System Philosophy (or what it's all about)
The Silvervine Games system is built around the simple philosophy of allowing the players and the Game Master to bring out the most of what they want from a role playing game. Our goal is to allow the players to build their characters in exactly the ways that they want, and to give Game Masters a simple but broad enough rules set that they can use to determine the outcome of any situation which may come up. We achieve these goals by focusing on 2 areas of the system: Character Creation and the Core System Mechanic. Character creation is tailored to allow the players to bring about their character concepts without limiting the choices of how their character develops. The Core System Mechanic that governs the general interaction of any situation is an easy and malleable equation that allows for broad customization.
Character Creation
Character creation is an important part of any Silvervine game. Silvervine attempts to break away from some of the conventions of roleplaying and give you the ability to create and use your character how you wish. There should be no limitations on how you build a living, breathing imaginary person as your avatar within a game world. You should never be withheld from certain abilities, or charged more for available skills, because of a class that you chose. You should not be forced into taking a set abilities because you chose to consider your character as a rogue instead of a monk or berserker. Whatever your character concept, whether it is the swashbuckler, intelligent warrior, the brawny battle-mage, the espionage expert, political insider, masterful boatswain, ex-patriot adventurer, philosophizing truck driver, or any other concept, you can build it in Silvervine.
SVG's character creation system gives you two sets of points to draw from to create your ideal character.
Attribute Points - used to buy up your character's physical, mental, and spiritual prowess.
Experience Points - used to buy skills, focuses (special abilities, mystic skills, professions, fighting styles), weapon skills, extra attribute points, hit points, etc.
Using attribute points you can build the blank slate of your character. How strong you want them to be, how speedy, how tough, how smart, how charismatic, how much magical ability, are all covered by the attribute points. Certain modifiers for race will affect how much natural aptitude your character has, but where their final ability rests is up to you.
Using experience points you can purchase up all the trainings, skills, and special factors for your character. The crunch of the system is divided into the following categories, all of which you can purchase at character creation:
- Skills - Training in a certain skill set. Lowers the difficulty of actions using that training. Weapons training falls under skills.
- Focuses - Special specific trainings or abilities. Each focus has its own rules set.
- Special Abilities - Always on abilities
- Mystic Skills - Abilities that are activated by willpower and must be payed for with each use. Usually payed for by manna or other points.
- Profession - General training that gives more of a chance to complete an action.
- Fighting Style - Composition of combat techniques and skills
- Hit Points - Want to make your character better able to stand the rigors of life and combat? Purchase up some hit points. The tougher your character naturally is, the more hit points they get for each experience point spent.
- Setting Specific Abilities - Magic Spells, Arcane Powers, Psychic abilities, Genetic Enhancements? In each world setting there might be something unique. Fantasy worlds have magic, science fiction has a multitude of new abilities, and other stranger settings might have different factors. These are all available to characters made in that setting.
Check out some samples of characters from one of the original SVG play tests in the world of Cyrus.
The Core System Mechanic (basis of all the rules)
In order to create a unified structure, which enables freedom of creation for the players and freedom of execution for the Game Masters, the Silvervine system uses a broad and simple System Mechanic as the base of the system. Every other element of the game is built off of this core mechanic. While not every single situation can be handled in exactly the same way, this is the keystone to every system , and subsystem, within Silvervine Games systems. The System Mechanic is:
The character's relevant and supporting attribute determine the number of d10 to roll.
Any dice rolled at 8 or above is considered a success
Any relevant skill the character has lowers the number that has to be rolled on the dice.
If you get the required number of successes, the action is successful.
an example
STR + RFL vs 8(-Skill)= R#3
- So in order to determine if your character remembers something, a roll might be made of their:
- Perception (for how much he or she actually gathered in about the situation)
- +
- Knowledge(for how good his or her memory access is)
- A number of dice would be rolled equal to the character's 2 scores.
- Each dice which rolls at 8 or above counts as a success.
- If the character has a skill of 1 that would be relevant, then any dice which rolls at 7 or above is considered a success.
- If there are as many successes as the required number of successes the Game Master called for, then the action is completed.
