This game will combine the usual text-based forum RP style with the dice rolling
of traditional tabletop roleplays. I have, however, worked on the system so as to minimize dice rolls to a minimum.

Character creation

All characters must be approved by me prior to entering the RP.

Stats

The system I've created only uses 4 stats: Strength, Intelligence, Energy, and Health. This is to keep you in control of a lot of what your character is, and not have it based on a series of point-bought or dice-based stats. What your character looks like, how rich they are, how old they are, how much they weigh or are tall, all of these details are up to you. The only things determined by points or dice rolls are these four stats mentioned.

You have 80 points to spend at the start of character creation. You can spend them on stats and powers.

Stats are your basic four: Strength, Intelligence, Energy, and Health. You have to choose whether you're taking a dice roll, or buying stats.

Taking the dice roll means none of your stats cost any points, but you have to accept whatever the dice say. If you take the dice roll, you first roll ten d10 dice, and count the number of dice which come up 5 or higher, re-rolling any that come up exactly 10. This determines the number of d6 dice with which to calculate your stat number.

For example, let's say you rolled the ten d10 (ten sided) dice and got five successes. This means you then roll five d6 (six sided) dice and the sum of those dice is your stat. All four of your stats except health work this way. With health, you get a free bonus: any dice four or higher you get to re-roll and take the extra numbers.

If you choose to buy points instead, the first four points in any stat are free. Above that it costs 2 points to raise each stat by one point.

Using Strength to Determine a Modifier

You divide your strength stat by 3 and round up to the nearest whole number. This determines how much damage you do to a person's health with a normal attack. Take your normal attack modifier you just calculated and double it. This is how much damage you do to a person's health with an all-out attack.

Let's say Bob has a strength stat of 9. He divides this by 3, meaning that if he attacks someone with normal effort, he does 3 damage, and if he attacks someone with all-out effort, it does 6 damage.

Usage of Energy

For the sake of freedom to RP as you want (I don't want to be your boss or parents), anything that is not related to offense or defense does not cost energy.

This way, you don't have to worry about anything that doesn't require a dice roll costing you energy.The only things costing you energy are attacks and defensive actions.

If you attack someone, either with a physical attack or a power that attacks (such as a fireball or another type of projectile), and you're attacking normally (that is, you're not spending extra energy to double your damage), it only costs you one point. One measly point for a normal attack.If you decide to attack someone all out, it costs you two points, but doubles your damage to them.

You can also spend two points to reduce damage done by an enemy to you by your strength modifier, or four points to reduce damage done by an enemy to you by your all-out strength modifier. However, because the enemy's attack was a success, you MUST TAKE AT LEAST 1 point of health damage.

At the end of every post, post your current health and energy. This is to make sure everyone can keep track of your numbers, and also so you don't forget .Also, unless you have regeneration as a superpower, a normal person regenerates two energy on their next turn and one health on the turn after their next turn.

For example, if Bob spends two energy on this turn, after someone posts, he'll get those two energy back, and then, after someone posts again, and it gets to his turn again, he'll get a health point back.

If you run out of energy, you can either flee or attack. Fleeing is dependent on whether or not the circumstances make it even possible to do so. If you choose to attack with no energy, you don’t go negative, but you’re dazed and cannot attack until you get energy back.

Uses of Stats & Dice Rolls

Although it incorporates elements of a tabletop roleplay, you aren't required to roll for absolutely everything. Doing things that don't involve direct conflict with either a player character or a non-player character don't require rolls. For example, if all you're doing is looking on the internet, driving a car, or punching through a door, none of those things brings you into conflict with another character, and you don't have to roll for those. You still have your freedom to RP like you would on most forum RP's.

The difference is, if you go to punch another character, either run by the GM (me) or by another player, you have to roll to see if you succeed. This is to ensure that both sides play fairly and act accordingly.

