DwD Studios

I figured this was great because you are incharge of how fast your BP grow. You want more, you increase STR which can also help with damage. Win + win.

If you want to mimic other games consider 5BP x rank?

Like jasales said, if you want more BP you have freedom to raise. No class or level restrictions. :-)

I can see EVERYONE down to the fair maiden, walking around with 99 strength.

If that's the character concept. Of course, all their other abilities/skills will suffer if their just dumping into STR.

Remember that STR is also fitness, constitution, how fit you are, how much endurance ALL rolled into one ability.

If you start limiting STR, you have to have other restrictions. But that isn't this game, yes it's unrealistic but there is no overhead. Can't do this because your that race, can't do this because you didn't take Improved Whatever, etc.

Well if a PC wants to pour all of their DP into raw abilities and neglect getting better in Skills or extra Languages, let them. Body Points get whittled away in combat really quickly either way.

Besides, it would be HILARIOUS if the PCs did that. The damage bonuses for 99+ STR would be insane for a Warrior in Melee(and full speed in Platemail is nice), but they would miss with those devastating attacks more often than any halfway skilled combatant....that Cleric with 99+ WILL would seldom fail Charm Resistance but his magic would be Amateur Hour...That Spellcaster or Enchanter with 99+ INT might be the smartest being in the province but his magics would be feeble...now a Scholar or Thief who decides on WILL 99+ might be a fast-talking social monster, but even she had better hope that everybody speaks her languages...The Elven Archer with 99+ DEX might be a Ninja Dodge machine, but while he's dancing around drawing enemy fire his more skilled compatriots are hitting their targets with far greater frequency.

Let the PCs spend the DPs anyway they want-it all even out in the end.

You could always let characters buy them at like, 1 for 1 or 1 for 2. Even at a rate of one for one they'd be cheaper than STR. I'd likely limit it to something like buying them up to the equivalent of STR though. (For instance, someone with 50 STR could buy another 25 BP for 25 DP to get 50 total).

I don't see any reason that couldn't work for a group if everybody was in agreement of course. Or the GM could just Houserule a 'Cushion' of -10 DP (or -DP equal to 1/10 STR or whatever) for a larger margin between 'defeated' and 'pushing up daisies'...

Don't forget that in those 'other' Fantasy RPGs, Hit Points have always been assumed to be a combination of Heroic Resolve, Luck and Skill-the Fighter isn't casually absorbing arrowheads into his chest, he's desperately batting them aside with his shield, getting bruised under the breastplate and exhausted from the effort. Only the last blow reflects serious injury or death.Admittedly, this makes Falling Damage REALLY STRANGE, but that's what you get when you sew case-by-case rules into a quilt instead of a Unified system!

In the BareBones Rules as they stand, all those Hit Points in D&D and the D&D-alikes translate into:

-Body Points
-The DR of any worn armor
-Resistance Checks with or without Shield
-last moment STR Resistance to turn Death into just OWWWWW WHAT HIT ME?

The D&D types don't get any of that stuff-they just get more 'hit points' to take it all into abstract 'better than you' account...still if you want to indulge in the heroic trope of the Mere Mortal Too Stubborn To Die, well it's only a simple Houserule away!

You could always change the DP formula- 1/4 STR + 1/4 WILL maybe? All the stats divided by 8 and counted as an Improvable Attribute, say 2 or 3 DP for 1 BP? How about a Last Chance Death Save using either STR or WILL for those Weak but Determined types? It's your game so anything goes! I'm playtesting as is myself, with options to change anything I hate later.

When they separated the hit points into actual points of damage and another pool for all the other stuff (Like d20 Star Wars) it got really lethal. I specifically recall a Star Wars game my step-son was running where he had the big nasty villain pop up for the finale, I swung, critical hit, rolled well on damage, killed him in one swing.

He was... upset. Now we all get a huge laugh about it and he tells me he dares not let me see the big bad before he's ready, but case in point for being careful of letting the roll-playing overcome the role-playing./

I was thinking about this the other day and it did seem weird that players running wizards or rogues would have to beef up their strength just to add BP, when the characters would probably not have all that much muscle or be forced to do anything particularly strenuous. You'd end up with Muscle Wizard - and nobody wants that.... :o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RosIoQisA

But I cannot see anyway around it, so I guess the squishy characters should just lurk at the back of the group. :D

Spellcasters shouldn't need high BP. They have heal, hinder and protection. A spellcaster could cast protection on his robes/clothes before the battle and cast hinder on the opponent attacking them to reduce damage, and still have plenty for an OS. At the end of the battle, or in an emergency, the spellcaster would heal.

As for the other skills, I really think skill would trump defense. What's the point to a high BP if others in your party are highly skilled while you keep fumbling? Not effective. Meanwhile, the warriors and leaders, who already use STR, would be raising BP like mad.

Well yes, everyone COULD increase their STR to 100 down to the fair maiden. Though that fair maiden would likely have had to earn 50DP adventuring, which is something like 7-8 adventures assuming she started at STR 50 and earned a typical amount of DP per session. But the problem with this is that 1) fair maidens typically don't go adventuring... and 2) if they do, and that's what the player had as a concept to develop instead of buying skill levels, who are we to say that's wrong? It's all about choice and freedom to grow your character as you wish. That's the nature of the game... it's about freedom to explore imaginative concepts, not limitations to box in that freedom or imagination.

