Normally, I would post the link for my notes on Terrae Novae, but those notes are so out of date it's almost funny. Almost.
Minion classes (classes that either summon, create, or take control of other creatures) are pretty common in RPGs. Most RPGs have at least one (most commonly either a Beastmaster of some kind, or a necromancer). In Terrae Novae, I've created four of these classes: Necromancer, Demomancer, Geneticist, and Engineer. However, this leads to a few problems.
1) How do I determine the maximum amount of minions that they can summon/create/control at any given time? Considering this is a war-based game, should there be a limit to the number of minions they can control?
2) With the Geneticist and Engineer, I think I've handled the problem of giving them too many minions at one time simply by having the process of making minions both costly and time consuming, but how can I achieve this with the the Necromancer and Demomancer?
I think I had a third question, but I forgot what it was. Oh well. If I remember it, I'll make another post (unless I remember it in time to edit this one).
Finally remembered my third question.
3) The necromancer in Terrae Novae has several different types of undead minions, and each demon is unique, giving demomancers an unlimited variety of minions. But the geneticist only has two types of minions (three if viruses count as minions, which I doubt), Zoans (creatures that can be genetically configured however the geneticist sees fit) and Parasites, while the Engineer only has Droids. Is that enough, or should I add some more variety to my technological minion classes? If so, what kind of minions could I add?
It seems to the that the answer to #3 is to allow the Geneticist and Engineer to customize their minions. If the engineer can add different upgrades/devices to his drones and the Geneticist can work with different genes to make different varieties of Zoans/Parasites then it should not be a problem.
what do you mean by "war-based"? that phrase made me think of wargaming, but i'm guessing that's not *quite* what you mean. if Terrae Novae is a lot like a wargame (or IS one) then you could maybe relate the cost to field the Minion character to the # of points' worth of minions it could have.
have you posted about Terrae Novae before? even if you don't have a link, i'd be interested to learn more about your game. i like what i've heard already. feel free to message me with whatever you wanna share, if you'd like; thanks!
My notes on Terrae Novae can be found on //www.geocities.com/greginkelaar/projects.html. These notes are somewhat outdated, which is why I don't include the link in my original post.