Devils Cay Skill System

[Laurel]

http://www.geocities.com/devilscay/System1.html is what I've been working on and would love feedback.  I'll beg and bake cookies for good feedback.    

There's a couple of caveats.  I'm making this game under highly unusual circumstances, which I talked about a month ago.  Technically, Devils Cay is an Indie game- I made it, I own it, I will always own it, but Skotos has the exclusive online rights and I'm responsible for making this game work not just tabletop, but especially work well for a chat.

#1.  I needed a system that would work for both online (chat) and table top games, so a GMless  (or rather a GMfull) system was mandatory.    

#2. I needed a Skill System rated from 0-10 if I wanted to use a Skill System at all, because that's what Skotos' current flagship game, Castle Marrach uses and we're using that code.  

#3. I needed a game system that would reasonably satisfy both Narrative and Simulationist goals without drift even if this is impossible.  :)

#4. I needed a game system that newbie players could learn & like and advanced, veteran players would enjoy.  

#5. I needed to keep dice rolls minimalized without substituting Karma point expenditures; there needed to be some kind of random event element, but it needed to be very simple and quick to do online.  

#6. I needed to divide system categories into "10s" and "4s" because that would be easiest on the coders, again utilizing and adapting existing codes rather than starting from scratch.

#7.  I want to have the game completely written, debugged, game-tested, and game-tested some more and then laid out and printed in time for GenCon- while keeping my day job *and* dealing with the building and coding of the chat game for Skotos.  I don't sleep much.

If I'm not shooting for El Dorado, I don't know what I'm doing.  But I've put the System Mechanics on this Webpage so good people like you can evaluate my progress and tell me what simply isn't working to make a "playable" game & to achieve those 7 Goals.    

Telling me that online RPGs suck and to stick to my day job is counter-productive to my needs.  Save that for private mail if you will.  :)

[Gordon C. Landis]

#3. I needed a game system that would reasonably satisfy both Narrative and Simulationist goals without drift even if this is impossible. :)

I think that by saying "reasonably satisfy" rater than "entirely satisfy" you've moved from the Impossible to the merely Herculean . . . :-)

I'll read the system and try and give some input (Herculean efforts are worthy of reward, IMO).  Quick technical issues, just FYI - your pages don't look right in Netscape (overlapping text), and the "contine" link on the last page (8) leads to a blank page 9, which links back to page 2 . . .

Gordon

[Laurel]

Thank you for noting the bugs.  Webpage-fu, I do not have.  Fortunately, there's someone in my life who does have Webpage-fu and can take my pitiful efforts and make something that genuinely works.  I'll ask them to do so.

Yeah, I threw up the layout in IE and forgot to look at it in Netscape. :(