Not sure where to go from here

[Nuthael]

Ok. No more little dice rolling around.

I've been throwing around most of the stuff that you said in my head recently, because it just didnt feel right.

By political war I simply mean war between two or more people with opposing views. I guess you could say that all war is political, but what I meant to imply is that there are people with so wildly different views that they want to kill each other.

Money, yes, it is the core of the game. Everything is done with money. Loyalty, yes and no. Loyalty to your employer yes, but only for as long as the job, and only if you think that there isnt a more profitable way you can be doing things. Loyalty only really comes into it because doing what you're told is a sure way of getting paid. It's really all about money.

And yes, i know that the blank slate idea wont work.

Again yes and no. I wanted to make sure that players dont all have to grow up in the same faction, because if i set down that this faction hates that faction then players who pick that faction stop other people from going the other faction. Or at least stop the party working properly because of where they're born. I was thinking of having something along the lines of when people reach adulthood they are free to (and encouraged to) make friends with anyone from anywhere and experience as much as possible, so they dont have a limited worldview when they come back. So you're absolute loyalty is expected to be with your homeland, but you're encouraged not to let loyalty get in the way of experience. Does that make sense?

Just for the record, I would never use "Just Because" as a reason.

The battles are less open now because honestly, they were running out of soldiers. One by one they all stopped sending out their armies and put up a solid defensive position until one day they will have trained enough soldiers to attack again. The open war is just on standby, and while this is happening they hire mercenaries to sabotage the armies of everyone else. I guess this is where faction loyalty does come into it, because the character would secretly sabotage any attempt to sabotage his homeland.

Families, as well as school life is encouraged to be fleshed out in character creation in order to bring depth to your character, but they have no essential mechanical significance until you find a reason for them to.

I chose to use classes because everything is learnt from an instructor, so you would have a fighting instructor, magic instructor and so on and so on. It just felt natural to separate the skills into the schools of thought that they belonged to.

I havent just anything really as a model for my game. Im just piecing together the shards of game that are floating around in my head.

Hope I helped explain things.

Thoughts?

[Luke]

You're draining all the cool bits from your idea. It is possible to make this game an engaging look into this culture and what makes these people kill the shit out of each other. Or you can make this game a boring retread of D&D.

I encourage you to really get down there into your setting. Think about the culture, the technology, the history. Make rules to evoke those cool things.

You know why strong loyalties will work in a game like this? 1) Every side is going to have its fanatics: Fanatics are PROBLEMS for people who think the world is run by money 2) Every one has their price: The more loyal you are to a side, the higher your price is to work against them. And when you work against your side, you're harming your friends and family. How much will it cost me to get you to take out your father's factory? How much to kidnap your sister? How much to assassinate your best friend who just happens to be a prominent politician?

Regarding families, are you saying this is going to be left up to hand-waving or that you're going to write up six really cool families that you choose to be a part of or work against?

If I were writing your game, and I'm not, but if I was, my character creation mechanic would be like this:

Pick faction: Gives trait and skill
Pick family: Gives trait and skill
Pick a youthful endeavor or passion: Gives trait or skill
Pick coursework/instructors: Gives trait or skill
Pick experience -- first mission, second mission, veteran: Gives trait and skill

Not only does a method like that give you a fleshed out character, but it gives the GM tons of hooks to use with the player. We know something about where he's from, who his family is, what he did when he was a teenager, what he studied at school and what kind of professional he is.

You can top that off with something like "Loyalties" -- just a list of ideas or people to whom the player is loyal. You can rank them from 5 to 1, 5 being the most loyal. The ranking can then be a cost multiplier for how much the player can charge for working against his loyalties.

You can also add "Vendettas" -- a short list of three people the player wants revenge against, against whom he'll work for very cheap.

Killing for money and leveling up can be done in nearly any D&D clone. There's no need to play your game if that's all it does. Make your game about all of the interesting ideas you have.

Also, if you're stuck on classes, then I recommend you go out and play more RPGs. There have always been RPGs that don't use classes. Many of them have interesting takes on starting characters and advancement. I recommend John Wick's Houses of the Blooded, Greg Stolze's Reign and Russell Colin's unpublished "Contract Work."

Hope that helps,
-Luke
-L