Let's go with a basic attack scenario:

Bob picks up a table (doesn't require a roll), and throws it at John with normal effort. (this requires a roll). Bob performs a roll using invisiblecastle before finishing his post, and john rolls before making his post. Bob posts his result in the post where he does this action, and John posts his result in his next post responding to Bob. If Bob is higher, he succeeds, and John MUST roleplay accordingly. If John is higher, Bob fails and John succeeds, and Bob MUST roleplay accordingly. If there is a tie, I, the DM, will flip a coin, decide who succeeds, and post that result, and both players MUST roleplay accordingly.If Bob succeeds, he uses his normal strength modifier (because he specified normal effort) to determine damage to John. In this case, Bob's strength is 9, so he does 3 points of damage to John, but John spends two energy to reduce the damage by his normal strength modifier. John's strength is 6, so he reduces the damage by 2 and takes only one damage point.

Intelligence is used for knowledge and calculation-based offense and defense. Basically, when you're doing things such as trying to prevent someone from hacking your computer while they're doing it, or trying to decipher an enemy's documents. This requires a roll in which the modifier is the intelligence stat divided by 3 and rounded up.

For example:
Bob starts hacking InfoCorp's computers (doesn't require a roll) which alerts an InfoCorp IT guy (played by me, the GM). I perform a roll and add the guy's intelligence modifier to the result (which is 3 because his intelligence is 9) make a post announcing the character's attempt to start preventing the hack. Bob then performs a roll, and since his intelligence is 12, he adds a modifier of 4. He succeeds, meaning the IT guy at InfoCorp cannot prevent him from accessing information. HOWEVER, that only results in ONE piece of information being acquired. If Bob wishes to TRY AGAIN to hack InfoCorp to get MORE information, he must roll against me again.


The Strength Stat and roleplaying

Like I said earlier, any action that does NOT oppose another character doesn't require a roll. I.E. Picking up a table and walking around with it doesn't require a roll. Picking up a table that has someone standing on it, WOULD require a roll. If the person was standing on the table and succeeded at the roll, it would mean he got off the table before you picked it up and is no longer prone to your attack.

However, your strength stat DOES, in effect, give you a restriction in your roleplaying. Four is peak human physical strength. It costs you no points up to a stat of four.
Here is how strength works:

1 is average. The common person. This means a person can lift 50 pounds normally and 150 pounds with strenuous effort. They would have an attack modifier of 1 (1/3 rounded up) under normal circumstances, and a modifier of 2 with all-out attacks.

A rank of 2 is above average. They can lift 150 pounds normally and 250 pounds with strenuous effort. They would have the same attack modifiers as someone ranked 1.

A rank of 3 in strength is your average crimefighter. They can lift 450 pounds normally and 900 pounds with strenuous effort. They would have the same attack modifiers as someone ranked 1.

A rank of 4 in strength is peak human, a super soldier. They can lift 1000 pounds normally and 2000 pounds with strenuous effort. They would have an attack modifier of 2 normally and 4 for an all-out attack.

Above rank 4, do the following to calculate your lifting strength:

Raise your strength stat to a power of 1.1; the result is roughly your lifting strength, in tons, at normal levels. Raise your strength stat to a power of 2.2; this result is roughly your maximum lifting strength, in tons.

For example:

Bob has a strength stat of 9. This means that 9^1.1 = 11.21, so Bob can, under normal circumstances, lift about 11 tons. 9^2.2 = 125.7, so Bob can, at absolute most, under severe effort, lift 125 tons.

In regards to striking strength, use common sense. Someone who is peak human would be able to easily kick a wooden door down, but wouldn't be able to punch through concrete without taking damage.


Taking Harm from Non-Conflict

Most of the time, as long as you're playing fairly, I won't bother you if you make every rooftop jump without harm, or bang into every door to knock it down without injuring your shoulder. Now, speaking for common sense, we all know superheroes don't avoid harm EVERY SINGLE TIME. So, for this, I'll allow you to take "situational damage."

Situational damage doesn't detract points from your health number. BUT NOT EVERYTHING COUNTS AS SITUATIONAL DAMAGE.

For example:

Bob kicks a grenade away from a crowd of people. The good news? It detonated far enough away as to not do LETHAL damage to Bob. The bad news? He can't hear much out of one ear and he's got minor cuts from shrapnel on his arms. None of these are severe, and THE GM AGREES WITH HIM, so he doesn't subtract points from his health.

Or another example:

John does a parkour leap from one balcony to another. Unfortunately, when he lands, he hits one foot a bit harder than the other, so he limps a bit. The good news is, he didn't injure his foot, AND THE GM AGREES WITH HIM, so he doesn't subtract points from his health.

