Need some help with ideas for Fantasy/Cyberpunk RPG.

[Geodragon]

This is not my first time making a tabletop RPG and making
my own rules to it and GM'ing it for my Roleplaying club.
But this will be the first time i'm gonna do it professionaly.
Artwork,big textual explanation, full fledged rule system
and possibly even extentions and such.
But i got stuck on one point of my concept.

You see I wanna make a Fantasy/Cyberpunk setting.
But i want it to have a grim, possibly scary but most of all...
mesterious side to it. Unlike in D&D where most of the things
you do and see are very well expected by your charakter...
in example : A mage uses magic, a goblin attacks, someone turns werewolf.
Your charakters cannot go " What the..." Because those are commonly
accepted things, sure they might get scared or surprised...but they
are not getting that mistery in there from it. And this will i belive be
my greatest chalenge.

I plan on working with the D12 or the D20 system.
I personaly give my favor to D12 because i belive D20 to be overused these days.
I plan on giving the players the ability to build the statistics for their
charakter by using a point system.
Also I want to give them the ability to either choose from a list of special
abilities or to make their own in aproval of their GM.

I want the players to start off as very basic and then only lateron
specialise into something special and/or specific.
But even those specialised and specific forms would still
have tons of variation options.
Things i was thinking about were:

- Soul Hunters  = People who can absorb freshly dead allies or force freshly dead enemies
                        spirits to be absorbed and so gaining their abilities with half the power.
                        the soul hunters posses no abilities of their own accept for the basics
                        everyone can learn but they can also only learn those limited.
                        However their ability makes it possible for them to learn everything.
                        They can choose to release these spirits later, the spirits they absorbed
                        do not just become skills but are still charakters inside the soul hunters
                        "Soul Pandium" a world a soulhunter can enter at any moment with a sucsessfull
                         die roll to it. There it can visit the spirits it absorbed. If you absorb spirits
                         that are unwilling to aid you, they might lateron stir trouble inside you.
                         Also when a spirit denies you his aid and you loose a roll against it you temporarily
                         loose the abilities gained from him/her untill you manage to overcome the spirit
                         and let it serve you again.
- Forsaken      = The Forsaken are creatures who's ancestors lived in the enchanted forest.
                         The forests inhabitants at one point comited a terrible crime against the heavens
                         and got sevearly punished for it. As they reach a sertain age some form of a curse
                         or another befalls them...they might turn invisible but still be physical, they might become
                         a humanoid wolf, cat, tiger, bear,lizard,squirel or rat. They might also become vampires or
                         little gnome-like creatures. Many options possible. Their entire surounding of their natural
                         habitat known as the enchanted forest is also a place full of distrust and unknown.
                         Nothing is what it seems and everything is something. Living furniture, talking plants,
                         bookshelfs with books growing on trees, houses on chicken feet, small bets turning to
                         full size bazooka's....you name it. Their curses give them unnatural abilities and powers
                         but they bring with them a whole new life full of disadvantages and problems. They are
                         forsaken aftherall.
-  Diaygrians  =  Angelic creatures that live a partialy mortal life. Diaygrians are the lowest rank of angels.
                        They are placed on planets to guide it's inhabitants in their life and keep balance in the
                        elements. Each continent has only one Diaygrian per element.
                        The Diaygrians each has a strong afinity with their element and can partialy if not fully
                        controle it. However using their elemental powers hurts their element and makes it weaker
                         in the balance and thus Diaygrians are ussualy very carefull of using those.
                         Luckily they are also very skilled warriors in non magical hand to hand combat and weapons.
                         High level Diaygrians may reach a great level of respect from the heavens and granted a higher
                         rank of angel....gaining angel wings and the ability to travel into the Shadow World. ( the place
                         in between the spirit world and the living world). Since Diaygrians don't have so much differant
                         features compared to humans accept for their element filled eyes ( fire red eyes, nature green)
                         they sometimes don't even know they are a Diaygrian.
                         Diaygrians come in the following elements: Fire,Water,Earth,Wind,Sun,Moon,Lightning,Atmosphere.
- Maga           = A Maga is a human who by accident, or though suffering a grief misfortune in life 
                        awakens inside the Shadow World, a place between life and death. This experience
                        grants a Maga powers from beyond, powers that were intended to be given to him in
                        his aftherlife, the Shadow World is a mirror of the actual world and inside it you can
                        see most of the things going on in the "mortal world" and affect them, however
                        everything from the "mortal world" looks grey and vague and being in the shadow world
                        in itself feels like a lucid dream experience. Only in the Shadow world can the Maga
                        unleash his supernatural abilities, because those were never ment for the mortal
                        realm. However they are strongly visible in it. The longer a Maga stays in the Shadow
                        world the more experienced he/she becomes in the use of these abilities, but there is
                        a price to pay, the Shadow world eats away at your life force, your soul....it does not
                        destroy it, it marely teleports your soul bit by bit into the spirit world. A Maga is
                        unable to die from physical wounds, his soul's power keeps the body alive, but the
                        more damaged he/she is the more soul can be sucked out of him by the Shadow
                        World. When the entire soul is transmited into the Spirit World the Maga dies.
                        There are however legends about Maga who were so strong that they came back from
                         the spirit world and back to live. A Maga can preform various actions in order to return
                         pieces of his/her soul from the spirit world back to the "mortal world". Whenever a
                         Maga suffers Soul damage he/she looses an emotion or an important memmory or
                         feeling. Throwing a die will decide how important the feeling,memmory or emotion is.

