Difference between revisions of "Philsys"

Revision as of 15:58, 21 March 2006

Philsys is an RP system used by a large number of RPers on RPGWWW. It is most commonly used for "plotted" RPs that have a dedicated Gamemaster and is generally ignored in CIRPs.

For Phylis, Phillisys, or any similar topic, see the appropriate article.

Overview

Philsys has a relatively complicated set of rules that govern character abilities and advancement, and it is commonly considered to require more knowledge than a freestyle RP in order to be successful. Philsys was originally developed by Phil-dog, a user from the days of the Keenspace forums. Since then, it has undergone many revisions, many of which are the doing of Archmage. Other users, including as Divinegon, Jak Snide, Pervy, and Namagomi have contributed to the mechanics of the system over time.

It is not required to use any set of rules to RP. However, Philsys has gained some status as the "official" system of RPGWW. It is a "homebrew" RP system that shares some characteristics with other systems, most notably the [d20 system] and [GURPS].

For a detailed explanation of the philosophy behind Philsys as expressed by Archmage, see the Philsys manifesto.

Rules

Following are the basic rules for Philsys.

Starting Character Creation

Concept

The first step to creating a character is to decide what exactly you wish to create. You, the player, must have a concept of what or who you want your character to be. Are you interested in playing a noble paladin? A cunning thief? An arrogant mage? Just as if you were roleplaying without a complicated set of rules, it is required that you have a picture of who you want your character to be. Often, it becomes much easier to determine your character's physical abilities, traits, and skills after you have a clear vision of what you hope to create. Once you have an idea of what sort of character you want to create, you can take your idea and match it up with appropriate numbers.

After devising a concept, you must develop a set of base statistics, or stats, that represent your character's physical abilities. There are three elements define a character: Stats, skills, and abilities. To clarify the definition of each:

Stats: These are raw numbers that are associated with physical traits. Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom are all examples. Philsys has nine stats, each ranked on a scale of -5 to +10. A stat of -5 is incredibly bad, whereas +10 is the limit for mortal characters that are not somehow enhanced by magic.

Skills: These are things that your character knows about or can do. Most characters will have several skills. A mage character probably has skills that encompass several schools of magic and related knowledge, whereas a physical fighter is more likely to have weapon skills and skills that relate to advanced fighting techniques. Not all skills are combat related; many skills represent a character's knowledge of botany as opposed to their ability to swing a sword. Skills have associated ranks as well. A rank of 0 indicates no training and does not need to be noted on a sheet, whereas a character with a rank of 30 might be the most proficient person in the entire world.

Abilities: These are special actions that your character can take or special qualities associated with your character. They are commonly based on your character's skills. Magical spells are included in this category. Other abilities allow characters to perform unusual or spectacular physical feats, such as striking multiple foes in range with a melee weapon or firing several arrows at once with a bow. Most abilities have some cost associated with them, preventing them from being used infinitely, but some abilities are passive and continually active or free to use. Racial traits, such as innate resistances to certain elements of magic, fall under abilities.

Stats

Each character has 21 "points" to distribute among their base stats. No stat may be higher than +10 or lower than -5. The only exception to this rule is Magical Aptitude, which is rated from 0 to 6. Magical Aptitude cannot be negative.

The stats are as follows:

• Courage: COU. The ability to remain calm and focused in stressful situations. It also represents personal force of will. This score will influence fighting ability, resistance to magical spells, and ability to persuade or intimidate other people.
• Wisdom: WIS. The amount of raw, bookish knowledge a character has. This figures into magical ability. It also affects the number of skills a character is able to learn and all skills related to pure knowledge of facts.
• Intuition: INT. This score represents a character's ability to think and reason as opposed to simply recalling data. It influences reaction time and a character's ability to read other people or his surroundings, improving combat performance and observation skills. It also figures into magical ability.
• Charisma: CHA. This stat is a mixture of physical beauty and the ability to win others over through guile and charm. It affects negotiation and bard-like skills, such as playing instruments or singing.
• Agility: AGI. The ability to move quickly, agility refers mostly to full-body coordination. It influences all sorts of things, including physical combat prowess and the ability to avoid certain types of hazards.
• Dexterity: DEX. The ability to manipulate objects with refined motor skill. Skills like lockpicking, and combat with missile weapons are most heavily affected. Characters may choose to use their dexterity instead of their strength to determine their probability of hitting an opponent when they are using certain weapons.
• Strength: STR. Raw muscle power. Heavily influences the damage done in melee combat and the ability to lift or push objects. It also increases general combat ability.
• Stamina: STA. The ability to take punishment. A higher stamina results in higher HP, allowing a character to take more damage before being incapacitated or killed. Stamina also helps a character perform strenuous tasks over a long duration, such as marathon running, swimming, resisting torture, or holding one's breath. A character with high stamina will have a better resistance to natural poisons and diseases.
• Magical Aptitude: MAG. Grades how "in touch" a character is with the astral plane. A must-have for casting spells. A character with a rank of 0 cannot cast magic at all. A character with a 3 or more in this stat can be considered a mage. A character with a 4 or greater can "read" the astral plane by merely concentrating; this ability has no other cost.

