This document aims to highlight the thought process behind creating the rule set, character progression, and thematic choices on Deamonia TTRPG and how everything blends with the game’s core concept.
Summary
The system originated from a simple scene where a knight, a rogue and a mage were fighting a few bandits, the idea was to create an environment where each specific character could perform at its peak. Being the knight barging into the fight head-on, roaring in rage taking a few hits while smiling, or a rogue throwing knives in the enemy’s throats while the spellcaster cast the holy fireball.
The Solution? Create a multi-action turn-based combat using D20, why not?
Then Daemonia took its first steps into becoming a new system by re-designing a robust homebrew system for the medieval fantasy world of Flarean.
Mechanics
This will be the section that will talk about the mechanics that construct a player's character and the antagonists. Briefly explain the concepts of combat, stamina, skills and villains.
Action Queue Combat
Why does a rogue pierce through armour only once? Why does a fighter punch his enemy just once? Why one fireball if I can create a fire barrage?
To allow the player to perform these actions an action queue was the most logical conclusion.
Each player action that goes to the queue, the attack roll will receive a value loss.
The first standard attack receives 0 on the loss, the next will receive 2 loss and for each one after that, the last loss value will be doubled. So a queue with multiple attacks should look like this:
- Atk 1 = Dice result - 0
- Atk 2 = Dice result -2
- Atk 3 = Dice result - 4
- Atk 4 = Dice result -8
But that’s generating another problem, right? When does it stop? How to balance?
Stamina System
To compensate for the loss values on the combat and allow the player to use the action queue at its peak, a stamina system that has a similar method of the value loss but adds a number to the attack roll but is simpler, the bonus number will be equal to the amount of stamina you spent on the attack roll. If you spend 2 points you’ll win 2 points.
A round in this system
Now that we understand what the character can do, what is the cost and countermeasure for this. How do we use this? How do rounds in a combat scene should behave?
That’s where the round structure comes in place. The concept is to follow three simple steps that will be further explained in an example scene.
- Declare your play “My character will scream¹ very loudly an intimidation battlecry, then he will dash² into the battle and swing his sword twice³”
- ¹ → Is a simple intimidation check, so it’ll be an extra action
- ² → Is a movement action, each character can do two of them freely and it will not count in the debuff, only standard actions will be counted in the debuff
- ³ → Well swing swords count as standard actions, two attack rolls with a sword, the first one will result in a full dice result while the second will receive -2 in the dice result.
- Declare how much stamina you are going to spend on this action queue. “Well since ‘Bulba The Killer’ is very skilful I’ll spend only 2 stamina points to compensate for that second attack”
- Throw them dice and compare results with TD or the enemy AC and see if everything goes well, awesome. If not you have two stamina points to put in the less fortunate dice. Let’s assume this:
- A raging battle cry comes from the pits of Bulbas belly, ROLL THEM DICE! “It’s 1…” Well, stamina cannot be spent in extra actions so Bulba’s voice cracks while he emits a not that intimidating screech.
- The first attack results in an 18. “18 is a very high number Bulba can hit it, I’ll let it be”
- The second attack it’s a 10 “I think I’ll spend my two stamina points in the 18… Bulba got tired you know, so I really want to hit the first one”
- Now we know that the final results are 20 (not a critical hit, you only crit in the die) and 10. This means that Bulba will miss both because he tried to solo kill a dragon but that is another story. But, all mistakes teach us something and what do we learn?
Declare Actions and Stamina Usage → Throw Dice and Apply Stamina in selected die → End
Action Type
As seen in the example above, there are three action types, extra actions, movement actions and standard actions.
→ Extra Actions are easily represented by the ability to speak, communicate or very simple actions such as drinking a potion.
→ Movement Actions are quite self-explanatory at first glance but they also will grant the ability to equip weapons or items and climb terrain.
→ Standard Actions will be represented by attack rolls of any type, those being casting magic, swinging a sword or shooting a ballista from a castle trying to hit a giant lizard with big purple spikes in his back that just got out of the sea.
Skill Trees
To grant a fun character progression that allows the player the flexibility that the system defends the skill tree as a character progression was chosen instead of the classic character class. Even though the character class wasn’t the main structure, the possibility of creating a classic character from other famous TTRPGs can be seen in the rule book.
Here are some examples of skills that can be seen in the book:
Strength
- Pachmule: Increase the max ammo carried by X + (Strength x {0.5 x Skill Points})
- High Tension: Special arrows will no longer decrease the weapon range.
Agility
- TripleTap: The first attack in a queue can be a bursting cone of three arrows reaching the weapon’s maximum range.
- The cone can now be a burst of arrows in the same target.
- Calculated shots: Spending a round aiming will grant one extra Ddice in the first 1d4 attacks in the next queue.
Intelligence
- Bouncing Arrow: Can bounce one attack in the queue to reach an enemy behind cover.