- Tien            =   Humanoid creatures with butterfly like wings and elf like ears, these
                         creatures have a natural afinity with Magic and a natural disability with
                         technology. All sorts of technology from steam-machines to computers
                         to guns seem to be jinxed in their hands. However they have farious
                         spells and other magical abilities to their expense.
                         One is never born a Tien, one becomes a Tien when he/she is
                         kidnapped by one and taken to the "Underground World" whitch is the
                         world in between the Mortal World and the Fallen World of pain and
                         torture. The fallen world was created by evil deeds of all mortal and
                         Godly creatures and seeks to absorb all it's creators in itself.
                         The fallen world is the reaction of the Sephiroth tree
                         ( The tree that holds all worlds and is counterpart of the Allmighty God
                            who is resident in Zion World all the way at it's top) to Evil deeds and
                          dramatic failiures or mistakes seeking to destroy those creating them
                          and giving into them. The Sephiroth tree seeks perfection.
                          Since the Tien were originaly living at the lowest level of the tree the
                          Fallen world was created underneath them. The Tien cannot mate and
                          so they cannot multiply their population in that way to make up for the
                          great amounts of them that were swallowed by the Fallen world for
                          crimes they never comited. The great fall of the Tien was when the
                          Forsaken commited their acumulative mistake going against the
                          Sephiroth tree.
                          Only the strongest 7 Tien were left alive, they were the once who forever
                          cursed the inhabitants of the enchanted forest for the misfortune they
                          caused. The Tien now seek to multiply back and to do so they kidnap
                          normal humans and use their spells on them and preform a ritual to turn
                          them into a Tien. They however never use random victims for this.
                          The Tien choose the worst of sinners and mistake makers and use them.
                          This to reach two goals.
                          1. Improve the imperfect sinner by making him a peace loving Tien.
                          2. Giving the new Tien missions to ward and warn other sinners and
                              imperfects and try and change their ways.
                           Some Tien do this out of a good heart others simply do it to save what's
                           left of their world that used to be a beutifull garden, now mostly in ruins.
                           The Tien know no end to their lifespan as they can live for endless years
                           untill they either get killed or get swallowed by the Fallen world.
                           They try their best to bring happyness because even sad feelings of people
                           make the Fallen World grow bigger. 
- Cyborgs        = This one i think speaks for itself, half humans half robots, great afinaty
                          with technology, however very weak in the use of magic or magical items.
                          Most Cyborgs can't even use magical items at all let alone magic.
                          However inreturn they have the latest cybernetic equipment to their
                          expence. Bionic arms, Legs, Eyes, Chests, Backs...you name it.
                          The only 2 things that must always remain natural in a Cyborg,
                          his brain...and his soul....all other parts of the body are subject to be
                          replaced by implants. The soul and the mind is what separated them
                          from robots. A cyborg does not need to be compleately an implant
                          man....2 Bionic arms or even Bionic eyes alone make one a Cyborg.
- Psyche          = A rare breed among humans who can controle their soul energie so well
                          that they can materialise it and use it to heal,deal damage, enchance 
                          their physical or mental abilities or to use telekinesis. They cannot use
                          magic of any kind. All they do is send their soul power to a sertain area
                          of their body or their surounding in order to affect it. Psyche can make their
                          soul power grow by means of meditation and practice. They can also choose
                          to loose their soul power in order to send it at an enemy or an object heavily
                          damaging them and ussualy resulting in an explosion. Some Pshyche can
                          use this energy to manipulate or read other peoples thoughts.
- Ariel/Angra     = Called by the God world...born under the mark of a Lion, these warriors are chosen
                           to take lead in battle. But before they do, they must choose their side.
                           Will they fight for the cause of Zion to free the world of Fallen World followers who
                            wish to end all excistance seeing it as the only way for reaching perfection.
                            Or will you become a soldier of the Fallen and seek to cause more failiure and
                            missery to plunge all worlds into everlasting nothingness.
                            The soldiers of Zion become the Ariel, the soldiers of Fallen become the Angra.
                            Those chosen by the sign of Lion have superior physical abilities and a few
                            magical powers to them as well. However the Ariel and Angra are both made
                            for the Mortal World and can never truely leave it untill they die, they do get
                            visions from the Godworld or even Zion on many occasions.
                            Their afinety with weapons of short range is superior seeing as they can add their
                            physical force to it thus dealing more damage and piercing much more than any
                            bullet, bow or laser ever hope to. The asambly name for Ariel and Angra is
                            Lion Warriors.

