Unnamed RPG

[Lrx959]

[Abkajud]

Well, I think the experience or advancement system of a game says a lot about it - in D&D, you get specific bonuses for overcoming adversaries and obstacles, and then, once in a while, poof! You're more powerful! Thus, there's a direct reward for defeating foes, disarming traps, and so on, but that's pretty much the only way to improve yourself.
Most White Wolf games, by contrast, have a point-buy system, so that you build up one more point in a skill at a time. The way you earn XP is a little different, of course, as it's determined by the degree to which you were engaged and contributing in each session of play. So it doesn't terribly matter what skills you used when; what matters is how engaged you were each session.
In The Burning Wheel, there's a nifty little system that bumps up your skills whenever you win a conflict that's sufficiently difficult; the difficulty is determined in the text by comparing your skill level to the Target Number of the obstacle or the skill of your opponent.

As far as leaving a rigid class system behind, all sorts of games do this, so there's plenty of examples to choose from! ^_^ But then again, if you're going for a more flexible skill system, and the skills are going to have a bigger role than, say, innate class abilities, then you could slap the name "mage" onto anybody who practices wizardry, rather than on somebody who does it in a very specific way.

One more thing - any chance you could post a link to what you've got so far for this game system? Thanks!

-- Abby

[Lrx959]

unfortunately there is no website with our stuff up there yet. we are still in the beginnings, well actually 8 months into it, but i would be able to email u a copy of what we have so far if u would like. it will be in pdf format, and as long as u dont mind the paranoia of my friend and i's name on every page, u should be good.

[Luke]

Hey Lrx,

Do you mind if I ask you some quick questions? Answers might save you years of grief!

What's your game about? What's the point of it?

How is your game about that? What do the players do in your game to reinforce what it's about?

For example, my game is about consequences. Players make tough decisions and suffer the consequences of their actions. It's a fantasy game. Pretty bog standard Elves and Dwarves and Wizards. When playing your character, you drive him along with Beliefs. When you choose to play to your Belief, you have to make tough decisions, but you get rewarded.

This set up changes the idea of adventures. It's not about killing monsters and taking stuff. It's about fighting really hard for what you believe in.

As Abby pointed out, it's easy to get rid of classes and levels, but what else does your game do? Answering these questions will help you develop better mechanics to replace those pesky classes and levels.

-L

[Lrx959]

[Abkajud]

Hey, L!

I suppose maybe I did misconstrue a desire to eliminate classes and levels; some games do that, on the basis of flexibility. That being said, your dilemma about the "best of the best" is something I've experienced a lot with D&D - if you take the cleric class for a moment, knowing that they can perform miracles, you have to think, "Gee, this guy can't be the knob who gives the Sunday sermon. He's got to be someone special!" But the designers don't really acknowledge clerics, or anybody, really, as being special. Powerful, sure; but the game is so setting-neutral that it's like they didn't want to pass judgment on what you could do with their rules, so they were just as vague as they could be.

I say that any level 1 PC class character in D&D 3E is definitely an elite, already - they outshine NPC classes, no question, and even after just a couple of levels, they can perform feats that astound the common people; this is especially true for the magic-users! Does that help settle the issue for you at all?

As far as flexibility, alignment, and consequences - yeah, alignment has felt weird and arbitrary to me pretty much since middle school, and I'm happy to have left it behind. What you're describing about character customization - how do you want to depart from the way that Other Game ^_^ does things? Characters can, indeed, take up magic or thievery at later levels if they wish. Granted, you don't have to depart from D&D if you don't want, but if you find that it's not customizable enough, then you've got a direction and a goal. Awesome!

I would recommend checking out the spell-list system for the MUD "Gemstone 3" (they have a Wiki somewhere, I'm sure) - they have classes and levels, but you get skill points every level, and certain skills common to all classes. The differentiation comes in as far as how much Warriors pay for magic vs. Wizards; that kind of thing. My question is, if you have classes and levels and such, can someone realistically turn into more of a fight/cast/steal hybrid over time? Or a combo of two of those things? How easily do you want that to happen, and are there rewards or penalties (or both) for sticking to one "type"?

[Lrx959]