User:Downzorz/Tome of Steel/Cities with Style

= Cities with Style =

City Statistics
This is stuff for fighting in the streets, and the tangible effects that different cities might have on a party. The first is just some stuff that effects combat. The second will be an attempt to create a coherent system of categorization that will make it more simple to create cities with interesting gameplay effects, and describe their effects in a condensed fashion.

Fighting in the Streets
Fighting in the streets is a dangerous proposition. Depending on the situation, you may be attempting to arrest someone and avoid casualties, assassinate someone without being noticed, or eliminate everyone in an area. This requires creating a consistent system of rules for the movement, attitude, and perception of mobs. The following rules are for mobs:

Mob Attitudes: Mobs have a general attitude towards people in it. What this basically represents is the motivation that the crowd has to help someone and the motivation they have to hurt them. There is a positive attitude, and a negative attitude. This means that, yes, a mob can both love and hate you, which means that if you get into a fight, some people will fight for you, some against you. The mob's attitude is represented as a number, influenced by a player's actions. This is determined by a number of factors.

A mob's attitudes tend to persist for a time. Characters lose 1 point to their positive and negative scores over the course of an hour, unless one of those scores is higher than 20- in that case, the significance of the event makes everyone in an area more amicable towards or angry at the character. The character's mob score at the time becomes their baseline for the reactions of all mobs in the same area. This means that if a character kills someone in the streets (+40 to negative) and they leave for a month, if they come back and are recognized, mobs in the area immediately start with a negative score of 40 towards them. This effect takes 1d4 months to go away, +1d4 for every 50 points of score.

The amount of help or hindrance a player receives from a mob is proportionate to their mob attitude score. If a fight arises, each fighter rolls 1d20 twice, adding their negative score to one and the positive score to the other. The negative roll determines the probability that someone will come to fight against someone. The positive roll determines the probability that someone will come to help them. The members of the mob generally arrive at a rate of 1 per round.

Mob Perceptions: If you are doing something in a mob, and you don't want to be noticed, what are the chances that someone sees you? As a general rule, a mob has a Spot check of +10. It's neigh-impossible to hide inside a mob- there, the mob has a spot check of +30. And it is generally assumed that anyone or near it is being actively looked at by at least one person. This is obviously untrue at some cases- usually if there is a huge spectacle somewhere nearby.

Doing something furtively is the best way to avoid mob interference. However, even an unsuccessful attempt at hiding can still work to slow the notice of a mob. Failing a hide check by 5 points or less mean that members of the mob come to fight at 1/5 the normal rate (one every five rounds). Failing by 10 or less makes the members of the mob come to fight at 1/3 the normal rate. Any greater failure means the mob comes at the normal rate.

NPCs
As it stands, the standard method of influencing NPC's is with a Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate check. However, this isn't always the best description of interactions- some people are impressed by different things. The NPC bard might be more influenced by a Preform check than a Diplomacy check. Therefore, I present the following change to the rules:

Most NPCs have skills that they are impressed or influenced by the use of. Using one of these skills can substitute for Diplomacy. For example, a bard may be particularly kind toward fellow performers, and can be influenced with Perform skills just like Diplomacy. Creatures may also have skills that, while impressive to them, are not so much as Diplomacy. These skills can be substituted at a -5, -10, or -15 penalty. Some creatures have skills that are very impressive- for example, a scholarly mage may be particularly impressed by Knowledge (Arcana). These skills can replace Diplomacy, and gain a +5 bonus.