Erik System Crash System

Alright tg, this is a starting point, but I'm all about KISS in my crunch (KISS means Keep It Simple Stupid).

Character Creation

Base Stats on a 1-10 (binary har har). Get 5 on everything and modify up or down on an exchange.

You've got 6 stats. Total of 60 points on Character Creation to distribute.

Strength: Mental Strength to continually do similar things over and over until just the right combination works. Perception: The ability to see new links, details in address bars and just differences in data. System: How healthy and fast is the hardware your spirit/virtual self resides. Connection: How fast you can link up to various things and perform commands. Intelligence: How well you critical think so you can work thru problems. (IQ) Humanity: The 'alignment stat' specific to integration. How much do you connect on a spiritual level. Integration targets this stat, but only at -10 does it kill/corrupt you to NPC status.

Resolution of Actions

Subtract your relevant stats vs. opponent's relevant stats or static challenges, minimum of 1. Roll that many d10 to see how affective you are.

0-5: Critical Miss 5-10: Failure 10-15: Minor Success 15-25: Success 25-30: Improved Success 30-40: Major Success 40+: Sucess + Resource

Or for the 4chan version:

under 5: Epic FAIL 5-10: Fail 10-15: Not sure if Fail or win. (Barely able to succeed, tied). 15-25: Win 25-30: Epic Win! 30-40: Legendary Win! 40+: You won internets resources.

Resource Points

Everyone has 0 resources when starting, you can earn more by getting over 40 on a check or by taking PERMANENT Humanity damage. These represent a kind of willpower that your humanity can use, possibly even a meatspace physicality that no one in the WebForts can really track down.

Things you can use resource points for by any class:

• Use a skill you are too damaged to access.
• Heal 1 damage from any stat but humanity.
• Start accessing a new skill tree.
• Advance an old skill tree.

Bonus resources you win can only be won by doing something meaningful in game to progress thru any current story arcs. This is up to a GM to decide whether your action does so.

Design note - This makes players DO stuff and keeps people from IRL lurking in their games. Also, it builds momentum as you get enough resources to pull off major class skills during a session at the climax.

Damage

You can take damage and it mostly goes to your 3 physical stats, but as you are playing you can take temporary damage to any stats. If you take damage, it represents part of your code being corrupted or your inaccessibility to your hardware or just mental fatigue. Going to 0 in a stat does not kill you but might prevent you from using your skills. Going to -10 in any one stat will kill you. Going to 0 in 3 or more stats will kill you. Time, items, and classes can heal damage or apply buffs to increase your stats.

Other Stats

All actions in combat are measure in milliseconds. For example, Hacker Joe uses pingblade.exe, a basic attack, which takes 2 ms to use. Hacker Joe 8 Strength and smacks a Cyber for pingblade.exe damage only. If you have a C++ Programmer writing up a code to burn up a 'weak virus swarm' thingy, it could take 20 ms but deal massive damage to an area.

Why MS? Milliseconds is a standard 'computer' rate of time. Try running ping yahoo.com in a command prompt and you get ms times.

Classes

Virus Rider - Warlock/Ranged Damage from D&D AND a Pet Class from WoW . One trick magical pony, probably with some sort of Virii pet. Can take integration to amp up his abilities further than the normal. I also like the fluff of that one with the butterfly where you can get infected virused. Main stat would be having a high humanity.

Hacker/Cracker - Warrior type who uses cracks, hacks and other exe files defend themselves and others against Cybers. As in RLish, they would have anti-virus and firewalls running all the time to stop from getting killed themselves so they can use more powerful exes. Fear the Hacker who has backups of his persona! Main stat is strength.

Lurker/Surfer - Rogue/Ranger mixup. Masters of the address bar. They spent so little time creating and using and so much more time surfing the web that they know everything about everything and can exploit their weakness. Good Lurkers can disable passwords on high-value sites and get the SAUCE. Bad lurkers can be epic trolls, instigating fights and employing all manner of 'dirty' tricks like *roll.flash to disable an arrogant opponent. Main stat is perception.

Designer/Programmer - (Mage DnD) Whereas the Lurker knows where to get the sauce, Designers ARE the sauce. There are several schools of programming, from Java (summoning), Flash (evocation), Photoshop (illusion), C++ (buffing by creating temporary exe). Like the Virus Rider, they have a high level of integration but unlike the Virus Rider which needs to hide it to save themselves from Webfort's defenses, Programmers love to show off the l33t coding they can do. They aren't nearly as stubborn as hackers, and their base of knowledge isn't as wide as a lurker, but can get more integrated to do more. Of course, the 'mad wizard' archetype definitely could be played out here. Also, they hold 'the code' sacred, and unlike Virii riders, tend to keep their malicious coding for combat at a minimum. Main stat is Intelligence

Admin (Cleric/Healer): Usually an older generation, the Admin is the protector of the webforts. Where programmers create new data, lurkers find data, Admin's protect the pix and data from those who want it. After all, the acculumation of all that info caused the Internet to become aware, so by keeping data secret and safe are they able to generate their own power. This user saves pix and exes, and their 'system' contained millions of terabytes of old info. Of course, KNOWING how they've organized it, how to save it, and how to retrieve it takes up lots of mental work and only the best can save new data generated these days. However, even with a temporary knowledge, they can recall old versions of avatars and exes that 'worked better' whether from damage or what not. Of course, to bring someone back fully requires them to integrate more. Main stat is System.

Feel free to design skills, more classes, and mod these. Do use a tiered system where skills and stats lead into COOLER skills and stats. Kind of like the 'tree' system Diablo and WoD uses.