[GLoW] Introducing the Goblin Laws of the Wasteland

GLoW is a GLoGhack for playing in a post apocalyptic setting. Think Electric Bastionland meets Caves of Qud with some Gammaworld sprinkled on top. But it is ALSO a test bed for a bunch of mechanics I want to try out, either ones thematic to the setting (tribe based gameplay, ς templates, guns vs. Saves) or because I think they're good ideas in general (spectrum stats, the Reaction system, easy initiative). This post is a summary of these ideas; expect the class posts and the rest to come out pretty quickly over the next few days.

Tribe Based Gameplay
This is the biggest change. Step one of character creation is now "get with the rest of the group and figure out what tribe you all are in". A tribe is any sort of gang, kinship group, clan, village, community or whatever else willing to band together and face the apocalypse as a unit.

1. Name & Origin Story. Who the hell are you guys, why do you work together and where on the GM's hex map do you live? You don't need eight pages of history, but you do need a shared vision. "mutant biker gang" or "creepy church congregation" or "salt vine farming community" are all viable. The important part is that everyone agrees on what your collective deal is.

2. Starting Location. GLoW assumes a hex map. If you're using one, describe what the tribe's starting location is in as much detail as the GM needs to narrow things down to a single hex on the map. That's where your tribe comes from. If you're settled, you live there. If nomadic, it's your sacred site. You start out familiar with most things in adjacent hexes. If you're not using hexes, you get the equivalent amount of information about your surroundings.

3. Pick Stats. Everyone from the same tribe has the same stats. That's what makes you the same tribe. If you run across an NPC in the wilderness and the GM rolls for their stats and the stats match your tribe's stats - congrats. You have a new tribe member. Figure out why they're all the way over here. Maybe they married into this tribe or got captured in a raid or something.

(You might protest at this point that if everyone has the same stats, they will all feel like the same character. Don't worry. Stats don't mean much. They're more important here than in the base GLoG rules, but only in ways that make sense for everyone to share. Your class sets you apart.)

4. Determine Loyalty. Roll 3d6 + Swiftness to set the initial Loyalty of your tribe. Every time you return to camp victorious, roll 3d6 + [slots of loot gained] + Swiftness and replace the current value if the new roll is higher. Reduce Loyalty by [new number of hirelings] every time you recruit from your tribe and by 2 every time a tribe member dies. Loyalty is a shared HP pool of your whole party, hirelings included. PCs can choose to have damage apply to Loyalty instead of to their own Hit Points. Hirelings scatter if Loyalty ever hits zero, with tribal hirelings returning to camp and any outside mercenaries abandoning you entirely. 

5. Slander the Chief. At the start of play, the tribe is ruled by a Chief who is a real piece of work. They're stubborn, a coward and they make bad choices. Each player should invent one additional gripe about the current Chief. You must be proven (HD 5+) to contest the Chief for their position. Most classes get a bonus for being Chief, shared across the whole tribe, as their C template.

Spectrum Stats
GLoW doesn't use the basic D&D attributes, both in the sense that there's no 'Charisma' or 'Dexterity' anywhere on your sheet and in the sense that the attributes you do get don't work like D&D attributes do. They're what I'm calling 'spectrum stats' because you're determining where you fall on the spectrum of being good at one thing to being good at the opposite thing.

When creating your tribe, you decide your attributes by setting each of Physique, Technology and Culture to a value between 1 and 6. Check under the base attribute (on a d6) for the first sub-attribute and over for the second sub-attribute. Rolling exactly equal to your base attribute is always a success. You also have derived modifiers for your sub-attributes. When something says +Str or +LT or +Wst, it means that derived modifier.

Physique - Strength vs. Swiftness
As a tribe, what does physical fitness look like? Someone who is big and strong and can lift a thousand pounds overhead, or someone who can run faster than anyone else and is good at the local ball sport? Or are you in the middle, where everyone is fit and mostly not malnourished?

Strength adds to hit points, inventory slots and to both attack and damage rolls for melee weapons. It is tested to perform feats of strength or stand firm. It also helps you when making Reaction Rolls with predators and roving barbarians.

Swiftness adds to loyalty, saving throws and to both attack and damage rolls for thrown weapons. It is tested to run, jump, climb and/or swim. It also helps you when making Reaction Rolls with prey animals, couriers and pickpockets.

(Firearms do not rely on attribute. You make a Save whenever you get shot at.)

Technology - High Tech vs. Low Tech
As a tribe, how much of the technology of the World Before is still in common use? Have you carefully preserved the relics of the past, knowing you cannot do without them, or have you invented new ways of living which do not depend on the irreplaceable marvels of an accursed and only half forgotten age?

High Tech lets you do things with technology from the World Before. It's used when salvaging scrap from ancient ruins, hacking into ancient vaults and when making Reaction Rolls with tech lovers and the local autonomous robots.

Low Tech lets you do things without the need for ancient technology. It's used when harvesting natural resources, following footprints and crafting low tech equipment. It also helps when making Reaction Rolls for farmers, low-tech tribes and animals.

(You don't need a specific Tech level to be an Artificer or Astrologer.)

Culture - Urbanity vs. Wastewise
As a tribe, are you more comfortable in the ruins of the World Before or out in the wild with all the plants and game? Do you have coins, market days and elections or do you handle things as a community? When parents warn their kids to keep out of trouble, are they talking about the sewer rats or the creek gators?

Urbanity and Wastewise are rolled for stealth, initiative and navigation in their respective environments. Urbanity is also used for commerce and trade, while Wastewise is checked to be self-sufficient and thrifty. One of the two attributes is always used when making Reaction Rolls with humans, based on where they live. 