Taking a negative stat value increases the total number of points you can spend elsewhere--if you take a -1 in Strength, it means that you have 22 points to spend on other stats. Negative stats always have definite drawbacks, however. A common misconception among powergamers is that stats like charisma are of no use since they do not influence a character's ability in direct combat. This is incorrect; a character with a very low charisma score may find himself hated by everyone he meets, making his life extremely difficult. Players may also be penalized by the GM for not properly "roleplaying" their stats. A character with negative wisdom that commonly speaks in four-syllable words is pushing the limits of believability.

It is often effective to distribute stats based on some sort of character archetype. Physical fighters especially need points in courage, strength, agility, and stamina. Fighters that use light weapons, such as daggers, can substitute strength for dexterity if it better suits their character's concept and array of skills. Mage characters need intuition, wisdom, courage, and most of all, magical aptitude. Skilled characters like thieves will need dexterity, agility, and wisdom or intuition for extra skill points and combat capability. A character might have one stat that is very good compared to the others (say a +6) that represents their specific strength, or a particularly low stat that represents a specific weakness (a frail constitution, cowardice, or an inability to play nice with others).

Derived Substats

Substats are parameters that are defined by mathematical manipulation of a character's stats. These include hit points, magic points, and other similar values. All of these things are precalculated for ease of usage during an RP.

A character's HP or hit points determine how much damage a character can take and survive. MP, or magic points, represent a character's stamina pool for manipulating the astral plane. A character expends MP whenever he or she casts a spell. If a character has no MP when casting a spell, the cost is deducted from HP instead. TP, or tech points are a stamina pool that fuels certain extraordinary abilities.

Initiative is derived mostly from a character's speed and determines combat action order. Base AT/PA, which stands for Base Attack/Parry, is a measure of a character's ability to strike accurately or defend himself against incoming physical blows. Missile Evasion represents a character's ability to avoid projectile attacks, while Magic Resistance (also called MBlock) shows how well a character can defend himself against an incoming spell. Base Magic Attack (sometimes called MAttack) is a baseline number that determines a character's skill with magic.

Each of these values is determined by a simple mathematical formula.

• HP -- 55 + (Stamina * 5)
• MP -- (Magical Aptitude * 10 ) + (Intuition * 5) + (Wisdom * 5)
• TP -- 10 + (3 * (Stamina + Courage))
• Initiative -- Agility + (Courage / 2) + 2d6 (Do not calculate the 2d6; just write the result of the math in the form of #+2d6)
• Base AT/PA -- Agility + Intuition + Strength + Courage (When wielding a light weapon, you may substitute Dexterity for Strength if desired)
• MAttack -- Intuition + Wisdom + Magical Aptitude
• Missile Evasion -- 10 + Intuition + (Agility * 2)
• MBlock -- 10 + Intuition + (Courage * 2)

Divide the number of ranks you have in your currently equipped weapon between AT and PA as you see fit. For example, if you have a base AT/PA of 10/10, and you have 4 ranks in Weapon (Swords), you may have an AT/PA of 14/10, 13/11, 12/12, 11/13, or 10/14. Each time you gain a rank in your weapon skill, you decide whether to increase AT or PA. Having a high AT increases your chance to hit with physical/melee attacks, while having a high PA helps you dodge or block physical/melee attacks.

Skills

A character with stats has been defined physically and intellectually. But what about individual talents and training? These things are represented by skills. Skills have a rank that indicates the character's relative proficiency and a set of associated base attributes. The base attributes are the stats that determine the base proficiency with the skill in question; for example, a strong character will be naturally better with a heavy axe than a weaker one, and his maximum level of proficiency will be higher, too. Just about anything can be a skill, though there is a reference list of some common skills in the article list of Philsys skills. Some examples of skills include Melee Weapon (Polearms), Fire Magic, Smithing, [k]Geography, and [s]Pain Resistance.

