Post by Adam on Mar 3, 2009 12:22:39 GMT -5
Wraithsight hasn't actually been started yet. I want to get Duel of Steel 80-90% done before I jump into Wraithsight (this threshold may not be that far off, actually). I do have a collection of ideas that form the basic shape of the game rules. This may or may not make sense, because I know the background and you don't...
Okay, to make life easier, here's a PDF of Wraithseer, the few-chapters-that-could-have-been-a-novel-if-I-could-be-arsed. Ignore the bad love interest detail, the bit later on is actually a solid bit of writing. The events and setting of Wraithseer have nothing to do with Wraithsight's background; Wraithsight will be set in a fantasy-ish universe with a number of different factions both human and non-human, with the backstory exploring the different ways a wraithseer could actually fit into society. The concept of the wraithseer itself, though, is the same. Enough waffling: www.mediafire.com/?ztilmjyutzi.
Now, for the game ideas...
---------------------------------------------
Wraithsight
Tabletop game based around summoning units to attack your opponent, gathering power via nodes placed around the board. 3-4 human factions and 2-3 nonhuman ones.
Your force consists of your wraithseer (who can be of one of 3 ranks, such as Acolyte/Priest/High Seer, and four elemental 'affinities' that help define playstyle, with a few other options on top), some support units, and any assisting warlocks (which are kinda like Warmachine's solos). When designing your army list you choose a repertoire of wraith types that your wraithseer is capable of summoning. The size of the repertoire will vary between factions but obviously higher ranked wraithseers can have more. (E.g. Acolyte=5 or 6, Priest=7, High Seer=8.)
A wraithseer gathers power by controlling and tapping the nodes. If a seer controls a node he can tap it. Control of nodes is checked at the start of the turn, before tapping. A seer can take control of a node by moving to within skill stat distance of it or moving a wraith to within 1" of it. A node cannot be taken over if the enemy already has a wraith on it; a willpower roll-off is used if two seers would be in range to take control of the same node. When tapping, a wraithseer gains one magic point per tapped node, and will always get at least 3 (his own soul serves as a source of power when necessary). A wraithseer starts the game with magic points (they'll need a better name) equivalent to a skill stat, and can't go higher than double this amount at any point during the game unless otherwise stated. Points hang around until you spend them.
Power is used for summonings, of which there are no less than eight ranks. A summoning costs magic points equal to its rank. These ranks have different names according to the faction using them, although in rules are referred to as numbers 1-8 (or first, second, third etc). So far I've got:
- Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quatrus, Pentus, Hexus, Septus, Octus (Latin - probably used by the Arcanum)
- Monax, Duirax, Trirax, Quarax, Perax, Herax, Septax, Octax (Variant Latin dialect - Night Walkers)
- Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta (Greek obviously - maybe the third human faction, the Aegypteans, a blend of Aztec, Egyptian and Greek/Roman)
- Aleph, Veir, Girel, Daret, Heai, Va'v, Zayin, Khayet (My own twisted version of the Hebrew alphabet - used by the elves perhaps?)
Rank 1 summonings are spells. They don't create wraiths and normally cost one point. However, each spell will have an additional cost. If the spell is cast but found to be out of range or sight range (explained later), the additional cost isn't paid, so your fizzle-out only burns away one point. (AOE spells that fail to affect a single model likewise only cost one point.) If the spell is cast but fails an attack roll/casting roll/whatever, you pay a maximum of 2 points. If the spell is cast, and hits or otherwise takes effect, you pay full cost regardless of how much it actually does (so if an offensive spell fails to dent the target's armour, you still pay the full price).
Rank 2-8 summonings are wraiths. Yes there are no less than 7 categories of wraith! The initial release of Wraithseer will probably include, for most factions, wraiths of rank 2-5 and a single rank 6 or 7. When summoned, a wraith is placed within 3" of the seer or of a node the seer controls. Scouts can be placed within the seer's skill radius; Shielders prevent summonings within 6" of them (or a Shield stat distance?). A wraith's move speed is halved in the turn when it's summoned, except maybe a certain type (Hunters?).
