics

So, I have been working on improving Five-By-Five. In looking back at the numbers I have found that if it weren't for rolling doubles all rolls in Five-By-Five except 0 have a 2 in 36 chance of occurring  That means if I remove doubles from the equation all other rolls become functional and the increments between the rolls become evenly distributed. This improves the 5x5 roll mechanic by leaps and bounds ... and I was already rather happy with it. Now I am ecstatic!

The original 5x5 matrix had 8 ranks and that included the "weakness" rank that needed to be rolled differently. So, really it was only a 7 step array with roughly a 10% difference between rolls, but this difference was not consistent by any means. The new mechanic doesn't need the "weakness" roll to help fill out its ranks and every number in the array is an equal difference from the next number up. And I have gone from 8 ranks to 11.

The New Five-By-Five Roll

Roll 2 six-sided dice.

If you roll Doubles you fail. But, you also learned something. Give yourself an Advancement Point.

If you didn't roll Doubles you have a chance for success.

Any result of 6 is read as 0 instead.

Multiply the 2 dice to find your result.

If the result is equal to or less than your target number, you succeeded at your task.

The lowest target number is 0. 

The highest is 20. 

0 is automatic success. 

Doubles is automatic failure.

Hint: If you rolled a 6 and you didn't get doubles, you automatically succeed at your task because 0 x any number is 0 ... and 0 is an automatic success.

0	10 in 36	27.77	%	each step adds 2 in 36 or 5.55 %
2	12 in 36	33.33	%
3	14 in 36	38.88	%
4	16 in 36	44.44	%
5	18 in 36	50.00	%
6	20 in 36	55.55	%
8	22 in 36	61.11	%
10	24 in 36	66.66	%
12	26 in 36	72.22	%
15	28 in 36	77.77	%
20	30 in 36	83.33	%

There are 5 levels of skills and 5 levels of traits in Five by Five. Cross reference these on the 5x5 Table to find your target number for success.

5x5 Target Number Table                                   .

		No Skill	Skill 1	Skill 2	Skill 3	Skill 4	Skill 5
T	1	0	3	4	5	6	8
R	2	2	4	5	6	8	10
A	3	3	5	6	8	10	12
I	4	4	6	8	10	12	15
T	5	5	8	10	12	15	20

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The new Trait + Skill stuff is something I am playing with. This table utilizes the new array available from the 5x5 roll perfectly. If I go with this, the next version of Five-By-Five should look a great deal different from the current version. But, I think I had done as much with that version of the game that I could and so I am anxious to try to take things in a new direction.

Regards,



Jeff Moore