Storypath Ultra Basics

[wyrdhamster]

Preparing topic for May 30th premiere of new rules on They Came From the RPG Anthology Kickstarter. I plan to look over major changes between original Storypath ( SP 1.0 from now on ) and SP Ultra rules.

Edit 16th June 2023 - Storypath Ultra preview is on DriveThru RPG!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product...a-Preview-2023

[Mateus Luz]

Is SP 1.0 Scion, TC, DR:E or TCF?
If I were you I would focus on the differences between TCFBTS, TCFBTG and SPU. Just a suggestion, otherwise you may have extra hard difficulties and complications…

[wyrdhamster]

Reading SP Ultra rules now, quick writing on phone...

Major changes in Terminology
Major changes in Terminology
Was Scale ( X Number) => Now Advantage ( X Number)
Was 'You need X Successes to spend...' => Now 'You need X Hits to spend...'
Was Condtion ( X Number) => Now Status ( X Number)
Was ‘Effect works in Field’ => Now ‘Effect works in Area’
Stunts becomes Tricks

Interesting... 'If the player succeeds and buys off any Complications, then that is considered an extraordinary success.'

And
'Disaster; the player does not garner enough hits to overcome the difficulty, but chooses to allow any Complications to occur anyway.'

Did not remember this limit was in SP 1.0 -

'If a character would have multiple appropriate types of Enhancement that would apply to the same action, use the highest rated Enhancement bonus only, unless otherwise noted.'

If Momentum in other games works like Rewrites - we are for a treat. 😎

'Rewrites can be used in the following ways:
• Add an Enhancement hit to an action on a one for one basis. Spend 1 Rewrite after the dice have been rolled, and only if the dice roll has at least one hit (as per normal for Enhancement).
• Spend 2 Rewrites to change a failure into a success or a success with consequence, if a Complication is present. If you choose this use, you cannot spend more Rewrites for Enhancement for Tricks or to turn the action into an extraordinary success. Other sources of Enhancement apply normally.
• Spend 1 Rewrite to describe a story element in a scene that is now a fact. For example, the player may decide the guard outside the jail cell is her character’s cousin, or that the villain is her ex-partner. This is subject to Director approval.
• Spend 1 Rewrite to gain a piece of evidence about an investigation.'

[wyrdhamster]

Other changes in SP Ultra

Skills changes

Humanities => Artistry

With Presence can impress someone with your creative ability through performance or creating a piece of art.
With Cunning can recognize an obscure piece of archeology, date an artwork, or detect a forgery.

Mysticism, Occult => Esoterica

With Intellect can research a strange phenomenon, look up occult lore, or delve into a conspiracy.
With Cunning can recognize an occult symbol, discern a ritual based on its components, or recognize a specific spell.
With Resolve can perform an occult ritual, craft a conspiracy, or resist the effects of a spell.

Command => Leadership

Aim => Ranged Combat

[wyrdhamster]

More changes…

Defense

A character’s Defense sets the difficulty of the attacker’s roll. A character’s starting Defense against an incoming attack is always 1. When a character is attacked, she may take a defensive action using Stamina (no Skill is added). The difficulty of a defensive action is 0 unless otherwise noted. Each hit garnered from a defensive action can be used to purchase Defense Tricks. After she sets her Defense, the attacker rolls for their attack action.
(…)
A character may want to spend her action in the round to take a full Defense. To do this, roll the character’s (Defense pool × 2). Each hit increases the difficulty required to inflict Injury, or may be split among other Defense Tricks (including any Defense Tricks granted by Tropes). This is a simple action and may not be part of a mixed action.

Universal Combat Tricks

The following are Tricks a player may spend hits on for any type of attack action she makes.
Attention (2 hits): Your blow draws the victim’s attention, meaning they’ll target you in the next combat round unless combat ends before then, or someone hits them with this Trick after you.
Distraction (1 hit): The target suffers a +1 difficulty on all Ranged and Athletics attacks until the end of your next turn.
Critical (3 hits): Deal an additional damage to your target.
Feint (1-3 hits): For every hit spent on Feint you generate Enhancement on your or an ally’s next attack against the opponent you’re attacking. You must designate the ally gaining the Enhancement bonus when you purchase this Trick.
Pull Your Punch (0 hits): You choose not to deal damage to the target and instead gain 1 hit to spend on another combat Trick.

