Sorry for the post and run. Since that time I have had to get my two boys from school and my wife from work, all sick.
Again, let me say I am very pleased to see the OGL give life to a new system and it is obvious a lot of work went in to this. Here is the first thing that caught my eye, the examples from Success Levels. >From LowDie, page 4, example. "Whilst leaping from rooftop to rooftop Kerry’s character, Elizabeth, achieves an Incomplete success, she manages to jump the gap successfully, but then slips and only manages to hang on by her fingertips. A further Muscle test is required in order for Elizabeth to pull herself up." >From Armageddon, page 121, on "the rule of 10" an optional Success Level generation. "For example, Malcom, played by Jason, is trying to leap between two buildings. Because the buildings are so far apart, the Chronicler calls for a Simple Strength Test to see if Malcom can push his limits (see p. [?]). Knowing his Cast Member is almost certainly doomed, Jason rolls the bones. He gets a 10. “Roll again,” the Chronicler says. Jason rolls a second time, getting a 10! His total roll is a 15 so far, but he gets to roll a third time. This time the roll is a 3—no effect. The 15, plus Malcom’s Dexterity and Strength, gives Malcom an 18, an Excellent Success (see p. [?]). “You leap further than you could have imagined,” the Chronicler explains. “For a few moments, you actually feel like you are flying, and then you land well past the building’s edge. You feel shaky and weak-kneed, and you know deep in your heart that you may not duplicate this feat in a hundred years.”" similar, but not the same I know. Success Levels are the same thing in form and function as well. Only the "names" for the levels differ. Course the names of the levels differ between a few of the Eden games as well. Other things were the Short Hand Attributes which are very similar in form and function of "Buffy's" Ability scores. LowDie's Brains: Brains summarises the two attributes of Intellect and Perception. Brawn: Brawn summarises the two attributes of Muscle and Endurance. Confidence: Confidence summarises the two attributes of Charisma and Willpower Co-ordination: Co-ordination summarises the two attributes of Agility and Dexterity. Unisystem's Muscle: Strength x2 +6 Combat: Dexerity + combat skills ave +6 Brains: Intelligence + Perception + willpower ave + mental skills ave +6 There are others. But for the last 16 hours I have been Mommy, Nurse, and errand boy to two sick kids and a sick wife. By themselves, or even a couple, would not be that big of a deal. There is nothing truly original anymore. But there is a whole feel that is too similar. Is this important? Yes, if you want to distance yourself in the market. I had no problems using some LowDie monsters (the elementals in the spells section) in an Unisystem mock combat. Now to be fair, the magic system, while still using the same base mechanic, seems very different to me. You can get a copy of Eden's WitchCraft at http://www.edenstudios.net/witchcraft/WitchcraftCorebook.zip to make the comparisons yourself. You have more familiarity with your system and know what to look for. I'd have to print out your SRD for the same effect. There are many places I can see where you "zigged" to Unisystem's "zag". It's like comparing Pascal to Modula-2 if that makes an sense to anyone anymore. Maybe you should talk to Eden, figure out where system is better and see if they have a project you can use it. I heard they are doing very well this last year and should have something. For myself, I might try to adapt your Cyberware rules to Cinematic Unisystem and see how they work out. but that would be for my own use only. Tim > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Grant > Erswell > Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 9:38 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] LowDie vs. Unisystem was:The LowDie System is > releasedunder the OGL > > > --- Web Warlock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I was very interested in seeing this system. It is good to see more > > systems/games taking advantage of the OGL. > > Thanks! > > > But there are some problems with LowDie that I just can't get past. > > Most importantly it looks and feels too much like Eden Studios Unisystem > > game system for my tastes. > > The funny thing is, I have never played in a Unisystem game, or > even read one. I did > download Witchcraft ages ago but never got round to reading it > (just like the Ars Magica > 4th Edition download) :). > > > In brief both systems are a d10 based mechanic (ok, not really > a big deal I > > know), though they are very different in how they use them. > > When I started designing LowDie I originally toyed with the idea > of D6s, but found the > spread of results wasn't satisfactory, so I tried D10s which also > had the benefit of > being able to easily calculate percentage chances. I was probably > swayed into choosing > D10s as the Masterbook system also uses two D10s to generate a > modifier (though in > Masterbook the range is between -10 and +9 and requires looking > up the total of the 2D10 > on a chart). > > > Both systems use Success Levels that mean the same thing. That > in itself may > > not be a big deal but LowDie has an in-play example that nearly the same > > situation to the one given in many Eden books for Success Levels. > > Can I ask which particular example that was? Was it the > negotiation between Solomon and > the market trader? That just seemed like a good example that > could illustrate that a DN > could be based upon another character's Skill Total and that > although the skills in > question were both Negotiation, one character paired it with > Charisma whilst the stall > owner paired it with Willpower. > > > NPCs use the same derived attributes and the same Attribute x2 tests. > By "Derived Attributes" do you mean the Shorthand Attributes of > Brains, Brawn, Confidence > and Co-ordination? If so the Brains and Brawn pairing is common > enough. Confidence was > about the best I could think of to sum up both Charisma and > Willpower, and Co-ordination > was a nice complement to Confidence (the B-B and C-C pairing). > > In terms of using double the Attribute Rating for tests, this > just seemed logical to keep > both Attribute and Skill Totals on the same scale. Gold Rush > Games' Action! system also > does this, as I am sure many other Stat + Skill systems do (does > the new World Of > Darkness Storytelling system do this?) > > > "Fate" points are nearly the same as Unisystem Drama points. > Including a > > "cinematic" level of play and use of the mechanic. > > Fate Points were largely inspired by the James Bond RPG of the > early 1980s where they > were called Hero Points. As well as allowing a player to increase > the Quality Rating of a > task they also allowed them to buy plot changes. In the rulebook > the example is given of > a player playing through Goldfinger and their character about to > be sliced up by the > laser, the player spends about 3 Hero Points to have a Chinese > ally of Goldfinger get > worried at the mention of the term "Grand Slam" and convince > Auric that they are better > kept alive. > > > Could it all be coincidence? Sure, I suppose it could and there are some > > significant differences. But again for me there is too much that is the > > same. > > Well in terms of Unisystem, I have to say it is all coincidence. > However, I don't deny > that LowDie is largely derivative, rather than innovative, indeed > you may want to look at > the LowDie website (www.geocities.com/lowdiesystem) where I > highlight some of the main > influences on the design of LowDie. What I wanted to do in > LowDie was take all the best > parts of roleplaying systems and fuse them into a single system > that I hope can be truly > universal (one thing that many people seem to forget is that some > rules work great for > some styles of play but not for others). > > The one thing I do think is innovative is the dice rolling > mechanic that gives LowDie its > name. I don't remember seeing anything like it before, though I > have since learned that > Feng Shui has a similar mechanic (roll 2D6 add one and subtract > the other) that could > give the same results as LowDie were it to use the same dice > type. However Feng Shui's > mechanic requires one more step of arithmetic but does allow for > "exploding" dice results > (if you roll a 6, re-roll and add on). > > On reflection, if you consider LowDie to be similar to Unisystem > then I can only take > that as a compliment as I have heard good things about it over on > RPG.net. If you have > any other questions about the LowDie System I would be more than > willing to hear them. > > Cheers! > > R Grant Erswell > LowDie System Author > > > > > > ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW > Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
