There are many brilliant minds on this forum that would be great contributors to my home-made rpg. It's more of a pet project, but help balancing and designing would be great.
After seeing LFD2 and LFD1 at GameStop, and them being WAAAY too violent for my mother to allow being play'd I set out making my own post-apocalyptic zombie game.
The Mechanics revolve around only fighting so far, but If I get volunteer's I'd love to flesh it out!
So far, the plot is as following;
An infectous disease has wreaked havoc in the world, it's spread by injured by those infected. Those unfortunate to be infected (in this game, which takes place in Detroit, most of the city, and surrounding land) look like horrific zombies. The PCs have found each other and banded together, and it's a test of survival to see how long you can last.
At level one, you make the following choices;
Name: speaks for itself
Appearence: height, weight, the works of it.
Background: A short description of your character's origin
I have a list of weapons, I'm thinking it will work on the unlock system where after so-many kills you now have access to this and that. I'm thinking that as a start, characters will roll a 1d100 to see what weapon they start with. Each time an encounter is over, the characters will find loot, in this game mainly a variety of weapons, probably determined on a random roll. If somebody would volunteer, I'd like to make a list of 100 weapons in the grasp of post-apocalyptic survivors.
and thats it for choices so far.
Mechanics
Every character rolls a d100 and determines turn-orders. Zombies always move on initiative 25.
Minions, much like the minions of D&D are classic fodder, meant to be sent in as waves, precisely 5 minions per survivor. The minions have a defense of 15, which means the survivors must get a 15 or higher on their attack. Minions are meant to hit once per group, or 1/5th of the time, which means they must roll a 80 or higher to succeed. What do you mean this doesn't make sense? If every minion has a 20% chance to suceed, and there are five minions, then as a group of five, they'll hit 100% of the time (in theory)
Villains are like semi-bosses, meant to be a challenge and sent in at roughly 2 per survivor.THey should get hit 80% of the time, so that means they have a defense of 80. That would make them equal to minions except for the fact that they only need a 40 or higher to hit, so as a group of 2, they'll hit 80% of the time. Seeing as damage is also rolled on a 1d100, and villains should be taken down in 2-3 hits, then it should take an average roll of 50 two times to kill it, or 100 health each.
Lastly, Bosses, are well, bosses. They are a challenge for the whole party, and are abnormally large. They require a defense of 80, because think about it: if there are five survivors beating on one guy, and they have a 20% chance of success each, 20*5 = 100%, so the party should hit once per round. The bosses should hit once a round, and only need to roll a 10 to hit. , or will hit 90% of the time. Each party member should have to hit the boss once, so if you multiply an average damage roll (50) * 5 then the boss has 250 health.
How do these "needs a 20 to hit" and "needs a 40 to hit" lines fit into a static defense for each player? The average player will have around 50 health and a defense of 100. THey aren't gods, immortals or tough guys, just regular people forced into irregular circumstances.
So if the average player has a defense of 100, and minions need to roll an 80 or higher to hit, then minions only get +20 accuracy.
Villains need a 40 to hit, meaning that they get +60 accuracy
Lastly, Bosses get +90 accuracy, which equals rolling a 10 to hit.
I'm thinking the players should have 250 points to buy their stats.
Weapons should cost usually 20 points, but cheaper weapons should be less (like 10) and more expensive weapons should be more (like 30)
Each weapon can be customized to the character, through one method. If you want to be extremely accurate with one think, say heavy pistols for example, you can spend 10,20 or 30 points to increase either accuracy (in this case) or damage by 10,20, or 30 (accordingly). The average player will spend 20 points customizing a weapon, so that makes a total of 40 points spent so far.
This brings me to skills, which I have yet to write-up, but if somebody wanted the job, then they could write up around 20 different skills essential to the post-apocalyptic survivor.
THings like Driving, Gather Supplies, Make Fire, Identify Food/Water, Sterilize Food/Water, you get the picture. Training a skill should cost like 20 points per skill, and when it's trained, it should give players a +20 bonus to using that skill.