There are also Avatar Wraiths. Avatar Wraiths can only be summoned once per game and cost a varying amount of magic points (usually 10). These are entities that require more than just the soul to explain - manifestations of angels or demons from some other plane. Thanatos from Chaos Legion will be in here somewhere (in his perfect form), although probably with a different name.
Wraiths also come in several types, such as Scout, Shielder, Hunter, Warrior etc. Not all factions have access to all of these (eg the Night Walkers, a sort-of-evil human faction and the game's Tyranid army, don't get Shielders at all, which can leave them vulnerable; but they get Scouts and similar cheap light models with a lot more offensive power than the other factions do). Each type will have different rules and modus operandi than the others, whether via its unit entry or via special rules for its type.
So, game stats and mechanics. Wraithseer is played on a roughly 1:1 model:range scale. Most shooting attacks have an infinite range; after all, 48" in a 28mm-30mm game is only about 240 feet (72 metres - three times of the length of a swimming pool: i.e. naff all!) but a model's in game range is affected by its sight range. Sight range limits the distance a model can see, and represents both visual acuity/weapon accuracy and magical sight. Wraiths don't have normal eyes. While a human can see and shoot a wraith perfectly easily, it won't do a whole lot unless they have special alchemical ammunition - something only wraithseers and some warlocks can make. Wraiths (who have ammo made of magic...) have to target their enemy's essence to do maximum damage, and that gets difficult to see against the magical residue of spells going off, the massive all-pervading background presence of the wraithseers themselves, the world's natural magic, other wraiths, and so on. Because of this, the LOS rules are determined by a wraith's power and magical being rather than its size. LOS is blocked to a wraith if the line is traced across another wraith (from either side) of equal or higher rank, or a number of wraiths whose ranks add up to the target's. Similarly for non-solid terrain - low rank enemies can hide 2" or 3" in, but the higher ranks won't be obscured until they get 5" or 6" in. Solid terrain obviously blocks line of sight.
Wraithseers block line of sight because their coronas of power obscure everything else on the battlefield; Shielders have the ability to block LOS to seers, but normally, seers count as Rank 9 or 10 for LOS purposes. Sorcerers are probably about Rank 6-7, maybe higher. Chuck a few models in front of one and you can cut off the lines of sight, but it's not that big a deal; wraithseers are too tough to be hurt much by shooting. They'll have special rules for precisely this. Wraithsight's shooting won't be particularly weak... against other wraiths. Only in a HUGE mass will it be any threat to a seer. The only real ways to kill a seer though, are by either casting spells from your own seer and his sorcerers, or the best way, shoving a Rank 5+ melee monster or two in its face...
Scouts have the ability of acting as arc nodes, in effect; a Wraithseer can use a Scout as the LOS 'origin' for a spell, and as many scouts will come with half decent ranged weapons to complement their usually good sight range, this lets them soften an enemy up with shooting before the seer obliterates it. Seers are frontline fighters in every sense of the word. Their spells and attacks are designed to hurt each other more than anything, which means they're pretty damn hefty. They may even get damage bonuses against wraiths because of their knowledge on how to dispel them. There will be no 'hang around the back of the table' syndrome in Wraithsight. (If you did try that, you'd get out-magicked pretty quickly anyway, as your opponent pinched all the power nodes!) Wraithseers also have an ability called Consciousness Shift which allows them to focus on one model at a time. Normally a seer's focus is on himself, and he gets the related bonuses. (Spend magic points to increase the quality of attacks? General skill buffs? A specific extra ability or two which changes depending on faction/element? Origin point of spells?) He can focus on a different model at the start of his activation, lasting until his next one. That model then gets the benefits instead. Also, when a wraith that's being focused on activates, all Essence wounds are immediately healed.