More to come.....feedback and ideas and/or inspireing questions please.
                                                                 

[Geodragon]

Well I see that 8 people have tried reading it allready but it was probably too much for them so I am gonna narrow it down and try and summarise it a little in this post. Still need some feedback and more ideas here.

Basicly the entire setting takes place on " The Sephiroth tree"
( no this has nothing to do with final fantasy...the Sephiroth tree...the name origins from Jewish Cabala)
It is a world that holds many paralel dimensions inside it with a hirarchie to them.
Worlds from top to bottom

( Zion) = Here lives the creator of the tree, the allmighty , all good, all loving god. He wishes for nothing more
             than the happyness of his creations, for them to reach perfection, but he could force it upon them
             but then he would become evil, and thus weak...and if he does the whole tree would dissapear and
             take all excistance with it. Only a few blessed once have ever been here to see him. Beyond those
             few not even God's are allowed in this world.
( God World) = The world where the weaker Semi Gods, Half Gods, Fallen Gods and High Angels live.
( Spirit World) = This is where the Angels and the passed away humans live as spirits, from here only few chosen
                         or greatly respected spirits can travel up to the God World, some blessed once may even visit Zion.
(Shadow World) = It is the place where human memories,emotions and fantasies take shape, the world between death
                           and live for humans, a traveling dimension for angels and Gods, habitat of Spirits and chained
                           ghosts. This is where the Maga can use their magic.
( Mortal World) = The mortal world is where it all comes together, creatures from all other worlds can travel here in one
                          way or another. This world is a technology filled sience overtaken world where machines and guns
                          have long taken the place of spiritual beliefs and swords. However a few very skilled fighters still
                          prefer to use swords. The only Magical,spiritual places left in the world are:
                          The Enchanted Forest, Silver Mountains and the Far East Desert.
                          This is where Magic and Technology colide, where good and evil colide, this
                          is the place that affect all other worlds by it's actions. This is where most of the story will take place.
(Underground World) = A fairytale high fantasy garden of eden kind of world full of magical creatures and beings.
                                  The main inhabitants of this world are the Tien, who are mortals turned into fairielike creatures
                                  named Tien. The main goal of the Tien is to stop the Fallen world from growing,wheather it is
                                  because it eats their world or because they just want the sepiroth tree to reach it's goal of
                                  perfection.
(Fallen World) = This world is created and destroyed time and again. This world is created whenever someone in any
                         other world preforms an evil deed or suffers or is sad or has very selfish thoughts or becomes
                         dependant on something that is below him. The Fallen world is a prisson for all those imperfections.
                          It tries to suck them into itself and devour them. When it is done doing so it dissapears. Nobody
                          knows what happens to those left inside it, nobody ever came back. The Tien are terrified or this world
                          because when it opens up again it is very close to their world and affects it greatly.
                         
