SSQ Brawl 101 V5

This is the manual for Super Smash Quest's system. Use this to make, edit, tweak, or otherwise change your character. This can also be looked up in order to find the answers to various frequently asked questions.

SSQ 101 V5 Contents

• Errata
• Stats
• Abilities
• Badges
• Brawl Moves
• Weapons
• Experience Points.
• Battles and Missions
• Items

Version 5.5

• Dodgy Ability section retyped. No more confusion about favored abilities! Hallelujah!
• Cleaned up the HTML of this list right here.

Version 5.4

• Flurries changed to Combos; Combos changed to make more sense.
• Addition of Smash Dex and Item Usage moves; Normal attacks now do 5%.
• New weapon stuff has begun.

Version 5.3

• Smash Powers are removed.
• MP, SP, Luck are gone.
• Melee Moves removed.
• Weapons added
• Items added
• Skills re-arranged
• Points for starting re-arranged.
• References to Bonus points removed.

Version 5.2

• Re-arranged sections, probably too many little changes to count.
• Updated Melee Moves to include its new setup.

Version 5.1

• You get 25 Stat raising points, and only 15 bonus points. CURSE YOU SIMILAR-SOUNDING AND SIMILARLY-USED POINTS!!!
• Added Brawl Moves.
• You get 25 bonus points, not 15.
• Added in the different costs to upgrade things with Bonus points.
• Beginnings of the slightly different Melee Move system.

Version 5.0

• First version.
• Based on integrating several separate documents Nick made.
• Not likely to be complete yet.

Before I mention anything, I shall give an example charsheet. As we go, each part will be explained. This charsheet also matches your own when you start; as you can see, all stats are at their default on this. You can copy/paste it into notepad if you want to have an offline sheet for stats.

Joe Charsheet
HP: 100
H%: 65
EXP: 0
BP: 0
Coins: 10

Brawl Moves:

• Move 1
• Move 2
• Move 3
• Move 4

Weapon: (No attack-separate weapon to start)

Abilities:

Combat Abilities
• Melee attack: 1
• Ranged attack: 1
• Defense: 1
  Other Abilities
• Athletics: 1
• Computer Use: 1
• Diplomacy: 1
• Endurance: 1
• Hide: 1
• Initiative: 1
• Item Construction: 1
• Knowledge: 1
• Move Silently: 1
• Performance: 1
• Pilot: 1
• Presence: 1
• Repair: 1
• Search: 1
• Theft: 1
• Will: 1

Badges:

• None

Items:

• 3 Mushrooms

We start with the first set stats you will define. These are listed below.

Name	Description
HP	Your character's ability to take damage. Starts at 100. Used almost all the time. Run out of this, and you die. Various items can recover it, though.
H%/Health Threshold	Your character's ability to resist being knocked off of a stage. Starts at 65, and is calculated by HP * .65. In a % match, this is used. If you take higher than this in such a match, you'll begin flying out of the arena, possibly to your doom. You can survive, but it gets harder and harder every time to do so. You do not actually put any points into this directly.
BP/Badge Points	A measurement of your ability to equip badges. Naturally, there's plenty of space on you to equip them, but each badge equipped creates a field that cancels out other badges if it gets too strong. BP measures your ability to dampen such a field.

HP starts at 100, H% starts at 65, and BP starts at 0. You start out with 25 points to divide between these two stats; these points are called Stat Points. You can also spend them on Wario Tokens, allowing you to get a handfull of badges early. Specifics are below:

• HP: For each point spent here, you get 5 more added to your HP, making you a tougher person.
• BP: For each point spent here, you get 1 BP, which means you can equip more badges.
• Wario Tokens: For each point spent here, you get one extra Warioware credit to spend. See the badges section for how those are handled--beware, though, they vanish after being used.

Once you're done there, just record your values in those stats to your sheet. Multiply your HP by .65 to get your H% value, and then you're done!

Abilities are used for a lot of things, inside and outside of combat. They represent your character's general strengths and weaknesses in various skills. You get 50 'points' to 'spend' in them, by which I mean you get 50 units to use to increase your ranking in skills. This represents your character's starting abilities. You must use at least 10 of them in your 'combat' abilities, for those abilities are very important. How to spend the starting points, you ask? Simple. All abilities start at level 1, and every point you put in them, to start, raises them by 1. So if you put 1 into Computer use, your skill level in that ability raises to 2.