Wraiths have two wound stats: Essence and Resilience. Essence is equal to the creature's rank, and Resilience forms extra wounds on top of that. For example, let's say a Malevolence is Rank 7. It has 7 Essence and maybe 2-3 Resilience as well, because it's pretty tough. Damage takes off the Resilience first before moving on to Essence. However, a wraith can spend its Essence to activate certain abilities and spells. Wraiths draw on power by the second, but sometimes they have to dip into their essence to fire off the more powerful spells, being potent sources of power in themselves. The Malevolence has an ability called Crippling Fear which is a massive AOE debuff, but which drains three or four of the creature's essence points, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Some wraiths are capable of combining essences - you can spend essence from another creature nearby - maybe that'll be a spell effect, elemental ability, or faction ability. Each faction has a method of unusual essence manipulation or some similar synergy. Aegyptus wraiths are weak on their own but gain armour and/or strength for every friendly model within a certain distance of them. Night Walkers have Sacrifice, letting you kill a wraith to pass its essence to another and provide a buff (speed and strength, probably) on top of that. One of the factions may yet have some kind of Conjunction ability.
The damage system. Finally I have a way to use this two-part stat I've been itching to use. A weapon's main damage stat (probably just called Damage, in fact) is bipartite: it takes the form Calibre/Firepower (or C/F) and armour is much the same - Defence/Integrity or D/I. Multiple armour stats are possible, and will stack. When a shot or melee attack hits, compare the Firepower to the armour's Integrity. If Firepower is less, roll that many D10s, and add the Calibre. Each one that equals or beats the armour's Defence causes a wound. If Integrity is less, roll that many D10s, and add an extra dice to one roll per extra point of Firepower. (This will wrap around again, so if Firepower is more than double the Integrity, some of the rolls will be 3D10s.) This could be a blanket +1 to all damage rolls per extra point of Firepower instead, I'm not sure. Would certainly be quicker.
Multiple armour: Apply damage rolls to the highest Defence first, but instead of wrapping around, you continue onto the next level of armour, and so on. Only when you've got a number of dice rolls of D10+Calibre against each level of armour equal to its Integrity do you wrap around, returning to the highest Defence again. Multiple shot weapons multiply the firepower by the number of hits caused, increasing the FP per shot by one point each time you hit. So the first hit of a 4/3 multishot weapon is worth 4/3, but if you hit twice it's 3+4=7 firepower, three hits is 3+4+5=12, four hits is 18, etc. Separate weapons are resolved separately, but all fire from a single multiple-shot weapon is resolved together.
Examples: A burst of fire with damage stat 3/10 hits an Armour 11/6 target. That's 6 damage rolls, with four additional Firepower on top of that. So that's four rolls of 2D10+3 and two rolls of D10+3, trying to get equal to or greater than 11 (needing 8+'s).
- A shot of 8/2 hits the same target. Two damage rolls needing 3+'s.
- A burst of 3/10 hits a target with two armour stats, 15/3 and 10/5. Three damage rolls of D10+3 go on the first armour value (needing 15s), five rolls of D10+3 on the second (needing 10s). There's two left over, so those wrap around to add an extra dice to two of the dice rolls on the high armour. The end result is two rolls of 2D10+3 (needing 15s), five rolls of D10+3 (needing 10s), and a discounted D10+3 roll that can't actually reach 15, so is ignored.
- A weapon with damage 3/3 and five shots is fired at a target with an armour of 19/3. The weapon hits three times, so it has a Firepower of 3+4+5 = 12. This is just enough to wrap around the armour four times, meaning the weapon is rolling three lots of 4D10+3 and needing 19s to wound. (High Defence, low Integrity armour like that nerfs the hell out of anti-'tank' weapons but is very vulnerable to rapid fire; armour like 11/8+ is the opposite. Wraiths' armour isn't exactly conventional. You'll also notice that an Integrity of 3 means it can never take more than three wounds from a single salvo - if it had 19/4 that would probably result in it taking *more* wounds in this case. Multiple shot weapons with Firepower 3 are thankfully rare, or at least ones with 5 shots!)