- Anatomic Piercing: After using the action aiming the next shot can be placed in the following body parts granting the following effects (TD: 10 + Int Mod+ damage)
- Artery: +1 bleeding effect
- Sinew: Snare effect
- Nerve: Concussion effect
Carisma
- Familiar Bound: Bound the soul of the caster and a beast. They can share a unique skill tree based on what body part was used on the bounding spell/surgery, the amount of points that can be shared in the skill tree is equal to Charisma Attribute. The bound familiar will share the same amount of health and stamina as the caster plus half of the base amount of the species size respecting the conscious level restrictions. The bound type will vary based on the body part used to bind, the bounding process needs an organ transplant between the bounded entities. Those organs can be:
- Hearth: Will gain access to the “Resilience” skill three
- Bone/Flesh: it can be an arm or a leg, even the skill or bone structure and will gain access to the “Agility” or “Wrath” skill three.
- Brain: It will gain access to the Malice or Depravity skill three.
- Specialization: Shared Attributes: The Attribute buffs will also be shared between characters and familiars.
Additionally, the character/demon level will be shared based on the character’s current level, also, the Hexis points will be shared between the two entities.
Magic System
Following the core principle of freedom, and of course, being a fantasy genre a magic system is essential. Inspired by a video game called Magicka the combination of core elements that have a basic behaviour will give the player the ability and freedom to narratively create custom spells that fit a character style and still follow a clear set of rules.
Magic Types
Such as in Magicka this system will be broken into elements and damage. Each element will be responsible for a function and to change the magic characteristics to an extent.
→ Fire: Will deal a flat damage value over time.
→ Water: Is focused on physical crowd control
→ Wind: In addition to adding a slashing or piercing wound effect it will also be responsible for controlling the range and AOE effect of a spell.
→ Stone: Adds a blunt wound effect, also responsible for creating barriers and buffs on damage resistances.
→ Light: Healing and cleaning debuffs and wound effects will be the main focus of the light magic, it will also be able to apply debuffs and crowd control.
Daemons
Inspirations and general behaviour
Since the world of Daemonia is constructed around the idea of mana and corrupted mana, the core inspiration came from a simple question “What impact a corrupted energy would have on a body?”. After delving deeper into the rabbit hole, some other questions came along:
- Does corrupted mana affect the bone structure?
- Does it create magic that flows through the body?
- Does it blend the creature’s molecular structure, making it almost non-physical, like a ghost?
After that, came more “what ifs” and “hows?”. What if the demon can blend into the environment like a shadow, a classic demoniac possession, implicit in the environment? What if the demonic bone structure blends into another demon, creating mutations?
Then a bigger question came along. Are they aware that they do it? Do they have control over these mutations?
To answer all those questions the demons were categorized by Intelligence Level, Mutation Type and Size. In addition, the Daemons are categorized as beasts and humanoids where only humanoids can reach the intelligence levels of… well… humans. Also ensuring that the overall TTRPG system isn't too complex and thus too difficult to learn, the Demons' gameplay, progression, and sheet build will be similar to the player character sheet.
Unfortunately, this led to a problem with the demon’s first concepts, they were too similar to the player character, lacking some “soul” (pun almost intended). So the idea was to break down the milestones and put a thematic progression on demons, bearing in mind the demon’s subclasses.
As a result, the progression to the demons is based on the “Corruption Path”. This will need specific Attributes and progression milestones, and by consequence, a specific skill tree (God help me with this)
Intelligence Level
To keep the game fair and follow some kind of logic (at least in my brain), the intelligence and self-aware that a demon has will give the demon some control over magic and charisma in exchange for losing some physical structure, as if the mana that once flowed freely into the demon’s body, now has a focus and the demon gains control over it decreasing the mana in muscles and bones but gaining much delicacy and control.
Understanding that intelligence can be seen in many ways, shapes and forms it is important to clarify that intelligence will be the capacity to interact with the world as a human, creating tools, plotting, complex linguistic conversations etc. That way, demons with low intelligence will have animal comprehension and behaviour. Yes, they can be as clever as your pet cat or dog, if your cat (or dog) can open a door a demon probably will do too.
- Beasts: Will behave like an animal, and can hunt with complex hunting tactics, such as tracking, cornering etc.
- Percipient: Can create tools and speak the common language in simple sentences. Will have access to five points of Hexis and level one magic exclusive to the species.
- High IQ: This is an above-average human. Will have access to the Hunter’s Skill Tree. But will lose the buff on the corrupted mana on the base values. One of its metamorphosis attributes should be chosen, and half of its values should be used as a basis to allocate the skill points on the Hunter’s skill tree.
Size Does Matters
In Daemonia the amount of mana that a demon can store is affected by its size. Unless it is smart enough.
Demon sizes are the following:
- Smoll: The small Daemons are the size of a big dog or small child, reaching a maximum of 2m (Not going to add feet measurements, sorry feet lovers) they will receive the same amount of base values that a player gets.
- Medium: Reaching incredible values from more than two to three meters tall, the daemons that reach this size are considered very dangerous and will receive double the number of base values that a player gets.
