I'm about to start a BECMI game on The Dark Forums. We will be play testing a few house rules:
I'm going to start a new game. This will use the Rules Cyclopedia rules, plus a few house rules.
Fatigue points: Every character will have a new secondary attribute called Fatigue points.
- At the beginning of the day, this is equal to the PCs current HP total; 8 hours of rest restores Fatigue to current HP total. Every time a character takes HP damage, the character loses the same amount of Fatigue. When Fatigue reaches 0, the character passes out.
- Sources of non-lethal Fatigue only damage are: punches, starvation, disease, some poisons, lack of sleep, general fatigue, etc. Normal healing will not restore Fatigue, only HP. If a PC takes more Fatigue than his current total, the excess is taken as HP.
- This new mechanic makes non-lethal fights (bar fights) possible. It also enables the PCs to use non-lethal methods to dispatch foes, take prisoners, capture critters, and basically just be good guys.
- Casters cast spells by spending Fatigue equal to the spell level. This can cause a caster to go unconscious or take HP damage (at 0 or lower Fatigue).
- Casters can cast any spell they know, and can learn any spell, regardless of caster level. ALL casters (including Clerics) must learn spells.
- Learning a spell takes time (not defining a time, just that it takes "time". Whatever works for the game.) and a source. The source can be a scroll, a spellbook, a teacher, or some exotic thing. After the "time" has passed, the caster must roll under PRIME REQ - SPELL LEVEL on a D20 (M-U trying to learn 9th level spell with an 18 INT must roll under 9 on a D20 to learn the spell). If the caster fails, he can try again next level, if the source is still available (will need to re-read, be taught again, etc.)
- Also, a caster can trade time for Fatigue. Basically, taking extra time to cast spells (turning it into a ritual) means the caster can cast the spell without spending Fatigue. This usually means spending turns instead of rounds, hours instead of turns, etc. This will allow a Cleric to always have heal spells available in downtime, a M-U to be able to Read Magic or Detect Magic, etc.
- Nothing else changes regarding casting spells.
- 13 - 15 : +5%
- 16 - 17: +10%
- 18 : +15%
The rest is per the book. Please use this character generator unless you are making a Mystic. I will be adding Mystics to the generator soon, but they are not there now. The generator will output code especially meant to be pasted into a post on this forum. After generating your character, hit the '*' key. you will be presented in Dark Forum specific code. Copy it all and paste it as-is into a post on this forum.
We'll be starting at 2nd level, but characters will advance fairly quick.
NOTE: If you're new to The Dark Forums, I'll need to activate your account, but I will do that quickly.