This is, of course, until you hit level 4 in an ability. Then you must spend 2 points per level. For example, to get from 3 to 4 costs 1 point; to get from 4 to 5 costs 2; to get from 5 to 6 costs 2 as well. For the math challenged amongst us, I have a nice little table which shows how much it costs in total to have a starting character have X amount of levels in a skill. Note that the maximum you may have in a starting skill is 7, so the chart ends there.

There is another important choice you must make when creating a character. For spending EXP on abilities is more pricey; twice as much as it is to spend starting points, in fact. This means, for example, to get from level 3 to 4 in an ability with EXP, it normally costs 2 points. But there is a silver lining. Combat abilities always use the 'starting' formula for increasing, so it always goes 1 per level, then 2, etc; you can also retain this for five of your non combat abilities, thereby declaring them 'favored.' So when creating your character, please mark five of your abilities as 'favored' and remember in the future that they remain cheaper than your other abilities.

Once you have progressed a while, or perhaps spent a lot of starting points in a single ability, you will get beyond level 7. To get beyond that costs a whopping 3 points (or 6 if it isn't favored/combat) and that continues on for the next couple abilities. Since, again, this concept may confuse people, I have created a nice table to explain the concept. This time it shows cost per level as opposed to totals, as you will likely be looking at this after your character has been created and in a few missions. This chart only covers levels you can buy; since 0 is not a level and you start with 1 for free, they are not shown.

This pattern repeats forever, just so you know.

Next up, I will explain specialties. Instead of buying a level in an ability, you may buy a specialty. The specialty is special, in that it always costs 1 point if the attack is not favored, or 1/2 a point if it is. (It being a combat ability does not count, as it would be particularly nasty to allow people to stock up on those extremely quick at the bargain price of 2 for 1 point.) Specialties reflect specialized types of knowledge or abilities within the main broad one; therefore it is restricted to portraying those. Specialties in combat abilities always go at the 1 point rate and can only be specialized to one attack/weapon. Of course, you ask, what does a specialty do? It simply adds +2 to the roll of that ability whenever that specialty is a part of the subject of the roll.

Now then, to the abilities themselves. I have conveniently tabulated a list of the various abilities and what they do, so you know what you have to choose from. The ones in bold are combat abilities. This also ends the explanation part of this section; there is no more to mention.

These mystical items from the Paper World are a preferred type of equipment. While Wario wished to gain exclusive rights to the Stadium, he was shut out of such a monopoly; so instead, he sells these. Even then, he pays much out of his pocket--all new Questers get 5 'Warioware' credits to buy a select few badges with. Those badges, and their costs, are as follows: Extra Jumper (3), Grab Extender (5), Kirby Float (6), Peach Hover (4), Power Jumper (3), Self Hurter (4), Shell Defense (5), Wall Jumper (2), and Magic Wand (7). Even worse for Wario, more Warioware credits can be bought with stat points.

Badges take Badge Points to equip; if you don't have enough, then you can't equip that badge/equip it with the others, depending on the case. But once equipped, they enhance your stats as shown below.

The new fighter remote also gives Questers new abilities; namely, their own. Every Quester has four of these, and they're tailored to their individual abilities. After you have a char sheet up, describe to Metal Man your four individual moves; he will then make them and add them to your bio.

They may be periodically edited or changed to ensure game balance. Additionally, feel free to point out mistakes in the moves.

Weapons act as a fifth attack, and are interchangable. You can either buy some basic weapons (with their basic attacks) or get more fancy ones in the field. You can also upgrade them, however this process varies a lot. You have to find a weaponsmith and ask them what you want, and then get a quote. Remember, though; no weapon will ever be superior to a Melee Move; but the fact you can change which one you have equipped (and thus use to attack) makes them as a whole, more versatile at times.

Coming soon: Basic, buyable weapons list.