A character has 20 plus 2*(INT+WIS) points to spend on skills. Each point spent on a skill increases its rank by 1. Thus, spending 4 points on Unarmed Combat grants the skill rank of 4. At first level, no skill may be higher than the 4th rank, regardless of whether or not a character has enough points to purchase it at a higher one.

Determining Base Attributes

Whenever a skill is created, a little bit of logical reasoning is used to determine which stats would have the most impact on the character's ability to perform the skill. For example, Lockpicking requires nimble fingers and dexterity, and it also helps to have a little bit of intuition to figure out what steps to take to crack a tough lock. Since dexterity plays a greater role in the character's ability to pick a lock, the skill's base attributes are written as "<Dex/Dex/Int>." Each skill has three base attributes paired to it. No normal skill may have the same attribute all three times. The purpose of the base attributes will be later explained when we cover leveling up and tests of skill.

Many skills have clearly defined base attributes. All melee weapon skills are <Cou/Str/Agi> by default, though certain light weapons can be <Cou/Dex/Agi> instead at the option of the player. All skills that are magical schools are <Int/Wis/Mag>. The list of Philsys skills makes note of some of the more important skills for which there are clearly defined bases.

Types of Skills

There are actually three different kinds of skills: Normal Skills, Knowledge Skills, and Support Skills. Each type of skill has a different function.

• Normal Skills -- These skills represent something your character can do. Weapon skills and magical skills are always normal skills. Examples include Melee Weapon (Swords), Fire Magic, and Lockpicking. They always have three base attributes and are purchased at a cost of 1 point per rank.
• Knowledge Skills -- Often called "[k] skills." These skills represent raw, bookish types of knowledge such as [k]Geology, [k]Magical Theory, [k]Anthropology, and so forth. In general, any sort of science or academic discipline will be a [k] skill. These skills are denoted with a [k] before their names. A [k] skill costs 1/2 a point per rank, meaning that one point buys two ranks (or half a point can buy one rank). The base attributes for [k] skills are always <Wis/Wis/Wis>, which is an exception to the usual rule.
• Support Skills -- Often called "[s] skills." These skills can represent one of two things. Support skills can provide passive abilities or bonuses, or they can indicate supplementary knowledge. Valid support skills that provide passive abilities increase a character's ability to perform common, everday tasks. [s]Observation, for example, indicates that the character has a higher level of observation skill than a normal person, but this sort of ability is not necessarily a full-fledged skill. Support skills usually have a minimum stat requirement that must be met in order to learn the skill. In the case of [s]Observation, this is an intuition of +3 or better. An [s] skill typically costs 1/2 point per rank, like a [k] skill, but there are exceptions. Some specific and very special [s] skills cost more, such as [s]Improved Critical Striking, which costs 3 points per rank because of its high power and the difficulty of mastery.

Any character using a weapon (or fighting barehanded) should take an appropriate skill to match their weapon choice. Mages should have one or more schools of magic as skills. Everyone should have a variety of skills, and not all of a character's skills necessarily need to be directly related to combat. Spending skill points on non-combat skills and [k] skills is an excellent way to develop that character's repetoire.

Abilities

Abilities are combat and noncombat talents that are based on a character's list of skills and innate capabilities. All of a mage's spells are considered abilities. A character who is not a mage may have special weapon techniques or other abilities. Any ability that costs MP, or magic points, is a spell, whereas any ability that costs TP, or tech points is a tech. These are derived substats that are covered in the appropriate section.

A character's list of abilities is quite likely to be largely unique to that character. A sample list of abilities, taken from the character sheet of Hakaril Silvar:

• [Magical Theory=4]Charge Spell (5 TP) - Empowers a spell for a turn, doubling the effect of the spell when it is cast next turn.
• [Fire Magic=1]Fire 1 (5 MP) - Deals 10+3*rank+1d6 fire damage to one enemy.
• [Water Magic=1]Ice 1 (5 MP) - As Fire 1, only water damage to one enemy.
• [Lightning Magic=1]Lit 1 (5 MP) - As Fire 1, only lightning damage to one enemy.

Each ability has four parts: A set of required skill ranks, a name, a cost, and a description.

