Dimensional War 7.0: NeXT briefing
Dimensional War 7.0: NeXT briefing
Welcome!
This briefing will introduce you to the basic tenets of the 7th iteration of the Dimensional War RPG homebrew system. It's not all-inclusive, but is intended to highlight the major changes we've made to our ever-evolving game mechanics.
DW7.0, nicknamed "NeXT" (for funsies), is intended to be a vast simplification of a complex and multi-layered gameplay experience. It greatly cuts down on the amount of complex math required for basic functions, reduces power creep, closes power gaps, cuts down on needless or redundant mechanics, limits bonus-stacking, and rebalances the different formulae required in day-to-day gaming.
This iteration of the system also expands player choice; there are more advanced skills, more feats, more traits, more merchandise, and new and exciting ways to customize and "micro" a character to ensure its uniqueness is expressed on its character sheet, as well as in play.
This represents a foundational change in the way we've played the game for two decades, a necessary evolution to reflect the changes in taste, form, function, time, and effort we can all dedicate to a universe, an experience, and a story that we all love. We hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together.
- the GMs
________________________________________________________________
Major Changes
DW7.0 introduces a number of fundamental changes to the way we play the game, including character creation, character growth, dice rolling, and combat mechanics. Here are some of the biggest ones.
Statistics
There are now only six baseline statistics instead of nine. They are Health, Awareness, Dexterity, Strength, Spirit, and Luck. Other lesser formulaic items will derive from these, just as before, such as HP, soak and damage values, style and spirit points, and luck points.
Each character will choose two statistics to make its "primary statistics," which unlocks the ability to choose a single Primary Characteristic from each one. These potent modifiers can affect the way a character behaves, grows, or handles in exceedingly interesting ways.
Each time a character grows, it will have access to Statistic Milestones, which are essentially lesser bonuses that can customize how a character's derivative statistics are handled -- some even affect all-new derivatives.
Skill points are now based on a character's total experience points, reducing the need to "dump" into a statistic in order to reap that benefit; however, this does make for a seismic change in the "skill point economy," so to speak -- they're more valuable than ever, so choose wisely!
Note: Existing characters at the time of the adoption of DW7.0 will lose one-third of their current experience points to make up for the loss of these three statistics (a 3000 EXP character will become a 2000 EXP character). This is non-negotiable. This will also reduce the character experience "floor" to 1000 EXP, where new characters will begin.
Dice rolling
Gone are the days of complicated bonus-based dice-math. Now, all of our rolls will be based on a Skill Level, which represents a dice pool engineered and optimized by a real mathematician.
Level 0: 1d40, no bonus.
Level 1: 1d40
Level 2-3: 1d60
Level 4-5: 1d90
Level 6-7: 1d140
Level 8-9: 1d220
Level 10: 1d350
Our bots have been updated to utilize this new method of rolling, so all you have to do is tell it to roll so many die based on a skill level plus a bonus. That's represented as "1sX+Y", where "X" is the skill level being used, and "Y" is the cumulative roll bonus from other additives like gear or feats. An example: 1s4+20
Skill Simplification
We've reduced the number of skill levels from 50 to 10, realizing that all those extra numbers in between the "fives" weren't necessary. The skill point values, however, have not changed, so where a Level 15 skill is now a Level 3 skill, it still requires 130 points to reach Level 3. Don't worry -- there's a table for that, since now the math won't make any sense whatsoever without it.
Skill Expansion
While on its face, it may seem like there may be fewer general skills for a character to take, there are now many more Advanced Skills in each general skill for a character to purchase and utilize. These grant new and exciting opportunities for gameplay and growth, mainly in the out-of-combat skills.
Other skills have been retooled for efficiency, clarity, and usefulness, with special heed toward boosting previously unnecessary skills and evolving redundancies.
You'll notice all skills now have an additional field, marked "Untrained;" if marked yes, that means this advanced skill can be attempted without its purchase, with certain limitations attached to it. Not every general skill has these, but some can come in handy in a crunch when you're short on skill levels!
Formula Simplification
Gone are the days of the multiplier. DW7.0's formulas are almost entirely additive in nature now, requiring much less complex figuring in order to accurately complete a roll log.
This means it's easier and quicker to put together a roll or a figure, such as damage, and reduces the number size exponentially while retaining value and effectiveness in gameplay. It should all still "feel" the same, even though the numbers are much smaller.
Most importantly, this increases character survivability and reduces power gaps, allowing for easier statting of enemies and more viability for characters of all experience ranges to have an effect on a battle or a scene.
Base Physical Damage = (Strength * 2)
Full Physical Damage = (STR * 2) + Weapon Mod
Base Magical Damage = (Spirit * 2)
Full Magical Damage = (SPR * 2) + Spell/Psionic damage modifier
Again, verified and optimized by a real mathematician.