In your travels, you gain various EXP points. You spend them as following:

• Raise HP by 5: 2 Points.
• Raise BP by 1: 2 Points.
• Add WarioWare Credits: 2 Points per credit.
• Ability: 2 Points; 1 if favored or combat. Costs double points for raising an ability past 4 and triple points for raising it past 7.
• Buy a Specialty: 1 Point per level. (1 point for 2 levels if in favored or combat abilities)

As for Stat Raising Points, you have 25 at start and spend them differently. You can only raise two stats: HP and BP. Each point spent on HP raises it by 5, and each point spent on BP raises it by 1.

Now that you have a taste for the stats, and (hopefully) have a character sheet, you can learn how to use all of them in battle and missions.

SSQ 101 version 5 uses an unconventional dice system in comparison to other versions. Rather than using a d20 roll, it uses a "dice pool" of d10s. Whenever you're asked to roll dice, you'll be asked to roll an ability. For instance, the GM will say, "Initiative." Take a look at your character sheet. You will roll a number of d10's equal to the numbers you're asked for. If you have 2 Initiative, for instance, you'll roll 2 d10's. This is accomplished by trying q2. For any other combination, say, 5 dice, you'd use the same format, typing q5 that time instead. Rather than going by the total that appears on all the dice, we go by the number of "successes" that turn up. Any roll from 7 through 9 is a success. A 10 counts as two successes. It goes without saying that the more successes you get, the better. Every roll you're asked to do will have some number of successes you will need in order to successfully accomplish the task. We have a table here for your convenience:

All you need to do is meet the threshold and you will succeed. This goes for any dice test; even combat-related ones. However, the more successes you get past the threshold, the better your success is. Depending on the task at hand, bonuses may be applied based on how many successes you get past threshold.

Next, for battles. To start a battle, all fighters in a battle must roll an initiative test. This is always defined as rolling Initiative. This will set the initial turn order for the battle. Whoever rolls highest goes first, whoever rolls lowest goes last, and all other fighters are ordered between those two.

Unlike most games, where battles take place in rounds, battles take place with lengths of time called "ticks" here. A tick is a few seconds of time, but basically you can think of it as being one turn. When the initiative roll is rolled, whoever got the highest roll starts at Tick 0. Everybody else subtracts their roll from his, and that's the tick they start on.

For example, if Mario rolled 5, Bowser rolled 2, and Pichu rolled 6, Pichu would start at tick 0, Mario would go at tick 1 (6-5=1), and Bowser would go at tick 4 (6-2=4). To recap, the order is: Tick 0: Pichu, Tick 1: Mario, and Tick 4: Bowser. Don't worry about the blank ticks in between them, they don't matter. Yet.

Whenever a fighter makes a move, it has a value called Speed. This is a measure of how many ticks it will be until their next turn if they use this move; in other words, how slow or fast the move is. After the turn is over, the fighter adds that speed to his current tick and that's the next tick he moves on.

For example, we take the above turn order: Tick 0: Pichu, Tick 1: Mario, and Tick 4: Bowser.

• Pichu goes first. He uses Agility, which we'll say for now has Speed 3. Pichu adds 3 to his tick; he goes next on Tick 3.
• It's Mario's turn. He uses a regular attack; that's speed 5. He adds 5 to his his tick; he goes next on Tick 6.
• Since Pichu decided to be speedy, he goes again on Tick 3 and Baby Bashes Bowser. We'll call that Speed 6 for now; his next turn will be on Tick 9.
• Bowser goes next. He launches a Whirling Fortress at Pichu in retaliation. We'll call that speed 5. His next turn is Tick 9 as well.

That should give you an idea of how ticks work and how turn order progresses dynamically. Thankfully, we have a script that handles this. All one must do to make it work is type E, followed by the speed of the move used, and the script will progress to the next character's turn and report the current turn order.

As you can see, it's important to think strategically when choosing moves. Is it better to choose a fast move and get your turn sooner, or a more powerful one? Choices...

Now for some more specific details. You have a number of combat skills: Melee, Ranged, Thrown, Dodge, and Block. These are primarily the skills used in battle to attack and defend. Athletics is also particularly handy, but for now, we'll concentrate on those skills.

To put it simply, in any situation where you're using a short-ranged attack like with your fists, a sword, or any number of weapons such as the beam saber, you use the Melee skill. Whenever you're shooting a projectile, such as Samus's charge shot, Fox and Falco's blasters, and the infamous Super Scope, use the Ranged skill. These are all for accuracy. Some moves may be different, though.