There are two primary forces in the game on a global level:
Zionists and the Fallen
Zionists want to make sure that the sephiroth tree reaches it's perfection maintaining it's curent state and
that the Fallen World were to dissapear forever. Even though this is an everlasting task that will need to be
repeated time and time again, the Zionists see this as the best resolution.
The Fallen don't belive in the good of the world and don't belive anyone but the allmighty God can maintain the
perfection that the Sephiroth tree requires and thus they see the tree itself as the root of all problems.
they see the tree as the disease and the fallen world as the cure for the disease. And so they want to unlock
the medicen. Causing sadness, destruction , suffering, pain, anger, selfishness,adiction and dependency on lower
beings and things in the world to make the Fallen world grow and absorb more and more of the Worlds untill the
entire tree is swallowed by it. They see this as the only way to finnaly have piece, to finnaly reach perfection.
The only way to make it all end.

Zionists     "Life is a precious gift, to excist is a blessing, one worth fighting and dying for each and every day.
                  We were made to be happy, made to always feel joy and to always work hard and to love one another
                  ,we were created to lead perfect lives, and if we were made to do so...than we can reach that goal again.
                   We don't claim that we can change the world.....we claim that we can keep it in excistance."
The Fallen "Today we wage war, today we cause that whitch we dislike in the name of good, today we kill and
                  tommorow the world will finnaly be at peace. It will all be over, no more suffering, no more sadness,
                  no more....excistance."

[talysman]

Although you have quite a bit of text there, I don't think that's the reason why you're not getting any comments. We're waiting for a question. What help do you need?

You don't really want to just list all the elements of your setting and ask for opinions, because really: who cares what other people think? All that really matters is that some people get jazzed about your setting and want to play it. At this stage, you're still creating, so it doesn't matter if people are jazzed or not now; their opinions may change once you have your finished presentation.

It might matter if what you're looking for are collaborators, people who will flesh out parts of your game world. Is that what you're asking for?

I will say one minor thing: you mention that d20 is "overused". I don't think that matters. Don't get hung up on resolution systems at the moment, and don't decide to use or not use a resolution system for reasons that have nothing to do with the kind of play you are looking for. What matters now is: what rules can you make that will create or reinforce the kind of play you're looking for?

I will also add that, since you mention you are looking for mystery, which I think means in this case surprising the players with the unexpected, I think what you want are rules that can create unexpected color. Tying this in with the point about d20 vs. other resolution systems: using a d12 in your system might matter if you were associating each number with an astrological symbol or something else that comes in sets of 12, so that each roll can introduce an unexpected change of events. If you plan on sticking to the tradition Sephiroth, a d10 would work better for this.

[Geodragon]

I'm sorry I must have not formulated my needs for help well enough.
I need :
- general feedback questions that can inspire me to continued writing
- advices for possible game systems
- advices on how to make it interesting for the players
- advices on how to make the whole setting mesterious even for those who play fantasy like charakters
- how to blow life into this asambled dust

I realy need to make a good system to this.

[Anders Larsen]

Hi

Your setting ideas looks interesting, but to help you I need a more focused description of what you what with this game. So I will ask you a couple of question that will hopefully give me that:

1) What is the feeling of the game?
2) What types of stories do you want to tell with this game?
3) What is the character's role in the game?
4) how do the character evolve?
5) What conflict will the character face, and what resources do they have to resolve these conflicts.

