[Mael'Saresh] Power 19

[Llogres]

First of all i want to say that i got no experience in RPG Design at all, but i want to develop a system (including setting) for private use in my Roleplay-Group.
So here are my answers to Power 19 so far:

1.) What is your game about?
It is about fighting for freedom, either the own or the freedom of others.

2.) What do the characters do?
The characters are free to decide what they do, there are a lot of possibilities. They could join the Rebels in their fight against the Rekaleth, or they could support the Rekaleth and fight against the Rebels. They could also stay neutral and follow an opportunistic path through the event. There are also some smaller groups like the "Kal'Feriad" that try to find a way to fight back the Mutants that began to spread over the lands after the Cataclysm

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
This is not much different than most of the other PnP-Games that exist. Each player plays his (one) character, the GM has the control over everything else. The Charactersheet shows attributes, skills, [etc,] basic information, inventory, and also the knowledge a character has on different subjects (gained through Roleplay e.g. Reading a book about ancient history) The GM rewards the players whenever they deserve it, this includes also punishment.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
The Setting and the Game are one thing, so I don't see any need to be setting-indepandant here.
It is about a lot of conflicts in a world that has partly been destroyed by something called the Cataclysm. 180 Years after this Cataclysm, Rebels fight to free the last Slaves in the big cities that belong to the "Rekaleth" - the Slaveholders and noble population. Free Cities try to make their living with trade, Mutants are attacking both free cities and cities owned by the Rekaleth.
The Cataclysm caused the death of 50% of the total population, 95% amonst the mages which are becoming quite rare these times.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
Since Magic is inherent the players only have the choice of beeing magically talented or not during the Character Creation. Magic is powerful but it has its costs. Characters don't have a class or a level, they are constantly changing through what they do, and what others do to them.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
It rewards sacrifice for a goal and having a strategy. Punishment only if Players do stupid things with their characters or unnecessary harm NPC's without a good reason.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
A character is getting better by practising, a character that never uses a bow won't be able to fight with it even if it would save his life. Training is rewarded by gaining Skills, higher Attributes. Winning the trust of an NPC is rewarded with favours. Interest in a specific Topic is rewarded with knowledge about it.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Characters actions are narrated by the players, everything else is the GM's job. Nothing new here.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation?
The GM has to be sure that during the character creation each character has a certain background that gives him a motivation for the things he does. Since the characters start as almost average citicens it gives the motivation of getting something special to the players. Not really sure what else to answer here

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Dice, combined with positive and negativ attributes, skills and the difficulty of the task result a number over or below zero. Below Zero means complete or partly failure of the task (depending on how much below zero). Zero means that the character has a success, over zero means that the character did do it better, faster, or whatsoever (depending on the task) than expected.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
There is no black and white, not in the different groups of the setting, nor in the dice system, there is more than just success/failure. Don't really know what to answer here

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Not yet very sure about it, here i guess i really need help. I want a system without levels, and without classes. Improving by practising, but also by theory. At least that's my aim, but i also want to give the characters a way to improve in a certain direction they ma decide on their own. Characters should constantly advance and not with a levelup. Attributes should change very rare. Same for Hitpoint.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
Characters will more and more advance from normal people to heroes. Even if they don't want to they will become known and more and more powerfull. The more powerfull the characters will become, the more attraction they get from the big groups and the more likely they will get in trouble if they decide to support one group.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
The feeling of becoming important in the world. I want the players to feel like they're part of all the conflicts.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
The conflict between Rekaleth and Rebels (which all have been slaves), because this conflict really shapes the world as it is now.
The happenings around the Cataclysm, because nobody really knows what happened and there is a lot of mythology around it even if it's only 180 years in the past.
(nonmagic) Alchemy, because without many mages in the world the heroes need another possibility to heal, or to somehow produce magical materials.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
I'm excited by all the conflicts that are present everyday and that will affect the characters almost all the time. Why? Because it is something that I'm sure it won't change anymore

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
They can do their characters the way they want it, no class, no level. They can evolve in every direction. Can't really say more because there is a lot of work to be done!

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
Only a for-free PDF. The main goal is to play it with my players.

19.) Who is your target audience?
My players, others will either like it or not. No better answer here...


It was somehow hard to answer these questions in such an early state of my ideas, but the sooner i ask some others the less problems i will have i guess.
Sorry if there are any mistakes in it, since I'm no native english-speaker i found it quite hard to say what i wanted to say in english. But i guess you'll know what i mean, if not - ask
It's hard for me to know where to start and how to do all the work i got to do. There are a lot of things in my head, now it's the time to see what's possible.
I'd like to get some general feedback, and i'm open for everything you want to say, thanks!

- Llogres

[J Tolson]

Nothing new here.

Out of curiosity, if there is "nothing new," why should someone (including yourself) play your game rather than any other game out-there? Want a game about freedom? Pick up Serenity and keep flyin'. Want a game that takes place after a cataclysmic event and involves "magic"? Why not Trinity (or Adventure or Aberrant)? Want a game with flexible character development? Legendary Quest is just the first in a long line of products that offer the same.

It boils down to a question of if your idea would work better as its own game or just a campaign setting for an existing RPG. I don't want to discourage you from creating your own game if that is what you want, but there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.

Just a thought.

~Joel

[Llogres]

First of all, big thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Nothing new here.

Out of curiosity, if there is "nothing new," why should someone (including yourself) play your game rather than any other game out-there?

Because this is only the answer to one of 19 questions of which i think that more than 9 out of 10 here answer the same.

Want a game about freedom? Pick up Serenity and keep flyin'. Want a game that takes place after a cataclysmic event and involves "magic"? Why not Trinity (or Adventure or Aberrant)? Want a game with flexible character development? Legendary Quest is just the first in a long line of products that offer the same.

It boils down to a question of if your idea would work better as its own game or just a campaign setting for an existing RPG. I don't want to discourage you from creating your own game if that is what you want, but there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.

I got your point, but the problem is that maybe each of all those games may have one aspect which i'd like to have, each of them has a strength, but combining them to what i want is like picking different wheels of different sizes and trying to make a new out of it. That just doesn't really work for me. I spent a lot of time looking around what other systems exist, which ideas i like and which i dislike - and I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible for me to use something else than something i created on my own. I would not have started to burden myself with all the effort of creating my own system if I wouldn't feel confident that it's the right thing to do.
Thank you very much for sharing the thought!

- Llogres

[Troy_Costisick]

Hey there, Llogres!

Welcome to the Forge!  I'm one of the people who helped create the Power 19.  It seems like you were having trouble answering a few of the questions.  If you'd like some help with those, or just understanding the questions in general, I'd be more than happy to help.  Send me a personal message and ask anything you like.  Just click on my name on this post and it'll take you to my profile.  Like I said, I'll be happy to help in any way I can

Peace,

-Troy

[J Tolson]

Hello again Llogres,

Glad to here that you have already done your due diligence.

What I meant by the "nothing new here" comment wasn't just about that one question; rather, I took it as a comment about your game as presented in your power 19. As you presented it, it seems like there is "nothing new here," but I am glad to find out that isn't the case. This wasn't one of the power 19, but I am curious; what elements are you desiring in your system that aren't presented as a whole in previously created systems?

As I rather enjoy system design, I sometimes forget that other people wouldn't "burden" themselves with it unnecessarily.

Anywho, good luck.

~Joel

[Llogres]

I'm rewriting my answers at the moment, because i really see some problems in there partly due misunderstanding the questions, and partly due to my strange use of english I'm going to post the new answers tomorrow, so I wait with answering the questions till i got that done
Thanks for the attention

- Llogres