All characters have a series of Defense Values, or DVs, which consist of two skills. Most of the time you use Defense DV. Whenever you're attacked, you'll roll as many d10s as you have ranks in these skills, using the q. For example, if your rank is 5 in defense and you're dodging a laser, you roll q5. However many successes you roll, that's the number the opponent has to beat in order to hit you.

Note that for every action you take between your current turn and the next one, your DV will decrease by 1; the more on the offensive you are, the less you're trying to defend yourself, and the easier it is for someone to hit you. This is another reason you want to be careful about Speed in a fight; the sooner you get your next turn, the sooner your DV goes back up.

To sum that up:

• Attacks use Melee, or Ranged attack
• Defense DV is used for defending against everything. The way you describe your defense determines how effective it might be against special attacks.
• You only need to match the enemy's DV roll to hit them. If you beat it, you may do additional damage or other stuff, depending on the move.

Then there are attacks. Every attack has a handful of statistics, many of which are detailed above, but those not will be stated here for convenience.

Accuracy: The roll you make to see if you hit. The higher you roll, the better. Every success you get past the enemy's DV is added as bonus dice to your damage rolls.
Damage: The amount of % damage associated with this attack. You multiply this by the Shock value listed above; that's how much damage the attack deals on a successful hit.
Bonus: The amount of damage or whatever extra you get for more than base success.
Speed: The number of ticks you add to your current tick to get the tick of your next turn.
Rate: You can take multiple actions on your turn. The rules for doing that are detailed below, but for reference's sake, Rate is the number of extra actions you can take in addition to using this attack. You must always use the lowest rate of any attacks that you intend to chain together.
Other: Anything else regarding the attack goes here; special concerns like whether it can send people flying, status effects, et cetera.

When acting on your turn, you have several options available:

Normal Attack:
Desc: Any traditional attack. Can be on ground or air.
Roll: Melee
Damage: 5%
Bonus: 1% per 2 successes over
Speed: 4
Rate: 3

Smash Attack:
Desc: Send foes flying! Traditionally ground based.
Can be charged up via "Super Smash" Smash Power
Roll: Melee - 1
Damage: 10%
Bonus: 1% per 1 success over, 1% per tick charged.
Notes: Only one Smash attack can be used per turn, and usually at the end.
Speed: 6 (not 8)
Rate: 2

Grab:
Desc: Grab onto someone! Next attacks can vary!
Roll: Melee
Damage: None
Speed: 6
Rate: 2

Throw:
Desc: Got someone? Toss em overboard!
Roll: Melee
Damage: "Throw"
Speed: 6
Rate: 3
Notes: Works best once you have someone grabbed. Depends on HP/H%.

Use Item:
Desc: When you use an item, it takes up time. Don't worry, you can combo them easily!
Roll: Depends on item
Damage: Depends on item
Speed: 4
Rate: 3
Notes: Consumes the item unless the item otherwise specifies.

Smash Dex Scan:
Desc: Need enemy information? Just scan 'em with your dex.
Roll: None, insta-scans.
Damage: None.
Speed: 5
Rate: 2
Notes: Some people may counter-attack you to try to disrupt the scan. Be careful.

Use Skill:
Desc: Whether it be confusing, hiding, or weird, this is what you use when you use a skill in battle.
Roll: (Skill used here)
Damage: Depends on results
Speed: 3
Rate: 2
Notes: Counter-attacking may happen against you, or even counter-skill usage.

Equip Weapon:
Desc: When you change what weapon is equipped, you do this. You can also change it without taking any time... immediately before a battle.
Roll: None
Damage: None
Speed: 6
Rate: 1 (Can only be comboed with an attack with that weapon)
Notes: Can be counter-attacked. If they succeed, they may just disarm you!

Inactive:
Desc: Can't move? Can't act? Sorry!
Speed: 8

Idle:
Desc: Not around to take your move? Even worse! BACK OF THE LINE!
Speed: 10

Moving:
Moving can be done at any time, alongside any action. It's totally freeform. Occasionally rough or treacherous terrain or high jumps might prompt some kind of check, but otherwise do what you want.