Now, let me be clear: THESE SITUATIONS ARE TO "COLOR" THE PLOT, AND CREATE PROBLEMS FOR THE HEROES SO THEY DON'T HAVE IT TOO EASY, WITHOUT COMPLETELY HINDERING THEIR ACTIONS. IF THESE ARE ABUSED I WILL START DOCKING POINTS.

This is an example of something that is most definitely NOT situational damage:

A SuperGuard robot succeeds at a dice roll to lift Bob into the air, and throws him off a balcony. Bob is allowed to say that he lands on a nearby balcony, BUT BECAUSE THIS WAS THE RESULT OF A SUCCESSFUL DICE ROLL AGAINST HIM, BOB MUST SUBTRACT THE ENEMY'S ATTACK MODIFIER FROM HIS CURRENT TOTAL HEALTH POINTS.

Weapons

In a superhero comic, very seldom are superheroes killed by conventional weapons such as guns. Even super-scientific weapons like plasma cannons and alien technology rarely kill superheroes. At most, a superhero will be rendered unconscious by them. Now, that isn't to say NO one has been killed by projectile weapons in comics.So for the sake of this rp, any projectile weapon that is fired, doesn't rely on your strength or damage modifier at all; any firing weapon (guns that shoot solid bullets, or a weapon such as a crossbow) does 4 damage on a successful roll, which is the same as an all-out attack from someone ranked strength 4. You can even spend energy to reduce damage, but be sure to RP it (I.E. give me a REASON why you'd take less damage, and don't just say it, play it) Any beam-based weapon, such as a laser, does 6 damage.

Any weapon that isn't a fired weapon, such as a spear or a sword you physically attack with, add two points to your damage modifier for a normal attack, or four points for an all-out attack.


Knocked Out vs Dead

You might run into a situation where your health is reduced to 0. Or, you might attack an opponent very weak and reduce their health to 0. In these cases, someone is knocked out.No one dies until their health reaches -10. This goes for both you and enemies. If you are worried about an opponent who is weak, so as not to kill them, you can choose to hold back an attack if you want; this costs no additional energy. It only makes sense that a superhero knows their power very well and has used it a long time; you can choose to do less than your damage modifier, all the way to a minimum of 1 point. All you have to do is specify—BEFORE YOU ROLL—that if your attack is successful, you try to do less damage, and specify how much you want to do.


Using InvisibleCastle for Dice Rolls

Now, so far, you might be wondering, "How am I supposed to do a dice roll online? " invisiblecastle.com is the answer. You don't even have to sign up for an account there to use it. Plus, all dice rolls are saved so I can even look them up later.

Any time you need to roll, just go to invisiblecastle.com, click on dice rolls, and fill out the form. Here's what you need to do:

Go to www.invisiblecastle.com

click on "Roll Dice" along the top

A form will pop up. Fill out your character's name (you'll want to do this every time), "Push City" as the campaign.

For the dice rolls themselves:

For stat rolls, I'm letting you roll 2 dice and take the higher result. So if it
is either a roll to determine how many d6 you use, or the actual d6 roll itself,
enter 2 in the box for "Number of Rolls." Any other roll you want to enter 1.

Here's how stat rolls work: For each stat, you need to determine how many dice you're awarded for determining your stat. You'll want to roll ten d10, and count the number of dice that come up 5 or above, with extra rolls on die that come up 10. So you'll enter "10d10.hitsopen(5,10)" in the "Dice" box without the quotations. It will spit out two results, and the higher number is what you'll take.

Then you'll go back to Roll Dice and fill out the form again, except this time, whatever number you got for the previous roll, you'll enter that many d6.

Example:


Dave goes to roll. He enters his character name, Push City as the campaign name, 2 in the Number of Rolls box because he's rolling for his intelligence stat, and 10d10.hitsopen(5,10) in the Dice box. The better roll he gets is this: "10d10.hitsopen(5,10) → [3,5,8,9,5,6,5,2,5,8] = (8)" meaning there were 8 dice that came up five or greater. So he goes back to Roll Dice and does the form again, except this time, in the Dice box he types in 8d6, because 8 is the result he just got. He gets " 8d6 → [6,4,6,3,4,4,3,1] = (31) " as his result, meaning his intelligence stat is 31.