The required skill ranks defines the minimum number of ranks in the listed skill needed to use the ability. Fire 1 is a relatively simple and low-power ability, so it only requires one rank to use. If no skill ranks are required for some reason, this field is indicated as [Innate] if it is a function of the character's race or similar reason. If the ability is granted by an equipped item, it may be denoted as [Item-granted]. The name of the ability is largely self-explanatory. The cost of the ability is the amount of TP, MP, or both that is expended whenever the ability is used; some abilities may have other costs, such as HP. The description indicates what effect the ability has. Some abilities have very simple descriptions. Other abilities require very long descriptions in order for their effect to be defined.

Like skills, a character's abilities are more or less completely defined by the player; a player is free to give a character whatever abilities he desires as long as there is some justification for the skill in the form of a prerequisite skill rank. In order to determine what appropriate strengths for skills of given prerequisite ranks are, a player is advised to peruse other character sheets, converse with the GM, and read available literature regarding benchmarks.

Equipment and Inventory

Once a character has stats, skills, and abilities, a character is considered to exist as a Philsys character. These numbers do not necessarily say everything there is to say about a character's personality and background, but they do cover the mechanical end of using a character in an RP.

Most characters do not adventure naked, or at least, not if they wish to survive in the heat of battle for more than a few minutes. Choosing what kind of equipment a character will use is a matter of personal preference--both for the player and the character.

Many characters will carry at least one weapon. Some may carry multiple weapons, but the plausibility of such will be critically examined by a prospective GM. While a character bearing a sword, a boot knife, and a longbow is not excessive, any player with a character that attempts to be a walking armory is probably going to be asked, "how are you carrying all of that?"

Likewise, most characters will wear some sort of clothing. Standard clothing does not need to be listed on a character sheet outside of a character's physical description; only gear that affects a character's performance, in combat or otherwise, needs to be noted. Even simple clothing usually has an Armor Class, or AC, even if it is very low. Whenever a character recieves physical damage, this value is deducted from the damage dealt, increasing the character's chances of survival. Some very exotic armor may even reduce damage from magical attacks. Heavy armor has much higher AC, but it also carries penalties to a character's PA, impeding a character's ability to dodge attacks without taking damage. The value of armor must be carefully considered; a character wearing heavy armor will take more hits, but each hit will do less damage (and some hits may be negated entirely). Also, spellcasting characters will suffer penalties to their spells if they attempt to cast them while wearing armor that restricts their movement. Many characters that do not wear armor do so for IC reasons (and vice versa). In addition to armor, a character may carry a shield. Shields usually provide bonuses to PA, allowing a character to block attacks without taking damage. Shields have their own AC; if a shield's AC is exeeded by the damage of an incoming attack, the shield may be damaged or even destroyed.

Non-weapon, non-armor possessions only need to be listed if they are significant. In many cases, GMs are willing to assume that a character has a specific item if it is reasonable that they might be carrying it, such as a rope or a roll of parchment. Magical items in a character's possession should always be listed, as they will usually have an effect on the character's stats or can be used in ways that ordinary objects cannot. Usually, Philsys GMs do not bother to keep track of a character's material wealth, and things like money are abstracted for the sake of a more cinematic or fair game. As such, players should not feel the need to keep track of a character's wealth over the long term unless there is a specific reason to do so.

This list is a list of "standard" equipment. New weapons and armor may be devised by the players or GM to suit the situation or a new character as necessary, but players doing so are advised to base new weapons for their characters on preexisting ones for the purposes of game balance.

This list is of "Valthi" equipment. Really, it's just an alternative equipment list for characters who want to do something different--so long as they can fit into their character backgrounds why they're carrying around equipment from the country of Valth.

Weapons have a damage, listed in Thrust/Slash/Chop format, also referred to as a weapon's T/S/C. This is because most weapons can be used to attack in different ways, and depending on how the weapon is used to attack, it deals more (or less) damage. Weapons also have a penalty, written as a fraction looking thing like +1/-1. This is the amount by which your AT/PA is affected by your using that weapon (the effects of AT/PA are covered more in detail in the combat section). Weapons also have a weight (which usually has little effect on gameplay except where common sense kicks in) and, if applicable, a strength requirement. Determine the amount of damage your weapon deals with each attack type by adding the attack type damage to the attack type damage modifier. This is done as follows. If you are using a Longsword, which has a damage of 10/14/17, you add your STR+1d6 to the thrust damage, STR*2+2d4 to the slash damage, and STR*3+2d6 to the chop damage. If you have a STR of +3, this means you deal 13+1d6 thrusting, 20+2d4 slashing, and 26+2d6 chopping.