- Anders

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I love cyberpunk, so you really got my attention. I think you are coming up with a cool way to mix in fantasy. OK on to your questions:
- general feedback questions that can inspire me to continued writing

  I think its interesting and certainly accurate to the genre to have a world where tech and magic doesn't mix, BUT, what if they COULD mix? Why not have a +3 Holy RailGun Avenger? Think of an alternate history where Magic and Tech evolved together. Like Steam locomotives with magic potions in the boilers and Computers as Familiars. Just food for thought...

- advices for possible game systems

As far as existing systems, Shadow of Yesterday is CC and D20 Modern and Fudge are OGL. Each has advantages and disadvantages. D20 modern has a huge following. SoY is a system that evokes action from the players, but it might require some tweaking to make it CyberPunk compatible. And Fudge is pretty flexible, but more narration-based. I dunno what your preferences are, maybe you can hack something together that is the best of what you have played with a dash of your own innovation. If you dig something like that...

- advices on how to make it interesting for the players

I think the main thing you need to do is make sure that the ad copy matches the player experience. If you plan on saying, "run for your life" make sure characters don't start or advance to the point where they are hosing down a roomful of guys and not getting hurt. If you plan on saying, "Only your chars make a difference in this dark future" make sure that a starting character can influence the game world. Also, carve out a niche for the players to fill. If they are supposed to be the, trying to change the system from the outside, make sure that your signature characters and game world dynamics have a place for the players to do just that...

- advices on how to make the whole setting mesterious even for those who play fantasy like charakters

  Well, part of the "blah" that comes with fantasy settings is twofold, one all the stats are known. if you say to the players, there is a troll with a sledgehammer in front of you, they can pretty quickly figure out its stats and figure out if they can win or lose, because the stats are known. In fact, there is no mystery at all, players know the Troll's alignment, motivations and powers before they even meet one. Secondly, the fantasy "good vs evil vibe", meaning there is no gray areas. No one ever wonders, "Should I have killed that orc?" Because its a known fact that orcs are evil. Killing them makes the world just a little bit better. So, maybe the GM needs some way to quickly come up with an opponent of the correct level of challenge on the fly?

- how to blow life into this asambled dust

  I think adding adventure hooks that show a sense of change is one way and the other is give the players tools/mechanics to actually change the world. Cyberpunk is about change and if its not there, players will sense that...

  Anyways, good luck man!

[Geodragon]

to: dindenver

Thank you for your advice...i shall keep it in mind.
And there will be magic mixed with technology....i just chose for the sake of mystery to have the vast mayority of the mortal world not to belive in magic and or other worlds or to not know anything or much of that.

to: Anders Larsen

answers to your question

1) What is the feeling of the game?
   - Epic / Spooky / Fairytale
2) What types of stories do you want to tell with this game?
    ( could you please explain this question a little better)
3) What is the character's role in the game?
   The characters role in this game is primeraly to inverstigate, find information, try to put the pieces of the puzzle 
    together and solve it to understand what needs to be done or what can be done before he gets caught, killed,
    taken prison or suffers another result for his search for truth.
    The charakters world perspection shifts quickly and greatly...and with it....his entire life.
    I want the more narative stories with more exploring, interacting, thinking, solving problems and making plans,
    and/or figuring opponents plans and stoping those or using those to owns advantage.

4) how do the character evolve?
   I want to keep the statistic evolvement to a minimum.
   The charakters mainly evolve by storywise slowly going from human to one of the specialised classes.
   quick scatch example:
   - Soldier gets mission to save hostages from terrorists. (normal cyberpunk style action)
   - Soldier sucseeds doing so but to win the final battle that almost left him dead he got the help of winged elfish
      creatures (Tien) ( Mistery beginning)
   - Afther the battle is won and the soldier is freaked by the apperance they sprinkle some kind of dust over him and he
     falls asleep.
   - He wakes up in the Underground World ( Cyberpunk hightech equiped dirty charakter in clean high fantasy fairytale
     enviorment.)
   - Exploring this unknown world he meets an old Tien that tells him his days as a huma are over and that he is \to
     become a Tien.
   - Soldier gets scared and wants to flee....is followed by a large group of Tien.
   - Soldier decides to hide by jumping into a lake...but ends up going up in the mortal world out of a dirty lake outside
     of town. ( Back to his familiar setting that to him is safe and known)
   - Soldier does not know he is changing into a Tien already, his transformation already having been put in motion
     ( His world setting that was familiar and safe is about to change and become less familiar)
   - Soldier does not know there are actualy specialised organisations in the Mortal world that hunt Tien.
     ( His world is now much less safe than before.)
   - Let the run begin...let the puzzeling and infromation hunting begin.

