Larger Than Life is a system written by BSR. It's a "near-future" high action super hero system. The primary influences are the Scion system/setting from White Wolf and the Marvel Comics universe, though inspiration has also been drawn from other sources too, including other superhero comics, as well as other games such as new WoD, and GURPS Superheroes. The influences are pretty clear, and a lot of stuff has been kinda ripped off pretty directly. In some ways it's more of an homage and a blending than a truly original game. I'd urge you to try out some of these other games too as Larger Than Life will be in playtesting for some time yet.
It is anticipated that Larger Than Life will be primarily played in The New World setting written to go with it. The two go hand in hand and it may be difficult occasionally to seperate what is system and what is setting. The basic mechanics are based within White Wolf's Storytelling system, so attributes and abilities are generally rated on a 1-6 scale and rolls are a combination of two of these as a pool of d10s. Any die that shows a 7, 8 or 9 is a success and any die that shows a 0 is two success. The number of successes required on any roll would be set by the ST.
Below you will find links to explanations of the different mechanical aspects of the system.
There are 27 abilities, also divided by category.
| Talents | Skills | Knowledge |
|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Animal Ken | Academics ........... |
| Awareness | Expression | ......... |
| Brawl | Empathy | Bureaucracy |
| Drive | Intimidation | Craft ......... |
| Fortitude | Integrity | ........ |
| Larceny | Leadership | Computer |
| Marksmanship | Persuasion | Medicine |
| Melee | Performance | Occult |
| Pilot | Subterfuge | Science ......... |
| Stealth | Streetwise | ......... |
As can be seen, the three abilties Academics, Craft and Science come in different varieties, these should be broad, but not all encompassing. Examples might include Academics(History), Science(Geology) or Craft(Electronics).
There may be many situations where certain abilities overlap slightly. Different characters might accomplish different tasks in different ways, and in general it is recommended that different options should be allowed.
There are three other crucial stats in Larger Than life. These are Willpower, Might and Juice.
Willpower is rated on a 1-12 scale. Points of willpower can be spent to provide a single automatic success on a roll or to ignore wound penalties for (willpower) ticks. Willpower must also be spent as part of the activation cost of certain powers. All characters regain one willpower point at the end of a night's sleep. This does not necessarily have to be a full 8 hours of excellent rest, but in general it should be at least 4 hours of decent sleep. Additionally, on waking the character may roll a single d10 and regain a willpower point if it shows a success, or two if it shows a 0. Willpower may also be regained from 2 or 3 dice stunts.
Might is rated on a 1-6 scale and is an assessment of the general power level of a super. Ordinary humans have a might of zero. Might 1 is a sort of theoretical state, as supers have a might of 2 or greater. Might 1 might indicate a human with access to some decent mass-produced tech, or with a single ability gained from some source.
Juice is the name for the power points that can be spent to use powers. It is equal to the product of Willpower and Might. Juice is a simplifying term that would mean different things to many different supers. Juice regenerates at a rate of (Might) every four hours, doubled if the super is asleep (note: this should be applied continuously when awake; so a super with Might 4 would regain 1 juice an hour. The bonus from being asleep only applies to each period of four hours sleep; so a super with Might 2 would regain 1 juice for 2 hours sleep, but would regain 4 juice if he stayed asleep for 4 hours). Additionally Juice can also be regained through stunts.
There is intentionally no system in Larger Than Life for motivation/nature or virtues. I find attempts to codify characters personalities into mechanisms can be difficult and aren't always beneficial. A little of this is sometimes necessary though so Larger Than Life has retained the mechanics of intimacies. If you want to add some of these mechanics back into the game then the nature/demeanour system from WoD or the virtue system from either Scion or Exalted could be very easily added to Larger Than Life.
There are 9 Attributes in Larger Than Life. Each has an associated Super-attribute. The attributes are divided into physical, social and mental.
| Physical Attributes | Social Attributes | Mental Attributes |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | Presence | Perception |
| Dexterity | Manipulation | Intelligence |
| Stamina | Composure | Wits |
Super attributes provide automatic successes on rolls. A super-attribute cannot be equal to or higher than the normal attribute. Super attributes of 6 are possible, but are in some ways a seperate power from the others.
| Super Attribute | Bonus Successes |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 8 |
| 6 | 12 |
Rolls in Larger Than Life are almost always a combination of Attribute+Ability. Sometimes Willpower, Might or Willpower+Might rolls may also be required.
There are four basic types of rolls.
Simple Rolls have a difficulty set by the ST. If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the difficulty the roll succeeds. The ST should give additional bonuses if the difficulty is exceeded by a large margin.
Attack rolls are compared to a defense value, a static value based on the pool of an opponent (normally the pool divided by 2, rounded up). The successes on the attack roll must exceed the defense value.
Contested rolls are when two characters both roll a pool and compare successes, with the resolution of situation based on the difference between the two scores.
Extended rolls have a roll interval as well as a roll difficulty and a total difficulty. A character rolls once at each roll interval and accumulates successes towards the total difficulty, after subtracting any successes for the roll difficulty. In general any of the other types of rolls can be modified into extended rolls.
There are very little codified structures in the rules for Larger Than Life yet. I am hoping to put these down gradually as we play test. In general systems to resolve any situations that might occur will be taken or modified from either Scion, WoD or Exalted, and it is recommended that you have played at least one of these games before trying Larger Than Life.
There will be a little more detail on the combat system coming soon, again though it will mostly be based on the Scion/Exalted system.
The final element of the dice rolling system is stunts. These are also taken from the Scion/Exalted system. For succesful stunts Juice equal to the number of dice can be regained, or 1 willpower can be regained for 2 or 3 dice stunts, or 1 XP can be awarded for 3 dice stunts.
A character starts with 5 health levels. They gain one additional health level for each point of stamina. They gain health levels equal to twice the bonus success provided by any dots of super-stamina.
If the character has taken enough damage to fill up more than 50% of their health levels they take a -2 wound penalty. If they have only a single health level remaining they take a -4 wound penalty. If all the health levels are full then the character is unconscious or dying. A character who has taken lethal damage loses an additional health level to bleeding for each action they take that is not a guard.
The character has dying health levels equal to the sum of willpower and stamina, with the same bonus from super-stamina as above. These are crossed off at a rate of 1 every 2 ticks unless the character receives medical attention.
Intimacies represent things that a character cares deeply about. This could be a person, a place, a thing, a cause, an organisation or an ideal. They can be both positive and negative. In general they provide bonuses or penalties to certain social rolls. A character may have a number of intimacies equal to twice their willpower.
Intimacies are rated with a dedication. The dedication of an intimacy defaults to (Composure-1). The dedication of an intimacy is a measure of how much a character cares about that intimacy. A dedication of zero indicates an intimacy has been eroded. All characters are considered to have an intimacy rated at 8 to 'Staying Alive', which does not count towards their maximum.
The dedication of an intimacy should fluctuate through roleplaying. In a scene the dedication could go up by 1 if the characters beliefs and sympathies are reaffirmed, or could go down by 1 if the character's faith and attitudes are confronted and found wanting. An intimacy should not gain a dedication above 6 through roleplay (and going above 5 should be very rare).