When using no weapon, you deal damage equal to (STR+Unarmed Skill rank)*2+1d6 punching, and (STR+Unarmed Skill rank)*3+2d6 kicking at a -3 penalty to hit.

Missile weapons, such as bows, throwing knives, or guns, have an Accuracy rating (which determines how often they hit) and a damage. In the case of bows, the damage is determined by the arrow/ammunition type.

Advanced rule: Players may use weapons for which they do not have the requisite strength bonuses, but they suffer an AT/PA penalty equal to twice the difference between the requirement and their strength.

Armor has an AC (armor class), an AT/PA modifier, a weight, and a strength requirement, if applicable. The amount of damage a piece of armor protects you from is AC/3 points of physical damage. Therefore, if you are wearing Hide Armor with an AC of 15, and someone hits you with a weapon attack for 15 points of damage, you only take 10 (15-5, because 15 AC/3 is 5 points damage reduction=10). Weight and modifiers/penalties are the same as weapons.

Typically, how much equipment and what kind a character can have is up to the GM to decide. Once you've got your equipment, there's one last step and you'll have a fully created Philsys character!

Gaining Experience:

As your character participates in Philsys RPs, the GM will award "experience points," or XP, to the characters involved. A GM should award XP for any difficult task or challenge overcome by the character, such as winning a battle, talking their way out of a fight, picking a lock, or the like. XP may also be awarded for exceptional roleplaying or other circumstances. A newly made character starts with 0 XP, though some GMs (including myself) will award a couple hundred XP for a well written character background story.

Here are the XP required to gain levels. The XP count resets after the level is gained (getting to level 3 from 2 is harder than getting to 2 from 1.

Lvl 1 Lvl 2 Lvl 3 Lvl 4 Lvl 5 Lvl 6 Lvl 7 Lvl 8 Lvl 9 Lvl 10 -- 1000 1250 1500 2000 2500 3250 4000 5000 6250 Lvl 11 Lvl 12 Lvl 13 Lvl 14 Lvl 15 Lvl 16 Lvl 17 Lvl 18 Lvl 19 Lvl 20 7750 9500 11500 13750 16250 19000 22000 25250 28750 32500

Whenever your character gains a level, the following things happen:

Your character gets a chance to increase up to two stats by +1. Your character gets a chance to increase their skills by a total of Wis+3 (minimum 2 per level) ranks. Your character gains more HP, MP, and TP.

The first thing done during a level up is stat increases. The player selects two stats, a primary and a secondary, of which cannot be the same stat. The primary stat has a higher chance of being raised than the secondary stat, so choose the stat you wish to raise more as the primary stat. Now, to determine whether or not the stat increases...

To raise the primary stat, you must roll equal to 100-Stat value*5 or less on a 100-sided die. Thusly, if you have a stat of +4, you must roll 100-20=80, or 80 or less on the die. To raise the secondary stat, you must roll equal to 50-Stat value*5 or less on a 100-sided die. Thusly, if you have a stat of +4, you must roll 50-20=30, or 30 or less on the die.

After the stat increases are done, the character gains the following other improvements:

STA+1d6 additional max hit points (MAG+INT)/2+1d4 additional max mana points 3+1d3 additional max tech points (TP)

In order to raise a skill, the player must look at the skill's base attributes. If the new rank is less than the sum of the base attributes, the skill is automatically increased (by one rank). If not, roll a 6 sided die, and if the number rolled is greater than the difference between the two numbers, the increase attempt succeeds. Therefore, if Fire Magic is <Int/Wis/Mag>, and a character has a +2 Int, a +3 Wis, and 5 points in Magic, and is trying to increase Fire Magic from 4 to 5, no roll is necessary. However, if this player wants to increase their Weapons (Sword) skill, which is <Cou/Agi/Str>, and they have a +1 in each of Cou, Agi, and Str, and they are increasing the skill from rank 6 to rank to rank 7, he must roll a 3 or greater on a six sided die (6 ranks-3 base attribute sum=3).

New skills may also be learned, at rank 1, in the same manner as increasing old ones. No single skill may be increased more than 2 ranks per level, and skills which cost 1/2 point per rank are increased by 2 instead of 1 on a successful increase.

Now that you've created your character and have a set of numbers for them, it's time to move on and see how we can use these numbers in an actual game!