The Crit Deck
Critical successes and failures will now have an additional aspect of chance to them, with systemized effects based on the different task at hand (mainly focused on combat). Now, whenever a character scores a critical success or a failure, it will draw a "Crit Card" from a predetermined "deck" that we've put together and added into the bot. These range from quirky, marginal changes to greatly damaging effects that can swing the tide of battle or greatly change the outcome of a scene.
This also means the likelihood of a player getting critted to death is exponentially lower.
Automated Character Sheet Assistance
Thanks to the work of a brilliant coder, we can now introduce a character sheet generator that will do much of the figuring for you, including helping with growth as a character develops. While it's not perfected yet, it cuts down on sheet fatigue by 60 percent.
________________________________________________________________
Minor Changes
While DW7.0 represents bottom-to-top changes to the game's mechanics, much of its "bulk" is above the foundational level -- it is stacked neatly on top of a new and revolutionary, sturdier base. The tweaks to all those layers of additional content make for less important, but just as exciting changes.
More Feats
There are easily three times as many feats built into DW7.0, intended to help flesh out characters better and give them more unique opportunities to affect gameplay.
New Traits
We've developed a point-based system for traits. Specific species/races no longer get a template of traits, each character can choose their own from a list of hundreds of different options.
Rebalanced Status Effects
Our mathematician and our games engineers went over our status effect and ailment lists to optimize them, remove redundancies, and rebalance them using data- and experience-driven methods that make these boons and busts more reliable and less detrimental to gameplay.
Overhauled Crafting System
Utilizing years of experience and data-gathering, our mathematician has rebuilt our crafting system to make it more wieldy for players and characters, while respecting the balance of our mechanics.
Rebalanced Abilities
Our custom ability system has been tweaked to better reflect the new and revised mechanics while maintaining the unique flavor of player-generated content.
Merch
All the weapons, armors, tools, gadgets, gizmos, accessories, and doodads that characters can purchase have been tweaked and tooled to better reflect the new and improved mechanics. We've even added some new content to these to ensure long-term usability.
________________________________________________________________
Thanks for reading this briefing on DW7.0. We hope it gives you an understanding of what you can look forward to in this new era of the game.
We will be available individually to help you rebuild your character sheets and answer any questions as we go along together into this exciting new experience. Remember, we're learning right along with you, so your patience and understanding will help all of us enjoy the new and improved mechanics the best we can.
- the GMs
This briefing will introduce you to the basic tenets of the 7th iteration of the Dimensional War RPG homebrew system. It's not all-inclusive, but is intended to highlight the major changes we've made to our ever-evolving game mechanics.
DW7.0, nicknamed "NeXT" (for funsies), is intended to be a vast simplification of a complex and multi-layered gameplay experience. It greatly cuts down on the amount of complex math required for basic functions, reduces power creep, closes power gaps, cuts down on needless or redundant mechanics, limits bonus-stacking, and rebalances the different formulae required in day-to-day gaming.
This iteration of the system also expands player choice; there are more advanced skills, more feats, more traits, more merchandise, and new and exciting ways to customize and "micro" a character to ensure its uniqueness is expressed on its character sheet, as well as in play.
This represents a foundational change in the way we've played the game for two decades, a necessary evolution to reflect the changes in taste, form, function, time, and effort we can all dedicate to a universe, an experience, and a story that we all love. We hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together.
- the GMs
________________________________________________________________
Major Changes
DW7.0 introduces a number of fundamental changes to the way we play the game, including character creation, character growth, dice rolling, and combat mechanics. Here are some of the biggest ones.
Statistics
There are now only six baseline statistics instead of nine. They are Health, Awareness, Dexterity, Strength, Spirit, and Luck. Other lesser formulaic items will derive from these, just as before, such as HP, soak and damage values, style and spirit points, and luck points.
Each character will choose two statistics to make its "primary statistics," which unlocks the ability to choose a single Primary Characteristic from each one. These potent modifiers can affect the way a character behaves, grows, or handles in exceedingly interesting ways.
Each time a character grows, it will have access to Statistic Milestones, which are essentially lesser bonuses that can customize how a character's derivative statistics are handled -- some even affect all-new derivatives.
Skill points are now based on a character's total experience points, reducing the need to "dump" into a statistic in order to reap that benefit; however, this does make for a seismic change in the "skill point economy," so to speak -- they're more valuable than ever, so choose wisely!
Note: Existing characters at the time of the adoption of DW7.0 will lose one-third of their current experience points to make up for the loss of these three statistics (a 3000 EXP character will become a 2000 EXP character). This is non-negotiable. This will also reduce the character experience "floor" to 1000 EXP, where new characters will begin.
Dice rolling
Gone are the days of complicated bonus-based dice-math. Now, all of our rolls will be based on a Skill Level, which represents a dice pool engineered and optimized by a real mathematician.