Combos
Combos work off of a very simple setup: you can do more than one attack, indeed, you can do almost as many attacks you want. All you have to do is subtract 1 from your second attack's accuracy, 2 from your third attack's accuracy, 3 from your fourth attack's accuracy, etc. You can even choose to begin a combo mid-turn, as you do the subtracting on your subsequent attacks.

This is limited by the rate of the attacks you use, of course. You can only do as many extra attacks as there is rate in the lowest rate move in the combo. Simply put: Rate 3 = you can use it in a combo with up to 4 attacks total. Rate 2 means you can use it in a combo with up to 3 attacks total, rate 1 means it can only be used in a 2 attack total combo, and 0 means it is the only move you can use that turn, if you use it.

When it comes to declaring the ticks used after a combo, simply use the highest speed move you used in the combo's speed for that.

The above information is all an awful lot to swallow. However, in application, it's all very simple. Everything with the exception of special moves falls under the above headers. The only rule you need to keep in mind is this: Any action you can type, you can do. Just don't exceed the lowest rate and remember what the consequences will be.

As for defending... whenever you're attacked, you'd be wise to describe your defense. You can defend however you like; even with an opposed attack. Such a move does require an attack roll to go along with it and will cause your DV to be decreased accordingly until your next turn comes up. However, not all defenses are equal; you can't block an unstoppable deathray, and it's nigh-impossible to dodge a proper homing attack.

Damage can be dealt in one of two ways: HP or Health%. Usually one or the other will be in use during a mission. HP is just plain old Hit Points; when you're reduced to 0, you die and lose a life. Health % is a little more complicated. Usually, HP is used.

Health % is health handled just like in the Super Smash Bros. games. You'll notice on your character sheet that you have a % Threshold (Or just Threshold). This is the number that your Health% has to exceed before you're in any danger. At that point, you'll have to make recovery rolls whenever you take damage from "high-power" moves such as Smash Attacks. The recovery threshold, or % Target Number, is 1 + 1 per each 10% over your threshold that you go. So if your threshold is 100% and you've taken 125% damage, your target number will be 3.

Recovery Rolls come in around here. You may need to make a recovery roll for a lot of reasons under Health% mode. Usually it involves being thrown out of an arena of some kind. In this situation, you must make an Athletics (Double Jump) roll. If you beat the threshold, you land safely on solid ground. If you don't beat it, kiss a life goodbye as you plummet to oblivion. You may not be required to make a roll like this, depending on the circumstances and what the GM decides. You can bolster your recovery by using a third jump, or Up+B attack. Simply roll the accuracy roll for that attack and add that number of successes to the pool; if you still don't beat the threshold, again, kiss a life goodbye.

There may come a time when you are so utterly pulverized by an attack that there is no resisting and you're sent flying off into the distance a la Team Rocket in a bad rerun of Pokemon. This is a Star Finish. This happens when you're over threshold by a quarter or more (125% if you're at 100%, for example) and someone beats your DV by 1/2 of its current value or more. In other words, if your DV is 6 and they beat it by 3, and you're at threshold or higher, we'll have to excuse you while you kiss the sky.

Above all things, a Quester has got to be one stylin' fighter to have the right to defend the Stadium and all the worlds. This means skill and strength, but it also means just being cool. The more you can impress your GM with the description of your attack--either with how "flush" the combo actually would be, or with dramatics and showmanship--the better you fight. The GM can bestow a Style Bonus upon you for such theatrics. For an average post, you get no bonus. For a good one, you get +1 to all actions. For a really amazing one, you can get a bonus as high as +2 or +3. This can include bonuses to your DV or opposed attack rolls if you're defending. Stylish bonuses are, however, always up to the GM's judgment, not yours; so make sure you fight stylishly!

Also, for a note, certain GMs give more style bonuses than others. Metal Man hardly uses any, while Nick and Wolf tend to use more; plan accordingly.

While your attacks, weapons, and badges may come in handy all the time, sometimes you need a little pick-me-up. That's where items come in. You buy these with your coins from missions, and then you can use them. You have an infinite inventory, so feel free to stock up. If you're feeling adventurous, you can even try getting the random item and see what you get by rolling for which item you get!