5) What conflict will the character face, and what resources do they have to resolve these conflicts.
    Read the above answer....more or less says it i belive.
   I want the charekters to focus on exploring and infromation gathering.
   battle should be an esential part of the whole thing but not dominate it.
   Battles should be tireing and like in real life...have more negative than possitive effects on
   the players. (in example :exp not awarded for combat but for information learned)

hope this answers your questions

[Anders Larsen]

Ok, good answers. You have answered the 'story' question implicit in your other answers.

I have tried to poll together what I thing is the main points in your game. I also ask a lot of new question.

It seems like that one of the main ideas in the game is how the characters change from normal human beings into something different. I find this concept very fascination. Is this a process all the character have to go through? In this case I think that there will be a lot of focus in the game on how each of the characters develops and become one of the "classes". But does the characters develop further from there?

This change from human into something else, I think, should have a good deal of attention from the rules. I think that it is a good idea to have something that guide the process of this development - what do the character has to go through to get to one of the "classes", and how long time will it take? Another thing is the psychological changes, or rather, the social changes. How does his relations to his surroundings and to himself change, as his physical being changes?

I do not know if this is something you want to explore in the game?

The other part of the game you seem to focus on is the exploring and investigation part. Unfortunately, exploring and investigations can be very hard to do right. But I am interesting in to what purpose the characters are exploring. Are they send out on a mission? And in this case by whom? Or are they doing it on there own motivation? Focus on there purpose/motivation/drive, can be something that will make the game more interesting.

There are one thing I am wondering, though. There are these two main elements - The character changing part and the exploration part - but I can not see how they will fit together. Are they intended to fit together in some way?

I may completely have missed you intention with the game. If I have then please correct me.

On to your question:

- advices for possible game systems
I am not really sure if you you want to find a existent system that fit to your idea, or you want to make your own system. Anyway, right now I can not really give any good advises, but if you can answer my question from my rant above, I may be able give some ideas.

- advices on how to make it interesting for the players
Well, make a good game... ok, seriously. One point is that the players should never feel that the can not do anything in a situation where they want to do something. Another is that the player should get some good feedback (reward) from the system when that work hard to take part of the game.

- advices on how to make the whole setting mesterious even for those who play fantasy like charakters
I think Dave have given a good answer to this one.


- Anders

[Geodragon]

Thank you for your reply Anders,
Those questions realy put me to thinking.

But some i can already answer:

- How does changing and exploration mix?
  Well the charakter lives in a world where that "change" is uncommon.
  It is something he goes through, and most do not. And he/she does not know
  what the results of the change will bring along. Sometimes they don't even
  know what they will change into. exploring yourself trying to find answers is one
  form of exploration I am searching for.

  Another form of exploration is that of the surounding. The charakter has always
  lived in his world not knowing things like his change were possible.
  But lives on himself that they are. Is he the only one? Are there others?
  ( A way to bring parties together ! ) And then there are others, but those are
   not always fond of new once like themselves, they may try and kill the charakter
   hunt him down or try to forece or trick him to work for them.
   Or the class in whitch he changes may turn him to go on an exploration journey:
   - Soul Hunters  : Have the mission to either summon or farthen the spirit world.
   - Forsaken       : Have the mission to either repay their deeds or comit them again.
   - Diaygrians     : Have the mission to chose a side and keep balance in the elements.
   - Tien              : To stop the Fallen world.
   and so on....

