Not the best at figuring out how to do the whole shameless advertising/requesting feedback thing works, so here goes.

Veera RPG has been a side project for some time now, and now that the core seems pretty decent, I wanted to be to share. Hopefully you guys find some of it interesting, or get some value from it!
I was told that people don't like reading large PDFs, so I've included some of the core rules, and overview of character creation HERE and an overview of the damage system HERE. Each is only a page or two. and I can totally add more if requested. Questions, feedback and criticism is welcome.


The Very Tenative Setting

          Veera is an RPG set in a fantasy world entering the industrial revolution. A world with factories, mad scientists and mages alike. Sentient creatures in this world have a spark, an internal source of magical energy. How they use this differs. Some might use it to cast spells, while others may gain supernaturally good aim, improve their mental skills or channel it into constructs. I hope to incorporate Indian and Chinese myth in addition to the standard European fare. I've always loved the stories and history, from the city of Kaifeng that held 700,000 people over a thousand years ago to the magical realism of Indian TV and movies.
However current material is very mechanics focused, and the setting is tentative and prone to change.

Goals

• System that encourages a great story with tense moments and cinematic action.
• Characters that grow and change as a result of going through hardship and a system that encourages players to keep going, take risks and push their limits, even if taking a rest would be the safe option.
• An accessible game that doesn't take too long to get into while still providing tactical depth. I like crunch, but having to read through pages and pages to make sense of it is overwhelming.
• Enable well rounded characters with diverse play styles. A player that likes negotiating should have as much fun as one that likes swordplay.
• Keep things moving and fast paced. Load for the GM and players should be pretty low.

System Features

• Resolution: 1d10 and d6 'modifier dice'. White d6 for advantage, red for risk and black for setbacks.
  
• Risk and Reward: Players can push their luck and deal with the consequences later. There is a reverse death spiral, players can try to keep going even after their health or will runs out. Players can also add bonus dice to checks by increasing their chance of cost.
  
• Short and sweet character creation: Relatively narrative character creation that doesn't take forever and is easy to get into.
  
• Backstory feeds Mechanics: Characters can use their motivations to shrug off wounds, or give themselves an extra boost in a clutch situation.
  
• Tactical Gameplay: Character abilities that make choices matter and keep things interesting.
  

Veera sounds like a waitress in a 50s diner, but the City of Kaifeng sounds like a fascinating setting location.

Kaifeng is a great sounding name too. The "magical realism" of Indian TV and movies sounds intriguing. How would you incorporate that?

You want a game where PCs are taking risks over and over again. Then you need the world / setting problems to demand that kind of Crank-level twitch edge of the knife choice making.

Veera is a Sanskrit word meaning brave or fierce. It's a working title that i'm definitely open to changing as needed. Especially since I have gotten more than one comment about the name. What would you suggest?

So far as the magical realism, western stories tend to have a divide between the magical world and the real one. They are either in opposition, or entirely different entities. Indian stories have the supernatural as a thing that just happens , and blends and interacts with modernity. I recently saw a clip where the villain hires a sorcerer to sabotage the protagonists motorcycle for example. I wanted a world where the supernatural grows and changes with the times. Where someone would toss down a few wards against supernatural creatures, read a conspiracy rag about the nagas jewel cartel and then going to work channeling their spark into electricity at a power plant.

I definitely agree with your assessment of the world. The system mechanics currently really promote taking risks and pushing your luck, and the world needs to justify that. My thought is a world where an antagonist has already won and rules, but the massive technological and cultural upheaval allows for a fighting chance. Nothing too grimdark, but more resource scramble/resistance. My current drafts are heavily mechanics focused though, and I aim for a solid core first.

Conceptually like how you have a pool of modifier dice.  Not sure if you can roll them but once, but would suggest something like that at least for some of them.

Otherwise it's no different than a d20 + modifiers system, except courser resolution and a good chance it becomes all about those modifier dice, which is just another version of stacking +2 this and +3 that with modifier -2 this or +2 that.  In the end that mechanic is not going to give you much cinematic/tough choices and heroic outcomes for clever resource use.  

Really like how you have damage gets you to a point where you have to withdrawal or decide to fight on at a price.  Y

et there seems to be no real price for going into overflow, certainly nothing 8 hours rest can't fix.  So nothing to lose, no risk, no tension, no drama, no cinema, and going into overflow means nothing, just now you can fight to -10 hit points.

I'd say make overflow dangerous, but give more risk dice the further in you go.  Now that's brave, that's almost a reverse death spiral you get more effective the more hurt you get.  

However there must be a real price, or at least the odds of it must increase greatly.  By a real price I mean a permanent decrease in some important ability, related to the damage, maybe physical, mental/spirit/spark, social, etc.  The player may have to work to get back where they were but they can bask in their heroic glory.

Another idea, maybe they get punished in one area, mind, body, soul, related to where they overflowed but improve some, but not as much as the loss, in another. Your body is weakened by the battle but you have gained some soulful insights etc.  In a way you are always treading the balance between being you prime self (say body) and changing and growing onto a different person.

