This is part of a series about making a D&D-esque version of Ubiquity.
In the preceding weeks, I have outlined a version of the Ubiquity engine specifically geared towards a D&D-esque fantasy setting. I covered creating characters from species choice to Talents and Resources to a new way to handle magic. This week, I’ll go over the other miscellaneous new rules or modifications to existing rules.
Defending Against Multiple Attackers
This is a change that I use for all Ubiquity games, not just a fantasy version. The change is simple: Your Defense can never be lowered below your Passive (Body rating) Defense. While I agree with the concept that your Defense becomes less effective as you fend off multiple attacks, I never cared for the idea that your natural “armor” of your body is somehow overcome.
In my modification, multiple attackers can nullify your Active Defense and Armor Defense only. It certainly makes sense that if you are attacked by multiple enemies, at some point, your ability to dodge attacks is simply ineffective. In the same way, while armor normally protects you, it would not be unbelievable that one of those incoming strikes manages to find a weak spot–an unarmored spot on the body, a point where two armor plates join together, or a crushing blow that hurts regardless of the armor.
However, I do not allow the Passive Body Defense to be nullified. If a creature has a thick hide, it always has that thick hide, dodging or not.
This does bring up Killing Blow, which as written, states that an attack on an incapacitated target scores one point of damage per success rolled. I keep this as is with the caveat it really depends on the situation. Running a knife across the throat of a creature with a thick skin may not be as effective as the attacker thinks. In this case, I might subtract the target’s passive (Body Rating) Defense from the successes first. However, if that same attacker jams a dagger into the target’s eye, well no amount of thick skin can protect against that.
Resting and Healing
Resting is a new concept to Ubiquity, but fairly familiar to D&D players.
Short Rest: A 1 hour rest with minimal activity. Heal 1NL and convert 1L to NL. Heal 1 point of Psi Damage.
Long Rest: An 8 hour rest with no more than 2 hours of light activity. Heal 2NL and 1L. Convert any remaining L Damage to NL. Heal 4 points of Psi Damage.
Only two Short Rests may be taken in between Long Rests.
Medical Care may be administered during rests:
Medical Care: During Rest, you may treat others by making a Medicine roll at a Difficulty 3. If you roll more successes than the Difficulty, then the patients heal twice as fast as they normally would during the Rest.
First Aid remains the same as written in HEX.
What’s Next
That concludes my base rules for Fantasy Ubiquity. It’s a work in progress and inevitably changes will be made.
I’ve added a Downloads page (accessed from the main menu) where I have put some documents, including a Character Sheet. I will be adding to it continually. Expect some cheat sheets and spell descriptions.
I also hope to run an adventure using Fantasy Ubiquity before the end of the year. Whenever that happens, I’ll post an After Action Report and lessons learned.
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