I'm looking to design a fantasy game as a hobby, just something that suits the style of game my friends and I enjoy playing. I'm not really looking to re-invent the wheel or be original, the main aim to tying together all the elements I enjoy most about playing rpgs.

My thoughts are the game should be about low-fantasy with a fairy-tale or supernatural flavour. Players take on the role of a member of a pseudo-medieval society and deal with problems from ranging from survival to supernatural threats. The rules would try to capture a comic book atmosphere (I.E everything is overly stylized with broad contrasts between player options), concentrating on blurring the lines of reality and magical.

It should be less about the leveling up and more about the character having cool powers and teamwork. It should also concentrate on the players as a figure of myth or legend (Like King Arthur or Beowulf). Everything on the character sheet should have visible effects during roleplay and not just a mechanical purpose. Combat should aim to be gritty and provide the kind of challenge that invokes a sense of accomplishment. Options, bonuses and powers should be kept minimal for speed and ease of play.

Finally, there should be peer reward mechanics.

What I've been thinking to meet these requirements this far...

A pick-and-choose Character creation process with players choosing a set of background or character history choices which provide bonuses and subtractions to Skill Ratings. Your skill ratings don't change until your character reaches a development stage where you can choose an additional modular bonus or power.

A skill-based system made up of opposing elements (I.E Attack vs Defence)
Monster damage calculated in fractions of average PC health (I.E 1/4 of PC HP)
A limited Monster list (about 25) based on folklore or fairy-tales with the rest of the foes assumed Human
A combat stunt system or situational bonuses for teamwork
A simple system of combat "stance" that provide some choice and variety for players with minimal power options

A series of levels which measures the character's mythological status in the game-world. These levels are obtained by advancing character development or via a system of peer voting. After each game the players vote for the character who stood-out, giving that character a point. With 5 points a new level is granted unlocking bonuses or powers. Magical or mundane effects will also relate to a character's legendary status (I.E a 0 level magical item can not effect a level 1 character). I was thinking a limit of 5 or 10 levels.

Fractions are a pain in the ass to work with in RPGs.  Why not whole numbers?

Mainly because it's an easy way to get a constant level of damage as the players progress. From a GM's point-of-view, I've always hated sitting there are figuring out what monsters with what damage and abilities is going to be equal to the PC's and then have all that work thrown out when things self-destruct and your two PC's down for the night or something of that nature.

It's not an actual fraction of damage but a guideline. So the way I theorize is this, in your little GM's stat-block you have DMG: 1/4 PC HP. At the start of the night you take down everyone's current HP total for that session and then do some quick math to find 1/4 or 1/3 of that total and that's your monster's damage.

This alternately can be translated into a system that says, PC HP = 20 so DMG = 1/4 of PC HP = 5. Rounded down you have Monster DMG = 1d4.

I'm not sure if that works out since I've never designed a game before but to me it seems a hell of a lot easier to make session by session adjustments.

I should say that the total would be 1D4+1

Although, now that you've got me thinking about it. An alternative system would be a skill contest:

Attack vs Defence > margin of success > subtraction of Armour Soak > total damage.

I guess I better think of a universal dice system before deciding?

I'm a little confused. If PC health and monster damage escalate at the same rate, then why not just keep both fixed at low numbers? Is there a reason to have health that increases in a way that doesn't impact combat?

The above is just an example. Every monster would still do different kinds of damage just like in any other rpg. The difference is, I was trying to design a way in which the monsters are as easy to modify as possible.

Although, since I'm thinking of a 2d6 dice mechanic, I'm liking the second option better now. The less different funny dice a GM or Player would have to roll, the better.

Are you dead set on creating this game yourself, or are you open to some suggestions for RPGs that already do a lot of what you want? Like Burning Wheel. =)

Yeah, I would like to create this game for my own personal enjoyment. Just something I've always been interested in and would like some first hand experience doing.

Cool. So the first thing that has me scratching my head is why you want such a crunchy combat system for a game that has a comic book atmosphere. When I think "comic book combat," I think of quick, relatively abstract panels with KERPOW and stuff. How many pages are dedicated to any one fight scene? How many panels? To capture the comic book feel in play, you might want to think one panel = one action = one set of rolls. You can always have gritty detail in play without having a ton of crunchy rules.

However, if you want a game with crunchy combat rules, then do that. Don't let me talk you out of it. Maybe I'm not reading the right comics! I'm just wondering if you think the combat rules need to be crunchy because that's how you've seen it done before. I don't want you heading down that (briar-filled) path unless it's what you really want, what will create the game you have in mind.