ANY OTHER TIME YOU ROLL BESIDES STATS, you'll enter 1 in the Number of Rolls box and 1d20 in the Dice box.

The main purpose of InvisibleCastle is giving me, the GM, a way to make sure you're not lying or cheating on your rolls. So, after each roll, EITHER POST A LINK TO THE URL OR COPY THE BBCODE PROVIDED ON THE RESULT PAGE. ANY ROLL POSTED WITHOUT A LINK TO THE RESULT WILL BE TREATED AS AN AUTOMATIC FAILURE.

Powers

This game will be different from a tabletop RP in one specific way: I don’t give you a cherry-picked list of powers and say, “use only these.”

You can come up with ANY POWER YOU CAN IMAGINE AS LONG AS IT FITS THESE RESTRICTIONS:

You CANNOT add a strength/damage or intelligence modifier to the damage done by a power.

If you have a SUIT or a piece of TECHNOLOGY that acts as a power, list it as a power and allot it points based on its level of power. It CAN have more than one attack or defense, but you can ONLY USE ONE OF THE ATTACK OR DEFENSIVE FEATURES OF IT AT A TIME.

Tiers – There are four tiers of power:

1. Average Power (5 Point Cost) – These are relatively ordinary, somewhat weak powers. These are the fireballs that singe rather than leave permanent burns; these are the ice powers that chill rather than cause people frostbite. Any power allotted only five points is average, and can only do a maximum of four points of damage all-out or two points normal effort. Defensively, it means you can only reduce damage by two points in addition to already spending points to reduce damage. The difference is, with powers, you don’t spend energy to reduce damage. If you’re NOT using these powers offensively, such as super speed or flight, just remember that these powers are AVERAGE in terms of their level of power. Average powers cost one point for normal or two points all-out offensively.

2. Powerful (10 Point Cost) – These powers are above average and can actually cause harm. These can do four points of damage normally, or eight all-out. Defensively, these can reduce damage by four points. Powerful powers cost two points normally or four points all-out offensively.

3. Super (30 Point Cost) – This level of power means you have an ability/piece of technology that is truly powerful in its use. It can do a serious amount of damage. These are fire wielders that can burn down skyscrapers. These are beam firers that can blow away tank brigades. These can do eight points of damage normally or ten all-out. The disadvantage of a power this scope is that it uses four points normally or as much as eight all-out offensively.

4. Vast (40 Point Cost) – This is the highest tier of power. Powers at this level inspire awe to those uninitiated in the sight of superheroes performing their abilities. Offensively, these do ten points of damage normally or fifteen all-out, and require eight points of energy normally or ten all-out.

The last two tiers don’t follow the rule of doubling damage for all-out attacks or doubling energy for all-out, because of the need to limit the amount of damage a character can do in one attack.

In regards to powers that are somewhat subjective (I.E. magic, reality alteration, power absorption, illusion powers, things of that nature) where there is no objective “right answer” for how it damages someone or assaults them, pay attention to their tier.

For example, if you have reality alteration, and it’s only an average power, it isn’t going to be able to turn a whole person into a harmless fly. Similarly, if you have magic, but it’s only Powerful (10 points), you won’t be blowing up asteroids the size of planets.

Also, powers follow the principle of rolling; if you’re assaulting a person you must roll to succeed. Healing or beneficial powers ALSO REQUIRE YOU TO ROLL.

Character Submissions

Here's how I want it:

Character's Real Name — Character's alias/superhero name

Starting Points 80

Stats (Put how many points you spent here in parenthesis)

Strength (number of d6 here, along with link to your roll): result (normal modifier here/all-out modifier here)

Intelligence (number of d6 here, along with link to your roll): result (normal modifier here/all-out modifier here)

Energy (number of d6 here, along with link to your roll): result

Health (number of d6 here, along with link to your roll): result

Powers (Put how many points you spent here in parenthesis)

Name of Power (number of points spent to indicate tier) — Description of power here, at least two whole sentences, the more detail the better. I want to get a feel for how your power works.

repeat for as many powers as you have

Biography

Height:
Weight:
Age:

insert bio here, AT LEAST ONE WHOLE PARAGRAPH, PREFERABLY MORE