Base	Stat #1	Check	Stat #2	Check
Stat	Mod	Odds	Mod	Odds
1	+3	6 in 6	-3	1 in 6
2	+2	5 in 6	-2	2 in 6
3	+1	4 in 6	-1	3 in 6
4	-1	3 in 6	+1	4 in 6
5	-2	2 in 6	+2	5 in 6
6	-3	1 in 6	+3	6 in 6

Skills
Confession time: I have never liked how GLoG did Skills. |1d12-1d12| vs. Skill Rank? Nothing else in the system works like that. For GLoW, if you have Skill in something, you get to roll twice and take the better-for-you number on any attribute test associated with the skill. Climbing Skill? Two dice on Swiftness to climb, Low Tech for tying climber's knots, Strength vs. altitude sickness, whatever you can justify to the GM as being associated with your Skill. You can also pick a specific kind of critter as a Skill, in which case you get two dice on spotting, hiding from, tracking, taming, riding and/or butchering it. This replaces having a Stealth rating.

The Basic Adventurer
Here's a revised table for your basic adventurer stats. Note that level 0 is what hirelings get. The major differences are how many hit points you get (generally fewer) and when Templates (now every other level) and Skills (every level you don't get a template) are handed out. You gotta be level 5+ to be Chief.

Level	Hit Points	Templates	Skills	Attack	Saving Throw	XP
0	4+Str		1	10	5+Swf	-
1	6+Str	1st		11	6+Swf	1+
2	9+Str		2	12	7+Swf	2000
3	10+Str	2nd		13	8+Swf	4000
4	12+Str		3		9+Swf	7000
5	14+Str	3rd		14	10+Swf	10000
6	16+Str		4		11+Swf	14000
7	17+Str	4th		15	12+Swf	18000
8	18+Str		5		13+Swf	22000
9	19+Str				14+Swf	26000
10	20+Str		6		15+Swf	30000
+1	+1					+5000

ς Templates
The same way that some classes have a Δ Template in normal GLoG, where you unlock a special template for doing something interesting in game, every class in GLoW has a ς Template (pronounced 'sigma') that modifies hirelings you personally recruit from the tribe. Mutants get to recruit hirelings who are mutated in similar ways, a Knight gets to recruit a Squire, the Raider gets to recruit young hot heads and so forth. Likewise, if your class gives a bonus per template, any hireling who gets your ς Template gets the bonus for that template, not you. 

If you are Chief, every hireling the party recruit gets your ς Template and either -1 Loyalty cost (if you recruit them personally) or the ς Template of whoever did recruit them (if you didn't). The starting Chief, who sucks at everything, has the ς Template: Reluctant Loyalty: Every time the PCs convince a hireling to go against the Chief's orders, the Tribe collectively loses one Loyalty.

Reactions
Reaction rolls in GLoW don't care about Charisma, because there is no Charisma. Instead, every creature has two Reaction Types (often shortened to Types) which decide what you roll for their reactions and how some Type-specific abilities or items effect them. Each Type is named for the sub-attribute you test when interacting with that Type. For example:

• Animals always have Low Tech and one other Type. Predators might be Strength, prey animals might be Swiftness, a racoon might be Urbanity and a herd animal might be Wastewise. No animal (even a cyborg gorilla or something) has High Tech and Low Tech at the same time. You never get opposing Reaction Types like that.
• Robots always have High Tech and one other Type. As with animals, the other Type is based on what sort of Robot it is. Ones designed to interface with humans tend to value Urbanity from humans, while those intended for agricultural, industrial and/or military settings tend to admire Wastewise, Strength or Swiftness respectively.
• Humans always have either Urbanity (if they are settled) or Wastewise (if they are nomadic) as a reaction type, along with one other type based on their personality. Note that having a Reaction Type isn't the same as being good at the associated sub-attribute. Farming villages often have higher Wastewise despite being settled and having Urbanity as their Reaction type. It just means they don't trust people from other villages, but can easily be intrigued by posh manners and big city riches.
• Abstract dangers tend to have either Strength (Diseases, Vermin) or Swiftness (Curses, Radiation) as Reaction Types. This is less about the anthrax being impressed by your muscles and more me reusing this system to represent the reaction of the Party to these things. A bad Reaction from a disease means the party is plagued by that disease; a good reaction means that it passes them by.

If both Reaction Types turn up a favorable result, the creature (or tribe, or abstract danger) respects you (or you properly respect it, in the case of abstract dangers). If both turn up unfavorable, the creature (or etc.) has contempt for you. Otherwise, it's more of a mixed bag. If a Merchant (Urbanity / Swiftness) comes to your tribe and you roll well on Urbanity but bad on Swiftness, you can trade just fine, but the guy might secretly regard you all as barbarian thugs. Whereas if you got the opposite result, he might admire your Tribe, but the trading falls through.

Initiative
tl;dr It's easy initiative from Spiceomancy, but FILO for more explicit interruption of enemy actions.

Each PC rolls Urbanity (if in a ruin, village or road) or Wastewise (if in the wilderness, a nomad camp or underground). Those who succeed get to go in Fast while everyone else must go in Slow. Artificers using their arcane devices always go in Slow. Slow players declare their actions first. Enemies act, potentially to interrupt what the Slow players were doing. Then Fast players declare, potentially to interrupt the enemy and/or to bail out a Slow player who would have been killed by a volley of thrown javelins. Slow players can try to reroll into Fast at the start of each round. Fast players can always drop down to the Slow phase for free.

(Also, just FYI, this whole thing is released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0, given that it's a GLoG-hack.)