Okay, to make life easier, here's a PDF of Wraithseer, the few-chapters-that-could-have-been-a-novel-if-I-could-be-arsed. Ignore the bad love interest detail, the bit later on is actually a solid bit of writing. The events and setting of Wraithseer have nothing to do with Wraithsight's background; Wraithsight will be set in a fantasy-ish universe with a number of different factions both human and non-human, with the backstory exploring the different ways a wraithseer could actually fit into society. The concept of the wraithseer itself, though, is the same. Enough waffling: www.mediafire.com/?ztilmjyutzi.
Now, for the game ideas...
---------------------------------------------
Wraithsight
Tabletop game based around summoning units to attack your opponent, gathering power via nodes placed around the board. 3-4 human factions and 2-3 nonhuman ones.
Your force consists of your wraithseer (who can be of one of 3 ranks, such as Acolyte/Priest/High Seer, and four elemental 'affinities' that help define playstyle, with a few other options on top), some support units, and any assisting warlocks (which are kinda like Warmachine's solos). When designing your army list you choose a repertoire of wraith types that your wraithseer is capable of summoning. The size of the repertoire will vary between factions but obviously higher ranked wraithseers can have more. (E.g. Acolyte=5 or 6, Priest=7, High Seer=8.)
A wraithseer gathers power by controlling and tapping the nodes. If a seer controls a node he can tap it. Control of nodes is checked at the start of the turn, before tapping. A seer can take control of a node by moving to within skill stat distance of it or moving a wraith to within 1" of it. A node cannot be taken over if the enemy already has a wraith on it; a willpower roll-off is used if two seers would be in range to take control of the same node. When tapping, a wraithseer gains one magic point per tapped node, and will always get at least 3 (his own soul serves as a source of power when necessary). A wraithseer starts the game with magic points (they'll need a better name) equivalent to a skill stat, and can't go higher than double this amount at any point during the game unless otherwise stated. Points hang around until you spend them.
Power is used for summonings, of which there are no less than eight ranks. A summoning costs magic points equal to its rank. These ranks have different names according to the faction using them, although in rules are referred to as numbers 1-8 (or first, second, third etc). So far I've got:
- Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quatrus, Pentus, Hexus, Septus, Octus (Latin - probably used by the Arcanum)
- Monax, Duirax, Trirax, Quarax, Perax, Herax, Septax, Octax (Variant Latin dialect - Night Walkers)
- Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta (Greek obviously - maybe the third human faction, the Aegypteans, a blend of Aztec, Egyptian and Greek/Roman)
- Aleph, Veir, Girel, Daret, Heai, Va'v, Zayin, Khayet (My own twisted version of the Hebrew alphabet - used by the elves perhaps?)
Rank 1 summonings are spells. They don't create wraiths and normally cost one point. However, each spell will have an additional cost. If the spell is cast but found to be out of range or sight range (explained later), the additional cost isn't paid, so your fizzle-out only burns away one point. (AOE spells that fail to affect a single model likewise only cost one point.) If the spell is cast but fails an attack roll/casting roll/whatever, you pay a maximum of 2 points. If the spell is cast, and hits or otherwise takes effect, you pay full cost regardless of how much it actually does (so if an offensive spell fails to dent the target's armour, you still pay the full price).
Rank 2-8 summonings are wraiths. Yes there are no less than 7 categories of wraith! The initial release of Wraithseer will probably include, for most factions, wraiths of rank 2-5 and a single rank 6 or 7. When summoned, a wraith is placed within 3" of the seer or of a node the seer controls. Scouts can be placed within the seer's skill radius; Shielders prevent summonings within 6" of them (or a Shield stat distance?). A wraith's move speed is halved in the turn when it's summoned, except maybe a certain type (Hunters?).
