Like many gamers, I’ve toyed with the idea of publishing my
own house system. While I was in the Navy, I did a ton of work on a unique
Otherverse America
engine, the last work on which I did back in 2000 or 2001. I let my Otherverse
Engine fall by the wayside after D20 Modern (and especially First Edition
Mutants & Masterminds) came out, because the Otherverse Engine was actually
pretty similar to the published D20 Modern ruleset. However, where my game was
kinda bloated, D20 Modern and its successors, were sleek and streamlined.
I don’t think, outside of home playtesters, the Otherverse
Engine has ever seen light, so I thought I’d share some details here. Basically,
the OE was a sort of hybrid of D20 Modern and GURPS- it used a unified D20
based resolution method for everything and had a long list of point based
advantages and disadvantages.
The OE had all the stats you’d expect- the typical D&D
Six Attributes- plus a few extras, though I combined Strength and Constitution
into a general “Physique” stat. A character’s melee attack and ranged attack
were statistics, not tied to a central Base Attack Bonus. I wanted to include
more social interaction in my game, given the importance that Otherverse
America places on politicking, manipulation and propaganda, so rather than one
Charisma stat, I broke Leadership, Seduction and Intimidation, the three main
methods of social interaction, out into their own stats.
I added a Creativity stat, which was important for psionic
characters, as it determined the effectiveness of their psi-attacks and
defenses, and was important to characters when power stunting. More creative
characters could think up new uses for their powers, while less creative
characters were limited to basic applications. Creativity was also important to
non-superpowered artists and politicians. All told, I really liked the idea of
a Creativity stat, and played with it a lot.
Stats were ranked from 1-20, which makes sense given
Otherverse America’s WIDE power level
differences- from ordinary humans, to borgs, to star-gods like Artemis. Using
Physique (and Marvel Comics) as an example……
1- A
weak or sickly human.
2- You
and me. Ordinary humans.
5- Peak Human. Olympic Athletes, Navy SEALS, and
Captain America.
8-10. Better than human. Light cyborgs, guys like
Spiderman.
10-15- Obviously superhuman. Most
cyborgs, Colossus, The Thing, ect.
15-20- Godlike. Superman, the
Incredible Hulk.
The other
attributes shook out similarly. The task resolution method was attribute plus
skill plus D20 versus a target number or opposed check. Skills topped out at 10
ranks, which makes you one of the best in the world at that skill. Target
numbers tended to be a little bit higher than D20 Modern, since I was using a
full attribute, not an ability score modifier, but otherwise worked
identically.
Combat, as
I recall, was pretty nasty. Rather than a single HP pool, the characters had
hit locations with individual HP based on a multiple or fraction of their
Physique score. In addition to major areas like Head, Torso, Abdomen, and the
four extremities, players could take a major attack penalty to attack a smaller
or more vulnerable target- hands, feet, neck or groin. The Neck and Groin had
low HP totals, and as small targets were hard to hit but taking those areas out
would either one shot kill or cripple (respectively) the victim. Missed called
shots could still strike the Torso or Abdomen (which were the default hit
locations, unless the attacker called another target).
I wanted an
emphasis on fast, brutal combat, and wanted characters to require
cyber-replacement or surgery after a battle. I keyed weapon damage so that even
a peak human or light cyborg would be shredded after one or two shots from a
handgun, and vaporized by a direct hit from military hardware or superpowers.
Otherverse America,
in its D20 Modern format, is far less deadly than I originally
envisioned the world.
The main
reason I abandoned Otherverse Engine was also the engine’s strength. It had a
HUGE and comprehensive list of crunchy disadvantages and advantages, probably
even more comprehensive than GURPS list. That was the problem…. Had I ever
published OE, it would have been a 500 page monster, 350+ pages of which would
have been the advantage/disadvantage system alone. It was certainly a deep,
crunchy system with tons of depth, but OE was cumbersome as all hell.
Anyway,
it’s interesting to think of what might have been. I’ve been toying with the
idea of converting Otherverse America
to a 3rd Edition Mutants and Mastermind compatible product, and
maybe I’ll revisit some of these ideas, using a more streamlined rule system
than my Otherverse Engine as a base. After all, it would be fairly easy to
implement a Creativity stat in M&M3 and tie its function into the existing
power stunt and alternate power rules. It would also be fairly easy to convert
M&M3’s damage save system into a Hit Location system.
Talk to you later,
CHRIS