Lastly, any metric that is going to measure success and failure needs some dynamic range.  It should be fairly broad so a "one point"/"one adventure" change is not a great boon or great bane.  At least how we play, the current campaign has been going for near 10 years now.  If you are looking at playing only a half a dozen sessions at most then ignore any concept of dynamic range.

Quote from: TheCutestWug;892802Veera is a Sanskrit word meaning brave or fierce. It's a working title that i'm definitely open to changing as needed. Especially since I have gotten more than one comment about the name. What would you suggest?

Keep Veera.  Go with the Sanskrit theme.  I like how you could have Veera on the cover formatted like an OED definition, maybe even add in a fake one that relates to you mystical world.

QuoteSo far as the magical realism, western stories tend to have a divide between the magical world and the real one. They are either in opposition, or entirely different entities. Indian stories have the supernatural as a thing that just happens , and blends and interacts with modernity. I recently saw a clip where the villain hires a sorcerer to sabotage the protagonists motorcycle for example. I wanted a world where the supernatural grows and changes with the times. Where someone would toss down a few wards against supernatural creatures, read a conspiracy rag about the nagas jewel cartel and then going to work channeling their spark into electricity at a power plant.

You need to expand you experience with western stories.  Maybe you are thinking Harry Pottter?  Western stories, Greek, Roman have magic as a thing that just happens, although usually for the bad, that just happens to be nearby.  Medieval stories have magic all around, again usually for the bad, and modern fantasy has it all over the place from separate world to it's just another technology.  Nevertheless, really dig the Indian vibe.  Really think that is the way to go.

If you want to integrate it into your world the way you describe then it needs to be comparable to mundane technology, or something the desperate use.  If it is better then humans being the self interested exploiters they are will use it to the max.  I'd really just look at the limits and bounds you place on your magic and think, how could the most rule abusing munchkin player exploit them for power and profit and assume that every "corporation" and "politician" in your world would have already done so and developed a magic backed security to boot.  That is, if magic is to be everyday in the world you describe it has to be pretty mundane compared to non-magical solutions.  

Powerful magic would thus have to be rare, limited, the province of geniuses only and something kings and states would ruthlessly control and exploit.  Maybe think of them like nuclear weapons, the powerful have them, don't ant anyone else to have them, the public knows perfectly about them, but will never likely see one and would rather they didn't exist.

QuoteI definitely agree with your assessment of the world. The system mechanics currently really promote taking risks and pushing your luck, and the world needs to justify that. My thought is a world where an antagonist has already won and rules, but the massive technological and cultural upheaval allows for a fighting chance. Nothing too grimdark, but more resource scramble/resistance. My current drafts are heavily mechanics focused though, and I aim for a solid core first.

Could do it that way.  I think it is much more likely to work where there is not strong central power, where there are many power centers vieing for more power.  It is basically a very lawless overall situation.  There will always then be a place to run to or from.  Limited resources means maintaining extend lines of control over will be expensive, more likely power will fracture into smaller units.  More like city-states, maybe mega city states.

Perhaps magic is everyday because resources wound down, we revived magic to save the day but are now just consuming that.  It was once a man just gave his back in labor, then his mind and time.  Now it is literally his very spark he sells to survive.  

A big bad central power, that PCs are expected to fight with the edge you are thinking of really limits what you are prepared for players to do.  What if they don't want to fight the big bad?  What if they don't want to use the edge you envision?  

Anyway just some more ideas.

Thanks for the feedback! I have been busy working on the quickstart package, playtesting and fine tuning.

- Testing showed you were right, so overflow has been modified. You now get one bonus die for each damage check you pass. That and afterwards there is a step where you roll to find out consequences. So you have a good idea of where it's going to be, but not exactly. You could get lucky and get nothing. You could be screwed. There's also a new level of consequences that is "things have gotten bad and you need urgent help". This could either be you bleeding out, a mental breakdown etc.

- The dice pool is kept to a limit of 10. Most things just add direct bonuses to the d10. The modifier dice are mostly for adding risk, and anything situational that comes up. On average for a starting player, you will be adding less than 5, and any math is pretty phyiscal. I tried to also use consistent numbering and patterns so there are decent expectations to follow.

- I don't quite get what you are trying to say by dynamic range. Care to elaborate?

- Thanks for worldbuilding help! So far as Western stories, I have read the old myths. I was mostly referring to modern works and their conception of magic. Nowadays I see the majority (but not all) works have a pretty firm divide.

Here is a stripped down playtest packet if you are interested!

Note that some of the subsystems and values are changed so I can test particular things. Mostly seeing how things feel at this point, so values are uncapped so I can see how far players go. Also the abilities are currently a shim. My plan is to include relevant and flavourful trait and attribute choices with abilities. So if this was d&d, a cleric might get "Trait: Write down one of the core beliefs of your religion, that you strive to keep to" or similar.