Level 0: 1d40, no bonus.
Level 1: 1d40
Level 2-3: 1d60
Level 4-5: 1d90
Level 6-7: 1d140
Level 8-9: 1d220
Level 10: 1d350
Our bots have been updated to utilize this new method of rolling, so all you have to do is tell it to roll so many die based on a skill level plus a bonus. That's represented as "1sX+Y", where "X" is the skill level being used, and "Y" is the cumulative roll bonus from other additives like gear or feats. An example: 1s4+20
Skill Simplification
We've reduced the number of skill levels from 50 to 10, realizing that all those extra numbers in between the "fives" weren't necessary. The skill point values, however, have not changed, so where a Level 15 skill is now a Level 3 skill, it still requires 130 points to reach Level 3. Don't worry -- there's a table for that, since now the math won't make any sense whatsoever without it.
Skill Expansion
While on its face, it may seem like there may be fewer general skills for a character to take, there are now many more Advanced Skills in each general skill for a character to purchase and utilize. These grant new and exciting opportunities for gameplay and growth, mainly in the out-of-combat skills.
Other skills have been retooled for efficiency, clarity, and usefulness, with special heed toward boosting previously unnecessary skills and evolving redundancies.
You'll notice all skills now have an additional field, marked "Untrained;" if marked yes, that means this advanced skill can be attempted without its purchase, with certain limitations attached to it. Not every general skill has these, but some can come in handy in a crunch when you're short on skill levels!
Formula Simplification
Gone are the days of the multiplier. DW7.0's formulas are almost entirely additive in nature now, requiring much less complex figuring in order to accurately complete a roll log.
This means it's easier and quicker to put together a roll or a figure, such as damage, and reduces the number size exponentially while retaining value and effectiveness in gameplay. It should all still "feel" the same, even though the numbers are much smaller.
Most importantly, this increases character survivability and reduces power gaps, allowing for easier statting of enemies and more viability for characters of all experience ranges to have an effect on a battle or a scene.
Base Physical Damage = (Strength * 2)
Full Physical Damage = (STR * 2) + Weapon Mod
Base Magical Damage = (Spirit * 2)
Full Magical Damage = (SPR * 2) + Spell/Psionic damage modifier
Again, verified and optimized by a real mathematician.
The Crit Deck
Critical successes and failures will now have an additional aspect of chance to them, with systemized effects based on the different task at hand (mainly focused on combat). Now, whenever a character scores a critical success or a failure, it will draw a "Crit Card" from a predetermined "deck" that we've put together and added into the bot. These range from quirky, marginal changes to greatly damaging effects that can swing the tide of battle or greatly change the outcome of a scene.
This also means the likelihood of a player getting critted to death is exponentially lower.
Automated Character Sheet Assistance
Thanks to the work of a brilliant coder, we can now introduce a character sheet generator that will do much of the figuring for you, including helping with growth as a character develops. While it's not perfected yet, it cuts down on sheet fatigue by 60 percent.
________________________________________________________________
Minor Changes
While DW7.0 represents bottom-to-top changes to the game's mechanics, much of its "bulk" is above the foundational level -- it is stacked neatly on top of a new and revolutionary, sturdier base. The tweaks to all those layers of additional content make for less important, but just as exciting changes.
More Feats
There are easily three times as many feats built into DW7.0, intended to help flesh out characters better and give them more unique opportunities to affect gameplay.
New Traits
We've developed a point-based system for traits. Specific species/races no longer get a template of traits, each character can choose their own from a list of hundreds of different options.
Rebalanced Status Effects
Our mathematician and our games engineers went over our status effect and ailment lists to optimize them, remove redundancies, and rebalance them using data- and experience-driven methods that make these boons and busts more reliable and less detrimental to gameplay.
Overhauled Crafting System
Utilizing years of experience and data-gathering, our mathematician has rebuilt our crafting system to make it more wieldy for players and characters, while respecting the balance of our mechanics.
Rebalanced Abilities
Our custom ability system has been tweaked to better reflect the new and revised mechanics while maintaining the unique flavor of player-generated content.
Merch
All the weapons, armors, tools, gadgets, gizmos, accessories, and doodads that characters can purchase have been tweaked and tooled to better reflect the new and improved mechanics. We've even added some new content to these to ensure long-term usability.
________________________________________________________________
Thanks for reading this briefing on DW7.0. We hope it gives you an understanding of what you can look forward to in this new era of the game.
We will be available individually to help you rebuild your character sheets and answer any questions as we go along together into this exciting new experience. Remember, we're learning right along with you, so your patience and understanding will help all of us enjoy the new and improved mechanics the best we can.
- the GMs
Last edited by Daedalus on July 17th, 2023, 1:05 am, edited 12 times in total.