- Humongous: If a mountain is moving please step aside. Reaching values above 5m the humangus daemon will receive triple the base values of a player. Only beasts can get a humongous state of size. (Well I’m not god, if your GM invented it be my guest and good luck)
For you, a creature of dynamic reading, a sheet representing what was explained above can be found below:
IQ Values | Bonus | Cons |
Beasts | Will be able to receive the size bonus | No Carisma or Intelligence Skill Tree |
Percipient | Will receive the size bonus -1 level. | Can have charisma and intelligence at the cost of one size bonus |
High IQ | Access to Hunter’s Skill Tree and Demon’s Skill Tree | No base bonus. |
Once again, oh mighty creature of dynamic reading, a sheet representing beast size bonus can be found below:
Size | Bonus | Attributes | Malice and Depravity Levels | Extra Bonus | Cons |
Smoll | x2 Base Values | One point for each Attribute | Can Achieve | Starts with +1 Agility Attribute. | If has Percipient x-1 Base Values. |
Medium | x3 Base Values | Two points for each Attribute | Can Achieve | +2 DR and starts with + 1 Wrath Attribute | If has Percipient x-1 Base Values. |
Humongous | x4 Base Values | Three-point for each Attribute | NA | +5 DR | No Carisma, Agility or Depravity or Malice Skills Tree. |
Corruption
A demon’s corruption is the core of the demon and will influence the Metamorphosis, Mastery and Hexis power that a demon can have. It represents the demon’s major level, and which milestone he’s in.
A first-level demon will receive one level of corruption, granting it one metamorphosis level, one Mastery and five Hexis points.
A demon can have multiple metamorphoses when having at least two corruptions but it has to choose between granting a new metamorphosis tree or the Mastery and Hexis bonus. The corruption points can be achieved by levelling up or consuming Hunters. (Yes, eating them to consume their mana, please use this with caution. Don’t create a demon that ate a city full of hunters)
Metamorphosis
The metamorphosis will be the demon’s subclasses and can be divided by:
→ Hemomancy, when a demon has a flesh and blood metamorphosis
→ Osteokinesis, when a demon has a flesh and bone metamorphosis
→ Accumbra, when a demon metamorphoses into an unbody entity.
→ Periertus, when a demon has absolute chaos and uncertainty.
Each metamorphosis will grant the demon attribute points, all attributes will start at 0 and will be filled based on intelligence and the demon’s size with an additional five attribute points. The attributes can reach the maximum value of twelve points and a maximum of six points on level one.
Attributes
Understanding the need for a theme experience while building demons the idea was to maintain the core attributes structure adapt it to the new theme and grant the metamorphosis individual bonuses that align with their theme, additionally, each attribute will give a passive bonus that will increase with the attribute. So the demon’s attributes should look somewhat like these:
→ Wrath, will represent the physical power that a demon can have
→ Agility, will represent the inherited physical prowess of a demon’s body
→ Resilience, will represent the demon’s endurance and resistance
→ Depravity, will represent the cunning evil intelligence that the demon has
→ Malice, will represent the evil influence that a demon has
Progression
After getting an understanding of the core structures that compose a demon, the progression system should have three “corruption” milestones and the complementary levels will grant skill and attribute points.
→ Level 1: One point of corruption and 2 skill points
→ Level 2: 2 skill points
→ Level 3: +2 Attribute points
→ Level 4: 2 skill points
→ Level 5: One point of corruption
And so on…
In addition, to each level, each metamorphosis will grant a different bonus.
→ Hemomancy +15 health
→ Osteokinesis +10 heath +2 DR
→ Accumbra +5 health +5 stamina
→ Periertus +5 health +10 stamina
Skills
The skills will be divided into Basic Attacks, Basic Skills and Mastery. Basic Attacks will cost no stamina and cannot be upgraded while Basic skills will cost mana points but can be upgraded by applying skill points twice to grant no mana cost in its first usage in an action queue. Masteries will always cost mana and cannot be upgraded.
Aside from damage, every skill’s extra effect can be resisted with a TD = 10 + Damage + Stamina, where the stamina value should be exclusively to increase the TD. Additionally, the same skill effect will not stack.
- Hemomancy
- Basic Skills:
- Slashing attacks: 1d4 slashing damage - 1 wound margin melee attack.
- Bloodshot: 1d4 piercing damage at close range.
- Basic Skills:
- Wrath
- Crimson Cleaver Effect: Create a massive cleaver of blood, dealing 1d4 slashing damage in a short-range cone and inflicting +1 wound effect. Cost: 2 stamina points and 2 health points.
- Masteries:
- Wrath
- Crimson Juggernaut Effect: Transform into a hulking blood form for 3 turns, gaining +2 Strength and +5 DR. Cost: 4 stamina and 6 health points
Wrapping Up
Daemonia aims to be a different approach to the tabletop genre, with dynamic and flexible combat, with vast character-building possibilities. The rule structure is built to be easy to understand, hard to master and accessible to homebrews and future expansions.
This document highlights the core mechanics of Daemonia, but this is just the beginning. The full rulebook will expand on world-building, advanced abilities, in-depth enemy creation, and countless customization options to bring your characters and campaigns to life.