- About the change?
  Yes i was thinking to make it a mayor point in the game and the game system.
  I was thinking to make the change have reflections on all of the charakters actions aaaand...vice versa.
  That the actions the charakter preforms determine what it is he/she changes into.
  Tien only take with them the humans that cause alot of growth in the fallen world.
  The killing that soldier did as a job resulted in him being taken to become a Tien.
  But there is more than one Tien type and form....his further action should determine more.
  I was thinking of growth of charakter directly through actions...but a form stats fill in at the begining.

- About the system?
  I actualy wanted to borrow the good from the experienced and go ahead and build a new system.
  One that would be customly made to fit the best interests of this particulair game.

Yet again thank you for your contribution...This realy inspired me  

[Anders Larsen]

I should properly tell you what I am trying to do with all these questions. What I try to find, is what you see as the core of the game, that is, the things that are actually done during the game. Because if you find these core ideas, then it is much easier to make the system.

Right now I see your core ideas for this game as: How the characters change into the "classes" and how this affect them and their surroundings. This lead to that the characters have to explore themselves and their surroundings to better understand themselves as they are now, and to survive their new enemies. And this is while they have to fulfil their role of their new "class".

Do I hit the target with this description?


There is a thing I am wondering about. The whole process of the change, from human to the class, when does this happen in the game? You indicate that the character first meet after they have changed, but if the change take a lot of game time, then what?


After you have answered these question, I hope we can get more into the meat of things.

- Anders

[Geodragon]

Yep you hit the nail right on the head saying:

How the characters change into the "classes" and how this affect them and their surroundings. This lead to that the characters have to explore themselves and their surroundings to better understand themselves as they are now, and to survive their new enemies. And this is while they have to fulfil their role of their new "class".

That is compleately correct.

The change indeed takes place during the game and afther some game time, the charakters are preferably playing the first part of the game compleatly as humans, they might come into contact with non humans, but not be changing yet.
The player don't neciserily meet afther the change, they can be a group that are all experiancing the same change on a diffrent state of evolvement. It's up to the game master how he mixes the charakters.
It can be chosen to make the whole group of players "Lions".....or to have there be a Lion a Tien a Forsaken and a Soulhunter in the group. All of them might even be experiancing their individual changes at the same time.
Or there might be a group of humans where only one of them is changing or one might already be changed while others
are still in midest of it or not starting yet.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  This change idea is cool, but I do see one pitfall to avoid...

  I think it is real important that the player has control over the change process. I mean, in a traditional RPG, the player's authority starts and ends with their characters. If you take that away, what is left for them to do?
  If you do decide to try and make the game more mysterious by having the change secretly managed by the GM,  then give the players something cool to do. For instance, you can have it so that neither the GM nor the player control the change. But, instead, the other players do. Maybe the player on your right influences you character to be good and the player on the left influences your character to be evil?

  Either way, I bet it will be fun once you get it rapped up...

[Geodragon]

Ohw no no no....The players DO controle the change.
However not by saying...hey I wanna be this...or...I wanna be that.
There is a list of things that can and must be done to become one of the classes.
Thing is...players don't get to see that list...the GM does.
For interest purpouses that list can be changed.
But what the players change into is decided by their actions rather than sheer choice
of what to be and where to advance. At list that is what i am thinking of it to be right
now.

Example:
Player takes the role of a bounty hunter and the scene starts with him getting a target briefing, an influential mafioso
who the authorities want caught but don't want to be involved because they have no direct evidence at him.
The Mafioso needs to be caught and interegated to get this evidence...the hunter will be payed very well.

- if the charakter doesn't accepts the mission, the goverment sends agents to kill him, as the agents hunt him.
  it seems his decline isn't even their main reason for doing so. He already realises there is something about him
  but he doesn't know what...but neither does the GM at this point.
- if the charakter agrees to the mission, he will track down the mafioso and :
  - try to infiltrate his headquarters to kidnap him, Makes you able to become a Forsaken.
  - simply bust right in and go for the win, if you do this cleanly you can become a Ariel...if you do this very agressive
    and take much pleasure in causing pain to the victims...you can become an Angra.
  - put another person up to do the infiltration and making him lead the mafioso outside, makes you availiable to be a
    soul hunter.
  - Time it so that when there is least guard to switch the lights in the building off and
    kidnap him in the dark. makes you availiable to change into a Psyche
  - Catch one henchman and torture him painfully to give away information on how easiest
    to kidnap the mafioso and then brutaly kill him, makes you availiable to be changed into a Tien
  - Tries an attack but ends up on the loosing side and suffers a near death experience
    (falling uncounsious with only little health left), has you instantly changing into a Maga.
  - Loosing a body part as a result of the mission and having it cyberneticaly replaced, makes you a cyborg, whitch is a
    cross class.
 