SKill Check DCs are as follows
100 - Impossible
90 - Near Impossible
80- Very Difficult
70 - Difficult
60 - Challenging
50 - Average
40- Fairly Easy
30- Easy
20 - Minor
10 - Effortless
0- Effortless
The average character should spend 60 points on skills, for a total of 100 points and 150 points left.
Health: On Average, 50 points should be spent (max 100)
Defense: On Average, 100 points will be spent (max 100)
That's it for stats and combat, except for one mechanic:
Rage Buildup
As the survivors fight on, their rage increases, and with it their accuracy and damage.
For each hit , a | mark on the rage buildup meter means +10 accuracy/+10 damage.
So the list of jobs I'd like help with are as follows;
A List of 100 Weapons availible to survivors, preferably with point buy cost
Double-Checking On My Enemy Math
Fine-Tuning of the Point-Buy
Tips on My Combat Mechanics
Help in General
Thanks in advance, I'll check back in a couple of hours to see if anyone has volunteered.
Why exactly are you developing your own zombie-horror RPG (which sounds even more violent then D&D) when there are already systems out there that can do this? 
Alright, to answer the second part of your question (because any rhyme or rhythum is lost to OTTers), it was a sort of a challenge, or a pet project of mine to see if I could create an RPG. You could be right about the violence though, so answer me this: What option could replace weapons in a less violent game? I'll get to thinking up some different theme ideas, thanks for the help.
This really sounds more like a board game than an RPG. I think you might want to take a look at: www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/
wow, neat lol.
Well, perhaps I could start fresh making a system based of the 1d100?
Whos in?
My Dream Team for Design: pigknight (for comedic support , and to keep the game serious) idhrinel (have you seen her writing!?!?!) zombie babies (not sure I'f you'd even like it, but you always supply a fresh opinion) and of course me. Of course anyone else interested can just say so.
If every minion has a 20% chance to suceed, and there are five minions, then as a group of five, they'll hit 100% of the time (in theory)
Negative. Chance of any one minion missing: 80% Chance of 5 minions missing .8^5, chance of atleast 1 minion hitting: 1-.8^5 = 67.232%
Chance of 0 minions hitting: .2^0 x .8^5 = .32768 x 1 = .32768
Chance of 1 minions hitting: .2^1 x .8^4 = .08192 x 5 = .40960
Chance of 2 minions hitting: .2^2 x .8^3 = .02048 x 10=.20480 (.40960)
Chance of 3 minions hitting: .2^3 x .8^2 = .00512 x 10=.05120 (.15360)
Chance of 4 minions hitting: .2^4 x .8^1 = .00128 x 5 = .00640 (.02560)
Chance of 5 minions hitting: .2^5 x .8^0 = .00032 x 1 = .00032 (.00160)
Average number of hits per 'round' : 1
Huh, so that does work out. Never mind then. I just wasted a whole bunch of time.
Also, TA seems to be good with math.
Possible stats:
Marksman: Determine hit% when using guns.
Brawler: Determine hit% when using melee weapons.
Toughness: HP? Or should everyone just have the same HP?
Computer: Skill with computers.
Evade: Evade %.
Perception: Ups % chance of noticing zombies.
First-Aid: Heal allies.
Cooking: Make food?
Those sound pretty good PK, but we should decide on a theme before we start making skills, something lighthearted yet allowing for many options.
I'm sorry for your wasted time, TA, lol
we should decide on a theme before we start making skills, something lighthearted yet allowing for many options.
STEAMPUNK
!(Nothing wrong with zombies mind you, just felt like throwin' that out there).
My Dream Team for Design: pigknight (for comedic support , and to keep the game serious) idhrinel (have you seen her writing!?!?!) zombie babies (not sure I'f you'd even like it, but you always supply a fresh opinion) and of course me. Of course anyone else interested can just say so.
I appreciate the compliment, however, I must decline. If I'm gonna work on something it'll have to be my writing. Otherwise, my fiancee will beat me - and not in a good way. Not that I'm gonna work on that, but the fact that I haven't yet prevents me from engaging in other projects. Procrastination is a beatch.
So, let's vote on the setting, which is probably an important matter.