Also realize that your game doesn't need an exhaustive list of powers. You can get by with a set of rules for creating your own powers. The less crunchy your power system and combat system are, the easier it is to create powers (regardless of whether you're doing it as a designer or the players are doing it in character generation). A custom power can be pretty simple. For example, "Name your power, describe what it does, choose a power domain (physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual) and distribute 7 points among the power's five traits: attack, defend, maneuver, ascertain, transform."

You make a good point. I guess my main concern is having quick and fun comic-book combat but not to the point where it becomes mindless rolling of dice. My own idea was to add crunch as it gives players things to think about but perhaps there is another way to achieve this?

The Knights of Pendragon, Madame Xanadu, Thor and Song of Fire and Ice are the main comics that come to mind when I think about the game.

Well, to be honest, the simpler the combat the better but I don't want to sacrifice fun/player interest for the sake of simplicity either.

I think that power idea is brilliant, are there any examples of that type of thing in current rpgs? When I conceived the idea of powers, I was thinking of specific things in pop-culture, using that as a model I was going to try and emulate those myself. Like Thor's hammer throw or when in Anime a swordsman has an opponent leap past time before realising he's been cut.

Not powers like the Hulk but strange, surreal ones that kind add that fairy-tale strangeness to the game.

For simple fast combat with groovy abilities one that's always stuck with me is Street Fighter form White Wolf. Despite all it's flaws the one thing it did well is create a combat system that was fun. If you haven't looked at it I'd highly recommend taking a peek.

That said here are a few thoughts specific to what's been posted here. The idea of key traits that influence skills seems really fun. If you are looking for action packed I'd say look at different ways skills might be used in a combat situation. These might range from mundane actions to more supernatural acts by some sort of activation mechanic or mana concpet. Like a Brewer with Carousing Skill might blind targets with mead to the face or breath fire. Maybe their key traits determine what's easier to access or give them a bonus to their combat abilities.

To the idea of Damage and Health. Character progression does not necessarily require characters to gain Hit Points. If the characters health was a static value then the numbers for damage and the like could remain low. For example a character may have 20 Health and Carousing's Flame Breath has a Base Damage of 2 + 1 per 5 levels of the skill.  (Don't ask where the flaming beer breath came from just an example not a suggestion.) Of course there are other things that might be in there to play around with but hopefully that gives you some ideas.

Hey, Chill! (Is there something I can call you besides "Chill"?)

I can't think of a game that has powers like I described, but I'd bet money someone's done it. Doesn't matter, right? Steal the best ideas and make them your own. I'd say to look for the game Otherkind for some similar ideas and dice tricks (basically dividing a dice pool among different stats or aspects before the roll).

I think it's time to start driving in nails to get a fixed point of reference. Start designing your game and share it with us as you go.

I've been trying to track down the street fighter rpg but no luck so far.

I'm starting to think of a dice mechanic, I want something simple (2d6, two colours, one adds, one subtracts) and I'm not a fan of dice pools. However, math is a weak point in my education. So when looking to numerically balance a game, for 2d6, what should I be looking at?

That depends heavily on what you're trying to go for.  Let's assume you're going with the 1d6 minus 1d6 roll you just described.  Running it through Excel, the distribution ends up exactly the same as it would if you rolled 2d6-7.  (-5 appears once, -4 twice, -3 three times, and so on.)  Obviously, then, your average task would have a target number of zero.  Assuming no modifiers, the chance of a character hitting a target number between -5 and 5 follows:

-5 100.0%
-4 97.2%
-3 91.7%
-2 83.3%
-1 72.2%
0 58.3%
1 41.7%
2 27.8%
3 16.7%
4 8.3%
5 2.8%

If the character has a modifier, you can figure the base probability of success by subtracting that from the target number.  That is, if someone has a +3 in a stat and is rolling against TN 2, it's the same as if he had no modifier and was rolling against TN -1, or 72.2%.

In this system, therefore, plus or minus 1 to a roll would be HUGE.  If instead you went with different dice for a wider distribution, say 1d10 - 1d10 (or, equivalently, 2d10-11):

-9 100%
-8 99%
-7 97%
-6 94%
-5 90%
-4 85%
-3 79%
-2 72%
-1 64%
0 55%
1 45%
2 36%
3 28%
4 21%
5 15%
6 10%
7 6%
8 3%
9 1%

Same deal for probability and target numbers, but now +1 and -1 for circumstantial modifiers isn't so bad.

I calculated all of this by building a quick little table in Excel and running a couple of functions and summations.  It's a great tool when you're dealing with game balance like this.

Chill wrote:
I've been trying to track down the street fighter rpg but no luck so far.

I'm starting to think of a dice mechanic, I want something simple (2d6, two colours, one adds, one subtracts) and I'm not a fan of dice pools. However, math is a weak point in my education. So when looking to numerically balance a game, for 2d6, what should I be looking at?