- Climbing a wall might be:
- Strength (for a character's ability to pull himself or herself up) (4)
- +
- Reflexes (for how well attuned her she is to moving the body) (3)
- 7 dice would be rolled. 4 from the character's strength, 3 from his or her reflexes rating.
- Each dice which came up above 6 (the character had a skill of 2 in climbing) would be considered a success.
- If the character had 3 successes, the required number of 3 having been determined by the Game Masters decision of how hard the wall would be to climb, then the character would make it up the wall.
This formula can be used to determine a character's chances
- against a set R#
- as a roll-off of attributes against another player or NPC
- in combat situations determining how well the character wields their weapon
- in mental contests where they are trying to remember things, or figuring out clues
- in how quickly they tire out when running
- in how their magical spells go off
- in how well they can aim while targeting a 2 meter whole in a fighter plane
- in how well they do while planting and maintaining a garden
- etc, etc, etc, etc . . .
The system, while simple, can be taken to very nuanced levels of detail or used on the spot to improvise entire situations and campaigns.
No Limits To Your Character
With this simple and easy to master mechanic being the base of the system, the SVG is easy to pick up and enjoy within a short time. That is not all Silvervine has to offer though. Silvervine employs a unique system of Skills, Special Abilities and Character Professions to let you create and play your character in any way you want. If you can't find something, the rules allow you to cobble it together from existing setting specific areas or create it from scratch. There are no system limits on what skills your character has the possibility of taking within the context of the world setting. Despite what you choose for your character as a title, or a race, or a class you can purchase any skill or any ability, that the Game Master allows, to supplement the character.
If you want to create a character that follows the normal mold of a Samurai then you must merely give the character the skills that you feel a Samurai would possess: swordsmanship, horse riding, poetry, archery, military skills, and musical talent.
You don’t want your samurai to follow that mold? Then change him or her. How about: archery, herbalism, orienteering skills, tracking, strong-arm skills, and weapon craft? You want your Samurai to be more mystic, to have more special skills, let us add in some focuses: Cats Grace, Jumping, Sword Mage, and Minor Levitation.
The possibilities are limitless. If you have the experience points to spend on a skill or a focus, the system won’t say you can’t have it.
Widespread Usable Skills
Not only is your characters access to skills and abilities unhindered by the system, but also the utilization of those skills is widespread. The skill of blacksmithing does not just allow you to pound metal into shapes, but to know blacksmithing and use it whenever it comes into play. You can use any skill in the ways they seem most obvious, but you also get to use skills in other ways. What about a skill of blacksmithing to appraise metalworks? Your character has trained at making metal, knows the value of the materials the quality of the work, the higher the skill the better his or her ability to create and the better the ability to judge any creation of metal.
What about using your blacksmithing skill to open a locked door? Well if you can see the bolts, or maybe the lock, you would know the quality of it and might see the way it is formed. With proper application of your knowledge you may be able to pick out any weak points. A good blow in just the right place or heavy use of heat might break the bolts, or melt the tumblers enough to bypass the lock completely. You may not be able to use your blacksmithing to pick a lock or to physically force the door, but you may be able to apply it in different ways. Your creativity is the only boundary you have with your character.
Where it all came from
Silvervine began when the two creators, Matt Humm and John Arcadian, were attempting to bring the world of Cyrus to life in an already established Dungeon Crawling tabletop RPG system. During the course of the game the issue of tying knots became a problem. Matt was playing a character who had musical skill in a rope tuned drum. He kept arguing that because he was a drummer, and had to tune the ropes that bound his drum together, he should know something about tying knots. John disagreed, saying it was logical but it was not the way the game worked. After the game, while imbibing sake, the two got to talking about all the things they would like to see and how a game could be made better. Two years later the first alpha edition of the game rulebook and the first worldbook of Cyrus are being sold online as test copies. A full year later the beta 9.1x version is out. Once final play tests are underway production will go through the design and polishing phase and the final version of the System will be available to the public.
To jump in and get a hands on feel for it download the Level 0 guide and start playing today.
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