I think when creating an RPG (because I have so much experience,
) there are two descisions that should be answered before deciding if it's worth the time. What is my setting? and What makes this unique?So, I offer the following template for submitting ideas:
Setting:
What Makes it Unique:
What Will the List of 100 Options be: (I've got my heart set on having highly customizable characters)
Some ideas I though up:
Setting : The Salem Witch Trials - The PCs live in Salem during the witch trials. Much like anyone else, they keep quiet to avoid supicsioun, but unlike most else they've got a secret: they've got a talent for magic.
What Makes it Unique: They hunt down the malicious witches and warlocks while trying to keep their magic under wraps, and when they cast a spell, they roll on a table (1d10?) to decide what spell is cast, they can't control it.
The list of 100 options : would be spells , catogorized into schools of magic.
What Makes it Unique:There seem to be relatively few RPGs dedicated to it, which presumably leaves plenty of untouched design space to explore. Plus steampunk never gets old.
What Will the List of 100 Options be: Contraptions. In addition to the usual physical stats and skills, players can build whatever whacky gadget they can dream up to helo them in their adventure.
Horseshoe; r
Railwayspike; m, r
Knife; m, r
Machete; m
Chainsaw; m
Molotov Cocktail; r
Empty Bottle; m, r
Nail Gun; m, r
Steel Pipe; m
Screw Driver; m
Hand Gun; r
Pork Club; m
Crowbar; m
Slingshot; r
Shuriken; r
Steel Glove; m
Cross Bow; r
Explosive Jack O' Lantern; landmine
Spear; m long reach, r
Brick; r
Super Soaker (uses holy water or acid); r
Metal Boomerang; r
Bicycle Chain; m long reach
Exhaust Pipe; m
5'' ****; m
Fire Axe; m
Metal Plate; r
Tazer; r
Guitar; m
Lawn Mower Blade; m, r
Blow Torch; r
Wrench; m
Baseball Bat; m
I know most of these weapons seem useless, but I figured you'd like a horror setting, and those usually work well if your PC's are relatively defenseless. I can't be bothered writing down their stats right now. I'm very tired.
Good luck anyways!
Maybe we could make a Steampunk setting with horror?
In 2032, the countries of the world only had a few tons of oil left, and before any diplomatic action could be took, a nuclear war started. The United States were no longer united, and in it's second Civil War states grouped together into factions of three or four. Most of the United States is irradiated, and so the PCs develop nuclear mutations (we have a 1d100 table). However, after the states broke up, one of the factions wanted a dictarorship and developed Steampunk technology, and made SteamSuits to combat the mutated survivors into submission.
That faction has already crushed another faction, so now two factions are using SteamStuis to try and force the survivors to surrender. Every time a SteamSuiter is killed, the PCs can salvage the suit and recover random weapons (another 1d100 table).
So, that would require a list of 100 mutations and a list of 100 SteamSuit weapons.
Should all weapons do the same damage and just vary through flavor (such as a Steamthrower doing the damage as a Machine gun) or should they vary through both mechanics and damage and flavor (such as a Steamthrower doing minor damage to a group of targets and a Machinge gun doing high damage to a single target.)
I'd like this game to be playable without a combat grid/map, but would your character still feel unique if he did the same damage as everyone else, no matter what weapons/mutations he had?
Some ideas I though up:
Setting : The Salem Witch Trials - The PCs live in Salem during the witch trials. Much like anyone else, they keep quiet to avoid supicsioun, but unlike most else they've got a secret: they've got a talent for magic.
What Makes it Unique: They hunt down the malicious witches and warlocks while trying to keep their magic under wraps, and when they cast a spell, they roll on a table (1d10?) to decide what spell is cast, they can't control it.
The list of 100 options : would be spells , catogorized into schools of magic.
That sounds like a terrible system. The PC's cannot use their magic to influence the outcome of a situation. The only use I could see for random magic would be for the PC's to stand around and wait untill a situation is obviously going to end in an undesireable outcome, at which point they can take a random chance at derailing it, possibly making it better, possibly worse, and probably getting themselves burned either way. It's alot of waiting to get to what is basically a gambling game where the odds are stacked aginst you.