*Trapped in an MMO Hack: Aggro*
So one thing that I felt was really important to include in a game inspired by an MMORPG genre is Aggro. Aggro is the amount of threat a monster feels towards a player, and the person with the highest threat is often the target of most attacks, which is usually a job reserved for Tank classes.
In my hack, Aggro replaces the Stress system of Blades and is ver similar but with a few minor tweaks here and there.
1. Aggro is mainly generated by Guardian Adventurers. Each Guardian has his own unique way of generating aggro, and they start a fight with aggro equal to the number of players in the party.
2. The person with the highest aggro is “Threat Top”; the guy all the monsters want a piece of. Everyone else is “Threat Low”, giving them slight boons to resisting in a fight.
3. Players may spend or generate Aggro for certain actions:
Pushing yourself steals 2 aggro away from whoever is Threat Top and gives that Aggro to you, granting +1d or bonus effect.
Assisting an ally gives one of your aggro to an ally to grant them +1d.
Resisting a consequence reduces your aggro by 6 minus the result of the dice on your attribute test. If you are Threat Low, the consequence is reduced by one level and the remaining consequence goes towards Threat Top (who can then also resist the remaining consequence, reducing it by 1 level further). If you are Threat Top, any aggro spent resisting is gained by all Threat Low players, and your resistance tests nullify the consequence completely.
4. If you resist a consequence, but don’t have enough Aggro remaining to pay for it, you do not successfully resist; you lose all aggro and the damage instead applies to your health clock.
5. When your health clock fills, you die; you gain a trauma and revive at the end of the fight.
6. If you take Threat Top from someone else, then you take unresistable damage to your health clock equal to your current aggro. This means managing aggro is a careful balance and abuse of it can lead to trauma.
7. If your aggro is higher than another player’s you may use the Protect teamwork action to resist on their behalf, reducing the consequence by 1 level and taking it in their place.
8. In a group action, the leader generates 1 Aggro per fail rolled.
