I believe I may be designing a fantasy heartbreaker

[khyron1144]

I am most of thirty.  I have been at least tangentially involved with RPGs since about third grade.  I started with D&D.  First a D&D game that was packaged to look like a boardgame, with stand-up figures and a glossy paper dungeon map; after I got through that and even started designing graph paper dungeons for that version, I got an AD&D 2nd edition PHB used and eventually the DMG and much later a Monstrous Manual.

Somewhere around high school I discovered White Wolf, particularly Vampire: the Masquerade.  Those were probably my best gaming days.  I had grand visions.  Plans for three interlocking chronicles exploring what revolutions are about, as well as the nature of good and evil, and even what place humans can have in a world like White Wolf's World of Darkness.


My first original game project, is actually an attempt to reconstruct an idea I was tinkering with in my high school days.  Having read the Heartbreakers essays, it looks like my project probably could be considered one.

It's major almost original idea is that it involves both fantasy and SF tropes.  There will be pointy-eared, about human-size elves, bearded, axe-wielding dwarfs, and short, hairy-footed sneaky guys.  At the same time, on the same world there are robots, and short, big-headed, grey-skinned aliens.

Probable Heartbreaker Traits Present:
Attribute generation is random.

There are around twenty races.

There are definite and defined classes.

Race will limit class selection.

Skills aren't exactly an add-on, but are definitely not a major point of emphasis.

There will be dungeons available to adventure in.

[Creatures of Destiny]

Is there any reason someone might choose to play your game as opposed to houseruling OSRIC (AD&D) or Swords and Wizardry (OD&D) or another old/school clone? For example if you statted up the classes/races for Labyrinth Lord and added your skill system would they work?

Why not try out your setting with some other game systems (such as the Old school clones above, or D20 or True 20) and see if it works. If those systems can't deliver then try to see why and what your game has. After all you seem most interested (from your post) in creating a SETTING. Why bother creating a system when you might not need to (of course you may enjoy that, and that's fine, but the other question is, will more people dig your setting in another game, or in your game?)

Daniel

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Designing a heartbreaker is itself a fine thing, I think. The important thing is to understand why publishing it, and having certain expectations of customer enthusiasm and commercial success, pose specific problems. That said, if one were to publish it in the minimal (and perfectly good) sense of simply making it available, without significant outlays and expectations of financial returns, that'd be nifty too.

Best, Ron

[khyron1144]

Hiya,

Designing a heartbreaker is itself a fine thing, I think. The important thing is to understand why publishing it, and having certain expectations of customer enthusiasm and commercial success, pose specific problems. That said, if one were to publish it in the minimal (and perfectly good) sense of simply making it available, without significant outlays and expectations of financial returns, that'd be nifty too.

Best, Ron

This game, I pretty much have no expectations of seeing any financial reward. 

I am pretty much planning on publishing the finished product for free on the internet in various forms.  I have in the past, published a zine by making a good looking master copy using Word and some Dover clipart books and then taking that master to Office Despot and having them make enough two-sided photocopies to get about fifty copies of the finished product; if I get real enthusiastic about this game, I may eventually go a similar route.

[khyron1144]

Is there any reason someone might choose to play your game as opposed to houseruling OSRIC (AD&D) or Swords and Wizardry (OD&D) or another old/school clone? For example if you statted up the classes/races for Labyrinth Lord and added your skill system would they work?

Why not try out your setting with some other game systems (such as the Old school clones above, or D20 or True 20) and see if it works. If those systems can't deliver then try to see why and what your game has. After all you seem most interested (from your post) in creating a SETTING. Why bother creating a system when you might not need to (of course you may enjoy that, and that's fine, but the other question is, will more people dig your setting in another game, or in your game?)

Daniel

Now that I think of it, a possibly un-heartbreaker-like attribute of this game is that I redesigned combat and attributes from the ground up.  Somehow, this system evolved in my head at the same time I was thinking of the concept for the setting, so I see the two as sort of tied together.

Basically I stripped attriubtes down to three attributes: Strength (which if you compare it to D&D-like systems incorporates aspects of Constitution too), Speed (combination of Dexterity-like armor benefits and movement rate), and Mind (which other than playing a part in the magic system is light on in-game value at the moment).

Combat now that I have thought about it for a while and done some further reading looks not entirely unlike the systems in various miniatures games.  Basically a simple 1d6 roll added to a set of values for the attacker (Strength + various mods) compared to another value from the defender (Speed + various mods) higher total wins.

So it doesn't mechanically look as great a deal like D&D in some places as I was initially thinking.  The family resemblance is there, but it is its own person as well.  It is, however designed to do D&D style fnatasy more than anything else.

[JoyWriter]

That by itself is quite d20 like: Swap a d6 for a d20 and you have "strength + bonuses + d20 vs dex + bonuses + 10". The 10 is there to stand in for another d20 (the average value of a d20 is 10.5), so that the bonuses for attack and defence can be created on the same scale.

It sounds to me like your system is a vehicle for your adventures, so finding an existing mostly compatible system would clue up other people who like those sort of pre-made adventures that they might enjoy yours!

On the other hand, you say you have very defined classes, and that is presumably a big part of how the game works. How do those get distinguished in play? That in itself might create all the rules you need.

[khyron1144]

That by itself is quite d20 like: Swap a d6 for a d20 and you have "strength + bonuses + d20 vs dex + bonuses + 10". The 10 is there to stand in for another d20 (the average value of a d20 is 10.5), so that the bonuses for attack and defence can be created on the same scale.

It sounds to me like your system is a vehicle for your adventures, so finding an existing mostly compatible system would clue up other people who like those sort of pre-made adventures that they might enjoy yours!

On the other hand, you say you have very defined classes, and that is presumably a big part of how the game works. How do those get distinguished in play? That in itself might create all the rules you need.

Right now from a systems standpoint classes provide bonuses to attributes (Barsarks get a bonus to Strength, Wizards get a bonus to Mind, Pilots get a bonus to Speed, and similar things) and a collection of Nifties.  A Nifty is basically a skill or power of some sort.  For instance Barsarks get Death Resistance (which let's 'em fight longer) and Axe Skill (which let's them fight better, with an axe).

I'm not sure how it ends up working in actual play.  I think I sort of play-tested the now lost high school version of this game one afternoon with a friend, but the system is

1) Being reconstructed partly from memory and partly as entirely ndew stuff that I'm making up as I go along
and
2) Definitely different from what I tried that afternoon.  I think that version was before I had the Nifties idea.