We Mortal Legends - An Overhead of What I'm Making

We Mortal Legends is the current project name for the rulesbrew I'm creating. I'm creating this because most fantasy systems don't check the boxes I want checked for my campaign play (that aren't super focused). This is not to say I don't enjoy these games--I love Lamentations, 5E, Black Hack, Knave, etc. But none of them do for me all of what I want, and not all of them create the kinds of characters I want to run games for.

I guess every blogger makes their own game at some point.

This system will end up being the system for my Heaven BLess'd & Burned, Revelations of the Mononoke-Hime, Psionic Wastelands, etc.

The following things are the things I want the system to be able to do (keep in mind a lot of this is high-concept stuff that won't mean anything until I provide actual examples of it in the game):

• Modular but cohesive. I want systems that work together, and that produce options, but only a few options should be chosen. 
• Levelless but class-based characters that grow in depth. I don't like how most OSR games have the only thing you increase is spell amount or chance to steal something or to hit bonus. I also don't like how in 5E all classes grow pretty much the same. See my Bastard class as an example class in this setting.
• Ways to quickly define who a character is and what they do without taking 30 minutes. This is where my Keyword system comes into effect. I want to run games for interesting characters, but I don't want a lot of time in character creation or else it makes the high lethality a con, not a pro, of the system. 
• The ability for the whole table to use the game to come up with a game world in a session 0, and not just put all the pressure on the GM. My tables love to roleplay and come up with stuff, and this is the product of that.
• Encounters to be about overcoming obstacles, not about just reducing someone's HP or avoiding combat. This means that combat isn't a core of the system thus truly making it one of many options without just saying "come up with something yourself" or "avoid it."
• To invoke atmospheres like Dark Souls, Princess Mononoke, etc, where things feel esoteric and juuuust understood enough (in terms of magic) to be usable and grokable but without the "standard" feel of Vancian magic.
• To be hackable. This is a given.
• To create gameplay that emerges from mechanics, including player abilities etc.
• To focus less on heavy math and more on experimental game-like mechanics. Board games are three thousand lightyears ahead of RPGs on making interesting mechanics that don't get in the way of playing the game. It's time to adopt some of these.
• To be able to run my favorite modules such as a Red & Pleasant Land, Maze of the Blue Medusa, and even more modern adventures like Curse of Strahd
• The core rules to fit on a 2 page spread put into the endpapers of every single supplement for this system.
• The game is a game about solving problems which in turn create stories. This is the biggest high concept of it before we get into the style, nuance, genre, etc.

A lot of the above will sound either obvious or trite, but I think as I work on developing the game and share my work, a lot of it will make more sense.

Somewhere between this and actual superheroes is where I see PCs.

Check out my Exploring Character series for how character creation will be. Right now I can roll up an interesting (to me) character in 5 minutes or less. Right now I'm thinking in the core book I'll be establishing 9 classes, broken into groups of three.

The first three are the systems rifts on the standard core three. Thief becomes Bastard, Fighting-Man becomes Brave, Magic-User becomes Baroque. Each of these has a good number of nuanced differences to them as compared to the standard in mainstream, hence the name changes.

The next three are some more nuanced/niche ideas that are still pretty common. These are Ranger, Summoner, and Warlord.

The final 3 are really niche classes that show how far the system can be pushed, and to show which experimental ways hackers can take their new classes. These are Medusa (monster/race-as-class), Saint (based off one of the magic systems, Miracles), and Gunslinger (something very genre-specific).

There will be a procedure for the session 0. This procedure helps the group, if not using an adventure already, to come up with what their base campaign will be about. This involves heavily the mechanics of the game. It is as follows:

1. Decide Aesthetics. Aesthetics is your genre, tone, and atmosphere for the game. Right now the system will probably support genres of: Cyberpunk (specifically stuff like Blade Runner and less like Night City), Macabre (dark and creepy fantasy), Apocalyptic Fantasy (Dark Souls type stuff, Dark Sun too), Myth (Princess Mononoke or Saga Hero type stuff), and Surreal (A Red & Pleasant Land). These can be mixed and matched too.
2. Decide Experience systems. There'll be a big list of XP gaining systems. Pick 2 and then make up a third one.
3. Decide mode of play: Death March or Saga. Death March has a list of death mechanics for changing play and you pick one. Saga is a more sprawling game with many characters people end up playing. 
4. Decide Keywords. You'll need about 20 or so. These Keywords are kinda' like backgrounds, and help describe characters.  
5. Decide your 3 saving throws for your campaign. I'll provide 3 for each genre, and guidelines to make your own if you want.
6. Decide your 4th Attribute. Again, will be provided for Aesthetic, but guidelines for your own.
7. Pick your Esoteries. Esoteries are magic systems. There are 8. Pick 1-4 for your game and that's the only magic that will exist in this campaign.
8. Decide 4 classes. Given how classes are designed in this system, if all 4 played the same they should still turn out pretty differently. 

This 8 step process is for the whole group to undergo together. It'll probably take a couple of hours. It's meant to be fun--people discussing what kind of magic is in the world, what kind of experience, the aesthetics of it, etc. I want session 0 to be a bigger group thing for my players, and with these 8 you end up with a table that's already invested into the game before things start. It might not be for all tables, but nothing is.

Probably not a lot of this to be honest. 

Thoughts on some OSR Standard Practices

Encumbrance I'm keeping. You have slots equal to Athletics + 1/2 your Savvy. This is because you have to be strong/physically able to carry a lot of shit, and you have to be somewhat savvy when it comes to organizing your shit to carry more.

Stat blocks are a lot like the stat blocks from the little brown booklets of OD&D minus the numbers. I want monsters to be obstacles in most cases, not just numbers etc. Sometimes I won't include a creature's AC or HP or HD because it won't matter. Reaction rolls, etc, will exist in more specified formats.

Combat will be different. As most of the game and features don't focus on combat, combat becomes one of many ways to solve an Encounter. An Encounter can be with traps, the environment, a monster, another person, a group, etc. Initiative is popcorn where one person decides who goes next. Idk how firm I am on this--this is the thing most liable to change.

Time Records are not a thing I keep track of in my games. I probably should, but I don't. I doubt there'll be a lot of this in the final version of what I end up drafting.

Hirelings exist. Loyalty will be based on how much XP characters have spent so far, as well as possible 4th attributes and keywords, as will overall Morale. The game won't assume Hired Help, meaning that Hirelings shift balance in favor of the party if they go through the pains of doing it.

Lethality as HD doesn't always increase when XP is spent to roll on a Character Advancement Table (CAT), if you do choose combat, things will be pretty damn lethal. This makes engaging in fair combat usually a bad option; always try to stack things in your favor if you want to kill them.

HD and Damage Die are d6 and d8 respectively. This makes the above more true.

Def. a lot of weird encounters like this.

Thoughts on more Modern Practices

Conditions will take up encumbrance/inventory slots and give other effects. Thank you to Michael Bacon for this idea.

Weapons will have a different feature for each weapon, to make them different as they all do d8 damage. For example, a hammer breaks down AC fast, and a dagger can be used to automatically hit if used on someone that is surprised/grappled/otherwise unable to react.

Healing is done with a quick 1d6 minutes of rest and tending to you to pick you back up to half your maximum hit points. If you ever want to get topped off gotta roll well on a CAT, find some healing shit, etc.

Meta-currencies I don't tend to like, so they won't exist.

If you run into this you don't fight it, you deal with it another way.

These are my thoughts as of now, and are liable to change. Most of my existing ongoing projects fit into this, and by working on them I will be working on this and vice versa. Hopefully what comes out is a game unique, fun, and desirable to play!