Suggestion (this is NOT cannon)
If you would like a bit more realism, you could come up with some sort of calculation for BP based on levels of skills. BP could start at half STR as normal, but then you could add:

+1BP per level of spellcaster, enchanter, or scholar
+3BP per level of thief, cleric, scout, or leader
+5BP per level of warrior

Enjoy!

Well that would give you one more reason to become a warrior. I like the idea.

That last one is a VERY nice option- a "D&D-ish" flavor that doesn't unbalance the game. I won't be using it myself but I definitely think that option should make its way into a later supplement or a Dodecahedron article!

+1.

Would make an excellent Dodecahedron article/rule variant.

BTW, nice seeing you here order99. I was just waiting for a familiar face to show up before posting.

Oh no... order99 is bringing friends.
We're all going to die.

;-)

Why does everyone RUN from order99's friends? Whyyyyy?? :(

Sorry Skathros, I take the blame here. I might-just MIGHT-have suggested that my old gaming group-

-Yeah, the ones who turned my Masque of the Red Death campaign into a joke by hunting vampires with juicy, tender orphans loaded with dynamite-
-Who played an entire campaign of Teenage Mutant Turtles and Other Strangeness RPG as Giant Chickens with psychic powers who forgot to take Human Speech as an ability-
-Who once set loaded up a giant Wicker Man with corpses, animated the whole thing and set it on fire, and won a major battle by impersonating a Volcano God-
-Who once found a Deck of Many Things and couldn't think of anything better to do with it than engage random townsfolk in games of Three Card Monte (shudder)-
-Who once defiled my Yakuza crime thriller RPG with a bunch of kung-fu students who had invented a Martial Art based on Dance Dance Revolution-
-Who, when creating Companions for a Gallifreyan Time Lord, ended up with a Rock Band called 'Sonic Drivers'...and somehow booked a concert on Mondas, planet of the Cybermen-
-Who took four Halfling PCs into the Warhammer FRPG, said 'Screw Chaos, we're opening up a Pie Shop!"and proceeded to create their own version of 'Sweeny Todd'-
-Who once tried to bargain with the Dark Man of the Crossroads for wealth and power, using Other People's Souls-

-You know, THOSE GUYS. Well, I may have let slip that I was about to unleash these rabid beasts upon my brand new copy of BareBones Fantasy.

So, Yeah. Sorry about the panic Skathros, everybody thought you were one of THEM. You can understand the panic now right? :P

Mea Culpa.

Actually, I've never had a gaming group get out of control when I was game mastering. I always reserve the power of Lightning from the Gods and the ability to tell them no.

Player: "OH MY GAWD! CAN WE..."

Me: "No"

Player: "But I haven't told you about it yet!"

Me: "Doesn't matter, you're too enthused. The answer is no."

Player: "Okay guys, no making Vampire Succubus Paladins to serve the High Lord of Greater Good."

Me: *twitch*twitch* "No, definitely not."

I suppose it's just a matter of perspective. hehehe

Sadly, as i've mentioned, my players are a fiendish and cunning brood. And to be honest i'd drag out the Lightning more often-if I wasn't having as much fun as they were! When I bring out Terror at Dark Mansion and they somehow warp adventure into Scooby-Doo meets the Addams Family without breaking a single rule of the game or getting caught in-game by the Powers That Be...honestly, i'm witnessing Mad Genius at work here.Also, it's too late to say NO when i'm lying on my back gasping for air between the howls of laughter...

Or, as I explained it to another poster on another Forum while debating the merits of Old School vs New School play:

Me- (Sets up sandbox. Thinks of a good storyline or two, maybe three.)

Players-( Dive into sandbox shrieking. Declare war on the kingdom. Make friends with the Dark Man. Teach the Dwarven Kingdoms racquetball. Have a yard sale. Switch the Wizard's potion with Folger's crystals and see if he notices. Impersonate an obscure deity. Introduce Fusion Jazz to the Elves and sell the Trolls Bongos in the most bizarre Culture War ever. Give out "Best Death Ever" awards in place of funerals, seek out those oddballs who got 'rat' on the language tables just to learn it, use a magic carpet to invent waterskiing. Build a chocolate factory and lure unsuspecting Hobbs to their doom.)

Me-(holds on for dear life and shouts 'WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" a lot).

Old School, New School, whatever. We're PRESCHOOL.

Like that. :)

The Brood have already found a few leaks in a Subskill or two i've had to fix pre-game (imagine infinite uses of the Guardian ability per round as written for example). Trust me, when my freaks get done playing a few sessions of BareBones, this RPG will have been TESTED. Tested like the FDA, EPA, FDIC, SEC and NASA took turns at its job interview. TESTED. Then I fix any cracks with Crazy Glue and Houserules and we play some more.

Now I will say that at no time did my players attempt a Super Sentai force of 'Vampire Succubus Paladins to serve the High Lord of Greater Good', so there's that-

Oh wait. I think at least one of them reads this Forum...oh well.

Preschool. heh.

LOL

"And to be honest i'd drag out the Lightning more often-if I wasn't having as much fun as they were!"

That's the part that counts.

My two thumbs went to Neolithicwolf, but I forgot to quote.

No worries, order99...we're T&Ters; we're in a class of our own ;)

To make it worse my other RPGs are giving me the stink-eye whenever I pick up my copy of BareBones....RPGs are so territorial, I swear to Heaven it's worse than having cats! :?