There are also Avatar Wraiths. Avatar Wraiths can only be summoned once per game and cost a varying amount of magic points (usually 10). These are entities that require more than just the soul to explain - manifestations of angels or demons from some other plane. Thanatos from Chaos Legion will be in here somewhere (in his perfect form), although probably with a different name.
Wraiths also come in several types, such as Scout, Shielder, Hunter, Warrior etc. Not all factions have access to all of these (eg the Night Walkers, a sort-of-evil human faction and the game's Tyranid army, don't get Shielders at all, which can leave them vulnerable; but they get Scouts and similar cheap light models with a lot more offensive power than the other factions do). Each type will have different rules and modus operandi than the others, whether via its unit entry or via special rules for its type.
So, game stats and mechanics. Wraithseer is played on a roughly 1:1 model:range scale. Most shooting attacks have an infinite range; after all, 48" in a 28mm-30mm game is only about 240 feet (72 metres - three times of the length of a swimming pool: i.e. naff all!) but a model's in game range is affected by its sight range. Sight range limits the distance a model can see, and represents both visual acuity/weapon accuracy and magical sight. Wraiths don't have normal eyes. While a human can see and shoot a wraith perfectly easily, it won't do a whole lot unless they have special alchemical ammunition - something only wraithseers and some warlocks can make. Wraiths (who have ammo made of magic...) have to target their enemy's essence to do maximum damage, and that gets difficult to see against the magical residue of spells going off, the massive all-pervading background presence of the wraithseers themselves, the world's natural magic, other wraiths, and so on. Because of this, the LOS rules are determined by a wraith's power and magical being rather than its size. LOS is blocked to a wraith if the line is traced across another wraith (from either side) of equal or higher rank, or a number of wraiths whose ranks add up to the target's. Similarly for non-solid terrain - low rank enemies can hide 2" or 3" in, but the higher ranks won't be obscured until they get 5" or 6" in. Solid terrain obviously blocks line of sight.
Wraithseers block line of sight because their coronas of power obscure everything else on the battlefield; Shielders have the ability to block LOS to seers, but normally, seers count as Rank 9 or 10 for LOS purposes. Sorcerers are probably about Rank 6-7, maybe higher. Chuck a few models in front of one and you can cut off the lines of sight, but it's not that big a deal; wraithseers are too tough to be hurt much by shooting. They'll have special rules for precisely this. Wraithsight's shooting won't be particularly weak... against other wraiths. Only in a HUGE mass will it be any threat to a seer. The only real ways to kill a seer though, are by either casting spells from your own seer and his sorcerers, or the best way, shoving a Rank 5+ melee monster or two in its face...
Scouts have the ability of acting as arc nodes, in effect; a Wraithseer can use a Scout as the LOS 'origin' for a spell, and as many scouts will come with half decent ranged weapons to complement their usually good sight range, this lets them soften an enemy up with shooting before the seer obliterates it. Seers are frontline fighters in every sense of the word. Their spells and attacks are designed to hurt each other more than anything, which means they're pretty damn hefty. They may even get damage bonuses against wraiths because of their knowledge on how to dispel them. There will be no 'hang around the back of the table' syndrome in Wraithsight. (If you did try that, you'd get out-magicked pretty quickly anyway, as your opponent pinched all the power nodes!) Wraithseers also have an ability called Consciousness Shift which allows them to focus on one model at a time. Normally a seer's focus is on himself, and he gets the related bonuses. (Spend magic points to increase the quality of attacks? General skill buffs? A specific extra ability or two which changes depending on faction/element? Origin point of spells?) He can focus on a different model at the start of his activation, lasting until his next one. That model then gets the benefits instead. Also, when a wraith that's being focused on activates, all Essence wounds are immediately healed.