  Basicly acting like what it takes to be a certain class is what makes you that class.
  Soul Hunters = Dependant on others, leaders of a group who know how to controle other peoples actions well but
                         have non suficient power of their own.
   Diaygrians    = Very obesessed with nature and elements in particulair, take great importance in balance of them.
                          when a Diaygrian sees misuse of a sertain element he/she steps in.
   Forsaken      = Mask waring people, actors, they seem to be able to fit in everywhere and be everyone.
                          But sometimes they can be freaky crazy people of whom most will say they are lunatics.
   Maga            = To become a Maga no charakter trait is needed....this is one of the hardest classes to become
                          for you need to be so close to death without dying....and doing this before you change into
                          something else.
   Tien              = Those who take pride in causing suffering and sadness of others, bullies, torturers , rapists and such
                          kind. Are ofthen the targets of Tien. Tien turn those people into Tien and now if they cause suffering
                          they will be subject to be sucked into the Fallen world....now their mission is to undo suffering..and
                          hopefully, change themselves as well.
    Psyche        = The smart thinkers, the wisdom users, and the fighters those who train body , mind and soul to
                          total equalibrium.
    Cyborgs       = A cross class....anyone who replaces one part of body with a mechanical becomes a cyborg..this
                          brings disadvantages as advantages alike.
    Ariel/Angra    =Brave fighters who fear not to step into battle, even when the odds are against them, one against an
                          army they will still march foreward. Giving everything they have to their cause and hold glorious battle.
                          But their cause is what makes them either Ariel or Angra...do they fight to end suffering, to defend.
                          Or to cause suffering, to take, to conquer.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  I dunno, I feel like the players still do not have control over their character's own change though. Its all subject to interpretation. Not only that, but since the players don't know the criteria, they can't even argue their case if they do not like the change that has happened to their character.

  Even in your example:

- put another person up to do the infiltration and making him lead the mafioso outside, makes you availiable to be a soul hunter.

  That seems like it could qualify as Psyche to me. I mean, isn't it smarter to send someone else in if you can? And you could even argue that it is Tien if the person they send in is incompetent or if the Mafia security is extremely tight.

  Players make long term plans for their char, why not enable them to make those plans reality? There are tons of ways to add mystery to the game without hobbling the character's control over their own character, isn't there?

[Qi Chin]

Hi there!
I like the concept of the game a lot, and after reading some of the discussion, let me add my thoughts.
The game is about characters changing, and then rediscovering themselves while trying to stay true to whatever they've changed into.

How about if the characters could change multiple times? That way, if a player doesn't quite like what he's transformed into, he can try to change his character's behavior and thus become something else. Of course, every change could carry small disadvantages, but it gives the player more control.
Another way to do this is to not necessarily fix what class you're changing into, but rather what ideal you're following. So things like "Control", "Lawfulness", "Good", "Evil", "Emotions" or whatever other things you can come up with. Then the player accumulates points or gradually moves towards one or two of those ideals, which then shortlist the classes he can change into.

Just some ideas.

Now, about the ruleset. Ideally, the rules of an RPG support and emphasize what playing style you want and what the game is actually about. This is the reason you get things like complex combat rules in D&D (which is heavily based on tactical combat) or action points in cinematic games (where players can spend these to do outrageous and cinematic stunts). So it would probably be best to create your own rules for this game. In this case, think about effective rules that show exactly what you want with the core idea, so rules on character change and self exploration. All other rules should only support these.

Hope that helps.

Qi