I like the idea a lot - the list of saves you have tells of the hazards you expect to face in this universe - and that can speak eloquently right there on the character sheet.
The key question to me is where to draw the line between attributes and saves, why not have just one or the other? I like the idea of fewer attributes to keep things simple complemented by a range of saves which show distinction between archetypes. Attributes are things that get used all the time but saves should be infrequent and, conceptually, represent how this character is special and has avoided a problem that would have caught out most people.
My current working thoughts are three attributes - grit, guile and charm. Thinking of these folk as probably existing within an environment with exo-skeletons and other means to physically move things and spending a lot of their time working at terminals and through comms lines, the physical side of things gets backgrounded, the mental side of things foregrounded.
If we assume this is a GLoG-like D&D hack, grit subs for Con and Wis, guile for Dex and Int, charm for Cha.
With those as the base attributes then, what are the saves? After looking at what causes project failures my thoughts are
Save vs
Bureacracy & Bad Planning
Xeno-shock
Inexplicable physics
Gear Failure
Panic & miscommunication
Definitions for these
Bureacracy & Bad Planning - foresight and organisation related questions, the sixth sense to check all the interpersonnel interfaces and confirm yes, someone did indeed get us flight clearance for that no-fly zone, etc.
Xeno-shock - so many aliens, with their smells and their threatening darting motions, their cacophony of sound your translator is struggling with, the mind-bending imagery etched on the walls, the implications, the implications...
Inexplicable physics - sufficiently advanced technology seems magical, logic apparently has no place here but we have to go anyway.
Gear Failure - did you check your seals? Did maintenance? Is that carabiner load-tested for this exo-suit? Is the shuttle scanner resolution good enough to pick you up from this debris field?
Panic - don't.
How it works
If we think of the categories of dealing with things as humans, aliens, stuff - any alien oriented character is going to have better Xeno-shock and Inexplicable Physics saves. Human oriented will have better Bureaucracy & Bad Planning saves. Stuff oriented will have better Gear Failure saves.
This all sits on top of assumptions of what chassis we are using in the first place, which I think is a GLoG-like, for the characters:
A few attributes
A bunch of saves
Traits/Feats for skills etc.
And then the background elements are trait/tag-based to minimise the crunch and crunch-optimisation sides of things, keep this focussed on the character and relationship side of things.
(Kyana) I do really like this.
ReplyDeleteI am even thinking that it is even possible to minimize it further, and go away with attributes and skills, using stuff like Bureacracy both as a stat (instead of guile) and a skill (although it will be rather broad). In this kind of approach I'd treat feats/skills/talents as a buffet-like micro-classes.
Interesting thought; I might try to get to an alpha version of this that way - see if I need feats/skills at all.
ReplyDelete(I am also tempted to add 'vs Exhaustion' save in this case, to give Stuff people two saves like to other two categories, as they are likely to deal with crisis situation under extreme duress more often)
DeleteI have been thinking about this - I was initially going for the model where your saves and attributes were not directly connected - your attributes were how you influence the universe, saves are how your weather challenges.
DeleteThere is definitely something here, need to work it some more.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great concept and I love the saves you chose to go with, though I’m curious in what situations you would use a save vs Bureaucracy and Bad Planning. Not that I don’t think it would work I would just like to see what your intent regarding it is. I agree with the idea Kyana put forth of forgoing stats and focusing entirely on the saves, I would even go so far as to take a page from Anxious Mimic’s blog post on Marks and fold hp into the saves as well.
ReplyDeleteP.S. The aforementioned blog post: https://anxiousmimic.blogspot.com/2026/01/marks-what-if-saves-stats-and-hp-were.html?m=1
Bureacracy and bad planning reflects the game setting I am going for here - for Your Sector, Your Problem you have way to many things on your plate but also a suite of tools ranging from 'glass-the-planet' Navy to sneak-and-peek investigators - the game I want to explore here is dealing with your alien-populated sector and the hazards it throws at you - which absolutely involves wrangling multiple organisational bureaucracies and coordinating a lot of moving parts.
DeleteAnxious Mimic is definitely on to something there, I will be taking that saves-and-marks idea into consideration - the marks aspect in particular works for the asset-maintenance side of things.