Wraiths have two wound stats: Essence and Resilience. Essence is equal to the creature's rank, and Resilience forms extra wounds on top of that. For example, let's say a Malevolence is Rank 7. It has 7 Essence and maybe 2-3 Resilience as well, because it's pretty tough. Damage takes off the Resilience first before moving on to Essence. However, a wraith can spend its Essence to activate certain abilities and spells. Wraiths draw on power by the second, but sometimes they have to dip into their essence to fire off the more powerful spells, being potent sources of power in themselves. The Malevolence has an ability called Crippling Fear which is a massive AOE debuff, but which drains three or four of the creature's essence points, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Some wraiths are capable of combining essences - you can spend essence from another creature nearby - maybe that'll be a spell effect, elemental ability, or faction ability. Each faction has a method of unusual essence manipulation or some similar synergy. Aegyptus wraiths are weak on their own but gain armour and/or strength for every friendly model within a certain distance of them. Night Walkers have Sacrifice, letting you kill a wraith to pass its essence to another and provide a buff (speed and strength, probably) on top of that. One of the factions may yet have some kind of Conjunction ability.
The damage system. Finally I have a way to use this two-part stat I've been itching to use. A weapon's main damage stat (probably just called Damage, in fact) is bipartite: it takes the form Calibre/Firepower (or C/F) and armour is much the same - Defence/Integrity or D/I. Multiple armour stats are possible, and will stack. When a shot or melee attack hits, compare the Firepower to the armour's Integrity. If Firepower is less, roll that many D10s, and add the Calibre. Each one that equals or beats the armour's Defence causes a wound. If Integrity is less, roll that many D10s, and add an extra dice to one roll per extra point of Firepower. (This will wrap around again, so if Firepower is more than double the Integrity, some of the rolls will be 3D10s.) This could be a blanket +1 to all damage rolls per extra point of Firepower instead, I'm not sure. Would certainly be quicker.
Multiple armour: Apply damage rolls to the highest Defence first, but instead of wrapping around, you continue onto the next level of armour, and so on. Only when you've got a number of dice rolls of D10+Calibre against each level of armour equal to its Integrity do you wrap around, returning to the highest Defence again. Multiple shot weapons multiply the firepower by the number of hits caused, increasing the FP per shot by one point each time you hit. So the first hit of a 4/3 multishot weapon is worth 4/3, but if you hit twice it's 3+4=7 firepower, three hits is 3+4+5=12, four hits is 18, etc. Separate weapons are resolved separately, but all fire from a single multiple-shot weapon is resolved together.
Examples: A burst of fire with damage stat 3/10 hits an Armour 11/6 target. That's 6 damage rolls, with four additional Firepower on top of that. So that's four rolls of 2D10+3 and two rolls of D10+3, trying to get equal to or greater than 11 (needing 8+'s).
- A shot of 8/2 hits the same target. Two damage rolls needing 3+'s.
- A burst of 3/10 hits a target with two armour stats, 15/3 and 10/5. Three damage rolls of D10+3 go on the first armour value (needing 15s), five rolls of D10+3 on the second (needing 10s). There's two left over, so those wrap around to add an extra dice to two of the dice rolls on the high armour. The end result is two rolls of 2D10+3 (needing 15s), five rolls of D10+3 (needing 10s), and a discounted D10+3 roll that can't actually reach 15, so is ignored.
- A weapon with damage 3/3 and five shots is fired at a target with an armour of 19/3. The weapon hits three times, so it has a Firepower of 3+4+5 = 12. This is just enough to wrap around the armour four times, meaning the weapon is rolling three lots of 4D10+3 and needing 19s to wound. (High Defence, low Integrity armour like that nerfs the hell out of anti-'tank' weapons but is very vulnerable to rapid fire; armour like 11/8+ is the opposite. Wraiths' armour isn't exactly conventional. You'll also notice that an Integrity of 3 means it can never take more than three wounds from a single salvo - if it had 19/4 that would probably result in it taking *more* wounds in this case. Multiple shot weapons with Firepower 3 are thankfully rare, or at least ones with 5 shots!)