Injuries

Here is interesting. In They Came Storypath Ultra more Injuries you get, more bonus dices to Path Skills you get. Question is this will be used in Scion and Trinity also?

[wyrdhamster]

Investigation Rules Primer

Character simply get Leads if they are at correct place – and get extra leads if they have correct Skills. They can also ‘generate’ Leads with example rolls.
• When you research using a library or books of any kind, roll Culture + Intellect.
• When you consult an obscure or occult source, roll Artistry or Esoterica + Cunning.
• When you need to solve a puzzle, translate a language, or crack a code, roll Enigmas + Cunning.
• When you use the scientific method to follow a lead, roll Science + Intellect.
• When you have a lead and need to piece together evidence to understand it better, roll Enigmas + Intellect.
• When you interrogate a suspect to learn information, roll Persuasion + Cunning.

Wyrd’s Opinions on Investigation:
Is it me, or should ‘consult an obscure or occult source’ be Culture or Esoterica + Cunning and ‘research using a library or books of any kind’ be Artistry + Intellect? Culture is literally about contacts with people and Artistry is said about knowledge of arts and humanities. 🤔

Also, if Command is changed in to Leadership – should not Leadership be applicable to interrogate suspects? It would be much forceful approach to subject. 👊

[ZakRulz]

Without having read the Storypath Ultra stuff, in general Persuasion generally makes more sense in an interrogation than Leadership do to the adversarial nature of interrogating someone.

[wyrdhamster]

Leadership was previous Command - and in one of Actual Plays Command was used for Intimidation action alternative.

[impernious]

Leadership was previous Command - and in one of Actual Plays Command was used for Intimidation alternative

Just so you know, we created an all new Skill list for Storypath Ultra. While some of the Skills might be clear renames such as between Aim and Ranged Combat, others are less clear cut. So to say that Leadership is a direct one to one translation of Command or that Artistry is a direct translation of Humanities is incorrect.

[The Gentleman Gamer]

Indeed. As They Came From the RPG Anthology makes reference to both Storypath and Storypath Ultra Skills in its manuscript, it's useful to provide guidance on which Skills you'll lose or gain based on the system you use, but they're not directly reflective of each other.

[ZakRulz]

Looking forward to see Ultra in action this weekend.

[wyrdhamster]

Storypath Ultra preview is on DriveThru RPG!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431162/Storypath-Ultra-Preview-2023

[Firanai]

Will there be a conversion guide in case I want to use the system for the trinity continuum lines?

[literatzi]

Will there be a conversion guide in case I want to use the system for the trinity continuum lines?

They give some general conversion guidelines in the booklet, but based on things they said a few months ago they didn't plan (at that time) to do a full "Gift X should now say Y" or the Edge Big Hearted should now read "Blah blah blah" type of conversion guide.

I'd say for most of the rules in Ultra they're pretty easy to port into TC without much issue (things like disasters, how momentum works, terminology changes, and tweaks to complication ratings). The intrigue and procedural (forget what Ultra calls them) rules changes aren't too dramatic, but because lots of Edges and powers interact with those systems you might need to be a bit more thoughtful about porting them into TC, my guess is a handful of Edges and powers might need tweaks if you use those rules from Ultra.

Scale/Advantage is probably the area I'd be most concerned about, I like how Ultra is approaching Advantage but worry that a lot of TC books were written with a different set of assumptions around Scale. That being said, with what we've seen it would be really easy to just use Advantage as is. It might occasionally feel a little weird, but I don't think there are any big mechanical implications.

[wyrdhamster]

Expanding what literatzi wrote - most easiest change from SP Ultra I put already in our Trinity games is change of Difficulty to Critical Hit Staunt/Trick from targets Defense+4 to now Defense+3 - it's really simple, and it's already makes combats much more dynamic in my POV. ( Will see how it works in Scion when we return to play with my other team. )

Other thing is that you can give Clues for Investigation simply by spending Momentum, on 1:1 basis. It's also makes game much more dynamic.